Anyone who has read the whole Bible and paid attention while doing so should be well aware of the fact that words such as “for ever,” “everlasting,” and “eternal,” when used in the less literal English Bible versions which translate the original Hebrew and Koine Greek Scriptures this way, rarely (if ever) actually mean “never-ending” or “without end” the way most people assume they do. However, for those who somehow missed this fact while reading their Bibles, I’m going to demonstrate it in this article. I’ll be using the KJV (the King James Version) for this article, but you can use nearly any non-literal translation of Scripture to see what I’m getting at. I say “non-literal” because truly literal Bible translations such as the YLT (Young’s Literal Translation) or the CLV (the Concordant Literal Version) render these words the way they were actually meant to be understood in Scripture, as referring to a specific period of time with a definite beginning and end, even if the end date is unknown. However, one can still get the truth from less literal versions of the Bible such as the KJV by simply realizing that these English words in these translations generally need to be interpreted figuratively rather than literally (or qualitatively rather than quantitatively). This isn’t to say it’s impossible that these words are sometimes meant to be interpreted quantitatively rather than qualitatively in certain passages where they’re used in the KJV and other less literal Bible translations, of course (and I’m certainly not insisting that they couldn’t possibly have ever had a quantitative meaning when they were used outside of Scripture back then either), but one has to consider each instance of these words extremely carefully when reading Scripture, looking at the context of the passage, as well as of Scripture as a whole, before deciding they are meant to be interpreted quantitatively in a specific passage, so as not to contradict the rest of Scripture (since, if Scripture actually contradicted itself in any way at all, there would be no reason to even consider what the Bible has to say about this — or any other — topic in the first place, and nearly anyone who did so would likely be wasting their time).
For example, in Exodus 21:6 we read about servants who choose to remain in servitude rather than going free on the seventh year, as was their right: “Then his master shall bring him unto the judges; he shall also bring him to the door, or unto the door post; and his master shall bore his ear through with an aul; and he shall serve him for ever.” If we interpret “for ever” as literally referring to a period of time that never ends, it would either mean that the servant (or slave) in question can never die, or that the servant will have to remain in bondage to his master without end, even after both of their physical resurrections and judgements at the Great White Throne in the distant future (as well as in any afterlife, if one actually existed, in the meantime, even if they both ended up in different places while dead). Since I doubt anyone believes either of these options to be the case, I trust everyone would agree that the “for ever” in this verse is actually a hyperbolic translation which really means “for a specific time period, even if the end date (the time of the servant’s death) is currently unknown,” which demonstrates that when we see the phrase “for ever” in the Bible, we can’t just automatically assume it means “without end.”
Of course, some Bible versions do say things like “for life,” or “permanently,” rather than “for ever” in this verse, but at the very least, you have to admit that עוֹלָם/“o-lawm’” (which is the Hebrew word that “for ever” is translated from in this verse in the KJV) doesn’t literally mean “without end” or “never-ending” (or at least doesn’t necessarily always mean “without end” or “never-ending”), and this tells us that just because we see “for ever” in an English translation of the Hebrew Scriptures (or even the English word “everlasting,” for that matter, which is also often translated from the same Hebrew word), it doesn’t mean that we should just automatically assume it means “without end” or “never-ending” either, which is really all I’m getting at here.
However, I have had people insist that, even if the word עוֹלָם doesn’t necessarily mean “never-ending” in an ontological sense, the word should still always be understood as meaning something along the lines of: “it’s going to be like this for as long as the thing or person in question exists.” Aside from the problems this would cause that we’ve already discussed about the servant remaining enslaved even after his death and resurrection (unless you believe the servant never exists again after his death, and there’s nothing in the text which indicates that עוֹלָם should only apply to his first life on earth if you’re going to read it this way), this assertion also ignores the fact that עוֹלָם was translated other ways which contradict this conclusion as well, such as when it was rendered as “of old” in Deuteronomy 32:7, and to insist that the word absolutely has to always be rendered in a more “perpetual” manner would also mean that verse would have needed to be translated as saying something along the lines of “remember the days that never ended,” or “remember the days that we’re still experiencing,” instead.
