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Stephen Jones — Bibliology

b2 — The Restoration of All Things

Hermeneutics: Translation Theology and the Authority of the Source Text

The Meaning of αἰώνιος / aionian

  • Quotation: “The Greek noun aion means ‘an eon,’ or ‘an age.’ Its adjective form is aionios, which means ‘age-abiding,’ or ‘pertaining to an age.‘” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Quotation: “Back in the late fourth century, when Jerome translated the Greek New Testament into his Latin Vulgate, he had two Latin words that were a rough equivalent of aionian. They were aeternum and seculum. Aeternum is where we get our word ‘eternal,’ and seculum is where we get our word ‘secular’ (worldly).” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Quotation: “Aeternus had a double meaning: (1) unending time, and (2) an age, or a limited period of time.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3 (citing Augustine’s City of God, XXII, i)

  • Interpretation: Jones traces a concrete historical translation history: the Greek aionian carried a limited temporal meaning that was rendered by Jerome into a Latin word (aeternum) with dual meaning.

Augustine’s Translation Error and Its Consequences

  • Quotation: “Augustine himself was a contemporary of Jerome in the fifth century, but Augustine did not know Greek. Peter Brown writes in his book, Augustine of Hippo, p. 36, ‘Augustine’s failure to learn Greek was a momentous casualty of the late Roman educational system; he will become the only Latin philosopher in antiquity to be virtually ignorant of Greek.‘” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Quotation: “Thus, when reading the New Testament in Latin, Augustine took the word aeternus to mean unending time, rather than an indefinite period of time. His influence essentially established this definition as the standard meaning of aeternus—and as the centuries passed, this meaning came to be seen as the equivalent of the Greek word aionian.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Quotation: “Even so, Augustine’s error was apparently pointed out to him later, but it is often difficult to correct one’s teaching once that teaching has been accepted by the public.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Interpretation: Jones argues that Augustine’s inability to read Greek led the Latin and later Western church into a structural hermeneutical error: “eternal” rather than “age-related.” For Jones, this is a paradigmatic example of how translations can undermine the authority of the source text.

Scholarly Confirmation

  • Quotation: “Dr. F.W. Farrar tells us of this in his book, Mercy and Judgment, p. 178, ‘Since aion meant “age,” aionios means, properly, “belonging to an age,” or “age-long,” and anyone who asserts that it must mean “endless” defends a position which even Augustine practically abandoned twelve centuries ago.‘” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Quotation: “as Dr. Bullinger says in Appendix 129 of The Companion Bible, ‘may be limited or extended as the context of each occurrence may demand.‘” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Interpretation: Jones supports his translation position with authoritative scholars (Farrar, Bullinger) outside his own tradition, to demonstrate that his reading has broad scholarly backing.

Four Modern Translations That Render It Correctly

  • Quotation: “There are at least four modern translations that render the word aionian correctly. Young’s Literal renders it ‘age-during.’ Rotherham’s The Emphasized Bible renders it ‘age-abiding.’ Wilson’s Emphatic Diaglott and The Concordant New Testament leave the original Greek word intact, simply using aionian.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Interpretation: Jones cites the existence of alternative translations as evidence that his exegesis is not idiosyncratic but broadly held among conscientious translators.

Hermeneutics: Authority of the Source Text over Translation Traditions

  • Quotation: “when you read ‘everlasting’ or ‘eternal’ in the Bible, you cannot take these translations at face value. The Hebrew word olam and its Greek equivalent, aionian, properly mean ‘an age, an indefinite period of time.‘” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Quotation: “Jerome’s translation, as misinterpreted by Augustine, largely eradicated the understanding of the ages from the Latin Church, and this has carried into most modern translations as well. Yet there are at least four translations which restore the true meaning of aion and aionian.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 3

  • Interpretation: Jones formulates a hermeneutical principle: the reliability of Scripture resides in the source text (Hebrew/Greek), not in the ecclesiastical translation tradition. Translations can substantially obscure essential theological information.

Hermeneutics: Multiple Scripture Witnesses as Confirmation Method

  • Quotation: “Thus, we have three distinct witnesses—Moses, Ezekiel, and John—who tell us that the four living creatures in the covenant with Noah are represented around the throne of God.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 8

  • Quotation: “The order of encampment around the tabernacle under Moses was meant to portray on earth that great heavenly temple revealed in Rev. 4:7.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 8

  • Interpretation: Jones employs here the hermeneutical principle of converging testimonies: three independent biblical writers (Moses in Numbers, Ezekiel in Ez. 1, John in Rev. 4:7) describe the same image, serving as mutual confirmation of the exegesis.

The Four Living Creatures as a Hermeneutical Key

  • Quotation (Numbers 2:2, as applied by Jones): “To the east was Judah, the lion (Gen. 49:9; Num. 2:3). To the west was Ephraim, the ox (Deut. 33:17; Num. 2:18); to the south was Reuben, the man (Gen. 49:3; Num. 2:10); and to the north was Dan, the flying eagle carrying away a serpent (Gen. 49:17; Num. 2:25).” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 8

  • Quotation (Ezekiel 1:10): “And for the form of their faces, each had the face of a man (Reuben), all four had the face of a lion on the right (Judah on the east as one faces north) and the face of a bull on the left (Ephraim on the west), and all four had the face of an eagle (Dan).” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 8

  • Quotation (Revelation 4:7): “And the first creature was like a lion, and the second creature like a calf, and the third creature had a face like that of a man, and the fourth creature was like a flying eagle.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 8

  • Interpretation: Jones demonstrates how three different biblical books (Pentateuch, prophets, Apocalypse) share the same symbolic structure. For him this is both proof of scriptural unity and a hermeneutical method: typological convergence across the Testaments.

Typological Interpretation: Israel as Type of All Creation

  • Quotation: “It was anciently understood also that these were the banners (Num. 2:2) of the four leading tribes of Israel surrounding the tabernacle of Moses in the wilderness. […] Yet it was all a revelation of the divine covenant with all of creation given in Genesis 9.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 8

  • Quotation: “Although the tribes of Israel depict this in their order of encampment, they are essentially acting as types that represent the whole earth. What God did with the single nation of Israel was a type of a much bigger divine plan.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 8

  • Interpretation: Jones applies an explicit typological reading principle: Israel’s particular history is a type of God’s universal plan for all creation. This connects his typological hermeneutics (see b1) with his treatment of the Old Testament–New Testament relationship.

Relation of Old and New Testament: Progressive Covenant Revelation

  • Quotation: “The Bible speaks of five specific covenants in progressive order that establish the great plan to bring all things under the feet of Christ.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 8

  • Quotation: “All of the other covenants after Noah build upon this first covenant and add details to the divine plan. The covenant with Abraham establishes the people THROUGH WHOM this divine plan will be established. […] Later, the covenant with Moses establishes the standard of righteousness to which all shall attain. […] The covenant with David establishes the throne. […] Finally, the New Covenant was ratified by the blood of Christ on the cross to make all of the previous covenants possible and to redeem all of creation.” — Jones, The Restoration of All Things, Chapter 8

  • Interpretation: Jones describes a hermeneutical-theological model of progressive revelation: the five biblical covenants (Noah, Abraham, Moses, David, New Covenant) are not independent but build cumulatively upon one another. The New Covenant fulfills and completes all prior covenants.

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