{"id":49403,"date":"2020-07-02T12:20:02","date_gmt":"2020-07-02T16:20:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?p=49403"},"modified":"2020-07-06T16:49:27","modified_gmt":"2020-07-06T20:49:27","slug":"did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html","title":{"rendered":"Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p style=\"text-align: center;\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-49406\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2020\/07\/JesusCenturion2.png\" alt=\"\" width=\"640\" height=\"439\"><\/p>\n<p>\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Some Catholic liberals argue that the following famous \u201cmissionary \/ evangelism\u201d passage refers only to<em> Jews<\/em> among all the nations. This is sheer nonsense. Here is the passage:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Matthew 28:19<\/strong> (RSV)\u00a0Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit,<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Now what does the Greek say? Is this solely about Jews, as is absurdly claimed? <em>Word Pictures in the New Testament<\/em>, by A. T. Robertson states <a href=\"https:\/\/www.studylight.org\/commentaries\/rwp\/matthew-28.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">for this passage<\/a>: \u201c<span class=\"bible_highlight bold\">All the nations<\/span>\u00a0(<i><span class=\"normal greek\">\u03c0\u03b1\u03bd\u03c4\u03b1 \u03c4\u03b1 \u03b5\u03c4\u03bd\u03b7<\/span>\u00a0\u2014\u00a0<span class=\"translit\">panta ta ethne\u0304<\/span><\/i>). Not just the Jews scattered among the Gentiles, but the Gentiles themselves in every land.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Kittel\u2019s <em>Theological Dictionary of the New Testament<\/em> (\u201cLittle Kittel\u201d) states that \u201cIn some 100 passages,\u00a0<i><span class=\"translit\">ethne\u0304 <\/span><\/i><span class=\"translit\">is undoubtedly a technical term for the Gentiles as distinct from Jews or Christians\u201d (p. 201). There is nothing whatsoever in the passage indicating that Jesus was referring only to Jews in foreign nations: to be evangelized.<\/span><\/p>\n<p>We\u2019re told that \u201cthe Jesus of Matthew\u201d is utterly unconcerned with non-Jews (Gentiles).\u00a0This is an equally ludicrous opinion.\u00a0A clear instance in Matthew of Jesus\u2019 outreach beyond the Jews is His interaction with the Roman centurion:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Matthew 8:5-13\u00a0<\/strong>As he entered Caper\u2019na-um, a centurion came forward to him, beseeching him\u00a0[6] and saying, \u201cLord, my servant is lying paralyzed at home, in terrible distress.\u201d\u00a0[7] And he said to him, \u201cI will come and heal him.\u201d\u00a0[8] But the centurion answered him, \u201cLord, I am not worthy to have you come under my roof; but only say the word, and my servant will be healed.\u00a0[9] For I am a man under authority, with soldiers under me; and I say to one, `Go,\u2019 and he goes, and to another, `Come,\u2019 and he comes, and to my slave, `Do this,\u2019 and he does it.\u201d\u00a0[10] When Jesus heard him, he marveled, and said to those who followed him, \u201cTruly, I say to you, not even in Israel have I found such faith.\u00a0[11] I tell you, many will come from east and west and sit at table with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven,\u00a0[12] while the sons of the kingdom will be thrown into the outer darkness; there men will weep and gnash their teeth.\u201d\u00a0[13] And to the centurion Jesus said, \u201cGo; be it done for you as you have believed.\u201d And the servant was healed at that very moment.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Note how Jesus not only readily healed the Roman centurion\u2019s servant (8:7, 13), but also \u201cmarveled\u201d at his faith and commended it as superior to the faith of anyone \u201cin Israel\u201d (8:10). And that led Him to observe that many Gentiles will be <em>saved<\/em>, whereas many Jews will <em>not<\/em> be saved (8:11-12). If this is supposedly a \u201cJewish only\u201d view (\u201cGentiles need not apply\u201d), it sure is the weirdest, most confusing way imaginable to <em>express<\/em> it.<\/p>\n<p>A second counter-example is from the Sermon on the Mount. Jesus told His followers, \u201cYou are the light of the world\u201d (Matthew 5:14).<\/p>\n<p>A third example is the parable of the weeds, which showed a universal mission field fifteen chapters before Matthew 28: \u201cHe who sows the good seed is the Son of man;\u00a0[38] the field is the world, and the good seed means the sons of the kingdom; . . .\u201d (13:37-38).