Footnote

d The Greek word aión is generally understood to be derived from aeí, meaning “forever; ever.” However, page 202 of the book New Testament Synonyms, by Archbishop R. C. Trench (1901), says: “We must reject the etymology of aion which Aristotle (De Caelo 1. 9) propounds: the derived name was taken from the word aei. It is more probably connected with áo, áemi, to breathe. Like kosmos it has a primary and physical and then, superinduced on this, a secondary and ethical, sense, in its primary, it signifies time, short or long, in its unbroken duration; oftentimes in classical Greek the duration of a human life . . . but essentially time as the condition under which all created things exist, and the measure of their existence; . . . Thus signifying time, it comes presently to signify all which exists in the world under conditions of time; . . . and then, more ethically, the course and current of this world’s affairs.”