Bible Synapse
Were the disciples sent only to Israel, or to the Gentiles and Samaritans too?
Hard question · The life of Jesus · raised by 1 of the lists sceptics circulate
See the passages joined in the interactive mapThe passages
Sending out the Twelve, Jesus tells them not to go to Gentiles or Samaritans, but “to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”.
These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
To a Canaanite woman Jesus says, “I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel”; then he praises her faith and heals her daughter.
And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou Son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil. But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us. But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel. Then came she and worshipped him, saying, Lord, help me. But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children’s bread, and to cast it to dogs. And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters’ table. …
After the resurrection Jesus sends the eleven to “teach all nations”.
Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost:
In the longer ending of Mark: “Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.”
And he said unto them, Go ye into all the world, and preach the gospel to every creature.
Paul and his companions were “forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia”.
Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia,
The objection
When Jesus sent out the Twelve he told them to keep away from Gentiles and Samaritans, and he told a Gentile woman that he was sent only to Israel. Yet after his resurrection he sent them to all nations, and in Acts the Spirit forbids Paul to preach in Asia. Critics ask whether the gospel was meant for everyone or not.
The answer
The commands belong to different stages of one plan, and the Gospels mark the change. The charge in Matthew 10 was for one journey during Jesus’ ministry, a tour of the towns of Israel (Matthew 10:23). God’s promises had been given to Israel, and the Messiah was offered to Israel first. Paul keeps the same order: the gospel is “to the Jew first, and also to the Greek” (Romans 1:16), and he and Barnabas tell the Jews of Antioch, “It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you” (Acts 13:46).
Even in that first stage Jesus made it plain that the nations were in view. He said that “many shall come from the east and west” to sit with Abraham in the kingdom (Matthew 8:11), and that the gospel would be preached “unto all nations” before the end (Matthew 24:14). He himself stayed two days among the Samaritans of Sychar (John 4:39–42), and the Canaanite woman was not turned away: Jesus praised her faith and healed her daughter (Matthew 15:28). After the resurrection the limit was lifted, and the apostles were sent to Jerusalem, Judea, Samaria and “the uttermost part of the earth” (Acts 1:8).
Acts 16:6 is not about who may hear the gospel but about where Paul should go next. The Spirit closed the way into the province of Asia, and then into Bithynia, and called him across to Macedonia (16:7–10). A few years later Paul spent two years at Ephesus, the chief city of Asia, “so that all they which dwelt in Asia heard the word of the Lord Jesus, both Jews and Greeks” (Acts 19:10).
Other answers Christians give
A narrow focus for a short mission
Some add a practical reason: the first mission was short and urgent, and the Twelve were to go where people knew the law and the prophets and were waiting for the Messiah. Barnes says simply that the full time for preaching to the Gentiles had not yet come.
From the classic commentators
The full time for preaching the gospel to the Gentiles was not come. It was proper that it should be first preached to the Jews, the ancient covenant people of God, and the people among whom the Messiah was born. Afterward he gave them a charge to go into all the worldAlbert Barnes, Notes on the Bible, on Matthew 10:5 (1832)
Sources
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Matthew 10 (1832), at Bible Hub
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Matthew 15 (1832), at Bible Hub
- Albert Barnes, Notes on the Bible: Acts 16 (1834), at Bible Hub