Biblica_1:Layout 1 21-11-2011 12:59 Pagina 396 396 SIMON J. JOSEPH Generally, the expression refers to the belief that God was the king of Israel. The phrase is also linked to traditional ideas of royal ideology and divine kingship. The idea that God was “king” is fairly widespread in contemporary Jewish literature, particularly in the Dead Sea Scrolls (1QM 12.7; 6.6; 4Q491 11 ii 17; 4Q252 1 5.3-4; 4Q521; 4Q400 1ii1, 4Q400 1ii3, 4Q401 14i6). The idea that Jesus proclaimed the arrival of the kingdom of God is consistent with con- temporary Jewish culture. The announcement of the long-awaited and now imminent arrival of the reign, rule or kingdom of God in first-century Judea and Galilee would indeed have sounded like a revelation of the end-time. The temporal nature of the “kingdom” has long been debated. Was it to arrive in the near future 18? Or was it already present 19? Or was it somehow both 20? Some passages seem to confirm that Jesus re- ferred to the kingdom as a heavenly, transcendent realm to be entered at death (Mark 9,47; 10,17-22; Matt 7,21) . Others suggest that the kingdom will be made manifest on earth in the future as a divinely transformed human society 21. Still other passages refer to the king- dom as imminent in the near future (Mark 1,15, Matt 10,7, 16,28, Luke 9,27, 10,9; Q 11,2; Q 6,20-23; Q 13,28-29; Matt 10,23, Mark 9,1, Mark 13,30). There are also passages where the kingdom is de- scribed as being present (Luke 17,20, Matt 12,28, Luke 1,20, 1,2-6). The “kingdom” appears eleven times in Q (Q 6,20; 7,28; 10,5- 9; 11,20; 11,52; 12,31; 13,18-19; 13,20-21; 13,29-28; 16,16; 17,20- 21). It is the central theme of Q’s theology and forms the basis of Kingdom of God in the Synoptic Tradition (Gainesville, FL 1970); W.G. KÜMMEL, Promise and Fulfillment. The Eschatological Message of Jesus (SBT 23; London 1957); G.E. LADD, “The Kingdom of God – Reign or Realm?” JBL 81 (1962) 230-238; N. PERRIN, Jesus and the Language of the Kingdom. Symbol and Metaphor in New Testament Interpretation (Philadelphia, PA 1976). 18 A. SCHWEITZER, The Quest of the Historical Jesus. A Critical Study of its Progress from Reimarus to Wrede (New York 1910). 19 DODD, The Parables of the Kingdom, 34-110; G. B. CAIRD, The Language and Imagery of the Bible (Philadelphia, PA 1980) 243-271; J.P. MEIER, A Marginal Jew (New York 1991) II, 398-506; N.T. WRIGHT, Jesus and the Victory of God (London 1996) II, 320-368. 20 KÜMMEL, Promise and Fulfillment; PERRIN, Jesus and the Language of the Kingdom, 29-34. 21 E.P. SANDERS, The Historical Figure of Jesus (London 1993) 173-178, esp. 174.