Compiled by Keith Hunt
It is sometimes a zealous attitude that has more drive in its
thought than knowledge. Some, in trying to uphold a certain law
or laws they especially want people to believe are still to be
followed by New Testament Christians, will turn to some verses in
the Old Testament that use such English words as "forever" or
"everlasting" or "to all generations" or "for all your
generations."
If the student of the Bible would take some time and look up all
the places in the entire Old Testament where such words or
phrases are used (with say Strong's Concordance of the Bible) it
would soon be evident that such "text proofing" to uphold an
eternal continuality of certain laws and commands where such
words and phrases are used, CANNOT prove the case at all. For an
entire search of the Scriptures proved that such words as
"forever" with some laws and commands CANNOT be forever
continuous, but must be understood as meaning "for a long period"
or "as long as the conditions exist."
Trying to prove the forever continuality of say the 4th
commandment of the great Ten Commandments, i.e. the weekly
Sabbath day holiness and observance; or the "festivals" and "holy
Sabbath days" of the festivals of the Lord (Lev.23); CANNOT be
proved as being in effect under the New Testament, using such an
argument as above.
Such laws and commands of the weekly 7th day Sabbath and
Festivals/Annual Sabbaths, being still in effect under the New
Testament age, MUST be proved in OTHER ways than the "forever"
word argument.
Depending on the CONTEXT it may mean "eternal" such as when
speaking about God Himself, but another context may NOT carry any
idea of "eternal" as we in the English nations think of the word
"eternal."
Below is the entire section on this Hebrew word OLAM (forever
everlasting etc.) as presented by the Theological Wordbook of the
Old Testament.
STRONG'S NUMBER 5769
THEOLOGICAL WORDBOOK OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
1631a (olam) forever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual,
old, ancient, world, etc. (RSV similar in general, but
substitutes "always" for "in the world" in Ps 73:12 and
"eternity" for "world" in Ecc 3:11.) Probably derived from 'alam
1, "to hide," thus pointing to what is hidden in the distant
future or in the distant past. The Ugaritic cognate is 'lm,
"eternity."
Though olam is used more than three hundred times to indicate
indefinite continuance into the very distant future, the meaning
of the word is not confined to the future.
There are at least twenty instances where it clearly refers to
the past. Such usages generally point to something that seems
long ago, but rarely if ever refer to a limitless past. Thus in
Deut 32:7 and Job 22:15 it may refer to the time of one's elders.
In Prob 22:28; 23:10; Jer 6:16; 18:15; 28:8 it points back
somewhat farther. In Isa 58:12, 61:4; Mic 7:14; Mal 3:4, and in
the Aramaic of Ezr 4:15, 19 it clearly refers to the time just
before the exile. In I Sam 27:8, in Isa 51:9 and 63:9, 11 and
perhaps Ezk 36:2, it refers to the events of the Exodus from
Egypt. In Gen 6:4 it points to the time shortly before the flood.
None of these past references has in it the idea of endlessness
or limitlessness, but each points to a time long before the
immediate knowledge of those living. In Isa 64:3 the KJV
translates the word "beginning of the world." In Ps 73:12 and
Eccl 3:11 it is translated "world," suggesting the beginning of a
usage that developed greatly in postbiblical times.
Jenni holds that its basic meaning "most distant times" can refer
to either the remote past or to the future or to both as due to
the fact that it does not occur independently (as a subject or as
an object) but only in connection with prepositions indicating
direction (min "since," 'ad "until," I "up to") or as an
adverbial accusative of direction or finally as the modifying
genitive in the construct relationship. In the latter instance
'olam can express by itself the whole range of meanings denoted
by all the prepositions "since, until, to the most distant time";
i.e. it assumes the meaning "(unlimited, incalculable) con-
tinuance, eternity." (THAT II, p. 230) J. Barr (Biblical Words
for Time (1969), p.73) says, "We might therefore best state the
"basic meaning" as a kind of range between 'remotest time' and
'perpetuity' ". But as shown above it is sometimes used of a
not-so-remote past. For the meaning of the word in its
attributive use we should note the designation of the LORD as 'el
olam, "The Eternal God" (Gen 21:33).
The LXX generally translates 'olam by aion, which has essentially
the same range of meaning.
That neither the Hebrew nor the Greek word IN ITSELF contains
the idea of endlessness is shown both by the fact that they
sometimes refer to events or conditions that occurred at a
definite point in the past, and also by the fact that sometimes
it is thought desirable to repeat the word, not merely saying
"forever," but "forever and ever."
Both words came to be used to refer to a LONG AGE or period - an
idea that is sometimes expressed in English by "world."
Postbiblical Jewish writings refer to the present world of toil
as ha'olam hazzeh and to the world to come as ha olam habba.
'ad (q.v.) has substantially the same range of meaning as 'olam
(usually long continuance into the future, but cf. Job 20:4).
Bibliography: Snaith, Norman H., "Time in the Old Testament," in
Promise and Fulfillment, Essays Presented to Professor S. H.
Hooke, ed. F. F. Bruce, Edinburgh; Clark, 1963, pp. 175-86.
Jenni, E., "Das wort 'olam im AT," Diss, Theol. Basel 1953 (ZAW
64:197-248; 65:1-35).
A.A.M.
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Entered on this Website June 2004
