Glad you asked.
Aionios mistranslated as "eternal" or "everlasting" in Matthew 25:46.
All these verses below use the same NT Greek word, "aionios", the Greek word mistranslated as "eternal" or "everlasting" in Matthew 25:46. See bold below. This shows that "aionios" cannot mean eternal or everlasting.
Matthew 13:22
The seed falling among the thorns refers to someone who hears the word, but the worries of this life and the deceitfulness of wealth choke the word, making it unfruitful.
Romans 12:2
Do not conform to the pattern of this world, but be transformed by the renewing of your mind. Then you will be able to test and approve what God’s will is—his good, pleasing and perfect will.
1 Corinthians 1:20
Where is the wise person? Where is the teacher of the law? Where is the philosopher of this age? Has not God made foolish the wisdom of the world?
1 Corinthians 2:8
None of the rulers of this age understood it, for if they had, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
Ephesians 2:2
in which you used to live when you followed the ways of this world and of the ruler of the kingdom of the air, the spirit who is now at work in those who are disobedient.
Galatians 1:4-5 KJV
Who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil world, according to the will of God and our Father:5 To whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.
Luke 18:29-30
“Truly I tell you,” Jesus said to them, “no one who has left home or wife or brothers or sisters or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30 will fail to receive many times as much in this age, and in the age to come eternal life.”
Compare: Matthew 12:32; Mark 10:30; Luke 18:30; Luke 20:35; Ephesians 1:21
Aionios, the Greek word mistranslated as "eternal" and "everlasting" in the Bible (eternal hell?)
Is
aionios only ever translated as "age" or "this world" in Scripture? No. According to Strong's, this word in the KJV is translated as "eternal"
forty-two times and as "everlasting"
twenty-five times. The instances you cite above are, I think, all that there are in Scripture of
aionios being translated as "age" or "this (present evil) world." It looks to me, therefore, that you're trying to establish the rule of what
aionios means by its exceptions. In my experience, this is done only by those who are trying to find a loophole around a difficult doctrine in Scripture, who want to make Scripture say what they want it to say rather than simply accepting it as its written.
Vine's, Strong's and Thayer's Greek-to-English Lexicons all define
aionios as a term meaning either "an undefined but not endless period of time," or "an undefined period of time because it is endless." All of these lexicons agree that
Matthew 25:46 is an example of the latter meaning, not the former.
Aionios is used in description of God's eternality (
Ro. 16:26), His power (
1 Ti. 6:16), of the Holy Spirit (
He. 9:14), of the future rule of Christ (
2 Pe. 1:11), and so on.
There is, then, no good reason that I can see for thinking that
Matthew 25:46 is mistranslated. Only if I don't like what it says would I try to twist it's evident meaning into merely "an age." As I said, the parallel given in the verse is clearly violated if one wants to make eternal life truly eternal but eternal punishment only temporary. So, even within itself, the verse defies the idea that
aionios refers to a finite span of time.
We assume the oldest is the best. (most original)
But that is not always the preference of translators.
Majority Text vs. Critical Text vs. Textus Receptus – Textual Criticism 101
You'll notice that I gave two bases upon which the correct rendering of a verse is secured:
- the most common rendering across all available ancient manuscripts (i.e. the Majority Text).
- the oldest renderings of the verse.
I didn't indicate that only the "oldest is best."
One BIG problem is translator bias.
Not really. Today there have been many separate groups of translators that have worked upon a proper rendering of the Greek text of the NT into English. The RSV, the NIV, the NASB, the NKJV, etc., all had different translation committees, which has the same effect that the multitude of ancient manuscript copies has, providing a wide common consensus that counters an individual translator's, or a single translating committee's, bias.
So, no, the BIG problem isn't translator bias.
The Creator.
It doesn't seem quite right to me
