Is there any Bible scholar or Divinity PhD out there who can answer this question for me? The New Testament seems to say no. Pre-Resurrection, everything Jesus preached targeted Jews, not Gentiles. Don’t agree? Convince me. This is no small matter. Is there no Jesuit Priest up for a spirited debate? vlchek1@gmail.com
Early is good. The Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke (it has been conclusively established) were written down about 70AD. Their Gospels are transcriptions of what they experienced, dictated to an amanuensis (a person who knew how to write and was employed to keep records for people). Do the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke faithfully and accurately memorialize every exact word of Christ? Sadly, no. These writings record what was told by Matthew, Mark and Luke about Christ to somebody else. They were reduced to Greek and Aramaic texts at least 70 years after the crucifixion of Jesus. That’s a lifetime.
Matthew, Mark and Luke are about as contemporaneous a record of Christ’s teachings as we’re ever going to see. These Gospels follow a similar cadence, chronology and factual content. Their stories match to an amazing degree, and generally serve as a check and back-up to each other. In other Gospels – Paul, for example (Acts, Corinthians) – we find Jesus references a bit contorted….as if Jesus’ message is being tweaked to make a particular point or address a singular crowd. Indeed, some even later gospels read like smudged copies of other copies on a copying machine – shopworn and ad libbed. They’re tedious, stream-of- consciousness word-moshpits liberally invoking Christs name and penned with tortured prose. One gets the impression that the further away on the time line some missionaries got from the crucifixion, the more liberties they took paraphrasing and “interpreting” Christ’s original tenets.
Take, for example, Saint Paul. Paul – or Saul of Tarsus – was a Pharisee and strict observer of Jewish Law born in 5AD. He never knew – or saw – the living Christ. Paul claimed that he was “converted” when he experienced a “vision” of Christ whilst traveling on the Road to Tarsus (Turkey) on a quest to persecute Christians. He said he fell down and was actually blinded for a few days until Jesus’ messenger restored his sight. His “Ministry” of Conversion commenced about 50 AD. The converted Paul (he gave up “Saul” after his vision) preached his rendition what he’d learned about Christ in the Gospels of Matthew, Mark and Luke. His was a unique, inimitable style of preaching. Paul’s part of the world (Turkey) was already awash in anecdotal and apocryphal legends about Jesus when Paul took up his Ministry. He lost no time in adding to this rich tapestry of Jesus lore. Saint Paul abandoned Jesus’ “corporeal” (Jew exclusive) marching orders and preached a universalist, post-Resurrection “visionary” Gospel in his Ministry. The Gentile-friendly kind. But Paul’s views were radical. He astounded everyone.
Consider these (Corinthians 7 and Romans 10) “Pauline” Gospel hum-dingers:
– “Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing: what matters is the observance of God’s Commandments”;
– “God’s wisdom is a mystery – a wisdom that was hidden which God had foreordained before the ages for our Glory….no one truly comprehends the things of God except the Spirit of God….”:
– “I cannot speak to you as spiritual persons but as to carnal ones – infants in Christ. I feed you with milk and not with meat because you are not yet ready….you are still carnal”;
– “Indeed there is no distinction between Jew and Greek because the same Lord is Lord of all and he is generous to all who call on him”;
– “By the Jews fall (ie. rejection of Christ) Salvation has come to the Gentiles to provoke them to jealousy…….may I somehow provoke them (Jews) to jealousy – provoke them to jealousy those who are my flesh so that I may save some of them”;
– “………a partial hardening has happened to Israel (rejecting Christ). Until the full number of Gentiles shall come in (to Christ’s Gospel) thus all of Israel will be saved”.
While these all may be charming, even noble sentiments, Matthew, Mark and Luke says nothing close to what Paul is selling. Circumcision is nothing? Actually – according to the Pentateuch and Torah – circumcision is one of God’s commandments. No distinction between a Jew and a Greek? Greeks are Gentiles not bound by the Covenant of Abraham. Gentiles are put here as tools to make Jews jealous of Jesus’ Salvation? Wow.
Why is Paul – a Pharisee who obviously knows better – hawking this stuff? Fame? Notariety? Pandering for free Burger King? If he had Tick-Tok, Facebook or “X” we’d dismiss him today as an Influencer. It seems concocted. On an intellectual level, his words are such a colossal non-sequitur that it makes one wonder why the Vatican Fathers adored him so.
