If I say, "the times from Adam to Noah", am I speaking of one continuum, one period of time, or multiple, distinct periods of time? Can you tell?
The note is speaking of past, present and future saints, not just present ones, as your post seem to indicate.
Yes, but "past, present and future saints" in a single age or in multiple distinct ages? What set of presuppositions forces you to one view or the other?
If I say, "the times from Adam to Noah", am I speaking of one continuum, one period of time, or multiple, distinct periods of time? Can you tell?
If you were speaking of one single continuum, wouldn't you use the word 'time' and not 'times'?
[ The note is speaking of past, present and future saints, not just present ones, as your post seem to indicate. ]
Yes, but "past, present and future saints" in a single age or in multiple distinct ages? What set of presuppositions forces you to one view or the other?
Robertson says that the 'fullness of times' here refers to 'epochs'
Unto a dispensation of the fulness of the times (ei� oikonomian tou plhrwmato� twn kairwn). See Colossians 1:25 for oikonomian. In Galatians 4:4 "the fulness of the time" (to plhrwma tou cronou) the time before Christ is treated as a unit, here as a series of epochs (kairwn).
http://bible.crosswalk.com/Commentaries/RobertsonsWordPictures/rwp.cgi?book=eph&chapter=001&verse=010&next=011&prev=009