In his remarks on Christ’s words in Matthew 15:21 A.E. Knoch wrote the following in his commentary:
The incident of the Canaanitish woman is of surpassing interest to us, for it shows clearly what was the status of the nations in our Lord's ministry. Her very mistakes are instructive. The nations have no part in the Son of David. He is Israel’s King. No matter how much she may implore the Son of David, He answers her not a word. Let no one suppose that His heart was not touched or that He did not wish to be gracious. She has come to the wrong door. Yet He will not dismiss her. Finally, He tells why He cannot help. The Son of David, the character she approached, has no commission outside the nation of Israel. An oriental king is considered the father of his people. They are his children. The Canaanitish woman had no claim on His bounty. This is the key to Christ’s earthly mission. He was a Servant of the Circumcision, not of the Uncircumcision (Ro.15:8). During His ministry the nations did not even have the place they received in the Pentecostal era. When, after much preparation, the apostles were taught that proselytes, such as Cornelius, could share a little of Israel's spiritual blessings (Ac.10).
As helpful as I consider these remarks by Knoch to be, I can’t say the same for what Knoch went on to write. Knoch continued his remarks on Matthew 15:21 as follows:
“Later, at Pisidian Antioch, the door was opened by Paul, to some who were not proselytes (Ac.13:46-47). But it was not until the end of the Acts era that the salvation of God is sent directly to the nations (Ac.28:28). The latter half of the second chapter of Ephesians (2:11-22) is an elaborate statement showing that, in the present administration of God's grace, the nations are no longer in the inferior position accorded them in Paul's earlier ministry.”
Knoch then concluded his comments on this verse as follows:
“…it was not until Paul's imprisonment that we were brought nigh and enter the family of God (Eph.2:18-19). Until then we were still guests at Israel's table, if not puppies under it.”
These statements by Knoch are, I believe, at odds with the clear testimony of Scripture. In another study I’ll be responding to what Knoch (and others) have said concerning when the past “era” of which we read in Eph. 2:12 ended, and the period of time that Paul referred to as “now” began. For now, however, I just want to respond to Knoch’s claim that “it was not until the end of the Acts era that the salvation of God is sent directly to the nations.”
In the verse referenced by Knoch in support of his claim (i.e., Acts 28:28), we read the following:
“Let it be known to you, that to the nations was dispatched this salvation of God, and they will hear.”
According to Paul, the salvation to which he was referring “was dispatched” to the nations (not “will be dispatched”). It should be noted that the same verb and tense that’s translated “was dispatched” in this verse is also found in Luke 1:26 (where we read that “the messenger Gabriel was dispatched from God to a city of Galilee…”). Thus, what Paul declared in Acts 28:28 is perfectly consistent with the view that the salvation of which he was speaking had already been dispatched to the nations.
But what about Paul’s use of the future tense at the end of verse 28 (i.e., “and they will hear”)? Answer: Paul was simply referring to the continuation of his ministry to the nations. Those among the nations whom Paul had in mind when he said “and they will hear” are simply those who had yet to hear the message of salvation that had, in the past, already been dispatched. In other words, Paul’s declaration in Acts 28:28 can be understood as embracing both the commencement of his apostolic ministry among the nations in the past (when “this salvation from God” was first “dispatched” to the nations) as well as its continuation in the future.
But what, exactly, did Paul have in mind by “this salvation of God”? Answer: Just before Paul declared the words found in v. 28, he quoted the following words from Isaiah 6:9-10:
‘Go to this people and say, “In hearing, you will be hearing, and may by no means be understanding, And observing, you will be observing, and may by no means be perceiving,” For stoutened is the heart of this people, And with their ears heavily they hear, And with their eyes they squint, Lest at some time they may be perceiving with their eyes, And with their ears should be hearing, And with their heart may be understanding, And should be turning about, And I shall be healing them.’
“Let it be known to you, then, that to the nations was dispatched this salvation of God, and they will hear.”
We thus see that what Paul referred to as “this salvation of God” in v. 28 is the divine “healing” of which we read in the last words of the prophecy that Paul quoted from Isaiah (“And I shall be healing them”). But to what does this “healing” refer?
