Re: EIS TON AIWNA-sort of
Jonathan Robie (jwrobie@mindspring.com)
Mon, 29 Sep 1997 16:34:27 -0400
At 03:00 PM 9/29/97 -0500, Edward Hobbs wrote:
>Pastor Roger James writes:
>
>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.
>
>================================================
>
>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).
And the Liturgy of St. John of Chrysostom frequently uses the formula NUN
KAI AEI KAI EIS TOUS AIWNAS TWN AIWNWN. The closest thing I can find to the
Gloria Patri is this: DOKSA PATRI KAI hUIWi KAI hAGIWi PNEUMATI, NUN KAI AEI
KAI EIS TOUS AIWNAS TWN AIWNWN.
Jonathan
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Jonathan Robie jwrobie@mindspring.com http://www.mindspring.com/~jwrobie
POET Software, 3207 Gibson Road, Durham, N.C., 27703 http://www.poet.com
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