Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TIME

As Gen. 1 makes clear, the creation of time is part of the creation of the universe. The measurements and divisions of time come about as God separates day from night (Gen. 1:3-5) and creates the sun, moon, and stars which “mark the fixed times, the days and the years, and serve as lights in the firmament of the sky” (vv. 14-15). Israel recognized that its God not only had created but also continued to sustain this temporal rhythm along with the meteorological cycle of winter rains and summer drought which made possible its agricultural cycles of plowing and planting, ripening and harvesting. The liberating actions of this God defined Israel’s past and offered renewed possibilities for its future.

Vocabulary

While Biblical Hebrew uses several words to identify specific moments, it lacks a general term for time as a category. Many scholars argue that the Hebrew verb system itself does not have “tenses,” that it indicates whether an action has been completed but not whether that completion took place, has taken place, or will have taken place. The storytellers and poets of ancient Israel must have, nonetheless, been familiar with some notion of time, even if it was not mathematical and linear; they wrote passages filled with references to past, present, and future events.

Spatial terms, e.g., qeḏem (“in front of” the present moment) and ʾaḥărîṯ (“behind” the present moment), convey temporal notions of “past” and “future.” The phrase bĕʾaḥărîṯ hayyāmîm (“in the days to come”) indicates a remote time in the future, while hāriʾšônîm (“the former things”) designates past events (e.g., Isa. 41:22). To express duration, Biblical Hebrew offers several combinations of ʿôlām (e.g., “forever, lifelong”) and of dôr (e.g., “generation after generation,” “generation to generation”). In contrast, regaʿ, “moment,” is a very short interval of time.

Heb. ʿēṯ is generally translated “time.” It specifies a particular event or the duration of an event, rather than a moment or measure of time. In Ps. 10:1 ʿittôṯ baṣṣārâ characterizes the duration of the speaker’s troubles; in Josh. 5:2 ʿēṯ is the occasion of the re-circumcision of the Israelites after they have crossed the dried-up Jordan river bed into the land of Canaan; in Esth. 1:13 “those who know the times” (i.e., future events) are astrologers; in Amos 5:13 the evil time is synonymous with the performance of unjust deeds. In 2 Sam. 11:1 ʿēṯ means the “usual time,” the spring of the year when kings go out to battle.

For the author of Eccl. 3:1-8, time is ordered by a succession of events occurring in fixed succession. There is a time for everything, according to this pessimistic reflection, and “nothing new under the sun.” Such temporal rigidity supports the Preacher’s view that an unbridgeable gulf separates human life and divine activity; the locked-step nature of time precludes any intervention from outside.

Often the phrase beʿittô (“in his/its time”) carries the nuance of “proper time,” “appropriate season.” In Deut. 11:14 it refers to the expected time of the winter rains. In 1 Sam. 18:19 it indicates the time appointed for the handing over of Saul’s daughter Merab in marriage. Sometimes the plural of ʿēṯ carries the sense of “fate” or “destiny” (e.g., 1 Chr. 29:30).

The Hebrew word for “day,” yôm, often functions as a synonym for ʿēṯ. Expressions like “the day of Moab” or “the day of Jerusalem” (Ps. 137:7) are generally negative; they indicate the events, past or future, that mark the destruction of the nation or city whose day it is. Similarly, the “Day of the Lord” (yôm YHWH; Amos 5:18-20; Isa. 2:12; 13:6, 9; Joel 1:15) is both the event through which the Lord executes judgment on Israel or on its enemies and the time in which that judgment occurs. In Jer. 50:31 the prophet uses the phrase “your day has come” in order to announce disaster and death. The plural of yôm (yāmîn) indicates a distinctive period of time with a beginning and an end; e.g., 2 Sam. 21:1 reports a famine that occurs during the reign of David (yĕmê dawîḏ, “in the days of David”).

Past and future are expressed spatially, with the present as the point of orientation. While Westerners may conceptualize the future ahead of them, biblical Israelites situated the future behind (ʾaḥărîṯ) them as events yet to appear; it approaches, unfolding slowly to move past the present. In Isa. 30:8 the Lord commands the prophet to write the divine message on a tablet, so it could be an eternal witness in the “future days.” Similarly, a valuable wife laughs at “the days to come” (Prov. 31:25). Similarly, while some readers think of the past as something they can put behind them, for biblical Israelites the past is in front (qeḏem) of them, visible, known, its events moving farther and farther into the distance. In Isa. 23:7 Tyre is the city whose origins were “of old.” Jerusalem remembers the past days when her people were driven into exile (Lam. 1:7).

While ʿēṯ generally identifies political, military, or personal events that may occur randomly, môʿēḏ, from a verb meaning “to appoint,” refers to events that are fixed or determined ahead of time, such as meetings, events, or assemblies. In Dan. 8:19 môʿēḏ points to the appointed, eschatological ending of history; in 1 Sam. 20:35 it designates Jonathan’s prearranged meeting with David; in Deut. 31:10 it announces the Jubilee Year as “the scheduled year of remission” of debt. The word also conveys that there are appropriate moments in nature at which an event should occur (e.g., Jer. 8:7).

