Abrahamic religions The term Abrahamic religions is used to group together monotheistic religions revering the Biblical figure Abraham, namely Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The religions share doctrinal, historical, and geographic overlap that contrasts them wit ...

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' The "Kingdom of God" and its equivalent form "Kingdom of Heaven" in the

Gospel of Matthew The Gospel of Matthew is the first book of the New Testament of the Bible and one of the three synoptic Gospels. It tells the story of who the author believes is Israel's messiah (Christ (title), Christ), Jesus, resurrection of Jesus, his res ...

is one of the key elements of the teachings of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

. The

Gospel of Mark The Gospel of Mark is the second of the four canonical Gospels and one of the three synoptic Gospels, synoptic Gospels. It tells of the ministry of Jesus from baptism of Jesus, his baptism by John the Baptist to his death, the Burial of Jesus, ...

indicates that the gospel is the good news about the Kingdom of God. The term pertains to the kingship of Christ over all creation. The phrase "Kingdom of heaven" appears in Matthew's gospel due primarily to Jewish sensibilities about uttering the "name" (God). Jesus did not teach the kingdom of God ''per se'' so much as the ''return'' of that kingdom. The notion of God's kingdom (as it had been under

Moses In Abrahamic religions, Moses was the Hebrews, Hebrew prophet who led the Israelites out of slavery in the The Exodus, Exodus from ancient Egypt, Egypt. He is considered the most important Prophets in Judaism, prophet in Judaism and Samaritani ...

) returning became an agitation in Roman Palestine 60 years before Jesus was born, and continued to be a force for nearly a hundred years after his death.''The Gospel of Matthew'' by R.T. France (21 Aug 2007) pp. 101–103 Drawing on

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

teachings, the Christian characterization of the relationship between God and humanity inherently involves the notion of the "Kingship of God". The

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

does not use the term "kingdom of God", but includes the Throne Verse which talks about the throne of

God In monotheistic belief systems, God is usually viewed as the supreme being, creator, and principal object of faith. In polytheistic belief systems, a god is "a spirit or being believed to have created, or for controlling some part of the un ...

encompassing the heavens and the Earth. The

Quran The Quran, also Romanization, romanized Qur'an or Koran, is the central religious text of Islam, believed by Muslims to be a Waḥy, revelation directly from God in Islam, God (''Allah, Allāh''). It is organized in 114 chapters (, ) which ...

also refers to

Abraham Abraham (originally Abram) is the common Hebrews, Hebrew Patriarchs (Bible), patriarch of the Abrahamic religions, including Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. In Judaism, he is the founding father who began the Covenant (biblical), covenanta ...

seeing the "Kingdom of the heavens". Writings of the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...

also use the term "kingdom of God".

Zoroastrianism

Zoroastrianism Zoroastrianism ( ), also called Mazdayasnā () or Beh-dīn (), is an Iranian religions, Iranian religion centred on the Avesta and the teachings of Zoroaster, Zarathushtra Spitama, who is more commonly referred to by the Greek translation, ...

, a possible influence on Abrahamic traditions, includes the concept of a "kingdom of God" or of a divine kingship:

In the ''Gāthās''
Zoroaster Zarathushtra Spitama, more commonly known as Zoroaster or Zarathustra, was an Iranian peoples, Iranian religious reformer who challenged the tenets of the contemporary Ancient Iranian religion, becoming the spiritual founder of Zoroastrianism ...
's thoughts about ''khšathra'' as a thing turn mostly to the 'dominion' or 'kingdom' of God, which was conceived, it seems, both as
heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...
itself, thought of as lying just above the visible sky, and as the kingdom of God to come on earth which is also represented by Khšathra - hence, presumably, his standing epithet of ''vairya'' 'desirable'; for as Christians pray to God, 'Thy kingdom come ...', so also Zoroastrians long to establish the kingdom of Ahura Mazdā here below. ..The heavenly aspect of khšathra/Khšathra has plainly a pagan origin, for in the
Vedas FIle:Atharva-Veda samhita page 471 illustration.png, upright=1.2, The Vedas are ancient Sanskrit texts of Hinduism. Above: A page from the ''Atharvaveda''. The Vedas ( or ; ), sometimes collectively called the Veda, are a large body of relig ...

Paradise In religion and folklore, paradise is a place of everlasting happiness, delight, and bliss. Paradisiacal notions are often laden with pastoral imagery, and may be cosmogonical, eschatological, or both, often contrasted with the miseries of human ...
is the kṣatra of Varuṇa, the kingdom of heaven which for their own happiness men longed to attain.

Hebrew Bible

The term
kingdom of the LORD
appears twice in the

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' "Yours is the kingdom, O Lord" is used in and "His kingdom is an everlasting kingdom" in ( in the verse numbering used in Christian Bibles) for example.''Psalms: Interpretation'' by James Mays 2011 pp. 438–439 There are also verses like that show how Israel, as God's

chosen people Throughout history, various groups of people have considered themselves to be the chosen people of a deity, for a particular purpose. The phenomenon of "chosen people" is well known among the Israelites and Jews, where the term () refers to the ...

, are considered to be a kingdom, mirroring some Christian interpretations that view God's kingdom as Christendom. "The Hebrew word ''malkuth'' ..refers first to a reign, dominion, or rule and only secondarily to the realm over which a reign is exercised. ..When ''malkuth'' is used of God, it almost always refers to his authority or to his rule as the heavenly King." The "enthronement psalms" (

Psalms The Book of Psalms ( , ; ; ; ; , in Islam also called Zabur, ), also known as the Psalter, is the first book of the third section of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible) called ('Writings'), and a book of the Old Testament. The book is an anthology of B ...

45, 93, 96, 97–99) provide a background for this view with the exclamation "The Lord is King".''Dictionary of Biblical Imagery'' by Leland Ryken, James C. Wilhoit and Tremper Longman III (11 November 1998) pp. 478–479 , Isaiah 6, Ezekiel 1 and all speak of the Throne of God, although some philosophers such as

Saadia Gaon Saʿadia ben Yosef Gaon (892–942) was a prominent rabbi, Geonim, gaon, Jews, Jewish philosopher, and exegesis, exegete who was active in the Abbasid Caliphate. Saadia is the first important rabbinic figure to write extensively in Judeo-Arabic ...

and

Maimonides Moses ben Maimon (1138–1204), commonly known as Maimonides (, ) and also referred to by the Hebrew acronym Rambam (), was a Sephardic rabbi and Jewish philosophy, philosopher who became one of the most prolific and influential Torah schola ...

interpreted such mention of a "throne" as allegory.

Intertestamental period

The phrase ''the Kingdom of God'' is not common in intertestamental literature. Where it does occur, such as in the Psalms of Solomon and the Wisdom of Solomon, it usually refers to "God's reign, not to the realm over which he reigns, nor to the new age, or to ...the messianic order to be established by the Lord's Anointed". The term does occasionally, however, denote "an eschatological event", such as in the Assumption of Moses and the

Sibylline Oracles The ''Sibylline Oracles'' (; sometimes called the pseudo-Sibylline Oracles) are a collection of oracular utterances written in Greek hexameters ascribed to the Sibyls, prophetesses who uttered divine revelations in a frenzied state. Fourteen b ...

. In these works, "God's Kingdom is not the new age but the effective manifestation of his rule in all the world so that the eschatological order is established." Along these lines was the more "national" view in which the awaited messiah was seen as a liberator and the founder of a new state of Israel.

New Testament

The

Gospel of Luke The Gospel of Luke is the third of the New Testament's four canonical Gospels. It tells of the origins, Nativity of Jesus, birth, Ministry of Jesus, ministry, Crucifixion of Jesus, death, Resurrection of Jesus, resurrection, and Ascension of ...

records Jesus' description of the Kingdom of God, "The kingdom of God does not come with observation; neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you." In the

Synoptic Gospels The gospels of Gospel of Matthew, Matthew, Gospel of Mark, Mark, and Gospel of Luke, Luke are referred to as the synoptic Gospels because they include many of the same stories, often in a similar sequence and in similar or sometimes identical ...

, Jesus speaks frequently of God's kingdom. However within the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

, nowhere does Jesus appear to clearly define the concept.George Eldon Ladd, The Presence of the Future: The Eschatology of Biblical Realism, Eerdmans (Grand Rapids: 1974), 45. Within the Synoptic Gospel accounts, the assumption appears to have been made that, "this was a concept so familiar that it did not require definition." Karen Wenell wrote, "Mark's Gospel provides for us a significant place of transformation for the space of the Kingdom of God, precisely because it can be understood as a kind of birthplace for the Kingdom of God, the beginning of its construction ...". John's Gospel refers to the Kingdom of God in Jesus' dialogue with Nicodemus in chapter 3.

Constantin von Tischendorf Constantin is an Aromanian language, Aromanian, Megleno-Romanian language, Megleno-Romanian and Romanian language, Romanian male given name. It can also be a surname. For a list of notable people called Constantin, see Constantine (name). See ...

's text is exceptional in referring to "the kingdom of heaven" in John 3:5, on evidence which Heinrich Meyer describes as "ancient but yet inadequate". Within the non-canonical, yet contemporary Gnostic Gospel of Thomas, Jesus is quoted as saying, "If those who lead you say to you: ‘Look, the kingdom is in the sky!’ then the birds of the sky will precede you. If they say to you: ‘It is in the sea,’ then the fishes will precede you. Rather, the kingdom is inside of you and outside of you. When you come to know yourselves, then you will be known, and you will realize that you are the children of the living Father."Gospel of Thomas’s 114 Sayings of Jesus
Biblical Archaeological Society. 4 June 2017. Downloaded 4 September 2017. This same Gospel of Thomas further describes Jesus as implying that the Kingdom of God is already present, saying, "The kingdom of the Father is spread out upon the earth, and people do not see it.” The

Apostle Paul Paul, also named Saul of Tarsus, commonly known as Paul the Apostle and Saint Paul, was a Apostles in the New Testament, Christian apostle ( AD) who spread the Ministry of Jesus, teachings of Jesus in the Christianity in the 1st century, first ...

described the Kingdom of God in his letter to the church in Rome: "For the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking, but of righteousness, peace and joy in the Holy Spirit." The Kingdom of God (and its possibly equivalent form Kingdom of Heaven in the Gospel of Matthew) is one of the key elements of the teachings of

Jesus Jesus (AD 30 or 33), also referred to as Jesus Christ, Jesus of Nazareth, and many Names and titles of Jesus in the New Testament, other names and titles, was a 1st-century Jewish preacher and religious leader. He is the Jesus in Chris ...

in the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

. Drawing on Old Testament teachings, the Christian characterization of the relationship between God and humanity inherently involves the notion of the "Kingship of God".''Mercer Dictionary of the Bible'' by Watson E. Mills, Edgar V. McKnight and Roger A. Bullard (2001) p. 490 Most of the uses of the Greek word, ''basileia'' (kingdom), in the New Testament involve Kingdom of God (or Kingdom of Heaven). Matthew is likely to have instead used the term

heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

because the background of his Jewish audience imposed restrictions on the frequent use of the name of God. However, Dr. Chuck Missler asserts that Matthew intentionally differentiated between the kingdoms of God and Heaven: "Most commentators presume that these terms are synonymous. However, Matthew uses ''Kingdom of Heaven'' 33 times, but also uses ''Kingdom of God'' five times, even in adjacent verses, which indicates that these are not synonymous: he is using a more denotative term." Kingdom of God is translated to

Latin Latin ( or ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally spoken by the Latins (Italic tribe), Latins in Latium (now known as Lazio), the lower Tiber area aroun ...

as ''Regnum Dei'' and Kingdom of Heaven as ''Regnum caelorum''.

Christianity

The

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

refers to "God the Judge of all" and the notion that all humans will eventually be judged is an essential element of Christian teachings.''Introducing Christian Doctrine'' (2nd Edition) by Millard J. Erickson (2001) pp. 391–392 Building on a number of New Testament passages, the Nicene Creed indicates that the task of judgment is assigned to Jesus.''Systematic Theology'' Vol 2 by Wolfhart Pannenberg (2004) pp. 390–391 No overall agreement on the theological interpretation of "Kingdom of God" has emerged among scholars. While a number of theological interpretations of the term Kingdom of God have appeared in its eschatological context, e.g. apocalyptic, realized or Inaugurated eschatologies, no consensus has emerged among scholars.''Familiar Stranger: An Introduction to Jesus of Nazareth'' by Michael James McClymond (2004) pp. 77–79''Studying the Historical Jesus: Evaluations of the State of Current Research'' by Bruce Chilton and Craig A. Evans (1998) p. 255–257 R. T. France points out that while the concept of "Kingdom of God" has an intuitive meaning to lay Christians, there is hardly any agreement among scholars about its meaning in the New Testament.''Divine Government: God's Kingship in the Gospel of Mark'' by R.T. France (2003) pp. 1–3 Some scholars see it as a Christian lifestyle, some as a method of world evangelization, some as the rediscovery of charismatic gifts, others relate it to no present or future situation, but the

