Wednesday, December 3, 2025

Note on JST Luke 17:21

Instead of the KJV reading “the kingdom of God is within you,” the JST reads differently.

 

NT Mss 2, p. 88:

 



 

The kingdom of God cometh not with observation; neither shall they say[;]<,> lo, here! Or, Lo, there! For, behold, the kingdom of God has already come unto you.

 

Most scholars and translators reject the KJV reading. Compare the following:

 

idou gar hē basileia tou theou entos humōn estin ‘for behold, the kingdom of God is among you’. idou contrasts emphatically with the preceding idou and introduces the clause which explains why the preceding delimitations of the coming of the kingdom are to be rejected. The meaning of entos humōn (‡) is much discussed, cp. commentaries, esp. Creed. The following renderings are possible: (1) ‘within you’, i.e. ‘within your heart’, taking basileia tou theou in a non-escatalogical sense; (2) ‘among you’, i.e. ‘in your midst’, either now or in the future; (3) ‘within your reach’, cp. TBT, 4.7f 1953; 9.162f, 1958, and Leaney ad loc. Of these (2) seems to be preferable. (J. Reiling and J. L. Swellengrebel, A Handbook on the Gospel of Luke [UBS Handbook Series; New York: United Bible Societies, 1993], 586)

 

And no, Adam Clarke is not the source of this reading. This is from Clarke’s commentary on Luke 17:21:

 

Verse 21. Lo here! or, lo there!] Perhaps those Pharisees thought that the Messiah was kept secret, in some private place, known only to some of their rulers; and that by and by he should be proclaimed in a similar way to that in which Joash was by Jehoiada the priest. See the account, 2 Chron. 23:1–11. (Adam Clarke, The Holy Bible with a Commentary and Critical Notes, 6 vols. [Bellingham, Wash.: Faithlife Corporation, 2014], 5:469)

 

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