Pharisees, Jesus, and the Kingdom: Divine Royal Presence as ...

"The quest for the historical Jesus can be advanced by a consideration of disagreement scenarios recorded in the gospels. Such 'conflicts' afford the opportunity not only to analyse the positions of the protagonists, but by comparing them, to better appreciate their relative stances. One area of disagreement that has remained largely unexplored is that between Jesus and the Pharisees over the 'kingdom of God'. Indeed, 'kingdom of God” formed the very foundation of Jesus' preaching and thus ought to be the place where fundamental disagreements are to be found. As Luke 17:20-21 represents the only passage in the Gospels where the Pharisees show any interest in the kingdom of God, it forms the central hub of the thesis around which an account of the disparate beliefs of Jesus and the Pharisees on the kingdom of God is constructed.