Biblical writers also used môʿēḏ to distinguish religious time, set apart for remembering Israel’s past and its relationship to the Lord, devoted to celebrating saving deeds and successful harvests. The prophet Isaiah calls Jerusalem the “city of appointed festivals” (Isa. 33:20). During these liturgical celebrations (Lev. 23), lasting for days, people retold the stories of the events the festivals commemorated, victorious occurrences that marked their relationship with the Lord. These retellings allowed them to experience the very events they were hearing about, as if they were happening to them, in their own time (e.g., Exod. 13:8). Within this context of remembered blessings, each generation affirmed for itself its covenant relationship with Israel’s Lord, in gratitude for a saving power that acted in time but was beyond it.

Measures of Time

The OT also uses vocabulary that corresponds to the more universal divisions of time: day, week, month, and year. “Day” (yôm) extends from morning to evening or from sunset to sunset (Gen. 1:5). In Ps. 55:17(MT 18) “day” has three divisions of “evening, morning, and noon”; elsewhere it has four (e.g., Neh. 9:3). “Night” (laylâ) has three sections or watches (Exod. 14:24; Lam. 2:19).

Heb. šāḇûaʿ (lit., “seven”) means “week.” The days of the week are not named; they are numbered one through six. The final and seventh day alone has a special designation, “sabbath,” in reference to God’s rest after creation (Gen. 2:2-3; Exod. 20:10-11). According to the Gen. 1 Creation story, just as “divine images” maintain order within the universe, the Israelites follow divine example, resting on this day. Another writer cites the Lord’s liberation of the Hebrew slaves from Egyptian bondage as an additional reason for faithful Israelites, their slaves, and their farm animals to refrain from physical labor on the last day of the week (Deut. 5:14-15).

Heb. yārēaḥ and ḥōḏeš, “moon,” also mean “month.” Israel’s lunar calendar measured the duration of a month from new moon to new moon. Some of the names of the months mentioned in the OT reflect Israel’s Canaanite origins, e.g., Abib (Exod. 13:4), Ziv (1 Kgs. 6:1, 37), Ethanim (8:2), Bul (6:38). Later texts use the Babylonian names, e.g., Nisan (Neh. 2:1), Sivan (Esth. 8:9), Elul (Neh. 6:15), Chislev (1:1), Adar (Ezra 6:15).

The beginning of a new month was a day of rest; the priests offered special sacrifices (Num. 28:11-15) and blew the ceremonial shophar in the hope that the Lord would remember Israel (10:10; Ps. 81:3[4]; cf. Hos. 5:7; Amos 8:5). Major feasts like Passover and Sukkoth fell at full moon.

The Days to Come

The postexilic Judahite community was positioned between a disastrous past and an uncertain future. In front of it were the gracious and liberating acts, the mighty deeds, which its God had performed on its behalf: liberation from Egypt, covenant, settlement in the land, kingship (in at least one tradition). At the same time, its own infidelities and forgetfulness of this divine goodness littered that past. Over and over again, the Lord had to apply the rod, often under the guise of defeat at the hands of other nations, to teach Israel a more productive way of life.

In back of Judah and Jerusalem was hidden its future, “the days to come.” While no one text gives a systematic unfolding of this future, some characteristics are clear. Some “day of the Lord” inaugurates this new epoch in Israel’s history. A divine army slaughters the enemies of the Lord’s people (Joel 3:9-14[4:9-14]) and, in some cases, destroys their very lands (v. 19). Foreigners flock to Jerusalem to learn torah from faithful Judahites (Mic. 4:1-2) or to serve them as their slaves (Isa. 60:10-12). Judah enjoys agricultural prosperity and political autonomy (Joel 3:18-21[4:18-21]). This is the time of Jeremiah’s new covenant (Jer. 31:31). Using powerful images, Israel’s poets express a conviction that at some unknown point in the future, Judah’s political, religious, and economic circumstances will undergo a lasting change.

New Testament

The NT writers build on the OT notions of time. In the Gospels a day continues to run from sundown to sundown; thus, the Last Supper and Crucifixion occur on the same day. There are also important differences. Because the Evangelists believe that past promises and future hopes coalesce in the gospel Jesus, they sometimes make no clear distinctions between past, present, and future.

