Steven Carr

Where does Luke 10 say anything about only going to Jewish houses?

Were there no Gentiles in Palestine?

There was a big conference in Acts 15, where people realised that when Jesus declared all foods clean, he meant there were still foods that could not be eaten.

andrewcriddle

"thus purifying all foods" is probably to be taken as a comment by the author of Mark on the implications of what Jesus has said, rather than as direct speech by Jesus.

NASB has Andrew Criddle

judge

Jesus came into an highly religious society that had some very wrong ideas about the divine. They thought that eating the wrong food was immoral, or that this might make god unhappy.

Jesus announced the end of this ridiculous notion, and the end of the jewish nation.

However this end was not to be immediate, it was to culminate and take effect round 70 AD, forty years later.

However during the intervening period (30 to 70 CE) jews were quite welcome to continue to live according to their heritage.

Paul, for example, gives a clear insight into the correct way to live, even though his plain words might not be emphasised by religious folk today (or much in any time)

19Let us therefore make every effort to do what leads to peace and to mutual edification. 20Do not destroy the work of God for the sake of food. All food is clean, but it is wrong for a man to eat anything that causes someone else to stumble. 21It is better not to eat meat or drink wine or to do anything else that will cause your brother to fall.

22So whatever you believe about these things keep between yourself and God. Blessed is the man who does not condemn himself by what he approves. 23But the man who has doubts is condemned if he eats, because his eating is not from faith; and everything that does not come from faith is sin.


Thus Peter and Paul continued to live as jews up to 70 CE, but afterwards the wrong ideas about food (and hopefully the divine) were to be consigned to the rubbish pile.

Petergdi

It doesn't have the specific instructions found in Matthew 10:5-6, but it is very clear from Luke-Acts as a whole that the mission at this stage was to Jews only. I think your objection is silly.

There were Gentiles in Galilee and Judea, but it would be silly to read the text as a mission to those Gentiles. (Palestine was not the name of the region in the second temple period.)

Peter.

Petergdi

I'm no expert at NT Greek grammar, but I don't see why Jesus would be the implied subject of the purifiying or cleansing rather than it being the elimination of the food into the latrine that purifies all foods.

The passage seems to be a set up to explain why Jesus' followers don't follow the Pharisees' pre-meal washing practices. The primary reason is that it is a human tradition and not a commandment of God. Jesus the goes on about how these traditions are used as handy excuses not to do what the law really requires . Then he says that obedience to God is a matter of one's intentions and purposes which come from within, and anything that comes from outside the body can't make you bad, only your own intentions and purposes can do that. The "thus purifiying all foods " seems to me to be a kind of joke - that the food is all washed away at the end in any case.

I don't see any indication in the passage that Mark thought that the food laws for Jews were abolished. The reason why Jews don't eat pork should be a matter of intention and obedience to God's commandments. It does not, according to Jesus's argument, have to do with any inherent problem with eating unclean foods apart from the fact that it is forbidden to Jews by God's law.

Peter.

penguinfan

What was the name of the region of the second Temple period?

Further, are you saying that Jesus never intended to bring Gentiles into the fold or have anything to do with them?

Petergdi

The second temple period covers a long time, but the region with Jerusalem in it was the province of Judea at the time of Jesus's adulthood. The place where Jesus mostly lived in the north was called Galilee. The region including both Judea and Galilee was made into the province of Syria Palaestina by the Romans in 135. Palaestina was a reference to the land of the Philistines and the renaming seems to have been intended as an offence to the Jews by the Romans.

All four Gospels agree that that Jesus's mission was largely confined to the Jewish people. The idea that the Gentiles would eventually come to worship the true God was a normal eschatological expectation. So "never intended" would be wrong, but Jesus's mission was to the Jews.

Peter.

Joan of Bark

You mean Jews still execute people for working on the sabbath? I didn't know that.

IamJoseph

Israel is the first nation which forbid capital punishment and human sacrifice. The former was done by using the laws of the Mosaic, which give this option. It all goes to show that a law can also be used to test one's true desire and intent. Some nations still conduct stone killings. :huh:

Joan of Bark

According to the God of the Torah, anyone who works on the sabbath must be put to death. One Hebrew man is stoned to death for gathering firewood on the sabbath.