>>19974242Jesus of Nazareth and his early followers envisioned a literal kingdom on earth that would wipe out the forces of evil and Jesus would sit as king and his 12 apostles would become the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel.
The kingdom wouldn’t have any starvation, so it was important to reach out to the poor now. The kingdom would not have sickness, so it was important to heal the sick. In the kingdom there will be a complete overturn where the first will be last and the last first; the rich would be poor and the poor rich, so it was important to sell all your possessions.
Jesus and his followers are believed by most scholars to have been Jewish apocalypticists. To believe in Jewish apocalypticism, one would also believe in the notion that evil forces in the world are punishing the righteous and those who follow Mosaic Law. Christians call these evil forces devils or Satan. But in Jewish apocalypticism there was no such character.
Judah after the death of Herod the Great took a turn for the worse as Romans decided to impose their own values and statues around the region. The Jews weren’t having none of that. There were riots and political tensions between Jews and Romans intensified. In Jewish apocalypticism — which is something John the Baptist, Jesus, and their followers respectively believed in. Who were these evil forces punishing the righteous? The Roman Empire. Rome. The great whore that after 70 AD would also be called Babylon by the Book of Revelation.
Jesus envisioned the kingdom of heaven to be a literal kingdom, brought about by the Son of Man (a divine warrior and essentially a perfect Adam), where it will be built upon the ashes of Rome. Jesus will then be king of God’s new kingdom with his apostles serving as the leaders of the 12 tribes of Israel. With the evil forces wiped out by the Son of Man, the righteous can then live in peace in this new kingdom knowing they would no longer be punished.
