This name of “kingdom of God,” or “kingdom of heaven,"[1] was the favorite term of Jesus to express the revolution which he brought into the world.[2] Like almost all the Messianic terms, it came from the book of Daniel.  According to the author of this extraordinary book, the four profane empires, destined to fall, were to be succeeded by a fifth empire, that of the saints, which should last forever.[3] This reign of God upon earth naturally led to the most diverse interpretations.  To Jewish theology, the “kingdom of God” is most frequently only Judaism itself—­the true religion, the monotheistic worship, piety.[4] In the later periods of his life, Jesus believed that this reign would be realized in a material form by a sudden renovation of the world.  But doubtless this was not his first idea.[5] The admirable moral which he draws from the idea of God as Father, is not that of enthusiasts who believe the world is near its end, and who prepare themselves by asceticism for a chimerical catastrophe; it is that of men who have lived, and still would live.  “The kingdom of God is within you,” said he to those who sought with subtlety for external signs.[6] The realistic conception of the Divine advent was but a cloud, a transient error, which his death has made us forget.  The Jesus who founded the true kingdom of God, the kingdom of the meek and the humble, was the Jesus of early life[7]—­of those chaste and pure days when the voice of his Father re-echoed within him in clearer tones.  It was then for some months, perhaps a year, that God truly dwelt upon the earth.  The voice of the young carpenter suddenly acquired an extraordinary sweetness.  An infinite charm was exhaled from his person, and those who had seen him up to that time no longer recognized him.[8] He had not yet any disciples, and the group which gathered around him was neither a sect nor a school; but a common spirit, a sweet and penetrating influence was felt.  His amiable character, accompanied doubtless by one of those lovely faces[9] which sometimes appear in the Jewish race, threw around him a fascination from which no one in the midst of these kindly and simple populations could escape.

[Footnote 1:  The word “heaven” in the rabbinical language of that time is synonymous with the name of “God,” which they avoided pronouncing.  Compare Matt. xxi. 25; Luke xv. 18, xx. 4.]

[Footnote 2:  This expression occurs on each page of the synoptical Gospels, the Acts of the Apostles, and St. Paul.  If it only appears once in John (iii. 3, 5), it is because the discourses related in the fourth Gospel are far from representing the true words of Jesus.]

[Footnote 3:  Dan. ii. 44, vii. 13, 14, 22, 27.]

[Footnote 4:  Mishnah, Berakoth, ii. 1, 3; Talmud of Jerusalem, Berakoth, ii. 2; Kiddushin, i. 2; Talm. of Bab., Berakoth, 15 a; Mekilta, 42 b; Siphra, 170 b.  The expression appears often in the Medrashim.]