Time&Eternity

No Concept of Time without Narrated Time 19
and eternally in glory). 35 Here it should also be noted that the formulation
of the Gloria Patri is different in the two books. In EG, the wording is “wie
es war im Anfang, jetzt und immerdar und von Ewigkeit zu Ewigkeit” (as it
was in the beginning, now and for evermore and from eternity to eternity),
while in GL, one sings “wie im Anfang, so auch jetzt und alle Zeit und in
Ewigkeit” (as in the beginning, thus also now and for all time and in eternity).
In this case, the expressions “now and for evermore” and “now and for
all time” should be considered synonymous. The significant difference lies
in the simple “in eternity” and in the doubled “from eternity to eternity.”
In the final stanzas of the hymns in Sv ps, the subject of eternity occurs
twice as frequently as the subject of time. 36 When compared to EG and GL,
however, it is striking that here most of the references to time in the final
stanzas consist of concepts such as day, night, morning, evening, hour, summer,
and winter, among which day and night are by far the most commonly
used terms. 37 In EG and GL, on the other hand, the total amount of everyday
terminology corresponds to only one-third of the amount of eternity
terminology.
In Ps90, the relation of time to eternity in the final stanzas is clearly different.
Here, time terminology and eternity terminology are balanced. 38 As
in Sv ps, in Ps90, the largest number of time indications in the final stanzas
is also made up of everyday terminology.
A look at the final stanzas of the AHB shows a clear predominance of
terminology regarding eternity. Time terminology is represented less than
half as frequently as eternity terminology in the strict sense. When considering
eternity terminology in the broad sense, there are even 4.25 passages
with eternity terminology for each passage containing time terminology. 39
Here, eternity terminology also occurs more frequently than everyday terminology.
40 Seasonal terms are not represented. In the AHB, a noticeably large
number of final stanzas contain two, three, or even four indications of time.
Compared to the AHB, however, the SA presents an entirely different
picture. Here, the dominant group of concepts is everyday terminology, 41
although even here there are not any seasonal terms. Eternity terminology
appears only about half as often. 42 The passages with time terminology
amount to the same number as those containing eternity terminology in the
strict sense.
As collections of predominantly more recent hymns, Ps90 and SA are
distinguished from the classical hymnals, which contain hymn material
from many centuries. In the more modern hymns, eternity terminology has
clearly declined; the decrease in eternity terminology has not simply given
way to time terminology, however. Particularly as compared to EG and GL,
the area of everyday terminology has become more important.