Time in the Greek Bible

by Giuseppe Guarino

Time Flies (Virgil)

Introduction

This article was inspired by a phrase taken from the works of Anaximander, a Greek philosopher who lived around the sixth century BC: κατὰ τὴν τοῦ χρόνου τάξιν (katà ten tu chronu tacsin), which the physicist Carlo Rovelli quotes in one of his books: L’ordine del tempo. Reading Rovelli’s book I pondered Anaximander’s statement, and considered what I have learned of the Greek language of the Bible I thought I should write something about this.

Greek offers us some great opportunities this time too. What for us is simply “time”, in Greek can be

Chronos – time

Kairos – time

Aion – aeon

Chronos is objective. It is measurable time that flows unstoppably.

Kairos is subjective. It is our time, made of parts of chronos that concern us, that are lived subjectively. Kairos is a set of points, or segments that we live, that are ours, part of our daily experience.

How do you measure kairos? You can’t objectively quantify it. You can identify how much time has passed within the chronos thanks to the means we have today to measure it – even if our attempt to measure it is a vain attempt to imprison it. But in reality time passes subjectively from individual to individual, from circumstance to circumstance. We are there having fun and it seems to us that only a few minutes have passed – and this is our kairos. But then we look at the clocks, to refer to the chronos, and we realize that over an hour has passed.

Finally there is the Aion , the eternity that is sovereign over all, outside of time, yet defined by it, for that which is not limited by time, that which is above and outside of it, is eternal. Chronos and kairos are enveloped and overshadowed by eternity. To the extent that both may exist, they will be less than a parenthesis in the infinite absence of time.

Eternity is the infinite aion in which the chronos, the cold, implacable passing of hours, days, months and years, and all the individual kairos, the sum of moments and circumstances that determine it, are added. In short, the aion contains within itself the chronos which is composed of countless individual kairos. If the chronos is a straight line, the kairos are the points that compose it.

Let us see what nuances we can observe for these three terms within biblical literature.

Chronos, kairos, aion.

I have my own idea about Greek philosophy. I developed it by studying the history of the ancient East and Egypt. It is very beautiful and fascinating, but it does not come from nothing – as usually happens in the history of human progress. It does not invent but re-elaborates, takes up, much older “philosophies”, but which did not have at their disposal a language as beautiful, sophisticated and instrument of the most theoretical abstractions as ancient Greek.

“To everything there is a season, and a time for every purpose under heaven: a time to be born, and a time to die; a time to plant, and a time to uproot that which is planted…” (Ecclesiastes 3:1-2).

Let us see the Greek version of this passage.

“For everything there is a season ( χρόνος, chronos ), a time ( καιρὸς, kairos ) for every purpose under heaven: a time ( καιρὸς, kairos ) to be born, and a time ( καιρὸς, kairos ) to die; a time ( καιρὸς, kairos ) to plant, and a time ( καιρὸς, kairos ) to uproot what is planted…”

Greek remedies the limitations of our language and gives us nuances that, in this case, we would not otherwise perceive.

There is an example in John that jumped out at me.

John 7:1-6, “After these things Jesus walked about in Galilee, not wanting to go into Judea like this, because the Jews were seeking to kill him. Now the Jewish feast of Tabernacles was near. His brothers therefore said to him, “Depart from here and go into Judea, that your disciples also may see the works you do. For no one does anything in secret when he seeks to be known publicly. If you do these things, manifest yourself to the world.” For even his brothers did not believe in him. Then Jesus said to them, “My time (καιρὸς , kairos ) has not yet come, but your time (καιρὸς , kairos ) is always ready.”

Back to the Old Testament, we know that its original language was Hebrew, but when it was translated into Greek, the foundation was laid for what would be the language of the New Testament.

Ecclesiastes 3:11, “God has made everything beautiful in its time (καιρὸς , kairos ) ; he has also put eternity (αἰῶν, aion ) in their hearts , though man cannot find out the work that God has done from beginning to end.”

The word “eternity” which is here in the Greek version aion – αἰῶν translates the Hebrew olam – עוֹלָם , which is often translated “forever”, obviously preceded by the preposition ל .

I have noticed that our Western minds in general have a tendency to favor the schematization of ideas, concepts and even the use of words. But just as reality is difficult, if not impossible, to schematize in a rigid way, the same and even more can be said of the language that tries to define and represent it – in a very specific moment, context and circumstances.

