summarized in a sentence: “The kingdom of God has come near” (1:14–15). The Greek word translated “come near” (ēngiken) in this proclamation can mean either “has arrived” or “soon to arrive,” and most scholars believe that the ambiguity is intentional. In some sense, the power and presence of God’s rule have arrived in the person and ministry of Jesus, but in another sense, that rule will be established through cataclysmic, world-transforming events that Jesus says are about to occur.