Jesus Remembered: Christianity in the Making, vol. 1

§12.1 The Kingdom, of God
the references just cited are redactional, added by the Evangelists when they
composed their Gospels. 9 And we may be sure that others were introduced in the
various retellings of the tradition which preceded the transition to written tradition.
10 But we may be equally confident that such retelling and redaction reflected
an awareness, on the part of both the tradents and their audiences, that the
kingdom had been a prominent theme of Jesus' preaching.
In the kingdom emphases of the Jesus tradition, indeed, we should probably
see a prime example of the way the Jesus tradition was performed and
handed on — by re-presenting a known and familiar theme with explanatory and
other embellishments appropriate to the particular situation — rather as in musical
performance 'grace notes' embellish a theme and bring out its highlights. An
interesting case in point is probably the parable tradition. Jesus was evidently remembered
as using parables to illustrate or illumine what he had in mind when
he spoke of the kingdom. This is the testimony of both Mark (4.26, 30; cf. 4.11)
and Q (Matt. 13.33/Luke 13.20). But Matthew's much more extensive use of the
motif ('the kingdom of heaven is like . . .') 11 may indicate the technique of the
story-teller retelling the parables as much as Jesus' own characteristic style. The
point here is that it would make little difference either way: whether or not Jesus
himself introduced all these parables (and others) with this formula, he was remembered
as characteristically teaching about the kingdom by using parables. 12
This consistency of the Jesus tradition and frequency within the Jesus tradition
contrasts both with what we know of the early churches and with the traditions
of Second Temple Judaism. In both cases, the imagery of God as king and of God's
kingdom is familiar. But in neither case is it as prominent as in the Jesus tradition.
In the Scriptures and post-biblical writings of Second Temple Judaism the phrase
itself is hardly attested, and though reference is made to God's 'kingdom' or 'kingship',
the theme is not particularly prominent. 13 As for usage among the early
9. E.g., Matt. 3.2; 13.19, 52; 16.19; 21.43.
10. Possible examples are Matt. 7.21; 8.12; 23.13; 24.14; Mark 9.47; 11.10; 12.34; Luke
18.29; 21.31; 22.16, 29-30.
11. Matt. 13.24, 31, 33, 44, 45, 47; 18.23; 20.1; 22.2; 25.1.
12. See also Jeremias, Parables 100-101.
13. 'The kingdom of God' (Wis. 10.10; Pss. Sol. 17.3). 'The kingdom (malkut) of
Yahweh' (1 Chr. 28.5; 2 Chr. 13.8); 'my kingdom' (1 Chr. 17.14); 'his kingdom' (Ps. 103.19;
Dan. 4.34; 6.26; Tob. 13.1; Wis. 6.4); 'your kingdom'(Ps. 145.11-13; Pss. Sol. 5.18). 'Kingship
(mamlaka, meluka)' belongs to God (1 Chr. 29.11; Ps. 22.28; Obad. 21). Aramaic malkuta'
(Dan. 3.33; 4.34). Latin regnum (T. Mos. 10.1). The fullest recent review is by O. Camponovo,
Königtum, Königsherrschaft und Reich Gottes in den frühjüdischen Schriften (OBO 58;
Freiburg: Universitätsverlag, 1984), concluding that the kingship of God is not a major theme
in early Jewish literature and that it functions 'as a symbol, not as a precisely defined concept'
(437-38). The sparse findings in regard to the DSS have to be qualified by the publication of
C. Newsom, Songs of the Sabbath Sacrifice: A Critical Edition (Atlanta: Scholars, 1985). In
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