Jesus and the Promise of Time

On the basis of Jesus’ programmatic statement in Mark 1:15 about the ‘fulfilment of time’ and the nearness of the Kingdom of God, this paper proposes that Jesus was proclaiming the fulfilment of the promise of time. The promise of time can be traced from the seven days structure of creation through Jeremiah 33:20–26 to the Second Temple “Book of the Heavenly Luminaries” (1 Enoch 72–82).

From creation, in the Bible, time is simply ‘day and night’. The shape of time derived from creation is both cyclic and linear (ie. contra: Hebraic linear shape of time and the Greek cyclic view of time). Time is cyclic in the sense that each creation day is introduced with the formula, ‘and there was evening and there was morning’. Yet, it is also fundamentally linear in the sense that the cyclic rendition of day and night ends in the seventh day of creation.

the purpose of God’s commitment to his covenant with day and night is to ensure the Kingdom of God is realized…

The cyclic-linear promise of time is maintained by God’s promise of time to ensure the establishment of the Kingdom God promised to David (Jeremiah 33:20–26). 1 Enoch 72–82 gives us the notion of time as a “chariot” in which both cyclic and linear components of time are combined to take the chariot of time to a destiny.

The coming of Jesus inaugurates the fulfilment of the promise of time in the ‘middle’ of history. That is, the purpose of God’s commitment to his covenant with day and night is to ensure the Kingdom of God is realized—proleptically in Jesus first coming; now in progress with the proclamation of the gospel of Jesus, and yet to be consummated in the return of Jesus.