Aeonology Hebrews 11:3

Aeonology

or 

The doctrine of the emanation of the Aeons 

To begin this study we will have an opening reading from Hebrews 11:3:

by faith we understand the ages to have been prepared by a saying of God, in regard to the things seen not having come out of things appearing; (Hebrews 11:3 Young's Literal Translation)

So what is aeonology? 

From Ancient Greek αἰωνιολογία (aiōniología, “the study of aeons”), from αἰώνιος (aiṓnios, “eternal, everlasting, endless”) from αἰῶν (aiôn, “lifetime, lifespan, aeon, epoch”) + λόγος (lógos, “speech, oration, study”); Surface etymology is aeon +‎ -logy.

So has you can tell this post will be a study of the word aeon

Aeon Its Meaning

The Interpreter's Dictionary of the Bible (vol. IV, p. 643): Time: The O.T. and the N.T are not acquainted with the conception of eternity as timelessness. The O.T. has not developed a special term for "eternity." The word aeon originally meant "vital force," "life;" then "age," "lifetime." It is, however, also used generally of a (limited or unlimited) long space of time. The use of the word aeon is determined very much by the O.T. and the LXX. Aeon means "long distant uninterrupted time" in the past (Luke 1:10), as well as in the future (John 4:14). 

αἰών Aiwn is compounded of aei and wn. The word aei is from aw, aew, or ahmi, signifying primarily, "to blow, to breathe"; secondly, "to live, to pass or spend time." From this derivation aei would present the idea of a going on; and as a particle of time is expressive of that which is unlimited or undefined; "not so much that which cannot be bounded as that which is not bounded -- which is not attempted to be defined, but is considered as going on, on, on. Aei, therefore, alone, would not express the true idea of eternity, but only of time, whose end is not bounded by any specification. This flowing word, indicative of passing time, must be connected with, and, as it were, anchored upon another of more stability, in order to give it any kind of fixedness." This other word is wn, the particle of that verb of existence which expresses, in its philosophical sense, the highest mode of being. One part of the compound word, then, is unconfined; the other, since wn is of all tenses, altogether excludes the idea of time. Aiwn, then, is not time, long or short, bounded or endless. Dr. John Thomas Eureka

Time is said to move in a circle, on account of its likeness to an Aeon; hence an aeon, and a cycle or circle, are analogous. It is therefore used in the indefinite sense of life, existence, or state of being. Thus, that end which contains the period of each existence is called its aiwn. The aeon of man is three-score years and ten; while the aeon of Deity is "from time indefinite even to time indefinite." It is, therefore, A COURSE OF TIME, aei, circling around, well, BEING; the circling depending upon the nature of the being circled. Hence, Deity being essentially life, the circling of time can never cease in relation to him; but priesthood and man being essentially terminable, the circling of time around them cannot always continue. The diameters of their aeons may be measured by their continuance. Dr. John Thomas Eureka

Eternity is not an endless number of years, and things that are spiritual and eternal cannot be measured by days and months and years.

It is, however, also used generally of a (limited or unlimited) long space of time. The use of the word aeon is determined very much by the O.T. and the LXX. Aeon means "long distant uninterrupted time" in the past (Luke 1:10), as well as in the future (John 4:14).

Hebrews 1:2 says: di hou kai epoiesen tous aeonas, "through Whom also He makes the aeons." Notice the Greek word aeonas is rendered "worlds" in this passage in the KJV. The ASV margin says "ages;" and the New Scofield Bible reads "ages." Ephesians 3:11: "according to the purpose of the aeons which He makes in Christ Jesus our Lord." 

Both these passages state that God makes the Aeons; therefore they had a beginning, and so were not "eternal" in the past. 

Time

Divisions of time make up an aeon this can be seen from the Tripartite Tractate found in the Nag Hammadi Library:

Just as the present age, although a unity, is divided by units of time and units of time are divided into years and years are divided into seasons and seasons into months, and months into days, and days into hours, and hours into moments, so too the age of the Truth, since it is a unity and multiplicity, receives honour in the small and the great names according to the power of each to grasp it - by way of analogy - like a spring which is what it is, yet flows into streams and lakes and canals and branches, or like a root spread out beneath trees and branches with its fruit, or like a human body, which is partitioned in an indivisible way into members of members, primary members and secondary, great and small. (The Tripartite Tractate)

The reading from the Tripartite Tractate says that the present age or aeon is divided into units of time

Time signifies the measure of events. The events are the main thing and they should always be so recognized, else the measure of them assumes undue importance. Divisions of time signify degrees of of spiritual growth and development; night being ignorance, and day understanding.

