A -- At Acts 2:5 -11, for there we read:

`And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every

nation under heaven ... and they were all amazed and marvelled, saying

... how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born?

Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, etc'.

Surely Parthians, dwellers in Egypt, strangers of Rome, indicate Gentiles!

B -- Not so fast.  In verse 5, which you read, we have stated that

there were dwelling in Jerusalem Jews, devout men, from every nation under

heaven.  Therefore the long geographical list that follows gives the country

of origin of these Jews, who had come up to Jerusalem to keep the feast of

Pentecost according to the law.  `Strangers of Rome' is literally `sojourning

Romans', and they were all either `Jews or proselytes'.  Further, do you

notice how the apostle Peter addresses these so -called `Gentiles' of yours?

`Ye men of Judaea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem' (14).

`Ye men of Israel ... ye have taken, and by wicked hands have crucified

and slain' (22 and 23).

`Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David'

`Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that

same Jesus, Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ' (36).

These were the dispersion, Israelites who had been born in foreign

lands, many of them Roman citizens as was Saul of Tarsus, some of them

proselytes, but none of them Gentiles.

A -- Well supposing that is so, does it follow that the saints gathered

at Pentecost would not have had the greatest joy in receiving a believing

Gentile into their company?

B -- Such is the tradition, but Acts 10 will give us the truth:

`There was a certain man in Caesarea called Cornelius, a centurion of

the band called the Italian band, a devout man, and one that feared God

with all his house, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed to

God alway' (verses 1 and 2).

Look at the man's credentials.  He was devout, he feared God, his

household did the same, he gave alms, he prayed to God continually.  Now tell

me, would that man have been received by the assembly on the day of

A -- Most assuredly he would.

B -- Well, how do you account for Peter's attitude toward him?

`He said unto them, Ye know how that it is an unlawful thing (note the

place of the law of Moses) for a man that is a Jew (Peter's own

definition of himself) to keep company, or come unto one of another

nation (yet in the Church there is neither Jew nor Gentile); but God

hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean' (Acts