Christ as Light and Time
Revelation 1:3 “The time is at hand.”
The Biblical view of Time embraces the knowledge that Time is synonymous with Light, and, therefore, is a powerful and beautiful symbol of Christ.
One of the most profound metaphors for God is that of Light. Indeed it is said that God Himself is Light[1]. The concept of Christ as Light is likewise clearly set forth in the Scriptures.[2] The concept of Christ as Time, however, will be new and surprising, but if light and time are synonymous, then Christ as Light means that Christ is also Time. The connection between light and time is obscure in our modern Western culture. The common identity of light and time opens a whole new dimension into our concept of God and sheds new light upon certain Scriptural passages.
Time
Time and light cannot be separated. When we escape earth’s shadow into outer space, light is time and time is light. Light is Time measurable and time immeasurable, eternity. Being earthbound creatures, our concept of time is earthbound, but the common denominator between earth and the rest of the universe is light; so beyond earth’s shadow, we speak of time in relation to the speed of light. Space is measured in our finite minds by light years calculated by the distance in earthly miles which light can travel in an earthly year.
As light is the common denominator between earth and the universe, so Christ, as Light, is the Mediator between the spiritual heaven and physical earth. As such, He enables us as earthly creatures to have some comprehension of heaven. It can be said truly that Christ is the Perfection of Light, All-comprehensive, All-dynamic, All-existent. While we all know about light and time from intimate and constant experience, yet we hardly can place them in any natural category. There is something of the ethereal about both concepts.
When we come to the word time in Revelation 1:3, we should not go further in interpretation until we understand the system of time within the larger framework of the writing and of the culture as a whole. It will not do to skip over to Revelation 20 and speak of millennialism without first dealing with the underlying concept of time.[3]
For a proper view of the book of the Revelation of Jesus Christ, we must see His relationship to time. The book shows Christ in His full, universal, transcendent exaltation, fulfilling His role of Light. He is not only The Light of the World, but is also The Light of the Universe. In fact, He is the very Light that proceeded forth from God, the Father of Lights, in the beginning, by which all things were created and through which all things consist and are united. Now He is revealed as the Perfection of that Light, Urim ve Thummim, Light and Time.
THE KING AND TIME
In many ancient pagan cultures the king was considered to be the god incarnate. As such he was ascribed cosmic powers. In this role he was honored as the time-giver and time was reckoned from the beginning of his reign. The anniversary of the King’s ascension to the throne was the New Year‘s Day, called “the Day of the King.” God’s people ascribe this honor to Jesus by reckoning time as “The Day/Year of the Lord.” This Great Day of the Lord is reflected in the Jewish Rabbis saying: “In the beginning of the year…. all that come into the world pass before God” (CNT, vol. 1, p. 378). There is a representation here of the “Great White Throne” judgment.
Ancient history is dated by regnal years of this or that king. The early histories are called “Chronicles,” from the word ‘chronos’ for time, often “Book of Days.” Our Biblical books called “Chronicles” in translation are more literally translated “Words of the Days Aleph”, (A, or One, 1 Chronicles) and “Words of the Days Beth”, (B or Two, 2 Chronicles). These books record the deeds of the kings of Israel and Judah.
It is important to note that the early Christians refused to recognize the regnal year of the Caesars,[4] as they considered Christ to be King and that therefore time should be counted from His regnal year. (Indeed, that time system has endured to the present moment as we say “The year of our Lord,”) To recognize the regnal year of the Caesars would have been equivalent to calling him ‘Lord,’ and Christians endured martyrdom rather than call the Caesars ‘Lord.’ Deissmann cites a document that recorded a martyrdom carefully recording “the month, day, hour, names of the high priest and the proconsul, and then in the place where one would expect the Imperial regnal year:…,’and Jesus Christ reigning for ever, to whom is the glory, honour, greatness, and an eternal throne from generation to generation, Amen’” (ibid., note 2).
In the pagan cultures the regnal year was celebrated at a New Year‘s festival that deified the king. This kind of celebration was common from the time of Hammurabi in Babylon to the time of the Caesars in Rome. It was called “The Day of ____(such and such a king.)” It was a time to recite the deeds of the king as recorded in the book of days for the past year, (what we would now call the histories. Indeed, this was perhaps the beginning of history writing, as such.) By this means the accurate count of the days of the year could be verified. The king, therefore, had a role as time-keeper and was deified by the people as if he were a time-giver.
The idea of kingship in Israel, however, was that Yahweh was their King, or Time-Giver. The Biblical idea was that the New Year festival was ‘The Day of the Lord,’ the day to renew the covenant vow, to celebrate His faithfulness and His magnificence and to ‘re-count’ His marvelous works and His mighty deeds. By these acts they proclaimed that the Most High God was their King. Indeed, it was He Who kept a record of human deeds and judged them and to Him every Man must give an account. It was He Who was the Giver of Life and Light. To ascribe this role to a mortal king was a form of idolatry.