Divisions of time into hours, days, weeks, years and ages are prepared by the word of God. (Heb 11:3). From the spiritual viewpoint there is no such thing as time in the way that man has come to regard it. With God a thousand years are as one day and one day is as a thousand years.

What is the spiritual significance of the Scriptural reference to “days”? A day, in the Scriptures, represents a degree of spiritual understanding. The “first day” represents the first perception of spiritual truth. The “second day” represents a still more advanced and understanding of Truth. Each day up to the “sixth day” represents higher degrees of understanding; the sixth day represents the highest perception of Truth in the consciousness.

Aeon/Age--A cycle or a dispensation. Jesus was acquainted with cycles or ages of spiritual development of which the natural man knew nothing. Jesus came at the end of an age. Age to mortal man is the measurement of the life or existence of a person or thing. It is based on the false concept of time as reality. "What is the signal of Your presence, and the completion of this age?" (Matt. 24:3,)

Father Time

The ancient Greeks had two words for time: chronos (χρόνος) and kairos.  In some Greek sources, Kairos is mentioned as a brother of Chronos. However, other sources point out that it is his son.

The Greek deity Chronos (not to be confused with the Titan Cronus) is the personification of time in Greek mythology

Chronos is usually portrayed as an old, wise man with a long, grey beard, such as "Father Time".

Father Time is usually depicted as an elderly bearded man, dressed in a robe and carrying a scythe and an hourglass or other timekeeping device.

5550. χρόνος chronos [khron’-os

The Greek word Aeon is also personified as a deity in Greek mythology

So both the words Age and Time are personified as deities, this will help us to understand the Gnostic term Aeons as personifications of the Deity or aspects extensions of being, attributes or archetypes of the Deity.

Aeon is Time Indefinitely

Aeon (Greek Αἰών). The "time" represented by Aeon is unbounded, in contrast to Chronos as observed time divided into past, present, and future. He is thus a god of eternity.

We mustn't confuse Aeon/Age with the word epoch which can be a variation of time periods.

And Philo seems to have taken this view. He (i. 277) regards aeon, "age," as the archetype, or spiritual equivalent, of chronos, "time." Time, chronos, is measured by the motions of the visible Cosmos, who is "the younger son" of the Father, whence it follows that Time (i. 277) "has the rank of grandson in relation to God" not Time, he says, but "Age, aeon, is the name that must be given to their life (/Stos)" by "their" apparently meaning that of God and the Elder Son, the Logos. Age, aeon (he implies) is measured by the motions of the invisible Logos, who is the Elder Son of the Father. Hence, though he does not use the expression, he would apparently agree with the statement, that the Logos, or Word, is "the Father of the aeons" (Light on the gospel from an ancient poet by Edwin Abbott Abbott)

The Aeonian Nature

Isaiah 57:15  For thus saith the high and lofty One that inhabiteth eternity, whose name is Holy: I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite.

Yahweh is residing in eternity or as the Septuagint rendering puts it dwelling (in) the aeon. This shows that aeon is the nature of the Yahweh;

Malachi 3:6 “Because I, Yahweh, do not change, you descendants of Jacob have not been destroyed.

Yahweh's nature being aeonian he does not change 

Paul wrote, we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is aeonian (2 Cor 4: 18). The word aeonian describes those things human eyes have not seen, and ears have not heard, because they belong to the unseen realm of the kingdom of God.

Both in the New Testament (Rom 16: 26) and in the Old, God himself is described as the aeonian God. Abraham called upon the name of the Lord, the aeonian God (Gen 21:33).

Rom 16:26  But now made manifest, and through means of prophetic scriptures, according to the command of the age-abiding God, for obedience of faith unto all the nations made known,

Gen 21:33 After that he planted a tamarisk tree at Beersheba and called there upon the name of Yahweh the indefinitely lasting God “God to time indefinite.” Heb., ´El `ohlam´, “God of eternity.”

These two scriptures quoted above signifies that God always was, is now and always will be. He is the great I am, creator of time and space, and himself outside and beyond both. He is spirit, not flesh and is invisible to human sight.

Heb 9:14 How much more shall the blood of Christ, who through the eternal Spirit offered himself without spot to God, purge your conscience from dead works to serve the living God?

In Heb 9: 14 we read of Christ, who through the aeonian Spirit offered himself unblemished to God. The Greek word pneuma, translated into English as Spirit, basically means wind. Hence it seldom appears alone, but needs qualification to make its meaning clear. Most commonly we read of the Holy Spirit or the Spirit of God. Here Paul uses the words Aeonian Spirit, to make it clear that he is referring to the supernatural, heavenly, invisible Spirit that proceeds from God, rather than its earthly shadow the wind.

