When Jesus commanded the apostles to go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, what area did he have in mind?
Gentiles
here in Matthew 10:5 means not individual Gentiles, but the Gentile nations living in Gentile lands. The command to go nowhere among the Gentiles
means to stay within the borders of the land of the Jews. The first word of the phrase town (polis) of the Samaritans
is the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic word mediná, which can also mean a province or a territory. Jesus specifically means the area in between Judea and Galilee, which had a mixed population due to colonization (2 Kings 17:24–28).
With Gentiles
here in Matthew 10:5 Jesus does not mean individual Gentiles, but rather (in contradistinction to the house of Israel) the Gentile nations living in Gentile lands. The command to go nowhere among the Gentiles
means to remain within the borders of the land of the Jews.1 The first word of the phrase town (polis) of the Samaritans
is the Greek equivalent of the Aramaic word mediná, which can also refer to a province or a territory. Jesus is here specifically referring to the area located in between Judea and Galilee, which had a mixed population as a result of colonization (2 Kings 17:24–28)2
5 Tels sont les douze que Jésus envoya, après leur avoir donné les instructions suivantes: N'allez pas vers les païens, et n'entrez pas dans les villes des Samaritains;