"_World without end_" (Vol. vi., p. 434.).--Besides the places named by F.
A., this phrase occurs in the authorised version of the Bible, in Is. xlv.
17., Ep. iii. 21. There is no doubt it is idiomatic, and is even now
occasionally used in conversation. Our translators render at least three
Hebrew words "world," and as many Greek ones. One of the latter, and two of
the former, properly refer to _time_, like the Latin _ævum sæculum_; and
this also {27} appears to have been the original meaning of "world," as it
is one which it certainly has frequently in the Scriptures. "World without
end" is the idiomatic rendering, equivalent to "in sæcula sæculorum," which
is a literal following of an idiom common in both the Hebrew and Greek
Scriptures, and to be found in the Chaldee of the Book of Daniel. "World
without end" does not occur, so far as I am aware, in the modern European
languages, which generally either follow the Latin "in sæcula sæculorum;"
or the German, and say, "eternally to eternity."