Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

THE MISSION OF JESUS §12.3
final age shall be prolonged'; 100 and 11Q13 (11QMelch) 2.4-9 envisages 'the last
days' as extending over the tenth jubilee.
'Olam is much more common and often used in the sense 'for ever'
(l e 'olam, 'ad 'olam), or intensively 'for ever and ever' (l e 'olam wa'ed). 101 The
problem in this case is what we might call the aspirational or hyperbolic overtone
with which the phrase is uttered, or the fact that it evidently had a degree of conditionality.
A slave was enslaved 'for ever', that is, for life. 102 The king was
greeted formally, 'May the king live for ever' 103 — not a prayer for the king to be
granted eternal life, but that he may reign for as long as possible. The promise of
divine favour 'for ever' could be qualified or withdrawn, as the psalmist recognized
only too clearly (Ps. 89.34-37, but also 38-45). 104 Even in judgment oracles,
where the formula was obviously intended to indicate finality, 105 there
could be hope of reverse, 106 though the concomitant promise of salvation for Israel
'for ever' presumably indicated a timespan stretching as far beyond the time
horizon as it is possible to conceive. 107 Dan. 12.2-3 conceives of postresurrection
existence as either 'everlasting life (hayye 'olam)' or 'everlasting
contempt (dir'on 'olam)'.
Are we then in danger of attributing a clarity of conviction to language and
conceptions which were much less clearly conceptualized? Would it be more accurate
(and fairer) to the hopes reviewed to speak in terms of periods of time
without a predetermined closure in contrast to fixed spans of time, such as a Sabbath,
a festival, a week, a year, a generation, or a reign? That the stereotyped
100. 2 Enoch seems to envisage the 'end' of the whole of creation, visible and invisible,
when 'the times/time will perish, and there will be neither years nor months nor days nor hours
. . . but there will be one age/eternity . . .' (65.7-8; cf. 33.2).
101. H. D. Preuss, "olam', TDOT 10 (1999) 534-45; also E. Haag, "ad", TD0T 10
(1999) 456-62.
102. Exod. 21.6; Deut. 15.17.
103. 1 Kgs. 1.31; Neh. 2.3; Dan. 2.4; 3.9; 5.10; 6.21.
104. Eli (1 Sam. 2.30-31); Saul (1 Sam. 13.13); notably the promise that David's throne
would be established 'for ever' (2 Sam. 7.13; Ps. 89.29, 36-37; renewed in 11Q19 [1 lQTemple]
59.16-18), and that Yahweh (or his name) would dwell in Jerusalem 'for ever' (1 Kgs. 9.3;
1 Chron. 23.25; 2 Chron. 33.4, 7; but Lam. 2.1-9; renewed in Ezek. 43.7-9; 11Q19
[1 lQTemple] 47.3-4; 53.9-10).
105. Isa. 34.10; Jer. 17.4; 20.11; Ezek. 27.36; 28.19; 35.9; Zeph. 2.9; Mai. 1.4.
106. The 'desolation for ever' foreseen by Jeremiah (18.16; 25.9, 12; 49.33) is evidently
countermanded by the promises of Isa. 58.12 and 61.4.
107. Isa. 9.7; 32.17; 34.17; 60.15, 19-21; Jer. 17.25; 31.40; Ezek. 37.26-28; Hos. 2.19;
Joel 2.26-27; Mic. 4.7. In regard to kingdom texts, note especially Dan. 2.44; 3.33; 4.34; 6.26.
Qumran saw itself as an 'everlasting community', an 'everlasting planting', an 'everlasting
people' (1QS 2.25; 3.12; 8.5; 11.8; 1QH 11[= 3].21; 14[= 6].15; 16[= 8].6; 1QM 13.9). 11Q19
(1 lQTemple) repeatedly speaks of the ordinances relating to the temple as 'everlasting' (18.8;
19.9; 21.04; 25.8; 27.4; 35.9).
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