Luke 17:21
is the negative coordinating conjunction OUDE, which is used after a previous negative to add an additional negative idea to the thought. It is translated “nor.” With this we have the third person plural future active indicative of the verb EIPON, which means “to say: will they say.”
The future tense is a predictive future, which affirms what will take place.
The active voice indicates that people in general will not produce the action.
The indicative mood is declarative for a simple statement of fact.
“nor will they say,”
is the particle of attention IDOU, which means “Pay attention; Notice; Behold.” Then we have the adverb of place HWDE, meaning “here.” With this we have the ellipsis of the verb EIMI, meaning “to be: [it is].” This is followed by the coordinating conjunction Ē, meaning “or” plus the adverb of place EKEI, meaning “There” with another ellipsis of the verb EIMI, meaning “[it is].
““Behold, here [it is]!” or, “There [it is]!””
is the particle of attention IDOU, meaning “behold” plus the explanatory use of the postpositive conjunction GAR, meaning “For,” followed by the nominative subject from the feminine singular article and noun BASILEIA with the possessive genitive from the masculine singular article and noun THEOS, meaning “the kingdom of God.” Then we have the preposition ENTOS plus the adverbial genitive of place from the second person plural personal pronoun SU, meaning “inside you; within you.”[1] The NASB translation ‘in your midst’ is misleading and wrong. Finally, we have the third person singular present active indicative from the verb EIMI, which means “to be: is.”
The present tense is an aoristic present, which describes the state of being as a fact.
The active voice indicates that the kingdom of God produces the state of being within or inside a person.
The indicative mood is declarative for a dogmatic statement of doctrine.
“For behold, the kingdom of God is inside you.’”
Lk 17:21 corrected translation
“nor will they say, “Behold, here [it is]!” or, “There [it is]!” For behold, the kingdom of God is inside you.’”
Explanation:
1. “nor will they say,”
a. This verse is the continuation of the sentence begun in the previous verse. The entire sentence now reads: Now having been asked by the Pharisees when the kingdom of God is coming, He replied to them and said, ‘The kingdom of God is not coming with observation; nor will they say, “Behold, here [it is]!” or, “There [it is]!” For behold, the kingdom of God is inside you.’”
b. The subject “they” refers to people in general who are looking for the coming of the kingdom of God. The specific reference is to the Jews, who were constantly looking for the coming of the kingdom, which is why the Pharisees in particular asked the question. The Lord could have personalized His remark by saying “nor will you say,” but rather keeps His remark objective and neutral in the hopes of being able to evangelize these men.
2. ““Behold, here [it is]!” or, “There [it is]!””
a. Jesus then quotes the typically expected remarks of anyone who happened to be looking for the coming of the physical kingdom of God, that is, the second advent of Christ and the establishment of His millennial reign.
b. There is only one generation of Jewish believers that will actually be able to say these things and be correct, and that will be the Jewish believers who survive the Great Tribulation and are surrounded in Jerusalem fighting off the armies of Satan that have gathered to annihilate them as well as the Jewish believers who have escaped to the mountains and have hidden themselves from the agents of Satan trying to find and kill them. All other generations of Jewish believers will never have the chance to say, “Behold, the kingdom of God is here” or “there.”
c. The implication is that these Pharisees, who are questioning Jesus, will never be able to speak these words.
3. “For behold, the kingdom of God is inside you.’”
a. The Lord then explains why these Pharisees and any other Jewish unbelievers will never be permitted to declare that the kingdom of God is in a particular physical place or time. They will not be able to do so, because the kingdom of God is not outside a person. It is inside a person.
b. The kingdom of God of which Jesus speaks of is the spiritual kingdom of God, which only exists inside the soul of a person who has believed in Christ. At the moment of salvation, the spiritual kingdom of God is established in the soul of that individual. God rules from within us. The spiritual kingdom precedes the physical kingdom throughout human history until the second advent of Jesus. After the second advent of Jesus the physical kingdom will precede the spiritual kingdom for those born during the millennial reign of Christ.
