become 'not their God'?  In the epistles of Paul written after Acts 28, we

find ten occurrences of ethnos, and once again our best course will be to

provide a concordance:

'Ye being in time past Gentiles in the flesh' (Eph. 2:11).

'The prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles' (Eph. 3:1).

'That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs' (Eph. 3:6).

'That I should preach among the Gentiles' (Eph. 3:8).

'Walk not as other Gentiles walk' (Eph. 4:17).

'This mystery among the Gentiles' (Col. 1:27).

'A teacher of the Gentiles in faith and verity' (1 Tim. 2:7).

'Preached unto the Gentiles' (1 Tim. 3:16).

'An apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles' (2 Tim. 1:11).

'That all the Gentiles might hear' (2 Tim. 4:17).

If Israel were set aside at Acts 28 as we verily believe they were, these ten

occurrences of the word ethnos in the plural can refer to none other than

'Gentiles' as distinct from the nation of Israel.

Another question of translation that is in some measure associated with

the attempt to make some of the references to Gentiles really mean the

dispersed of Israel, is the translation of Ephesians 3:1 which reads in the

Authorized Version 'I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ', as 'I Paul, the

bound one of Jesus Christ' with the added comment this is true also of you

and me, we are all 'bound ones of Jesus Christ, without any necessity for

prison walls'.  This may sound very true, and be quite innocent, but it could

be another wedge driven in to the peculiar revelation of the epistles

Ephesians and Colossians.  We will therefore set before the reader a

concordance of the Greek word desmios, which the commentator we criticize,

failed to do.

'Release unto the people a prisoner' (Matt. 27:15).

'They had then a notable prisoner' (Matt. 27:16).

'He released unto them one prisoner' (Mark 15:6).

No proofs are required to show that in these contexts we are referred

to a literal prisoner who could be released by the Roman Governor:

'The prisoners heard them ... supposing ... prisoners ... fled' (Acts

Here we read of a 'jailor' and of a 'prison' together with feet in stocks and

with bleeding backs.  We wonder what Paul and Silas would have said had

someone attempted to persuade them that they were not really 'prisoners' but

simply 'bound ones' of Jesus Christ!  Paul, so far as we can gather, did not

suffer fools gladly.  Paul is called 'the prisoner' by a centurion (Acts

23:18); 'A certain man left in bonds (desmios) by Felix' (Acts 25:14), and

referred to as a 'prisoner' in Acts 25:27; 28:16,17.  In Colossians 4:18 he

said 'Remember my bonds (desmon)'.

There are five other references to complete the concordance.  They are

Ephesians 3:1; 4:1; 2 Timothy 1:8; Philemon 1 and 9.  The Septuagint contains

four references to desmios:

'For out of prison he cometh to reign' (Ecc. 4:14).