Is eternity forever or just for a long time? Isn’t eternity forever? Always? Forever going back in time and forever going forward in time? Well, that depends.
I started writing about “Love the Lord your God with all your soul, minds, and strength”.
Something in it got too detailed, so I had to write something else first about when Jesus said, “Consider carefully what you hear”.
But something in it also got too detailed, so I set that aside as well, and began work on “Hearing is good. Understanding is better. Action is needed!”
As of right now, none of them are finished. They’re all hanging on “Is eternity forever or just for a long time?”, because something came up that needed to be answered, but deserves its own space.
Let’s hope this one actually gets done with no more interruptions!
Summary
Discusses the concept of eternity, questioning whether it is truly forever or just a long period of time.
Biblical and Philosophical Exploration: Examines the term ‘eternity’ within a biblical context, particularly referencing Ecclesiastes, and delves into philosophical inquiries about time and divine understanding.
Hebrew Interpretation: Examines the Hebrew word translated as ‘eternity’ and its various interpretations in different Bible translations.
Philosophical Inquiry: Delves into a philosophical inquiry about the nature of eternity, time, and human understanding of divine matters.
The exploration of eternity within the Christian faith reveals a complex and multifaceted concept that transcends simple definitions. This richness of interpretation invites believers to reflect deeply on their own beliefs and the teachings of Scripture, ultimately enhancing their spiritual journey and relationship with God.
What is eternity – a view from Bing Image Creator
I’ve been using Bing Image Creator lately. Since they went to DALL-E 4, with GPT 4, they’ve been pretty good.
I asked it to “make an ethereal watercolor image of eternity”.
With no further instruction, the adjacent image is one of four similar ones it generated.
Of course, I wanted to know why does it look like this? So I asked it, “what characteristics of eternity did you use to create the images?”
Its response was: “To create the images, I used some keywords and concepts related to eternity, such as infinity, timelessness, transcendence, and mystery. I also used watercolor as a medium to create a soft and dreamy effect. I hope you enjoy the images as a source of inspiration.”
Of course, let’s give credit where it’s really due. I’m the one who asked for watercolor because I thought it would make for a more ethereal effect. But the key words it found for “eternity” do a good job of representing a variety of current views on what eternity is: infinity, timelessness, transcendence, and mystery.
Especially relevant to where this is going is the word mystery. I was surprised it came up on Bing Chat’s search. But then, I was also surprised it showed up in a religious point of view of eternity. That was one of the driving forces for writing this in the first place.
Now, let’s not go overboard here. The concept of mystery showed up in both cases – religious definitions and a web search by a software robot that does what it’s told to do. It’s not like Bing Chat understands what it puts out. I have to mention that because of the earlier reference to “Hearing is good. Understanding is better. Action is needed!” that’s currently delayed to write this.
So the “mystery” ot found may or may not have been a religious mystery. Further, if it was religious in nature, it may very wee be because my opening question was “Do Jews today believe in resurrection or not? If it’s both, which sects believe in oe or the other?”
Given that I kept the whole chain as one topic, there was a religious direction to the questions already established.
Is eternity forever – a question from Ecclesiastes
A passage in Ecclesiastes raised this question of “Is eternity forever or is it just a long time?”
A Time for Everything
…
11 He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the hearts of men; yet they cannot fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
…
No context is included because the question is straightforward. Does eternity, as we read the NIV translation, really mean eternity? If you want more on it, either check back to see when “Hearing is good. Understanding is better. Action is needed!” is published – or better yet subscribe to the site and get email notifications of new items.
As a Christian, eternity means eternity, right? That’s what I remember hearing. But apparently, not everyone agrees with that. I looked up the Hebrew word we read as eternity to see what it meant in a Jewish context. After all, everything in what we Christians call the Old Testament is Jewish Scripture, meant for Jewish people.
Here’s what I found:
11b. God made humans desire eternity or made us imagine that we will live forever (Ibn Ezra). Nowhere else, however, does ha-ʿolam (“world, aeon, forever”) mean “eternity.” Others understand ha-ʿolam to mean “the world” and take the sentence to mean that God implanted in humans a desire to possess or understand the world. (In a note, NJPS explains this to mean that God “preoccupies man with the attempt to discover the times of future events”; cf. 8:17.) Rashbam says that what God put in minds is time—that we would know that there are good times and bad times, because if all times were of only one sort, we would not see the need to repent. But these supplements are not supported by the text. In any case, desire is irrelevant to this context. 1Fox, M. V. (2004). Ecclesiastes (p. 23). Jewish Publication Society.
