Monday, December 25, 2023

John Allfree on Luke 17:21

The KJV of Luke 17:21 reads:

 

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.

 

If one surveys most other translations, the kingdom of God is not said to be "within you" but instead, εντος is translated as "among you" (e.g., NRSV) or "in your midst" (e.g., NASB).

 

Commenting on the interpretive problems with translating εντος as "within you," Christadelphian John Allfree noted the following:

 

The kingdom was certainly not “within” those sinful Pharisees to whom Jesus was speaking. He declared of them, “Ye are like unto whited sepulchres, which indeed appear beautiful outward, but are within full of dead men’s bones, and of all uncleanness” (Matt. 23:27). He appears to be referring to that phenomenon which would be increasingly characteristic of them as one of the signs of their times. Namely, that sign concerning which he warned his disciples in the prophecy under consideration—“If they shall say unto you, Behold (GK. IDOU), he is in the desert; go not forth: behold, he is in the secret chambers; believe it not.” The Pharisees would look into deserts and secret places for a deliverer; but if only they had opened their eyes they would have seen him then—amongst them! (John Allfree, The Lord’s Mount Olivet Prophecy [Nottinghamshire, U.K.: Bible Study Publications, 1996], 92 n. 11)