<\/p>\n<p>A fourth example is Jesus healing the daughter of the\u00a0Syrophoenician woman (of demon possession):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Matthew 15:28\u00a0<\/strong>Then Jesus answered her, \u201cO woman, great is your faith! Be it done for you as you desire.\u201d And her daughter was healed instantly.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As a fifth example, Matthew seems to not be aware of his own supposed \u201cJews only Jesus\u201d since he applies an Old Testament passage about outreach to Gentiles directly to Jesus as the Servant and Messiah:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Matthew 12:15-21<\/strong>\u00a0\u00a0Jesus, aware of this, withdrew from there. And many followed him, and he healed them all,\u00a0[16] and ordered them not to make him known.\u00a0[17] This was to fulfil what was spoken by the prophet Isaiah:\u00a0[18] \u201cBehold, my servant whom I have chosen,\u00a0my beloved with whom my soul is well pleased.\u00a0I will put my Spirit upon him,\u00a0and he shall proclaim justice to the Gentiles.\u00a0[19] He will not wrangle or cry aloud,\u00a0nor will any one hear his voice in the streets;\u00a0[20] he will not break a bruised reed\u00a0or quench a smoldering wick,\u00a0till he brings justice to victory;\u00a0[21] and in his name will the Gentiles hope.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A sixth counter-example is\u00a0Jesus telling the Jewish \u201cchief priests and scribes\u201d (Mt 21:15) and \u201cPharisees\u201d (21:45) that righteous Gentiles will enter the kingdom before self-righteous Jews (like them):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Matthew 21:31b-32<\/strong>\u00a0\u201cTruly, I say to you, the tax collectors and the harlots go into the kingdom of God before you.\u00a0[32] For John came to you in the way of righteousness, and you did not believe him, but the tax collectors and the harlots believed him; and even when you saw it, you did not afterward repent and believe him.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Matthew 21:42-43, 45\u00a0<\/strong>\u00a0Jesus said to them, \u201cHave you never read in the scriptures: `The very stone which the builders rejected\u00a0has become the head of the corner;\u00a0this was the Lord\u2019s doing,\u00a0and it is marvelous in our eyes\u2019?\u00a0[43] Therefore I tell you, the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0[45] When the chief priests and the Pharisees heard his parables, they perceived that he was speaking about them.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>A seventh example is Jesus earlier echoing His message of the Great Commission (Mt 28:19-20):<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Matthew 24:14\u00a0<\/strong>And this gospel of the kingdom will be preached throughout the whole world, as a testimony to all nations; and then the end will come. (cf. Mk 13:10; Lk 24:47)<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The same view is also supposedly apparent in the Gospel of Luke as well.\u00a0<em>Really<\/em>? That\u2019s news to <em>me<\/em>. We must read different Bibles. Folks who argue in this fashion must not have read (or understood) Jesus\u2019 parable of the Good Samaritan (Luke 10:29-37). The whole point of it was to show that Samaritans were truly neighbors to Jews if they helped them, as the man did in the parable. In 2014, I drove on the road (from Jerusalem to Jericho) which was the setting of this parable.<\/p>\n<p>Secondly,\u00a0Luke records Simeon saying about Jesus:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Luke 2:30-32<\/strong>\u00a0for mine eyes have seen thy salvation\u00a0[31] which thou hast prepared in the presence of all peoples,\u00a0[32] a light for revelation to the Gentiles,\u00a0and for glory to thy people Israel.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Thirdly,\u00a0Jesus healed yet another foreigner: a Samaritan man, commending his faith:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><strong>Luke 17:12-19\u00a0<\/strong>And as he entered a village, he was met by ten lepers, who stood at a distance\u00a0[13] and lifted up their voices and said, \u201cJesus, Master, have mercy on us.\u201d\u00a0[14] When he saw them he said to them, \u201cGo and show yourselves to the priests.\u201d And as they went they were cleansed.\u00a0[15] Then one of them, when he saw that he was healed, turned back, praising God with a loud voice;\u00a0[16] and he fell on his face at Jesus\u2019 feet, giving him thanks. Now he was a Samaritan.\u00a0[17] Then said Jesus, \u201cWere not ten cleansed? Where are the nine?\u00a0[18] Was no one found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?\u201d\u00a0[19] And he said to him, \u201cRise and go your way; your faith has made you well.