Answer: As is evident from Mark’s account of Christ’s own quotation of Isaiah 6:9-10 (see Mark 4:12; cf. Matt. 13:15), the words “healing them” refers to the forgiveness of their sins (cf. 1 Pet. 2:24). Thus, when Paul declared that “this salvation of God” had been dispatched to the nations, he had in mind the blessing of which we read in Ephesians 1:7 and Colossians 1:14:
“…in Whom we are having the deliverance through His blood, the forgiveness of offenses in accord with the riches of His grace…”
“…in Whom we are having the deliverance, the pardon [forgiveness] of sins…”
In accord with this understanding of the salvation to which Paul was referring in Acts 28:28 is what Christ declared to Paul when he commissioned him to be the apostle of the nations. In Acts 26:16-18 we read the following:
“But rise and stand on your feet, for I was seen by you for this, to fix upon you before for a deputy and a witness both of what you have perceived and that in which I will be seen by you, extricating you from the people and from the nations, to whom I am commissioning you, to open their eyes, to turn them about from darkness to light and from the authority of Satan to God, for them to get a pardon of sins and an allotment among those who have been hallowed by faith that is in Me.”
Notice that, just as in Isaiah’s prophecy we read of people “perceiving with their eyes” and then “turning about” so that God would be “healing them” (i.e., forgiving/pardoning their sins), so we read that Christ commissioned Paul to the nations to “open their eyes” and “turn them about from darkness to light…for them to get a pardon of sins…”
The blessing to which Christ was referring in the expression that’s translated “a pardon of sins” is equivalent in nature to the blessing of which we read in Acts 28:27 (“and I shall be healing them”). But when was “this salvation of God” first “dispatched” to the nations?
Answer: We know that it wasn’t dispatched during Christ’s earthly ministry (for during this time, Christ “was not commissioned except for the lost sheep of the house of Israel,” and was “the Servant of the Circumcision, for the sake of the truth of God, to confirm the patriarchal promises”). Nor was it dispatched through the ministry of any of the twelve apostles (whose ministry was a continuation of Christ’s own Israel-focused commission). Rather, it was dispatched through the apostolic ministry of Paul (which, again, is in accord with Paul’s original commission from Christ [Acts 22:21; 26:16-18]). But at what point in Paul’s ministry was this salvation first dispatched?
In Acts 13:1-12 we read the following:
Now there were in Antioch, to accord with the ecclesia which is there, prophets and teachers, both Barnabas and Simeon, called Niger, and Lucius the Cyrenian, besides Manaen, the tetrarch Herod's foster brother, and Saul. Now, at their ministering to the Lord and fasting, the holy spirit said, “Sever, by all means, to Me Barnabas and Saul for the work to which I have called them.” Then, fasting and praying and placing their hands on them, they dismiss them.
It was this point in his ministry that Paul likely had in mind when, in Romans 1:1, he wrote that he’d been “severed for the evangel of God.” In any case, this is undoubtedly when Paul and Barnabas were severed to God for the work among the nations to which they’d been called (and to which Paul had previously been commissioned by Christ). We then go on to read the following in verses 4-12:
They, indeed, then, being sent out by the holy spirit, came down into Seleucia. Besides, from thence they sail away to Cyprus. And, coming to be in Salamis, they announced the word of God in the synagogues of the Jews. Now they had John also as a deputy.
Now, passing through the whole island up to Paphos, they found a certain man, a magician, a false prophet, a Jew, whose name was Bar-Jesus, who was with the proconsul Sergius Paul, an intelligent man. He, calling to him Barnabas and Saul, seeks to hear the word of God.
Now Elymas, the “Magician” (for thus is his name construed), withstood them, seeking to pervert the proconsul from the faith. Now Saul, who is also Paul, being filled with holy spirit, looking intently at him, said, “O, full of all guile and all knavery, son of the Adversary, enemy of all righteousness, will you not cease perverting the straight ways of the Lord? And now, lo! the hand of the Lord is on you, and you shall be blind, not observing the sun until the appointed time.” Now instantly there falls on him a fog and darkness, and, going about, he sought someone to lead him by the hand. Then the proconsul, perceiving what has occurred, believes, being astonished at the teaching of the Lord.
Here we have the record of the first gentile to hear and believe the evangel that Paul was entrusted to herald among the nations (i.e., the evangel of the Uncircumcision). Notice that it’s only after Bar-Jesus (a Jewish false prophet) is supernaturally blinded by Paul and prevented from “observing the sun until the appointed time” that Sergius Paul (a gentile) then “believes.” As a number of students of Scripture have noted, this miracle – which is the first miracle that God performed through Paul – points to and “pictures” the state of affairs involving unbelieving Israel that we find described in Romans 11:7-10 and 25-32. Significantly, it’s also in this passage that Luke ceases to refer to Paul as “Saul” (his Hebrew name), and begins referring to him exclusively as “Paul” (his Roman name; Paul was a Roman citizen by birth [Acts 22:28]).
Not only is it in Acts 13 that we read of the first gentile hearing and believing the evangel that Paul and Barnabas were “severed” to God to herald among the nations, but it’s also in this chapter that we first read of Paul and Barnabas “turning to the nations.” In Acts 13:44-48 we read the following:
Now on the coming Sabbath almost the entire city was gathered to hear the word of the Lord. Yet the Jews, perceiving the throngs, are filled with jealousy, and they contradicted the things spoken by Paul, blaspheming. Being bold, both Paul and Barnabas, say, “To you first was it necessary that the word of God be spoken. Yet, since, in fact, you are thrusting it away, and are judging yourselves not worthy of eonian life, lo! we are turning to the nations. For thus the Lord has directed us: I have appointed Thee for ‘a light of the nations; for Thee to be for salvation as far as the limits of the earth.’”
Now on hearing this, the nations rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord, and they believe, whoever were set for life eonian.
It should be noted that, on the previous Sabbath, the only people who were present to hear Paul speak are those whom Paul addressed as “Sons of the race of Abraham and those among you who fearing God” (Acts 13:26). The people whom Paul referred to as “those among you who are fearing God” are later referred to by Luke as “reverent proselytes” (Acts 13:43). Since these God-fearing gentiles were present along with the Jews on the previous Sabbath, the “nations” to whom Paul said he and Barnabas were “turning” in response to the antagonistic response of “the Jews” on the following Sabbath (and who, we’re told, were “jealous” of the “throngs” who were gathered to hear the word of the Lord) cannot be a reference to this same group of synagogue-attending gentiles.
That “the nations” referred to in the above passage were not just synagogue-attending “reverent proselytes” is evident from the fact that we’re told by Luke that “almost the entire city was gathered to hear the word of the Lord” on the day when Paul and Barnabas declared that they were “turning to the nations” (as Paul states Christ had directed them to do). Of course, we have no good reason to believe that the majority of the gentiles in “almost the entire city” of Antioch of Pisidia were “reverent proselytes.”
It’s in Acts 13, therefore – and not Acts 28 – that we find revealed the point in Paul’s ministry when salvation began to be dispatched to those of whom Paul was made an apostle (i.e., the nations). The evidence found in this chapter indicates that Paul’s apostolic ministry underwent a transition at this time that is of far greater “dispensational” consequence than anything that’s said to have occurred subsequent to this time. It is at this time in Paul’s apostolic ministry – not during his Roman imprisonment – that the evangel of the grace of God first began to be believed by those among the nations who were “set for life eonian” (vv. 44-48), and the nations began to be justified by faith alone, apart from works (this is, of course, in contrast with the believing Israelites to whom Peter, James and John wrote, for whom “faith only” was insufficient for salvation [James 2:14-26]).
Moreover – and as I’ve argued in greater depth elsewhere (see https://thathappyexpectation.blogspot.com/2016/03/acts-28-dispensationalism-revisited_52.html) – this understanding of when the salvation of God was first dispatched to the nations is confirmed by what we go on to read in Acts. Far from focusing on Jews and gentile proselytes exclusively (or even primarily), Paul’s ministry during the “Acts era” very much involved non-proselytized, pagan gentiles. With regard to those to whom Paul heralded the evangel, we find no “progression” in Paul’s ministry from Acts 13 to Acts 28. With regard to his evangelistic efforts, the majority of Paul’s time during his missionary journeys was spent in public areas, and involved heralding the evangel of the grace of God to people irrespective of their ethnic or religious background. It was only on Sabbath days that Paul heralded the truth about Christ in the synagogues (which was an attempt to seek out those among the chosen Jewish remnant, who were scattered among the calloused and “cast away” nation of Israel).
We can therefore conclude that, in his closing words to the “foremost of the Jews” in Rome, Paul wasn’t referring to an entirely new ministry in which he hadn’t previously been involved. Rather, what we read in Acts 28:28 should remind the reader of a gentile-focused ministry that had been ongoing ever since Sergius Paul heard and believed “the word of God,” and “Saul” began to be referred to exclusively as “Paul” in Luke’s historical record.
