The New Testament and the People of God (Christian Origins and the Question of God Book 1)

by N.T. Wright

[Paul] lived there [i.e. in Rome] two whole years at his own expense and welcomed all who came to him, proclaiming the kingdom of God and teaching about the Lord Jesus Christ with all boldness and without hindrance.13 Every word counts in this brief closing statement. Paul is in Rome as a free man (more or less),14 propagating the gospel freely. And the gospel is the news of the kingdom of Israel’s god, that is, the message that there is no king but this god. More specifically, it is this Jewish message now crystallized as the news about Jesus, the Messiah, whom Paul announced as kyrios, Lord. And this subversive message could be proclaimed boldly and without hindrance. It looks as though, for Luke, Christianity has taken on the traditional role of Judaism: it is the divine answer to paganism. Here at last is a Jew living in Rome itself (i.e. not just hiding in the hills of Galilee), and declaring that, in and through Jesus, Israel’s god is the sole king of the world. This is Luke’s full answer to the question the disciples asked of Jesus in Acts 1:6. Israel’s god has restored his kingdom for his people.