Introduction
Biblical Hebrew and ancient Jewish Aramaic had a small vocabulary compared to modern languages, and so one word often had to cover several meanings, when in English, for example, we would use different words in each case. Such a word is the Aramaic malkhuta (normally translated as ‘kingdom’). Because we are stuck with our modern, western view of what a ‘kingdom’ is, we don’t quite get the full range of ideas that Yeshua was trying to put across. There are actually four main ideas conveyed in the phrase, malkhuteyh delaha (‘kingdom of God’).
Usage no. 1: Yeshua often used the phrase, ‘The kingdom of God is at hand’. The use of the words ‘at hand’ would here be similar to its use in the phrase, ‘Help is close at hand.’ The Koine Greek ἤγγικεν (engiken) implies ‘drawing near’, or ‘approaching’.
In this particular instance, this should therefore more properly be translated as, ‘the kingship of God is fast approaching’; you see, ‘kingdom’ and ‘kingship’ are both translated by the Aramaic malkhuta, hence the confusion in other languages. In this sentence, Yeshua was referring to God’s ROYAL AUTHORITY to act in human affairs as Judge and King – in effect, he was referring to what biblical prophets called the ‘Day of Adonai’. This particular ‘Day of Adonai’, which Yeshua called ‘the coming of God’s Kingship’, was the destruction of Judea and Jerusalem, and the Roman Exile. This was the imminent, impending event that Yeshua’s first Jewish followers were fearfully awaiting and preparing for, as the age (era/epoch) in which they were living was drawing to its close. The ‘coming’ that the first Jewish Followers of Yeshua were waiting for, was therefore the coming of Adonai as Judge and the Liberator of the poor.
With this meaning in mind, Yeshua told a couple of parables that described God’s imminent intervention under God’s authority as Judge and King, in order to deal with the problems afflicting society at the time (such as the parable of the Ten Young Women, Mt 25:1-13, and the Parable of the Large Dragnet, Mt 13:47-50). God had seen how certain chief priests were corrupt, and were thereby defaming the holiness of the Temple ministry; God had seen how rich people were ignoring their responsibility to the poor, thereby defaming God’s Name as Provider; and how the Zealots were defaming God’s Name by using God’s authority to justify acts of violence. Yeshua was saying that God Himself would intervene and act very soon, using God’s authority as King to bring about justice, chastise wrongdoing, reward the righteous and punish the guilty – even in this life. Therefore, the only appropriate response by the unjust to such news was to repent (Mt 3:2, 4:17). On the other hand, such a declaration – that God would soon intervene in his authority as King to right wrongs – was indeed ‘good news’ for the long-suffering poor and innocent of the Land.
The rest of the ‘good news’ was that, by living the ways of God’s Kingdom, and returning to God’s first principles, would mean that the time of tribulation could be shortened, and that the majority of the Jewish people would be spared the worst of the tribulation and survive. This is in contrast with what the Christian meaning of gospel is (that ‘Jesus’ died to save us from our sins).
Usage no 2: Yeshua spoke about how difficult it was for the rich to enter the kingdom of God. Here he was talking about being able to change heart, and enter into a way of life that would be typical of God’s reign; in such instances, ‘kingdom of God’ is more properly, ‘the reign of God’. The rich were so centred on the accumulation of money, wealth and profit, that they ignored God’s laws to forgive the debts of fellow Israelites every seven years (and thereby relieve the burden on the very poor). They were so enthralled by the lure of wealth, that they could not see that they were rich only because God gave them that wealth. If it was not used for good, then that wealth would one day be taken away from them (which it indeed was when the Romans destroyed Jerusalem and exiled many of the Jewish population of Judea).
Usage no 3: The third meaning of ‘the kingdom of God’ is the most vital to understand. It plays an enormous part in Yeshua’s personal theology. To him, this aspect of the kingdom (or ‘rule’) of God was not a physical place, or necessarily a time in the future, or even heaven, but rather a present state of being that had to live within us (Lk 17:21). God’s rule was a way of justice and inclusion; Yeshua saw it as a duty to be just and fair to one another in one’s daily affairs, and to bring back into the fold those whom religious moralisers had cast aside as being permanently beyond redemption, thereby taking away their right to hope for anything better.
Usage no 4: The last aspect of the kingdom, was what it could become in the far distant future. It was not a time that would come about through war or conflict, but slowly, like yeast leavening a huge batch of flour (Mt 13.33), or a tiny mustard seed that grows into a large bush (Mk 4:30-32). In such instances, Yeshua was speaking of the fulfilment of the Kingdom of God – what it had the potential to become in the far future, once God’s full sovereignty was established over both heaven and earth.
To summarise, the term, ‘the kingdom of God’ doesn’t have just one meaning; failure to understand this over the past two thousand years has blurred God’s Message, and obscured God’s plans. Every mention of ‘the kingdom of God’ in Yeshua’s parables and sayings can be categorised in one of these four aspects:
- God’s imminent intervention as King and Judge (the coming ‘KINGSHIP of God’);
- God’s set of external laws under which a just and stable society functions (the present ‘REIGN of God’);
- God’s message and values that live within us (the eternal ‘RULE of God’);
- and the future age of peace and light which has the potential to come about and be fulfilled in the future (the end-time ‘FULL SOVEREIGNTY of God’).