ABSTRACT
WHO was to inherit this Kingdom of God, which the Jews of Jesus' day pictured as including both the earthly reign of the Messiah, and the eternal reign of Jahweh after the dissolution of the material world? Was it to be the heritage of Israel alone, or did the Jews still hold to their earlier eschatological traditions, which said that it might (or even must) be shared ultimately with some or all of the goyirn? In a word, were they particularists or universalists? The question is complicated by the fact that no fixed or orthodox view controlled the variety of private opinions in the period under discussion.
