Monday, April 06, 2015

One king

The Disciples’ Prayer recognizes not only that God has a people, but also that he alone is to be King over them. This is a tenet of Jewish theology so vital to the life of Judaism that when non-Jews such as the Greek king of Syria Antiochus Epiphanes and the Roman emperor Caligula dared to challenge it or prevent it from being acknowledged, they fermented grave social unrest and costly revolts against themselves. Furthermore, the Disciples’ Prayer presupposes, especially in the “kingdom” petition, that the God of Israel has given his people a concrete hope that he intends to decisively establish his sovereignty over all those who have rebelled against him, just as such Jewish texts as the Psalms of Solomon and many of the Dead Sea Scrolls declare he has.—The Disciples’ Prayer, page 49

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