Chapter 328 of 404

Jesus’ Galilean Teachings

It is possible that Jesus’ disciples learned about the gentile mission from Jesus before his execution, hearing at least hints that could later be understood as pointing in that direction during his preresurrection teaching. Among the range of his contemporaries’ views regarding Gentiles in the end-time, Jesus’ appears to have been fairly positive. He apparently believed that some Gentiles would be included in the kingdom, as surely as some of his own people would be excluded. This perspective may be hinted at when he compares Chorazin and Bethsaida unfavorably with Tyre and Sidon (Matt 11:21-22; Lk 10:13-14), which we have argued is authentic Jesus material.⁹

The Q material in Matt 8:11-12//Lk 13:28-29 probably points in the same direction. ¹⁰ Although there are differences between Matthew and Luke,¹¹ both imply that those from the east and west are Gentiles.¹² While Matthew and Luke both want to validate the Gentile mission in any case, it is unlikely that the saying’s contrast is merely between Judean and Diaspora Jews. Few would have expected Diaspora Jews to be excluded from the eschatological banquet with the patriarchs, or would find their inclusion unusual enough to merit mention. ¹³ This reading of the saying also coheres with one possible reading of Isaian eschatology: an eschatological ingathering, by conversion or submission, ¹⁴ combined with the expected “messianic banquet.”¹⁵ Among Jesus’ teachings, it coheres with a radical, graphic extension of Jesus’ principle of eschatological inversion; Gentiles offered a notable hortatory foil for his audiences,¹⁶ comporting with his characteristic appeal to notably graphic illustrations. Among Jesus’ practices, it coheres with his practice of table fellowship with outsiders even at the expense of alienating respected members of the religious establishment. Such attitudes on his part would more readily explain why his followers within a matter of decades began a Gentile mission on terms that quickly transcended those of other Jewish groups (e.g., Acts 11:20-21; 15:14-21).

Mark 13:10, in the context of genuine Jesus tradition about eschatology (as we note in ch. 17 and Appendix 4), indicates preaching among the Gentiles. Though the saying does not yet identify Jesus’ followers as the agents, the context in Mk 13 certainly implies it (13:9-13). Certainly Isaiah’s scheme of Israel’s end-time relation to the nations could be approached in a variety of ways (and Acts portrays the early Christians as only gradually understanding even what the postresurrection Jesus meant).¹⁷ Jesus’ unusual openness to the Samaritans, suggested perhaps independently in John and Luke,¹⁸ may well suggest that Jesus did have interest beyond Israel. It is probably not mere coincidence that the Gentile mission arose in a movement with a founder already unusually positive toward Samaritans (as well as one who was believed to have risen).

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