Rod Decker wrote:
2. I've been reading a bit in philosophical discussions of "time." I'm
interested in any defs. of "time" that you find satisfactory; either
philosophical or biblical ones. How does one *define* CRONOS and/or hWRA
(and not just gloss it as 'time')? (I'm thinking of the abstract sense
here, not a specific one such as "the third hour".)
Dear Rod,
Some thoughts on Jesus and time.
The catchword of Arius regarding Jesus was: HN POTE hOTE OUK HN. Whether
Jesus is eternal or not is still a very important question, and our concept
of time has a bearing on how we answer it. It seems to me that the thoughts
of Plato both were used in the fourth and fifth centuries, and still are,
by those defending the eternality of Jesus.
Plato speaks of "the birth of time" and that "time came into being with the
heavens" (Quoted from "Plato Timaeus and Critias", Penguin Classics 7:38, p
51). Athanasius takes exactly the same standpoint in "Four Discourses
against the Arians", chapter IV. M J Harris, in his very fine work, "Jesus
as God" p 54 says: "In itself John 1:1a speaks only of the pretemporality
or supratemporality of the Logos, but in his conjunction of EN ARXH and HN
(not EGENETO) John implies the eternal preexistence of the Word."
The premises of Harris seems to be the same as those of Plato and
Athanasius, but this makes time almost something tangible. In my view time
simply is an abstraction, a peg on which to hang the notion that everything
is moving forwards. Three questions:
(1) I view HN in John 1:1 as only indicating the existence (a state) of the
Word in "the beginning" and there are no lexical, grammatical or syntacical
reasons justifying the conclusion that the Word is eternal. Do you agree?
(2) I have never come across any passage in the NT showing that Jesus is
eternal ,thus contradicting the words of Arius. Has anybody else found such
a passage?
(3) Are there any passages in the Bible suggesting that we must abandon the
view of "time" simply is an abstraction, when we are interpreting the
Scriptures?
Regards,
Rolf
Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo