Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · 7. Paul
Was Jesus sent to the whole world or to Israel?
In short
- 1.'I was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel' [Matthew 15:24].
- 2.'Do not go among the Gentiles or enter any town of the Samaritans' [Matthew 10:5-6].
- 3.The Canaanite woman is initially refused: 'it is not right to take the children's bread and toss it to the dogs' [Matthew 15:26].
- 4.The great commission [Matthew 28:19] sits in tension with these, and its Trinitarian formula is debated.
- 5.The Qur'an: Jesus is a messenger **to the Children of Israel** [3:49, 61:6]; Muhammad is sent to all people [34:28].
The claim being examined
The great commission presents Jesus as sending his followers to make disciples of all nations.
The Islamic position
Islam holds that Jesus was sent specifically to the Children of Israel, and that universality begins with the final Prophet.
Analysis
Matthew preserves both a restrictive mission and a universal commission, and the tension between them is a standard problem in Gospel scholarship, usually resolved by seeing the restrictive sayings as earlier tradition and the commission as reflecting the Church's later Gentile mission. On the Islamic reading, the earlier layer is the historical one: Jesus is Israel's prophet, and the universal message is the mission of the one who came after him.
From the Qur'an
Qur'an 61:6
يَا بَنِي إِسْرَائِيلَ إِنِّي رَسُولُ اللَّهِ إِلَيْكُم
O Children of Israel, indeed I am the messenger of God to you.
Qur'an 34:28
وَمَا أَرْسَلْنَاكَ إِلَّا كَافَّةً لِّلنَّاسِ بَشِيرًا وَنَذِيرًا
We have not sent you except comprehensively to mankind as a bringer of good tidings and a warner.
From the Bible
Matthew 15:24
οὐκ ἀπεστάλην εἰ μὴ εἰς τὰ πρόβατα τὰ ἀπολωλότα οἴκου Ἰσραήλ
I was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.
Read it in their BibleMatthew 10:5-6
εἰς ὁδὸν ἐθνῶν μὴ ἀπέλθητε
Do not go among the Gentiles… go rather to the lost sheep of Israel.
Read it in their BibleSources
Abu Zakariya, Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah · E.P. Sanders · James D.G. Dunn · Jesus: Man, Messenger, Messiah — ch. 7, pp. 184-186
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