There’s a very interesting statement in there. ‘Nowhere else, however, does ha-ʿolam (“world, aeon, forever”) mean “eternity.”’
Doesn’t that make you wonder, why do we read it as eternity?
But let’s make it even more odd before answering that.
5769 עֹולָם [ʿowlam, ʿolam /o·lawm/] n m. From 5956; TWOT 1631a; GK 6409; 439 occurrences; AV translates as “ever” 272 times, “everlasting” 63 times, “old” 22 times, “perpetual” 22 times, “evermore” 15 times, “never” 13 times, “time” six times, “ancient” five times, “world” four times, “always” three times, “alway” twice, “long” twice, “more” twice, “never + 408” twice, and translated miscellaneously six times. 1 long duration, antiquity, futurity, for ever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world. 1A ancient time, long time (of past). 1B (of future). 1B1 for ever, always. 1B2 continuous existence, perpetual. 1B3 everlasting, indefinite or unending future, eternity. 2Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.
That entry above says 439 occurrences. But that’s based on all the variations of the Hebrew word. For the exact word, there are 29. However, not all translations have, for lack of a better word, the same translations. Let’s look at some of them.
Is eternity forever?
Ecc 3:11 Translation Comparison
| Version | Translation of Ecc 3:11 |
|---|---|
| NIV 2010 | He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end. |
| Authorized Version (1873) | He hath made every thing beautiful in his time: also he hath set the world in their heart, so that no man can find out the work that God maketh from the beginning to the end. |
| Darby (1890) | He hath made everything beautiful in its time; also he hath set the world in their heart, so that man findeth not out from the beginning to the end the work that God doeth. |
| Young’s Literal Translation (1898) | The whole He hath made beautiful in its season; also, that knowledge• He hath put in their heart without which man findeth not out the work that God hath done from the beginning even unto the end. |
| Revised Standard Version, Catholic Edition (1965) | He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man’s mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. |
| New Revised Standard Edition (1989) | He has made everything beautiful in its time; also he has put eternity into man’s mind, yet so that he cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end. |
| NET Bible (2005) | God has made everything fit beautifully in its appropriate time, but he has also placed •ignorance in the human heart so that people cannot discover what God has ordained, from the beginning to the end of their lives. |
As you can see, they don’t all say eternity. Not even close. On top of that, some of the other 28 verses where the same Hebrew word is used, it’s sometimes translated as long time, or of the age, or other not forever type words.
So why is that? Why do we seem to translate it as eternity now, but it wasn’t done so much before?
Here are some thoughts on that, based on the excerpt below from Ecclesiastes: why everything matters. It’s a rather long book, but worth the time it takes to read and think about. It’s from Chapter 8, in a segment the author called Between Time and Eternity. The author isn’t addressing whether eternity is the “right” word or not. The translation he used, and the mindset he has in the book, is that eternity is the right translation of the underlying Hebrew word.
Here’s the thing about that. If we don’t translate it as eternity, it completely changes things. There’s such a difference between “forever” and “a long time” that it totally changes our reference points when we read it. Think about when you were young. If you are young, try to imagine the future. We used to think life was pretty much forever. But as we get older, that feeling of life will last forever changes. The idea of living this life “forever” disappears. Of course, this life isn’t forever and can’t be. But when we’re long, that reality seems to be lost on us.
So, when we go through the excerpt below, we’ll look at how the analysis of “eternity” and time changes how we view the passage in Ecclesiastes.
Here the Preacher finds himself caught between time and eternity. On the one hand, God has put eternity into our hearts. We were made to live forever (see Genesis 3: 22), and thus we have a desperate longing for never-ending life with God. Many of the Bible’s most precious promises offer us everlasting blessing. The eternal God (Psalm 90: 2) has made an “everlasting covenant” (Genesis 9: 16) to give us a kingdom that will last “forever” (2 Samuel 7: 13). He has kept these promises by giving eternal life to anyone who believes in his Son, who offered his life for our sins before rising from the grave with power over death.
