John 3:16 - Nestle 1904
Breakdown
Final Translation:
For in this way the god loved the kosmos (structure and order of everything and the inner mind): he gave the unique-born son, so that everyone who trusts him may not be destroyed (have a hellish experience), but may have aionic life (life/psyche/soul in the timeless mental state).
Key Term:
Over time, in biblical writings and translations, the term aiounion (αἰώνιον - timeless mental state) was reframed as eternal. Why? Probably it was easy to confuse perception of time (what's in the mind) with real absolute time (similar yet different concepts), and an easy way for a priestly order to gain followers hoping for their life to continue forever. So we see those LSJ Victorians putting the word eternal into their lexicon. However historically, in the literature before the New and Old Testaments, in other Hellenic classical literature, aἰώνιον referred to a timeless state of mind, rather than something eternal.
Overall, it's a confusion about what exactly Jesus was offering to his followers. Mental states is harder to talk about, more ephemeral or ineffable to describe. The original Greek language bibles were the original (much evidence that the NT authors not only spoke and wrote Greek, but also relied on the Greek Old Testament).
Stabilized aionic life is non-reactive continuity and sustained mental presence. Especially useful when achieving higher mental states in self-work. Which we see in the ancient world all the time (Orphic Cosmology, Hermetic, Eleusis, Buddhist, Hindu, Genesis, Prayer, etc...).
In Plotinus (Enneads III.7.3), aionios (αἰώνιος) and aidios (ἀΐδιος) must be distinct because Plotinus deliberately uses them side-by-side in the same sentence and then immediately asks whether they are identical or not. If αἰώνιος already meant ἀΐδιος, the question would be meaningless. Instead, Plotinus treats ἀϊδιότης as everlastingness—unbroken duration—while aion (αἰών) (and thus aionios αἰώνιος) names a mode of perception being outside duration altogether, the timeless perception from "presence" (which is a mentality), of the intelligible realm. The very grammar forces the distinction: aionios (αἰώνιος) describes how the intelligible world is present (perceived timelessly), while aidios (ἀΐδιος) describes that it does not cease (endlessly). Plotinus would not pose the problem unless the terms carried different ontological work, proving that αἰώνιος ≠ ἀΐδιος by usage, not assertion.
(3) Τί ἂν οὖν εἴη τοῦτο, καθ' ὃ τὸν κόσμον πάντα τὸν ἐκεῖ αἰώνιον λέγομεν καὶ ἀίδιον εἶναι, καὶ τί ἡ ἀιδιότης, εἴτε ταὐτὸν καὶ ἡ αὐτὴ τῷ αἰῶνι, εἴτε κατ' αὐτὴν ὁ αἰών;
aion - timeless perception of time - from Heyschius Lexicon 400-500CE
ὁ βίος τῶν ἀνθρώπων, [ὁ τῆς ζωῆς χρόνος n ἆνερ, ἀπ' αἰῶνος νέος ὤλεο (Ω 725) Τινὲς δὲ τῶν νεωτέρων [τὸν νωτιαῖον <μυελὸν> ἀπέδωκαν, ὡς ἱπποκράτης· "<τὸν αἰῶνά τις νοσήσας ἑβδομαῖος ἀπέθανε>" d. ποτὲ δὲ καὶ ἐπὶ τοῦ μακροῦ χρόνου νοεῖται. καὶ ὁ ἐν παντὶ τῷ σώματι μυελός. Εὐριπίδης δὲ Φιλοκτήτῃ (fr. 801) <αἰῶνα> τὴν ψυχὴν λέγει· ἀπέπνευσεν αἰῶνα.
αἰών:
– The life of men; the span of life. (e.g. “Man, you perished young from your aion,” Iliad 24.725).
– Some later writers explained it as the spinal marrow, as in Hippocrates: “One who fell ill in the aion died on the seventh day.”
– Sometimes also it is understood in reference to long time in thought or perception (timeless mental state).
– Also, the marrow throughout the whole body.
– Euripides in Philoctetes (fr. 801) uses the word aion for the soul: “He breathed out his aion.”
Note Hippocrates refers to falling ill in the 7th day (that'd be our Sunday) as "dying" in the Aion (Sunday is a day to be Aionic). Which we see mirrored in the Septuagint Genesis narrative (on the 7th day... activity stops - after which time is irrelevant (not counted anymore) which marks a transition into timeless presence - that aion we're studying now; describes the entry into a condition where time no longer does anything).
aidios - eternal absolute time - from LSJ Perseus Tufts
NOTE: The LSJ (those 1800's victorians) have misinterpreted aion (αἰών). Here we gain insight from the earlier (contemporary) Heyschius Lexicon from 400-500CE, which tells us that Aion is the perception of time.
Perception of time is Relevant because it's a key point in common Orphic Cosmology, which influences hermeticism, Greek/Roman philosophers, as well as appearing in biblical sources like the Septuagint (see Genesis 1,2, Gaia and Ouranos, which mirrors that cosmology).
(paraphrased from Dr Hillman's Hamilton Morris Interview )
"In the Ancient Greek sources, the "Water of Life" comes from a bio-pharmacological substance (ejaculate from member of the priesthood who's subjected to venom pharmakon/drugs). We'd have to have a priestess, see that's the magic of the Mysteries. It is an Incarnation that Priestess is able to give “that which gives you Aionic life”, right? there is no such thing as “eternal life”, people have not read the Bible."