ESSAY - what was meant by the kingdom of god

Question 1

intro

Answer 1

• What is the problem?
  o If JC thought of himself as in some ways the SofM or the Messiah, he must have had a perception of things reaching a resolution, of the end-time approaching, during or after his ministry
  o Should start by looking at language of KofG before looking at more wide-ranging discussion of problem of eschatology
• Significance
  o Attested
  o But hard to define KofG – do not know exactly what it consists of
   But… the phrase is never defined, we do not know what it consists of
   ‘mystery of the kingdom’ (Mark 4:11)
   ‘word of the kingdom’ (Mrk 13:9)
   ‘sons of the kingdom’ (Mt 8:1, 13:28)
   Also cf. Mt 5;19, 11:11, Luke 7:28, Mt 11:12/L 16:16, L 13:43 etc.
   Description of KofG in other terms assumes that the audience will understand the reference
   Rabbinic abstract concept ‘malkūt schāmaiyum’ – the kingdom of God
• Jewish eschatology
  o Kingdom of God was a way of referring to Israel’s god becoming king
  o ‘and when this god became king, the whole world…would at last be put to rights’ (203)
  o hope that YHWH would vindicate Israel
  o revolutionary undertones
  o Josephus puts forward the link between the true god as king and the idea of a holy revolution

Question 2

argument and paragraphs

Answer 2

o Future but imminent so often seems to be described in presentist terms
o Hard to define tho
o There is an element of metaphor involved – link to question of time. As Guy states, ‘Jesus thought of the Kingdom as essentially timeless’
 Present tense can be used to convey imminence
 But metaphor allows for more meta-discussion of JC’s wider concerns in his ministry
o Link to Chilton – JC is not concerned with the question of time
o Gerhard von Rad – idea of linear time is not known in OT
o It is with the prophets that we begin to have an idea of time
 E.g. Isaiah with a new David
 Eschatological hope – future divine activity
o This notion of imminence is what JC adds to previous Jewish, eschatological hope
 Allison - ‘his association of eschatological expectations with events and persons around him gave traditional myths a fresh and inventive application’ (171)

• How am I gonna make the argument
  o KofG as future
  o KofG as now
  o KofG as metaphor

Question 3

para 1 - future

Answer 3

Link to judgment sayings an idea that God will create a radically new world – link to idea of KofG as an apocalyptic concept

o Sanders gives three pieces of evidence for KofG as an apocalyptic
 prediction of temple destruction
- attested in multiple sources, synoptics, acts, tom

mark 13:24 - ‘the sun and the moon will be darkened, and the stars will not give their life’
• Allusion to Isaiah 9-11 – ‘the sun will be dark at its rising, and the moon will not shed its light. I will punish the world for its evil…and Babylon…will be like Sodom and Gomorrah when God overthrew them’
- OT basis shows eschatology as key part of Jewish history.  Babylonian destruction of Temple = YHWH abandoning Temple to its face. Worship became impossible, Davidic monarchy ceased
 Longing for return to exile/return of YHWH – rebuilding of Temple etc.

o Location of Mount of Olives = significant
 Allusion to Zech 14:4-5 – speaks of Israel’s god standing on Mount of Olives
 Context = coming of divine kingdom (Zechariah 14:9)
 Coming great battle of nations against Jerusalem (14:1-3)

Question 4

para 1 ao2

Answer 4

• • Schweitzer, ‘thoroughgoing eschatology’
    o For S, JC proclaimed an eschatological kingdom of God
    o In this way JC was a failure as KofG did not arrive
• reflects Jewish view = the Messiah will descend from heaven and judge mankind (SofM and Dan 7:13)
• However…many felt this portrayed JC negatively (see Dodd) and does not recognise presentist interpretation
• Dodd
  o D = concerned with Schweitzer’s idea that JC referred to a futuristic KofG
  o There are places in Gospels where JC seems to suggest that KofG has already come and that it is a present reality
  o matt 12:28/l 11:20 - But if it is by the Spirit of God that I drive out demons, then the kingdom of God has come upon you.
   Lk – ‘by the finger of God’ rather than by the Spirit
  o Future dimension to KofG refers to other-wordly reality
• However…not present due to statements above. But, so imminent that it can almost be described in presentist terms

