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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 Judea, and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem" (verse 14).
"Ye men of Israel . . . . . ye have taken and by wicked hands have crucified and slain"
(verses 22 and 23).
"Men and brethren, let me freely speak unto you of the patriarch David" (verse 29).
"Let all the house of Israel know assuredly, that God hath made that same Jesus,
Whom ye have crucified, both Lord and Christ" (verse 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 Pentecost?
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 10: 28).
By his own confession Peter would not have hesitated to have classed Cornelius the
devout, with the swine and the creeping things which he saw in the net. IS THAT THE
UNITY OF THE SPIRIT!!
A.--What do you intend me to understand them, that Peter had been wrong all along?