New Testament track · step 2 of 6 · ← matching OT step
New Testament · Step 2
The kingdom within: Luke 17:21
Practice raises a question: where is the sacred actually found? One short sentence in Luke has carried that question for centuries, and its key word can be translated two ways.
Luke 17:21
| KJVpublic domain | “Neither shall they say, Lo here! or, lo there! for, behold, the kingdom of God is within you.” | source |
|---|---|---|
| Young's Literalpublic domain | “nor shall they say, Lo, here; or lo, there; for lo, the reign of God is within you.” | source |
| NRSV (NRSVue)© publisher · short quote | “nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There it is!’ For, in fact, the kingdom of God is among you.”” | source |
| ESV© publisher · short quote | “nor will they say, ‘Look, here it is!’ or ‘There!’ for behold, the kingdom of God is in the midst of you.”” | source |
| NIV© publisher · short quote | “nor will people say, ‘Here it is,’ or ‘There it is,’ because the kingdom of God is in your midst.”” | source |
Footnotes on Bible Gateway: NRSVue “Or within”; ESV “Or within you, or within your grasp”; NIV “Or is within you.” All three modern translations keep “within” as a footnoted alternative.
Why the translations differ
Jesus is answering Pharisees (v. 20). That leads many scholars to doubt he meant the kingdom was “inside” his opponents, so they prefer “among / in the midst of you,” meaning present in his own person and ministry. The older “within you” (KJV, YLT) is what the word most often means, and the modern translations keep it in their footnotes. Both readings are defensible from the Greek. Thayer’s note above sums up the debate.
Young’s Literal: “reign” rather than “kingdom”
YLT renders basileia as “the reign of God.” The phrase then names an active rule rather than a territory, and a reign can take hold in a person in a way a territory cannot.
A yogi’s reading
Yogananda’s The Second Coming of Christ (Self-Realization Fellowship, 2004) comments on Luke 17:20–21 as a teaching on meditation. In summary, the kingdom is not found by outward “observation” through the senses. It is found by withdrawing attention inward, where peace comes first and deeper states of “Christ Consciousness” follow. The exact wording could not be checked against an authorised online text, so it is paraphrased here. The book is in copyright; please consult the SRF edition. Publisher page: Self-Realization Fellowship bookstore.
“That is your cave. … That is your sacred mountain. That is where you will find the kingdom of God.”— Ram Gopal to Yogananda, Autobiography of a Yogi, ch. 13 (said of a small, closed room for meditation) · source
You do not have to settle the translation debate to practise with this verse. “Among you” says the kingdom is present and is not a future spectacle. “Within you” says where you can meet it. A meditator can hold both: what you are looking for is already here and not “lo, there.” Look in the place you have been neglecting.
Eastern perspective · Upanishads · Gita
“Smaller than a mustard seed”: the Self in the heart
Jesus compares the kingdom to a mustard seed. The Chandogya Upanishad uses the same tiny seed for the Self in the heart, which is also “greater than these worlds”.
“this Soul of mine within the heart is smaller than a grain of rice, or a barley-corn, or a mustard-seed, or a grain of millet, or the kernel of a grain of millet; this Soul of mine within the heart is greater than the earth, greater than the atmosphere, greater than the sky, greater than these worlds.”— Chandogya Upanishad 3.14.3, tr. R. E. Hume, The Thirteen Principal Upanishads (1921) · source
“I am the self, O Gudâkesa! seated in the hearts of all beings. I am the beginning and the middle and the end also of all beings.”— Gita 10.20, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
“The lord, O Arguna! is seated in the region of the heart of all beings, turning round all beings (as though) mounted on a machine, by his delusion.”— Gita 18.61, tr. K. T. Telang (1882) · source
Small as a seed, greater than all worlds, and found within: the Upanishad and the parable share an image and a paradox. The parable speaks of growth (“becometh a tree”) and of God’s reign spreading among people. The Upanishad speaks of a Self already complete. The Gita joins them: the Lord who is in every heart also moves all beings.
Where the traditions differ
“Kingdom of God” in the Gospels is about God’s rule, present in Jesus and still to come; it is not a doctrine of the Self. Reading entos hymōn as “within you” makes the comparison closer, but “among you” is also a fair translation.
Light thread
“For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.”— 2 Corinthians 4:6, KJV · source
Paul places the light of creation (“commanded the light to shine out of darkness”) inside the heart. The Upanishads call the Self “the light in the heart”.