Originally posted by Geert van den Bos
עוֹלָם
—1. long time, duration (usually eternal, eternity, but not in a philosophical sense) THAT 2:235f: עֶבֶד ע׳ a slave for life Dt 1517 1S 2712 Jb 4028 (Ug. ʿbd ʿlm), שִׂמְחַת ע׳ Is 3510, זֵכֶר ע׳ Ps 1126, שֵׁם ע׳ Is 565, הֲרַת ע׳ Jr 2017, חֶרְפַּת ע׳ Is 2340; ע׳ occurs thus in many phrases: with בְּרִית Gn 916 (16 times), with בְּרִית מֶלַח Nu 1819, with אֲחֻזַּת Gn 178, with חֻקַּת (23 times) Ex 1214.17. cj. Ezk 4614 see Zimmerli 1168, with חָק־ (11 times) Ex 2928 3021, with כְּהֻנַּת Ex 4015 Nu 2513, with חֶסֶד never-failing kindness Is 548.
—2. future time (THAT 2:232ff): a) עוֹלָם adv. (acc. Gesenius-K. §118q, MSS often לְע׳) Ps 618 667 892.38, cj. 48; b) with prep: לְע׳ Gn 322 (164 times), cj. Ps 875 (BHK :: BHS) and 2C 337; עַד ע׳ (Deir Alla 1:9; Hoftijzer-vdK. Deir Alla 200) Gn 1315 (60 times) and עַד לְע׳ 1C 2325 287 (cf. Ug. bʿd ʿlm, ʿd ʿlm … ʿlmt); לְע׳ parallel with לְדֹר דֹּר Ex 315; עַד ע׳ parallel with לְדֹר וָדֹר Is 3417 (7 times); ע׳ וָעֶד[ל] Ex 1518 (15 times); עַד־הָע׳ Ps 289 1333; מֵעַתָּה וְעַד־ע׳ Is 96 (8 times); עַד־עוֹלְמֵי עַד for all times Is 4517; לעולמי עד 1QH 18; לָעַד לְע׳ Ps 1118 1486; c) עוֹלָמִים times to come Ps 778 1K 813 = 2C 62 Ps 615 14513 Da 924 :: former times Qoh 110 (THAT 2:241).
—3. a long time back, dark age of prehistory (Pedersen Isr. 1–2:491; THAT 2:232): a) אֵיבַת ע׳ Ezk 2515, אַהֲבַת ע׳ Jr 313, ת ע׳(וֹ)גִּבְעֹ Gn 4926 Dt 3315, עַם ע׳ Ezk 2620, פִּתְחֵי ע׳ Ps 247.9, יְמוֹת ע׳ Dt 327, יְמֵי ע׳ Mal 34, מֵתֵי ע׳ those long dead Lam 36, Ps 1433, אֹרַח ע׳ Jb 2215 (:: Pope Job 166), נְתִבוֹת ע׳ Jr 616, ע׳ שְׁבִילֵי Jr 1815, הֲלִיכוֹת ע׳ Hab 36, גְּבוּל ע׳ Pr 2228 2310 (?); b) עוֹלָם Dt 3315 and עוֹלָמִים Is 519 parallel with קֶדֶם, ע׳ parallel with דּוֹר וָדוֹר Dt 327; c) מֵעוֹלָם ever since, from of old (THAT 2:231f): Gn 64 (15 times, Mesha 10), Sir 4221 518, cj. 2S 1318 (:: Hertzberg ATD 102:2641) and Is 447; מִן הָע׳ Jr 288 Jl 22, וְעַד הָע׳ מֵהָע׳ Ps 4114, מִן הָע׳ וְעַד הָע׳ Ps 10648, מֵע׳ עַד־ע׳ Ps 902, מֵע׳ וְעַד־ע׳ Ps 10317.
—4. of God: אֱלֹהֵי ע׳ everlasting God Is 4028 (see Seeligmann 986), אֵל ע׳ Gn 2133 (THAT 2:236f; Cross HTR 55 (1962):236ff; OSin. ʾl ḏ-ʿlm, Albright Proto-Sin. 13, 38; F.M. Cross Canaanite Myth and Hebrew Epic (1973):49f: “El lord of eternity”), מֶלֶךְ ע׳ Jr 1010 (cf. Ug. mlk ʿlm, THAT 2:237), זְדֹעֹת ע׳ Dt 3327 (Cross-Freedman JBL 67 (1948):20985; THAT 2:236), צוּר עוֹלָמִים Is 264; חֵי הָע׳ Da 127 (= Arm. חַי עָלְמָא Da 431) the ever-living one (see Baudissin Adonis 486ff).
—5. misc. בֵּית עוֹלָמוֹ his house of eternity, meaning grave Qoh 125 (also Deir Alla 2:6. Pun. Palm. Syr.; orig. Egyptian, see THAT 2:242; H.P. Müller ZDPV 94 (1978):63); (sense of) ע׳ placed in people’s hearts Qoh 311 (THAT 2:242; Barr Biblical Words for Time (London 1962):117f4: enduring state referring to past and future; Gese Vom Sinai zum Zion (1974):177: lapse of time :: Gray Legacy2 274f), parallel with הַכֹּל (→ כֹּל 1, a, i); עולם meaning “world” occurs first in post-Biblical Heb. (THAT 2:242f; Hertzberg KAT 17/4:100 and 106f), Palm. מרא עלמא the Lord of the World, DJD 1: no. 20:ii: line 5, p. 87 (THAT 2:242f; Galling ZThK 58 (1961):off).
Originally posted by Geert van den Bos
Then how is it that Jeremiah speaks of a covenant to begin yet future to him?
Note the highlighted future tense verbs:
Jeremiah 31:31 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer. 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me.
Note the highlighted future tense verbs:
Jeremiah 31:31 The days are surely coming, says the LORD, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah. 32 It will not be like the covenant that I made with their ancestors when I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt—a covenant that they broke, though I was their husband, says the LORD. 33 But this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, says the LORD: I will put my law within them, and I will write it on their hearts; and I will be their God, and they shall be my people.
Jer. 32:40 I will make an everlasting covenant with them, never to draw back from doing good to them; and I will put the fear of me in their hearts, so that they may not turn from me.
The eternal life of Jesus Christ is not in question; rather, the question is what to make of the prophecy of a New Covenant in the book of Jeremiah, the beginning of which was yet future as of the time in which Jeremiah was living.
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