Jesus of Nazareth: What He Wanted, Who He Was

Biblical scholars have long since agreed that the concept of the reign of God was central to Jesus’ preaching. Paul scarcely used it at all, and in John’s gospel, in contrast to the Synoptics, it disappears altogether. Things continued that way in the early church: the concept of the “reign of God” or “kingdom of heaven” acquired a new content or else played only a secondary role in theology.

That is in itself astonishing, for in ancient Judaism God’s kingship played a very significant role indeed. But a finer distinction needs to be made. It was taken as a matter of course that God is already king and, as such, is ruler of the whole world and is Lord of Israel in a special sense, as the YHWH-is-king hymns themselves (Pss 93; 96–99) make abundantly clear. In the worship at the temple but also in synagogue worship God was addressed as king,⁶ enthroned in the midst of his people Israel. God effects justice and righteousness, protects the lives of those devoted to him, is master of all the powerful and mighty, and everything must bow to his rule. Still more, future salvation is already a reality in heaven, where the eschatological temple, the new Jerusalem, the heavenly city are already prepared. There the angels are already celebrating the reign of God around the divine throne. Biblical scholarship has called this notion of God’s kingship “theocratic.”

This is to be distinguished from another point of view that developed more and more clearly after the collapse of the Davidic kingdom and is rightly called “eschatological.” It expects the kingship of God as a manifestation, an event that breaks into history, a powerful eschatological and thus final revelation of God’s eternal kingship.

Of course, these two points of view, the theocratic and the eschatological, do not exist in complete isolation from one another. Combinations and overlappings appear again and again.⁷ In Jesus’ time both the theocratic and the eschatological notions of God’s kingship were in circulation. The Kaddish, a very ancient Jewish prayer, may stand as an example of the eschatological type. Its core was probably prayed as early as the first century CE.⁸ Originally it concluded the synagogal reading of Scripture. Today it begins:

May His great name be exalted and sanctified in the world which He created according to His will! May He establish His kingdom and may His salvation blossom and His anointed be near during your lifetime and during your days and during the lifetimes of all the House of Israel, speedily and very soon!

So the text does not speak simply of God’s eternal kingship, which is assumed. Its petition is that this kingship become a reality in Israel, that it be “established.” God is asked to establish it in Israel in this very generation, to reveal his lordship in the world as quickly as possible.

We do not really know with certainty whether the Kaddish was being prayed in Jesus’ time, but we cannot exclude the possibility because the Our Father has a certain kinship to the Kaddish. Both prayers ask first that the divine Name be sanctified and then in the second place that the reign of God may come. Given this striking agreement, it could well be that the Kaddish already existed in Jesus’ time and that, together with other prayers, it contributed to Jesus’ ability to assume that his listeners took the reign of God as a given. We may take it for granted that the concept of God’s malkutha, the royal rule of God, was commonly known and that Jesus himself was familiar with it from his youth.

And yet there must have been something more in Jesus’ view, because the way he then went on to speak about the reign of God had a unique contour. The very fact that for him the reign of God was absolutely central and imbued everything he said and did is unique to him. This phenomenon can only be explained by a very personal reference to Scripture, more precisely to the book of Isaiah. That is the only way to grasp the specific way he talked about the reign of God. Isaiah contains a text that was apparently of the highest significance for Jesus’ thinking and doing, namely, Isaiah 52:7-9:

How beautiful upon the mountains are the feet of the messenger who announces peace, who brings good news, who announces salvation, who says to Zion, “Your God reigns.”

Listen! Your sentinels lift up their voices, together they sing for joy; for in plain sight they see the return of the LORD to Zion.

Break forth together into singing, you ruins of Jerusalem; for the LORD has comforted his people, he has redeemed Jerusalem.