Peter:This is the etymological fallacy, compounded by being based on a rather dubious etymology. There are at least two roots (LM in Hebrew, as is clear from the Arabic cognates. One of them is the root behind `elem and the notorious `alma, cf. Arabic غُلَام ghulaam "young man". The other is the root behind `olam cf. Arabic عَالَم aalam "world". BDB suggests that the Hebrew sense "conceal" is from yet another root. But there seems to be no clear evidence linking "conceal" to either proto-Semitic root and no cognates, which suggests that "world" and "young man/woman" are the more original senses and that "hide" is perhaps an extended sense of one of them specific to Hebrew. But then maybe there is now more evidence available than is in BDB.
This is where you disagree with not only Rolf, but many other people on this list.
The root meaning of (WLM is from unknownness, i.e. a period of time whose length is not known. "Eternity" is a subset of that understanding.
If you take the New Testament as a continuation of Tanakh with the same God causing people to write his expressions using even the exact words God wanted, as I and others on this list do, then many of the statutes and laws that are L(WLM are only for a finite period of time. However, that finite period of time was unknown to the listeners and the end thereof was kept from them.
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