If Jesus commanded the Apostles not to preach to the Gentiles Matthew 10v5 then why did Peter disobey and preached to the Gentiles Acts 10?

Answer 1

Reading the Bible in context, as it always ought to be read, tell us there is no indication that Jesus' original command in this case was to apply for all time.

Peter did not disobey, nor did God later contradict Himself in Acts 10. The time had simply now come to spread the Gospel further, as the circumstances, and the time, were different.

OpionionMaybe Peter was bitter when Jesus called him Satan (mark 8:33) and choose to follow the teachings of Paul to preach to the Gentiles instead. AnswerI guess I have a problem agreeing with this when the verses given in Matthew don't really say, "the Gospel was first preached to the Jews but they rejected it.... so the Gospel was [to be] preached to the Gentiles instead." People often use this to justify the Gentiles being a apart of Christianity and being in charge of it. This seems to be more of an opinion than what the scriptures actually says. It should be noted that Paul was never an disciple of Jesus and never meet him. During early Christianity a single monolithic view never existed. There was actually two different groups of Christians at conflict with each others teachings (the gentile churches who Paul left and Preached to, and the church at Jerusalem where the disciples preached. Also the disciples never called themselves "Christians"--this name was first used among the Gentiles at the Antioch church. The book of Acts is a writing accredited to Paul of Tarsus, a Rabbi, and I have a hard time accepting it over anything written from Jesus's actual disciples. Though Paul was never a disciple more of his beliefs and instruction is used in the New Testament than the actual disciples of Jesus:

20And straightway he preached Christ in the synagogues, that he is the Son of God.

21But all that heard him were amazed, and said; Is not this he that destroyed them which called on this name in Jerusalem, and came hither for that intent, that he might bring them bound unto the chief priests?

22But Saul increased the more in strength, and confounded the Jews which dwelt at Damascus, proving that this is very Christ.

23And after that many days were fulfilled, the Jews took counsel to kill him:

24But their laying await was known of Saul. And they watched the gates day and night to kill him.

25Then the disciples took him by night, and let him down by the wall in a basket.

26And when Saul was come to Jerusalem, he assayed to join himself to the disciples: but they were all afraid of him, and believed not that he was a disciple.27But Barnabas took him, and brought him to the apostles, and declared unto them how he had seen the Lord in the way, and that he had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus

Now according to Paul book Acts 9:20-27, he attempted to Join the disciples but they were afraid of him. That alone tells us he wasn't one of Jesus's disciples and they didn't know him. Paul had said he seen a vision and Jesus soke to him etc. and this started his mission of spreading the Gospel to the gentiles as said in Act 9:27. But one has to ask is this valid, and why would Jesus spend his time with the disciple and tell them not to preach to anyone but the house of israel and then veto himself and tell someone unknown to them to preach to the Gentiles? It is a matter of opinion to say Jesus revealed himself to Paul and therefore it is true, where is this proff, because Jesus is never quoted saying that. Why does Paul get to verify and be witness for himself? Does this fall along the lines of trusting in man. As in written in Acts 15:17-33, notice how the James and the elders are happy to hear of him preaching the Gospel to the Jews who were among the Gentiles but then became angry when they heard of him preaching the gospel to the Gentiles:

17And when we were come to Jerusalem, the brethren received us gladly.

18And the day following Paul went in with us unto James; and all the elders were present.

19And when he had saluted them, he declared particularly what things God had wrought among the Gentiles by his ministry.

20And when they heard it, they glorified the Lord, and said unto him, Thou seest, brother, how many thousands of Jews there are which believe; and they are all zealous of the law:

21And they are informed of thee, that thou teachest all the Jews which are among the Gentiles to forsake Moses, saying that they ought not to circumcise their children, neither to walk after the customs.

22What is it therefore? the multitude must needs come together: for they will hear that thou art come.

23Do therefore this that we say to thee: We have four men which have a vow on them;

24Them take, and purify thyself with them, and be at charges with them, that they may shave their heads: and all may know that those things, whereof they were informed concerning thee, are nothing; but that thou thyself also walkest orderly, and keepest the law.

25As touching the Gentiles which believe, we have written and concluded that they observe no such thing, save only that they keep themselves from things offered to idols, and from blood, and from strangled, and from fornication.

26Then Paul took the men, and the next day purifying himself with them entered into the temple, to signify the accomplishment of the days of purification, until that an offering should be offered for every one of them.

27And when the seven days were almost ended, the Jews which were of Asia, when they saw him in the temple, stirred up all the people, and laid hands on him,

28Crying out, Men of Israel, help: This is the man, that teacheth all men every where against the people, and the law, and this place: and further brought Greeks also into the temple, and hath polluted this holy place.

