l the families of men should attain
blessing and salvation by following his doctrine and example. Thus the
idea of the Jewish mission was connected with Abraham, the "father of a
multitude of nations,"(1079) and this was later on adopted by Paul and
Mohammed in establishing the Church and the Mosque.

8. In contradistinction, then, to the political concept of the kingdom of
God, which Ezekiel still hoped to see established by the exercise of
external power,(1080) the idea assumed now a purely spiritual meaning.
This kingdom of God is accepted by the pious Jew every morning through his
confession of the divine Unity in the Shema. Abraham had anticipated this,
say the rabbis, when he swore by the God of heaven and earth, and so also
had Israel in accepting the Torah at Sinai and at the Red Sea.(1081) In
fact, the kingdom of God began, we are told, with the first man, since,
when he adored God freely as King of the world, every living creature
acknowledged Him also. But only when Israel as a people proclaimed God's
dominion at the Red Sea, was the throne of God and His kingdom on earth
established for eternity.(1082) And when Ezekiel says: "With a mighty hand
will I be King over you," they explain this to mean that the people chosen
as the servant of God will be continually constrained anew by the prophets
to recognize His kingdom.(1083) Yea, the closing words of the Song at the
Red Sea, "The Lord shall reign for ever and ever" were taken to imply that
all the nations would in the end recognize only Israel's One God as King
of the world.(1084) As a matter of fact, the rabbinical view is that every
proselyte, in "taking upon himself the yoke of the sovereignty of God,"
enters that divine Kingdom which at the end of time will embrace all men
and nations.(1085) In the book of Tobit and the Sibylline Oracles also we
find this universalistic conception of the Messianic age expressed.(1086)

9. Accordingly, proselytism found open and solemn recognition both before
and after the time of the Maccabees, as we see in the Psalms,--especially
those which speak of proselytes in the term, "they that fear the
Lord,"(1087) and also in the ancient synagogal liturgy, where the
"proselytes of righteousness" are especially mentioned.(1088) The school
of Hillel followed precisely this course. Matters changed, however, under
the Roman dominion, which was contrasted to the dominion of God especially
from the time of Herod, when the belief became