Aeons as emanations of "God"

To emanate is to bring about and sustain all things from inward outward via light/waters that the True Deity supplies through GNOSIS. Gnosis meaning the truth/logos/knowledge/wisdom, or essence of God’s nature

2tim 3:16 Every scripture, is God-breathed (2315. θεόπνευστος theopneustos), and profitable--unto teaching, unto conviction, unto correction, unto the discipline that is in righteousness,--

[Inbreathing (2315 /theópneustos) relates directly to God's Spirit( Gk pneuma) which can also be translated "breath."]

[G. Archer, "2315 (theópneustos) is better rendered 'breathed out by God' as the emphasis is upon the divine origin of the inscripturated revelation itself" (A Survey of OT Introduction, fn. 7, 29).]

Heb 11:1 Faith is the assured expectation of things hoped for, the evident demonstration of realities (5287 ὑπόστασις hupostasis hoop-os’-tas-is) though not seen.
2 For by means of this the men of old times had witness borne to them.
3 By faith we perceive that the ages (165 αἰών aeon ahee-ohn’) were put in order by the word of God, so that what is seen has come to be out of things that do not appear.

The ages or aeons were set in order by the word of God that means they were "God-breathed",or 'breathed out by God' this means that the ages emanated from God they are the unseen realities 

1 Cor. 8:6  yet to us there is but one God, the Father, out of whom are all things and we in Him, and one Lord Jesus Christ on account of whom are all things, and we by Him.

The Father, out of whom are all things 

The Deity is Absolute power from whose incorruptible substance radiates holy spirit or active force before all existing things. This self-existing incorruptible substance is essentially spirit—spirit substance—moral and physical: The Divine One —all things are out of Deity (1 Cor. 8:6). All things being out of Deity, they were not made out of nothing. The sun, moon and stars, together with all things pertaining to each, were made out of something, and that something was the radiant flowing out of His substance, or active force, which pervades all things. By his active force, all created things are connected with the creator of the universe, which is light that no man can approach unto, so that not even a sparrow falls to the ground without the Father, who is not far from every one of us.

John 1:3  All things, through him, came into existence, and, without him, came into existence, not even one thing: that which hath come into existence,

The Eternal Spirit (Heb. 9:14) as Creator, is necessarily before all things, and is, therefore, the "Theos," and the "Logos" of John 1:3, where it is testified that "all things were made on account of Him; and without Him was made not one thing which exists."

For out of Him, (ex autou) and through Him, and for Him are all things. To Him be the glory for the Aeons. Amen" (Rom. 11: 33-36).

The source or fountain of power in the universe is one. It is a unit. Therefore, everything which exists is out of Him. Hence the Creator did not "make all things out of nothing."

Hence the sun, the moon, and the stars, and all the things they can see, taste, feel, smell, and hear upon earth, are God. But do not confuse that which "is of Him" with the "Him" out of whom all things proceed.

The Fullness of the Aeons

Odes of Solomon 7:11 Because he is, he is imperishable the pleroma of the Aeons and their Father. Michael Lattke translation.

7:11 For He it is who is incorrupt, the perfection of the worlds and their Father. James Charlesworth  translation

Now let's look at the word essence now this is from the latin word essentia, essencia  from Latin essentia meaning "being, essence," abstract noun formed (to translate Greek ousia "being, essence") from essent-, present participle stem of esse"to be," from PIE root *es- "to be."

Now why am I talking about this word called essence because that is exactly what the Aeons are they are the essence of God they are different parts of God different to be parts of God states of God and we have many different kinds of aiions in the plural they are listed as word, will, thought, life, understanding, grace, perception prudence you see these are essences of God they are parts of God and they make up the wholeness

The word aeon originally meant "vital force," "life;" then "age," or "lifetime." this is because αἰών is so connected with ἄημι (aēr 109) to breathe, blow, as to denote properly that which causes life, vital force.

Liddell and Scott's Greek-English Lexicon: Aeon: A period of existence; one's lifetime; life; an age; a generation; a long space of time; an age.

The key words are a period of existence vital force a lifetime a generation a long space of time it's hard to to get this as human beings because we live in space-time continuum in the physical self.

What you have is you have different parts of yourself that are making up your existence or your vital force you see in the make up your lifetime or your long span of space and time. This is the active part of the understanding of the word aeon which is the vital force in just simply being shining itself forth or emanating and so forth. It isn't merely existing that is what an aeon essentially means through the Greek word the essence of that being that is shining in space-time continuum is the aeonic expression when it's done in its most pure essence of that being is intended from the beginning then the aspect of that individual or vital life force or essence or existence shines forth and is truly living you see in time-space that's why it's called an a on this is what we really understand from the beginning of the route understanding of this word through the Latin word aeon

Now the divine Aeons are not in time and space the Aeons of Mother-Father they always have been and they are and they always will be as they are part of God just our thought or gnosis of the existence of the true Mother-Father brings about the creation of those things the beginning of those things for us you see but they always were those vital forces or those essences always existed.

