Empire

For some time I have been translating the Biblical phrase “basileia tou theou” as the “empire of God” instead of the “kingdom of God.” I appreciate the word parallel with “basileia romaion,” Greek for the Roman Empire. This week, on Westar’s “Inside Scoop,” someone made a negative comment that using “empire of God” suggested the empire in Star Wars. George Lucas’ evil Galactic Empire supposedly mirrored the fascist rule of Nazi Germany, but it could just as well have been the powerful, violent, dangerous Roman Empire which Jesus and his followers opposed. The Galactic Empire followed a republic, just as the Roman Empire replaced the Roman Republic, and Darth Vader’s storm troopers were employed to accomplish the Empire’s priorities, just as elite legions had enforced the dictates of the Roman emperor. In his “Histories,” the Latin writer Tacitus made the defeated British leader Calgacus say of the Romans: “To robbery, slaughter, and plunder, they give the lying name of empire; they make desolation and call it peace.”

In the twenty-first century, the “kingdom of God” can suggest peace and love, but calling it the “empire of God” expresses the seriousness of the battle Jesus was quietly waging against the forces of evil in his day. Three hundred years later, the Roman emperor Constantine turned the Christian church into a support of his empire, and the irony of the phrase was lost. Jesus’ words were highly subversive: the empire of God opposed the empire of Rome.

Jesus’ listeners understood that the God’s loving community was a powerful force for good. May we strive to be part of God’s empire and not that of Rome.

Lyn Pickhover, Striving