Jesus, time and the kingdom : an interpretation of Mark 1:15

Abstract

This dissertation offers - from a biblical theological perspective - an examination of Jesus' conception of time on the basis of Mark 1:15. The thesis defended in this study is that Jesus views time in its totality as the promise of the restoration of Israel under David's offspring. After providing the scholarly context (chapters 1-3), this study contends that the background which makes Mark 1:15 most intelligible is God's covenant with day and night which is established in the act of creation, specified in prophetic eschatology, and developed in some of the Second Temple literature; it is God's commitment to give day and night in their appointed time, promising the restoration of Israel under David's offspring. On the basis of recent developments in the scholarly literature concerning the Greek verbal aspect (Chapter 5), this study argues that the perfect verbs in Mark 1:15 denote an ongoing dynamic of time fulfilment, closely tied to the ultimate restoration of Israel. This begins with the appearance of Jesus during the days of John the Baptist (Chapter 6) and is mapped onto two phases of the horizon of Jesus' view of time (Chapter 7). In Paul, this dynamic of the restoration of Israel as the fulfilment of time is explicated as the adoption of Jew and Gentile to God's family on the basis of Jesus' death during the fullness of time (Chapter 8). The present study concludes that the biblical notion of time is to be tied intimately to the hope of the restoration of Israel, ultimately manifested as the establishment of the Kingdom of God. In that light, Jesus' programmatic announcement in Mark 1:15 may be paraphrased in the following way: Time as the promise of the restoration of Israel is fulfilled and this is manifested in the Kingdom of God progressively drawing near.

Date of Award	2009
Original language	English