Saint Paul plays fast and loose with his language. Perhaps when he had his “vision” of Jesus on the road to Tarsus and was converted, God miraculously imbued him with an expanded Gospel. Or, did Paul just make it all up out of whole cloth? Maybe he hit his head when he fell off a horse.
Visions are a challenging fixture of all religions. A vision is the beating heart of Christianity itself. If you don’t believe in the Apostles’ shared vision of the Resurrected Christ, there is no Christianity. Everything hinges on their vision. For most believers, it comes down to Faith. But questions remain thousands of years later. Almost everyone today just accepts as a matter of course that Christ preached Salvation for Jew and Gentile alike before he was crucified. But the earliest Gospels – Matthew, Mark and Luke – say otherwise. Christ didn’t.
*Premise: Jesus Christ never told his Apostles – the Twelve – to preach Salvation to Gentiles until after he was crucified. In fact, before his crucifixion he specifically forbade them to do so. Any Gospel of Gentile “Salvation” in Christ was a post-crucifixion posture taken up by followers and acolytes who were banished from Jerusalem. They “adjusted” Christs’ message to make it user friendly to Gentiles and non-observant Jews in locales that were far from Judea. They adopted Jesus’ post-crucifixion “Mission” that he announced in a “vision” to his Disciples – and left his original “corporeal” admonition to only preach Salvation to the “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel” behind. Why?
Christ considered himself, first and foremost, A Jewish Prophet. His teachings were replete with references to Elijah and Mosaic doctrine. He opined endlessly on Jewish “Law” and rituals. He taught his most epochal lessons inside the Synogogue and environs of Jerusalem. Why? Because it all had been “foretold” by Jewish scriptures and the Prophets of Old. He believed he was the Messiah – and had to be sacrificed according to Jewish prophecy. His destiny was predetermined by the Torah and Pentateuch.
Let’s review relevent parts of Matthew, Mark and Luke – Gospels, we know, are closest to the chronological time window of the living Christ. Specifically, let’s look at scripture of Christ’s teaching pre-crucifixion and pre-resurrection.
First, we must define terms. What is a Gentile? The word “Gentile” means “heathen” or “pagan”. A person not born a Jew and not observant of Jewish Law.
In Matthew 7, Christ rebukes certain members of the Jewish community as follows:
“…….therefore do not be anxious saying – What will we eat? What will we drink? What will we wear? It is the Gentiles who seek after all these things, but your (Jewish) Heavenly Father knows that you need them all. Seek first the Kingdon of God and his righteousness and all these things will be given to you”.
Clearly, Christ is drawing a stark distinction between Gentiles and Jews. His message (to Jews) is obvious: follow the laws of the Jews and God the Father (of Israel) will provide for you. Don’t fret like the Gentiles.
In another episode, Jesus was “passing by” and saw a man called Matthew sitting at the tax collection office. Jesus said to him: “Follow me”. Matthew got up and followed Jesus. The Pharisees – elite Jews who observed Judaic law – immediately rebuked the Jesus’ Deciples: “Why does your teacher eat with tax colectors and sinners?” Jesus responded: “Those who are healthy have no need for a physician, but those who are sick do….”
Matthew was a Jewish tax collector. It is highly unlikely that Jews would have trusted non-jews or Gentiles to collect their taxes. Tax collectors weren’t considered to be “righteous” Jews; they were Jews who were resented by other Jews. They were, however, needed and performed a key function. Jesus makes it clear that Matthew – being of the chosen people – is worthy of salvation despite his disagreeable vocation. This Matthew later becomes one of Christs’ inner circle. In Matthew 10, Jesus “Commissions” twelve deciples:
– Simon, called “Peter”;
– Andrew, brother of Simon-Peter;
– James, the son of Zebedee;
– John, brother of James the son of Zebedee;
– Phillip;
– Bartholomew;
– Thomas;
– Matthew, the Tax Collector;
– James, the son of Alphaeus;
– Lebbaeus, the one called Thaddeus;
– Simon the Zealot from Cana; and
– Judas Iscariot
All were observant Jews of the Tribes of Israel. Jesus sends these twelve “out” and gives them specific instructions, set forth in Matthew 10:
His orders are clear: “Do not go among the Gentiles and do not enter any city of the Samaritans. Rather, go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. As you go, preach and say: the Kingdon of Heaven is at Hand!
…..Beware of men; they will hand you over to councils (of Sanhedrin, ie. Jewish Courts) and in their Synogogues, they will flog you……”
Jesus warns them: this ain’t gonna’ be easy.
