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Did you read my last post? I only quoted 1/2 page of 2 full pages from the Jewish Encyclopedia article "Gentiles" Here is a link.
GENTILE - JewishEncyclopedia.com
The Ethiopian eunuch was a Jew and from the fact that he had a cart a wealthy Jew. Therefore he would not have been restricted from owning a copy of the T'nakh and wealthy enough to afford one. Making a copy of the scriptures was a long, slow, expensive task. Most people of that era could not afford one.
Yes copies of the Septuagint were being made for Jews. I refer you to my previous post. Here is a brief quote.
"the Talmud prohibited the teaching to a Gentile of the Torah, "the inheritance of the congregation of Jacob" (Deut. xxxiii. 4). ...one so teaching: "Such a person deserves death"
See my previous comments and post.
And your point is? Paul was a Jew.
Act 26:5
(5) Which knew me from the beginning, if they would testify, that after the most straitest sect of our religion I lived a Pharisee.
Act_22:3 I am verily a man which am a Jew, born in Tarsus, a city in Cilicia, yet brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel, and taught according to the perfect manner of the law of the fathers, and was zealous toward God, as ye all are this day.
Act 23:6
(6) But when Paul perceived that the one part were Sadducees, and the other Pharisees, he cried out in the council, Men and brethren, I am a Pharisee, the son of a Pharisee: of the hope and resurrection of the dead I am called in question.
Php 3:5
(5) Circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew of the Hebrews; as touching the law, a Pharisee;
So Paul would have known the OT but that does not mean any gentile in Rome, Corinth etc. etc. would know the law.
Gentiles would have known what sin was when the writers of the NT told them. See e.g.,
1 Co 6:9-10
(9) Know ye not that the unrighteous shall not inherit the kingdom of God? Be not deceived: neither fornicators, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor effeminate, nor abusers of themselves with mankind,
(10) Nor thieves, nor covetous, nor drunkards, nor revilers, nor extortioners, shall inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:21
(21) Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
Gal 5:18-21
(18) But if ye be led of the Spirit, ye are not under the law.
(19) Now the works of the flesh are manifest, which are these; Adultery, fornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness,
(20) Idolatry, witchcraft, hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife, seditions, heresies,
(21) Envyings, murders, drunkenness, revellings, and such like: of the which I tell you before, as I have also told you in time past, that they which do such things shall not inherit the kingdom of God.
There is absolutely nothing in the NT which shows that gentiles had access to the OT. The only parts of the OT that most gentiles would have known is what is quoted in the NT. And I refer you to my source the Jewish Encyclopedia linked to above.
There’s nothing in the NT that indicates or insinuates that the early assemblies didn’t have access to the Law & Prophets.
Even if they didn’t, though, their potential ignorance of symbolism used in the OT does not negate the symbolism that’s used, and how it’s used. The chaff in Matthew 3:12 and Luke 3:17 still refers to the wicked, whether or not they know it. That doesn’t change, so it’s a moot point.
And to be frank, who cares what people who might have been ignorant of the scriptures think? We aren’t supposed to base doctrine off of what people think who may be ignorant to the Scriptures. Even if they didn’t have the Law and Prophets, we do, so we can see that the prophets compared the wicked to chaff, so to read about the Messiah being depicted as a farmer burning chaff makes plenty of sense.
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