Movement Beyond These Sayings
Movement Beyond These Sayings
Nevertheless, graphic statements about Gentiles in the end-time do not constitute a self-evident commission to reach the Gentiles, even if Jesus and his followers believed that the end was at hand. As we have noted, other eschatologically-oriented Jewish movements did not develop Gentile missions.
Something in the nature of Jesus’ movement may better explain the genesis of the gentile mission. Jesus holding one view about many Gentiles in the endtime could be a factor, but this perspective was amplified by the movement’s particular and rare view of the end-time: based on Jesus’ teaching about the kingdom and the subsequent experience of the resurrection, some of Jesus’ followers could undertake an end-time Gentile mission. Is it a coincidence that the same movement offered the remarkable claim of Jesus’ resurrection (distinguishing him from other first-century figures whose messianic movements failed) and later experienced remarkable success in a new Gentile mission, or is there a plausible connection between the two? Part of the connection was probably the movement’s dependence on what they believed was the divine Spirit, but was there anything further in Jesus’ teaching that facilitated the gentile mission?