Time did not begin with matter or energy — it has always existed.
Space, on the other hand, is merely a byproduct of that existence, something we are able to perceive.
If space-time is a three-dimensional reality, then time cannot be linear, as the human mind likes to simplify it.
It is not a line that runs from past to future, but a three-dimensional fabric, where different directions coexist and intersect.
We perceive only a “slice” of that fabric, like someone looking at a cube but seeing only one of its faces.
That is why we think of time as sequence, when in truth, it is volume.