When compared to the Lord’s recorded words in Matthew and Mark, the arrangement of parallel statements in Luke seems misplaced (Luke 17:23-37; 18:8; 19:41-44). Also, according to Matthew and Mark’s reporting, the signs of which Jesus spoke are said to signal the imminence of Jerusalem’s fall (Matt. 24:33-34; Mark 13:29-30), whereas Luke quotes Jesus saying, “when you see these things happening, know that the kingdom of God is near” (Luke 21:31).1
How do we account for these differences, and can they be harmonized? How is “near” to be understood in relation to “the kingdom of God”? How does the overall message and purpose of Luke’s Gospel shed light on his unique arrangement and wording? And how does all this fit into the broader context of kingdom theology? The main focus of our current study is how the term βασιλεία is employed in Luke’s writings with respect to ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ, typically rendered in English, “the kingdom of God.”
Concerning Biblical Chronology
In view of the fact that Jesus almost certainly addressed the same topics on multiple occasions, the repetition of words in various written accounts does not automatically imply the same setting. Neither does any record of the same event provide comprehensive information or replicate every detail. Rather than contradict, the different versions of the Gospel story confirm, supplement, and complement one another.
Unlike modern-day westerners, biblical authors were not preoccupied with linear thinking, and they often arranged materials, under the guidance of God’s Spirit, thematically rather than chronologically. More than just historians and biographers, the Gospel writers were primarily evangelists and theologians, organizing their narratives with deliberate interest in certain aspects of what the Lord said, did, and experienced. Each author retells the story of Jesus from a unique perspective in ways relevant to and meaningful for a particular reading audience.
Word Analysis
The adverbial ἐγγύς (“near”) can be used in the sense of (a) closeness in spatial proximity (John 3:23; 6:19, 23); or (b) closeness in time (John 2:13; 6:4; 7:2).2 This modifier occurs eight times in the Synoptic Gospels, both as a time reference (Matt. 26:18) and as a spatial reference (Luke 19:11). In its verbal form (ἐγγίζω), twice in Luke’s Gospel the kingdom of God is said to have “drawn near” in the spatial sense (Luke 10:9-10).
The most apparent meaning of ἐγγύς in the parallel accounts of Matt. 24:32-33, Mark 13:28-29, and Luke 21:30-31 is nearness in time with reference to the approach of summer and the destruction of Judaism’s capital city and temple. How, then, do “these things,” according to Luke’s record, point to the nearness of God’s kingdom?
The Kingdom of God Biblically Defined
The Greek noun βασιλεία, with reference to “the act of ruling” in the abstract sense, essentially means “kingship, royal power, royal rule,” and particularly in the NT, “the royal reign of God.” A secondary meaning is “kingdom” in the concrete sense of the “territory ruled by a king” (BDAG 168-69).
Although the words of Jesus have been preserved in Greek translation, he originally conversed in Aramaic with fellow-Aramaic speaking Jews, and his teachings were grounded in the Hebrew scriptures, mainly directed to those familiar with these sacred writings. How would he and his listeners have understood the term rendered βασιλεία in Greek and “kingdom” in our English Bibles?
The Aramaic malkû [מַלְכוּ] corresponds to the Hebrew malkûth [מַלְכוּת], translated βασιλεία in the LXX, meaning “kingship, royalty ... sovereignty over ... kingship over” (BDBG 574). German theologian Gustaf Dalman, who pioneered the study of biblical Aramaic, along with ancient Near Eastern culture and Jewish literature, concluded: “No doubt can be entertained that both in the Old Testament and in Jewish literature מַלְכוּת, when applied to God, means always the ‘kingly rule,’ never ‘the kingdom,’ as if it were meant to suggest the territory governed by Him.... not a body politic in our sense, a people or land under some form of constitution but merely a ‘sovereignty’ which embraces a particular territory” (Words of Jesus 94).
At the same time, however, even though Jesus did explain and clarify OT teachings with divine insight, he extended his new-covenant message beyond old-covenant concepts. With the fundamental idea of “sovereign rule” as its core meaning, the expression’s frequent use in the NT, particularly in the teachings of Christ, is too broad and flexible to fit neatly into a single semantic box. There are a number of βασιλεία passages where the expanded sense of “kingdom” is also appropriate and applicable.
The scriptures clearly affirm the sovereignty of God and the universal realm of his reign,3 although the history of the world is replete with defiant humans rejecting his rule in their lives. Biblical allusions to divine governance, therefore, are often meant in the more limited sense of the sphere in which God’s dominion is accepted, acknowledged, and lived out in the lives of those submitting to his will, collectively comprising his spiritual kingdom as obedient subjects.
