Scholars have often debated whether Jesus emphasized a present or future kingdom. More of the clearest evidence may favor Jesus announcing a future (impending) kingdom.15 Certainly many of Jesus’ contemporaries believed that the current age was drawing to a close and a new era was dawning.16 Yet many have also noted an emphasis on the presence of the kingdom in the Gospels, especially in the kingdom parables and sayings like the one about entering the kingdom as a child (e.g., Lk 13:18-21; 18:17; Mk 4:26-32; 10:15).17
The kingdom’s imminence contributed to its present demand. Climaxing the introduction to his Gospel, Mark summarizes Jesus’ teaching, as Mark (and perhaps his sources) understood it: “The promised time is now fulfilled! The kingdom has drawn near, so turn to God and trust this promised good news!” (Mk 1:15). Jesus’ proclamation here probably implies that the kingdom “has drawn near”18 rather than “has arrived,”19 but in either case the sense of its intrusive imminence compels an immediate response.20
Elsewhere, in “Q” material,21 Jesus claims that his expulsion of demons by God’s finger (Lk 11:20; cf. Matt 12:28)22 proves that God’s kingdom has come on them.23 Some think that the kingdom has already “come” in some sense in this verse;24 those who disagree often view it as at least quite imminent.25 This means that the earlier gospel tradition, and probably Jesus himself, envisioned Jesus’ exorcisms as a sign of God’s impending reign.26 This end-time interpretation of Jesus’ exorcisms lacks parallels in magical exorcism texts.27 That it also lacks substantial parallels in Jewish messianic and end-time expectation28 may support the authenticity of the saying; early Christians had no other available source for the idea than Jesus himself, whom all our strata portray as an innovator.29
One of the clear texts supporting a future kingdom appears in the pre-Synoptic form of Jesus’ kingdom prayer (Matt 6:9-13//Lk 11:2-4), which most scholars accept as authentic.30 A minority of scholars, like Crossan, deny the prayer’s authenticity, suggesting that if Jesus taught this prayer to his followers it should show up in more than two Gospels and in “a more uniform version.”31 Yet how wide the attestation we should expect for any given tradition is a subjective judgment. Indeed, we should count ourselves fortunate to have any attestation for the prayer since we have no early Christian hymnbook. By comparison, Qumran hymns from the Teacher of Righteousness (the community’s founder) turn up only rarely outside Qumran’s liturgical documents.
The prayer cannot be an invention of the later Gentile church; it closely echoes the Kaddish (as well as the language of other early Jewish prayers).32 For that matter, we do have the prayer in another fairly early Christian source (Did. 8.2), although this form (unlike the briefer form in Luke) probably depends on Matthew. Yet Crossan needs the prayer to be inauthentic, or at least (as he says) for none of it to be eschatological, to defend his argument that Jesus did not teach a future kingdom.33 Those not bound to that conclusion need not accept the argument designed to produce it.
If this prayer is authentic, as I believe it is, I believe that we should construe the first lines as eschatological. When Jewish people prayed for God’s kingdom to “come,” they were not simply invoking God’s mystical presence among them for the present time; they were praying for God’s future reign to come. If Jesus meant something different from these prayers, it is surprising that he would use precisely the same language they do, leaving the disciples confused regarding his point.34
In Mk 8:38-9:1, Jesus is reported to claim, “For anyone who is ashamed of me and my words in this unfaithful and wicked generation, the Son of man will also be ashamed of that person when he comes in his Father’s glory with the holy angels. . . . some of those standing here will not taste death until they have witnessed the kingdom having been inaugurated with power.” The Synoptics apply the last part of the saying to the transfiguration (Mk 9:2); perhaps it should be understood in terms of inaugurated eschatology. Despite such plausible approaches to the saying, its straightforward sense (some of Jesus’ disciples surviving until the kingdom comes) does not as easily fit the experience of the later church. They would not likely have invented a saying so easily construed as contrary to their experience regarding at least most of the original disciples.35 Some contend that multiple attestation also supports the authenticity of this saying.36
