3. iirevavTios is used in He 10^^ of the advei-- saries of God, apostates from Christ, probably with reference to Is 26'S where the LXX has the same word. A similar phrase in Tit 2^ is ' he that is of tlie contrary part,' an opponent, 6 i^ ivavrias. In Col 2'* the word virevavrlos is used of an inanimate object: 'the bond . . . which was contrary to us.'
A. J. Maclean. ADVOCATE.— See Paraclete.
£NEAS (AiVeas). — The name occurs only once in the NT (Ac 9^^-^). The person so called was a dweller in Lydda or Lod, a town on tiie plain of Sharon about ten miles south of Joppa, to which many of the Christians had fled after the persecu- tion which dispersed the apostles and the church of Jerusalem. On a visit of St. Peter to tVe place, ^'Eneas, who had for eigiit years been conhned to bed as a paralytic, was healed by the Apostle. The cure seems to have had a very remarkable influence in the district, causing many of the dwellers in Sharon and Lydda to accept Christi- anity. Nothing further is known of the man. Probably he became a Ciiristian at the date of his cure. W. F. BoYD.
iSION (aliLv, alQpes, 'age,' 'ages'). — There is some uncertainty as to the derivation of the word aiu)v. Some relate it with dvp-i-, ' to breathe,' but modern opinion connects it with del, aiei (=alFo}v), and flnds as other derivatives the Latin cevinn and the English 'aye.' In the LXX aluv is used to translate u)\]i in various forms, as c'jiyc, Gn 6'^ ; a)\v ^y, 1 K pi'; d^ij? "jn, Gn 2\^'^ ; nViyri, Ec3". It is of frequent occurrence in the NT. The instances number 125 in TK, and 120 in critical editions. Following these, it is noteworthy that in the Gospels and Acts, where it occurs 34 times, it is only once used in the iilural (Lk P^). In tlie rest of the NT the use of the plural predominates (54 out of 86 instances). In Rev. the word occurs with great frequency (26 times). In every case it is used in the plural, and, except in two places, in the intensive formula els revs alQvas twv aicbvcov — a form which is never found in the Gospels or Acts, aluv is variously translated as ' age,' ' for ever,' ' world,' 'course,' 'eternal.' It expresses a time-concept, and under all uses of the word that concept remains in a more or less dehnite degree.
1. It expresses the idea of long or indefinite past time, d7r' aiuivos, 'since the world began' (EV ; Lk 1™, Ac 3'-'' 15'* ; cf. dViv?, Gn 6*, Is 64^, iK roO aiQvos, Jn 9-*^). In these instances, the j^hrases express what we mean Avhen, speaking generally and indefinitely of time past, we say ' from of old ' or ' from the most ancient time.'
2. The common classical use of alwv for ' lifetime' is not found in the NT ; but there are instances where the phrase eZs t6v ai(I>va seems to have that significance ; e.g. ' The servant abideth not in the house for life, but the son abideth /or life,' Jn 8^' (also Mt 21'«, Jn 13*, 1 Co S'^).
3. Tlie plirase eh rhv alQva or tovs alQvas is frequently found in the NT as a time-concept for a period or 'age' of indefinite futurity, and may be translated 'for ever.' Strictly speaking, in accordance with the root idea of aiuv, the phriise indicates futurity or continuance as long as the ' age ' lasts to which the matter referred to belongs. The use of the intensive form eJs tovs alJivas tQv aicbvoiv (Gal P, Epli 3'-', He 13-', and liev. passim) indicates the eftbrt of Ciiristian faith to give expression to its larger conception of the ' ages ' as extending to the limits of human thought, by duplicating and reduplicating the original word. The larger vision gave the larger meaning; but it cannot be said that the fundamental idea of 'age,' as an epoch or dispensation with an end, is lost. In the Fourth Gospel the phrase is sometimes employed as a synonym for ' eternal life ' (Jn 6^'* '*).
4. The plural alCives expresses the time-idea as consisting of or embracing many ages — ajons, periods of vast extent — ' from all ages' (RV, Eph 3"), ' the ages to come ' ( EpIi 2'', etc. ). Some of these ' ages ' are regarded as having come to an end — ' but now once in the end of the world (' at the end of the ages' RV) hath he appeared to put away sin' (He 9-*). Tlie idea of one age succeeding another as
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AGAEUS
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under ordered rule is provided for in the suggestive title 'the king eternal' (EV ' the king of the ages') (1 Ti 1" ; cf. nVii- >x, Gn 2133). j^ He P ' through whom also he made the worlds' (ages), and He IP 'the worlds (ages) were made by the word of God,' we have the striking conception of the 'ages' as 'in- cluding all that is manifested in and through them' (Westcott, Com. inloc. ). ( In Wis 13^ there is a curious instance of aiuv as referring to the actual world, ' For if they were able to know so much that they could aim at the world [ffToxdaaadai rbv aidiva], how did tbey not sooner find out the Lord thereof?')