The idea of a Kingdom of God does not appear first in the nJ In the OT, the°soverei|nt.v of God is -'""damental con- ception. Jehovah was regarded as hin? over His chosen people. isSWas a theocracy. Always, whether under judges, kings prophets, or priests, the human leaders were looked upon as Representatives or agents of Jehovah, the true king.. The SralJ^ndoncy was^to^regard this as the exxU^ive pri.lege
of God. In the Book
regard this of the chosen people. Nevertheless
the vision of a great world-wide Kin; . ^ .„
of Daniel esiwcTallv we find how, to the prophetic mind, there
r^ r ovi^nfrz ^^'if^ %^r:::'sl dXlr^th'-e
VittPr of the^e two passages is especiallv important, because ron it most proCa?ly, our Lord^adopted the title 'Son of Man • b V which He usuallv described Himself. It was therefore fpLake much in His thoughts, and it i^^^'^'^'-';''-'^ n^^'*"' '» believe that, as He proclaimed 'the kingdom. He had not cleirly in mind the words 'His dominion is an everlasting dominion, which shaU not pass away, and his kingdom that which shall not be destroyed.'
It is plain that among the Jews in our Lord's time there was a widely spread expectation of some great person who was to be leader ot the chosen people, and through whom that people were to l.e -tal.lwh.d as a great world-power. The Jews of iiihi :iu' »'ix' looking for a kingdom. And to till-Ill r.iiiii' -I"!!" the Baptist and then Jesus of Nazareth, [.r. .claiming the coming of a Kingdom. As our Lord's iiiinistiy and teaching developed, He made it quite . h-.u that the King- dom He proclaimed wa-s very .liii.T.nt trom the kingdom of popular expectations, ^ct the two conceptions cannot be wholly unrelated. Uur Lord woulcf not have used the popular language if His meaning had no relation to the ideas of the popular
This consideration is important, because of late years there have been ettbrts to show that the Kingdom, as conceived by our Lord, had no social content whatever ; that, by the Kingdom of God, He meant a spiritual illumination in the heart of the individual (Harnack, Jl'^a? is Christianitj/ ? Lect iii He holds that our Lord shared the eschatological ideas of the Jews of His time^. but that the es-sence of His teaching is that the King- dom is the rule of God in the heart of the indi- ^-idual) This view rests mainly on a single text, Lk 17=' 'The kingdom of God is within you, and is supported by the consideration that the primary meaning of the word which is translated ' kmgdom,' j3a<ri\eCo, is ' rule ' or ' dominion.
a) • The kingdom of God is within you
of being translated, ' The kingdom of God
is in bue lu.^. .,. .^u,' and this rendering suits the context
better than any other, for the saying was addressed to the
Pharisees But it must be granted that the • New Sayings of
tlv discovered by Grenfell and Hunt, have thrown
question. The words occur in the Second
inexion which precludes the translation in
the midst of vou.' ' The kingdom of heaven is within you, and
whoever shall know himself shall find it.' This is, at least, a
very eariy witness to the sense attached to the words m prum-
But we cannot found our interpretation of our Lord's teaching on a single passage, especially when we are dealing with a leading conception which was always more or less in His mind, borne of the parables which were intended to throw light on the nature of the Kingdom, e.g-. the Mustard Seed, the Tares and the Wheat, the Draw-net seem explicable only on the understanding that the Kingdom was regarded as a \-isible community. The only way of combining the two elements which seems to be truly satisfactory, is to regard the Kingdom as the rule of God, whether m the individual or in the community. It is then the Siunmum Bonum, the Absolute Good m which both the individual and the community hnd their realization. It is thus both a present blessing and an ideal to guide all future development. It is realized here and now whenever man stands in a. right relation to God and to his feUows. Its perfect realization belongs to the oreat future : it is the end to which all creation and all history are tending. The Kmgdom as a conception is thus at once moral, social, religious, and eschatological. AU these aspects are dis- tinctly visible in our Lord's teaching, and all are harmonized by the view which ha^ just been adopted. We are now concerned with the moral aspect of this gxeat idea. ., . ht^.
The Sermon on the Mount, as we have it m Mt., must be taken as the fullest statement of our Lord's moral teaching. Whether it be accepted as a single discourse, or be regarded as a collection of sayings, the unity which pervades it and its per- fect harmony with the rest of our Lords utter- ances are manifest. Its place in the gospel of the Kino-dom, as proclaimed by our Lord, is clearly defined. The Sermon is a statement of the Lmv of the Kingdom.
This is evident from Mt 6ir», in «hich a general principle concerning the ethical relation of the gospel to the Mosa^ I^» is laid down, and from vv.2i-i.^. in which several important Illustrations of the practical application of this new principle are given. Mt 61-33 and 7-^-^ agree with this view of the nature of the Sermon. In the former passage, the whole subject of rewards and motives is dealt with, and the end w^li'' >; '"