In what relation, however, did his ethics and his eschatology stand to each other? So long as one starts with the ethics and seeks to comprehend the eschatology as something adventitious, there appears to be no organic connection between the two, since the ethics of Jesus, as we are accustomed to conceive it, is not in the least accommodated to the eschatology but stands upon a much [pg 093] higher level. One must therefore take the opposite course and see if the ethical proclamation in essence is not conditioned by the eschatological view of the world. [pg 094] CHAPTER III THE PREACHING OF THE KINGDOM OF GOD 1. The New Morality as Repentance. IF the thought of the eschatological realisation of the Kingdom is the fundamental factor in Jesus’ preaching, his whole theory of ethics must come under the conception of _repentance_ as a preparation for the coming of the Kingdom. This conception seems to us too narrow a one to apply to the whole extent of this moral-religious proclamation. This is due to the fact that the word repentance as we use it has rather a negative significance, laying emphasis as it does chiefly upon foregoing guilt. It is a far richer conception, however, which the Synoptists express by the word repentance (_μετάνοια_). It is not merely a recovery which stands in retrospective relation with a sinful condition in the past, but also—and this is its predominant character—_it is a moral renewal in prospect of the accomplishment of universal perfection in the future._ Thus “the repentance in expectation of the Kingdom” comprises all positive ethical requirements. [pg 095] In this sense it is the lively echo of the “repentance” of the early prophets. For what Amos, Hosea, Isaiah, and Jeremiah mean by repentance is moral renovation in prospect of the Day of the Lord. Thus Isaiah says: “Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow” (Isai. 1:16, 17). It is precisely this Old Testament conception of repentance, with its emphasis upon the new moral life, which one must have in mind in order to understand aright the Synoptical repentance. Both have a forward vision, both are dominated by the thought of a condition of perfection which God will bring to pass through the Judgment. This, in the Prophetic view, is the Day of the Lord; in the Synoptic it is the dawn of the Kingdom.