But is there any basis for my assertion that the word עוֹלָם doesn’t necessarily mean “without end” anywhere else in the Bible, or are those the only examples? In fact, that this word doesn’t necessarily mean “never-ending” when it’s used in the Bible can be seen in many places throughout the Hebrew Scriptures. For example, Isaiah 32:14–15 says: “Because the palaces shall be forsaken; the multitude of the city shall be left; the forts and towers shall be for dens for ever, a joy of wild asses, a pasture of flocks; Until the spirit be poured upon us from on high, and the wilderness be a fruitful field, and the fruitful field be counted for a forest.” Unless we’re meant to believe that Jerusalem will be left forsaken and desolate and never recover or be inhabited again, as verse 14 seems to say, we have to interpret that “for ever” as meaning a specific period of time again, just as we had to do with the previous example. And, indeed, verse 15 tells us when that “for ever” ends, stating that Jerusalem will be left deserted “for ever,” until the spirit be poured from on high.
And those weren’t the only passages to demonstrate that it doesn’t mean “never-ending” either. We also read about the fact that the Levitical priesthood will be “everlasting” in Exodus 40:15 (with “everlasting” also being translated from עוֹלָם there), yet we know from Hebrews 7:14–22 that the priesthood of Aaron’s descendants is to be replaced by Jesus Christ, who will be “a priest for ever after the order of Melchisedec,” and we know from 1 Corinthians 15 that even this new priesthood which is figuratively said to last “for ever” is eventually no longer going to be necessary either (since you don’t need any priests once there’s no sin or death remaining). That this “everlasting” priesthood will eventually come to an end is also backed up by the fact that, while the believing descendants of Isaac and Jacob will reign over the people of the earth as “kings and priests” during the thousand-year period of time when the kingdom of heaven finally fully exists on earth, there almost certainly won’t be any Israelite priests on the New Earth at all, because there won’t be any need for them with no physical temple in the New Jerusalem (and, again, there definitely won’t be a need for them after the ages end and death has been destroyed, since everyone will have been quickened — meaning made immortal — at that point).
Similarly, in Isaiah 24:5 we read, “The earth also is defiled under the inhabitants thereof; because they have transgressed the laws, changed the ordinance, broken the everlasting covenant.” This seems to tell us that the Old Covenant (also known as the Mosaic covenant, which is the only covenant that can be broken by humans — specifically by Israelites, since the Gentile nations weren’t under the Mosaic law or connected with the covenants God made with Israel— because all the other covenants of God are unconditional) can never come to an end and be replaced by a New Covenant because it’s said to be “everlasting,” but we know from other parts of Scripture that there will be a New Covenant for those in the house of Israel and the house of Judah, and that their Old Covenant in fact began to decay when Christ died (and will indeed eventually vanish away entirely, if it hasn’t already). So we can see that “everlasting” doesn’t necessarily mean “never-ending” or “without end” when we read that word in the Bible any more than “for ever” does.
And it’s not just the Old Covenant that’s referred to as an “everlasting covenant” in the KJV. The Abrahamic covenant is too, in 1 Chronicles 16:16-18. But since we know that the specific portion of land called Canaan (now known as the land of Israel), which is what the promise in this covenant is about, will eventually cease to exist when the planet that land is located on is replaced by the New Earth, the “everlasting” period of time that this covenant consists of will also expire when our current earth does (which has to happen, since if our current universe isn’t replaced by a New Heaven and a New Earth, our current earth would get pretty dark at the time of the heat death of the universe, presuming it isn’t first engulfed by the sun when our star goes Red Giant, of course, as is believed to be likely to happen in a few billion years, give or take).
The translators of the KJV also demonstrated quite clearly that they didn’t believe עוֹלָם always means “without end” in Ecclesiastes 12:5, where they used the word עוֹלָם to say “his long home” when referring to the time someone who is dead spends in the grave. Since we know that everyone who dies will eventually be resurrected to face judgement (or enjoy salvation) one day, nobody could ever be resurrected from the dead if עוֹלָם meant ”never-ending.” (Interestingly, though, some Bible versions actually do translate the verse to say “eternal home,” confirming that the word “eternal” is meant to be read just as figuratively in those versions as it is in the KJV, unless we’re to believe there’s no resurrection of the dead.)
