Language Studies

Difficult Sayings

Do not go to the gentiles
Matthew 10:5-6

"Do not go into the way of the nations,
and do not enter into any city of the Samaritans.
But rather go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
And as you go, preach, saying, 'The kingdom of heaven is at hand.'" (Matthew 10:5-7) and Luke's (9:1-6) accounts of the sending out of the twelve these words are missing. They are probably not an addition by a late gospel of Matthew, instead they are probably an authentic early saying of a first gospel written before Acts 11-15 and the inclusion of the gentiles en masse, a saying which seemed inappropriate to include in the perhaps later gospels of Mark and Luke. Many critics would argue the reverse, namely that Matthew's form of the words is a composition of Mark and Luke with additions and an imposed parallelistic structure.

The passage is similar to the account of Jesus' later encounter with the Canaanite woman whom he obtusely referred to as a dog as opposed to the Israelites as children (Matthew 15:22-28, Mark 7:27). In the incident Jesus used the same phrase as above, unique to Matthew, "the lost sheep of the house of Israel" (Matthew 15:24).

Prophetically, this language is reminiscent of the Old Testament, in particular, the following:

"I have gone astray like a lost sheep;
Seek Your servant, For I do not forget Your commandments." (Psalm 119:176)

"My people have been lost sheep. Their shepherds have led them astray;
They have turned them away on the mountains.
They have gone from mountain to hill;
They have forgotten their resting place." (Jeremiah 50:6)

Less obviously, but perhaps more importantly, is this passage in Micah:

"I will surely assemble all of you, O Jacob, I will surely gather the remnant of Israel;
I will put them together like sheep of the fold, Like a flock in the midst of their pasture;
They shall make a loud noise because of so many people.
The one who breaks open will come up before them;
They will break out, Pass through the gate, And go out by it;
Their king will pass before them, With the LORD at their head." (Micah 2:12-13)

Verse 13 of Micah 2 has its own interesting interpretation that we will cover in a subsequent article. Suffice to say, though, that "the one who breaks open" preceded Jesus' ministry and prepared the ground for Jesus' own preaching and the sending out of his disciples.

Galilee was hemmed in by gentile cities on all sides except the south where Samaria lay. Some have seen, therefore, a proclamation of the gospel specifically to that underclass of Jews, the Galilean, the 'am ha-'arets, 'the people of the land', less literate and less law observant, and looked down upon by some of the more prejudicial Pharisees. But Gundry^F1 rightly points out that the nations/gentiles are paralleled with the Samaritans and in turn contrasted with Israel. In other words, the distinction is not between Jew and Jew but between Jew and non-Jew.

For those not familiar with contemporary Jewish relations the singling out of the Samaritans alongside the nations/heathens/gentiles is a little perplexing. Were they not Jews too? In part, yes, but many of the Jewish purists regarded them as tantamount to heathen.^F2 Why? Because they only accepted the first five books of the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible), which they amended somewhat^F3, and they worshipped on Mount Gerizim as opposed to the temple at Jerusalem.

So Jesus' mission was exclusively to the lost sheep of Israel, with one or two exceptions. One such was the Samaritan woman at the well in John 4:5-10. Indeed, his disciples later tried to rebuke him for talking to her and she herself was surprised:

"Then the woman of Samaria said to Him, 'How is it that You, being a Jew, ask a drink from me, a Samaritan woman?' For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans." (John 4:9)

In another place (Luke 9:51-56), we find Jesus passing through a Samaritan village immediately before his final journey to Jerusalem. The messengers sent on ahead are astonished by the village's rejection of Jesus and want fire from heaven called down, but instead of calling the villagers heathen gentiles or dogs, Jesus rebukes his disciples with the statement that:

"...the Son of Man did not come to destroy men's lives but to save them." (Luke 9:56)

Furthermore, in Luke's gospel, probably as companion to Paul aimed at a more gentile audience, we find other occasions of Samaritan faith and acceptance. All these are cited after the beginning of Jesus' final journey and hence the ending of his public ministry to the lost sheep of Israel. In Luke 10:33 we read of the Good Samaritan and its consequent shock value for the Pharisees who expected most to be bad. The parable is sufficiently shocking in its didactic intention, if understood in its original hearers' context, to be accepted as authentic as it stands. Yet Montefiore^F4 with all his Jewish insight regards the Samaritan as a later insertion in the parable. In Luke 17:11-19 we hear of the ten cleansed lepers, sent to the priests, who were albeit healed by their own faith and pleas rather than a direct invitation or offer from Jesus.

The time for Israel's period of exclusive first opportunity to hear the gospel was coming to an end and then the disciples would be preaching to all, without temporal or geographic prejudice. Although throughout Acts we still see the pattern: "to the Jew first, and then the gentile". But this was not partiality, but a logical and theological order since the Jews were a prepared people and trusted with the reception and preservation of the Scriptures. Quite apart from any special position as God's own treasured possession and bride they were entitled to the first hearing of the message, and should theoretically have been the most receptive.

Ultimately, this verse does not really present a problem, as it was not an absolute saying but a temporary one. By temporary I mean one for a limited 'time' as at the end of Jesus' ministry he commands that the disciples wait, receive power and then preach the gospel beginning in Jerusalem, then Samaria, then to the ends of the earth (Acts 1:8; Matthew 28:19). The Samaritans are again singled out, this time, to be the first recipients of the gospel after Jerusalem.

Nevertheless, the disciples took some persuading that the time was right to extend their ministry beyond "the lost sheep of the house of Israel". In Acts 8:1-6 it took persecution under the unregenerate Saul to push the disciples into Samaria where revival then broke out.

In Acts 10-11 Peter needed a vision to persuade him and the apostles to receive the gentiles.

In Acts 13 it took the Holy Spirit's intervention to send out Paul and Barnabas. Subsequently through the rest of the record of Acts Paul goes first to the Jews in every town and only to the gentiles after the Jews have heard and either received or rejected the message.

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FOOTNOTES:
F1: R H Gundry, Matthew, (Michigan: Eerdmans, 1982), p.185.
F2: Jerusalem Talmud, Shekelim, 46b. Bartenora in Mishnah, Taharot, 5.8.
F3: "The major points of explicit and intentional difference between the Samaritan and Jewish Torah relate to the Samaritan concern to establish the priority of Mt. Gerizim, witnessed most dramatically in the addition of the commandment to build an altar at the site (added to Exod 20:17) and the reading of "Gerizim" for "Ebal" at Deut 27:4." D N Freedman, The Anchor Bible Dictionary, (New York: Doubleday, 1996).
F4: C G Montefiore, The Synoptic Gospels, Vol.II, (London: MacMillan & Co, 1909/27), p.84.

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KJ Went has taught biblical Hebrew, hermeneutics and Jewish background to early Christianity. The "Biblical Hebrew made easy" course can be found at www.biblicalhebrew.com.

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