While reading 1 Corinthians 6, I started wondering about a few things. This is the result – keep in mind that I’ve only grabbed resources I had handy.
The phrase ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ (“the kingdom of (the) God”) – both nouns with the article – occurs 64 times in the New Testament, according to the NA27 text. Only 5 of these instances occur outside of the Gospels and Acts (Rom 14:17; 1 Cor 4:20; Col 4:11; 2 Thess 1:5; Rev 12:10). In John, the expression occurs only in 3:3 and 3:5.
1 Thess 2:12 reads very close to the synoptic expression (if one may call it that): ἀξίως τοῦ θεοῦ τοῦ καλοῦντος ὑμᾶς εἰς τὴν ἑαυτοῦ βασιλείαν καὶ δόξαν (“worthy of (the) God who has called you into (the) his kingdom and glory”). In this instance “God” was substituted by the pronoun.
In 1 Cor 6:9-10, “kingdom of God” forms an inclusio for those who will not inherit it: θεοῦ βασιλείαν … βασιλείαν θεοῦ. This forms an AB – BA pattern (i.e. a chiasm). One could almost think of this pattern as a textual metaphor for the gates of the kingdom – however, that would be more in line with the synoptic way of thinking. In 1 Cor 15:50, Paul also speaks of inheritance, adding no article to the expression (βασιλείαν θεοῦ), as also in Gal 5:21. On the sight of it, Paul prefers not to place definite articles before the two nouns.
In Ephesians 5, the expression is changed to ἔχει κληρονομίαν ἐν τῇ βασιλείᾳ τοῦ Χριστοῦ καὶ θεοῦ (“has an inheritance in the kingdom of (the) Christ and God”). The last part of the verse has some notable text-critical problems. Papyrus 46 reads τοῦ θεοῦ (as does 1245 2147; also Tertullian (220), according to Ehrman (Orthodox Corruption of Scripture, 1993, Oxford: Oxford University Press, p. 269). This can easily be explained as harmonization to the synoptics. F, G and one Bohairic manucript reads τοῦ θεοῦ καὶ Χριστοῦ, so does Ambrosiaster (366-384). Metzger (A Textual Commentary on the Greek New Testament, 1975, London: UBS) is of the opinion that this too could be due to influence from the Gospels. If anything, the original reading could have been only τοῦ Χριστοῦ (in 2 Tim 4:1, Heb 1:8 and Rev 1:9, too, it is Christ’s kingdom), changed by a scribe to conform to the synoptics (P46, τοῦ θεοῦ). The NA27 reading could then possibly be a conflation between these two. However, the more natural way to conflate these readings would probably be in the order “kingdom of God and Christ”, not the other way around. Although this reading does occur (the original reading of 1739, the Ethiopian tradition, and Theodoret read Χριστοῦ τοῦ θεοῦ), there would be no point in switching the two around (see also Ehrman, p.269). Therefore, the NA27 reading is most probably correct, as it best explains the others. (Note: both Metzger and Tischendorf give some more readings, which is obviously secondary.)
FOOTNOTES: In general, there are four “traditions” of speaking of the kingdom of God.
1) The Gospels talk either of entering the kingdom of God, or of the nearness of the kingdom of God. (Also Rev 12:10?)
2) Mark and Luke sometimes explains the nature of the kingdom of God, e.g. Mark 4:11,26,30; 10:14,15; Luke 8:10; 13:18,20; 18:16 (but see 18:17!)
3) Acts (and sometimes Luke, e.g. 4:43; 8:1; 9:2,11,60; 16:16) generally talks about preaching the kingdom of God. (Except for Acts 14:22).
4) Paul talks about inheriting the kingdom of God. (But see also 1 Cor 15:24!) This tradition, slightly modified, is also visible in Ephesians (5:5) and James (2:5); see also Matt 21:43, Luke 6:20.
I might advance the (very preliminary) hypothesis that by the time of the writing of the Gospels, the phrase ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ has become a fixed expression, while this is not so in the time of Paul. Whatever the case may be, “(the) kingdom of (the) God” is part and parcel of the Christian tradition, for sure.
A few CAVEATS:
1) I did not check all of these readings text-critically – this needs to be done before any definite conclusions can be reached. It would be interesting to see if there are tendencies in certain manuscripts to change the articles or readings, e.g. to conform to the synoptic tradition.
2) One needs to check the expression in the LXX, which I have not done. Does the phrase occur in a technical sense in the LXX, or perhaps in the Hebrew texts (e.g. MT or Qumran)?
3) Differences in the synoptic tradition should be checked against findings on Q.
