Revelation 1:3: “The [appointed] time is at hand.”
The message is specifically addressed to “His servants” and speaks of an imminent earthly event, albeit with cosmic significance. “The time,” as mentioned in Revelation 1:3, is an appointed time, a time previously set and agreed upon by a signal, (testimony or witness), not an indefinite time. An appointed time was not arbitrarily determined, nor could it be changed by man’s decree. Time was determined by the heavens.
That appointed time had been long foreseen and was well-known at the writing of the Book of Revelation. It was not for a remote, distant, indistinct future, but was “soon,” “at hand,” “no longer delayed.” Revelation 1:3 announces the arrival of a time previously set and foretold, an appointed time, that was set with reference to the heavens and to the then existent, earthly Temple as a time-piece.
Daniel’s Appointed Times
The time spoken of by Daniel was an “appointed time” (Dan. 8:19; 11:27, 29, 35, etc.) This “appointed time” was set to mark the end of the nation, city, and people of Israel, a specific date was set for this event to happen. Here, too, it is the Hebrew word mow’ed, meaning “an appointed time, place, meeting or congregation.”
Revelation 1:3 announces that the “appointed time” spoken of by Daniel had come.
Words for ‘Time’
The word
time in Revelation 1:3 is a translation of the Greek
kairos, meaning “a
set or
proper time.” A form of this Greek word is also used in Revelation 11:18; 12:12, 14 (twice); and 22:10. It is to be distinguished from
chronos, (used in Revelation 10:6), meaning “a space of time,” and from
aeon, meaning “an age or interval of time.” The word
horae, used in 14:15, means “an hour, or a season.”
The corresponding Hebrew word môw‘êd is used not only for an “appointed time”, (as above), but also for an “appointed place,” as in Psalm 74:4, “thy holy place,” also translated by the Greek kairos. (See below “The Temple As A Time-piece.”)
God Created Time
In fact, Genesis 1:14 teaches that the lights of heaven were created for time-telling signs:
To separate the day from the night; and let them be for signs and for seasons and for days and years,” (RSV).
The Psalmist refers to this:
Thou hast made the moon to mark the seasons [môw‘edim, plural of môw‘ed, Greek kairos]; the sun knows its time for setting. Thou makest darkness, and it is night, (Psalm 104:19 RSV).
Indeed God dwells in Light:
Thou art clothed with honor and majesty, who coverest thyself with light as with a garment, who hast stretched out the heavens like a tent, (Psalm 104: lb-2).
The Psalmist reviews God’s work in creation and so is inspired to hope, for times are in God’s hand:
Thine is the day, thine also the night; thou hast established the luminaries [mâ‘ôr] and the sun. Thou hast fixed all the bounds [gebûlôth, perhaps meaning the orbits of the earth]; thou hast made summer and winter, (Psalm 74:16-17 RSV).