The analogy of the pantry

You can think of it again like different herbs in a pantry and the door shut and you open the door and you take the pepper out that is one essence of God or one Aeon of God. So the pepper has a certain spice to it or a certain characteristic or essence or vital force to it and so you put the pepper on the spaghetti. 

You see because you are making spaghetti no pepper on it that is your mission you are on a mission to have more spicy spaghetti. So you put that aeon on or that vital force or essence on your spaghetti so you can have the experience which is gaining the wisdom or the knowledge of what it’s like to have spaghetti with that spicy or has a spice on it known as pepper.

 But that pepper was always in that infinite pantry but when you grabbed it, you made it apart of your experience in the space-time continuum chronologically in your sequence sequence of doing things. And thus it became part of your existence you see that’s how it works but we understand it existing when we become aware of it. but it always was this is what an aeon is now. 

Do those aeons have their own awarenesses do they exist in the plural individual - mother father they do just as we do so we all have our characteristics even though we're part of God we still are separate from God in our will we are free moral agents in other words we have complete independent will to shape whatever we want

God emanates the different aspects and they come to be their own essence that's why they're called individual Aeons even though they are made up of the unity and it's hard to know that or understand that because we live in the universe of compartmentalization 

so we will always understand rather through time and space the way to overcome or transcend time and space is to see it that way in your mind.  

So I give you that analogy of the pantry the eternal pantry that you open up and you get different spices you have access to all of these vital forces or essences of God. 

You have access to all of these vital forces or essences of God 

God is not hiding them from you. 

God is actually wanting to reveal them to you and he did this through gnosis which is the path through Christ

Christ mission was to revel the true father and the essence of who God really is and not what you've been told by the Church

now there are different aspects of God if you want the essence of faith then you go through that Aeon if you want the essence of truth then you go through the Aeon known as Christ 

if you want the essence of God through wisdom then you go through that and so forth in it so on

 but all of these Aeons have always been accessible to you because you are an extension of God you are part of God you it has always been part of you from the eternal past in the eternal moment and the eternal future.

 that's there too so that you may have individuation because everybody's gonna come to their truth in their own way through the darkness through the ignorance but the ignorance is there so that you may find your wisdom that's what wisdom is wisdom is not had by it being given to you

 wisdom can only be had through experiencing the essence of existence through the Aeons and with Soph witches in this case is through Sophia 

now there are different aspects of God if you want to if you want the essence of faith then you go through that Aeon if you want the essence of truth then you go through the Aeon known as Christ 

if you want the essence of God through wisdom then you go through that and so forth in it so on but all of these Aeons have always been accessible to you because you are an extension of God you are part of God you it has always been part of you from the eternal past in the eternal moment and the eternal future.

The Aeons are a series of hypostases (extensions of being attributes or archetypes of God) that emanated outward from a common source.
The Aeons are extensions of the Deity’s unity, but without spacial or temporal measure (i.e. boundless and eternal).

The aeons are a stretching or expansion of the One: “This one, however, stretched himself out and it was that which he stretched out which gave a foundation and a space and a dwelling place for the universe, a name of his being” (Tripartite Tractate)

- Aeons are emanations of the Father: “All the spaces are his (the Father’s) emanations.” (Gospel of Truth)

- As emanations, the aeons have no spacial or temporal measure: “since the emanations are limitless and immeasurable”(Tripartite Tractate)

- Aeons are an extension of the Father, without separation: “The emanation of the Totalities, which exist from the one who exists, did not occur according to a separation from one another, as something cast off from the one who begets them. Rather, their begetting is like a process of extension, as the Father extends himself to those whom he loves, so that those who have come forth from him might become him as well.” (Tripartite Tractate)

- This expansion of the One (monad) to the many (the all) continued from tens of thousands to countless myriads: “Among the things that were created the monad is first, the dyad follows it, and the triad, up to the tenths. Now the tenths rule the hundredths; the hundredths rule the thousandths; the thousands rule the ten thousands. This is the pattern among the immortals.” (Eugnostos the Blessed) “They (the immortals) provided for themselves hosts of angels, myriads without number for retinue.” (Eugnostos the Blessed)

Aeon; These are the emanations from first cause, the Parent. The word not only refers to the "worlds" of emanation the Pleroma, but to the personalities as well. Sophia, Logos, and the other high principles are aeons, they are aspects of the divine mind.

The word aeon means temporal sometimes a spatial concept in addition it is also used for personal beings whether spiritual or material.