NT use of Gk. aiṓn, “age” or “eternity,” probably reflects Christianity’s Jewish roots. Intertestamental Jewish literature often distinguished between the present world controlled by the powers of evil and the world to come already under the dominion of God and the powers of good (cf. Matt. 12:32; Mark 10:30; Eph. 1:21; 2:7). One way to understand the plot of Mark’s Gospel is to see it as a struggle in which Jesus of Nazareth breaks the hold of the devil on this world in order to establish the kingdom of God in history. The adjective aiṓnios, “eternal” or “everlasting,” describes the covenant which Christ mediates (Heb. 13:20), the abode which Christians enter when they die (Luke 16:9; 2 Cor. 5:1; 2 Tim. 2:10), everlasting good news (Rev. 14:6), hope of unending life (Titus 3:7), the perpetual flames of punishment (Matt. 18:8), eternal judgment (Heb. 6:2), the quality of sin which separates one permanently from God (Mark 3:29).

In the NT “everlasting” or “eternal” properly belongs to God since God alone has no end of days. Applied to Christians, the adjective suggests that even in “this world” Christians participate in divine life. The believer is safe from the evils of the present time (Gal. 1:4) and already experiences future salvation (Heb. 6:5). The present age is the decisive moment, the “now” of salvation (Luke 19:9; 23:43). In the Gospel of John, eternal life begins “now,” once people begin to believe in Jesus; this coming to faith is the central moment in an individual’s life. Because Jesus is resurrection and life, here and now, he raises believers from death and bestows the fullness of life here and now.

Gk. chrónos designates a length of time, usually described by adjectives like “brief” or “long.” Occasionally it is a specific period of time (e.g., Luke 1:57; Acts 7:17; Gal. 4:4). The word can be translated “span of time,” “set time,” “term.”

The most important word related to “time” in the NT is kairós, “opportune” or “appointed time.” Sometimes it occurs simply as a synonym for chrónos (Luke 4:13; 21:36; Matt. 11:25). It can also describe fixed, regularly occurring times: the harvest season (Matt. 13:30), the season in which figs ripen (Mark 11:13), or liturgical feasts (Gal. 4:10). The word’s significance, however, derives from those Gospel passages in which it refers to critical moments in the life of Jesus of Nazareth: his advent; the beginning of the reign of God; his passion, death, and resurrection; and his return. Mark identifies the beginning of Jesus’ public ministry, the proximity of the reign of God, and the invitation to repentance and faith (Mark 1:15) as a critical moment of fulfillment. Mark emphasizes the urgency implicit in kairós with repeated use of the adverb euthýs, “immediately.” Both Matthew (Matt. 26:18) and Paul (Rom. 5:6) designate the time of Jesus’ passion and death as kairós. 1 Tim. 6:15 observes that Jesus will return again “at the right time.”

In the Gospel of John Gk. hṓrā, “hour,” takes the place of the Synoptics’ kairós. The Synoptics generally use hṓrā to refer to the hour of a day (Luke 13:31); a time of persecution for the disciples (Mark 13:11; Luke 12:12); and, in some instances, Jesus’ passion (Matt. 26:18, 45; Mark 14:35) or return (Luke 12:40; Matt. 24:36; Mark 13:32). In John’s Gospel, “the hour” or “my hour” no longer refers to a temporal category. Rather, the expression means the time of Jesus’ passing from “this world . . . to the Father” (John 13:1) and encompasses his passion, death, resurrection, and glorification at God’s right hand. In John 2:4; 7:30; 8:20 Jesus’ “hour” has not yet come, but in 12:23 it has. Jesus’ hour brings persecution to believers (John 16:2); it also promises resurrection (5:25, 28-29) and teaches true worship (4:21, 23).

For the believer the kairós that Jesus originates is a time to use wisely (Eph. 5:16; Col. 4:5), the time to wake from sleep for salvation draws near, a time to conduct oneself properly (Rom. 13:11-14). Because the length of time until Christ’s return is unknown, Christians should fill this time of kairós with watching, waiting, praying for Christ’s return. God may delay that return in order to help Christians prepare better for it. While God has established the times of salvation and has chosen not to disclose any detailed information about them, Christians must learn to interpret the signs of the times to be ready for the final kairós of the last days (1 Pet. 5:6). This event to which the NT looks is a time of judgment (Mark 13:33; 1 Pet. 4:17).

In the NT all categories of time begin and end with Jesus of Nazareth. The genealogies of Matthew and Luke read the story of creation onward as a history that prepares for and finds its significance in his life and death. John portrays the Christian living betwixt and between the “now” and the “not yet”; the center of history and its end point are one and the same, the presence of Jesus Christ. The resurrected Christ offers the Spirit to the believing community so it can follow his example; at the same time, that community must continually resist the powers of this world, living justly and devoutly until the Lord’s return.

Once Christianity became the state religion of the Roman Empire, Christian theologians interpreted the birth of Jesus of Nazareth as a kairós, an “appointed time,” for the world, making that event the center of the calendar. The Venerable Bede (d. 735) popularized the notion of anno domino, a.d. or “Christian era.” The emperor Charlemagne promulgated that terminology throughout Europe. Only in the 17th century did Jacques Benigne Bosseut begin the custom of counting time before the birth of Jesus of Nazareth as if its fulfillment and meaning derived from that birth.

Kathleen S. Nash

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TIME

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)