The teaching of Jesus on the kingdom of God pervades his entire proclamation recorded in the Gospels, and appears to have largely determined the course of his ministry. While the authenticity of the testimony of the Gospels in this area is agreed on by most New Testament scholars, its significance for interpreting Jesus has been strangely ignored.
In this book, G. R. Beasley-Murray makes an important contribution toward clarifying this element in the teaching of Jesus and its implications for the question of who Jesus is.
Beasley-Murray begins with the concept of theophany, or the coming of God, which he traces in the writings of the Old Testament and in the literature of early Judaism, and its significance for understanding the biblical hope of the kingdom of God.
The core of the book is a detailed examination of the sayings of Jesus in the Synoptic Gospels concerning the kingdom of god. Beasley-Murray includes an exegesis of the sayings and parables which portray the coming of the kingdom in the ministry of Jesus and those which anticipate the future of the kingdom of God. The latter comprise the sayings which relate to the impending suffering and death of Jesus as well as those which have in prospect the climactic coming of the kingdom of God. This entails an extended treatment of the synoptic sayings that speak of the activity of the Son of Man in his earthly labors, in his death and resurrection, and in his parousia, and the discourses known as the Q-Apocalypse and the eschatological discourse of Mark 13. The book concludes with an assessment of the significance of this teaching for Christology—for answering the question, “Who is Jesus?”
Throughout the book Beasley-Murray assesses a broad spectrum of relevant scholarship, which, owing to the importance of the subject, is voluminous. The detailed notes and extensive bibliography enhance the usefulness of this significant study.
