A second metaphor underlies n^. This is pro-
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FULFILMENT
FULFILIMENT
bably still later tlieological language. It means specially the fulfilling of prediction. We hnd it in Ezr 1> = 2 Ch 36~. According to Bertholet (on Ezr I.e.; he refers to Dn 1-2' also), 'Fulfilment ranks simply as the end of the prophetic word, which, once spoken, enters among the powers of the real world and gradually works itself out.' This word and metaphor are also common in NT. Sometimes we have reXeic and cognates ; though here again there is a tendency (less marked, however, than wtli TrXijpow in contrast to vi./nrXdi/ai) to prefer a more specialized or technical term — TeXeiovv, reXe/uo-is. God's work is begun by the prophetic word, but incomplete till the fact matches the promise.
A third term and metaphor are ot some moment in OT, but scarcely enter into NT — D'pg, pe^aioOf. (God's promise may seem to be tottering to its fall, —He will buttress it ; support it). See Jer 29i», Is 44=«, Ro 15» ; but in the Gospels only Mk 16=" ' con- firming . . . with signs foIlo\ving. ' (How fully this is a synonym for n'?p we see when we note the usage of H^s at 1 K I"). dVp, lit. ' return ' or ' reward,' occurs by an extension of meaning at Is 44-'*- ^ for ' fulfil ' ; not imitated in NT. Also, as already implied, EV sometimes introduces ' fulfil ' or ' be fulfilled' where the original has merelj- 'do' or ' be.' And we cannot say that this is illegitimate. A very important passage is the last clause of Mt gi8 j^y . \y^^^ j^y i f^jjj g^jj yijngs be accomplished' [to mark the contrast with TrXTjpuirai, v.". See below — i, — on both verses.]
We have then to look chiefly to nVp, ir\ripovv, wliile not forgetting other forms. And the ques- tion may be raised, whether the NT writers were alive to the implication of steady quantitative growth towards fulfilment? Or had the original suggestions of quantity and of coutinuousness passed away, — was there assumed a mere corre- spondence betiveen the word and its fulfilment? (If one pours water into a vessel, it fills by degrees. But if one is fitting together a ball-and-socket joint, the socket is empty at one moment, full at the next. The two correspond, but their <;orre- spondence is not reached by gradual growth). We shall have to distinguish in this as in other
respects between difl'erent i
syn
lyms).
i of irXjipoSt' (or its
1. Fiiltilmrnt of time. Here, if anywhere, we may expect to find the ideas of continuity and gradualness. Now 'fulfil' is constantly used in the OT of the elapsing of a given time— alike in Hebrew, Greek, and English ; or, in NT, alike in Greek and English. It is used of the period of a woman's gestation (e.g. Gn 25" ; 7rXj;p4u, LXX ; Lk 1" 2«— TriMTXi'-ai ; KV 'fulfilled' in all 3 cases). There is no more striking or more frequently noted parable of
The slow sweet hours that bring us all things good. The slow sad hours that bring us all things ill ; or sometimes, as George Eliot has expressed it in Adam Bcde, of ' swift hurrying shame,' ' the bitterest of life's bitterness.' But the word is also used of other measured times — of periods fixed by OT law(e.g'. Lk 2='-=2, «jn7r\dra<, KV 'fulfiUed'; cf. Lv 12*, nS? (Qal) ; LXX TrX-npdu). From such usages as these, we pass on to times of Divine fulfil- ment. ' The fulness of the time came ' (ri irX-^puna ToO xpl>'">v)< Oal 4''. And our Lord's own mes.sage is summed up in Mk 1": 'The time is fulfilled (TreTrX^pwToi o Katpds) and the kingdom of God is at liand ; repent ye and believe in the gospel.' (Pro- bably secondary in comparison with Alt 4", ' Re- pent ye, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand ' ; yet thoroughly significant of Biblical and primitive Christian beliefs, cf. Is 61=, Lk 4'"). The idea is, that God has fixed a time, ' His own good time,' as our pious phra.se runs. (Is that a misquotation of Is 60" ? RV ' in its time ' ; AV [same sense ; archaic
English] 'in his time'). The number seventy (70 years of exile, Jer 25" [29'"], cf. Dn 9- -■>) was specially important for this conception of a fixed jieriod Divinely appointed. Yet we have signs that the ' time ' or its ' fulness ' is not, for the Bible writers, mechanically predetermined. The eschat- ological discourse (Mt 24~=Mk 13'-'") tells us that tlie time of trouble, at the world's end, shall be cut short out of mercy to God's people. [Lk. omits, and inserts a reference to ' times of the Gentiles ' which must be * fulfilled,' 21=*.] And it is i>ossible that another popular religious phrase— the ' hastening ' of God's kingdom — may have Biblical warrant. It appears at Is 60== [quoted above]. But when (us Marti advises) Ave refer back to Is 5", we find that the word 'ha-sten' was introduced originally to express the temper of a sneerer — ' Let God hurry up, if He is really going to act [and not simply talk].' So that 'hasten,' when used at 60=, may have come to mean no more than ' fulfil.' Cf. also Hab 2^ and 2 P 3-'''. Still, when the fulness of a Divinely appointed time is spoken of, all these qualifications drop out of sight. In some .sense a period of time is Divinely ordained ; and etHux of time brings the day when God acts. Fulfilment of time is not indeed identical with fulfilment of God's promise [or threat]. The first is a condition of the second. In regard to the first, at least, the quantitative sense of ' fulfil ' is maintained in clear consciou.sne.ss. ('My time is not yet fulfilled,' Jn 7^ = ' mine hour is not yet come,' 2*).