challenge to repent and believe. T.F. Glasson has pointed out that there is very little evidence for the widespread assumption that there was in the first century of this era a widespread Jewish expectation that the Kingdom would be established in a cosmic catastrophe bringing this world to an end. The great strength of the ‘futuristic’ interpretation, however, was that it took seriously the proclamation by Jesus that something new was about to take place. This interpretation was challenged from