Does eternal always mean eternal. Part one to objections to Patristic universalism. Is punishment eternal or a period of time?

1. Then they will go away to eternal punishment,
but the righteous to eternal life.
Matthew 25:46 (NIV)

2. Aionios

3.  Is it really true that aionios always means
eternal? To help answer that question, one
must first look to the root word aion and
understand how this term is defined.
According to Dr. Heleen Keizer, the “primary
meaning” of ‘aion’ is “lifetime” with the idea
of “completeness” and thus ‘aion’ has more
to do with “the entirety of time” rather than
with “endlessness” and therefore, the concept
of “eternity” to describe ‘aion’ is both
“anachronistic” and “misleading.”

4.  With all the discussion regarding whether aionios
means eternal, it should not be overlooked that if one is
looking for a word that unequivocally means “eternal,”
that word is aidios. This is interesting because the early
Church Fathers would use either aionios or aidios when
referring to future blessedness but would only use
aionios—a more ambiguous term that usually did not
mean eternal—when referring to future punishment.


5. 
If Christ wanted to unambiguously convey the
idea that punishment was eternal in the
“strict sense” of the word, surely the very
term to express it would be aidios.

6. He will swallow up death for all time, And the Lord GOD will wipe tears away
from all faces, And He will remove the reproach of His people from all the earth;
For the LORD has spoken.
Isaiah 25:8
Final outcome of
God’s Victory to
save His Creation