Scholarly Reflections
Balabanski, Vicky. "Chapter One: An Imminent End? Models for understanding eschatological development in the first century." Eschatology in the Making: Mark, Matthew, and the Didache. Cambridge: University Press, 1997, 4-23.
Balabanski observes that the first century eschatological hope was not static in nature, but changed over time. The delay of the parousia certainly caused a theological problem. This disappointment has been taken in modern scholarship as a major factor in theological development (Balabanski 1997, 4). Balabanski notes that modern scholarship has occasionally gone so far as to suggest that Jesus expected the kingdom of God to be an eschatological kingdom which would be relized within a generation. If this was the case, what would Christians do when Jesus was proven to be wrong (Balabanski 1997, 5)?
Much modern scholarship proceeded to frame the development of theology as motivated by eschatological disappointment. At the same time, some scholars observed that the New Testament shows no bitter disappointment concerning the delay in the parousia (Balabanski 1997, 8). Some, such as C.H. Dodd, understood Jesus to be speaking of an eschatology which included a present reality.
Balabanski reviews three recent scholarly works which question the thesis of an eschatological crisis. D.E. Aune considers that a future eschatological hope was never the basis for salvation (Balabanski 1997, 10). Because there was no clearly stated time to expect the parousia, the delay would not create a crisis. It would also not require the eschatological hope to become less vivid (Balabanski 1997, 12). The decline in eschatological expectation, in Aune's mind, could be explained by a gradual replacement of that hope by a confidence in immortality after death (Balabanski 1997, 13).
R.J. Bauckham considers the delay of the parousia to present the same problem for Christianity which it had long presented in Judaism (Balabanski 1997, 124). An essential element was the belief that there were good reasons for the delay, and that at least some suggestions of reasons could be found in the Scriptures. In particular, from an interpretive standpoint, Bauckham notes in the late first century A.D. that commentators saw God's longsuffering as a motive for him to delay pouring out judgment on the earth (Balabanski 1997, 15). In Christian thought, the time of delay provides opportunity for Christians to identify with the sufferings of Jesus (Balabanski 1997, 16). Revelation pictures God's restraint, as in chapter seven four angels are protecting the earth from winds of judgment. Chapter 10 further pictures a delay of judgment so as to allow for witness to God's goodness (Balabanski 1997, 17).
B.J. Malina considers the idea of changes in time erception in different historical and cultural contexts. He takes first century Palestinian people to generally understand events in relation to their present situation, while modern Americans tend to look to the possible future implications (Balabanski 1997, 18-19). Balabanski thinks Malina's use of the data presents an overly simple and uniform picture of cultural thought, in which the first century Christians would take no thought to the past or future. This is an unlikely simplification of complex humans.
Rather than follow the procedures which Balabanski has described, her study will be based on a comparative analysis of Mark 13, Matthew 24, and Didache 16, after a study of Matthew 25:1-3, in order to evaluate eschatological thought as it may have existed prior to final redaction of Matthew (Balabanski 1997, 22).