This bachelor’s thesis is about the relationship between marriage, divorce and celibacy, and their respective relation to realized eschatology in the gospel of Matthew. I give special attention to the passages in Matthew that specifically deals with marriage ethics (Matt. 19:1-12, Matt. 5:31-32) and ones that have an explicit connection to eschatology (Matt. 22:30, Matt. 24:37-39). The essay is an exegetical literary analysis, and I will analyze these texts in relation to the historical debate on marriage but also in relation to Jesus´s claim on authority and motives. Since this motivation of Jesus is the kingdom utopia, it follows that the strict teaching on marriage and divorce is motivated by an ideal vision of heaven on earth.

I den här uppsatsen har jag undersökt hur Jesus förkunnelse om Guds rike kan förstås utifrån Lukasevangeliet. Att närstudera ett enda evangelium, och dessutom inte hela evangeliet utan bara fyra perikoper i det, innebär en mycket tydlig avgränsning. Värdet i att försöka förstå vad Jesus säger utifrån denna enskilda sammanhängande källa är att den kan ha ett större djup än en bild som sätts ihop av ett godtyckligt antal fragment från olika källor. I Lukasevangeliet nämner Jesus ordet rike med syftning på Guds rike över 20 gånger fördelat på 18 episoder. Med metoden diskursanalys har jag delat in dessa ställen i tre kategorier som jag kallar diskurs A, B och C. Diskurs A handlar om att Guds rike har högsta prioritet, men beskriver inte riket. Diskurs B beskriver på olika sätt hur Guds rike är. Diskurs C omtalar Guds rike som ett löfte. De fyra perikoper jag analyserar i detalj representerar på olika sätt de diskurser jag identifierat i evangeliet som helhet. Luk 11:1-4 hör till diskurs A, Luk 11:14-23 och Luk 17:20-21 till diskurs B, och Luk 22:24-30 till diskurs C. Traditionen att författaren till dubbelverket Lukasevangeliet och Apostlagärningarna är just Lukas går tillbaka till mitten av 100-talet. Verket utmärks av universalism och en viss syn på rikedom och fattigdom som antagligen kom från författarens församling i Antiochia. Där predikades evangeliet för icke-judar, och där fanns engagemanget i de fattiga och behövande. Det var viktigt att inte fastna i det världsliga livet och lockas att samla rikedomar. Lärjungaskapet skulle vara helhjärtat. När Jesus talar om Guds rike i Lukasevangeliet kan det låta som om det handlar om ett territorium. Men begreppet Guds rike, i grundtexten ἡ βασιλείατοῦΘεοῦ, betyder snarare Guds herravälde. Det är inte ett område eller en plats, utan ett tillstånd som är bestämt av att Gud regerar. Samtidigt är det omöjligt att härska i ingenstans, så det finns ändå ett underförstått territorium i begreppet. Det fanns en dubbelhet i uppfattningen om Guds rike på Jesus tid som innebar att det både var en aktuell tillämplig föreställning på världens aktuella situation och en eskatologisk föreställning. Genom en detaljexegetisk analys av grundtexten för varje perikop har jag nått fram till slutsatser om texternas teologiska budskap om Guds rike. Analysen av Luk 11:1-4 visar att Herrens bön innehåller en indirekt beskrivning av Guds rike som ett idealtillstånd. Gud förutsätts ha makten att få riket till stånd, men människornas vilja och aktivitet spelar också roll. Perikopen Luk 11:14-20 visar att Guds rike är där Gud verkar. Det kan vara här och nu. Gud verkar i Jesus när han befriar en man från en stum demon. Men han verkar inte bara i Jesus utan i alla som gör gott. I perikopen Luk 17:20-21 ställs frågan när Guds rike ska komma, och Jesus svarar på ett sätt som får det att verka inom räckhåll redan i nuet. I Jesus löfte till lärjungarna om jämlik gemenskap med honom själv i sitt eget rike i Luk 22:28-30 jämställer han sig själv med Gud. Han lovar en framtid i härlighet för dem som är honom trogna. Ett försök till syntes av de teologiska budskap som analysen av varje perikop lett fram till är att Guds rike enligt Lukasevangeliet verkar syfta på det alltigenom godas seger över det onda. Begreppet mister dock inte sin mångtydighet och gåtfullhet för det. Det analyserna främst bidrar till är att belysa grundtextens möjliga betydelser, som med nödvändighet begränsas i varje översättning. / In this thesis I have examined how Jesus' proclamation of the kingdom of God can be understood from the Gospel of Luke. A close examination of a single gospel, and moreover not the whole gospel but only four pericopes in it, narrows the scope considerably. The value in trying to understand what Jesus is saying based on this single coherent source is that it can have a greater depth than the picture put together by any number of fragments from different sources. In Luke's Gospel Jesus mentions the word kingdom as referring to the Kingdom of God over 20 times, in a total of 18 episodes. With the method of discourse analysis, I have divided these occurrences into three categories which I call the discourse of A, B and C. Discourse A is about the kingdom of God having the highest priority, but there is no description of the kingdom. Discourse B describes the kingdom of God in some way. Discourse C mentions the kingdom of God as a promise. The four pericopes I analyze in detail, in different ways represent the discourses I have identified in the gospel as a whole. Lk 11:1-4 belong to discourse A, Lk 11:14-23 and Lk 17:20-21 to discourse B, and Lk 22:24-30 to discourse C. The tradition that the author of the double work of Luke-Acts is precisely Luke, goes back to the mid 100's. The work is characterized by universalism and a certain vision of wealth and poverty that probably came from the author's congregation in Antioch. There the gospel to non-Jews was preached, and there was commitment in the poor and needy. It was important not to get caught up in the worldly life and be tempted to accumulate wealth. Discipleship should be wholehearted. When Jesus speaks of the kingdom of God in the Gospel of Luke, it may sound as if it is about a territory. But the concept of the kingdom of God, in the original text ἡ βασιλεία τοῦ Θεοῦ means rather God's dominion. It is not an area or a place, but a state that is determined by God's reign. At the same time, it is impossible to rule ”nowhere”, so there is still a territory implicit in the concept. There was a duality in the perception of the kingdom of God in Jesus' time, which meant that it was both a way of conceiving the world's current situation and an eschatological concept. Through a detailed exegetical analysis of the basic text for each pericope I have reached conclusions on the theological message of the kingdom of God in the texts. The analysis of Lk 11:1-4 shows that the Lord's Prayer contains an indirect description of God's kingdom as an ideal state. God is assumed to have the power to bring the kingdom into being, but the human will and activity also plays a role. Pericope Lk 11:14-20 shows that God's kingdom is where God is at work. It can be here and now. God works through Jesus when he frees a man from a dumb demon. But he doesn't only work through Jesus but through all who do good. In pericope Lk 17:20-21 the question of when the kingdom of God will come is asked, and Jesus responds in a way that makes the kingdom seem within reach already in the present. In Jesus' promise to the disciples of equal fellowship with him in his own kingdom in Lk 22:28-30, he equates himself with God. He promises a future of glory for those who are faithful to him. An attempt at a synthesis of the theological messages that the analyses of the four pericopes led to, is that the kingdom of God according to the Gospel of Luke seems to refer to the victory of the perfect good over evil. The concept of the kingdom remains ambiguous and mysterious. What the analyses contribute to is mainly highlighting the possible meanings of the received text, which are inevitably limited in each translation.

