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The Kingdom of God in Acts, and the “City of God”
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 03 November 2011
Extract
The idea of a Messianic kingdom pervades the whole of Acts. It is the subject of the discourse of the Risen Lord who speaks to his disciples “the things concerning the kingdom of God,” and the disciples ask him if he will “restore the kingdom to Israel” in their time. In the prayer of the Apostles, when they quote the words of the Second Psalm “the kings of the earth set themselves in array,” they are evidently regarding these as the natural antagonists of the Christ. When Peter preaches to Cornelius he says that Jesus of Nazareth was anointed by God and went about doing good (εὐεργετῶν, a word applied to kings) and healing those under the rule (καταδυναστευομένους) of the devil, as though Satan were a rival prince.
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- Copyright © President and Fellows of Harvard College 1919
References
1 Acts 1 3, 6.
2 Acts 4 25, 26.
3 Acts 10 38; cf. Lk. 22 25, οἱ εξουσιάζοντες αὐτῶν (sc. Gentiles) εὐεργέται καλοῦνται. It was applied to the Ptolemies and Seleucidæ (Ptolemy VII and Antiochus VII were so called), and to other public benefactors. Deismann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 248 E. T.
4 Acts 13 37.
5 Acts 17 7; cf. Luke 22 3, Χριστὸν βασιλἐα εἶναι.
6 Acts 20 25, 31.
7 Matt. 18 23 ff., 22 7 ff.
8 All the accounts agree that Jesus was crucified as King of the Jews. The Fourth Gospel explains that Christ's kingdom is “not of this world;” John 18 36.
9 Βασιλεύς is never used as a divine title except in 1 Tim. 1 17, 6 15; βασιλεία, Rom. 14 17, 1 Cor. 4 20, Col. 4 11 (the Christian dispensation), 1 Cor. 6 9, Gal. 5 21, 1 Thess. 2 12, 2 Thess. 1 5 (the inheritance of the saints). Only in Eph. 5 5, Col. 1 13, is the kingdom connected with Christ. In 1 Cor. 15 24 Christ delivers the kingdom at the end to God, even the Father.
10 Πατριὰ, Eph. 3 15 (but see J. A. Robinson's note), πολίτευμα, Phil. 3 20, πρὸς τοῦς οἰκείους τῆς πίστεως. The conception of a heavenly state is characteristic of Stoicism. See Lightfoot on Phil. 3 20; Dill, Roman Society, p. 324.
11 Rom. 1 3. Contrast Lk. 1 32, “He shall sit on the throne of David his father.”
12 Col. 1 15 ff. Eph. 4 10, etc.
13 John 18 36.
14 The late Dr. Hodgkin, , Italy and Her Invaders, Vol. I, Part II, p. 803, after doing justice to the conception of Augustine, adds, “It may be said that the book is less than its title.”Google Scholar
15 Primum urbes inter divom domus aurea Roma. And
Hæc est quæ gremio materno numine fovet.
16 This is the main argument of the early books of the De Civitate Dei. The elaborateness of Augustine's refutation of heathenism is a proof of its strength even though the Empire was nominally Christian.
17 De Civitate Dei, V, 16.
18 Ibid. I, 1.
19 Ibid. II, 4 ff., and III, 2 ff.
20 Ibid. VIII, 1–2.
21 Ibid. IX, passim.
22 Ibid. XVI, passim.
23 Ibid. V, 16. Illa civitas sempitema est: ibi nullus oritur, quia nullua moritur.
24 De Civitate Dei, XI, 1. Civitatem Dei dicimus cujus ea scriptura testis est, quæ non fortuitis motibus animorum, sed plane summæ dispositione providentiæ super omnes omnium gentium litteras, omnia sibi genera ingeniorum humanorum divina excellens auctoritate subiecit.
25 Ibid. In hoc interim sæculo perplexas quodammodo … invicemque permixtas.
26 Ibid.
27 Ibid. XII, 27. Quamvis occulto dei judicio, sed tamen iusto.
28 Ibid. XIV, 28.
29 Ibid. XV, 5.
30 Ibid. XV, 2.
31 Ibid. XVIII, 21.
32 Ibid. XIX, 17.
33 De Civitate Dei, XIX, 19, 24.
34 Healey's translation of De Civitate Dei, XX, 2. Cum vero ad illud dei indicium venerimus, cuius tempus proprie dies iudicii, et aliquando dies domini nuncupatur; non solum quæcumque tune judicabuntur, verum etiam quæcumque ab initio judicata, et quæcumque usque ad illud tempus adhuc iudicanda sunt, apparebunt esse iustissima.
35 De Civitate Dei, IX, 15.