"If you say something will happen in the fullness of time, you mean that it will happen if you wait long enough: Everything will become clear in the fullness of time."-Cambridge Advanced Learners Dictionary

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There is a large jump-from Homeric Greek to an uncertain group of Christian theologians of uncertain era that may have transformed the word 'Kairos' into the present 'fullness of time'. It is interesting phoneticly how it relates to 'Cairos' and thus is associated with 'Babylon' (the name of Qairo before it was Arabicized) I will suggest some possibilities in addition to a possible first century reference.

http://www.traditioninaction.org/religious/g002rp.htm This has another, fuller context in a Christian use for 'the fullness of time'

http://www.solochristo.com/theology/nct/fullness/fullmain.htm

http://radicalacademy.com/adiphilmedieval.htm

Here is a deeper discussion of 'Thanatos' on this Christian scholar's web page. http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/1999-March/004399.html QANATOS had a meaning of just death perhaps, rather than of any transcending time reference or 'seperation' etymology http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/1999-March/004400.html

If I understand the idea of 'fullness of timeaccording to Hig correctly, you are saying that the 'fullness of time' meaning you were referring to is human life bordered by death...with a non-specific quantitative distribution, or one perhaps common to all human experience such as in the 'thanatos' discussion referenced.

A linguistic analogy exists in the two Greek words for death—thanatos and atropos.

Atropos is another pagan concept/term for an accessory god to death (Thanatos)- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Atropos

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homeric_Greek http://www.utm.edu/research/iep/l/leib-met.htm see number 10 'The monadic activity of time' Liebnitz and 'Little Perceptions' as well as "New Essays on Human Understanding, 245-6)." "But when the time had fully come, God sent his Son."- Paul, Galatians 4:4, c. 53 AD

http://lists.ibiblio.org/pipermail/b-greek/1999-March/004399.html

Certainly in the changeover from Greek terms with paganist explanandum to Christian words with self-standing conceptual/phenomenal meaning non-metaphorical, bound meanings were formed. Early Christians of the first century beside the Apostle John that worked on writing the gospel weren't theologians, but were instead fishermen or perhaps a physicians, yet all Jews. They could simply use words meaning what they meant with a universal presenter of everything (God) which permits an unathropomorphic language use generally with the exceptions being when particular references to God were made.

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The 'fullness of time' as a phrase does seem to have many meanings, and perhaps none of more worth than others, although eschatological ones have more potential meaning or impact in numbers and quality to humanity.

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The subject of linear A and B script, and of 'Homeric' Greek leading into classical Greek is an interesting source/place for the idea of a fullness of time. Philosophers would use the concept in several different ways in relation to their beliefs about time (as neo-Platonists might differ from atheists).

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The end of a potential Atlantis on the volcanic Island of Thera probably had some impact on language development in Greece. http://archaeology.about.com/od/ancientgreece/a/homeric7.htm

http://www.uri.edu/endeavor/thera/exptools.html http://www.theatlantic.com/doc/prem/196712/vermeule http://www.godandscience.org/apologetics/archeology.html On the time transformations from pre-Socratics to scholastic philosophers http://www.philosophy.ccsu.edu/adams/Classes/Medieval/History.html

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Recently I read the four gospels and what they had about John and the Baptism of Jesus. Thisd subject is a bit different here of course. It is remarkable how the concept of predestination is implicit in the accounts, with Jesus appearing at the right moment for John.

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Jesus was baptized in the Holy Spirit, though it was in the River Jordan, in order to fullfill all righteousness. People had asked why John was baptizing at all if he wasn't Esaias or another important prophet; he replied that he was one crying in the wilderness (to make strait the ways), and that also allows Jesus later to associate John with Elija perhaps without scriptural contradiction.

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The baptism isn't mentioned at all in two of the books; it is in the book of Matthew that the event is best described-chapter 3 verse 11+. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?book_id=47&chapter=3&version=9

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I allowed that John was something of a theologian comparatively amidst the other writers of the gospels. John was probably better read in the scriptures than Matthew, Mark or Luke, I believe.

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http://jac.gsu.edu/jac/23.1/reviews/2.htm Yes, KAIROS seems to be a substantive academic subject presently, and it is obvious how the meaning of 'the fullness of time' might be drawn back to that context.

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Luckily I read philosophy just in the English language, although I enjoy getting background data where possible. It isn't such a bad approach with so many translations into english, and it permits one to avoid the raving destruction of meaning in contemporary spoken language better. Reading Feynman's last book, it seems there is a certain value on forming an applied approach to certain subjects rather than a scholastic one; although plainly it is better to be scholastic with an applied research base.

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Regarding a book named "Rhetoric and Kairos: Essays in History, Theory, and Praxis."http://jac.gsu.edu/jac/23.1/reviews/2.htm ...

"this book responds indirectly to recent charges that the classical rhetorical vocabulary is "thin," time-bound, and inappropriately "globalized" as an "universal hermeneutic."

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http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kairos

http://english.ttu.edu/KAIROS/layers/etymology.html

http://english.ttu.edu/kairos/layers/start.html

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http://www.here-now4u.de/eng/time_in_the_indian_tradition.htm

This Indian and Hindu approach to time and the fullness of time has several interesting neo-scientific contexts, and of course sanskrit has a base language with other Indo-European languages. Many scientific and even some abstract concepts familiar to Hindu believers may well coincide accurately with Christian or Biblical concepts about the creation and universe, even if not on the face of things, or in some instances one is absent from opposite traditions. The main absence is that of the saving grace of Jesus Christ from the unelect of course...yet the cosmos should probably be the same objectively for all that experience it generally.