TIME
Time can be described as “the measure of motion”; Its measurement is carried out in principle by the movements of the heavenly bodies (Gen. 1:14).
The divisions of time constitute the framework in which the events and circumstances of the Bible are inserted, which is an eminently historical book, whose action takes place in a clearly chronological framework, firmly related to time and space.
The main divisions of time, in the Bible, are:
(a day.
See DAY.
(b) Night.
Period of darkness (Gen. 1:5), divided into three watches of four hours each: from sunset to midnight; from midnight until rooster crow; from the crowing of the rooster until the sunrise (Ex. 14:24; Judges 7:19; Lam. 2:19).
In the time of the NT there were four vigils, according to Greek and Roman usage (Mark 6:48; Luke 12:38); The Romans counted 12 hours at night, from sunset to sunrise (cf. Acts 23:23). (See NIGHT).
(c) Week.
See WEEK.
(d) Month.
See MONTH.
(e) Year.
The Hebrew year was made up of twelve lunar months (1 Kings 4:7; 1 Chron. 27:1-15); Consequently, with the current duration of the lunar month, it probably had 354 days, 8 hours, 48 minutes and 34 seconds. The annual festivals were closely related to agricultural work and the seasons.
A year based strictly on the lunar system would have caused a constant delay of these holidays by not exactly synchronizing a number of lunar months with the year. When it became necessary to coordinate the lunar year with the solar year of 365 days, an intercalary month was established, which was added every two or three years after the twelfth month; It was called “Ve’adar” and consisted of 29 days.
This custom is not mentioned in the Bible. Thus, the lunar cycle after the cosmic disturbances of Joshua and Hezekiah (see previous section (d), Month) consisted of nineteen years; The 3rd, 6th, 8th, 11th, 14th, 17th, and 19th years had an intercalary month. The religious year began with the month of Abib, also called Nisan (Ex. 12:2; 23:15; Est. 3:7).
It began with the new moon, immediately before or after the spring equinox, when the sun was in the constellation Aries (Ant. 3:8, 4; 10:5). But from the earliest times, the Hebrews also observed the civil year, based on agricultural work, and which began in autumn (cf. Ex. 23:16; 34:22; Lev. 25:4, 9 ff.).
This nation of farmers was evidently interested in matching the beginning of the calendar year with plowing and sowing, and its end with harvesting. They frequently indicated the dates by the agricultural work then in progress, instead of by the number of the month (cf. Num. 13:20; Rt. 1:22).
Some time after the return from the Babylonian captivity, they began to celebrate the New Year on the new moon of the seventh month, Tishri. This custom surely does not come from the events recorded in Esd. 3:6 and Neh. 2, although they have contributed to its establishment.
(f) Time and eternity.
Prior to and infinitely surpassing human time and its divisions, biblical eternity is presented as an attribute of God. “Jehovah is King forever and ever” (Ps. 10:16). “From everlasting to everlasting, you are God” (Ps. 90:2, V.M.).
“You are from eternity!” (Ps. 93:2, V.M.). That is why for Him a thousand years are like one day, and one day is like a thousand years (2 Pet. 3:8). In the same way, God dominates time with his omniscience. The past, present and future do not really exist for the Eternal; he knows everything before it comes to be (Ex. 3:14; Jn. 8:58; Is. 48:5-7).
When speaking of Israel he constantly uses “the prophetic past”, that is, he considers already fulfilled the events that for men are still hidden in the, for them, impenetrable cloak of the future. The Hebrew tenses lend themselves admirably to the expression of these notions.
When speaking of the eternal God, Alpha and Omega, creator and finisher of all things, the Bible presents us with three ages:
(A) the eternity before creation, “before the ages” (1 Cor. 2:7; cf. Eph. 3:11; 1 Pet. 1:20; Col. 1:26; Acts 15:18 );
(B) the “present age” (or age, Gk. “aiõn”), which runs from creation to the glorious coming of the Lord (Gal. 1:4; Eph. 1:21; Tit. 2:12). The first coming of Christ took place at the center of this period and therefore at the center of all time.
(C) the “age to come,” that is, the eternity that we have before us (Eph. 1:21, 2:7; Heb. 6:5; Mt. 12:32; Mark 10:30, etc. ). For the OT, as for the NT, the difference between time and eternity does not have to do with their nature, but with duration; Eternity is a time without limits, whose infinite line coincides for a brief period with the history that constitutes the human temporal horizon.
This notion is totally opposite to the speculative Greek concept that represented time as a circle in which there was an eternal return (cf. with the inexorable wheel of Hindu reincarnations).
“The symbolic expression of biblical time is expressed with an ascending line, because the line that starts from creation has its end… in God” (A. Lamorte, “Le Probleme du Temps dans le Prophétisme Biblique”, Beatenberg, 1960 , p. 108 ff.).
This end “gives the whole of history, which develops along this line, a movement of elevation towards Him” (O. Cullmann, “Christ et le Temps, Delachaux” 1947)
The eternal God, the “King of the ages” (1 Tim. 1:17; Ps. 145:13) by creating man in his image “has put eternity in their hearts” (Eccl. 3:11 ).
Through the incarnation, He humbled Himself to us in time, to bring us into participation with Him for all eternity (Ps. 133:3). (See ETERNAL LIFE.).
The believer’s prayer is that the Lord will lead him on the eternal path (Ps. 139:24). The Lord will welcome His own in His grace into His eternal kingdom (2 Pet. 1:11).