Kingdom of god

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The term kingdom of God , also the rule of God or the rule of God , ( Hebrew מלכות malchut , Greek Βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ basileia tou theou ) in the Bible describes the dynamic work of YHWH , the God of the Israelites , in the world and the spatial domain in which God is Will enforced.

The term is linked to the title of YHWH as King in the Tanakh and expresses on the one hand the belief that God rules over all creation from the beginning , and on the other hand that God's will for salvation will be universally enforced in the end times against all opposition . Biblical prophecy and apocalyptic therefore associate the term with various ideas, including the universal enforcement of the Torah , the liberation of all Israelites from foreign rule and all peoples from tyranny, with God's coming to the final judgment and an overturning transformation of creation, which overcome all evil, everyone Forgive guilt, end all suffering, pain and death.

According to the New Testament, Jesus of Nazareth proclaimed this kingdom of God as "coming near" ( Mk 1.15  EU ) and illustrated it in many ways: for example through healing miracles , narrative parables and discourses such as the Sermon on the Mount . For early Christianity , the work, death and resurrection of Jesus Christ are the intrusion of this kingdom into the hostile world, with which he ultimately affirmed and began to fulfill the promises of the future of the biblical prophets (e.g. Is 25: 8) (e.g. Rev 21: 4).

According to the Bible, God's kingdom limits, relativizes and criticizes all human exercise of power and all earthly systems of rule as their ultimate future. The term therefore plays an important role in millenarianism , messianism and political theology .

Tanakh

YHWH as king

The term “Kingdom of God” is based on the title “King” (Hebrew מלך melech ) for YHWH. This title became common in the history of Israel from the time of the kings (from around 1000 BC), especially in the Jerusalem temple cult . It comes from the pre-Israelite religion of Canaan , which, according to text finds from Ugarit, designated the “highest god” ( El Äljon ) as enthroned, the god Ba'al as the newly appointed “king”. The Jews took over the title and merged both aspects ( "King God is / is") together.

The Tanakh speaks of a "kingship" of YHWH only in a few places. In the Pentateuch , these scattered documents are also assigned to a later processing shift ( Ex 15.17f  EU ; Num 23.21  EU ; Dtn 33.5.26  EU ). Probably the oldest evidence is Isa 6.5  EU (before 722 BC). On the other hand, there are parallels for biblical statements such as God's accession to the throne , honor by a heavenly “court” and homage by “sons of gods” or foreign gods ( Ps 29.1f.9  EU ; Ps 97.7  EU etc.) right down to the wording Clay tablet finds from Ugarit . Images of a royal mountain of God Zaphon , on which the weather and fertility god Ba'al is enthroned, also resemble biblical statements (e.g. Ps 48,3  EU ).

For this reason, Old Testament scholars usually assume that the biblical complex of motifs of YHWH's royal rule was given to the Israelites in the polytheistic religion of Canaan . Its inhabitants lived in city-states ruled by monarchs and cultivated a hierarchical pantheon with the god El at the head: he was represented with the title of king as head of the assembly of gods, enthroned over it and demanding respect from the other gods. Baal, his "son", is promised in Canaanite myths of gods a kingship of unlimited duration (cf. Ps 145,13  EU ). Both traits were transferred from the Israelites to the god YHWH, who had brought with them from the desert, in order to disempower the local gods.

The Old Testament scholar Werner H. Schmidt summarizes the findings as follows:

“If one realizes that a divine“ kingship ”in Israel does not testify with certainty before the conquest of the land, but is familiar to the Canaanite as well as the ancient Near Eastern religion and that there are a number of connections between Ugaritic and Old Testament texts, the conclusion cannot be avoided: Yahweh “Royalty” is a legacy of Canaan. Israel's God has united the kingship of both gods, Els and Baals, to himself. "

Schmidt also assumes that this process had something to do with the choice of Jerusalem as the capital of the great empire of Israel under King David , but was also conceivable in older cult sites such as Shiloh , since there the pre- state ark brought by David to Jerusalem as the throne of YHWH had been taken.

Royal Psalms

The abstract term “royal rule of YHWH” (Hebrew malkuth ) occurs only six times in the Tanach ( Ps 103.19  EU ; Ps 145.11-13  EU ; 1 Chr 17.14  EU ; 1 Chr 28.5  EU ). All of these positions are considered post-exilic. Malkuth can also be found standing on its own in the apocalyptic or apocryphal texts Obd 21 and Dan 2,44; 7.13.27. Much more frequent are statements that graphically illustrate YHWH as king and his royal rule.

Its origin is the statement "YHWH has (become) king" adopted from Canaanite cults. This commitment can often be found in the so-called royal psalms, including Ps 93  EU , Ps 96  EU -99 EU . In Ps 95 : 1ff  EU it says for example:

“Come, let us cheer before the Lord and shout to the rock of our salvation! Let us approach his face with praise, let us shout with songs before him! For the Lord is a great God, a great King above all gods. "

This is explained in more detail with the reference to creation :

“In his hand are the depths of the earth, his are the tops of the mountains. His is the sea he made, the dry land his hands made. Come, let us bow down, let us bow down before him, let us kneel down before the Lord our Creator! "

The required recognition ( Proskynesis ) of the king of gods follows on from the Canaanite conception of the highest god in the god realm, but does not justify his power with a victory after a mythical battle between the gods , but with his rule over the whole earth, which the chosen people of God enjoy thanks to their wonderful leadership showed until the conquest:

"For he is our God, we are the people of his pasture, the flock, led by his hand."

The request follows:

"Oh, would you listen to his voice today!"

God's universal royal dignity is justified here with the special election of Israel. The depotentation of the foreign gods aims at the admonition to Israel to realize God's law; the Torah revelation is therefore presupposed. Similarly, but with an emphasis on the exemplary obedience of Israel and its leaders, it says in Ps 99 : 1ff  EU :

“The Lord is King: the peoples tremble. He is enthroned on the Kerubim: the earth is shaking. The Lord is great on Zion, exalted above all peoples. Let them praise your great, majestic name. Because he is holy. The king is strong, he loves justice. You firmly established the world order, created law and justice in Jacob. Praise the Lord our God; prostrate yourself on the stool of his feet! Because he is holy. Moses and Aaron are with his priests, Samuel with those who call on his name; they called to the Lord and he heard them. From the pillar of cloud he spoke to them; they kept his commandments, the statutes which he gave them. Lord our God, you have heard them; you were a forgiving God to them, but you have repaid their iniquities. Praise the Lord our God, bow down on his holy mountain. For the Lord our God is holy. "

The royal dignity of God and the secured existence of the people in the “promised land”, temple cult and demarcation from other gods form a motivic unity here (cf. Ps 24.7–10  EU , 29.9f EU , 68.25 EU ).

In the statement YHWH is king over the whole earth , his rulership over all peoples is included (e.g. Ps 47.8f  EU , Jos 3.11.13  EU , Ps 97.5  EU ). Contrary to older religious-historical hypotheses, according to which YHWH was already revered as a people's king by the Semitic nomads and became ruler of the world after the conquest, this universalism was already laid out in Canaan's religion. But it was developed and increased in Israel (e.g. in Ps 103.19  EU ; Ps 145.13  EU ). According to Werner H. Schmidt, myths about the war between gods and peoples may have been transformed. At the same time, however, unlike in Canaanite parallels, the personal reference of God's kingship to the individual and the people was preserved ( Ps 5.3  EU , Ps 84.4  EU , Ps 103.1f.19  EU , Ps 145.1  EU , Isa 33 , 22  EU ).

prophecy

In texts that arose after the Babylonian exile, God's rule of kings is increasingly moving from a description of the current state of affairs to a promise of the future: this is particularly the case with Deutero-Isaiah (e.g. Isa 52.7  EU ), in the little apocalypse ( Isa 33  EU ), in the Isaiah Apocalypse ( Isa 24  EU –27 EU ) as well as in several non-canonical texts of the apocalyptic tradition of Judaism.

New Testament

Gospels

In the NT the term βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ (basileia tou theou, kingdom of God ) appears in 122 places, of which 99 times in the Synoptic Gospels and once in the Gospel of John ( Joh 3,3.5  EU ). In the Gospel of Matthew it is often replaced by the equivalent βασιλεία τῶν ουρανῶν ( basileia ton ouranon , kingdom of heaven '').

Against the background of the Hebrew and Aramaic usage, the idea is not so much a geographical area of ​​rulership, but rather the dynamic exercise of the “rule of God” or “the rule of God”. In this sense, the “Kingdom of God” is also spoken of as the future place of the saved.

Preaching jesus

In the NT, following John the Baptist , Jesus begins his public appearance with the message ( Mk 1.14f  EU ):

“The time is fulfilled, the kingdom of God is at hand. Repent and believe in the gospel! "

This passage is closely interwoven with the language and overall context of the Gospel of Mark, so that a conclusion to the historical Jesus remains hypothetical . Nevertheless, due to its frequency in the Synoptic Gospels , the term is generally considered central to Jesus.

In the present promises of this kingdom for the poor and those who suffer violence ( Mt 5: 3–9  EU ) and in Jesus' own healing action ( Lk 11:20  EU ), this kingdom is already beginning to be realized on earth. According to Lk 17.20f  EU , it is “in the midst of you”, but cannot be recognized “here” or “there” or by “external signs”. In the apocryphal Gospel of Thomas , Logion 113 says:

"But the kingdom of the father is spread over the earth, and people do not see it."

In the utterances of Jesus there is a tension between an expectation of God's rule in the future and an "eschatology that is being realized" ( Werner Georg Kümmel ). The latter emphasizes - also in the ethical tradition of Jewish apocalyptic - spiritual distinction and moral responsibility, especially for the marginalized, since the time is ripe for it. In any case, Jesus thought practically that he was far from being consoled in the hereafter . He did not dream of another world of ideas and thought “more like Aristotle than Plato ”.

Jesus was not a "systematic theologian". He mentioned that some of his followers will experience the kingdom of God in full “dynamic power” while they are still alive ( Mk 9.1  EU ), but also emphasized that only God knows the point in time ( Mk 13.32  EU ).

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Perhaps authentic in this form, however, is Jesus' affirmation on the eve of his death that it is still pending and that it will not be there for good until his return ( Mk 14.25  EU ).

John 3 : 1-8  LUT states that the condition for seeing the kingdom of God is that one must first be “born again of the spirit”. Lk 17,20-21  LUT "For behold, the kingdom of God is within you."

Christianity history

Patristic

The extremely influential and almost equally controversial theologian Origen (185–253 / 254 AD) uses the term autobasileia to describe the close proximity between Jesus and the rulership of God proclaimed by him in his commentary on the Gospel of Matthew . In this way Jesus Christ becomes the epitome of the kingdom and is thus the already begun realization of what he himself has proclaimed.

Augustine of Hippo (AD 354–430) wrote in his famous work The State of God : "The present church on earth is both the kingdom of Christ and the kingdom of heaven." In doing so, he described the church not only as an image, but Part of this realm, even if mixed ( corpus mixtum ) with the world-ruling power of evil.