Now, I could go on and on with example after example of things that were said to be “for ever” or “everlasting” that eventually ended (or that are said will eventually end) in the Bible, but I trust it’s obvious by now that nearly all of the passages that are translated from the Hebrew Scriptures as saying “eternal,” “everlasting,” and “for ever” in the popular, and less literal, versions of the Bible such as the KJV have to be interpreted qualitatively and figuratively rather than quantitatively and literally (just as these English words are almost always still used by us today: as hyperbole, meaning they’re exaggerated expressions used for the sake of emphasis; for example, if I were to say, “This church service is going to last for ever because the preacher never stops talking,” I doubt you’d assume that the meeting will actually last for all eternity and that the speaker will continue preaching for all that time as well, although, if you aren’t sure about this, please ponder it for the amount of time it takes an Everlasting Gobstopper to dissolve in your mouth, perhaps while watching a video of one of the various “eternal flames” people have lit being extinguished — the jawbreaker candy might take “for ever” to be completely consumed, perhaps even longer than that video lasts, but like most things which are said to be “everlasting” or “eternal,” its time will eventually come to an end as well). Simply put, it seems the translators believed that those who read the KJV (or who heard it read aloud) are able to understand figurative language, and that they never intended for anyone to simply assume the terms “for ever” or “everlasting” should definitely be interpreted as meaning “never-ending” or “without end” when translated from the Hebrew Scriptures, with “for ever” generally just being figurative language that refers to “an age,” or to “a seemingly long period of time with a definite beginning and end” (especially when translated from the word עוֹלָם), and “everlasting” generally just meaning “age-pertaining” (“pertaining to an age or ages,” in other words), “age-during” (“taking place during an age or ages,” in other words), or even just “long lasting,” with nearly everything that’s said to be “everlasting” or said to last “for ever” eventually coming to an end. These words are quite clearly being used as hyperbole in most parts of these books in the KJV and other less literal Bible translations, and are not meant to be taken literally at all (and if you look עוֹלָם up in a concordance, you can see many more examples for yourself proving that this Hebrew word doesn’t necessarily mean “never-ending” or “without end,” and that “for ever” and “everlasting” don’t either when used in the KJV).
And with all that in mind, if “for ever” and “everlasting” don’t necessarily mean “without end” or “never-ending” in the parts of the Bible translated from the Hebrew Scriptures, it stands to reason that there’s a good chance they don’t necessarily mean that in the parts of the Bible translated from the Greek Scriptures either, and that they don’t is made obvious by the fact that עוֹלָם is translated as αἰωνίων/“ahee-o’-nee-ohn” in the parts of the LXX (also known as the Septuagint, which is the earliest still-existing Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures) where it’s translated figuratively as “everlasting” in the KJV, and since αἰωνίων is often translated as “everlasting” or “eternal” in the books of the less literal Bible versions translated from the Greek Scriptures (although it’s not always translated that way either, even in the KJV, also making it clear that αἰωνίων can mean things other than “never-ending,” which is why it’s transliterated as “eonian” — which literally means “pertaining to an eon/age or eons/ages” — in the CLV), one would think this means that we shouldn’t just automatically assume the words “everlasting” and “eternal” were definitely meant to be interpreted literally in the English translations of these books either (especially since, if עוֹלָם often doesn’t mean “never-ending,” at least when it’s used in the Hebrew Scriptures, it makes no sense to then say that its Greek translation as αἰωνίων can only mean “never-ending,” as some people insist it must, when we already know from the LXX that it rarely, if ever, means that in Scripture anyway), and that neither should “for ever” or “never,” both of which are also translated from cognates of αἰωνίων: such as αἰών/“ahee-ohn’,” which literally means a singular “age,” or “a long period of time with a definite beginning and end” (and which is why it’s transliterated as “eon” in the CLV), and αἰῶνας/“ahee-ohn’-as,” which literally means plural “ages,” or “multiple periods of time, each with a definite beginning and end” (and which is why this word is transliterated as “eons” in the CLV), not to mention the fact that both of these Greek words are also translated as “age” and “ages” in different parts of less literal English translations as well — although the KJV tends to use “world” in places that refer to a single “age,” but various other less literal translations use “age” instead of “world” in those same verses — telling us that these Greek words definitely can’t only mean “without end” or “can’t ever.”
