Joan of Bark

I'm sure this has been covered before, but I can't find anything, so ...

Because of statements attributed to Jesus in the following passages (NIV):

Matthew 10:5 These twelve Jesus sent out with the following instructions: "Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans. 6 Go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.

Matthew 24 He answered, "I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel."

Mark 26 The woman was a Greek, born in Syrian Phoenicia. She begged Jesus to drive the demon out of her daughter.
27 "First let the children eat all they want," he told her, "for it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to their dogs."

I get the impression that Jesus was preaching only to his fellow Jews. Is there evidence that the final passages of the gospels -- those in which Jesus tells his disciples to go forth to all nations and baptise -- are in fact interpolations by the followers of Paul to justify the growing number of gentiles in the ranks?

Toto

Since these passages were not put on paper (or parchment) until well after Jesus would have said anything, I don't know how you would determine if Jesus said anything like that at all, much less whether other parts of the gospels were interpolated.

Chris Weimer

The earliest stratum in Christianity does in fact have Jesus preaching only to the Jews, though by Mark and Matthew it had been expanded. Those are remnants of the earliest stratum and their respective ways of dealing with that, the destruction of the Temple in 70 CE, and the exclusion of Christians from Jewish groups.

angelo

It does seem as the cult was aimed at the Jews only, and only after the Jews rejected them that they took it to the gentiles. Why have 12 disciples?
One for each of the twelve tribes of Israel. Didn't he promise them they would sit on a throne on the right hand of God to judge the twelve tribes?
Whoever wrote these passages, was writing through the lens of Jewish sriptures. It was the only way they understood the cult of Jesus.

Ray Moscow

I think biblical criticism reveals that the earlier versions of Christianity were pretty much exclusively Jewish, and that the passages that encourage Gentile conversion/evangelism come from a somewhat later period of "the Gentile mission(s)" and certainly cannot be attributed to Jesus.

Ray

John Kesler

http://www.iidb.org/vbb/showthread.php?p=4133257

Chris Weimer

Can we please not derail this thread with your "contradictions" bs?

John Kesler

It is not a derailment to discuss the topic mentioned in the OP, especially since the thread starter mentioned the possibility that Matthew 28:19 is an interpolation which contradicts earlier statements about an Israel-only mission.

Ray Moscow

Yes, Matthew 28:19 seems to be a later interpolation, endorsing the "Gentile Mission". It was anachronistic to put it into Jesus' mouth.

There are a few other of these anachronisms in Matthew, such as the comments about "the church". (WHAT church?)

storytime

If the disciples were told to go into all the nations of the world, then why did Jesus not go into Rome?

If Jesus purpose was to make disciples from all nations of the world, would he have not intended they become Jewish? Or do you think Jesus would have been promoting Gentilism - no laws, no covenants, and worship of other gods such as Apollo, Mercury, Jupiter, etc. ?

Even with all the screwed up text, I think the story relates how Jesus was gathering Jews and not Gentiles into his kingdom of Judaism (kingdom of God). Did Gods kingdom ever exist anywhere other than his namesake Israel in the ONE seed called Jacob?