Page 30 - Foundations

Father to guide us in our study of His word.

How might we begin to test Isaiah 6:9 to see if our English translations that describe Christ as
“Eternal Father” are correct? A good place to begin would be to see what Hebrew word lies behind
the word “eternal.” We could look up the word in Strong’s Concordance where we would find this
entry:

ad; from OT:5710; properly, a (peremptory) terminus, i.e. (by implication) duration, in the sense
of advance or perpetuity...

This leads us in turn to another Hebrew word, Strong’s number 5710, from which this word is
derived.

adah; a primitive root; to advance, i.e. pass on or continue; causatively, to remove; specifically, to
bedeck (i.e. bring an ornament upon):

Perhaps these definitions are a bit cryptic. James Strong had a pretty good vocabulary. He used many
English words that are relatively obscure today. What after all is a “peremptory terminus”? The word
peremptory signifies that which is definite, unable to be challenged, and unchangeable. The word
terminus refers to an end point. Together they describe something that has a definite end point, either
a beginning, or an end, or both, that is fixed. This describes very well an age, or any period of a fixed
length. It does NOT accord well, however, with the word “eternal.”

The Study Light Forum has an entry for this Hebrew word. On it they list a Greek equivalent word.
These equivalent words are at times obtained by looking for quotations of Old Testament passages
that are cited in the Greek New Testament, for these quotations are in abundance. An equivalent
Greek word may also be found by looking at ancient versions of the Old Testament that exist in the
Greek language. The Septuagint is an example of one such Greek translation. Although these word
equivalents cannot be considered conclusive, they do show how ancient Greek speaking people
understood Hebrew words. (Bear in mind that they too translated according to their understanding
and were prone to err.)

The Greek word equivalent for “ad” that is listed on the Study Light Forum is “aion.” This is the
same word we have looked at in a number of New Testament passages. We saw that the KJV Bible
was rendering aion as “eternal” or “for ever” while Young’s Literal Translation was consistently
interpreting it as “an age.” The definition of aion as “an age” accords very well with the “proper”
meaning of the Hebrew word “ad” as defined by James Strong. It is a duration of time with a
“peremptory terminus.” In other words, it indicates a span of time that has definite end points.

As we look at other passages where this Hebrew word is used, we find that the KJV translators
ascribed to it a range of meaning. Following are a couple examples.