In the present passage it is urged that dAcOpov destruction points to an unchangeable, irremediable, and endless condition. If this be true, if 6A€Opos is extinction, then the passage teaches the annihilation of the wicked, in which case the adjective aiwyios is superfluous, since extinction is final, and excludes the idea of duration. But dAefpos does not always mean destruction or extinction. Take the kindred verb aaéAAvpu to destroy, put an end to, or in the middle voice, to be lost, to perish. Peter says, “the world being deluged with water, perished” (dmdAero, 2 Pet. iti. 6); but the world did not become extinct, it was renewed. In Heb. i. 11, 12, quoted from Ps. cii., we read concerning the heavens and the earth as compared with the eternity of God, “they shall perish” (dzoXotvrat). But the perishing is only preparatory to change and renewal. “They shall be changed” (@AAayyoovrar). Comp. Isa. li. 6,16; Ixv. 17; Ixvi. 22; 2 Pet. iii. 13; Apoc.xxi.1. Similarly, “the Son of man came to save that which was lost” (daroAwAds), L. xix. 10. Jesus charged his apostles to go
* The Epistles of St. John, p. 205.
62 WORD STUDIES IN THE NEW TESTAMENT. [Cu. IL
to the lost (émoAwXdra) sheep of the house of Israel, Matt. x. 6, comp. xy. 24. “He that shall lose (doXéoy) his life for my sake shall find it,” Matt. xvi. 25. Comp. L. xv. 6, 9, 32.
In this passage the word destruction is qualified. It is “destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the glory of his power,” at his second coming, in the new aeon. In other words, it is the severance, at a given point of time, of those who obey not the gospel from the presence and the glory of Christ. ’Avéyios may therefore describe this severance as continuing during the millennial aeon between Christ’s coming and the final judgment; as being for the wicked prolonged throughout that aeon and characteristic of it, — or it may describe the severance as characteris- ing or enduring through a period or aeon succeeding the final judgment, the extent of which period is not defined. In neither case is aidvios to be interpreted as everlasting or endless.