What if eternity is only a long time?
If we don’t believe in eternity, then what is it that God put in our hearts?
Knowledge, as Young’s Literal Translation says? Of course, God does give us knowledge. But in this instance, if it is knowledge, then what does that mean for this verse? It certainly puts us in a situation where no place else in the Bible is this word translated as knowledge. “Knowledge” also doesn’t seem to fit in the context of the remainder of the passage. Everything preceding it is about time.
Ignorance, as the NET Bible says? Just from the context of the verse, you can see it doesn’t really work. Once again, it changes the focus.
What about “the world”? How does that fit in with eternal, knowledge, or ignorance? We’ll soon see, it’s all about beliefs and points of view. The world is, as the name suggests, worldly. It’s easier to say what it isn’t. It’s not eternal. After that, it depends.
For instance, we’re soon going to look at the flood. Before the flood, people lived for up to 900 years or more. Afterwards, life expectancy was lowered to about 120 years. It wasn’t that long ago, life expectancy in industrial countries was quite a bit lower than that. For instance, in the U.S., in the early 1900’s, it was down to somewhere in the mid 50’s. These days it’s up to the mid 70’s. However, in many African countries, even today, life expectancy is only in the mid 50’s. And then there’s this tidbit on Japan: The longest average life expectancies by prefecture in Japan as of 2020 were 88.29 years for women in Okayama and 82.73 years for men in Shiga.
We can see then, someone’s reference point for what constitutes “a long time” very much depends on where and when they live.
All of this has an impact on both us, as the reader of the Bible, as well as the author of the book in the Bible, and the author of any book written about the Bible.
What if eternity is forever?
Eternity, or a long time, in our hearts is one thing. But what about God’s promises? For instance, the excerpt above references Ge 9:16. It’s God’s promise to Noah after the flood. “Everlasting”, underlined, is the word we’re looking at.
God’s Covenant With Noah
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Ge 9:12 And God said, “This is the sign of the covenant I am making between me and you and every living creature with you, a covenant for all generations to come: 13 I have set my rainbow in the clouds, and it will be the sign of the covenant between me and the earth. 14 Whenever I bring clouds over the earth and the rainbow appears in the clouds, 15 I will remember my covenant between me and you and all living creatures of every kind. Never again will the waters become a flood to destroy all life. 16 Whenever the rainbow appears in the clouds, I will see it and remember the everlasting covenant between God and all living creatures of every kind on the earth.”
Ge 9:17 So God said to Noah, “This is the sign of the covenant I have established between me and all life on the earth.”
This time, it’s a question of whether God’s covenant with Noah and all life on earth is eternal or for a long time.
Here’s the thing about that reference. While both of them refer to a Hebrew word having something to do with time, they aren’t the exact same Hebrew word. They come from the same root. But they are different.
So – is eternity forever – or is eternity just a long time?
This might sound frustrating. Maybe even annoying. Or worse.
But it does show one very important thing. We need to pay attention to the details. One of those details is looking at what words mean to us. And then, when we read the Bible, does our meaning seem to line up with what the author in the Bible appears to be trying to get across?
If not, maybe (hopefully), we look it up. We check out what someone else wrote.
However, just reading some other person’s thoughts on a passage or a word don’t aren’t definitive. It depends on the beliefs on the person whose analysis we happen to be reading.
Seriously, it does. Here’s why. Remember the very different meanings of the Hebrew word and its root that we checked out? Keep in mind, we looked at only a handful out of the over 400 instances of variations from the root. Here’s the issue with just that one word:
Since there’s no definitive reference points to establish an actual time, words that indicate a timeframe are treated as:
an indefinite unit of time (the actual extent of time being determined by the context) 3Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 638). United Bible Societies.
That explains a lot. In so many cases it’s up to the reader to figure out what time period was meant. As we’ve already seen, even in Old Testament days, some Jews believed in resurrection and some didn’t. You can imagine how one’s beliefs on resurrection can easily rule out eternity for anything having to do with individual people.
For instance, in the Ecc 3:11 passage, putting eternity in the hearts of someone who has no chance at all of eternal life feels somewhere between pointless and cruel However, if there is a chance for eternal life, then having something of eternity in our hearts is very useful.