In Matthew 15 Jesus is approached by a Canaanite women (a Gentile) whose daughter was sick. She cries out to him incessantly: “Have mercy on me, Lord, Son of David! My daughter is severely demonized!” But Jesus ignores her. “He answered her not a word”. Finally Jesus’ disciples come and beg him – “Lord! Send her away! She shouts after us!” They’re annoyed that this desperate woman is chasing after them, begging for Christ’s mercy.
Christ’s answer to his disciples is shocking. He says: “I was not sent to anyone but the lost sheep of the House of Israel”.
Still the Canaanite woman pursues Christ, eventually falling down at his feet in reverence and crying, “Lord, Lord, help me….”
Christ’s next response is even more disquieting: “It is not right to take the children’s bread and throw it to the dogs…”
Ouch. Now that’s some cold stuff…..
The Canaanite women replies with remarkable humility: “Yes, Lord. But even the dogs eat the crumbs which fall from the master’s table”.
This poor woman endures Jesus ignoring her, his disciples whining to Jesus to turn her away because she’s annoying them and, lastly, being compared to a dog not worthy to eat food set out for children. Message? You’re an irrelevent Gentile I won’t soil my hands helping…..go away.
Finally, Jesus relents. He says, “Woman…great is your faith. Let it be done”.
We’re left with the impression that after this event her daughter was miraculously healed. Nothing further is mentioned about this woman, other than Mark’s Gospel recounting the same story but describing her as a “Greek – a Syro-Phoenician by Nation” (Mark 7). Both Gospels document her frantic efforts to get Christ to help her – and his comments. Why did he make her grovel so? Because she was a mere Gentile. Unworthy…..not “Chosen”. Not a Jew.
Another event is documented in Matthew wherein Jesus accepts a cup of water from a Samaritan woman at a well and is rebuked by his disciples for taking water from an unclean Gentile. He drinks the water anyway. Apparently he’s thirsty from preaching salvation to those who are worthy.
Matthew 23 codifies Jesus’ biggest beef with his fellow Jews:
“Woe to you scribes and Pharisees – you bind heavy burdens that are dreadful to bear and put them on people’s shoulders but you yourselves do not lift a finger to help them”.
Jesus calls them hypocrites, “Whitewashed tombs”. He thinks that they are empty husks of humanity who are obsessed with making themselves appear pious on the outside but are inside “naught but dead bones and impurity”. Jesus has issues with Jews and condemns their gross iniquity. He never preaches to Gentiles or concerns himself with their spiritual condition. His total lack of interest in their dieties during his human (ie. alive) Ministry is remarkable. Jesus doesn’t explicitly condemn Gentiles or curse them – he just doesn’t care about them one way or another. His mission is Jews. The mission “God the Father” picked him for.
Let me put it a different way: Did “God the Father” make the Gentiles? Does he care about them? If so, then why doesn’t he send them Salvation in the person of his Son? Oh – that’s right……..Gentiles don’t have a Covenant with him……..that whole Abraham thing. Is that the reason? Now, I don’t seek to disparage Christianity here. I wish there was a multitudinous array of instances in Matthew, Mark and Luke that prove how Jesus sought to shepard Gentiles to Salvation- but there isn’t. Jesus is a Rabbi. His Ministry is exclusively Jewish. His Bibilical references are Old Testament Jewish prophets, Talmudic contextual exegesis and ritualistic Jewish activity. He knows the Prophets and “The Law”. He is iconoclastic – but Observant.
“Knowing” (from prophecy) was to be sacrificed, Jesus dispatches his Disciples (“The Twelve”) to sally forth and preach the Gospel – to fellow Jews. Matthew 10:
“Behold! I send you out as sheep among wolves! Therefore be wise as serpents and yet innocent as doves. Beware of men: they will hand you over to Councils (Temple Courts of Sanhedrin) and in their synogogues they will flog you. Yes! You will be brought before governors and kings for my sake, as witnesses to them and to the Nations of Israel (“Nations” is synonymous with Tribes in Old Testament parlance).
When they arrest you, do not worry about what you will say; what you are to say will be given to you in that hour. Indeed, it is not you who shall speak but the Holy Spirit of your Father who speaks in you. You will he hated by all for my Name’s sake, but the one who endures to the end will be saved. Nevertheless, when they persecute you in this city, flee to another. Amen, I tell you: you will not have finished going through the cities of Israel until the Son of Man comes.”
