TIME RECKONING – APPOINTED TIMES 

            The mechanics of time reckoning are related to the philosophy of time.  Biblically, the basic idea was that of reconciling the heavens and the earth, copying the Pattern of the Heavens into the fabric of life.  This took the form, geometrically, of reconciling the circle and the line.  This system recognized the fact that time has both a cycle and an arrow;[1] that is, that the time-telling heavens re-circle as does a wheel, but that ‘wheel’ is moving along a line, so to speak, that has direction and purpose.[2]

            The English concept of grammatical tense depends upon the basic notion of time as a line.[3]  On a time-line we can speak of past, present, future, etc., however, if time is viewed in relation to space, as a dimension of space, and as a whole circle, tense does not function in the same way.

Appointed times:

            While Christ is Universal Light and Time in the book of Revelation, 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.

            Although that time had been long foreseen, at the writing of the book it was not for a remote, distant, indistinct future, but was “soon”, “at hand,” “no longer delayed.”  The book announces the arrival of a time previously set and foretold, an appointed time that was set with reference to the then existent, earthly Temple as a time-piece. (See also “Must” Commentary on Rev. 1:3)[4]

            The word ‘time’ in Revelation 1:3 is a translation of the Greek kairos, meaning ‘a set or proper time.’  A form of the word kairos 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.’[5]

            Revelation 12:14 quotes or strongly alludes to Daniel 7:25 and 12:7, speaking of “time, times, and half a time.”  The Greek word kairos translates the Hebrew ‘iddân in Daniel 7:25 and môw‘êd in Daniel 12:7, in the Septuagint.[6]  It appears that these two Hebrew words are cognate, since they are so close in meaning.

            The word ‘iddân means ‘a set time or simply ‘time’.  It is derived from a root corresponding to ‘ed, meaning ‘to set a period’.

            The word môw‘êd, however, is derived by the lexicographers from the root yâ‘âd, to fix upon by agreement or appointment; by implication, to meet (at a stated time), to summon (to trial), to direct (in a certain quarter or position), to engage (for marriage).  Môw‘êd or mô‘adâh means an appointment, i.e. a fixed time or season; specifically a festival; conventionally, a year; by implication, an assembly…; technically the congregation, by extension, the place of meeting; also a signal (as appointed beforehand).  It appears that yâ‘âd is therefore a form of the same root, ‘ed.

            Another form of the word, written ‘et, is also translated by the Greek kairos and the English ‘time’ (Strong’s #6256).  It is the form used in Ecclesiastes 3:1-8, 11, 17, a “time for every matter under heaven.” (3:l), and “appointed time for every matter, and for every work“.

            The 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.  As the movement of the heavenly time markers is constant, there must be a designated place on earth over which these markers pass, (“come to pass“), in order to set a definite appointed time.  In other words a time must be designated with reference to some place.

            For example, the earth is now divided by the meridian of Greenwich, known as the prime meridian.  This arbitrary line is used conventionally to mark the passing of one day into another for purposes of telling time.  In ancient Israel the Temple, and perhaps more precisely, the Holy of Holies, served to mark the prime meridian for time reckoning.  The meridian was marked in reference to the pole star, the equatorial line being established from the equinoctial rising of the sun, the zenith being perpendicular to the Temple.  In this relationship we see how the lights of the heavens are the prime, established points of which earthly establishments are only the secondary images or witnesses.  The mapping of the heavens corresponds to the mapping of the earth extended into space.

            The magnificence of the Temple, therefore, was not in its material construction but in its relationship to Light and its ability to internalize Light.  Materially it was quite an ordinary structure compared to the buildings of the Greeks, Romans, Babylonians, and Egyptians.  Its glory lay in quite another realm.  It was “beautiful for situation;” that is, it was oriented to the Lights of the Heavens.  God had placed His Name there.[7]

            Solomon’s Temple was dedicated on the day of the spring equinox, (as was the Tabernacle of Moses), and was so oriented that the first rays of the rising sun on that day shone from the Mount of Olives through the Eastern Gate, then through the doors of the Temple all the way through into the Holy of Holies, striking the mercy seat.  The gold plated cherubim and the gold lined inner walls would have made a display of reflected light that was indescribably beautiful.

