In the liturgy of my church our collects often end "through Jesus =
Christ, our Lord, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the Holy Ghost, =
ever one God, WORLD WITHOUT END. Our newer hymal ends the collects "one =
God, now and forever."
Translation of AIWN as "world-age" set me thinking again.
Does this last phrase in our collects tie in with AIWN phrases in =
Scripture? Can anyone give me some biblical background to this phrase?
Perhaps this goes beyond the scope of the list, if so, I apologize.
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You are right in suspecting that this "World without end" at the conclusion
of collects goes back to the Greek involving AIWN. It is a translation of
the standard conclusion of the doxologies of collects:
EIS TOUS AIWNAS
This ending can be seen as early as Paul himself (e.g., Rom. 11:36),
in the Didache's version of the Lord's Prayer (VIII), and of course shows
up in the Byzantine text of Matthew 6:13.
The "Now and forever" is usally a translation of"
KAI NUN KAI EIS TOUS MELLONTAS AIWNAS.
This appears as early as the Martyrdom of Polycarp (XIV).
Edward Hobbs