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The Kingdom of God is Within (Among) (in the Midst of) You

Raymond B. Marcin

At no time in history have there been more vernacular translations of the Bible available

to the public. The Christian reader has an unprecedented variety of English language translations

and paraphrases from which to choose.

The choices of most readers are probably made on the

basis of factors no more important than aesthetics, e.g., whether one appreciate the stately prose

of the King James or Douay-Rheims Version or the colloquial ease-of-reading of one or another

of the more contemporary translations. Some preferences, however, are based on more

substantive criteria. It is said, for example, that many “evangelical” Christians show a preference

for the New International Version among the more contemporary translations, whereas many

“liberal” Christians may show a preference for the inclusive language of the New Revised

Standard Version. If this phenomenon is real, it is doubtless a reflection of doctrinal differences.

One of the most significant doctrinal differences, albeit not necessarily between so-called liberal

and so-called evangelical Christians, finds its expression in the έντóς (entos) controversy.

Έντóς (Entos) is a Greek preposition, meaning . . . well, that is the crux of the problem.

The most significant passage in which the preposition έντóς appears in the original Greek text of

the New Testament is Luke 17:21. The King James Version translates verses 20 and 21 as

follows:

And when he was demanded of the Pharisees, when

the Kingdom of God should come, he answered them and

said, The Kingdom of God cometh not with observation:

1 The list is lengthy. After the King James Version came out in 1611, it was quite some time before

another English version appeared on the scene. The English Revised Version was published in 1885.

Then came the American Standard Version in 1901, followed by the Moffatt Bible in 1924, the

Smith-Goodspeed Bible in 1927, the Revised Standard Version in 1952, the Berkeley Bible in 1959,

the New English Bible in 1970, the New American Standard Bible in 1971, the Living Bible also in

1971, the New International Version in 1978, the Good News Bible in 1979, and the New Revised

Standard Version in 1989. (The dates listed here are the dates of fully completed publication. Most

of the versions listed here appeared in portions at earlier dates.) The Roman Catholic reader has a

similar variety to choose among. The Douay-Rheims version was completed in 1610 (making it

older than the King James), followed by a Challoner revision in 1750, the Knox Bible in 1949, the

Jerusalem Bible in 1966, the New American Bible in 1970, and the New Jerusalem Bible in 1985.

The Revised Standard Version is also widely used by Roman Catholic readers. There are, of course,

other partial translations (of one Testament or the other), but they are omitted from this listing for

brevity’s sake.

Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for

behold, the Kingdom of God is within (έντóς) you.

The King James Version translates έντóς as “within”, as does the Douay-Rheims,

and this

translation would seem to be unremarkable to those familiar with the many transliterations of

έντος

into the English language. Έντóς has entered into English as a prefix, “ento-” or “endo-“,

meaning “within” or “inner” or “inside”, e.g., “entoderm” (sometimes “endoderm”, meaning the

inner layer of skin), or “endogenous (meaning originating from within), or “endocrine (meaning

secreting internally, or within). Thus “within” would seem to be a fairly obvious translation of

έντóς. Several of the newer English versions, however, have taken to translating έντος in Luke

17:21 as “among” or “in the midst of”. The difference in meaning may seem subtle to some, but

it roughly parallels a particular difference in doctrinal emphasis “within” Christianity or “among”

Christians. Some Christians tend to look “within”, in the Christian’s own heart, for God’s

presence and God’s Kingdom, whereas other Christians looks for God’s presence and His

Kingdom in the world, “among” Christians acting together for social betterment. The Revised

Standard Version has Christ telling us that the Kingdom of God is “in the midst of you”

and the

New Revised Standard Version has Christ telling us that it is “among you”. The New

International Version, however, has returned to the “within you” of the older King James and

Douay-Rheims Versions.

The correct location of the Kingdom of God would seem to be an issue central to

Christian theology – so central, in fact, that a resolution of the έντός question is imperative, if

Christians are truly to be one body of believers. Perhaps the easiest, and maybe the most

attractive, resolution of the meaning of έντός would be to suggest that all three translations are

correct: that the Kingdom of God is both “within” the deep recesses of the Christian’s heart and

“among” or “in the midst of” Christians working for God in the world. One might think that the

Holy Spirit deliberately breathed into the mind of Luke an ambiguous word, so that both

The Douay-Rheims Version translates Luke 17:20 and 21 as follows:

And being asked by the Pharisees, when the Kingdom of God should

come? he answered then and said: The Kingdom of God cometh not

with observation:

Neither shall they say: Behold here, or behold there. For lo, the

Kingdom of God is within you.