In fact, unless we want to believe there are three eternities, including a “past eternity” (aside from the examples I already linked to, we can see from the way the KJV translators rendered 1 Corinthians 2:7 to say “before the world” instead of “before for ever” or “before eternity” that they knew better than to always translate the word αἰών in a manner that denotes a period of time which never ends), as well as a “present eternity” and a “future eternity” (which the KJV translators rendered as “neither in this world, neither in the world to come” rather than “neither in this for ever or in the for ever to come” or “neither in this eternity or in the eternity to come” in Matthew 12:32), we can see that the word αἰών simply doesn’t necessarily mean “without end,” just as the KJV’s rendering of αἰωνίων as “before the world began” in 2 Timothy 1:9 instead of “before eternity began,” not to mentioned as “since the world began” in Romans 16:25 instead of “since eternity began,” proves that αἰωνίων doesn’t necessarily mean “never-ending” — and doesn’t necessarily refer to actual“ eternity,” which literally means “without beginning or end” — either (in fact, I’m not aware of a single version of the Bible that renders it as “eternity” in this verse, which makes sense considering the fact that you can’t have a time before literal “eternity,” nor could literal “eternity” even have a beginning). So if anyone ever tries to claim that αἰών and/or αἰωνίων can only mean “never-ending” or some other word or phrase that denotes an endless period of time, and that it can’t possibly refer to something more temporary, simply show them the various passages we just looked at, which is all the proof one needs that this isn’t the case at all.
This all goes for when the word αἰών is translated in a sentence to say “never” as well, as already mentioned. This can be demonstrated by the way John 11:25-26 is rendered in the KJV: “Jesus said unto her, I am the resurrection, and the life: he that believeth in me, though he were dead, yet shall he live: And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall never die. Believest thou this?” We know this can’t be a literal translation, because people who believed in Jesus at the time He made that statement did eventually die physically (and still do today). So unless we’re to believe that Paul actually wasn’t revealing a mystery (meaning revealing a secret which hadn’t been disclosed before he did so — for those who don’t know, “secret” is what the Greek word μυστήριον/“moos-tay’-ree-on,” which is transliterated as “mystery” in the KJV, literally means) in 1 Corinthians 15:51 when he wrote, “Behold, I shew you a mystery; We shall not all sleep, but we shall all be changed,” we have to interpret the word “never” figuratively in the KJV in that passage in John, because Paul was the first to reveal the secret that some people will never die prior to being quickened. And Jesus couldn’t have been referring to the supposed “spiritual death” that most Christians believe in, because “never” literally means “not even one time,” yet Christians believe we already “died spiritually” at least once, at the time of our first sin, so it couldn’t refer to that concept even if there was such a thing as “spiritual death,” at least not without adding the word “again” to the sentence (and that word is definitely not there in the original Greek, any more than it’s there in the KJV). So unless Paul was lying about this being a secret at the time he wrote about it, the passage in John has to be a figurative translation of the Greek, simply meaning, “And whosoever liveth and believeth in me shall not be dying for the age,” telling us that believers (at least believers saved under the Gospel of the Circumcision, since this was stated by Jesus during His earthly ministry) won’t die during the 1,000-year age they’ll enjoy in the kingdom of heaven when it begins on the earth (the reason we know it’s only referring to that one particular age rather than referring to multiple ages is because it’s translated from an Accusative Singular variation of αἰών rather than from a plural variation of the word).
