5. There is also attached to the word the signifi- cance of ' age ' as indicating a period or dispensa- tion of a definite character — the present order of ' world-life ' viewed as a whole and as possessing certain moral characteristics. It is unfortunate that there is no word in English which exactly expresses this meaning. The general translation in AV and RV is 'world,' though 'age' appears always in KVm and in the text at He 6^. There is undoubtedly at times a close similarity of connota- tion between aitliv and Kdcrfios as indicating a moral order. In the Gospel and Epp. of John aldif is never used in this sense, but Koafxo^ is employed instead : e.ff. ' Now is the judgment of this world ; now shall the prince of this world be cast out ' (Jn 12", also 15^" etc.), 'If any man love the world' (1 Jn 2'' etc.). They are almost, if not altogether, synonymous in ' Where is the disputer of this world ('age,' ald}v)t Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world (k6(fij.os] ? ' ( 1 Co 1'-"). That St. Paul recognized a distinction between them is evident from the phrase Kara rbv aiCjva tov Kbcrjxov ToiTov, which is translated both in AV and in RV ' according to the course of this world ' (Eph 2-). Plainly alibv describes some quality of tlie KdcrpLov. We have no term to express it exactly, but our plirase ' the spirit of the age' comes very near to what is required.
6. This ' world ' or ' age ' as a moral order includes the current epoch of the world's life. It is an epoch in which the visil)le and the transitory have vast power over the souls of men, and may become the only objects of hope and desire. It is described simply as alibv, 'the world' (Mt 13--, Mk 4"*), and its eiid is emphatically affirmed (Mt 13''>- '><'• ■^^ 24^ 28-"). But more frequently it is referred to as in contrast to a coming age. It is described as 6 aiiliv ouTos, ' this world ' (Mt 12^2, Lk IQ\ Ro 122, i Co 1-", etc.) ; as 6 vvv aiwv (1 Ti 6''', etc.) ; as 6 aio:v 6 ivecTTihs, 'the present . . . world' (Gal V). The future age is described as 6 aluv fj.4XXuiv, ' the world to come' (Mt 12^-, He 6^); 6 epxb/J-evos, 'the world to come' (]Mk 10^", etc.) ; and as 6 aiwv iKelvos, ' that world' (Lk 20^5). The present 'age' has its God (2 Co 4''), its rulers and its wisdom (1 Co2'*-*), its sons (Lk 16*), its fashion (Ro 12^), and its cares (Mt 13"). Men may be rich in it (1 Ti 6^^), and love it (2 Ti 4'"). It is an evil age (Gal V), yet it is possible to live soberly, righteously, and godly in it (Tit 2^% and it has an end (Mt 13^"). In the future 'age' there is 'eternal life' (Mk lO^", Lk IS'"). Those who are counted worthy of it ' neither marry nor are given in marriage, neither can they die any more' (Lk 20^''-)- It has 'powers' that may be ' tasted' in the present age (He 6^).
The contrast is regarded as that which is de- scribed in JeAvish writings as njr^ D^iy and Kin dVij;, 'this age' and 'the age that is to come.' These are identified with the age before and after the coming of the Messiah. There is much uncertainty as to the time when this contrast first arose. Dalman says that ' in pre-Christian products of Jewish literature there is as yet no trace of these ideas to be found' {The Words of Jesus, p. 148). It is difficult to believe that a nation which ex- pected so much from the advent of the Messiah did
not form some idea, at a date before the days of Jesus Christ, of the vast changes which would be produced when He did come, and look upon the age which was so marked as one to be contrasted with the age in which they were living. We can- not follow Dalman when he says : ' It is not un- likely that in the time of Jesus the idea of "the future age," being the product of the schools of the scribes, was not yet familiar to those He addressed ' (ib. p. 135). Dalman apparently doubts whether Jesus used the term Himself, but says : ' The currency of the expressions " this age," " the future age," is at all events established by the end of the first Christian century.' He makes the reservation that ' for that period the expressions characterised the language of the learned rather than that of the people' [ib. p. 151).
7. Among the Gnostics (see Gnosticism) the iEons were emanations from the Divine. But this meaning of the word belongs to a time when the Gnostic ideas and terminology w'ere more fully developed than in the first century of the Christian era. It is enough to quote the opinion of Hort in his Judaistic Christianity, ' There is not the faint- est sign that such words as . . . aidiv . . . have any reference [in the NT] to what we call Gnostic terms ' (p. 133, also p. 146).