29(For they had seen before with him in the city Trophimus an Ephesian, whom they supposed that Paul had brought into the temple.)

30And all the city was moved, and the people ran together: and they took Paul, and drew him out of the temple: and forthwith the doors were shut.

31And as they went about to kill him, tidings came unto the chief captain of the band, that all Jerusalem was in an uproar.

32Who immediately took soldiers and centurions, and ran down unto them: and when they saw the chief captain and the soldiers, they left beating of Paul.

33Then the chief captain came near, and took him, and commanded him to be bound with two chains; and demanded who he was, and what he had done.

I don't know how it could get anymore clearer that the disciples did not promote preaching to the gentiles and only preached to the house of Israel. Christians are oblivious to what they believe in and why they believe it. It is my opinion that most have been made to feel that if you question anything that your somehow committing blasphemy. What happened to studying to show yourself approved. What kinda true faith cannot stand up to research? If what you believe is the truth then won't it still be truth after you have studied it?

In 70 A.D. Titus came with the roman army and destroyed Jerusalem and the temple just as Jesus had prophesied and the disciple fled, but still never spoke a word of the gospel to none Jews. Jesus made it very clear that he only came for the house of Israel and the tribe of Judah. In the Old Testament it is made clear that he would come for the tribe of Judah and the house of Israel and gather them (Jacobs 12 sons and their descendants):

Genesis 49 (King James Version)Genesis 49

1And Jacob called unto his sons, and said, Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days.

2Gather yourselves together, and hear, ye sons of Jacob; and hearken unto Israel your father.

3Reuben, thou art my firstborn, my might, and the beginning of my strength, the excellency of dignity, and the excellency of power:

4Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel; because thou wentest up to thy father's bed; then defiledst thou it: he went up to my couch.

5Simeon and Levi are brethren; instruments of cruelty are in their habitations.

6O my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united: for in their anger they slew a man, and in their selfwill they digged down a wall.

7Cursed be their anger, for it was fierce; and their wrath, for it was cruel: I will divide them in Jacob, and scatter them in Israel.8Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father's children shall bow down before thee. 9Judah is a lion's whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? 10The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh [Jesus] come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. 11Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass's colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes:

12His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.

13Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.

14Issachar is a strong ass couching down between two burdens:

15And he saw that rest was good, and the land that it was pleasant; and bowed his shoulder to bear, and became a servant unto tribute.

16Dan shall judge his people, as one of the tribes of Israel.

17Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.

18I have waited for thy salvation, O LORD.

19Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.

20Out of Asher his bread shall be fat, and he shall yield royal dainties.

21Naphtali is a hind let loose: he giveth goodly words.

22Joseph is a fruitful bough, even a fruitful bough by a well; whose branches run over the wall:

23The archers have sorely grieved him, and shot at him, and hated him:

24But his bow abode in strength, and the arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the mighty God of Jacob; (from thence is the shepherd, the stone of Israel:)

25Even by the God of thy father, who shall help thee; and by the Almighty, who shall bless thee with blessings of heaven above, blessings of the deep that lieth under, blessings of the breasts, and of the womb:

26The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost bound of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of Joseph, and on the crown of the head of him that was separate from his brethren.

27Benjamin shall ravin as a wolf: in the morning he shall devour the prey, and at night he shall divide the spoil.

28All these are the twelve tribes of Israel: and this is it that their father spake unto them, and blessed them; every one according to his blessing he blessed them.

29And he charged them, and said unto them, I am to be gathered unto my people: bury me with my fathers in the cave that is in the field of Ephron the Hittite,

30In the cave that is in the field of Machpelah, which is before Mamre, in the land of Canaan, which Abraham bought with the field of Ephron the Hittite for a possession of a buryingplace.

31There they buried Abraham and Sarah his wife; there they buried Isaac and Rebekah his wife; and there I buried Leah.

32The purchase of the field and of the cave that is therein was from the children of Heth.

33And when Jacob had made an end of commanding his sons, he gathered up his feet into the bed, and yielded up the ghost, and was gathered unto his people.

Now in those verses Jacob (Israel) tells his sons their blessings and prophcied what is to come. He mentions that His son Judah (Jews) bloodline would lead the way until Shiloh (Jesus) comes. (Genesis 49:8-12) We know that in 58c BC, Nebucahadrezzar II began to seige Jerusalem and by 587 BC Jerusalem finally fell:

• 588 BC-Nebuchadrezzar II of Babylon begins siege of Jerusalem; the opera Nabucco sets the date at 587 BC.
• 587 BC-Jerusalem falls to the Babylonians, ending the Kingdom of Judah. The conquerors (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/580s_BC)

Also it is recorded that not all of the returned home after:

