The Age of Man (the error that changed the prophecy)
The idea of the end of the world is a popular one these days, particularly as transcribed in the Christian Bible. But what does world actually mean, and where does the term originate? According to modern scholars, the word world refers to “the set of all things that exist”. In Latin, the word world is rendered as mundus, itself a translation of the Greek kósmos, which originally meant clean, ordered or arranged. This shift in meaning, from kosmos and mundi, meaning clean and ordered, to world as the sum total of all created things, was the result of misinterpretations by religious institutions of the original texts. There are two key expressions that are often conflated with the Greek term kosmos. The first is oikoumené, derived from the Hebrew èbel. By the time the Gospels were written, oikoumené had come to mean “inhabited world”. The second is aion, also derived from the Hebrew olam. Both words refer to time, but when used in the expression “this age or era”, they effectively mean the same as what we now call world. In English, the word world comes from Old English weorold -wer (man) and eld (age)- so the term etymologically means “the Age of Man”. In short, when we use the word world, we are referring to the existence of things within human time.
The translation of Hebrew scriptures into Greek, and later into Latin by Roman Christians, blurred the literal meanings found in the sacred texts. Where the original meaning was aion -era or age- it was translated and understood as world, a collection of all created things. This has led to the misuse of terms in modern texts, such as in this passage from the Gospel of Matthew 24 (21st Century King James Version):
3. Later, Jesus and his disciples went to the Mount of Olives. Jesus sat down, and when they were alone, the disciples asked him: “When will the temple be destroyed? How will we know you will return, and that the end of the world has come? What will the signs be?”
The Christian Bible introduced to the world the idea that it contained writings that prophesied the end of the world, where all living beings would perish unless they followed the teachings of Christ, in which case they would be saved. The text continues:
4. Jesus answered them: “Be watchful! Do not be deceived. 5. Many will come, claiming to be me, and say: ‘I am the Messiah.’ They will use my name and manage to deceive many. 6. You will hear of wars in some countries and threats of conflict in others. But do not be alarmed; these things will happen, but it will not yet be the end of the world. 7. Nations will rise against nations, and there will be famines and earthquakes in many places. 8. This is just the beginning of what the world will suffer. 9. You will be imprisoned, handed over to the authorities, mistreated and killed. Everyone will hate you for being my followers. 10. Many of my followers will lose faith; they will betray and hate each other. 11. Many false prophets will appear and deceive many people. 12. People will become so wicked that most will stop loving each other 13. But I will save all my followers who remain faithful to the end. 14. The end of the world will come when the good news of God’s kingdom has been proclaimed across the earth, and everyone has heard it.”
As we all know, the Bible has been translated into thousands of languages, and even within the same language there are many versions due to ongoing translation issues. For example, if we turn to the Amplified Bible, Classic Edition, we find the following translation of the same passage from Matthew:
3. While He was seated on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to Him privately and said, “Tell us, when will this take place, and what will be the sign of Your coming and of the end (the completion, the consummation) of the age?”
What is happening here? The word world has been replaced with age, and what once seemed to be the announcement of the end of everything is now understood as the end of a particular time period. Throughout the text, there is no mention of a catastrophe that ends the world, only the end of an age on Earth. Of course, for Catholic Christians, this would feel like the end of the world, because the Age of Pisces is coming to an end, and with it the religious dominance over belief systems will dissolve. The Church as it is known will fall, because the Temple of Aquarius will have taken root within the heart of each person, and they will be ready to draw water from the pitcher. In other languages -such as Spanish- the same thing occurs. There, the word mundo (world) is used when era (age) would have been more accurate. How many generations have been deceived by nominal mistranslations in Christian scriptures over the past age? In truth, what Christian writings are actually saying about the “end of the world” is the arrival of a new era of men, one that will bring a transformation in how we live and how we understand life itself