Question 5

para 2

Answer 5

• less apocalyptic more prophetic view of KofG, imminent eschatology
• Dodd gives example of Mark 9:1
  o Mk 9:1 – ‘there are some standing here who will not taste death until they see that the KofG has come with power’
  o Dodd – ‘realised eschatology’
  o For D, it refers to the idea that some will realise that the KofG has come through JC. Realised KofG
   Parable in Matt about hidden treasure
  • “The kingdom of heaven is like treasure hidden in a field. When a man found it, he hid it again, and then in his joy went and sold all he had and bought that field.
   Treasure = already there it simply must be discovered
   Mark 4 – Parables of Growth
  • They are actually about nature and growth
  • It is not a sudden arrival but is something that must be discovered now

Question 6

para 2 ao2

Answer 6

• Only minority of JC sayings refer to KofG
• Parables of growth e.g. sower – mustard seed grows into a great harvest
  o This is miraculous, not natural
• Dodd’s ideas are in fact reflective of the idea that KofG is so imminent that it can be talked about in presentist terms
• Caird – imminent quality is metaphorical
  e.g. Dodd uses Luke 17:20-25, but this combines both present and future - ‘in your midst’. link to ephthasen
• Vincent taylor - Jesus ‘thought that the Kingdom was present in himself and his ministry, but was also future in the sense that it was to be consummated by God’

link to self presentation - ‘The fact that he expounds the Kingdom of God by parables shows that he alone knows its present and future mystery. His knowledge about the Kingdom of God is a messianic knowledge’ (68) – hengel

Question 7

para 3 - KofG as metaphor that combines both future and present and allows him to comment on wider social issues/Israeli redemption

Answer 7

• Kingdom/eschatological language = metaphorical
• But an era of signs and portents in which people did really believe in God’s capacity to act upon and transform the world - link more to composition
• Marcus Borg – KofG is not temporal. It is a ‘linguistic symbol’ linked to Jewish tradition

metaphor jewish eschatological redemption - parable of the sower

• secrets of kingdom of heaven only revealed to some
• hence why he speaks in parables, ‘though seeing they do not see’. Isaiah prophecy

o idea of the ‘seed’
 metaphor for Israel
 parallel in Isaiah 50:10-13
 ‘the parable, therefore, not only informs, but, as has been pointed out often enough, it acts. It creates the situation where having ears to hear is itself one of the marks of the true remnant’ (234)

Question 8

para 3 part 2

Answer 8

• there is a universalism built into Jewish eschatological thinking
  o Isaiah 45, ‘before me every knee will bow’

suggests wider significance - Sayings about admission
- Rich have little chance of entering the KofG (Mk 10:23)
• Jesus looked around and said to his disciples, “How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God!”
- It is open to the oppressed etc. Mk 9:43
• And if your eye causes you to stumble, pluck it out. It is better for you to enter the kingdom of God with one eye than to have two eyes and be thrown into hell

• OT basis: Reflective in belief in coming of new age of peace and justice
  o Isaiah 11- but with righteousness he will judge the needy,
  with justice he will give decisions for the poor of the earth.

Question 9

para 3 ao2

Answer 9

• Shows how it is hard to define
  o ‘only a reckless New Testament scholar would now claim to know with any certainty what exactly Jesus meant by the phrase ‘Kingdom of God’, even though nearly all agree that he used it and that it was central’ (Morgan)
  o Yes – allusive character of language
  o Parables describe strange things e.g. Samaritans beings friends with Jews/sowers being unable to sow etc….
  o No – because of what is stated about future dimension.

KofG is not metaphorical in itself – but metaphor is used to describe it

So…not purely metaphorical but metaphor is used to describe wider concerns in ministry as well as the imminence of the KofG
link to wider context of JC ministry – ethical teaching. And contemporary context

Question 10

conc

Answer 10

• Cadbury, not easy to identify JC’s aims. Probably not systematic and probably did not have definite purpose
• But useful for scholars for seeing more generally the things that he was interested in