The Gentiles

Ok maybe I got that analogy a little wrong, the gentiles would not have been like simple neighbors to the jews. To the Jews of Jesus' day the gentiles were almost subhuman. They were definatly 'unclean', and a well respecting jew would not be seen with these people. He would not eat with them, and he definatly would not do business with them. In fact as Barclay puts it, the jews believed the gentiles were there to simply stoke the fires of hell. They were expendable, they were like the blacks in south africa during apartheid, and they are like the palestinians of present day Israel. In other words, at least in a religious sense, the gentiles were the lowest of the low, and the jews felt in no way responsible for their 'gentilian brethren'

Now we must also remember what a gentile is. A gentile is everyone outside of the Jewish faith. So basically you are Jew, or you are nothing,"in their eyes". The Jews often refer to themselves as "The chosen ones of G-d" meaning them and them alone belong to G-ds family. So in a city like Corinth, a vast majority of the people are gentiles, and the rest of the known and unknown world would have been full of gentiles. So if you are going to start preaching a "revised addition" of an age old faith, and you want untold potential, you are going to need to find a way to include the Gentiles. I mean when you open a business you want to have as large a target market as possible. And the christians target market, was nothing less, than the entire human race.

(On a side note here, I find more Irony in this. Christianity was founded on the principle that the Jews did not have an exlusive relationship with their G-d. It preached that everyone has that same relationship with their G-d NO MATTER WHAT. And yet in todays world, you see and hear christians attempting to convey their own exclusivity to the their G-d. One of the hurdles I must overcome before I take the plung into christianity, is knowing in my heart of hearts, that I am not, in some way perpetuating this view. I see the Christian journey as a good way to live life, and to learn some things that I believe G-d wants me to learn. But I in no way believe that simply becoming a christian will bring me any closer to G-d. In fact my fear is that it may lead me astray. But, like with most things, I will put my trust in G-d and know that my G-d will be watching over me, even if christianity is the wolf in sheeps clothing.)

So back to Corinth. In Corinth, as in many other key citys of the day, the Christians set up shop. They began to preach the message of Jesus Christ. Many of these Christians like Paul and Barnabas, were also Jews, but some like Luke were gentiles. Part of the process in the beginning of christianity was convincing Jews that Jesus was the actual Messiah referred to in the Old Testament. And another part was both telling the story of Judaism to the Gentiles, and "adding on", that part of Jesus' teachings, allowed for the Gentiles to be included in this living journey to the promised land. This must have seemed crazy to the average Gentile.

We all know what it is like to be approached by some evangelical christian, or a mormon, or some other off shoot of the christian faith (which is just an off shoot of the Jewish faith). This is not too bad for a christian, because up until they start talking about where the schism occurs we are on common ground. However, to the Gentile there was no common ground. It would be like preaching the message of Luther to someone who has never heard of, or seen a Bible. They would be like "What the **** are you talking about?"

To be continued.....