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Fourthly,\u00a0Jesus specifically went to the land of the Gadarenes or Gerasenes, east of the Sea of Galilee, to minister to them (I was there, too). This was where Jesus sent the demons into the pigs, and it appears in all three synoptic Gospels (Mk 5:1-20; Lk 8:26-39; Mt 8:28-34). Wikipedia, in its\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/en.wikipedia.org\/wiki\/Gergesa\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">article on the region<\/a>,\u00a0states:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>The name is derived from either a lakeside village, Gergesa, the next larger city, Gadara, or the best-known city in the region, Gerasa. . . .\u00a0They were both\u00a0Gentile\u00a0cities filled with citizens who were culturally more Greek than Semitic; this would account for the pigs in the biblical account.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As anyone can see, the evidence in the Bible against this ridiculous critique is abundant and undeniable. Jesus\u00a0never says (nor does the entire New Testament ever say) that He came to \u201csave Israel\u201d or be the \u201csavior of Israel.\u201d Anyone who doesn\u2019t believe me can do a word search (<a href=\"https:\/\/quod.lib.umich.edu\/r\/rsv\/simple.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\">here\u2019s the tool<\/a>\u00a0to do it). Verify it yourself. He only claims to be the \u201cMessiah\u201d of Israel (Jn 4:25-26): which is a different thing. When Jesus says who it is that He came to<em> save<\/em> (i.e., provided they are <em>willing<\/em>), He states explicitly that He came \u201cto save the <em>lost<\/em>\u201d (Lk 19:10) and \u201cto<b>\u00a0<\/b>save\u00a0the\u00a0<em>world<\/em>\u201d (Jn 12:47).<\/p>\n<p>Likewise, St. Paul states that \u201cChrist Jesus came into the world<b>\u00a0<\/b>to save\u00a0sinners\u201d (1 Timothy 1:15). Last I checked, sinful human beings were not confined solely to the class of Jews or Israelis.<\/p>\n<p>Lastly, if we look at the Gospel of John, we observe Jesus\u2019 interaction with the Samaritan woman at the well (Jn 4:5-29), which perfectly illustrates His \u201cinclusive\u201d view. Here He not only ministered to her with great compassion, but noted at the end that salvation was to extend to the non-Jewish Gentiles as well: \u201csalvation is from the Jews.\u00a0But the hour is coming, and now is, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for such the Father seeks to worship him\u201d (4:22b-23).<\/p>\n<p>This outlandish insinuation that Jesus somehow didn\u2019t want to help or heal anyone but his own Hebrews \/ Jews, simply doesn\u2019t hold water. People who think like this appear unwilling to crack open a biblical concordance and look up passages relevant to these dubious claims.<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p><strong>Photo credit:\u00a0<\/strong><span style=\"color: #0000ff;\"><em>Christ and the Centurion<\/em> (c. 1575), by Paolo Veronese (1528-1588) and his workshop<\/span> [public domain \/ <a href=\"https:\/\/commons.wikimedia.org\/wiki\/File:Veronese_and_Workshop_-_Christ_and_the_Centurion,_ca._1575.png\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Wikimedia Common<\/a>s]<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>\u00a0 Some Catholic liberals argue that the following famous \u201cmissionary \/ evangelism\u201d passage refers only to Jews among all the nations. This is sheer nonsense. Here is the passage: Matthew 28:19 (RSV)\u00a0Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2331,"featured_media":49406,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[132,172],"tags":[2519,335,525,6519,6522,674,11407,11419,11416,6126,3336,571],"class_list":["post-49403","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-liberal-modernist-theology","category-trinitarianism-christology","tag-alleged-biblical-contradictions","tag-atheists","tag-bible-contradictions","tag-contradictions-in-the-bible","tag-divine-inspiration","tag-eisegesis","tag-gentiles","tag-jesus-the-gentiles","tag-jesus-the-jews","tag-liberal-exegesis","tag-liberal-theology","tag-modernism"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles? 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I provide many biblical counter-examples.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles?\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/\",\"name\":\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism\",\"description\":\"Catholic biblical apologetics\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e\",\"name\":\"Dave Armstrong\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Dave Armstrong\"},\"description\":\"Dave Armstrong is a Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity since 1981, and Catholicism in particular since 1991 (full-time since December 2001). Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \\\"This Rock\\\" (now called \\\"Catholic Answers Magazine\\\"), \\\"Envoy Magazine\\\" (Patrick Madrid), \\\"The Catholic Answer,\\\" \\\"The Coming Home Journal,\\\" \\\"Gilbert Magazine\\\" (American Chesterton Society), and \\\"The Latin Mass.\\\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \\\"The Michigan Catholic\\\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \\\"Catholic Answers Live\\\" (twice), \\\"Faith and Family Live\\\" (Steve Wood), \\\"Kresta in the Afternoon,\\\" \\\"Son Rise Morning Show,\\\" \\\"Catholic Connection\\\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \\\"The Catholics Next Door.\\\" His large and popular website, \\\"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\\\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \\\"Envoy Magazine.\\\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \\\"index\\\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \\\"Surprised by Truth\\\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \\\"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\\\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \\\"The Catholic Verses\\\" (2004), \\\"The One-Minute Apologist\\\" (2007), \\\"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\\\" (2009), \\\"The Quotable Newman\\\" (editor: 2012), and \\\"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\\\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \\\"The New Catholic Answer Bible\\\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \\\"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\\\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \\\"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\\\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \\\"Quotable Wesley\\\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/\",\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798\",\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles? Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles?","description":"&nbsp; Some Catholic liberals argue that the following famous \"missionary \/ evangelism\" passage refers only to Jews among all the nations. This is sheer This dumbfounded insinuation that Jesus somehow didn\u2019t want to help or heal anyone but his own Hebrews \/ Jews, simply doesn\u2019t hold water. I provide many biblical counter-examples.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles? Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles?","og_description":"&nbsp; Some Catholic liberals argue that the following famous \"missionary \/ evangelism\" passage refers only to Jews among all the nations. This is sheer This dumbfounded insinuation that Jesus somehow didn\u2019t want to help or heal anyone but his own Hebrews \/ Jews, simply doesn\u2019t hold water. I provide many biblical counter-examples.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html","og_site_name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","article_author":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","article_published_time":"2020-07-02T16:20:02+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-07-06T20:49:27+00:00","og_image":[{"width":640,"height":439,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/572\/2020\/07\/JesusCenturion2.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Dave Armstrong","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Dave Armstrong","Est. reading time":"8 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html","name":"Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles? Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website"},"datePublished":"2020-07-02T16:20:02+00:00","dateModified":"2020-07-06T20:49:27+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e"},"description":"&nbsp; Some Catholic liberals argue that the following famous \"missionary \/ evangelism\" passage refers only to Jews among all the nations. This is sheer This dumbfounded insinuation that Jesus somehow didn\u2019t want to help or heal anyone but his own Hebrews \/ Jews, simply doesn\u2019t hold water. I provide many biblical counter-examples.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/2020\/07\/did-jesus-minister-exclusively-to-jews-and-not-gentiles.html#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Did Jesus Minister\u00a0Exclusively\u00a0to Jews and not Gentiles?"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/","name":"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism","description":"Catholic biblical apologetics","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/471eaa20e441eca4bb1ea50393cf632e","name":"Dave Armstrong","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/820e6db89734ae7a9e5dac8d498f5ac7?