How did early Christians understand the Kingdom of God—and how did their view move beyond the Gospels into Paul, Acts, and the Apostolic Fathers?

In this episode of Exploring the Language of Scripture, Daniel Mikkelsen speaks with Tyler Hoagland, independent scholar of early Christianity, about how the Kingdom of God was conceived in the first 150 years after Christ.

Drawing on his doctoral research, Tyler shows how the Greek terms βασιλεία (basileia) —kingdom—and βασιλεύω (basileuō) —to reign—reveal a royal and participatory dimension often lost in translation. The conversation traces how the Gospels, Paul, and The Shepherd of Hermas continue the Kingdom theme in different ways, challenging modern assumptions about what “God’s reign” meant for the earliest believers.

Together they explore how the Apostolic Fathers extended that vision, how context and language shape meaning, and why returning to the Greek helps recover a richer, more unified understanding of the Kingdom in early Christianity.

Don’t Miss the Next Episode:
In the next episode, Daniel Mikkelsen is joined by Josh Ip Cho-suen to explore whether Paul taught two ways of salvation —one for Jews and another for Gentiles—and how this idea has been developed within the Paul within Judaism perspective. Building on the earlier conversation with Seth Postell, a Messianic Jewish scholar, the discussion considers what Paul’s teaching on salvation reveals about the relationship between law, grace, and the Jewish Messiah.

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Chapters:

00:00 – Coming Up...
 01:04 – Meet Tyler Hoagland: Scholar of the Kingdom of God in Early Christianity
 02:43 – From Struggling Student to PhD in New Testament
 05:54 – How Greek and Hebrew Transform Bible Reading
 08:56 – Greek Insights You’ll Miss in Translation
 13:21 – Creation, Incarnation, and Greek Allusions to the Tabernacle
 18:01 – Why Study the Kingdom of God Before 150 CE?
 21:42 – Why “Kingdom of God” Is Hard to Define
 29:40 – Paul’s Royal Language in 1 Corinthians
 40:17 – The Kingdom in Acts: Linked to Jesus’ Name
 52:17 – What Is the Shepherd of Hermas?
 01:02:50 – The Kingdom of God in the Shepherd of Hermas
 01:13:23 – Kingdom Language Beyond the Gospels
 01:25:36 – Living the Kingdom Today

🎵 Music Credits:
Music from #Uppbeat
🔗 https://uppbeat.io/t/all-good-folks/aspire

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Podcast Keywords:
biblical languages, New Testament, Old Testament, Christ, bible study, Relationship with God, learn biblical languages, Biblical Theology, Christianity, Covenants, New covenant, old covenant, language acquisition, Biblical Greek, Biblical Hebrew.