            There were other orifices, windows or portals through which light entered, as an instrument of time-reckoning.  No doubt the zenith would have been marked by a path for light to enter from directly above.  This ray may have entered in such a way as to strike the brazen sea so that the light reflected through the water would have created a rainbow of color, the water acting as a prism.

            The important components of time reckoning, the equinoxes, solstices and the points of the moon’s movements were probably marked by portals so arranged that the entrance of the significant ray of light would create its own unique display.  The gold plated interior and instruments would have acted somewhat as mirrors, but with a softer, diffusing golden glow.

            This beauty was symbolic of the glory of God that fills ones being when his life is properly oriented to the Light of God.  The ultimate reflection of God, as Light, was in Man himself.  The glory is not in the material outward Man, but in the internalization of the Light, Jesus Christ.  Ultimately, our bodies are the Temple, but the greater glory comes from the Light we reflect, the image of God.  Just as the physical structure of the Temple was a time-piece, Man’s intellect was the reason for that time-piece; without the intellect, the time-piece would have neither meaning nor value, indeed would not exist.

            The visible glory of the various displays of Light within the Temple was indescribable; yet, as a human experience, it served as an analog by which the spiritual visions of God could be related in words, insufficient though they might be.  (See “Visions of God,” Commentary on Revelation 1:11-20.)

            Psalm 74 is better understood when we realize that the destruction of the Temple was the destruction of their means of telling time precisely and especially for determining the time of the sacred feasts.  74:4: “Thy foes have roared in the midst of thy holy place, (môw‘adkâh)[8] they set up their own signs for signs.”  That is, they had set up their army banners, probably obstructing the significant rays of light and destroying the time-telling function which required visibility of the signs of the heavens as observed from the Temple.

            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.”  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).

 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).

 But when “…they burned all the meeting places (môw‘adey) of God in the land.  We do not see our signs; there is no longer any prophet, and there is none among us who knows how long.” (Psalm 74: 8b-9).

             The destruction of the Temple created a disorientation so complete that it was as if the sun and moon had been darkened and the stars had fallen from their place.  The Temple was the bond between heaven and earth as the reference point for time and space.  When it was destroyed and the priests and prophets who knew how to read the time-telling signs had been taken captive or had betrayed their people, it was a cosmic event.

            The Psalmist reviews God’s work in creation and so is inspired to hope, for times are in God’s hand, (see WS at 1:3):

Thine is the day, thine also the night; thou hast established the luminaries (mâ‘ôr)[9] 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).

             The penultimate Lament of Jeremiah is the plea: “Restore us to thyself, O Lord, that we may be restored!  Renew our days as of old!”  (Lam. 5:21 RSV).  The New Year celebration included the counting of the times, the renewal of the covenant vow and the return through repentance to God.  Thus the New Year was thought of as a renewal or restoration of life, of time that had run out.  In a symbolic sense it was the Day of the Lord, a time of reckoning and accountability.

            First Esdras 3:18, reflects the traditional view that spiritual events cause a cataclysmic change in the times:

Thou didst bend down the heavens and shake the earth, and move the world, and make the depths to tremble, and trouble the times, (at Mount Sinai).

             In 1 Esdras 4:37, Ezra has asked the question as to how long the evil seed is to prevail.

And Jeremiel the archangel answered them and said, ‘When the number of those like yourselves is completed; for he has weighed the age in the balance, and measured the times by measure, and numbered the times by number; and he will not move or arouse them until that measure is fulfilled.’

             The verb of being is the verb of existence in time.  Being and living are essentially the same.  Renewal of time was therefore a renewal of life.  God’s revealed Name, Yahweh, is the verb of being, of life, of time.

            (See also Introductory Articles: “Calculating the Seventy Weeks” and Commentary 1:8 “Alpha and Omega” and 1:1 “Revelation: Definition – Hebrew.”)