{"id":32109,"date":"2015-10-18T06:03:13","date_gmt":"2015-10-18T10:03:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/exploringourmatrix\/?p=32109"},"modified":"2015-10-18T06:03:13","modified_gmt":"2015-10-18T10:03:13","slug":"gods-government","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2015\/10\/gods-government.html","title":{"rendered":"God’s Government"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

It seems that I have reached the point in my life where I am doing scholarship even in my sleep. A few nights ago I had a dream in which I was looking into the possibility that \u201cGod\u2019s government\u201d would be a good way to translate the New Testament phrase \u201cthe kingdom of God<\/a>.\u201d I was working through the parables, noticing many where the first impression one gets is that the rendering simply doesn\u2019t fit, and then discovering that on closer inspection it just might work.<\/p>\n

I suppose, after this experience, I have two questions. The first is what you think of \u201cthe government of God\u201d as a way of rendering \u201cthe kingdom of God\u201d for modern audiences, and as an attempt to capture the essential points of the phrase\u2019s meaning in Jesus\u2019 time. Poking around just a little on line (after waking up from the dream), it seems to be a rendering\u00a0that some religious groups like (such as the Jehovah\u2019s Witnesses), but I did not find much scholarly discussion of the concept. It does seem to me worth discussing \u2013 if only to bring into focus the ways that such a rendering is inadequate, and thus to highlight the differences between modern governments<\/em> and ancient kingdoms<\/em> for modern readers. But given that \u201cgovernment\u201d has overlap with the range of meanings of both \u201ckingdom\u201d and \u201creign\u201d or \u201crule,\u201d and given that the latter two words have been proposed as alternatives to the former as renderings in English of the Aramaic word<\/a> that Jesus would have used, I\u2019m not sure that my dream\u00a0would have been better spent doing something else.<\/p>\n

The second question is whether anyone else has\u00a0ever practiced their profession in their\u00a0sleep\u00a0\u2013\u00a0or is this a sign of how much I love what I do, since engaging in hobbies, like music or sports, is not uncommon in one\u2019s dreams\u2026?<\/p>\n

\"Slide<\/a>
Slide by Brent Lokker highlighting different translations of Isaiah 9:7<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It seems that I have reached the point in my life where I am doing scholarship even in my sleep. A few nights ago I had a dream in which I was looking into the possibility that \u201cGod\u2019s government\u201d would be a good way to translate the New Testament phrase \u201cthe kingdom of God.\u201d I […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":32110,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[2852,4005,4113,5309,6217,8694,10872,12839],"class_list":["post-32109","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-historical-jesus","tag-dream","tag-god","tag-government","tag-interpretation","tag-kingdom","tag-parables","tag-scholarship","tag-translation"],"yoast_head":"\nGod's Government<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"It seems that I have reached the point in my life where I am doing scholarship even in my sleep. 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