For this reason, my years of study and experience as a translator have taught me how dangerous it can be to depend too much on the etymology of words. These are so malleable in the hands of those who are forced to find new ways to express concepts and ideas…

When translating from English to Italian – my native language – I often find myself embarrassed by the lack of appropriate words. Sometimes, between the starting point, the original word or expression, and the point of arrival, the language into which I am translating, there is such a deep gulf and such an unbridgeable distance, that some meanings cannot be fully rendered.

Imagine when Hebrew had to be translated into Greek. A language characterized by action and pragmatism, into one that sublimates the abstract potential of human language. This happened when the original Hebrew of the Old Testament was translated into the Greek version commonly called LXX, Septuagint.

Once the Hebrew “religious” language was somehow interpreted in the Greek of the LXX, it was available to the authors of the New Testament. Here it became autonomous, it came to life, although inseparable from its Hebrew roots. In the hands of Paul, John, Luke, it took on increasingly defined connotations, perfectly universalizing the entirely Hebrew reality of faith in the one God.

“For God spake in various and divers manners in time past unto the fathers by the prophets; but in these last days hath he spoken unto us by his Son, whom he hath appointed heir of all things, by whom also he made the ages ( τοὺς αἰῶνας – tus aionas – aion in the plural, preceded by the article and declined in the accusative)” (Hebrews 1:1-2).

Some may translate here “the worlds” or “the world”. Here comes the translator’s embarrassment I spoke of earlier, when there is no real right choice – and therefore a right translation – and a wrong choice – and therefore a wrong translation – but only a compromise, in trying to make the sentence as comprehensible as possible to the recipients of the translation, even if it cannot express all the force and meaning of the original.

In Matthew 12:32 we read, “Whoever speaks a word against the Son of Man will be forgiven, but whoever speaks against the Holy Spirit will not be forgiven, either in this age (ἐν τῷ νῦν αἰῶνι , aioni) or in the age to come” (NKJV).

Why is this passage important? Because we understand that we live in an αιών, aion, and that after ours there will be another.

This same concept is confirmed by the Gospel of Mark.

“Then Jesus answered and said, ‘Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or brothers or sisters or father or mother or wife or children or lands, for my sake and the gospel’s, who will not receive a hundredfold now in this age (ἐν τῷ καιρῷ τούτῳ, en to kairo tuto), houses and brothers and sisters and mother and children and lands, with persecutions, and in the age (ἐν τῷ αἰῶνι ) to come eternal life ( ζωὴν αἰώνιον , zoen aionion)” (Mark 10:29-30).

How accurate Mark’s language is is unfortunately lost in his translation. He speaks of this time, our kairos, the one we live in. He mentions the aion to come, the century to come, in harmony with Matthew’s language in the passage cited above. He closes by defining the life we will have forever with the Lord with the adjective aionion, which derives precisely from aion. This is used by John.

“For God so loved the world that he gave his only begotten Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life (αἰώνιον, aionion)” (John 3:16).

To describe the life that has no end, the life we lost when we were expelled from Eden, John uses the adjective αἰώνιον, aionion, which, as I said, comes from αιών, aion. In the Hebrew version of the New Testament the word that is used to render aion, αιών, is olam, עוֹלָם . And it could not have been otherwise, because this would certainly have been the word in a possible Hebrew original of John, to describe how by the intervention of the Son of God the sentence of Genesis 3:22 is revoked.

In regards to the aion in which we live, Paul highlights the sad reality of who put this generation on the throne.

“the god of this age (τοῦ αἰῶνος τούτου, tu aionos tutu) has blinded the minds of those who do not believe” (2 Corinthians 4:4).

At the end of our αιών, aion, two passages from Matthew refer to it, which use the same expression in Greek.

“And as he sat on the Mount of Olives, the disciples came to him privately, saying, “Tell us, when will these things be? And what will be the sign of your coming, and of the end of the age (τοῦ αἰῶνος , tu aionos)?” (Matthew 24:3 – New Living Translation).

“And behold, I am with you always, even to the end of the age (τοῦ αἰῶνος , tu aionos)” (Matthew 28:20).

The end of the present aion will mark the beginning of the next. This is why Hebrews 1:1-2 says that God created the ages through the Son (τοὺς αἰῶνας – tus aionas – aion in the plural, preceded by the article and declined in the accusative).

“When the fullness of time had come (τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου, tu pleroma tu chronu), God sent his Son” (Galatians 4:4).

God’s timing is perfect. At the right time he sent his Son.

The same concept is reiterated in the Epistle to the Ephesians, but, significantly, with different terminology.

“making known to us the mystery of his will, according to his good pleasure which he purposed in himself for the administration of the fullness of times (εἰς οἰκονομίαν τοῦ πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν , tu pleromatos ton kairon)” (Ephesians 1:10).

