Abstract
This chapter examines the fourth and last element in Matthew's idiolectic use of heaven language, his unique expression kingdom of heaven. It first examines the literary and historical precedents for this notion before proceeding to study its function in Matthew's Gospel. It is a fair question to ask, what would preaching about the kingdom of God have meant to Jesus' hearers? To Matthew's? The chapter examines the relevant concepts and texts related to the kingdom of God in the literature preceding and contemporary with Jesus' ministry. It begins by examining the issue of the translation of מלכךתand βασιλeία and then proceed with a roughly chronological treatment, tracing the kingdom of God from the Old Testament through the various corpora of the Second Temple literature. It concludes with a study of how the themes of kingdom and heaven and earth are interwoven in the stories of Daniel 2-7.Keywords: βασιλeία; Daniel; heaven and earth; Jesus' ministry; kingdom of God; Matthew; Old Testament; Second Temple literature
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