The purpose of this Master’s thesis is to understand how theories of organizational culture canenrich our understanding of Matthew’s group, his parable speech and the parables of thekingdom of heaven. I argue that Matthew edited and constructed the parable speech to fit hisintentions so that he could call for righteous behavior from the members of his group. I thenargue that the parable speech can be viewed as a regulatory document that addresses externalproblems of adaption and internal problems of integration that Matthew’s group had to face.I also argue that the parables of the kingdom of heaven are related to externaland internal problems and that the parables can be understood as artifacts that express thepreferred behavior applied by the leaders of Matthew’s group.My conclusion is that the theories of organizational culture give us a betterunderstanding of the complex situation of Matthew’s group and that the parable speech isrelated to these issues and addresses the group. It can therefore be considered a regulatorydocument. The parables of the kingdom of heaven can be understood as stories that call forrighteous behavior and persuade the Jewish people to join Matthew’s group through followingthe law according to view held by Matthew’s group.

This essay is about how five different exegetical researchers view the historical Jesus teaching about the kingdom of God as present and the possibility for it to be in continuity with his jewish tradition and contemporary context. Jesus announces that the kingdom of God is present and that this present reality is revealed through the miraculous deeds of Jesus. The idea of the kingdom of God as present is in some ways to be found in different texts and certain sects within Second Temple Judaism. Through their work on the historical Jesus the five exegetes shows that, even though the language and the symbol of the kingdom of God is similar, Jesus is in some ways doing something radically new and different in his use of the term “the kingdom of God.” By comparing certain logions with certain texts from Second Temple Judaism, this study shows that there is some continuity, but also that Jesus is presenting a new type of kingdom, a new type of presence and another kind of movement when presenting the kingdom of God as present.