Working on an argument that αἰών doesn’t mean “world”—ever. That’s clear enough in classical Greek, Byzantine Greek, and modern Greek. I’m wanting to knock out postclassical too. Paul Grices’s words are the methodological key: “Senses are not to be multiplied beyond necessity” (1989:47).
@JudsonGreene Latched right on to this because of the importance of “the age (rendered ‘world’ sometimes) to come” in the Creed, and “unto ages of ages” everywhere in the Divine Liturgy.
@JohnBrady yeah, part of the problem is that “this age/world” and the “age/world to come” are conceptually, but not semantically, similar. Part of what’s misleading lexicographers and why sense efficiency is key. A temporal meaning works in the 3,000+ instances of aiōn I’ve examined. None requires a spatial sense.