Primitive Christianity. Jesus was an apocalyptic. He
was not indeed interested in elaborating the depiction
of the final apocalyptic drama, but he foretold the
beginning of last events in the imminent future. His
exorcisms heralded the end of the old aeon. Even to
the impious, provided they were repentant, his preach-
ing opened the way at the last minute to salvation
under God's reign, which very soon, without human
participation, would appear throughout the earth as
a bolt of lightning from God's hand.
When the Crucified One appeared to His disciples
after His death, they interpreted Jesus' resurrection as
the beginning of the universal resurrection of the dead,
i.e., as the onset of last events. Jesus is the first of all
the dead to be resurrected (I Corinthians 15:20). It is
true that the consummation of apocalyptic last things
did not follow; nonetheless early Christianity continued
to understand the events surrounding Christ as God's
eschatological redemptive act, themselves as a com-
munity of the redeemed, and their age as a time of
eschatological redemption. In other words: “The
primitive Christian community did not understand
itself as an historical, but as an eschatological, phe-
nomenon. It already no longer belongs to this world,
but to the future ahistorical era that is dawning”
(R. Bultmann, p. 42). Out of this consciousness, and
in view of the subsequent course of history, the prob-
lem arose how the eschatological community of the
redeemed should live in history, and how historical
time should be denominated from an eschatological
point of view. As a solution of this problem there
emerged the extraordinary dialectic of the primitive
Christian concept of time, characterized as it is by the
conflict of “It is here now” and “Not yet” when speak-
ing of eschatological redemption. Paul and John dwelt
with particular intensity on this problem and each gave
it expression after his own manner.
Both understood their time as an age amid ages: the
faithful lives already now in the new aeon, even though
he is not yet free of the danger of relapse into the
old aeon. The unfaithful still belongs to the expiring
world, but by faith may still find access to the commu-
nity of the redeemed. “Faith” means the abandonment
of the material word as the basis of life, and living
in the grace of God encountered by man in Christ.
This faith redeems life: it brings righteousness and
peace and joy (Romans 14:17). The faithful is a new
creature (II Corinthians 5:17). To him is come the day
of salvation (II Corinthians 6:2), he lives in love (I
Corinthians 13), and lives and dies unto the Lord
(Romans 14:7-9). The demonic forces of the expiring
aeon have already been obliged to surrender their
power to Christ.
The delay in the definitive consummation of last
events is not felt to be a difficult problem in view of
this conception. It is even possible for John to renounce
altogether the apocalyptic eschatology of the future
including the return of Christ to which Paul clings:
the believer has already been judged (John 3:18); it
is true that he still lives in the world, but he is no
longer of the world (John 17:11-16).