The writing of the Scriptures may be, in a sense, considered to be the ‘Book of Days’ of the Lord God, King of kings, and Lord of lords, “His-Story.” Indeed, there are traces of the use of certain passages of Scriptures to be read in connection with certain days of the calendar much as did the heathen cultures use their ‘Book of Days’ of their kings.[5] Psalm 119 could be used to count the days of the half of the moon year, 176 verses. Many of our chapters, even in translation, show a twenty-two verse format.[6]
CONCEPTS OF TIME
The concept of time is most troublesome in interpreting and translating the Bible. It is futile to deal with verb tense outside of the system within which it must work. For example, in English we view time through the metaphor of a line. We therefore view verbs as having tense related to a position on a time-line from past, through present, to future. We can hardly grasp the concept of anything other than linear time. Yet it seems that Biblical Hebrew and Greek verbs do not altogether fit the model of linear time.[7]
The idea is sometimes put forward that the only alternative to linear time is circular or cyclical time, as expressed through the metaphor of the wheel. While there are cultures that hold the cyclical view of time, there is, however, another alternative and that is what I believe we will find to be the Biblical view of time. That is the integration of the two: Time as both a line and a circle, or, as both an arrow and a cycle.[8]
Not only do the Scriptures recognize both the arrow and the cycle of time, but the record of Biblical events shows that they are not only events in time and space, but also in another dimension that transcends this world order. They are at once both historical and cosmic, literal and spiritual.
As a system time includes both, (a) the philosophy of time and (b) the method, or formula, for time-reckoning. The philosophy of time within a culture could well be called its world view, for it is in the philosophy of time that the entire cosmos is brought into an integrated system. Time-reckoning is the objective demonstration of the subjective philosophy, therefore the linguistic expressions of time-reckoning can indicate what the background metaphors are.
In the Biblical Hebrew culture, time-reckoning was the prerogative of the priesthood. In later Rabbinic Judaism, the Jerusalem Sanhedrin of seventy men was given the exclusive right to determine the year, its beginning, and the times of the appointed feasts. This same body was made the keeper and repository of the oral law (CNT, vol. 4, 102-3).[9]
What is time? Time is the signature of Light. As God is Light, time is His written Name, but just as a name differs from a signature, so the Name of God is greater than the concept of time.[10]
Time is the impress of light upon the physical world. Through this impress of time, we have a likeness by which to speak of the power of God’s Name in the earth, both spiritual and natural. As we can only speak of spiritual things through some kind of analogy with natural things, so it is the relationship of time to light that furnishes the analog for relating the Name of God to God Himself.
Time is the silent, invisible factor in every calculation that determines the ultimate outcome. The final judgment of deeds is their result when multiplied by time.[11] Every true vision of literal reality takes into account the effects of time. Woe to the soul who lives only for ephemeral pleasures! Woe to the generation that lives only for the present! Woe to the nation that has no long-range policies! The message of the Bible is that Man is an eternal being – one who must weigh every decision in the light of eternal time.
The basic elements of time-reckoning in every culture in the world are based upon the same movements of sun, moon, stars[12] and planets although with adjustments for latitude and longitude. Secondary elements of time-telling are found in prominent seasonal characteristics of each local culture. For example, in the development of the calendar in Egypt, the rising of the Nile came each year in connection with the rising of the star Sirius. Time-reckoning is therefore basically a formula rather than a paradigm.
Cosmology:
To speak of Biblical time is to speak of cosmology. Webster defines cosmology as: “That branch of metaphysics which treats of the character of the universe as an orderly system, or cosmos.” This system, or world view, is described and expressed in various cultures by their calendar.[13] In the era of the writing of the Book of Revelation, there was disagreement among Jewish groups as to which was the proper calendar. Some believed the moon calendar was appropriate and some the sun calendar. This was no mere academic debate but was a serious theological problem.
Cosmology is the deep structure of time. The surface structure may be expressed in terms of one system or the other among numerous possible systems.[14] The way time is expressed within a culture, however, is a system wherein the relationship of the parts is of the very essence. In a time-telling system, the parts are related with precision, as in a fine clock, so that a part cannot be perfectly understood outside the system, and the system does not work without all its parts or with parts substituted from a different system.
The Biblical view of the universe is not the modern view based upon the systems of our Roman calendar or that of space exploration. While we consider our view more scientifically correct, theirs was more functional psychologically and biologically, (see below). These differences in world view systems make translation of time-concepts almost impossible without some background information about the system.
Cosmology for time-telling purposes is based exclusively upon the observable phenomena of the movements of the heavenly bodies in relationship to the earth. It is based upon the appearance of how these various movements relate to each other. It is the system of apparent, observable, constantly recurring cycles. Modern readers who read “indoors” fail to comprehend the actual dimensions of the time-telling universe.[15] The observation point is the earth, and so it might be said to be an earth-centered cosmology, whereas modern space exploration is based upon the knowledge of galactic systems within the universe. Our Roman calendar is based upon one of the possible systems of time-telling, and is a very good system. Like all other time-telling systems, it is based upon apparent, observable phenomena. Yet, it is not the same system as the Biblical one. (See also Commentary at 1:4 “Asia.”)
