In a previous post I stated that the “times of refreshing” was a Second Temple Period way of describing the eschatological kingdom, or the messianic age. Many of the Jews assembled in the Temple courts would have understood Peter’s words in Acts 3:20 as referring to the “age to come” when God restores creation to its original state. Deliverance of creation was something that at least some Jews expected at the time of the messianic age. This deliverance is described as a restoration of creation to something like Eden, a place of prosperity and peace.
1 Enoch 5:7 says that for the elect, the eschatological age will be “light, joy, and peace, and they shall inherit the earth.” Recall that Jesus said that the “meek will inherit the earth” in Matt 5:5. In 25:6, the elect will be presented the “And the elect will be presented with its fruit for life” and they will “live long lives on the earth.” In 45:5 indicates that God will “transform the earth and make it a blessing ,and cause my Elect One (messiah) to dwell in her.” Alluding to Ps 114, 1 Enoch 51:4 says that “in those days, mountains shall dance like rams; and the hills shall leap like kids satiated with milk. And the faces of all the angels in heaven shall glow with joy, because on that day the Elect One has arisen.”
Fourth Ezra, a Jewish apocalypse written after 90 A.D., has a number of references to the coming eschatological age as a refreshment of creation and a time of rest. In 4 Ezra 7:75 “we shall be kept in rest until those times come when you will renew the creation,” and in 11:46 the writer looks forward to the coming judgement “so that the whole earth, freed from your violence, may be refreshed and relieved.” In 13:26-29, the messiah is described as the one “whom the Most High has been keeping for many ages, who will himself deliver his creation; and he will direct those who are left.”
Perhaps 2 Baruch 73-74 is the most similar to the sorts of things we read in the Hebrew Bible and the Christian New Testament. In 2 Baruch 73:1, after the messiah “has sat down in eternal peace on the throne of the kingdom” then “joy will be revealed and rest will appear.” Just as Acts has described Jesus as ascending to heaven and sitting on the right hand of the Father, 2 Baruch describes the coming age as a time when a messianic figure provides eternal peace from a heavenly throne.
There are more texts which could supplement this list (Jub 23:29; TLevi 18:4; and TJud 24:1), but these serve to indicate that the idea of a messianic kingdom as a “time of refreshing” was well known in the first century.
Two thoughts come to mind from reading this data. First, is this sort of kingdom what people thought that Peter was talking about? I see some evidence in Acts that the first community was looking for an imminent return of the Messiah, but how long did that belief persist?
A related second question concerns the non-arrival of the kingdom. Why if this is what “times of refreshing” meant to the biblically literate crowds, why was there no renewal of creation or return of the Exiles? Is there a disconnection from Jewish expectations here?
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January 23, 2013 at 5:42 pm
mronda
It seems that the non-arrival of the Kingdom may be due to the non-readiness of the Jewish people which is likely a result of their cultural failure to see Jesus as the Messiah. The disconnect and possibly unmet expectations go in both directions, in that God provided and expectation to be met by his people and they fell so far short of the expectation that He needed to adjust His focus all together. Maybe the Jewish failure to see the Holy Spirit’s refreshing of creation is the catalyst for God’s transition to Gentile ministry and the calling of Paul.
January 23, 2013 at 8:19 pm
jbefus
The belief in the imminent return of the Messiah does seem to be evident in Acts. I think that this belief lasted until persecution broke out and scattered the believers there. My first thought or reason behind this is because it would make sense that the believers would try to stay in Jerusalem because that’s where they would expect Jesus to return. However, when they were scattered, perhaps many came to a realization that their expectation of the Messiah coming back right away was not so sure. Maybe when they saw the death of fellow believers (for example the stoning of Stephen 7:58-60) they realized that the Messiah’s return may be longer than they expected, and the persecution seemed to be the opposite of what they expected of the Kingdom. Peter says in 3:21, “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets.” It would be in God’s timing, and in His divine plan, not through their expectations.
January 23, 2013 at 8:49 pm
Phillip J. Long
“this belief lasted until persecution broke out and scattered the believers”…so after Acts 8? Why would persecution deaden the belief in an imminent return, since Jesus told them that in the last days the followers of Jesus would be persecuted?
January 23, 2013 at 11:13 pm
notcrudd
I think that many new, and old for that matter, believers thought that joy would be revealed and they would find rest in the coming days after Jesus went back to heaven. I think that this hope for rest and peace and joy probably lasted until the apostles and other believers started getting thrown in jail and persecuted. When the first apostle was killed I think it was probably an eye-opening experience for other followers to what kind of “joy and rest and peace” they had been dealt. It wasn’t a joy or rest like we would think of on earth, but instead a joy in the knowledge that we are working for the Glory of God and they [we] could rest in the knowledge that everything that happens in our lives has been put in our path for a reason and whether we die for His glory or never feel an angry look toward us for our beliefs, we can have the rest and joy of the Lord.
January 23, 2013 at 11:24 pm
John Caprari
The Jewish people had this set of expectations of the what the Messiah was supposed to do and what the eschatological age was going to look like. And according to the data seen in this post, it’s kind of reasonable the Jew’s had their certain anticipation. It seems like Peter understands God’s plan for the eschatological age to a greater extent than the majority of the rest of Jewish people. And rightfully so, being a disciple of Jesus he does have some kind of advantage. In verses 17-21 Peter’s degree of understanding God’s plan is shown. He acknowledges that the Jew’s needed to act in disobedience in order for His will to be fulfilled. But, because His will was fulfilled there is a chance to repent for what their disobedience. And it seems like Peter’s language infers that there is still a time to come where Jesus returns. Some crucial words to support this statement are “may come” and “may send”. The Jews expected their messiah to be present in person during the eschatological age. But as verse 21 says, “He must remain in heaven until the time comes for God to restore everything, as he promised long ago through his holy prophets” (Acts 3:21). Instead Jesus ascended so that the Holy Spirit could come down and be present within us during this age.
January 23, 2013 at 11:52 pm
scottspooner64
This topic is something that I enjoy reading about, and studying. It is something that has puzzled me until I studied it further. It is natural for human beings to become complacent with the way things are, but to be in ministry directly after Jesus with the promise of his return would add urgency and weight to the early Christians teaching and ministry. Jesus himself said, “It is not for you to know times or seasons that the Father has fixed by his own authority.” (Acts 1:7) The mystery of the return of Christ should heighten ministry and urgency, but because of forgetfulness and complacency Christians have become comfortable. This has happened both today and in the ancient world. The Kingdom in a sense has already come, and that should give us hope and the realization that it could come at any time. N.T. Wright says in his book, “Simply Christian”, “He is, at the moment present with us, but hidden behind that invisible veil which keep heaven and earth apart…”
January 28, 2013 at 9:25 pm
Marc Mullenix
I love what Scott had to say about us not knowing the day or the hour of the return of Christ. The fact that should should heighten the ungency and the want for us to go and present the gospel and be a part of ministry. We do get too comfortable. We become complacent with where we are at or where the Church or even where the world is at. We should be excited about minisrty and presenting the word of God.