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    • Concerning æon or age.
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    Book II.

    Chapter I.—Concerning æon or age.

    He created the ages Who Himself was before the ages, Whom the divine David thus addresses, From age to age Thou art1640

    1640 Ps. xc. 2.

    . The divine apostle also says, Through Whom He created the ages1641

    1641 Hebr. i. 2.

    .

    It must then be understood that the word age has various meanings, for it denotes many things. The life of each man is called an age. Again, a period of a thousand years is called an age1642

    1642 Arist., De Cœlo, bk. 1. text 100.

    . Again, the whole course of the present life is called an age: also the future life, the immortal life after the resurrection1643

    1643 St. Matt. xii. 32; St. Luke vii. 34.

    , is spoken of as an age. Again, the word age is used to denote, not time nor yet a part of time as measured by the movement and course of the sun, that is to say, composed of days and nights, but the sort of temporal motion and interval that is co-extensive with eternity1644

    1644 Greg Naz., Orat. 35, 38, 42.

    . For age is to things eternal just what time is to things temporal.

    Seven ages1645

    1645 Basil, De Struct., hom. 2; Greg. Naz., Orat. 44.

    of this world are spoken of, that is, from the creation of the heaven and earth till the general consummation and resurrection of men. For there is a partial consummation, viz., the death of each man: but there is also a general and complete consummation, when the general resurrection of men will come to pass. And the eighth age is the age to come.

    Before the world was formed, when there was as yet no sun dividing day from night, there was not an age such as could be measured1646

    1646 Greg. Naz., Orat. 44.

    , but there was the sort of temporal motion and interval that is co-extensive with eternity. And in this sense there is but one age, and God is spoken of as αἰ& 240·νιος1647

    1647 αἰ& 240·νιος, ‘eternal,’ but also ‘secular,’ ‘aeonian,’ ‘age-long.’

    and προαιώνιος, for the age or æon itself is His creation. For God, Who alone is without beginning, is Himself the Creator of all things, whether age or any other existing thing. And when I say God, it is evident that I mean the Father and His Only begotten Son, our Lord, Jesus Christ, and His all-holy Spirit, our one God.

    But we speak also of ages of ages, inasmuch as the seven ages of the present world include many ages in the sense of lives of men, and the one age embraces all the ages, and the present and the future are spoken of as age of age. Further, everlasting (i.e. αἰ& 240·νιος) life and everlasting punishment prove that the age or æon to come is unending1648

    1648 Variant, καὶ ἀπέραντον δηλοῖ. In Regg. αἰ& 242·νος is absent.

    . For time will not be counted by days and nights even after the resurrection, but there will rather be one day with no evening, wherein the Sun of Justice will shine brightly on the just, but for the sinful there will be night profound and limitless. In what way then will the period of one thousand years be counted which, according to Origen1649

    1649 See his Contr. Cels., iv. Cf. Justin Martyr. Apol. 1; Basil, Hex., hom. 3; Greg. Nyss., Orat. Catech. 26, &c.

    , is required for the complete restoration? Of all the ages, therefore, the sole creator is God Who hath also created the universe and Who was before the ages.

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