Would his absence or lack of apply before or after time exists Keith?
Only, his habit of talking to people or interfering in reality, if we take medieval stories as "gospel" requires him to exist in time in order to do things.
Which means by his own biography, he couldn't have existed before the Big Bang. If he had actually existed in anything other than the imagination of man, he was a product of, not the cause of the Big Bang.
Which puts him on the same plane of existence as me, a tin of baked beans and the Andromeda Galaxy.