The “in the midst of you” translation has a connotation that may appeal to many Christians. The

thought is that Jesus is identifying the Kingdom of God with Himself; He (Jesus) is in their midst.

This connotation is somewhat problematic, however, in that Jesus has just told His audience that the

Kingdom of God does not come with observation, and He (Jesus) was certainly observable to His

listeners.

connotations might be thought of as being correct. That resolution, however, attractive as it may

be to some, begs the question of whether έντός truly is an ambiguous word. The purpose of this

article is to explore the meaning of the Greek preposition έντός primarily from a semantic

vantage point. The exploration will necessarily involve some theological inference, but it is

hoped that theological preference is avoided.

What does έντός mean? The first thought one has is that “within” and “among” are such

common prepositions in English that έντός must also have been a commonly used preposition in

the New Testament. Unfortunately that is not true. Έντός actually appears only twice throughout

the entire Greek text of the New Testament: in the passage just discussed, and also in Matthew

23:26. The Matthew 23:26 usage of έντός occurs in a long list of “Woe unto you, scribes and

Pharisees” admonitions. Along with verse 25, the King James Version reads:

Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites!

for ye make clean the outside of the cup and of the

platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.

Thou blind Pharisee, cleanse first that which is within

(έντός) the cup and platter, that the outside of them may be

clean also.

Quite obviously έντός in the above quotation cannot be rendered as “among”. It only makes

sense as “within” or some synonym such as “inside”. Also, the careful reader will notice that

there are two “withins” in the quotation. Έντός is the original Greek for the second of the two:

“within the cup and platter”. The first “within” is actually an adverbial form, and not the

preposition; in the original Greek the word first translated as “within”, i.e., “within they are full

of . . .” is έσωθεν (esothen), an adverb meaning “inwardly”. But as to the έντός word, “within

the cup and platter” – one is hard pressed to suggest that it somehow could be translated as

“among the cup and platter”.

Moreover, an analysis of the meaning of the adverb έσωθεν may well result in some light

being shed on the meaning of the preposition έντός. This is so because έσωθεν is linguistically

related to έντος. At the time the New Testament was being written, έσωθεν was a relatively

recent word form. It does not appear in earlier dialects. Instead its precursor “έντοσθεν

(entosthen)” appears and is widely used in the earlier Greek, most notably in Homeric Greek.

The earlier adverb έντοσθεν, which had dropped out of use by the time of the writing of the New

Testament (it appears nowhere in the Bible), has much more of an obvious semantic connection

with the preposition έντος than does its linguistic descendant έσωθεν, but the connection between

the newer έσωθεν and έντός

seems nonetheless real. In the less disciplined earlier dialects of

Greek, έντοσθεν was often written as “έντοσθε” or as “έντοθεν”. It may have been a

combination of έντος and “τόθι”, τóθι itself being an adverb meaning “there”. Έντοθεν or

έντοσθεν thus meant something like “within there”.

There is another possible derivation of the adverb έσωθεν. The particle “-θεν” was

widely used as a suffix signifying “place where”. “Èσω” may have been a contracted form of the

preposition είσω, which in turn was built on the simpler preposition είς. Είς meant “into”. Είσω

or έσω meant “into” also, but with more of a directional sense, e.g., in the sense of “towards

within”.

Thus, even in this understanding of the derivation of έσωθεν, έσωθεν seems to mean

something like “within there” or “towards there”.

If, through έντοσθεν, the adverb έσωθεν is linguistically related to έντός, then the various

usages of έσωθεν throughout the New Testament will give indications of the correct meaning of

έντος

. Èσωθεν appears thirteen times in the New Testament, invariably in contexts in which it

can only mean “inside” or “within” or “inward” – never “among”. A typical reference occurs in

Mark 7:21:

For from within (έσωθεν), out of the heart of

men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications,

murders.

Another occurs in 2

Corinthians 4:16:

For which cause we faint not, but though our

outward man perish, yet the inward (έσωθεν) man is

renewed day by day.