c. Jesus was not telling these Pharisees that the kingdom of God was already in them personally. He was evangelizing them and telling them what could be, if they would only believe in Him. Jesus was always evangelizing His enemies. He was never willing that they should perish. Jesus was not declaring the fact that the kingdom of God was already inside the Pharisees, but that the spiritual kingdom of God must begin inside a person or the external physical kingdom of God didn’t matter. He was telling them that they could not have the physical kingdom without first having the spiritual kingdom within themselves. And they had to believe in the King to have that kingdom within themselves.
d. The issue of the verse is what is outside of them (the genitive of place)—‘here’ or ‘there’ versus what is inside of them (the genitive of place)—‘within you’. There is no contrast if the translation ‘among you’ is accepted. The result is what is outside of them versus what is outside of them, which is clearly not the impact of Jesus’ argument or logic. The Lord is stating the principle of where the spiritual kingdom of God is to be found in any person. The kingdom must first be found inside them, that is, in their soul. The Lord is not stating what actually exists in the case of these Pharisees. He knows the kingdom is not inside them, but wishes that it were and is indirectly making the offer to them to believe and have the kingdom in them.
4. Commentators’ comments.
a. “When the Lord said to His enemies, ‘The kingdom of God is among you’ [the preposition does not mean ‘among you’: wrong translation leads to wrong interpretation and here come the wrong interpretation], He meant in the person of the king [No, He did not; that is a wrong interpretation]. He could not mean that it was ‘within’ the hearts of His enemies, who rejected the King and sought His life.”[2] The Lord was trying to evangelize His enemies, and so, was telling them that the true kingdom of God they desired so much was a spiritual kingdom that begins inside them with what they believe. He wasn’t telling them that they already had this spiritual kingdom within them.
b. “Thayer cites two passages from Xenophon where ENTOS may have the idea of ‘among’ and claims that this is the idea in Lk 17:21, because of the context. But the meaning in Xenophon is disputed and Liddell and Scott give only ‘within’ for ENTOS. Besides, in one of the new Logia of Jesus [‘Saying of Jesus’ a papyrus manuscript published in 1905] we have a similar saying in a context that makes ‘within’ necessary [as the correct translation rather than ‘among’] and would seem to settle the point about the passage in Luke.”[3] This additional manuscript evidence further proves the meaning of the preposition as ‘within’ or ‘inside’ never ‘among’.
c. “Louw-Nida lexicon section 83.9 suggest ‘among you’ and is wrong. BDAG gives only the meanings: inside, within, within the limits of.”
d. Porter, Stanley (1999). Idioms of the Greek New Testament (p. 179) says it means ‘within’.
e. “Within you. This is the obvious, and the necessary meaning of entos. The examples cited of the use of entos in Xenophon and Plato where entos means ‘among’ do not bear that out when investigated. F.F. Bruce contends that there is no clear instance of entos in the sense of ‘among’, and rightly so. What Jesus says to the Pharisees is that they, as others, are to look for the kingdom of God within themselves, not in outward displays and supernatural manifestations. It is not a localized display ‘Here’ or ‘There.’ The only other instance of entos in the N.T. (Mt 23:26) necessarily means ‘within’ (‘the inside of the cup’). There is also the use of entos meaning ‘within’ in the Oxyrhynchus Papyrus saying of Jesus of the Third Century (Deissmann, Light from the Ancient East, p. 426): ‘The kingdom of heaven is within you’.”[4]