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Dave Armstrong"},"description":"Dave Armstrong is a Catholic author and apologist, who has been actively proclaiming and defending Christianity since 1981, and Catholicism in particular since 1991 (full-time since December 2001). Formerly a campus missionary, as a Protestant, Dave was received into the Catholic Church in February 1991, by the late, well-known catechist and theologian, Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave\u2019s articles have appeared in many influential Catholic periodicals, including \"This Rock\" (now called \"Catholic Answers Magazine\"), \"Envoy Magazine\" (Patrick Madrid), \"The Catholic Answer,\" \"The Coming Home Journal,\" \"Gilbert Magazine\" (American Chesterton Society), and \"The Latin Mass.\" He also writes a featured column for every issue of \"The Michigan Catholic\": published by the archdiocese of Detroit, and was editor for most of the apologetics tracts published by the St. Paul Street Evangelization apostolate. Dave\u2019s apologetics and writing apostolate was the subject of a feature article in the May 2002 issue of \"Envoy Magazine.\" He served as the staff moderator at the Internet discussion forum for The Coming Home Network, from 2007-2010. Dave has been interviewed on many nationally syndicated Catholic radio shows, including \"Catholic Answers Live\" (twice), \"Faith and Family Live\" (Steve Wood), \"Kresta in the Afternoon,\" \"Son Rise Morning Show,\" \"Catholic Connection\" (Teresa Tomeo), and \"The Catholics Next Door.\" His large and popular website, \"Biblical Evidence for Catholicism,\" was online from March 1997 to March 2007, and received the 1998 Catholic Website of the Year award from \"Envoy Magazine.\" His blog of the same name (now transferred to Patheos), begun in February 2004, contains more than 1,500 papers, at least 500 debates or dialogues, and over 50 distinct \"index\" web pages. Unsolicited correspondence has indicated many hundreds of conversions (or returns) to the Catholic faith as a result, by God's grace, of these writings. Dave's conversion story was published in the bestselling book \"Surprised by Truth\" (edited by Patrick Madrid; San Diego: Basilica Press, 1994). Sophia Institute Press has published six of his books: \"A Biblical Defense of Catholicism\" (Foreword by Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J., 1996 \/ 2003), \"The Catholic Verses\" (2004), \"The One-Minute Apologist\" (2007), \"Bible Proofs for Catholic Truths\" (2009), \"The Quotable Newman\" (editor: 2012), and \"Proving the Catholic Faith is Biblical\" (2015). He is co-author (with Dr. Paul Thigpen) of the inserts for \"The New Catholic Answer Bible\" (Our Sunday Visitor: 2005), and editor for \"The Wisdom of Mr. Chesterton: The Very Best Quotes, Quips, and Cracks from the Pen of G. K. Chesterton\" (Saint Benedict Press \/ TAN Books: 2009). \"100 Biblical Arguments Against Sola Scriptura\" was published by Catholic Answers in May 2012. His \"Quotable Wesley\" compilation was published by (Protestant \/ Wesleyan publisher) Beacon Hill Press in April 2014. Several of his 49 books are bestsellers in their field. Dave maintains a popular personal Facebook page, a Facebook author page, and has a Twitter account as well. He offers almost all of his books in e-book form on his own Biblical Catholicism site (http:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/), at a permanent deep discount: only $2.99 for ePub, mobi, and AZW, and $1.99 for PDF. His writing has been enthusiastically endorsed or recommended by many leading Catholic apologists, authors, and priests, including Dr. Scott Hahn, Fr. Peter M. J. Stravinskas, Marcus Grodi, Patrick Madrid, Steve Ray, Tim Staples, Devin Rose, Mike Aquilina, Al Kresta, Karl Keating, Fr. Dwight Longenecker, Brandon Vogt, Marcellino D'Ambrosio, and Fr. John A. Hardon, S. J. Dave has been happily married to his wife Judy since October 1984. They have three sons and a daughter, and reside in southeast Michigan (metro Detroit).","sameAs":["https:\/\/biblicalcatholicism.com\/","https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/dave.armstrong.798","https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/@LuxVeritatisApologetics"],"url":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/author\/davearmstrong"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49403","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2331"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=49403"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/49403\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/49406"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=49403"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=49403"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/davearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=49403"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}