1 The Kingdom of God in Jesus and Paul By: Reuben M. Bredenhof rm.bredenhof@gmail.com www.reubenbredenhof.com Introduction With drama and consequence Jesus announced the coming of the Kingdom of God at the beginning of his ministry (Mark 1:15).1 The arrival of the Kingdom is clearly a central theme in the preaching of Jesus as recorded in the different Gospel accounts.2 The terminology and imagery of the Kingdom is closely tied to the whole of Jesus’s ministry on earth and his announcement of the good news of salvation. A concept that is so central to the teaching and life of Jesus might then be expected to set the tone for the rest of the New Testament. Its frequency of occurrence in the Gospels might be anticipated to assure its centrality in the other New Testament writings, yet this is not what is discovered, at least upon a superficial reading. Especially notable for the purposes of this paper is that the apostle Paul only occasionally refers to the Kingdom in his letters, which gives rise to various questions. Why does Paul not refer to the Kingdom with more frequency? Conversely, why does Jesus refer to the Kingdom as much as he does? And more basically, what do both Jesus and Paul mean when they refer to the Kingdom? In this paper we will attempt to answer the first two questions, in reverse order. Firstly, we will look at why Jesus might have used the language so frequently. Second, we will investigate why Paul might have used the language of Kingdom less. Before considering this material, however, the question lastly posed about the meaning of the Kingdom will be briefly answered, with a particular
“Kingdom” is used as a shorthand reference throughout this paper. This refers particularly to the three Synoptic Gospels, as the Gospel of John has few references to the Kingdom. It is broadly agreed among scholars that Matthew’s usual reference to the Kingdom of heaven can be understood as being synonymous with Kingdom of God; see e.g., Geerhardus Vos, The Kingdom of God and the Church (Nutley, NJ: Presbyterian and Reformed, 1972), 24-26. 1 2