But then in the Genesis passage about God’s everlasting covenant, it’s not about an individual. Rather, it’s about every living creature of every kind. Maybe. There is at least one translation that includes having a soul. But that’s for another day. Hopefully, I will get to it relatively soon. I’ll add a link here when it’s done. Or, as always, you can subscribe to this site at Subscribe to godversusreligion.com.
How long is eternity?
Let’s keep going.
The trouble is that we are still living in a time-bound universe. There is a huge gap between our present mortality and our future destiny. The eternity in our hearts gives us a deep desire to know what God has done from beginning to end. Each of us is born with “a deep-seated desire, a compulsive drive . . . to know the character, composition, and meaning of the world . . . and to discern its purpose and destiny.” But as finite creatures living in a fallen world, there are so many things we do not understand. No matter how hard we look— and the Preacher-King who wrote Ecclesiastes had looked as hard as anyone— we “cannot find out what God has done from the beginning to the end” (Ecclesiastes 3: 11).
The keys to this part of the analysis are: as finite creatures living in a fallen world, there are so many things we do not understand.
No, that wasn’t bad grammar above. There are two points in the excerpt.
Eternity for finite creatures in a fallen world
First of all, we are finite creatures because we live in a fallen world. That’s something we, as Christians, have at the core of our beliefs. However, that’s not true for everyone. Even Islam, although they do use portions of both Jewish and Christian scripture, have a difference of opinion about the fall. And about how we achieve eternal life and where our destination is.
That means a whole lot of people don’t believe we’re in a fallen world. Even though so many people wish the world was different, better, they still don’t choose to believe in the God who promises that better life.
That, in turn, leads so many to a life with no real purpose or hope. At least, no lasting purpose or hope. “He who dies with the most toys wins” isn’t really lasting or hopeful. Substituting money, superyachts, stock portfolios, etc. doesn’t change anything. Neither does being the greatest philanthropist. In the end, for those people, it’s no different than the great Stephen Hawking.
“I regard the brain as a computer which will stop working when its components fail.”
How depressing is that? People like this have no hope for anything. Or anyone.
So many things we don’t understand – including eternity
Hawking’s quote is the perfect segue for there are so many things we do not understand. Eternity is apparently one of those things we don’t understand.
That thought is expanded on in the next portion of our extract.
Whereas God has a complete view, all we have is a point of view. Our limited perspective is unable to span the mind of God. This has been part of the Preacher’s frustration from the beginning. He is looking for meaning in life but finds it hard or even impossible to understand. “The human being has ‘eternity’ in his heart— his Creator has made him a thinking being, and he wants to pass beyond his fragmentary knowledge and discern the fuller meaning of the whole pattern— but the Creator will not let the creature be his equal.”
I remember when I took geometry classes and tried to get a mental picture of eternity’s close cousin – infinite. For instance, take the hated by needed number line. There are an infinite number of points between 1 and 2. And between 3 and 3. But, are there twice as many points between 1 and 3 as there are between 1 and 2? No! The distance between 1 and 3 is twice the distance between 1 and 2 – but they both have the same number of points. There’s no such thing as 2-times-infinity. Huh? The distance is doubled but the number of points is equal?
And, oh by the way, if you extend the number line from 0 to infinity, that “ray” as it’s called has the same number of points as the distance between 1 and 2. An infinite number. You apparently can’t have infinity-times infinity, or infinity squared, either.
Next, let’s extend that number line in the opposite direction. Dare I say, to negative infinity? You guessed it, hopefully. Another infinite set of points. But then, you can’t double the infinite points by taking both rays, each of which has its own set of infinite points. There’s no such thing as 2-times-indinity-squared either.
Apparently, only an infinite being can understand infinity and get a mental picture of it.
It’s also apparent that only an eternal being can get a mental picture and an understanding of eternity as well.
What is eternity in our hearts?
I guess that’s why we have something of eternity in our hearts. Something to long for. Something to desire. But then, how odd and sad does that make the reality that so many scientists, like Stephen Hawking, refuse to believe in God? They give up their only opportunity to understand the one thing they spent their lives studying. That’s why we need to understand the difference between the created and the Creator. And worship the Creator.