world to come The world to come, age to come, heaven on Earth, and the Kingdom of God are eschatology, eschatological phrases reflecting the belief that the World (theology), current world or Dispensation (period), current age is flawed or cursed and will be r ...

. France states that the phrase Kingdom of God is often interpreted in many ways to fit the theological agenda of those interpreting it. In the

New Testament The New Testament (NT) is the second division of the Christian biblical canon. It discusses the teachings and person of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus, as well as events relating to Christianity in the 1st century, first-century Christianit ...

, the Throne of God is alluded to in several forms. Among these are

Heaven Heaven, or the Heavens, is a common Religious cosmology, religious cosmological or supernatural place where beings such as deity, deities, angels, souls, saints, or Veneration of the dead, venerated ancestors are said to originate, be throne, ...

as the Throne of God, The Throne of

David David (; , "beloved one") was a king of ancient Israel and Judah and the third king of the United Monarchy, according to the Hebrew Bible and Old Testament. The Tel Dan stele, an Aramaic-inscribed stone erected by a king of Aram-Dam ...

, The Throne of Glory, The Throne of Grace and many more. The New Testament continues Jewish identification of heaven itself as the "throne of God", but also locates the throne of God as "in heaven" and having a second subordinate seat at the Right Hand of God for the Session of Christ.

Islam

The term "kingdom of God" does not occur in the Quran. The modern Arabic word for kingdom is ''mamlaka'' (المملكة), but in the Quran ''mul'kan'' (مُّلْكًا), refers to Heaven, e.g. in 4:54 "Or do they envy mankind for what Allah hath given them of his bounty? but We had already given the people of Abraham the Book and Wisdom, and conferred upon them a great kingdom" and 6:75 "Thus did We show Abraham the kingdom of the heavens and the earth."''Biblical Prophets in the Qur'an and Muslim Literature'' by Roberto Tottoli (2001) p. 27 The variant ''Maalik'' (Owner, etmologically similar to ''Malik'' (king)) occurs in 1:4 " llah isThe owner of the Day of Judgement".Quran 1:4

Bahá'í Faith

The term "kingdom of God" appears in the writings of the

Baháʼí Faith The Baháʼí Faith is a religion founded in the 19th century that teaches the Baháʼí Faith and the unity of religion, essential worth of all religions and Baháʼí Faith and the unity of humanity, the unity of all people. Established by ...

, including the religious works of Bahá'u'lláh, the founder of the religion, and his son `Abdu'l-Bahá. In the Baháʼí teachings, the kingdom of God is seen both as a state of individual being, and the state of the world. Bahá'u'lláh claimed that the scriptures of the world's religions foretell a coming messianic figure that will bring a golden age of humanity, the kingdom of God on earth. He claimed to be that figure, and that his teachings would bring about the kingdom of God; he also noted that the prophecies relating to the end times and the arrival of the kingdom of God were symbolic and referred to spiritual upheaval and renewal. The Baháʼí teachings also state as people worship and serve humanity they become closer to God and develop spiritually, so that they can attain eternal life and enter the kingdom of God while alive.

References and notes

External links

Catholic Encyclopedia: Kingdom of God

Jewish Encyclopedia: Kingdom of God

* {{Authority control Judeo-Christian topics Biblical phrases Christ the King Christian terminology Heaven in Christianity Jewish eschatology Christian eschatology Islamic eschatology Luminous Mysteries Mythical utopias

Zoroastrianism

Hebrew Bible

Intertestamental period

New Testament

Christianity

Islam

Bahá'í Faith

See also

References and notes

External links