And even in passages where it might seem to make sense to interpret the terms literally at first glance, such as Romans 16:26 for example (which uses the phrase “the everlasting God” in the KJV), this still isn’t necessarily the case. Some would insist that to interpret it figuratively would mean that God will eventually die, but this verse isn’t actually trying to tell us that God’s life will never end in the first place. The fact of the matter is, we already know that God isn’t going to die based on earlier Scripture, such as Psalm 102:27, which told us long ago that His “years shall have no end,” so that’s not something Paul needed to explain to his readers. Instead, if we interpret the word “everlasting” consistently with its other instances in the KJV where it’s translated from αἰωνίων (meaning we interpret it as figuratively referring to a long period of time, or even as pertaining to the ages), we can see that Paul is simply telling us that God is the age-pertaining God, meaning He doesn’t just sit on high, removed from our struggles in time, but rather that He cares about — and is even intimately involved in — what happens during the ages. And those who might think this limits Him to the ages aren’t thinking things through carefully enough, since otherwise God being said to be the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob would limit Him to being the God of those three men, and those three men alone, as well. And the same goes for passages such as Galatians 1:3-5 and Philippians 4:20, where a more consistent interpretation of the passages as figuratively saying “to our God and Father be glory for the ages of the ages” wouldn’t mean they’re telling us that God’s glory will end when the ages do, any more than the figurative interpretation of Romans 16:26 means that God’s life would end at that time; it just means that Paul was simply focusing on the glory God will finally receive — which He certainly isn’t receiving during the current age, at least not to the extent He will at that time — when the two greatest ages finally begin (those two ages being known as “the ages of the ages,” or even “the eons of the eons,” depending on your Bible translation, which, as those who are familiar with the Doctrine of the Ages — more often referred to as the Doctrine of the Eons — know, is referring to the thousand-year age, or eon, when the kingdom of heaven exists in Israel, as well as to the final age/eon on the New Earth, but I don’t have the space to get into the details of that topic here, so I’m going to leave it up to you to dig deeper into that subject if you’re at all curious to learn more; I highly recommend the book titled God’s Eonian Purpose by Adlai Loudy as a great starting point — which you can buy as a physical book, but which has also been made available by its publishers as a free PDF — although keep in mind that he made a distinction between “ages” and “eons” in his book which most others don’t, but it’s still a very worthwhile read). Simply put, with very few exceptions, the Bible doesn’t delve into details pertaining to the rest of eternity, but is instead focused almost entirely on details pertaining to the ages (even though this fact might be less obvious to people who only read less literal translations of Scripture). What occurs after the end of the ages isn’t something that God seems to want us to know about right now (other than to know that everyone will have been quickened/saved by that time), but rather He appears to want us to concern ourselves with what happens during the ages instead.
However, even if we did interpret “everlasting” and “for ever and ever” in those particular passages about God literally, the fact remains that, if we’re reading Bible versions which do use the words “for ever,” “everlasting,” and “eternal,” one has to be aware that “for ever” in those versions is still very often just figurative language that refers to “an age” or “ages,” or to “a seemingly long period of time with a definite beginning and end,” and the same goes for not only “everlasting,” but also “eternal,” which is often used as a synonym for “everlasting” in the KJV since it’s almost always translated from the same Greek word too — with the one exception in the Greek Scriptures, where it’s instead translated from ἀΐδιος/“ah-id’-ee-os,” not causing any problem for the doctrine of the salvation of all humanity at all either. And so the bottom line is that we should always be considering the context of the passages these various words are being used in, as well as comparing these passages to the rest of Scripture, in order to determine whether these terms actually should be literally interpreted as meaning “without end” or “never-ending” (not to mention “can’t ever,” in the case of the word “never” being used) in those instances, or whether they should be interpreted figuratively instead, to make sure a literal interpretation of a less literal English translation wouldn’t contradict other parts of the Bible, in other words. And, just as the scriptural references to an “everlasting” Old Covenant can’t literally be talking about a never-ending covenant, because that would contradict the passages which talk about how it has to fade away and be replaced with by a New Covenant, scriptural references to “everlasting” judgements (or to punishments which last “for ever,” or even “for ever and ever”) can’t literally be talking about judgements and punishments which never end, because that would contradict the many passages which talk about the salvation of all. (This, by the way, also means that, while we can be said to be given “eternal life” — or given “eonian life,” as it can be more literally referred to, and which it’s translated as in the CLV — at the point we believe the Gospel and are saved, this can really only be said to be the case from a relative, or perhaps proleptic, perspective, because the actual, physical experience of “eternal life” — referring to our quickening and being taken to the heavens in the case of those of us in the body of Christ, and to getting to live in the kingdom of heaven during the thousand-year reign of Christ on earth in the case of those in the Israel of God — can’t actually begin from a literal perspective until the final ages, or eons, actually commence, since we now know that the phrase really means “age-pertaining life,” or “eon-pertaining life,” when interpreted consistently with the rest of Scripture.) And even if someone simply ignored everything I covered about the Hebrew and Greek words we just looked at, because they prefer to only consider the English words in the KJV, the facts about the figurative meaning of the English words they’re translated into in the KJV should still be pretty obvious based on the passages I used to discuss them in their original languages.
[The above is an edited excerpt of chapter 4 of my free eBook: Bible truths you won’t hear at church: Learn what Scripture really says about sex, hell, tithing, and much more]