THEOLOGY
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or wellbeing. Under the rule of God there is no poverty, no brutalization, no oppression, no advantage taken of the weak, no wars, divisions or hatred. Because the name of God was held in such deep awe in Israel, it became customary eventually to refer not to the Reign of God, but ·to the Reign of the Heavens, a simply customary ci1·cumlocution for God which did not imply another world than this one, whether in the sky or elsewhere. Of course, the really important question was not so much about the concrete details of what it would be like when the Reign of God was achieved, but rather how it was to be attained. In the intertestamental period this became a scandalous question, because fidelity to God's law seemed to lead not to the Reign of God but to further persecution. There then emerged two strands in the rabbinic teaching. One was that of apocalyptic utterances and promises and threats: God would come swiftly, wonderfully, with great power, in an unpredictable manner, and with cosmic disturbances, to establish His Rule over men. The other strand was that of guidance to the individual concerning his way of life in difficulties and times of persecution. He was exhorted to live as though God reigned now and all other powers had already been rendered subject. One who did so and did not reckon the cost to him- · self in persecution or personal disadvantage in a cruel and selfish society would so to speak see the Reign of God coming from within. When we look at the life and teachings of Jesus as passed on to us, and when we put Jesus in this context, some of the radical urgency of his proclamation of the Reign of God comes to make sense in a way we can understand. Jesus appears as the Just One and the prophet par excellence; out of the singleness of purpose of his own life, in which the Reign of God was undisputed, he saw with vivid clarity and urgency the possibilities for the coming of the Reign of God for the world. The Sermon on the Mount, some of the parables and some of the replies given to individual questioners give a rather clear picture of the type of radical action and radical reversal of values of the world that he envisioned as the approach to the realization of the Kingdom. The New Testament documents testify to us that it was only after he had driven the con-