Time&Eternity

256 notes to chapter 2
4. “.l.l. [der Mensch] entwindet sich dem Schrecken der Zeit und springt auf der via
negationis hinüber zum Unvergänglichen, Unwandelbaren und Unveränderlichen,” ibid.,
363.
5. Ibid., 363.
6. Ibid., 368.
7. Ibid., 371.
8. Ibid., 374.
9. “Zwischen unseren Tagen, den Tagen der Urzeit und dem Tage Jahwes ist eine
grundsätzliche Verbindung eben im Tag-Sein,” ibid., 375. At this point, Ratschow also
mentions that the three-tiered past, present, and future is distinguished from the twotiered
Hebrew thinking, which is expressed in the conceptuality of day and night and also
in the inflection of the verb in only two tenses. When it has to do with the appropriation
of salvation, Ratschow sees in the biblical concept not simply a temporal forward movement,
but rather a movement that is similar to the pattern “one step back and two steps
forwards”: Looking back at the act of salvation becomes the reception of the coming God
(386).
10. “.l.l. [d]er moderne Mensch ist insofern modern, als er von der Empfindung lebt,
daß er keine Zeit hat,” ibid., 377. Ratschow asks himself here if, instead of speaking of having
no time, we should perhaps speak more clearly of having no eternity; but, unfortunately,
he does not follow this trail, which I would consider very productive. Cf. Jackelén,
“Förlorad evighet som orsak till kronisk tidsbrist?” (Lost eternity as the reason for chronic
lack of time?).
11. “[D]er ganz und gar verschlossene Mensch.” Ratschow, Anmerkungen zur theologischen
Auffassung des Zeitproblems, 378.
12. “.l.l. läßt sich weder auswalzen zur Dauer noch aneinanderketten zur Unendlichkeit.l.l.l.
Was hier Ewigkeit heißen kann, geht nicht Dauer oder Kürze dieser Zeit
an, sondern die Tiefe ihrer Ermöglichung,” ibid., 380.
13. Anchor Bible Dictionary (New York: Doubleday, 1992) lists neither time nor eternity
and has no cross-references at the pertinent spots. Begriffslexikon zum Neuen Testament, ed.
L. Coenen, E. Beyreuther and Hans Bietenhard (Wuppertal: Rolf Brockhaus, 1970), references
the key words eternity and time. In the Theologische Realenzyklopädie, vol. x (1982),
696, references to resurrection and life are found under eternal life, and eternity has crossreferences
to eschatology, God, and time. Neues Handbuch theologischer Grundbegriffe, 4
vols., ed. Peter Eicher (Munich: Kösel, 1984–85), lists neither time nor eternity; only in the
new expanded edition (vol. 5 [1991], same editor, place, and publisher) is there a substantial
article under the key word time/eternity (pp. 300–326).
14. “.l.l. von Haus aus keine Neigungen zu Abstraktionen hat.” Herrmann, Die neue
Physik, 97. Cf. also Ebeling, Zeit und Wort, 364: Time in the Old Testament is “stets
konkrete Zeit” (always concrete time).
15. German: “gefüllte Zeit” (time as containing events). Von Rad, Theologie des Alten
Testaments, ii.109; Old Testament Theology, 100.
16. “.l.l. das Geschehen ist nicht ohne seine Zeit, und die Zeit nicht ohne ein
Geschehen denkbar.” Ibid.
17. Delling, “Zeit und Endzeit,” 22 and 25. Also Muilenburg, “The Biblical View of
Time,” 236.
18. In the OT, c ôlām designates the most distant past and, above all, the most distant
future. In the Psalms, one finds a doxological usage (as in the hymns examined in chapter
1). The term possibly develops in an eschatological direction; cf. Preuß, “côlam.” c ēt stands
for moment, occasion, period of time, and time. In the Septuagint, the term is usually translated
as kairos, which corresponds to its primary meaning—the definite/right time for