In this broader sense, the βασιλεία of God is both internal and experiential. The Lord can speak of those who are in God’s βασιλεία (Luke 7:28; 13:24-29; 14:15-25; 18:16-25) and God’s βασιλεία in them (Luke 13:20-21; 17:20-21). Conversely, there are those excluded from the sphere of God’s reign (Luke 13:24-28), seeing that inwardly they are void of his governing control (Matt 23:21-28).
Since a king represents and exemplifies the kingdom over which he rules,4 Jesus’s royal status of messianic kingship, acknowledged before and during his earthly ministry,5 embodies God’s kingdom and sovereign reign. When he sent out dozens of disciples to preach in communities where he himself was about to go, they were to announce, “the kingdom of God has drawn near to you ... the kingdom of God has drawn near” (Luke 10:9, 11). As noted above, the modifier “near” can mean closeness in spatial proximity or closeness in time. Jesus, representing and personifying the kingdom of God, was nearby geographically, while his arrival in these communities was close in time. He could also say, “the kingdom of God has come upon you” (Luke 11:20), and “the kingdom of God is in your midst” (Luke 17:20-21).
The Fact of God’s Kingdom in Luke
Proclaiming the good news of “the kingdom of God” was a major thrust of Jesus’s public ministry (Luke 4:43; 8:1; 9:11). He also trained and sent out faithful disciples “to proclaim the kingdom of God ...” (Luke 9:2, 60; 10:9).
Because of their receptive hearts and openness to spiritual teachings, loyal followers of Jesus were afforded the opportunity “to know the mysteries of the kingdom of God ...” (Luke 8:10a), i.e., the deeper spiritual truths once hidden but now revealed.6 Conversely, the uncommitted, closed-minded, and worldly-driven ones are not only incapable of comprehending God’s kingdom but are unprepared for it (Luke 8:10b; 9:62; cf. 12:1-2).
Instead of striving for the material things of this physical world, Jesus instructed his followers: “But seek his kingdom ... for your Father has taken pleasure to give you the kingdom .... for where your treasure is, there your heart will be also” (Luke 12:31-34). The sovereign rule of God is actualized both inwardly and outwardly.
In the course of Christ’s itinerant ministry, while teaching in a synagogue, twice he rhetorically asked, “To what is the kingdom of God like, and to what shall I compare it?” He then likened God’s kingdom to a mustard seed, something planted that starts out small but grows big, and to a leavening agent, something that permeates, transforms, and spreads (Luke 13:18-21), with both internal and external effects.
Conclusion
In the next post we will consider passages in Luke’s Gospel where God’s kingdom is spoken of as not yet, soon to be, and already here. Instead of conflicting, however, these texts collectively demonstrate the different ways God’s βασιλεία is conceptualized, with varying nuances and emphases that reveal a rich and multifaceted kingdom theology.
--Kevin L. Moore
Endnotes:
1 Unless noted otherwise, scripture quotations are the author’s own translation.
2 See BDAG 271. Another option, closely related to the first, is the concept of spiritual or relational closeness (Rom. 10:8; Eph. 2:13, 17). The verb form ἐγγίζω (“draw near”) is employed eighteen times in Luke’s Gospel, mostly as a distance marker (7:12; 10:9, 11; 12:33; 15:1, 25; 18:35, 40; 19:29, 37, 41; 22:47; 24:15, 28), but also in relation to time (21:8, 20, 28; 22:1).
3 1 Chron. 29:11-12; 2 Chron. 20:6; Psa. 10:16; 22:28; 29:10; 45:6; 93:1-2; 103:19; 145:1-13; Jer. 10:10; Lam. 5:19; Dan. 4:3; Acts 17:24-25; Rev. 4:11.
4 See esp. Dan. 2:37-45; 8:20-21; cf. also Num. 24:7; 1 Sam. 24:20; 2 Sam. 5:12; 1 Kings 2:46; 1 Chron. 14:2
5 Luke 1:32-33; 19:38-40; 23:2-3; cf. Matt. 2:1-6; 21:4-5; Mark 11:9-10.
6 See Rom. 16:25; 1 Cor. 2:7; 4:1; Eph. 1:9; 3:3-9; 5:32; 6:19; Col. 1:24-28; 2:2; 4:3-4; 1 Tim. 3:9, 16.
Works Cited:
BDAG: Walter Bauer, F. W. Danker, W. F. Arndt, and F. W. Gingrich, A Greek-English Lexicon of the New Testament and other Early Christian Literature. 3rd ed. Chicago; London: The University of Chicago Press, 2001.
BDBG: Francis Brown, S. R. Driver, and Charles A. Briggs, The New Brown–Driver–Briggs–Gesenius Hebrew and English Lexicon. Lafayette, IN: Associated Publishers, 1980.
Gustaf Dalman, The words of Jesus considered in the light of post-Biblical Jewish writings and the Aramaic language, trans. D. M. Kay. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark, 1902.
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