Medieval mysticism

Meister Eckhart does not understand the “nearness” of the kingdom of God in terms of time. Through the conversion (Metanoia) demanded by Jesus, humans recognize the kingdom of God "in" from outside to inside ( Lk 17.20  EU ):

"God is closer to me than I am to myself [...] In which soul 'God's kingdom' becomes visible and which soul recognizes 'God's kingdom' as being 'near', one does not need to preach nor give instruction: it becomes thereby instructed and assured of eternal life. Whoever knows and recognizes how “God's kingdom” is “close” to him can say with Jacob: “God is in this place and I did not know it” (Gen. 28, 16); but now I know. "

- Meister Eckhart, sermon 36

Johannes Tauler repeatedly pointed out in his sermons that the kingdom of God "[...] rests in the innermost, most hidden, deepest foundation of the soul [...]" and this is what Jesus meant in the Gospel of Luke with the words: The kingdom of God is in you (Lk 17:21). “Perceive the reason in yourselves, seek the kingdom of God and only his righteousness; that means: seek God alone, he is the true kingdom. "

German idealism

“Kingdom of God!” Was also the slogan with which Holderlin and Hegel parted after they had finished their theological studies at the Tübingen monastery: “We will recognize ourselves with this slogan after every metamorphosis,” wrote Hölderlin to Hegel (July 10th 1794)

Newer dogmatics

In the Catholic Church, even if the kingdom of God had been restored on earth, a doctrinal decision on the concept of the kingdom of God was never made.

For the German-speaking Baptists, the “Kingdom of God” (or “Rule of God”) is the central concept of their account of faith ; Based on this term, the Baptist understanding of faith is developed: the establishment of the rule of God (part 1), life under the rule of God (part 2), the completion of the rule of God (part 3).

For the British New Testament scholar and Anglican Nicholas Thomas Wright , the kingdom of God is the central theme of the presence and preaching of Jesus. He did not put off his listeners, disciples and followers for an individual salvation in an otherworldly heaven, but introduced them to the present and coming kingdom of God. This teaching found hardly any expression in the creeds and in the practice of the churches.

See also

literature

overview

  • Åke V. Ström, Erich Zenger , Louis Jacobs, Andreas Lindemann, Rudolf Mau, Michael Beintker , Christian Walther: Art. Lordship of God / Kingdom of God I. Religious history II. Old Testament III. Judaism IV. New Testament and Late Antique Judaism V. Old Church up to the Reformation VI. Modern times VII. Systematic-theological . In: Theologische Realenzyklopädie 15 (1986), pp. 172-244.

Tanach / Old Testament / Jewish Scriptures

New Testament / early Christianity

  • Mary Ann Beavis: Jesus & Utopia: Looking for the Kingdom of God in the Roman World. Augsburg Fortress Publications, 2006, ISBN 0-8006-3562-0 .
  • Johannes Beutler : "Kingdom of God" in the Gospel of John . In: Biblica , vol. 96 (2015), pp. 428–441.
  • Richard A. Horsley: Jesus and Empire: The Kingdom of God and the New World Disorder. Augsburg Fortress Publications, 2002, ISBN 0-8006-3490-X .
  • Werner Zager : Sermon on the Mount and the Kingdom of God. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 2002, ISBN 3-7887-1896-X .
  • Watson E. Mills: Jesus' Teachings on the Kingdom. Bibliographies on the life and teachings of Jesus. 6. Mellen Biblical Press, Lewiston, NY [u. a.] 2002, ISBN 0-7734-2456-3 (bibliography).
  • Peter Wolff: The early proclamation of the kingdom of God after Easter. Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1999, ISBN 3-525-53854-5 .
  • Michael Hauser: The rule of God in the Gospel of Mark. European University Theses 23/647. Lang, Frankfurt am Main 1998, ISBN 3-631-33903-8 .
  • Helmut Merklein : Jesus' message about the rule of God. Catholic Biblical Works, 2nd edition 1989, ISBN 3-460-04112-9 .

Systematic theology

Practical theology

  • Uwe Dittmer : The utopia of the kingdom of God. Politics with the Bible. Lembeck Otto GmbH, 2001, ISBN 3-87476-329-3 .
  • Claus Petersen: The message of Jesus about the kingdom of God. Call for a new beginning. Kreuz-Verlag, Gütersloh 2005, ISBN 3-7831-2591-X .
  • Nicholas Thomas Wright : Kingdom of God, Cross, Church: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels . (English: How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels ). Marburg, Francke, 2015, ISBN 978-3868275049 .

