Kingdom of God

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Kingdom of God, or "Kingdom of heaven" (Matthew 3:2 ),^[1] is a popular, but debatable, translation of an oft-used phrase used in the New Testament based on the Greek term "βασιλεία" (invoked, possibly overused, 163 times). In the entire Bible, the respected English Standard Version uses the monarchical term "kingdom" an astounding 353 times. Strong's number for this is 932, and says its meaning is kingdom, sovereignty, or royal power,^[2] when "reign" or "dominion" might be more accurate. But Strong's was biased towards an Anglophile approach.

The Greek term encompasses four separate concepts: "a ruler, a people, a domain, and dominion (the right to make rules)."^[3] The better modern translation is "God's paradise" or simply "paradise", "infinite happiness," or even "blissful parallel universe" to better convey the intended meaning rather than the monarchical term of "kingdom".

Spatial or Temporal?[edit]

"Kingdom" has a strong spatial connotation, such as a nation with boundaries, but the phrase translated as "Kingdom of God" was not intended to be spatial in meaning.

Though not spatial, the concept is certainly temporal: the "Kingdom of God" is infinite in duration.

Alternative possible translations[edit]

Alternative possible translations for this phrase (please improve or expand):

• God's paradise
• reign of God (used by Young's Literal Translation for Mark 1:15)
• infinity, or infinite time, or infinite happiness
• new universe
• paradise

Strong's[edit]

Strong's tended to translate in crude terms meaning power or authority, when temporal or mathematical terminology is sometimes more precise. The phrase "Kingdom of God" never appears in the Old Testament.

Kingdom of Satan?[edit]

Does Satan have a "kingdom"? Perhaps "snakepit" would be a more precise translation when referring to Satan's domain.

References[edit]