Translation: You have more than enough cities in Israel to preach the Gospel. There’s no need to go beyond our borders to preach Salvation. You won’t run out of cities until the Second Coming of the Lord. You won’t run out of Jews to preach the “Word” to until the proverbial cows come home. Tough it out. Endure to the “End” and be saved.
In Matthew 10, Jesus gives his Disciples their marching orders. Preach to Israel – in Israel. Stay put. It’s gonna’ be a rocky road – but I’ll make sure The Holy Spirit comes to your aid you when you need help. There is no other “Prime Directive” to the Disciples in Matthew, Mark or Luke about what their future is to be. They’re directed to stand their ground – in Israel. Jesus’ language can’t be interpreted any other way. We can debate just what lands constituted “Judea” or Greater Israel at the time – but it certainly didn’t include Egypt, Syria, Turkey or Greece. And Rome? That’s just absurd. Facts are facts: the Disciples got outta’ Dodge. It wasn’t “Mission Creep” – it was intentional. A matter of survival.
Did the Apostles alter Jesus’ Mission orders?
Can you conceive of a more brutal punishment than what was inflicted on Jesus of Nazareth? Mel Gibson’s Passion of the Christ is pretty graphic – and still doesn’t capture the depravity that was visited on the Christ the man.
First off, he’s humiliated and spat upon. Then he’s “scourged”. Scourging is whipping a prisoner with leather “Cat O’ Nine” tails barbed with three-pointed fish hooks designed to grab and tear flesh out of the victim with each assault. The Roman version of this tool literally flays the poor soul’s back – takes the skin clean off down to muscles and tendons – causing massive shock and blood loss. Christ is probably hemorrhaging from his back. Anecdotal legends say Christ’s face is beaten until his left eye socket (orbit bone) collapses.
This battered wreck of a human being is then forced to drag a three hundred pound wooden cross-beam on his shoulders a distance of two-hundred feet. He falls three three times from exhaustion – and because the whole public spectacle is being delayed by his physical disintegration, a black man named Simon the Cyrene (Cyrenians are among the darkest pigmented Levantine peoples) is dragooned by Roman Centurians to carrying the heavy cross-beam a short distance for Christ. Is this the first metaphorical instance of a black man carrying the “White Man’s Burden”?
Christ is later spiked – through his wrists (not hands) and ankles (not feet) to the cross-beam and stanchion post of the “Cross” and left to die from asphyxiation caused by his body weight pulling downward, making it impossible for him to breathe. Finally, a Roman Centurion named Longinus thrusts his spear through Jesus’ rib cage, unleashing a torrent of blood and water that has accumulated in his lungs during the asphyxiation ordeal. This act is probably the coup de grace for the self-proclaimed Messiah from Nazareth. An earthquake mysteriously proclaims the moment of Jesus’ passing, causing even the Roman Centurions to scatter in fear.
You know what happens next. Jesus is laid in a tomb lent to him by Joseph of Arimathea and a heavy stone is rolled in front of it’s entryway. Soon afterwards Jesus disappears. Mary Magdalene and Mary, Mother of James discover that the tomb doorway is ajar – and “Angels” tell Mary Magdalene that Christ has “Risen”.
Mary Magdalene runs to tell the Disciples – none of whom attended the Crucifixion. They are hiding in room with it’s door barred, scared out of their wits that Sanhedrin Temple Guards or Roman Centurions will be arresting them as accessories before and after the fact for participating in Jesus’s crimes: sedition and conspiracy to subvert Roman Law. Once Mary Magdalene reports to them that Jesus is no longer in his tomb – that he has “Risen” – the Disciples become frantic. Are they now going to be accused of stealing away Jesus’ body to perpetrate a fraud on the people, too?
It’s important to note: Jesus’ Disciples are not sophisticated men. They are, for the most part, fishermen and “tektons” – men who work with their hands. They are Observant Jews all – but not “learned scholars” or Rabbis. They are superstitious and beleaguered, hunkered down in a small room (probably) for days, their minds racing with fear. Have they even eaten? Are they drinking wine? Who knows.
