What Is Clock Management and How Does it Apply to Bible Study?

Biblical authors are clock managers in that they can speed up or slow down the account to highlight a particular episode in a character’s life. An astute reader will keep track of how the author is managing the clock of the narrative to see when periods pass by quickly (perhaps in just a few verses) and when the passage focuses on a short period of time. In either case, it is worthwhile for a reader to acknowledge the pace at which an author covers the action in the text and consider why certain periods of time are not given much attention or, conversely, why the author gives a lot of details for events that only take a short amount of time.

Track how the biblical author uses both time and pacing as a way to track what they are emphasizing in the text.

Prevalence

It is very commonplace. Since this is mainly a narrative phenomenon, it is commonly observed in historically focused books, although the principle is still the same in other genres of the Bible.

Instruction

Biblical authors sometimes insert enough timestamps embedded within the overall account to allow readers to have a fairly detailed timeline of events. In addition, while you are reading, slow down and take notice of the pacing of the events described in the account, looking for when the author speeds up the sequence or slows down the account to focus on a shorter period of time. You can often track accelerated pacing by observing the frequency and clustering of action verbs in close proximity to each other. A key element to track is the insertion of direct speech, which slows down the action to allow readers to ponder the importance of what was spoken.

Value

Textual real estate is valuable. Biblical authors were selective about what to include in the text. As readers, we can see areas of emphasis and focal points when we pay attention to the difference between narration time and real time.

Challenges

There are no major challenges other than the subjectivity involved in trying to determine the degree of emphasis on why an author slows down the tempo or accelerates it. Subjectivity is always going to be an issue for readers since biblical authors never explicitly state their rationale for the pacing of the account, but usually there are enough temporal markers embedded in the text to act as guardrails from drifting too far away from the author’s intentions.

Examples of Clock Management

The best example of “Clock Management” is the gospel writers’ handling of the life of Jesus. Luke 3:23 tells us that Jesus was about thirty when He began to do public ministry, and most scholars are in agreement that Jesus lived another three years after His baptism by John the Baptist until His crucifixion. Only Matthew and Luke contain information about Jesus’ nativity, and there is little information about His childhood and early adult life except for the one incident when Jesus was twelve at the temple courts in Jerusalem (Luke 2:41–52). The bulk of the gospel record is on the three years of Jesus’ public ministry, and a large percentage of that focus is on the passion narrative (the last eight days of Jesus’ life).

At least a quarter of each gospel is spent on details surrounding the last week or so of Jesus’ life, and John even devotes seven chapters ( John 13–19) to one day during that week! The gospel writers are not attempting to provide a full and complete biography of the entire life of Christ but are intentionally focusing on events that fit their thematic and theological purposes.

By looking at how the gospel writers “manage the clock,” readers can more readily discern some of those purposes by considering when they speed up and especially when they slow down to focus on an event. The gospel writers’ focus on the Passion Week helps us as readers see that a major theme of the Gospels is that Christ came to suffer and die on the cross for our sins, and His resurrection demonstrates our sins can be forgiven.

Time of the Day

Sometimes an author will specify a certain time of day when an event happened. An event can take place “early in the morning” (Gen. 22:3), at noon or the sixth hour (Acts 10:9; 22:6; John 4:6), at night (John 3:2), or the middle of the night (Ruth 3:8). At times, the author is seeking to communicate something by detailing what time of the day an event happened. Describing an event as happening “early in the morning” may connote that the character was demonstrating obedience. An event at noon is perhaps signaling that an event is done in the wide open so there can be no denial of its occurrence. Something taking place at night implies secrecy and perhaps even something sinister. Pay attention to time markers in the text and ponder why that level of detail may have been included by the author beyond just creating a factual timestamp.

Why “Clock Management” Matters

By using this “Clock Management” technique, we can read and enjoy the Bible more as we pay close attention to how the author manages the literary clock and the pulse rate of the events. Catch some of the adrenaline rush that the characters experience or notice when time seems to stand still. Readers who focus on when the author speeds things up and slows things down are better able to track the moments in the account that the author is highlighting. It is those moments that are being stressed for greater reflection and can lead us to savor not just what the author is saying but how they are communicating it.