This Present Evil Age

Sinai Greek New Finds Majuscule 2 is a manuscript of the Epistles of Saint Paul in parallel Greek and Arabic, dated to the early tenth century.

On folio seven recto, we read in Galatians 1:3-4, ‘Grace be to you and peace from God the Father, and from our Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for our sins, that he might deliver us from this present evil age.’ Three red dots in the text lead to a comment written below in red, Πονηρὸν αἰῶνα τοῦτον καλεῖ διὰ τῆς ἀμαρτίας, ‘Evil age, this he says because of sin.’

Καὶ δείκνυσιν, ὅτι καὶ τῶν προτέρων ἡμᾶς ἀπήλλαξεν ὁ Χριστὸς ἁμαρτημάτων, καὶ πρὸς τὸ μέλλον ἠσφαλίσατο. Τῷ μὲν γὰρ εἰπεῖν, Τοῦ δόντος ἑαυτὸν ὑπὲρ τῶν ἁμαρτιῶν ἡμῶν, ἐκεῖνο ἐδήλωσε· τῷ δὲ προσθεῖναι, Ὅπως ἐξέληται ἡμᾶς ἐκ τοῦ ἐνεστῶτος αἰῶνος πονηροῦ, τὴν πρὸς τὸ μέλλον ἀσφάλειαν ἐνέφηνεν.

Αnd he shows that Christ has both delivered us from our offenses, and secured us for the future. The first he has declared in the words, ‘Who gave Himself for our sins’; and by adding, ‘that He might deliver us out of this present evil age’, he has pronounced our future safety.

Saint John Chrysostom

Ἐνεστῶτος, the present transitory age, as opposed to the other age, the age of eternity. Christians live on the frontier between two ages, and the Gospel transfers us across the threshold of the age to come, the age of God’s kingdom.