In Ephesians kairos (τοῦ πληρώματος τῶν καιρῶν) is used , referring to the qualitative aspect of time; while in Galatians, the similar expression (τὸ πλήρωμα τοῦ χρόνου) emphasizes the quantitative aspect of time through the use of chronos .

It was part of the preaching of the gospel of the kingdom:

“the time is fulfilled ” (Mark 1:15).

Kairos is also used in Romans 5:6, precisely to show the perfection of divine timing in the economy of salvation.

“For while we were still sinners, at the right time Christ died for the ungodly (κατὰ καιρὸν, kata kairon).”

κατὰ καιρὸν, katà kairòn, implies “at the right time”, “in due time”. It conveys the idea of God’s perfect timing in his intervention in the human history.

The New Testament language, as we have also seen, is inspired by the use of Greek in the Septuagint version. There is a passage of extraordinary poetic beauty in the book of Isaiah where the language of Mark 1:15 or Romans 5:6 finds a perfect continuation, linguistically but also theologically.

“Violence shall no more be heard in your land, destruction and destruction within your borders; but you shall call your walls Salvation, and your gates Praise. The sun shall no more be your light by day, nor the moon for light; but the LORD shall be your everlasting light, and your God your glory. Your sun shall no more go down, nor your moon be darkened anymore; for the LORD will be your everlasting light; the days of your mourning shall be ended. Your people shall all be a righteous people; they shall possess the land forever; they are the branch of my planting, the work of my hands, that I may be glorified. The least of them shall become a thousand, and the least of them a mighty nation. I the LORD will hasten it in its time. ” (Isaiah 60:18-22)

“In due time,” which we could also define as “at the appointed time,” is rendered in the Septuagint as “κατὰ καιρὸν, kata kairon,” an expression that Paul will take up again literally in Romans 5:6.

Remaining in the qualitative use of time, let us consider two important eschatological statements.

“Jerusalem will be trampled underfoot by the nations until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled (πληρωθῶσι καιροὶ ἐθνῶν)” (Luke 21:24).

Jesus’ prophetic reference to the times of the Gentiles, (καιροὶ ἐθνῶν, kairoi etnon) is particularly significant. It is found in all studies of eschatology and, in particular, it is used to describe the succession of kingdoms described in Daniel 2 that will give way to the kingdom of God.

“Do not seal up the words of the prophecy of this book, for the time (καιρὸς , kairos) is near” (Revelation 22:10).

Considering this last passage, it is necessary to point out that, beyond linguistic observations and in-depth study of the Word of God, in these days in particular, when we find ourselves immersed in a kairos that leads us to no other conclusion than that we are close to the end of this aion, what really matters is how far-sighted we are and whether we are ready on the day of our Lord’s return to reign.

Conclusion

The initial sentence of our reflection now takes on a more significant meaning in the light of the Greek of the Bible, κατὰ τὴν τοῦ χρόνου τάξιν, according to the order of time .

God himself created time, God himself has perfect mastery and control over it, he knows what is the right moment for the aion to manifest itself in the chronos and above all in the kairos in which we mortals are immersed – I was about to write “we mortals are trapped”.

And that is why from our position of absolute impossibility of exact perception of the aion, which is also the Hebrew term olam, the only wise thing that one can do is to submit the Greek extraction to the ineluctable superiority of Jewish pragmatism. Paraphrasing Isaiah 40:31 I would say, “ But those who wait for the time appointed by the Lord, hoping in Him, certain that He will do what He has promised in due time, will renew their strength, they will soar on wings like eagles, they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not faint .”

Among writers, language aims to give prestige to oneself or to the work that is being composed. Nothing wrong with that. I also love writing and literature and in my own small way, more for passion than for ability, I consider myself a writer.

But what happens in the Bible, as well as in those who write about the Bible, constitutes a phenomenon apart.

Paul, the evangelists, and the other sacred authors have put their linguistic knowledge at the total service of the meaning of what they were trying to convey to the reader, the Gospel of our salvation and the authentic teachings of the Lord and his holy apostles. In their search for precision, in the refinement of their vocabulary, I see love for God, for the Truth and for those who will approach those sacred pages to reach salvation or to grow in the faith of the Lord Jesus.

I myself, when I write about things concerning God’s Revelation, strive to make the most of my linguistic abilities to honor such an important topic and be a blessing to the reader.

I would like you to understand from this perspective how important it is to delve into certain themes, the original language of the Bible; how much it honors those who wrote it – I am referring to the human authors and the Holy Spirit – and how much of a blessing certain studies can be.

March 29, 2025

Giuseppe Guarino