4) The four “traditions” that I’ve identified need to be refined and some more categories added!
5) I’m not sure if there are any recent works on the Kingdom of God which concerns itself mainly with the textual level. Is there anything out there?
Synchroblog
This post is part of a synchroblog on the theme of The Kingdom of God. You may see other posts on this theme at:
- Andrew Hendrikse (Christian) of Feotu on The Kingdom of God is…
- Susan Barnes (Christian currently attending a Baptist church) ofAbooklook on My kingdom goes
- Matt Stone (Christian) of Glocal Christianity on The only Christian nation is the Kingdom of God
- K.W. Leslie (Christian/Pentecostal/Assemblies of God) of The Evening of Kent on Politics and the Kingdom of God.
- Timothy Victor (Christian) of Tim Victor’s Musings on The reign of Godde
- Ronald van der Bergh (Dutch Reformed) of Ronalds Footnotes on Notes on “the Kingdom of God” in the New Testament
- Bryan Riley (follower of Jesus) of Charis Shalom on Multiple Bloggers on the Kingdom of God
- Liz Dyer (follower of Jesus Christ) of Grace Rules on The Kingdom of God is at Hand
- Nic Paton (fundamentalist, charismatic, liberationist, apophatic, heterodox) of soundandsilence on The “Kingdom”: of God?
- Beth Patterson (Non churched follower of Christ) of Virtual Tea House onWhat it’s like rather than what it is
- Jeff Goins (Non-denominational Christian) of Pilgrimage of the Heart onThe Kingdom of God: Now and Not Yet
- Phil Wyman (Non-denominational Christian) of Square No More on Jesus as the Archetype Shaman (Part 2): A Nostalgia for Paradise
- Stephen Hayes (Orthodox Christian) of Khanya on Kingdom, power and glory
Ronald–
Thank you for this good work–hope you post more as you uncover more about the traditions, etc.
Thanks!
[…] Ronald van der Bergh (Dutch Reformed) of Ronalds Footnotes on Notes on “the Kingdom of God” in the New Testament […]
Thank you for your research and the information that you have shared here. I look forward to hearing more from you on this.
I now have my post for the synchroblog up at http://gracerules.wordpress.com/2009/05/19/the-kingdom-of-god-is-at-hand/
Hmmm: a very, very careful consideration. Much to mull over.
Ronald, what do you mean by “an inclusio”? You are referring to 1 Corinthians 1:9-10 in the New International Version:
God, who has called you into fellowship with his Son Jesus Christ our Lord, is faithful. I appeal to you, brothers, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, that all of you agree with one another so that there may be no divisions among you and that you may be perfectly united in mind and thought.
And I’d be very interested in your responses to this text (Gospel of Thomas 3), specifically the notion of “within you and … outside you”:
Jesus said, “If your leaders say to you, ‘Look, the (Father’s) 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 fish will precede you. Rather, the (Father’s) kingdom is within you and it is outside you.
Nic,
Oh dear. 1 Cor 1:9-10 was a typo – it should’ve read 1 Cor 6:9-10. Sorry for that! (I’ve corrected it in the post.)
I have no idea what to make of the Gospel of Thomas text. 🙂 Except that it is obscure, as is much of the sayings.
In general, one might say of the Gospel of Thomas that it bears witness to the fact that Jesus himself spoke of the kingdom of God. (It would be interesting to look at the way it is used, too, but unfortunately, I can’t read Coptic – yet!)
Aah, so I’ll rephrase the question:
In this text, what does “inclusio” mean:
“Do you not know that the wicked will not inherit the kingdom of God? Do not be deceived: Neither the sexually immoral nor idolaters nor adulterers nor male prostitutes nor homosexual offenders nor thieves nor the greedy nor drunkards nor slanderers nor swindlers will inherit the kingdom of God.”
Nic,
“Inclusio” is a poetic device in which a certain piece of text is framed by two similar concepts. In 1 Cor 6:9-10, one could set it out like this – with the kingdom of God in capitals:
So, everything between the first KINGDOM OF GOD and the second KINGDOM OF GOD is “framed” by it. In the Greek, this is even more poignant, since the first occurrence reads θεοῦ βασιλείαν and the second βασιλείαν θεοῦ. “Wicked” (ἄδικοι) is outside of this frame – possibly, “wicked” is an umbrella term for all of the vices in the list.
Ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ θεοῦ comes up in the LXX in Psalms of Solomon 17.3, and sorta (as βασιλείαν θεοῦ) in Wisdom 10.10.
Wow, you did a lot of work. I have much to think about – thanks!