each other. In so far as they thought at all about life after death, they believed that their God would look after them, and eventually give them new physical bodies in his renewed world. (The phrase ‘Kingdom of Heaven’, which we find in Matthew’s gospel, does not mean ‘a Kingdom-place called “heaven”.’ It is a reverent way of saying ‘the Kingship of God’.) There is no sign that first-century Jews were walking around gloomily wondering how their sins were ever going to be forgiven. They had the Temple
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