I finished Ben Witherington III's Jesus, Paul, and the End of the World. In this post, I'll highlight something that Witherington says on page 263:
"It
has often been ignored that in early Jewish literature, in particular
some of the apocalyptic material in 4 Ezra, 2 Baruch, Apocalypse of
Baruch and elsewhere, wrestles with the concept of the 'flexible'
imminence of God's day of vindicating justice. In many ways, the
discussion of the so-called delay of the parousia is just a continuation
of this early Jewish discussion. In texts like Apoc. Bar. 85:10 we
already see the tension between already and not yet, between
eschatological hope and the delay of final vindication. That other
early Jews could continue to maintain a strong faith in the possible
imminence of 'the day' coupled with a discussion of its delay and
possible reasons for it should warn us against the assumption that when
someone like Jesus or Paul used the language of imminence it precluded
any idea of flexibility about the timing or an interval before it
happened."
Witherington cites Apocalypse of Baruch 85:10, so I'll quote that. I had a hard time tracking down the passage. This translation doesn't even go to 85:10. Richard Bauckham here quotes a translation that renders the passage as follows:
"The youth of the world is past, the strength of creation is already
exhausted. The advent of the times is very close, yea, they have passed
by. The pitcher is near to the well, and the ship to the port. The
course of the journey is reaching its destination at the city, and life
approaches its end." According to Bauckham, the Apocalypse of Baruch
maintains that the events of 70 C.E. "inflamed the expectation of
redemption", but it manifests disappointment at God's delay in redeeming
Israel from Gentile oppression.
I'm not sure if I agree with
Witherington that the New Testament and early Jewish literature hold
that imminence can be flexible. I'd have a hard time saying, for
example, that Jesus and Paul would regard the parousia occurring more
than two millennia after the death and resurrection of Christ as
imminent (not that Witherington says that they would have). My
impression (which is open to correction) is that early Christians and
some early Jews thought that the end was soon, and they had to wrestle
with its apparent delay when God's redemption was not happening. But
they still thought that imminent meant soon. Even that Apocalypse of
Baruch passage manifests that sentiment!
When the delay became too
long, in my opinion, that was when there emerged parables about the
master leaving for a long time (Matthew 25:19; Luke 20:9), and later the
statement in II Peter 3:8 that a day in God's sight is as a thousand
years, and a thousand years as one day.