Hence in the interpretation of Jesus’ saying the first requisite is to do justice to the expression “for many.” Because they have not done this, all expositions of the significance of Jesus’ death—from Paul to Ritschl—are unhistorical. One has but to substitute, for the community of believers with which they deal, the indeterminate and unqualified [pg 073] “many” of the historical saying, and their interpretation become simply meaningless. That interpretation alone is historical which renders it intelligible why, according to Jesus, the atonement accomplished by his death is to redound to the benefit of a number which is intentionally left indeterminate. 5. The Kingdom of God as an Ethical Entity in the Passion Idea. (Third Assumption.) (a). Mk 10:41-45. Service as the ethical conduct prescribed in expectation of the coming Kingdom. The sons of Zebedee had advanced the claim to sit on either side of the Lord in his glory, i. e. when he should reign as Messiah upon his throne. The other Disciples object to this. Jesus calls them together and speaks to them about serving and ruling in connection with the Kingdom of God. In this saying one is accustomed to find the ethical conception of the Kingdom of God. There is to be a revaluation of all values. The greatest in the Kingdom of heaven is he who becomes least, like a child (Mt 18:4), and the ruler is he who serves. Self-humiliation and the meekness of service, such is the [pg 074] new morality of the Kingdom of God which comes into force through Jesus’ service unto death. With this, however, the fact is ignored that the Kingdom in which one reigns is thought of as a future thing, whereas the serving applies to the present! In our ethical fashion of viewing the matter, serving and reigning coincide logically and chronologically. With Jesus, however, it is not at all a question of a purely ethical exchange of the notions of serving and ruling; rather it is a contrast which develops in a chronological sequence. There is a sharp distinction made between the present and the future æon. He who is one day to count among the greatest in the Kingdom of God must _now_ be as a child! He who advances a claim to a position of rule therein must _now_ serve! The more lowly the position of humble service which one _now_ assumes, in the time when the earthly rulers exercise authority by force, so much the more lofty will be his station as ruler when earthly force is done away and the Kingdom of God dawns. Hence he especially must humble himself even unto death who is to come as the Son of Man upon the clouds of heaven to judge and to rule the world. Before he mounts his throne he drinks the cup of suffering, [pg 075] which they also must taste who would reign with him! So soon as one pays due attention to this “now and then” in Jesus’ speech, the trivial parallelism of phrase is replaced by a real and effective climax. The descending stages of service correspond to the ascending stages of rule.