What Did Jesus Mean By 'The Kingdom of God'? Fall 2014
Once again, let me make the point that you must read your
sources carefully. Consider this:
For Jews, the
Kingdom of God was more of a political or geographical
matter than a religious one. It revolved around the image of
the Messiah as the anointed one, who was often seen as the
human incarnation of God. The job of this so-called Messiah
was to bring Israel to the Promised Land...
Did I read that
right? Jews expected God Incarnate? Surely not. So let's check.
The source referred to by the student is this
web-site.
The source states:
For
many Christians,
God's ultimate miracle was His Self-Incarnation as a human
being. In this view,
God was both fully human and yet also fully divine, both limited
in
intelligence and yet omniscient, simultaneously. Philosophically
and logically,
these claims appear mutually incompatible. Yet the early church
insisted that
both truths be held together.
So,
the view that the Messiah is God incarnate is said
to be the Christian view, not the Jewish
one. The Jewish view is:
Within Judaism, the Mashiach is a
human being
who will be a descendant of King David, and who will usher in a
messianic era
of peace and prosperity for Israel and all the nations of the
world.
So, in reading
the source, the student has confused the Jewish and the
Christian view. Furthermore, the student says that the Messiah
was expected to lead the Jews to Israel. But, in the time of
Jesus, the Jews were already in Israel. The source, however,
was referring to the views of Moses Maimonides, who lived from
1135 to 1204 CE. Maimonides is one of the
most important Jewish philosophers, and a good source to use
to understand Jewish views in the Middle Ages. However, he was
writing after the Jews had been driven out of the Holy Land by
the Romans, and hoped that the Messiah could lead them back
there. In Jesus time, the Jews were in the right place and
didn't need to be led there. What they needed was liberation.
So, read your sources carefully. The student fails to notice
that, although the source is about Judaism, it begins by
mentioning Christian views to show that these are different.
The source is about current Jewish beliefs, which is why
Maimonides is a useful source. But you are writing about
Jewish beliefs in the time of Jesus - not exactly the same
thing.