KINGDOM OF GOD. - A biblical expression that has a twofold sense, abstract and concrete: the dominion or lordship of God, and the territory or society in which such lordship or principality is exercised. This corresponds to the twofold use of the term βασιλεία already in classical Greek: "kingship," dignity, royal power and, by derivation, "kingdom," territory. The Hebrew words that the Septuagint rendered with βασιλεία have a rather abstract sense ("kingship"; cf. G. von Rad, Βασιλεία, in Alt. Test., in Theol. Wört. zum Neuen Test., I, Stuttgart 1932, p. 569).
In the Old Testament, the expression "K. of G." or the equivalent "thy, his, my kingdom" referring to God is found rarely: in Tob. 13:1; Dan. 3:54, 100; Ps. 144 (145):11, 12, 13; Ps. 102 (103):19; 21 (22):29 ("the kingdom is the Lord's"; a similar expression in Obad. 21), Wis. 6:4 (kings are ministers of God's royal authority; doubtful is ibid. 10:10). The idea, however, that God is king pervades the whole Bible. God is king of all the earth (Ps. 46 [47]:3, 8). He reigns over all the nations (ibid. 9; 95 [96]:10). The kingship of Yahweh is celebrated in very ancient psalms (e.g., 23 [24]:7-8). An entire group of psalms (95-98 [96-99]) extols the kingship of Yahweh. The idea of such kingship cannot be connected with a feast (of pre-exilic origin) of the enthronement of Yahweh (theory of S. Mowinckel) nor with an annual feast of the Covenant (theory of M. Weiser).
The K. of G. is promised for the future: God will reign from Zion, in the restored Israel (Isa. 24:23; 52:7; Dan. 7:14; Ps. 2; 71 [72]; 109 [110]); "the idea of the divine Kingdom fits perfectly into the messianic perspective" (J. Bonsirven).
On the lips of Jesus, K. of G. (called by Matthew "Kingdom of heaven," in accordance with Jewish usage) has the predominant sense of sovereignty, but also the concrete sense of Kingdom as society. The Kingdom is interior and at the same time social, at once present and future.
The K. of G. is realized in different phases. "The K. of G. is here": Mark 1:15 (rather than "is near"; cf. J. Bonsirven, Les enseignements de Jésus Christ, Paris 1946, p. 43). With this (cf. also Luke 10:9; 11:20) Jesus announces, and has the disciples announce, that the Kingdom has already come: it is already in the midst of the people (Luke 17:21). Yet it is a reality in the making, which continually must be realized (ibid. 11:2: "thy Kingdom come";
Matt. 13: the parables of the Kingdom presuppose a future
slow expansion of the K. of G.: growth of the good
seed, penetration of the leaven, the mustard seed that
becomes a tree; cf. Mark 4:26-29: seed that germinates
and grows without man's knowledge).
The Kingdom will have a definitive, final phase, of recompense (Matt. 25:34: prepared for the elect; ibid. 13:43
and 26:29: the Kingdom of the Father). The definitive phase of the Kingdom
will be inaugurated with the coming of the Son of Man (v. PAROUSIA;
cf. Matt. 16:28; Luke 9:27; Mark 9:1: the return of
Christ as king-judge before the death of some of those present is to be understood of the destruction of Jerusalem).
The K. of G., in the three phases described, is spiritual and
interior, and at the same time exterior or social. It is spiritual because of the conditions necessary for entering it (Matt. 4:17; Mark 10:
15: to receive the Kingdom as a child, in order to enter it),
because of the aspect of doctrine that it assumes (word of the
Kingdom, Matt. 13:19: "mystery of the Kingdom," Mark 4:11),
because of its inseparability from the goods of salvation that it
procures, or in which it indeed consists (M. Meinertz, Theologie
des Neuen Testamentes, I, Bonn 1950, pp. 39-56): forgiveness
of sins, liberation or salvation, redemption, divine filiation, new life, perfection of life in the future vision of God. These are goods of a spiritual order, not of a temporal or national order (M. Meinertz, ibid., p. 52 ff.), although destined in the first place for the chosen people.
The universality of the K. of G. is intimately linked to
its spirituality; it appears, however, more in the exterior or social aspect of the Kingdom.
The Kingdom is also a society: Jesus, in founding the
Church (v.), gives the keys of the K. of G. to Peter (Matt. 16:19),
describes the Kingdom as a collectivity of good
and bad men (parable of the tares: ibid. 13:24-30 and 36-43),
as a banquet to which all are invited (ibid. 22:1-10).
One cannot simply identify the K. of G. and the Church (M.
Meinertz, ibid., p. 70): but from the moment that the Kingdom
has an aspect at once present and future, that it is already at work
in the present time, the bearer of the Kingdom can only be
the Church. The relations between the Kingdom and the Church can be
expressed (with Y. de La Brière [v. bibl.], col. 1248) thus:
the Church constitutes the K. of G. under its external
and social aspect, procures the Kingdom in its interior aspect, and
prepares it in its eschatological, heavenly aspect.
The genuine doctrine of Jesus on the Kingdom, as it
emerges from the texts, is falsified both by the "liberal school," for
which Jesus would have preached a present kingdom, but only
interior, and by the eschatologists, according to whom Jesus would
have had in view only the Kingdom of the end of time, preaching an apocalyptic messianism and deluding himself about
the imminent coming of the Kingdom (F. M. Braun, Jésus, histoire
et critique, Paris-Tournai 1947, p. 85). Recently, however,
even Protestant critics tend to admit both
the future character of the Kingdom (and of the Church), denied by the
liberal school, and the present aspect, denied by the
eschatological school, and they discern between the Church and the Kingdom a relationship
of mutual belonging.
The K. of G., the object of primitive catechesis (cf.
Acts 19:8; 20:25; 28:23, 31; texts concerning the preaching
of St. Paul), has little prominence in the Pauline letters:
for the most part it appears as a good of the times of the consummation (as an inheritance 1 Cor. 6:9-10; 15:50; Gal. 5:
21); it has already, however, begun, because Paul with others
labors for it (Col. 4:11). The K. of G. is identified with
the Kingdom of Christ (M. Meinertz, op. cit., II, pp. 109 ff.,
159), began with Jesus and has its visible manifestation
in the Church (ibid., p. 234). In St. John the
K. of G., which in the synoptic tradition had had a fundamental part, is named only twice (John 3:3, 5, where
the eschatological accent is not lacking); it has its equivalent in
the concept of "Life" (M. Meinertz, ibid., pp. 282, 316).