All they know is that the “authorities” are (probably) searching for them high and low. They’re anticipating being accused in full measure of guilt by association to the guy that’s just been butchered on a cross standing on that hilltop called Golgotha. Put yourself into their shoes. Apostle Peter denied Christ publically three times. They’re miserable – guilty that they didn’t even have the courage to attend Jesus’ crucifixion. They’re adrift. Exhausted. Spent. They’re not just scared, they’re panic-stricken. These are desperate souls agonizing over their impending doom, thinking: “What are we gonna’ do? What’s going to happen to us? If only he didn’t command us to stay here and preach solely to the lost sheep of the House of Israel!!”
Matthew 28 and Mark 16 are amazingly in accord as to what happens next. A miracle.
Matthew 28:
Christ appears to them on a Mountain in Galilee – about 90 miles away from Jerusalem. Jesus had appeared to them earlier in a “vision” and told them to meet him there. Nazareth is also in Galilee……the place where it all began. When they see Jesus, they “express adoration” to him – but some doubt their eyes. Jesus tells them:
“All authority has been given to me in Heaven and on Earth. Go, therefore, and make disciples of all Nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all the things that I have commanded you. Behold, I am with you always, even unto the end of the age”.
Mark 16:
“Afterward, Jesus was revealed to the eleven themselves as they sat at a table, and he rebuked them for their unbelief and hardness of heart because they did not believe those who had seen him after he had risen. He said to them – Go into the whole world and preach the Good News to the whole creation. Whoever believes and is baptized will be saved; but whoever disbelieves will be condemned. These signs will accompany those who believe: they will cast out demons in my Name; they will speak with new languages; they will take up snakes; and if they drink any deadly thing, it will in no way hurt them; they will lay hands on the sick and they will recover.
And so, the Lord, after he had spoken to them, was received up into heaven and sat down at the right hand of God. They went out and preached everywhere, the Lord working with them and confirming the word by the signs that accompanied them”.
It’s a matter of faith. Jesus either Resurrected – or he didn’t.
True to my Jesuit education, I have been a lawyer too long not to look to the “Four Corners” of any document when somebody asks me what it actually says. The Bible is no exception. I have set forth above what Jesus Christ reportedly said to Matthew, Mark and Luke “pre-crucifixion” and what Matthew and Mark reported Christ said after his resurrection. One was a corporeal event – the other was a vision.
Clearly, the corporeal pre-crucifixion Jesus tells his disciples to preach Salvation only to Jews…….that he is only sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel. His dismissive treatment of and language to Gentiles and Samaritans is noted. Jesus doesn’t mince his words: Jews are his focus.
The “visionary” Jesus sends his disciples out into the entire world to preach the Gospel and save their souls. The “visionary” Jesus commands that Salvation is for all mankind – not just Jews.
If you truly believe Jesus rose from the dead and gave his disciples new “worldwide” Marching Orders, then your faith sustains the traditional Christian narrative. But is there another interpretation?
Did a group of Jesus’ disciples – wracked by guilt and shame, desperate, petrified of brutal torture and punishment and cowering in fear – somehow all experience a shared hysterical delusion that their mentor, Jesus Christ, was alive after the crucifixion? Did they somehow also convince themselves that he changed their “Mission” from saving only Jews to bringing Salvation to Gentiles and all the peoples of the world? That he freed them from the hornet’s nest of Judea wherein danger was at a fever pitch and opened the entire Mediterranean world and beyond to be their Ministry……….
There are reams of studies involving cult dynamics and shared experiences of religious groups in the throes of ecstacy, zealotry and fanatical doctrinal and ritualistic observances. I’m not advocating one interpretation of the crucifixion event over another – only positing that there are some internal inconsistancies and circumstances that are staring us all in the face based on the writings we have. The Bible, as usual, is a bit vague about many things we’d like more clarification about.
Perhaps Jesus changed his Father’s mind about Gentiles after he was “Risen” on the third day. You know – had the “Gee, Dad….these Gentiles aren’t so bad after all…..how ’bout some Salvation for them, too?” conversation. Who would deny their son anything after he’d suffered through such a harrowing crucifixion ordeal. Perhaps God the Father sent Jesus back to his disciples with a revised and more ambitious gameplan for humanity. Perhaps………..
So, was Jesus Christ sent to preach Salvation only to the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel or to all Mankind? Are we Gentiles worshipping a God that was not sent to us by the Creator God? Are we seeking some Salvation the Creator never deigned to share with us – only to his “Chosen”? Did we – by force of will – conscript Christ’s message, even though Gentiles weren’t intended to drink from that cup? Did all those missionaries mislead us? And finally – did we abandon our Old Gods a bit too precipitously?
Does it make any difference?
God only knows.
