20 And he was axid of Farisees, whanne the rewme of God cometh. And he answerde to hem, and seide, The rewme of God cometh not with aspiyn. Obviously the old English term for “realm” or “reign”

Finnish language has only one word for “he” and “she”. if You want to know is someone he or she, You have to use names or other indications, like clearly saying “man” or “woman”. We do not have articles either and we build the words with various endings, having 15 cases for a none.

Kingdom of God is translated “Jumalan valtakunta”, “God’s reign” – not mentioning anything about king or queen. The word says also that God is having “ power over everything”. God is able to exercise power over everything created.

Would be interesting to carry on, but this is in my mind just now.

J.S. I appreciate your very fine distinctions. Empire of God would be a translation taking up the context of the Roman empire and enlighten the subversive use of that term by Jesus. And in many languages, such as German (=Reich Gottes), this term is used as the traditional translation for basileia.

Thank you, O.S. for your French translation. On a website I found “Empreinte de Dieu” ( http://stranzblog.blogspot.com/2007/12/feminist-theology-with-regula-strbel.html ), which is something like “imprint of God”. Have you heard that before? To me, an imprint doesn’t seem to be enough for another world.

So in speaking of the Roman Kingdom in contrast to God’s Kingdom, and more importantly, bringing that into a modern and diverse world, we need to highlight the contrast between potentates that rule by force and God in Christ Jesus who suffers on a cross.

I think the most helpful way to do that biblically (text and context) in the United States is to speak about a Roman Empire and the Empire of God. By extension I think it helpful to talk about the Empire of the United States in contrast to the Empire of God. Or the Empire of the United Nations in contrast to the Empire of God, etc. I very rich interpretive texture emerges if you do this the world over.

Hope this is helpful. I realize I’m making a very fine distinction, but I think it is an essential distinction.

There was quite a lot written by feminist theologians about “king”dom – reign may again work better. Some theologians would argue that there is a permanence in God’s reign that human institutions don’t have (whatever the Vatican may claim) I’m not so convinced by that – our ideas about God and God’s reign change over time but it is also one of the things that makes it quite tricky in ecumenical settings.

Anyway I rather like the idea that just as there is a transcendent and immanent side to our experience of God there is also an “otherness” and “within you” aspect to the commonwealth of God (Just to be clear I use the word commonwealth more in the sense of Cromwell than as the current group of former British colonies.)

In Kiswahili there is no complication. It simply means the Reign of God, A God who rules every where and for ever.