In none of the thirteen references does έσωθεν seem able to be translated with contextual sense as

“among” or any of its adverbial equivalents. The other usages of έσωθεν occur in Matthew 7:15,

23:27, and 23:28; Mark 7:23; Luke 11:7, 11:39, and 11:40; 2d Corinthians 7:5; and Revelation

4:8 and 5:1.

Those verses referred to earlier from Matthew 23 (the ones in which both έντός and

έσωθεν appear) also help shed some light on the meaning of έντός from another vantage point.

In both verses, we see the word “within” juxtaposed with the term “outside of”: “. . . ye make

clean the outside of the cup and of the platter, but within they are full of extortion and excess.”

Juxtaposed contrasting words can be shown to be related in the sense of antonyms, e.g.,

“inside/outside” or “within/without”. The original Greek for “outside of” is έκτός. Έντός and

έκτός are antonyms in much the same style as “within” and “without” or “inside” and “outside”

are antonyms. There is a similar juxtaposition of antonyms in verse 25, where the adverbial

usages of “within” and “outside of” appear. There, “έξωθεν” is juxtaposed with έσωθεν in the

original Greek.

If έντός is used so very seldom in the Greek New Testament, might its antonym έκτος be,

perhaps, used a little more frequently? Èκτός is indeed used somewhat more frequently,

appearing five times. In addition to the reference we have already seen in Matthew 23:26, έκτός

This is the explanation of Georg Autenrieth in his Homeric Dictionary (Harper & Brothers,

1876).

is used in Acts 26:22, 1

Corinthians 6:18, 1

Corinthians 15:2, and 1

Corinthians 15:27. In the

Acts 26:22 reference, Paul uses έκτός to express something like “other than” or “else”, in the

sense of exclusion as opposed to inclusion:

Having therefore obtained help of God, I continue

unto this day, witnessing both to small and great,

saying none other things than (έκτός) those which the

prophets and Moses did say should come.

This usage of έκτός would seem to suggest that the “έντός / έκτός” paradigm can be understood

in the sense of “inclusion/exclusion”, which does in turn seem to suggest “among/not among” at

least as strongly as “within/without”. The last cited usage of έκτός (in 1st Corinthians 15:27)

raises the same suggestion:

For he hath put all things under his feet. But

when he saith all things are put under him, it is

manifest that he is excepted (έκτός), which did put all

things under him.

The King James Version here translates έκτός

as “excepted”. The completely literal translation

makes it clear that έκτός

conveys that same sense of “other than” or exclusion. Literally, the last

sentence of the quoted verse would read something like this: But when he says that all things

have been put under (his feet, it is) manifest that (he means all things) other than the (one)

having put all things under himself. Again, the “exclusion/inclusion” paradigm inherent in the

usage of a word signifying “other than” seems to fit both the “within/without” and the

“among/not among” paradigms.

Another usage of έκτός (the one found in 1st Corinthians 15:2) seems even less helpful

for our purposes. There έκτός is used as part of an idiomatic phrase (“έκτός εί µη”) which

literally means (using both our alternatives) “without if not” or “not among if not”, and which is

conveniently translated as “unless”.

The final usage of έκτός (the one in 1st Corinthians 6:18), however, seems consistent

with the unambiguous usage that we found in Matthew 23:26, where έκτός meant “without” or

“outside” as opposed to “within” or “inside”. In the King James Version, 1st Corinthians 6:18

reads:

Flee fornication. Every sin that a man doeth is

without (έκτός) the body; but he that committeth

fornication sinneth against his own body.

“Without” or “έκτός” in that sentence can only mean “not within” or “not inside”. It cannot with

contextual sense be understood as meaning “not among”.

