Olam Olam:The Bible's Way of Telling Us That the Earth is Old

This is something I wrote in an attempt to convince YECs that the Bible doesn’t teach what they say it does. I am convinced that the TE’s will not succeed at convincing the young-earthers that TE is ok, until there is a theology to go with TE that the YECs don’t think destroys the Bible. This post is part of my efforts along those lines. (In my use of Hebrew I have hyphenated the prefixes)

The YECs need to know from both scripture and ancient –prescientific sources that the Bible does not necessarily teach what they have been taught. I believe that there are numerous indications in Scripture that the earth is old and that evolution is allowable. But their YEC teachers not only don’t teach them what is out there in geology, their YEC teachers don’t teach them what is in the Scripture, preferring instead to stick like bull-necked individuals with one and only one possibility. I hope this will open other possibilities for the YEC, like my discovery that God ordered the earth to do the bringing forth in Genesis 11:11, 24.

There is a Hebrew world which the YEC literalists seem always to ignore and never incorporate into their thinking. The word is Olam. It refers to an indefinite period of time with the connotation of infinity.

Strong defines it as:

"properly concealed, that is, the vanishing point; generally time out of mind (past or future), that is, (practically) eternity; frequentative adverbially (especially with prepositional prefix) always:—always (-s), ancient (time), any more, continuance, eternal, (for, [n-]) ever (-lasting, -more, of old), lasting, long (time), (of) old (time), perpetual, at any time, (beginning of the) world (+ without end)"James Strong, Strong’s Hebrew and Greek Dictionaries, Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 1998, Parsons Technology, Inc

Brown-Driver-Briggs defines it as:

"1) long duration, antiquity, futurity, for ever, ever, everlasting, evermore, perpetual, old, ancient, world
1a) ancient time, long time (of past)
1b) (of future)
1b1) for ever, always
1b2) continuous existence, perpetual
1b3) everlasting, indefinite or unending future, eternity"Brown-Driver-Briggs’ Hebrew Definitions Electronic Edition STEP Files Copyright © 1999, Findex.com, Inc.

The thing to note about this word is that it has a semi-infinite connotation to it. It is the word which is used in verses where eternity is described.

The everlasting God

Gen 21:33 And Abraham planted a grove in Beersheba, and called there on the name of the LORD, the everlasting[olam] God.

Psalm 106:48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting[e-olam uod e-olam]

The ‘everlasting to everlasting is olam uod olam. From everlasting (olam) to everlasting (olam).

This is the word which the Bible uses to describe how long God’s promises will last.

Gen 17:19 I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting[olam] covenant, and with his seed after him.

The YECs will like this one. God promised that when he looks on the rainbow he would not forget his promise

Gen 9:16 And the bow shall be in the cloud; and I will look upon it, that I may remember the everlasting[olam] covenant between God and every living creature of all flesh that is upon the earth.

Now, with that as a back ground, I have looked at every single occurrence of Olam in the Old Testament. It is translated 269 times as ‘for ever”, 64 times as ‘everlasting’, 26 times as ‘old’, 22 times as ‘perpetual’, 16 times (with another word) as ‘never’, 15 times as ‘evermore’, 6 times as ‘ancient’, 3 times as ‘always’ with a handful of other words.

Clearly this word has the connotation of eternity or eternal, which is why I said it has a connotation of the infinite.

Now, when faced with a word like olam, in a context like this:

Gen 49:26 The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting[olam] hills kjv

What is one to think? A word used to express God’s eternal nature, past and future is applied to the hills. A look at other translations of this passage don’t help us out of the problem.

Gen 49:26 The blessings of your father are greater than the blessings of the oldest mountains and the riches of the ancient hills" God’s Word to the Nations Original work copyright © 1995 by God’s Word to the Nations Bible Society

If the word progenitor applies to the progenitors of the hills, then this translation ensues.

Gen 49:26 Your father’s blessings are greater than the blessings of the ancient mountains, than the bounty of the age-old hills." NIV

Everlasting hills? That makes them quite old. But this isn’t the only place that this phrase appears. Olam is also used to describe hills in Deut. 33:15:

Deut 33:15 And for the chief things of the ancient (qedem) mountains, and for the precious things of the lasting(olam) hills

The olam hills. As an aside, qedem is the word translated as ‘east’ in Genesis 2:8 so that verse might actually be read as “God planted a garden of old in Eden”

So how old are the olam hills? Well if one wishes to limit the time to a mere 2000 years prior to the writing of these verses, then one would have to change his concept of how long God’s eternal past is. Instead of from ‘everlasting to everlasting’, the Hebrew phrase olam uod olam would mean ‘from 2000 years ago to the future’. And that doesn’t sound very glorious now, does it?

One other note about Deut. 33:15. The word qedem doesn’t mean as old as olam. And a friend noted that this may be an indication that the Hebrews understood that mountains were eroded quickly and that hills were often long eroded mountains and thus are older than the mountains.

If the word merely means 2000 years, then in

1 Chron 29:10 Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.[m-olam uod olam]

Means that God is blessed for only 4000 years. Yippee.

The word means a much longer time than a mere 2000 years and it is applied to both God’s covenants, the length of God’s existence(past and future) and the age of the hills.

There is a verse which tells us how long ago the flood was--an olam ago. Lets look at Joshua 24:2

“And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time[m-olam], even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.”

The time frame referred to is similar to our colloquialism, an eternity ago. I would argue that this construction is indicative that the writers did not view the flood as having happened just merely 1000 years before their time.

Isaiah 64 uses the same phrase but the translator uses one olam as beginning and the other as world, a strange choice given the use elsewhere.

Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning[um-olam] of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

But other translators have used a more consistent meaning:

The NRSV says “From ages past no one has heard, no ear has perceived, no eye has seen any God besides you,”

And the American Standard says: “For from of old men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen a God besides thee, who worketh for him that waiteth for him.”

This is not referring to a short time ago. Everywhere olam olam is used, it is in reference to God’s eternity and thus the phrase, if used of the time before the flood or the creation, implies a length of time somewhat comparable to our puny conceptions of God’s own eternity.

While not a proof, the use of olam and its use with God’s eternity indicates to me that the flood was long long ago, long before the timeframe most Christians ascribe to it.

Here are all the verses which use olam.

Joshua 24:2 “And Joshua said unto all the people, Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, Your fathers dwelt on the other side of the flood in old time[m-olam], even Terah, the father of Abraham, and the father of Nachor: and they served other gods.”

1 Chron 29:10 Wherefore David blessed the LORD before all the congregation: and David said, Blessed be thou, LORD God of Israel our father, for ever and ever.[m-olam uod olam]

Psalm 41:13 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting, and to everlasting[me-olam uod e-olam]. Amen, and Amen

Psalm 90:2 Before the mountains were brought forth, or ever thou hadst formed the earth and the world, even from everlasting to everlasting[um-olam od olam], thou art God

Psalm 103:17 But the mercy of the LORD is from everlasting to everlasting[um-olam uod olam]

Psalm 106:48 Blessed be the LORD God of Israel from everlasting to everlasting[e-olam uod e-olam]

Psalm 145:1 Every day will I bless thee; and I will praise thy name for ever and ever[l-olam uod]

Isaiah 64:4 For since the beginning[um-olam] of the world men have not heard, nor perceived by the ear, neither hath the eye seen, O God, beside thee, what he hath prepared for him that waiteth for him.

The Pathway Papers are here

`Olam:The Bible's Way of Telling Us That the Earth is Old`