All of this explains why some commentators see Ecclesiastes 3: 11 as very negative. Having eternity in our hearts, they say, only leads to more frustration. As far as God is concerned, there is a time for everything. But we do not always know what time it is, and thus it is hard for us to know when to embrace and when to refrain from embracing, for example, or when to speak and when to stay silent. Thus we cannot make sense of our world. We desperately want to understand what is going on, but only God knows.
Let’s try to address this negativity by going to the end of Ecclesiastes. Although, I must warn you, this will also raise some more questions.
The Conclusion of the Matter
Ecc 12:9 Not only was the Teacher wise, but also he imparted knowledge to the people. He pondered and searched out and set in order many proverbs. 10 The Teacher searched to find just the right words, and what he wrote was upright and true.
Ecc 12:11 The words of the wise are like goads, their collected sayings like firmly embedded nails—given by one Shepherd. 12 Be warned, my son, of anything in addition to them.
Of making many books there is no end, and much study wearies the body.
Ecc 12:13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
Ecc 12:14 For God will bring every deed into judgment,
including every hidden thing,
whether it is good or evil.
The conclusion, after all that’s observed, examined, and analyzed in Ecclesiastes, is this: Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the whole duty of man.
Unfortunately, as mentioned, here’s the question: is this really the “duty” of man? I ask, because that’s not always the way that verse is translated. The “why not” is also trickier than when we looked at the Hebrew word translated as eternity, knowledge, a long time, etc. Really, it is trickier. Because there’s no Hebrew word there. Take a look at the image below:
Do you see all the dots underneath “is the duty of”? There are no one-to-one corresponding Hebrew words. What we read in English is a word, or words, based on the context. And we just learned something about context earlier. That conclusion is based on the context of the passage/verse, which is also based on the beliefs of the translator/author.
So the one we just looked at in the image is the 2010 NIV. You may have noticed that the text in the passage we read before this added a word: for this is the whole duty of man.
Things like this are, I believe, important. It’s almost like the difference between blind faith and faith based on understanding. Not entirely, but kind of. If we’re going to own our own faith, isn’t better if we know and understand things like this.
I wish I had time to check out every word. But I don’t. I’m just one person. Do my own research. And all the writing. All the formatting. And everything for the web site. So I rely on what we call that still small voice. The Holy Spirit. To tell me when I need to dig deeper. As I said, I think it’s good. But sometimes, like a whole bunch of things I’m working on now, one thing leads to another to another to another, and so on. It’s like nothing’s getting finished, but the “to complete” list keeps getting longer.
Anyway, thanks to you for reading that, and to God for listening. It’s how I feel right now.
Let’s take a look at another table, this time with different translations of the last half of Ecc 12:13. Notice both the italicized words related to fearing God and the bolded words relating to what may or may not be called our “duty”.
| Version | Translation |
|---|---|
| NIV – 2010 | Fear God and keep his commandments, for this is the duty of all mankind. |
| KJV (1611) | Fear God, and keep his commandments: for this is the whole duty of man. |
| NKJV (1982) | Fear God and keep His commandments, For this is man’s all. |
| Tanakh (1985) | Revere God and observe His commandments! For this applies to all mankind: that God will call every creature to account for everything unknown, be it good or bad. |
| Bible in Basic English (2002) | Have fear of God and keep his laws; because this is right for every man. |
There are two issues in that tab: (1) fear God and (2) the duty of man. In both cases, what is the impact of the various translations and why are they different? Of course, there’s also the question of how any given translation might affect our view of eternity?
Fear God
Do you fear God?
Do you fear God? If you answered that question just now, I have more questions for you. What does “fear God” mean? What does it mean to you? What does it mean to me? What does it mean to God? How would you answer that question now?
I’ve written about fearing God before.
Several times.
I think the one that comes closest to the overall context of the Bible is, believe it or not, The Bible in Basic English.
It says: Have fear of God.
For non-Christians and probably even some Christians, there’s an odd kind of balance between loving God and fearing God.
Those of us who love God also have fear for Him. But it’s not the same fear as being in fear of Him.
Why do I say “have fear of God” is a good way to look at it?
Is God Loving – or is God Angry?
Is God loving? Or is God angry? Or, does the question have more to do with our view of God?
Because we really have a choice here.
Our relationship with God can be good, in which case there’s nothing to fear.
Or, if we choose, we can have no relationship with God, even deny He exists, in which case we do have something to fear.
