, 1874-03-22

Another Letter from Charles H.
Reed, Esq.

any one by so doing. aimed no arrow at Ill,
! person, but see that two were hit and soverel
wounded, rs indicated in your issue in last Sun
day, viz: the Rev. ). y. Hanson and Lnynan J
H. Jordan. It is an old and true saying that ii
the hit bird that futters."
! II the doctrine OF eternal punishment ha
terrors for these gentlemen advise them to st
live as to escape it, AS young Hamlet said tx
! his Fathers ghost, 80 sayI to them:
REST, REST, PERrUHBED aP1n11s."
! Mr.. hanson seems to desire&to dispose Of wha
| said by u foeblo attempt ut rid1cule Of MI
| knowledge OF Greek. Bat this will not pass mikt
| persons who have carefully, and. thoughtfullJ
studied the subject. F1ippancy and doematisu
| do not answer statements founded upon uniform
! aud undoubted authorities. did not sssume
| the position OF theologiau, but sought to show
the meaning Of these words as used by the Nev
Testament writer's. stated that the orginn
meaning OF dion was life "a period long an.er1o.
to the Christian cray, and also that it came tc
signify eternity in tho tine of the writers Of the
New Testament, proved this by undoubted
authorities, viz 14iddcll j. Scott, Crerner and
sophocles. / might have referred to manY more
VIII Mr. Hanson dispute these distinguished
scholars and photographers He uhy DO thur
p1esumptuous! There have been
THREE GREAT PERIODS
Of the Greek language, viz: first, tho periods ol
Homer, Hes;od, aud Herolotus: second, the
Attic, which includes Thucydides, Xenophon,
and Plato, and the periods alter the Macedonian
conquest and under tho Roman Power. The New
Testament Greek 1s the later language spoken
bY Hebrews aud applied to subjects entirely new.
The jews mingled among tbs Greeks ou1y 81
and after tha Macedonian conouests and 40
| knew onlr tho later Greek Tho vernacu1ar ot
these Jews vas kind Of Hobrew, known aa the
Arameao, The entire New Tostarnonr wss
originally written in this later Greek with the
| exception, perhaps, OF Matthew II Matthew
WAS not originally written in Greek, Cheek
translation must hare been made Of it during
the first century.
Tho Jews wi,o spoke Greek arc called
4EL1S1s1s
in the New Testament The writer's OF the New
Testament used The Greek language concerning
subjects on Which it had never been nployed bY
= native Grcok. This explains the Hebrew
colofins which pervadss the New Testament.
/ Mr. Hansou says that my admission tha. tile
original meaning of aion Was life is fatal to all
thai l asserted. also stated TINT In the New
Testament period tnis wo,d Iignied eternity
and chat the New Testament writer's used tue
word dionios to denote euertdsting, eterna! and
that dionios was derived from dlo1, aithough
Mr. H. says did not give the derivation OF
aio,.ios. i reperusal Of my article will show
him uiB error oil this point, II dio1 in the New
Testament period sigu1Ged eternity, then it Ger
tajnlv follows TINT aion1os. derived thcrefrom,
was correct word to denote eternal, erer-
1dstf11
I stated that al Iexioeraphef8 worthy OF men
ton agree that dionios always signifies constant.
ldsting r2e,-2etuaL e1erIdsfiua. ETERNAL and thai
soohocles, in his lexicon Of the period from 3. c.
Lag to A. D. 11OO, giges everlasting, eternol ali
tho only snnitcations: and that wherever IN ths
New Testament the doctrine Of
FUTURE xrERxA1 LIFE
was taught, this adjective 1tonioS was ueed con-
joined with tho Greek word zoe life, or some
form or forms of aion with the proper Greek
proposition; aud that aionios mas The word
used t. denote the future punishment
of the wicked, and that it was the only
correct word which could have bcen used
in reference to duration to exprcss everlasting,
eternd!; and that if the doctrine of futu:e
then the doctrine Of future eternal punishment
was lust o. cer,a1nly taught, and that il aionios
WIS translated so AZ to give it tile meaning Of =
limited duration, concerning future punishment,
then the same chal,re rn11st be maf1o concerning
the doctrine Of fu1n1e eternal Life. I sill most
firmly adhere to these statements, notwithstard-
iuc the iD.e dirH of Mr. Hanson,
gave The authorities for my assertions; he
garo mono for his. A lawyer who sustaibs his
positions By series Of
UNIFORM AND ACKNOWLEDGED Auruon1T1Es
is always regarded as invincinle. But Mr.. Han
son seems to think that lawyer should not
study tho Greek Testament. He referred to
two verses in the New Testament to Prove that
other words are thorein used to denote endless
ness, VIZ !. Peter, j., 1, aod Hebrews, vii, 16.
The word in Hebrawa Is akatuluton, tue senitiye
case Of dkd{aiufos, which eigniGes i,adissotuJte,
irelestrlctible Tnis is the onlv place where this
VOID is used in the New Testament. It ehouId be
rendered indissol,tDle or indest,uti0le See
Noyes' translation, Afford, American Bible
Union. etc.
It is not the correct word TO use to denote
duration as SUCH It WAS used in Hebrews to
show that Christ was . different priest from
Northumberland that he Christ was priest
not according to the law Of hesh}y o. carnat
commandment, but according to the power OF an
indissol,tbge life.
Tho hea talght-.was that Christ was not NOR
tai. according to the flesh, like men, Tho very
next verse (i7) refers to duration, and roads
thus: .For 1t is testified Of him, Thou art
priest for erer after the order Of Melchizedek.' ~
The words there translated for erer are, in the
original Greek, els ton diona, diona being tue
accusative case OF aion 1t is evident that
10 OTHER TRANSLATION
would give the passage tho meaning intended.
In I. Pet, l., 4, the two Greek words referred to
by AIr. Hanson a=e aphtharton, the accusative
case ct aphthartos, which signifies uncor"upted
incorruptible, that is, not Liable to decay; and
amaranto, the nccusative Of an,arantos which