Take, for example, the Greek phrase εις τον
αιωνα (eis ton aiōna), which is typically
rendered into English as “forever,” as is correct if one is pedantically
precise about the etymological presence of the Latin word aevum in the English word “forever,”
but which might better be rendered today as something like “unto the age” or “for
the age.” This is the equivalent of the Hebrew le-olam or ad-olam, which
principal connotation would be something like “from now till the end of this
age.” Or take the phrases εις τους αιωνας των αιωνων (eis tous aiōnas tōn aiōnōn)—“the age of the ages”—and ο αιων των
αιωνων (ho aiōn tōn aiōnōn)—“the age
of the ages.” These are standard Greek correlates of such Hebrew phrases as le-olam va-ed (“unto an age and beyond”)
or le olamei-olamim (“unto ages of
ages”), which perhaps indicate something like eternity, but which also might be
taken as meaning simply an indeterminately vast period of time. (David Bentley
Hart, That All Shall be Saved: Heaven,
Hell, and Universal Salvation [New Haven: Yale University Press, 2019], 126)