We Gentiles have some thousand variations of Christianity in which to find a community, the Jews only one.
Although that sounds good, the reality is for gentiles and jews who adhere to a Torah observant life style, Christianity is not the answer for either, in fact, in many ways it is opposed... Thus communities if you will, on the outskirts of Christianity are formed to fit the need of what many of us believe to be what God intended as a proper biblical body... If you don't believe me, look at Messianic Judaism, why did they not simply create a Jewish church within the confines of Christianity, like Hispanics have done, maintaining Hispanic culture? The difference is there are doctrinal problems that cause them to separate, its bigger than simply some cultural differences, for example: replacement theology, or Jews who believed they did not need to abandon Judaism in order to follow the Messiah, well Christianity teaches otherwise, thus doctrinal problems arose, and thus a separate entity had to be created, which should not be the case, the Apostles never taught such, they saw one community, if for some reason the community does not meet the needs of believers for some reason there is a problem... And even more so if it does not meet the needs of our Jewish brethren, who are the originals, the reality is not to separate and keep gentiles in one place and jews in another, that is a dysfunctional family, the Apostles had communities of Jews and Gentiles together, they did not create separate communities, what we have today and if we have to continue this way, we are failing to implement what they fought so hard for.
Lets be honest, the faith Gentiles were coming to was Jewish in every way, the Messiah is Jewish in every way, He was not gentile, and neither did He teach gentile ways...
Not really accurate, IMHO.
One cannot bring up the example of Messianic Judaism being a sign that Jews were not in the church/Christianity since many NEVER LEFT where they were and noted the reasons why was because it accurately reflected what it was that they saw within the early church and Jewish CHristianity. Not every church or camp within Christianity was for Replacement Theology or against Jewish practices--and it's not historically accurate to claim such. For there's a reason why many who are Jewish believers have come into the Messianic movement.....and later LEFT it when it seemed there was alot more hype on what was really "Jewish" within the camp. Some of this has been shared before
here. Some has also been discussed by other Jewish believers involved in the Church, as shared if one chooses to go
here or
here....or here in #
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As it concerns Yeshua in his works with Gentiles, the Messiah was one who got into ALOT of trouble for his working with Gentiles....be it with the Samaritan woman and others in John 4 and Luke 9 /Luke 10:25-39 (on the "Good Samaritan" being approved of the Lord rather than Jews who thought they kept the Law)...or the Woman whose daughter was possessed by a demon in Matthew 15, or his referencing of the Widow in Sidon being provided for by Elijah...and Naaman the Syrian being healed by the prophet during his day.
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Luke 4:12
Jesus Rejected at Nazareth
14Jesus returned to Galilee in the power of the Spirit, and news about him spread through the whole countryside. 15He taught in their synagogues, and everyone praised him. 16He went to Nazareth, where he had been brought up, and on the Sabbath day he went into the synagogue, as was his custom. And he stood up to read. 17The scroll of the prophet Isaiah was handed to him. Unrolling it, he found the place where it is written:
18"The Spirit of the Lord is on me,
because he has anointed me
to preach good news to the poor.
He has sent me to proclaim freedom for the prisoners
and recovery of sight for the blind,
to release the oppressed,
19to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor."[]
20Then he rolled up the scroll, gave it back to the attendant and sat down. The eyes of everyone in the synagogue were fastened on him, 21and he began by saying to them, "Today this scripture is fulfilled in your hearing."
22All spoke well of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his lips. "Isn't this Joseph's son?" they asked.
23Jesus said to them, "Surely you will quote this proverb to me: 'Physician, heal yourself! Do here in your hometown what we have heard that you did in Capernaum.' "
24"I tell you the truth," he continued, "no prophet is accepted in his hometown. 25I assure you that there were many widows in Israel in Elijah's time, when the sky was shut for three and a half years and there was a severe famine throughout the land. 26Yet Elijah was not sent to any of them, but to a widow in Zarephath in the region of Sidon. 27
And there were many in Israel with leprosy[] in the time of Elisha the prophet, yet not one of them was cleansedonly Naaman the Syrian."
28All the people in the synagogue were furious when they heard this. 29They got up, drove him out of the town, and took him to the brow of the hill on which the town was built, in order to throw him down the cliff. 30But he walked right through the crowd and went on his way.
Jesus was quoting from Isaiah 61/
Isaiah 61:1 , which pictures the deliverance of Israel from exile in Babylon as a Year of Jubilee when all debts are cancelled, all slaves are freed and all property is returned to its original owner (Leviticus 25/
Leviticus 25:36 )....but the release from Babylonian exile had not brought the fufillment that the people had expected since they were still conquered...meaning Isaiah was a Messianic text---with the quoting if by Jesus to show that He was the One who'd bring the good news to pass...and in a way beyond what any of the people had been able to grasp---for the salvation in Zion was also going to go to others who were non-Jewish since it was a gift for all.
However, when Jesus quoted the text as all Jewish students do in synagouge, , the people did not believe him---and Jesus went further in enraging the people because He went on to say that God sometimes chose to reach the Gentiles rather than the Jews, implying that his hearers were indeed without faith because they were as unbelieving as the citizens of the Northern Kingdom of Israel in the days of Elisha and Elijah---a time notorious for its great wickedness.....and the continual actions of seeing God's Power/Works and yet using them for selfish gain rather than being inspired to change.