In accord with these considerations, it’s evident from what Paul wrote in his letters that the ecclesias referred to in Romans 16:4 (“all the ecclesias of the nations”) were comprised primarily of people from among the nations who once belonged to the pagan, idol-worshiping religious system of that day. For example, in Paul’s first letter to the Thessalonians (which was likely one of Paul’s earliest letters), we find that those to whom he wrote were gentiles who had, after hearing and believing Paul’s evangel, turned from worshipping idols to the worship of the “living and true God” (1 Thess. 1:9). And what Paul went on to write in 1 Thess. 4:3-5 only makes sense if the recipients of this letter consisted primarily of gentiles who were formerly involved in idol-worship and other activities that the “nations also who are not acquainted with God” were involved in at that time.
We can also conclude that many, if not most, of the gentile members of the Galatian ecclesias to which Paul wrote were converts from paganism (Gal. 4:8). With regard to Paul’s letters to the Corinthians, we know that, although there was a small community in Corinth composed of Jews who had been exiled from Rome, the predominant religious culture in Corinth was Greek/pagan, and consisted of the worship of various gods and goddesses. Paul alluded to this pagan cultural aspect of Corinth in 1 Corinthians 8, which concerns idol sacrifices (v. 1). Paul wouldn’t have needed to address this issue if the ecclesia was composed exclusively of those from a Jewish (or proselytized) background. In verse 7, Paul wrote: “Now some, used hitherto to the idol, are eating of it as an idol sacrifice, and their conscience, being weak, is being polluted.” The word translated “used” (or “accustomed”) here literally means “together-custom,” and indicates that eating idol sacrifices had been, for some in the ecclesia to which Paul wrote, a habitual cultural practice – something that would only makes sense if some or all of the gentile members of this ecclesia were (like those in Thessalonica and likely Galatia) former idol-worshippers.
Moreover, what Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 10:1 presupposes that some of the members in this ecclesia were not even familiar with the basics of Israelite history. It would be absurd to think that any Jew (or even reverent proselyte) could possibly be “ignorant” of the things of which Paul wrote in 1 Cor. 10:1-4, and yet Paul declared, “I do not want you to be ignorant, brethren...” As with his words in chapter 8 concerning idol sacrifices, this would only make sense if Paul was addressing gentiles within the ecclesia who, prior to believing his evangel and becoming members of the ecclesia in Corinth, were idol-worshipping pagans. But what about Paul’s reference to “our fathers” in verse 1? Answer: Paul’s “our” doesn’t include those whom he’s specifically addressing here (i.e., those whom he did not want to be “ignorant”). “Our fathers” simply means, “the fathers of we who are Jews/Israelites.” Paul was not implying that those whom he was addressing in v. 1 were in this category.
Paul’s words in the rest of this chapter (see especially verses 14-22) also presuppose that some in the ecclesia may have been tempted or pressured to return to their former idolatrous practices (which would involve “partaking of the table of demons”). Interestingly, the next time Paul used the words “I do not want you to be ignorant,” he immediately added, “You are aware that when you were of the nations, you were led away to the voiceless idols, as ever you were led” (1 Cor. 12:2; Young’s translates this verse as follows: “…ye have known that ye were nations, unto dumb idols—as ye were led—being carried away”).
All of the above is in accord with what we read in Romans 1:5-6 (where Paul wrote that he had obtained his apostleship “for faith-obedience among ALL the nations, for His name’s sake, among whom are you also…”). Paul went on to express his purpose to visit Rome, that he “should be having some fruit among [them] also, according as among the rest of the nations,” and then referred to himself as a debtor to “both Greeks and barbarians, to both wise and foolish” (vv. 13-14). Here, Paul had in mind people from among the nations, in general (whether proselytized or not).
From everything said above we can conclude the following: From the time that Paul and Barnabas were severed to God for the work to which God called them, the main focus of Paul’s apostolic ministry prior to his imprisonment was the nations. And his focus on the nations involved bringing the salvation of God directly to them.
This is in accord with the arrangement of which we read in Galatians 2:6-10. In these verses we read that Paul and his co-laborer, Barnabas, were to be “for the nations” while James, Peter and John were to be “for the Circumcision.” Those who are of “the Circumcision” are those who belong to the twelve-tribed descendants of Abraham through Isaac and Jacob (whose covenantal relationship with God is signified by circumcision), while “the nations” refer to everyone else. In accord with this apostolic arrangement, we find that Paul – who referred to himself as “the apostle of the nations” (Rom. 11:13) – is the only inspired writer who wrote to believers who could be referred to collectively as “the nations” (Rom. 1:13; 11:13, 25; 15:16, 18), and who belonged to what Paul referred to in Rom. 16:4 as ”all the ecclesias of the nations.”
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