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HE created the ages Who Himself was. before the ages, Whom the
divine David thus addresses, From age to age Than art. The divine
apostle also says, Through Whom He created the ages.
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 age. Again, the
whole course of the present life is called an age: also the future
life, the immortal life after the resurrection, 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 eternity. For age is to things
eternal just what time is to things temporal.
Seven ages 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 measured, 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 aiwnios and
proaiwnios, for the age or aeon 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.
aiwnios) life and everlasting punishment prove
that the age or neon to come is unending. 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 Origen, 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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