Not surprisingly, the Jews LITERALLY wanted to kill him after praising Gentiles (like Naaman the Syrian or the Widow who the prophet fed) in Luke 4/Matthew 4...as they felt that only Jews could have truth faith...but this was apart of prophecy
Alot is often forgotten whenever it comes to claims of supporting Jewish ideology and yet ignoring where the Torah itself already made clear Gentiles were never held to the same things as the Jews---and for those who read the book of Acts and see other Jewish Christians saying Gentiles HAD to keep the Law, the focus seems to always be on what was occurring then/assuming the way things were reflected how they were meant to be.
No one stops to think on how perhaps it was the case that there were many cultural assumptions about Gentiles that were never meant to be accepted....
The same thing occurred with the Lord himself. With Christ, others were threatened...and thus, his background was often used against him in POLITICAL ways more often than not. The leaders tried to trap him multiple times and get him in trouble with the government, as seen in Matthew 22 when came to their questioning Him.
But his upbringing is where they seemed to have the most issue.
Recall John 7:
John 7:37-53
Still others asked, How can the Messiah come from Galilee? 42 Does not Scripture say that the Messiah will come from Davids descendants and from Bethlehem, the town where David lived? 43 Thus the people were divided because of Jesus. 44 Some wanted to seize him, but no one laid a hand on him.
Unbelief of the Jewish Leaders
45 Finally the temple guards went back to the chief priests and the Pharisees, who asked them, Why didnt you bring him in?
46 No one ever spoke the way this man does, the guards replied.
47 You mean he has deceived you also? the Pharisees retorted. 48 Have any of the rulers or of the Pharisees believed in him? 49 No! But this mob that knows nothing of the lawthere is a curse on them.
50 Nicodemus, who had gone to Jesus earlier and who was one of their own number, asked, 51 Does our law condemn a man without first hearing him to find out what he has been doing?
52 They replied, Are you from Galilee, too? Look into it, and you will find that a prophet does not come out of Galilee.
[The earliest manuscripts and many other ancient witnesses do not have John 7:538:11. A few manuscripts include these verses, wholly or in part, after John 7:36, John 21:25, Luke 21:38 or Luke 24:53.]
53 Then they all went home,
The Pharisees that Jesus came against, often noted to be apart of the School of Shemi, were not accepting of Gentiles....and this is not surprising since the School of Shemai taught such. Thus, using their authorities, they often tried to silence anything that was supportative of Gentile praise. Its one of the reasons they came in conflict with Christ---as with him being more in line with the School of Hilel, he would have been very much opposed to Him. Though they could claim nothing good came out of Nazareth/Galilee, they could only reinforce that thought if they skipped over what the Prophets had already said.
As said of Galilee by Isaiah:
Isaiah 9: 1
Nevertheless, there will be no more gloom for those who were in distress.
In the past he humbled the land of Zebulun and the land of Naphtali, but in the future he will honor Galilee of the Gentiles, by the way of the sea, along the Jordan.
What the Pharisees did not tell the people was that yes in the past God did humble the land of Zebulun but in the future God will honour Galilee of the Gentiles.....and the future had arrived, as the Messiah was from Galilee---The One place that many Ethocentric Jews just could not stand.
For as much as the Pharisees (minus the godly ones, such as Nicodemus---a secret follower of Christ) and Saducess would say Christ was illegitimate due to his upbringing, they had no real basis...and their desire to kill Jesus was birthed out of how he was really challenging their biases/prejudices toward certain groups. When they said "Examine the Scriptures.....you will see that out of Galilee there ariseth no prophet!!!!", it was a reflection of something that often happens in history when certain groups deliberately leave out the stories of where other groups have made contributions---and then all precedding generations afterward believe the lie. For the Pharisees were simply false in their claims (as were others agasinst Galilee) since Jonah was of Gathheper, in Galilee ( 2 Kings 14:25, compared with Joshua 19:13). As said before, Jonah was a prophet from Galilee (Gath-hepher) who counseled Jeroboam II in his successful conflict with the Syrians...making our date for the prophet Jonah to be that of 786-746 B.C.E. During Jeroboam II's reign, the boundaries of Israel reached the former limits of David's kingdom. And a new threat arose in the move of Assyria as it expanded and swalloed up kingdoms. Jonah came from Galilee to prophesy during expansion of Israel under Jeroboam II. ..and as the story of Jonah shows, God responded compassionately to Israel
Outside of Jonah, other prophets came from the "Ghetto" of Israel. In example, the Prophet Nahum was also a Galilean ( (Na 1:1) ), for he was of the tribe of Simeon. And some suppose that Malachi was of the same place. If that wasn't enough, the greatest of the prophets was Elijah the Tishbite (1 Kings 17:1)---and even HE was of Galilee. Either they were unaware of scripture as they were teaching--or they were BLANTANTLY putting up a BOLD Front due to desiring to maintain the "color line" in the Jewish world when it came to hating to admit any of the contributions other ethnic/cultural groups in the Jewish world could bring.....no more different than today if saying two sub-groups in a larger culture are fighting (i.e. West Indian Blacks and Black Hispanics of the Americas and African Blacks) and one side has power....but refuses to publish where another group has made significant impact in the world.
Others may disagree...but I think there's enough room within the Word to show where Gentiles were not only included within Yeshua's teachings--but told they were beautiful to the Lord WITHOUT it being the case that they had to become Jewish in order to have acceptance.
amen
