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As a result of complying with the suggestion made by James, Paul was taken a
prisoner by the Roman guard, and gaining permission to speak to the infuriated mob he
addressed them in the Hebrew tongue. This made them keep silence, and they listened to
his words without interruption, even when he spoke of Jesus of Nazareth, even when he
reminded them of the stoning of Stephen, but one word inflamed them beyond all
bounds:--
"Depart, for I will send thee far hence unto the GENTILES. And they gave him
audience unto this WORD, and then lifted up their voice and said, Away with such fellow
from the earth; for it is not fit that he should live" (Acts 22: 21, 22).
In I Thess. 2: 15, 16 the same spirit is evident. Now while this ungracious antagonism
to the Gentiles is to be mourned as an exhibition of religious pride and selfishness, there
are other passages of Scripture which make a clear distinction between Jew and Gentile,
but which demand another explanation.
If we take the ministry of Peter and his fellow-workers, for example, in the Acts, we
shall find that the Gentiles, as such, had no place in it. On the day of Pentecost his
audience was composed of "devout Jews out of every nation under heaven," and this
might have been looked upon as exhausting the meaning of the commission of
Luke 24: 47, "unto all the nations," which clause is omitted in Acts 1: 8. Peter
addressed them as "Ye men of Judæa," "Ye men of Israel," and "House of Israel"
(2: 14, 22, 36). In chapter 3: 12, 13, 25, 26 he speaks to "Ye men of Israel," "The God
of our fathers," "Ye are the children of the prophets," "Unto you first." It is the same in
4: 8-10 and in 5: 30, 31:--
"Him hath God exalted with His right hand to be a Prince and a Saviour, for to give
repentance to ISRAEL, and forgiveness of sins."
Stephen follows the same line in chapter 7: (see verses 2, 37, 38, 44, 45, 52). There
is no word to the Gentile. Chapter 11: 19 says:--
"Now they which were scattered abroad upon the persecution that arose about Stephen
travelled as far as Phenice, and Cyrus, and Antioch, preaching the word to NONE BUT
UNTO THE JEWS ONLY."
The Samaritans, though hated by the Jews, were not Gentiles, for they claimed Jacob
as their father (John 4: 12). To them Philip went, as is recorded in Acts 8: The
Ethiopian was not a Gentile in the sense of the term that is associated with the ministry of
Paul. He was evidently a believer in the God of Israel, for he had come up to Jerusalem
for to worship (verse 27). The same is true concerning Cornelius. He is called a "devout
man" (eusebes). Paul's ministry took him to asebes, the ungodly (Rom. 5:). He "feared
God with all his house, gave much alms to the people, and prayed to God always" (10: 2).
He is told by the angel that his prayers and his alms had come up for a memorial before
God (10: 4), a vastly different type from the blank heathenism of Paul's hearers. Yet so
strong was the idea of Jewish preference and Gentile distance, that Peter does not hesitate
to class Cornelius, with all his prayers and piety, along with the unclean! This statement
is not too strong, as can be easily proved by comparing verses 11-15 with 28. The
inference from Peter's words is that he would have reckoned Cornelius "common and