This analysis of the usages of έκτός suggests the possibility that έντός, its antonym, might

in some contexts convey the sense of “among”, but in truth it is only a bare possibility, because

in those few instances in which έκτός appears amenable to the translation “not among”, it

appears equally amenable to the translation “not within”. So, what conclusion are we to draw at

this point in our inquiry? Tentatively at least, it would seem that, whereas έντός can be

understood as meaning “among”, in the sense that it is the antonym of έκτός which has

occasionally been used in situations in which it can be understood as meaning “not among”

(though not exclusively so), by far the better interpretation (thus far) is that έντός means “within”

or “inside” in Luke 17:21. The only other usage of έντός in the New Testament occurs in a

passage in which it can only be translated as “within” or “inside” (Matthew 23:26), and its

antonym έκτός, while at times amenable to both interpretations (“without” and “not among”) is

never used in a passage in which it can only be translated as “not among” and in fact is used in

two passages in which it can only be translated as “without” or “outside”. At this point, it does

seem at this point in our analysis that the Kingdom of God is more within us than among us. But

to give a semantic answer – even a tentative one – is not necessarily to capture the full meaning

of a word, especially its meaning in the context of so important a scriptural passage. Our trek

continues.

The simple semantic meaning of a word is often devoid of nuances that may well have

been intended by the original author, and sometimes ignoring the nuances can lead to overly

simplistic understandings of meaning. If we were to settle on the translation of έντός as

“among”, for example, it is not difficult to surmise that the passage may well indicate that Jesus

was advocating a works gospel: the Kingdom of God exists “among” Christians united and

working together for human betterment. Similarly, but at the other end of the spectrum, if we

were to settle on the translation of έντός simply as “within” or “inside” without further nuances,

we might be suggesting that the Kingdom of God exists only within some form of sterile and

narcissistic self-analysis, or some form of good or warm feelings. The question, of course,

remains whether there are nuances that we haven’t yet taken into account.

The careful reader may have noted that we have dealt with only two alternatives thusfar:

έντός, as “within” or “inside” and έντός as “among”. We have mentioned but not investigated

another possible meaning: έντός as “in the midst of”. The first thought may be that “in the midst

of” is pretty much synonymous with “among”, and thus we need not have considered it as a

separate alternative. The Revised Standard Version actually uses “in the midst of” in its

translation of the Luke 17:21 passage. Only slightly different – but perhaps enough so to add a

nuance – is the New American Standard Version’s “in your midst”. Do the “in your midst”

connotations inform the meaning of έντός? One somewhat tenuous argument for the translation

of έντος as “in the midst of” is the fact that as a preposition έντός takes the genitive case (the

word most frequently translated as “among”, i.e. “έν”, takes the dative case). The genitive case,

however, also makes sense in English in the context of the “within” meaning. A synonym for

“within” is “inside”. If we were to use the adverb “inside” in a prepositional phrase, we would,

to be grammatically correct, have to use the expression “inside of” – a genitive construction.

Thus, even if we were to allow the fact that έντός takes the genitive case to inform its meaning,

we are not necessarily budged from our tentative conclusion that έντός means “within” or

“inside”. And yet “in the midst of” is also a plausible genitive form. It is yet possible that “in the

midst of” might somehow express the meaning of έντός, perhaps more clearly or more fully.

Again, our trek continues.

Our search thus far has, with obvious good reason, been confined to the New Testament.

One can not, of course, expect to find the word έντός in the Old Testament, since the original text

of the Old Testament is in Hebrew, not Greek. But as God is the author of both, we might expect

to find a Hebrew word carrying the same meaning as έντός, and perhaps that Hebrew word will

have helpful connotations and nuances, such that it might inform the meaning of έντός across the

languages, as it were.

Perhaps the best candidate for the Hebrew equivalent of the Greek word έντός is ברק

(qereb)”, and at first glance it may seem that a ברק connection argues for an ambiguous meaning

of έντός, because ברק is often translated as “among” as well as “in the midst of” and “within”.

But what may be significant is that the scholars who translated the Hebrew Scriptures into Greek

in the Septuagint of the third and second centuries B.C. seem to have chosen έντός as the correct

translation of ברק in those contexts which convey the sense of “within” exclusively. Most

notable are Psalms 39:3-4, 103:1, and 109:22; and Isaiah 16:11 – “My heart was hot within (ברק)

me . . . . Bless the Lord, O my soul; and all that is within (ברק) me, bless his holy name. . . . For

I am poor and needy, and my heart is wounded within (ברק) me . . . . Wherefore my bowels shall

sound like an harp for Moab and my inward (ברק) parts for Kirharesh.” Each of those usages of

ברק is an έντός in the Septuagint. Thus the Septuagint scholars seem to have understood έντός as

conveying the sense of “within” or “inside of”.