f. “This verse is a crux on Luke’s view of the kingdom. The first half clearly sets up Jesus’ remark that the kingdom does not need to be hunted for by looking here and there. Jesus then explains why one need not hunt for the kingdom. What does ENTOS HUMWN mean? Many, including numerous ancient interpreters, take the phrase to mean that the kingdom is ‘inside you’. This view has two major problems. Contextually, Jesus is addressing the Pharisees, who are the last group of people that Jesus would say has the kingdom in them. Second, nowhere else in the NT is the kingdom spoken of in internal terms. [This is no argument; for the Bible only needs to say something once for it to be true.] Marshall (1978: 655) is right when he says that in the NT people enter the kingdom, but the kingdom does not enter people. [The passage does not say that the kingdom enters people.] These arguments against “inside you” are weak at best, and wrong at worst. If Jesus refers to a present coming of the kingdom, then He is saying that His presence represents the kingdom’s arrival. He is the answer to the Pharisees’ question. They do not need to search for the kingdom, because the One who brings the kingdom and its program is before them. They need only to respond to Him to find its presence and benefits. They need to learn the lesson of the Samaritan leper who was healed: the way to God’s kingdom is through Jesus. He controls the kingdom’s benefits and represents its power and presence. What does this mean for Luke’s view of the kingdom? It comes in stages: one present and the rest in the future. Thus, the kingdom currently manifests itself in the Church, which is where God is active through Christ. In the elaboration to the disciples in Luke 17:22–37, Jesus will make clear that there is coming a day when all the world will see the rule of the Son of Man, a rule that completes God’s plan of redemption. As such, it is clear that the kingdom is not merely the Church, for the Church is but a part of the total kingdom program. The Church shares in aspects of what the kingdom is, but the kingdom program is larger than that of the Church. The Church is in the kingdom, but it is not the kingdom. Given the need for personal response in order to enter the kingdom, it is also clear that the kingdom is not equal to society at large. Rather, the kingdom is made up of those people who have responded to Jesus. Kingdom citizens are those who turn and come to Him. They form a new community and are to reflect God’s love and care by the way they live: loving God and fellow humans. One need not search high and low for the kingdom or look for a sign in the sky about it, for its presence is here now. It is present in the person of Jesus and His offer of forgiveness and in the community of faith that He rules.”[5]
g. “The Greek preposition can mean ‘within,’ ‘among,’ or ‘in the midst of.’[That’s not true; it only means ‘within, inside’.]” [6] Therefore, the comments which follow this wrong translation are wrong interpretation.
h. “Jesus told them that the kingdom was in their midst [wrong]. The term ‘within you’ is often misunderstood [wrong]. The Pharisees were rejecting Him as the Messiah and were not believers. Thus it would not make sense for Jesus to have told the Pharisees that the kingdom of God was within them as if it were some sort of spiritual kingdom [wrong; it makes perfect sense if He is trying to evangelize them; if He is offering the spiritual kingdom to them]. It is better to translate the phrase ‘within you’ as ‘in your midst’ [wrong, wrong, wrong].”[7]
i. “Jesus explained that the Kingdom of God is ‘within you’; i.e., spiritual. This essentially was the nation’s stumbling point, for while they wanted the earthly kingdom, they were not prepared to submit to Christ’s demands that the spiritual preconditions be met first. The ‘here!’ or, ‘there!’ specifically denies that the Kingdom of God will be confined to a restricted geographic locality; in other words, it will not be material but spiritual, for only after entering the spiritual Kingdom of God can a man expect to enter the material Kingdom of Heaven.”[8] Exactly!
j. “The niv and some other translations say that the kingdom of God is within you. [Because that is a correct translation of the Greek.] This translation is improbable [wrong; it is accurate, this commentator just doesn’t like it, because it doesn’t fit his theology.] not simply because the kingdom was not within the Pharisees [that is not what Jesus was saying; a wrong interpretation] who asked the question but rather because Jesus nowhere else spoke of the kingdom as an inward, spiritual experience [so what? The Bible never uses the word ‘Trinity’, so does that make the theological idea of the Trinity untrue?]. ‘Among you’ (niv margin) is a better translation [no it is not; it is wishful translation not actual meaning]; the phrase might then mean ‘within your grasp’ [now this commentator is adding words to change the idea to support his erroneous interpretation].”[9]