[1] 1 John 1:5; 1 Tim. 6:16.
[2] Luke 2:32; John 1:4-5, 9; 8:12; 9:5; 12:35-36, 46; 2 Corinthians 4:6; Revelation 21:23; 22:5.
[3] L. Hicks, “Time”, Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, (IDB) vol.4, (New York, Abingdon Press 1962), 642-9. “More than any other writings, the apocalyptic writings provide material on the concept of time.”
[4] Adolf Deissmann, Light from the Ancient Near East, trans. Linonel R. M. Strachan, (New York, N. Y. Doran Co., first edition, 1909, translated 1927), p. 356.
[5] Modern Pharisaic Judaism has preserved a fossilized form of this practice.
[6] The work of such scholars as Mowinckel and Weiser on the Psalms in Israel‘s Worship has fallen into some disfavor with more modern scholarship. I believe much of their work is valid, although flawed by some false premises. They viewed the practices of the heathen kingdoms as having been borrowed by Israel, when the opposite is more probably true: Israel‘s worship reflected the original idea which the heathen nations had perverted to a form of idolatry, the worship of a mortal king. Sigmond Mowinckel, The Psalms in Israel’s Worship, vol.2, trans. D. R. Ap-Thomas, (New York, Nashville Abingdon Press. 1962). Artur Weiser, The Psalms., A Commentary, trans. from the German Die Psalmen by Herbert Hartwell. (Philadelphia, Westminster Press, 1962).
[7] See also Stanley E. Porter, “Verbal Aspect in NT Greek and Bible Translation, A Review of Research,” Tic Talk, (Newsletter of the United Bible Societies Translation Information Clearinghouse, No. 15, Spring, 1991), 1-3.
[8] See Steven Jay Gould, Time‘s Arrow, Time’s Cycle: Myth and Metaphor in the Discovery of Geological Time, (Cambridge, Mass. and London, England, Harvard University Press, 1987), 16-19; 72-79; 150-201; 206-08.
[9] It seems clear that what became known as the “oral law,” which the Rabbis enlarged and prostituted to their own fleshly wills and emotions, was originally only the lûach, or calendar reckoning information given to Moses on the mount. Since this information was very precise, in exacting detail, and complicated, it remained somewhat of a mystery to those untaught in its intricacies.
It was unlawful, according to their traditions, to intercalate the year anywhere except in Judea. But even though Lydda was a part of Judea, they were not skilful in “the law,” that is, the law of the motions of the heavens that determined the calendar. Lightfoot, Vol. 1, p. 39, quotes from the Jerusalem tractate Sanhedrin: “Is not Lydda a part of Judea? Yes, saith he. Wherefore then do they not transact the intercalation of the year there?– Because they are obstinate, and unskillful in the law.”
The method of reckoning could be established, but the continuing application of the calendar knowledge must be an on-going process, a matter of observation.
[10] W. F. Albright says that the high gods of ancient times may all be related through the concept of Light. He gives the names from many cultures of gods that may be related to Semitic El. The root meaning of the Indo-European words connect them with heaven through the concept of Light (From Stone Age to Christianity, Garden City, New York, Doubleday, 3rd edition, 1962).
[11] It is no accident that the term for multiplication is ‘times.’
[12] 2 Esd. 6:45-6 shows the traditional view concerning the creation of time by reference to the sun, moon, and stars: “‘On the fourth day thou didst command the brightness of the sun, the light of the moon, and the arrangement of the stars to come into being; and thou didst command them to serve man, who was about to be formed”.
2 Esd. 6:7 shows that the “dividing of times” means “the end of the first age and the beginning of the age that follows” (ibid.).
[13] “Different Jewish groups had different notions of what the correct calendar was. The calendar represented not only a view of the fundamental nature of reality, but also a practical guide for the observance of the temple cult and the festivals of the religious year” (Adele Yarbro Collins, Cosmology and Eschatology in Jewish and Christian Apocalypticism, Leiden, New York, Köln, E.J. Brill. 1996, p. 10).
[14] The almost infinite variety of possibilities for expressing time are documented and suggested in Martin Nilsson‘s Primitive Time Reckoning, Acta Societas Humaniorum Litterarum Ludensis Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup; (Longdon, Humphrey Milford; Paris, Edouard Champion; Leipzig, O. Harrassowitz, Oxford University Press; 920, Second edition 1960). Hereafter cited in text.
[15] Malina, Genre and Message, 266. Malina says: “Unlike most persons in industrialized society, the ancients could clearly see the sky in all its starry fullness. For them, the sky was an interactive part of their daily living” (ibid., p. xv).