Some of the most fruitful and profitable studies come from fundamentally re-assessing the assumptions which undergird certain core concepts in the faith.

I am currently in the middle of John Barclay’s Paul and the Gift and am very much appreciating his very deep investigation into how gifts and grace were understood in ancient contexts and in the history of interpretation. It helps to show how people have been talking above and past each other and very much tied into the framework of their place and time.

Not for nothing, then, does Barclay provide a forward for another book doing something similar: L. Ann Jervis’ Paul and Time: Life in the Temporality of Christ.

What Barclay does for gift and grace, Jervis does with time. She explores the two predominant perspectives on how Paul views time: the kind of “now/not yet” paradigm popularized by N.T. Wright and others (and one which I have favored), and the “apocalyptic” time viewpoint also common today.

Jervis does well at attempting to not bring any preconceived notions of how time “must work” for Paul in reading Paul’s works. She explores many of the ways in which Paul talks about who Jesus is and what He did in terms of time and temporality.

She well establishes her conclusions: for Paul, there is “death-time” and “life-time.” “Death-time” involves the ways of this world, the powers and principalities, and its corruption and decay. “Life-time” is what God has and is accomplishing in Jesus. She notes well how there is nothing which Jesus needs to be do in order for death to be defeated; He has already done what was necessary in His life, death, resurrection, and ascension. Thus believers are called to live in “life-time” and share in “life-time.” It is not as if she denies that Jesus will return and we will share in the resurrection of life; if anything, it is in her full affirmation of the resurrection and its power which leads her to conclude we already share in “life-time” and simply await for it to be made good in terms of our bodies.

One could strain to continue to justify a “now” but “not yet” framework, but as Jervis well notes, such gives a bit too much credence to that which Jesus has already overcome and defeated. “Apocalyptic” time is rendered irrelevant, because Jesus has been revealed and is revealed in His Lordship and work among His people. There’s no comfort here for a realized eschatology perspective since there is a robust affirmation of the resurrection of the body.

I definitely appreciated this study and have begun working to incorporate it more effectively into the presentation of the Gospel as it relates to where we find ourselves as believers in this moment. We have passed from death to life, and thus from “death-time” into “life-time”; we should live and act like it!

This work opens with a lengthy introduction that gives us a foundation with which to start thinking about time. This is important, because most of us don’t really think too deeply about time … it is simply something that passes in which events happen whereby those events become fixed or permanent. We approach eternity much like to approach infinity in mathematics, by adding more to the dimension we call time (in either direction). Classical though where eternity is outside of temporality and is unchanging and unmoving (Plato). Next up is a survey and comparison of current (and perhaps competing) viewpoints that government interpretation through an historical/salvific or an apocalyptic lens. I found the idea that the apocalyptic interpretation sees the eternal God “invading” history (time) to be an interesting perspective. Chapter three (3) introduces the idea that there is an overlap between the current (and dying) age and the age to come … an idea that I had not previously found in my current studies, but is none the less a good talking point for evaluating how early Christians responded to the fact that believers were dying before the second coming of Christ … and which the author specifically rejects. It is in chapter four (4) that we finally see the paradigm shift that the author wants us to consider, breaking time in the “death-time” and “life-time” with the rest of the book dedicated to explaining what that even means.

The rest of the book is a bit tricky and can be hard to understand, which is why so much effort went into the previous chapters to enable the reader to at least grasp the basics. While I think I understood the concept, I still struggled a little with understanding how this all changed or otherwise impacted how the salvation offered by Christ works … leaving me with an overall feeling that this was more of an academic exercise. It was very interesting, but I will need to think on it a lot more before I have a good handle on it.

The chapters and sections in this work are:

Introduction: Thinking About Time

1. Paul’s Conception of Time in Salvation Historical Perspective
2. Paul’s Conception of Time in Apocalyptic Perspective
3. Time in Christ - Not in the Overlap of Ages
4. Christ Lives Time
5. The Nature of the Exalted Christ’s Time
6. The Future of the Exalted Christ’s Time
7. Union with Christ and Time
8. Life in Christ’s Time: Suffering, Physical Death, and Sin

Conclusion
Bibliography
Name Index
Scripture and Ancient Writings Index

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

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