The key thing though, is that the choice is entirely up to us.
And, of course, knowing what “fear” meant in regards to fear of The Lord.
I invite you to read either/both of the posts above. But, just in case you don’t, the super-short version is that if we love God, then what we read as fear is best interpreted more as awe, and the kind of “fear” that goes along with being in awe of someone. The thing is, the awe we feel for God is infinitely beyond the awe we’d ever have for a person.
On the other hand, if we don’t love God, then there are things to fear from God. Our eternal destination is right up there at the top.
Lots of people know about John 3:16. But how many know the whole passage?
John 3:16
Jn 3:16 “For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son, that whoever believes in him shall not perish but have eternal life. 17 For God did not send his Son into the world to condemn the world, but to save the world through him. 18 Whoever believes in him is not condemned, but whoever does not believe stands condemned already because he has not believed in the name of God’s one and only Son. 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.”
You see, it is our choice. However, it’s also up to us to learn what “believes in Him” really means. Sadly, too many believe that it’s literally only about believing something to be true. As in 2+2=4. The meaning of the Greek word that we read as “believes” is much more than mere head knowledge and belief.
The same is true for this passage. Notice: 19 This is the verdict: Light has come into the world, but men loved darkness instead of light because their deeds were evil. 20 Everyone who does evil hates the light, and will not come into the light for fear that his deeds will be exposed. 21 But whoever lives by the truth comes into the light, so that it may be seen plainly that what he has done has been done through God.
Notice the “movement” from darkness into light. It’s not literally dark or light. It’s spiritual. And yet, there’s still movement. It’s the movement in our own spirit. Whether we’re willing to move from the darkness of living by our own spirit into the spiritual light of living by the Holy Spirit, God’s spirit. That’s what Christian transformation is about. Mere head knowledge and saying I believe doesn’t translate into transformation.
What do fear of God and the duty of man have to do with eternity?
So what does all this mean?
If we take the perspective that we need to be afraid of God because that’s what God wants from us, then eternity with Him isn’t likely to seem so appealing, is it? It’s a far cry from when Jesus told His disciples they were His friends. The passage below goes through much of what we just read, from loving and following Jesus to being a friend.
The Vine and the Branches
Jn 15:1 “I am the true vine, and my Father is the gardener. 2 He cuts off every branch in me that bears no fruit, while every branch that does bear fruit he prunes so that it will be even more fruitful. 3 You are already clean because of the word I have spoken to you. 4 Remain in me, and I will remain in you. No branch can bear fruit by itself; it must remain in the vine. Neither can you bear fruit unless you remain in me.
Jn 15:5 “I am the vine; you are the branches. If a man remains in me and I in him, he will bear much fruit; apart from me you can do nothing. 6 If anyone does not remain in me, he is like a branch that is thrown away and withers; such branches are picked up, thrown into the fire and burned. 7 If you remain in me and my words remain in you, ask whatever you wish, and it will be given you. 8 This is to my Father’s glory, that you bear much fruit, showing yourselves to be my disciples.
Jn 15:9 “As the Father has loved me, so have I loved you. Now remain in my love. 10 If you obey my commands, you will remain in my love, just as I have obeyed my Father’s commands and remain in his love. 11 I have told you this so that my joy may be in you and that your joy may be complete. 12 My command is this: Love each other as I have loved you. 13 Greater love has no one than this, that he lay down his life for his friends. 14 You are my friends if you do what I command. 15 I no longer call you servants, because a servant does not know his master’s business. Instead, I have called you friends, for everything that I learned from my Father I have made known to you. 16 You did not choose me, but I chose you and appointed you to go and bear fruit—fruit that will last. Then the Father will give you whatever you ask in my name. 17 This is my command: Love each other.”
Hopefully this is enough to show the difference between be afraid of God and what we can have if we truly follow Jesus. This topic is already pretty long, so rather than go into The Vine and the Branches here, you can check out other things I’ve written that include The Vine and the Branches.
The duty of man
Next, is “the duty of man” really the best interpretation for the close of Ecclesiastes? In case you need a reminder, here it is again:
Ecc 12:13 Now all has been heard;
here is the conclusion of the matter:
Fear God and keep his commandments,
for this is the whole duty of man.
No surprise here – I don’t believe it is the best translation. This time, I go with the Tanakh, a Jewish translation of what truly is Jewish Scripture first. Here it is:
Revere God and observe His commandments! For this applies to all mankind:
that God will call every creature to account for everything unknown,
be it good or bad.
Notice first that it says revere God. You might wonder why I didn’t pick this for the “fear God” translation. It’s because it comes with an assumption that the reader at that time, Jewish, already loved God. On top of that, this was on a scroll that was read in the Synagogue, so most people were actually listeners, not readers. Either way, they were in a (Jewish) Synagogue. It was a reminder for them. Today, anyone can read the Bible, Such an assumption isn’t valid today.
As to the “applies to all mankind” translation – I think this really says the way it is.
The modern translations about this being the duty of man really surprise me. Today, we read about the duty of man. But think about what Jesus said in The Vine and the Branches. About when Jesus said His disciples were friends. There’s a huge difference between doing something because we must, and doing something because we want to. Because we’re doing it for someone we love. That difference gets lost when we read duty.
Another thing to consider from the Tanakh translation is that we’ll be called to account for what we do. This was also ahead of its time, in terms of what people knew, not in terms of what God knew. As Christians, we believe there will be two “judgments”. There will be the judgment for those who, as we read earlier, live in the darkness and aren’t saved by Jesus’ death on the cross. However, for those who do truly follow Jesus, are saved, the “believers” judgment will be more like a celebration. Both of these are covered in the Book of Revelation.
Conclusion – Is eternity forever or just for a long time?
So, where are we after all this?
Actually, a better question is, where are you after all this? I think we’ve seen that our view of whether eternity is forever or is just a long time can be greatly influenced by, in essence, what we want it to be.
There is another way to respond, however. Knowing that we are caught between time and eternity can help us find our way to God. Up to this point in his quest, Qoheleth has failed to find anything on earth that can fully satisfy the human mind or heart. But this still leaves open the possibility of finding satisfaction in God and in his Heaven. So rather than giving up on our desire for understanding, we should conclude instead that our longing for eternity proves that we were made for another world. 4Ryken, Philip Graham. Ecclesiastes (Preaching the Word) (pp. 92-93). Crossway. Kindle Edition.
Yes, everything we just read can help us find God. But then, there’s no guarantee. Lots of people read even more things than what we just covered. But they don’t see God. Or maybe don’t want to.
If we love God and want to spend eternity with Him, then there’s only one way to define eternity. Forever.
If we see no hope in this life and no hope for anything after this, then it seems like we wouldn’t care about eternity. Whether it’s a long time or forever, we just won’t care. Why not? Because that kind of thinking, absent God, has no reason for anything or an one to be eternal.
That’s sad.
In Jesus’ time, it was the downtrodden, the people no one liked or wanted, the scum of the earth, who saw Him as the way to a better life in a better place after their miserable life on this earth was over.
That message, when it exists at all, is largely drowned out today.
Instead, we hear eternal being used like this, compliments of the Collins Dictionary:
- ADJECTIVE
Something that is eternal lasts forever.
…the quest for eternal youth.
Synonyms: everlasting, lasting, permanent, enduring More Synonyms of eternal
eternally ADVERB
She is eternally grateful to her family for their support.
Synonyms: forever, always, for keeps, for all time More Synonyms of eternal
Synonyms: continually, constantly, all the time, endlessly More Synonyms of eternal - ADJECTIVE
If you describe something as eternal, you mean that it seems to last forever, often because you think it is boring or annoying.
In the background was that eternal hum.
Synonyms: interminable, constant, endless, abiding More Synonyms of eternal
What is eternity to you?
Image by Bing Chat /Dall-E 3
Footnotes
- 1Fox, M. V. (2004). Ecclesiastes (p. 23). Jewish Publication Society.
- 2Strong, J. (1995). In Enhanced Strong’s Lexicon. Woodside Bible Fellowship.
- 3Louw, J. P., & Nida, E. A. (1996). In Greek-English lexicon of the New Testament: based on semantic domains (electronic ed. of the 2nd edition., Vol. 1, p. 638). United Bible Societies.
- 4Ryken, Philip Graham. Ecclesiastes (Preaching the Word) (pp. 92-93). Crossway. Kindle Edition.