Literature. — A. Robertson, Regnum Dei, London, 1901 ; A. B. Bruce, The Kingdom of Go'di, Edinburgh, 1891 ; J. S. Candlish, The Kingdom o/ God, do. 1884; J. Orr, art. ' Kingdom ' in HDB ii. ; W. Sanday, ' St. Paul's Equivalent for the " Kingdom of Heaven " • in JThSt i. [1900] 481.
WiLLOUGHBY C. ALLEN.
KISH (B''p,Kiy), the father of Saul, called Cis in the AV (Ac 1321).
KISS.— See Salutation.
KNOWLEDGE. — The distinctive sense in which the apostles speak of knowledge has reference to the knowledge of God, and especially to the know- ledge of God and the world through Jesus Christ.
1. The organ of knowledge.— St. Paul teaches clearly (Ro ps-ss) that, apart from any special revelation, God has exhibited so plainly His attri- butes of eternal power and divinity in creation that there is given to man an instinctive knowledge of God. There is a certain intelligence in mankind which, apart from the power of tiie senses, makes God known by the heart when He is not understood by the reason. Indeed, men became darkened in their understandings when they began to indulge in reasoning, and in trying to be wise they became fools. Thus St. Paul places the intuitive moral consciousness as the central organ of the true knowledge of God. When the Apostle speaks of the means by which the Christian knowledge of God is acquired, he develops this principle. It is true that St. Paul admits that for the knowledge of the facts of Clirist's life he and others are in- debted to the testimony of witnesses (1 Co 15'), and that for bringing faith and knowledge the preach- ing of the word of truth is invaluable, but he insists pre-eminently that in all true knowledge of God in Christ the spirit of man is directly acted upon by the Spirit of God (1 Co 2^-8, Eph 3»).
St. Paul, Avho excelled in logic and speculation, cannot be regarded as unnecessarily decrying the logical faculty or the speculative gift, and yet he speaks of reasonings (\oyia/xo)js) and of vaunting speculations ('every high thing,' irav v\//(xi/xa) as possible strengths of the enemy that required to be cast down, and of the need of bringing every thought into the obedience of Christ (2 Co 10'). Perhaps this attitude may have been accentuated for the Apostle by the fact that in his own experience so much of his knowledge should have come directly in visions, as in the vision of Jesus, the Exalted Christ (Ac 9'), in the vision of the man
KNOWLEDGE
KNOWLEDGE
679
of Macedonia (16^°), and in the vision of the third heaven (2 Co 12i).
St. John declares that all men have the organ of spiritual vision by which God, who is light, is revealed to them. Many refuse to exercise this organ, and prefer to dwell in darkness, and thus lose the power of knowing, while spiritual vision becomes clearer and stronger by a purer and better moral life. Those who keep the commandments of God come to a growing knowledge (1 Jn 2^), and only those in whom love is abiding really possess this Divine knowledge (4''). Whoever persists in sinning does not know God (3®). The organ of knowledge is spiritual and ethical, not merely logical or speculative.
Thus both these apostles are alike in their insistence that the organ of Divine knowledge is to be found in this deep faculty of the soul. The apostles would agree in the saying : ' Pectus facit Christianum,' if not : ' Pectus facit theologum.'
2. The object of knowledge. — Much of the earliest teaching of the apostles was to demonstrate that Jesus of Nazareth was the Christ of God (Ac 2^^), and the object of all their knowledge and preaching might be summed up in the phrase of St. Paul: 'to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ ' (2 Co 4®). This illumination {(pij}Tiafi6s) came first to the apostles with the purpose of being conveyed by them to others who were in ignorance. Thus the object that is made known to all Christians is the glory of God as revealed in the person, character, and work of Jesus Christ, so that what was only dimly discerned before is now clearly seen. This is the open secret that believers in Christ have dis- covered and deliglit to make known. This is the fjLVffTrjpiov that was hidden for long ages but is now revealed, so that the Divine plan of redemption is no longer a secret but is heralded forth in Jesus Christ (Ro 16^5, 1 Co 2^). Thus St. Paul conceives of the glory of God as having been long concealed by the clouds of earth, but at last having shone forth in undimmed splendour ; and those who believe that Jesus is the Lord receive a vision of God's glory that illuminates all life, history, and experience.
To St. John also Jesus Christ is the source of light on all the great matters of life. Through Him we know God (1 Jn 2^), and this provides the key to all knowledge.
The other apostles agree in the central place in their teaching being given to the knowledge of God in Christ, and the Epistle to the Hebrews (8^^), in announcing that under the New Covenant there has come a universal knowledge of God, not only embodies the hopes of the OT prophets but also declares the faith of the NT teachers.