Baptism symbolically initiated Jews into the New Covenant. This is seen in Acts 2 when it says "41 Those who accepted his message were baptized, and about three thousand were added to their number that day." This was the inaugural New Covenant Shavuot which was foretold by Jeremiah. This was when Torat Moshe would be inscribed in the heart.
ON TO THE QUESTION...
Why was Peter surprised that an uncircumcised man (Acts 10, Cornelius) could be immersed in water, that uncircumcised men could in fact be initiated into the New Covenant, when Yeshua had
said that the disciples were to immerse everyone? Shouldn't this have been obvious for Peter? Why had he been so hesitant to follow a clear command of Yeshua?
"Shouldn't this have been obvious for Peter? Why had he been so hesitant to follow a clear command of Yeshua?"
ReplyDeleteHe probably wasn't sure what to do. First of all, even Yeshua himself once told him and all other disciples not to go to Gentiles. As I wrote in one of my posts, Yeshua himself rarely interacted with the Gentiles and never made disciples out of them. Secondly, Jews didn't not freely associate with Gentiles in a social setting (e.g. visiting Gentile homes). Thirdly, it many have been quite some time after the resurrection before Gentile disciples were being actively sought - the Jewish Messianic movement was still quite weak and not ready for the great sudden influx of Gentiles, which would have surely weakened its impact in the Jewish community (which was the primary focus for the time being).
Very interesting. So perhaps Yeshua thought that anti-Gentile biases served a temporary purpose? I hadn't thought of that. I'll have to think about that.
ReplyDeleteThe scripture tells us why, Peter was taught by some 'law':
ReplyDeleteActs 10:27-28
As he talked with him, he entered and found many people assembled. And he said to them, “You yourselves know how unlawful it is for a man who is a Jew to associate with a foreigner or to visit him; and yet God has shown me that I should not call any man unholy or unclean.
I personally have never read this in the Law of Moses, so I have to assume peter was taught this by tradition of the fathers(taught by the Pharisees) also referred to as the tradition of the elders in the Apostolic Writings. An anti-gentile perspective due to the oppression of the gentile nations. It obviously was wrong, since God had to correct him, so another reason why this could not have been in the Law of Moses. Peter was taught an invalid law and invalid doctrine.
Yeshua was not anti-gentile as Peter was taught, instead his was motive was based on purpose and timing, prophetic timing, clearly Yeshua would not have sent his disciples to the nations or the message to the nations, if he was. It would have been an obvious contradiction.