ברק (qereb), literally means “the nearest part of”, i.e., “the center”. It is derived from “ברק

(qarab – same consonants, different vowel markings)” meaning “to approach” or “to come near

to”, and it is the root word ברק (qarab) that Moses used in Deuteronomy 30:14. The quotation in

context begins at Deuteronomy 30:11:

For this commandment which I command thee this

day, it is not hidden from thee, neither is it far off.

It is not in heaven, that thou shouldst say, Who

shall go up for us to heaven, and bring it unto us,

that we may hear it, and do it?

Neither is it beyond the sea, that thou shouldst

say, Who shall go over the sea for us, and bring it

unto us, that we may hear it, and do it?

But the word is very nigh (ברק) unto thee, in

thy mouth, and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.

The Promised Land is, of course, an Old Testament “type” of the New

Testament “Kingdom of God”, and the quoted language is remarkable in that in it

Moses draws the connection between the physical Promised Land and an internal

state of mind. He even speaks of circumcision of the heart in verse 6, presaging

Paul’s insight in Romans 2:29. In it Moses conditions the physical joys of the

Promised Land on obedience to God’s commands – not the commands which are

far off in heaven or beyond the sea, but the “word” that is in the heart.

The conceptual connection between the Kingdom of God as an indwelling presence of

God in the heart and the Promised Land of the Israelites is, perhaps, nowhere clearer than in

Ezekiel 36:26-28:

A new heart also will I give you, and a new spirit

will I put within (ברק) you: and I will take away

the stony heart out of your flesh, and I will give you

an heart of flesh.

And I will put my spirit within (ברק) you, and

cause you to walk in my statutes, and ye shall keep my

judgments, and do them.

And ye shall dwell in the land that I gave to your

fathers; and ye shall be my people, and I will be your

God.

In another passage, ברק (qereb)

was actually translated by the King James scholars as “in heart”.

The usage occurs in Jeremiah 9:8.

Their tongue is as an arrow shot out; it speaketh

deceit; one speaketh peaceably to his neighbor with

his mouth, but in heart (ברק) he layeth his wait.

If ברק (qereb)

does inform the meaning of έντος, then, it would seem fair to conclude that

έντος does indeed mean “within”, but in a far richer sense than “inside one’s thoughts or

feelings”. It means something like “inside the core of one’s very being, the center of one’s

heart”.

Counterarguments, of course, have been made for the connotation of “among” or “in the

midst of”, but they tend, to some extent at least, to be based more on theological preference than

on semantic analysis.

Theological preference aside, analyses of the simple meanings of the

The counterarguments are well summarized in the Anchor Bible volume on Luke’s Gospel, in the

material accompanying Luke 17:20 and 21. One seemingly strong argument, not based on

theological preference, but rather on contextual analysis, is that Jesus spoke the Luke 17:21 words to

Pharisees, and it seems unlikely that Jesus would be saying that the Kingdom of God resides deep in

the hearts of the Pharisees. But in truth that argument fails even on its own level (aside from the fact

preposition έντός, its adverbial counterparts, its antonym, and its Septuagint usages in the Old

Testament leave little doubt but that the Kingdom of God is “within” us, and provide scant

support for the notion that the Kingdom is to be understood as being “among” us. There may be

reason to suggest that those translations of έντός as “in the midst of” are not too far off the mark

– except that they usually imply the wrong “midst”. Again, the foregoing analyses, including the

information gleaned from the Septuagint usages of ברק (qereb), suggest that the Kingdom of God

is “in the midst of” or “in the center of” the human heart. It is to be sought not simply “within”

us but rather at the core of our very being.

that, if accepted, it likewise jettisons the “among” connotation – it is equally difficult to envision the

Kingdom of God as existing “among” the Pharisees). Jesus was indeed speaking to Pharisees, as he

often did. And time and again his admonition to the Pharisees (well exemplified in the other passage

in which έντος is used, i.e., Matthew 23:26, as well as throughout the Gospels) is that they are

betraying the Covenant by focusing only on outward appearances and neglecting the inner reality.

Jesus was telling the Pharisees where, i.e., in what locale, the Kingdom can be found. It is sometimes

thought that Jesus had an exclusively condemnatory and not a salvational attitude towards Pharisees,

but this is, of course, belied in the accounts of the calling of Saul of Tarsus and others.