Web links

Commons : Kingdom of God  - collection of pictures, videos and audio files

References and comments

  1. ↑ Also "kingdom (kingship) of Heaven", Hebrew םימשתוכלמ malchut shamayim or מַלְכוּת מלכות malchut Elohim , it is the word malchut the verb malak based "reign" what, "act as a king and rule" or "act in the kingdom" means. This means that it is not a finished structure, but rather a process, a process in which Yahweh as King becomes effective in his people. See Georg Baudler : Jesus in the mirror of his parables. Calwer / Kösel, Stuttgart / Munich 1986, ISBN 3-7668-0804-4 , p. 28
  2. ↑ Martin Karrer: The Lordship of God. In: Jesus Christ in the New Testament , Göttingen 1998, ISBN 3-525-51380-1 , p. 224; Gerd Theißen, Annette Merz: The historical Jesus. 4th edition, Göttingen 2011, p. 222, fn. 3
  3. ↑ Hans-Joachim Kraus: Kingdom of God - Kingdom of freedom. Outline of systematic theology. Neukirchener Verlag, Neukirchen-Vluyn 1975, ISBN 3-7887-0441-1 , p. 16
  4. ↑ Werner H. Schmidt: Kingship of God in Ugarit and Israel: On the origin of the king predication Yahweh. Journal for Old Testament Science, A. Töpelmann, 1961
  5. ↑ Werner H. Schmidt: Old Testament Faith in His History , 4th edition 1982, ISBN 3-7887-2081-6 , p. 154
  6. ↑ Werner H. Schmidt: Old Testament Faith in His History , p. 155
  7. ↑ Benedict XVI. : Jesus of Nazareth. From Baptism in the Jordan to the Transfiguration, Herder, 2007, p. 77, ISBN 3-451-29861-9
  8. ↑ Wolfgang Stegemann: Jesus and his time. Stuttgart 2010, pp. 312-314.
  9. ^ Franz Graf-Stuhlhofer : Basis preach. Basics of the Christian faith in sermons, plus a didactic homiletics for advanced students. VTR, Nuremberg 2010, pp. 29–38: “The heavenly world of adventure”.
  10. ↑ Wolfgang Stegemann: Jesus and his time. Stuttgart 2010, pp. 299 f., 309 f.
  11. ↑ James H. Charlesworth: The Historical Jesus, An Essential Guide , Abingdon, Nashville 2008, pp. 99, 104. ISBN 978-0-687-02167-3
  12. ↑ James H. Charlesworth: The Historical Jesus , 2008, pp. 100f, ISBN 978-0-687-02167-3
  13. ↑ Meister Eckhart: German Sermons and Tracts. Edited and translated by Josef Quint, 1963, 7th edition p. 324/2, ISBN 978-3-257-20642-5
  14. ↑ Johannes Tauler: Sermons. Volume 1, transferred and edited by Georg Hofmann, 2007, p. 201, ISBN 3-89411-275-1
  15. ^ Louise Gnädinger: Johannes Tauler - lifeworld and mystical teaching. C. H. Beck, Munich 1993, p. 391, ISBN 3-406-36789-5
  16. ↑ Johannes Tauler: Sermons. Volume 2, p. 480, ISBN 3-89411-275-1
  17. ↑ Dei Verbum, n.17
  18. ↑ Josef Finkenzeller in Lexicon of Catholic Dogmatics. Herder Verlag, 1991, ISBN 3-451-22575-1
  19. ↑ Nicholas Thomas Wright: Kingdom of God, Cross, Church: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels . ( How God Became King: The Forgotten Story of the Gospels ). Marburg, Francke, 2015, ISBN 978-3868275049 .