Many Jews were taken captive into Babylon. In 539 B.C., God raised up another king, however, who had arisen to power and conquered Babylon (viz. Cyrus the Great of Persia). This king was predisposed to allow the Jews to repatriate to their land and rebuild their temple and reinstitute temple sacrifice. If they thought they would also be able to achieve political independence, complete with a reigning king, they were to be disappointed. Of course, many Jews did not return to their homeland, but had fully assimilated into the Babylonian culture and were content to forego their homeland and temple and await a future day of redemption.2 This led to antagonistic attitudes toward the two groups of Jews. Those who had never been carried away into captivity but remained in the land viewed those who had been taken away as being under the judgment of God and thereby, guilty of personal sin and a life worthy of God's judgment and rejection. The repatriating group, on the other hand, saw the situation just the opposite. They viewed themselves as specially favored by God that he would choose them out of all the other Jews who chose to remain in the land of captivity. Thus, when the two ideologies converged, there were competing, or at least antithetical, attitudes of the one group toward the other. (http://faculty.bbc.edu/rdecker/PhD/depriest/2fall.HTML)

So when Jesus says, "Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: [v. 6] But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel," (Mat 10:5-15) I think it is perfectly clear what he means when he says the lost sheep of Israel being that they were a people scattered by invasion and war. Nowhere does Jesus approve preaching the Gospels to the Gentiles in Mat 10:5-15. Jesus also makes it clear in Mat 15:22-28:

And, behold, a woman of Canaan came out of the same coasts, and cried unto him, saying, Have mercy on me, O Lord, thou son of David; my daughter is grievously vexed with a devil.

23But he answered her not a word. And his disciples came and besought him, saying, Send her away; for she crieth after us.

24But he answered and said, I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

25Then came she and worshiped him, saying, Lord, help me.

26But he answered and said, It is not meet to take the children's bread, and to cast it to dogs.

27And she said, Truth, Lord: yet the dogs eat of the crumbs which fall from their masters' table.

28Then Jesus answered and said unto her, O woman, great is thy faith: be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And her daughter was made whole from that very hour.

The account seems a bit harsh in the manner he spoke to the woman, and I don't know how much more clear it can get that Jesus had came to talk to no one but Jews (the twelve tribes of Israel). And the fact that Acts is used also to promote the belief that it was instructed to preach to the gentiles is Pauline bias being that it is a book written by Paul, the person Jesus's actual disciples made pay penance for his preaching to the Gentiles and repeatedly tried to get him to stop.

I believe in God but question some of the Church beliefs associated with Christ. I do believe that Christianity is tainted by the Gentiles and they have bestowed their traditions on a religion and God who rejects other Gods and pagan traditions (Christmas and the tree, Easter and the Eggs).

It is known among most Christians that Chrismas on Dec. 25 and the tree have nothing to do with Jesus but is a pagan tradition that was celebrated by the Gentiles for centuries before they knew about the and their religion. Pope Julius I chose December 25 in compromise to help the public adopt and absorb the traditions of the pagan Saturnalia festival to make the transition easier. First called the Feast of the Nativity, the custom spread to Egypt by 432 and to England by the end of the sixth century. Jemimah, one of the major prophets in the old testament of the bible must have had some mojo working because he nailed this pagan tradition that was about to come and told Israel to have nothing to do with it Jemimah 10:1-4:

1Hear ye the word which the LORD speaketh unto you, O house of Israel:

2Thus saith the LORD, Learn not the way of the heathen, and be not dismayed at the signs of heaven; for the heathen are dismayed at them.

3For the customs of the people are vain: for one cutteth a tree out of the forest, the work of the hands of the workman, with the axe.

4They deck it with silver and with gold; they fasten it with nails and with hammers, that it move not.

5They are upright as the palm tree, but speak not: they must needs be borne, because they cannot go. Be not afraid of them; for they cannot do evil, neither also is it in them to do good. Notice how in verse 4 he said they deck the tree with silver in gold? Well I don't know about you, but, that sure sounds like a Christmas tree to me.

Have you ever wondered what the bunny and eggs have to do with Jesus on Easter? Well, that's because they have nothing to do with him, but was a part of a Gentile tradition called "Feast of Ishtar." For a God who said he is a jealous God and got angry at the children of Israel when Moses came down from the mount and say them with the golden calf and worshiping it; don't you think he is against these two pagan traditions where he shares a day with false Gods and idols?

Never believe what any man tells you about your faith and that goes for your parents and your reverend. It's your faith and God will judge us all based on our own actions, so you should want to research what you believe in. Study to show yourself approved!

Answer 2

In Acts 10, Peter had a vision that clarified that all people, including Gentiles, were to be included in the message of salvation. This vision led Peter to preach to Cornelius and his household, extending the message of Jesus to the Gentiles in obedience to God's revelation.