By gathering these and other considerations together,*we may gain a fairly accurate idea of the feeling of Jesus towards the Gentiles, who played so important a part in the Syrian world of His time. Around Him there was the Herodian atti- tude of Romanizing, and the Pharisaic and patri- otic attitude which delighted in branding Gentiles with such names as ' dogs ' and ' swine ' ; while be- tween these two a considerable mass of the general opinion of the time regarded them neither with emulation nor with hatred, but simply accepted them as facts — 'uncomfortable, unaccountable works of God,' as the Hindus are said to regard the English {Asia and Europe). To none of them all had it ever occurred to say, 'Suppose I were a Gentile?' and to try to look upon the world earnestly from the Gentile point of view— a quite
different matter from imitating Gentile ways in the Herodian manner.
Was this the attitude adopted by Jesus ? "What- ever answer we give to that question, it is quite clear that His attitude was a different one from any of the three above indicated. Unlike the Herodians, He showed no interest in Gentile archi- tecture or commerce, literature or art. He accepted their institutions in so far as these formed part of the ordinary life of the land, but He passed no judgment either of approval or of disapproval on them. He almost exclusively, and evidently with deliberation, confined His ministry, and that of His disciples during His lifetime, to Israel. While not going out of His way to avoid Gentiles, He did not cultivate them. On almost every occasion they came to Him, not He to them. On the other hand, He expressly forbade His disciples to go into 'the way of the Gentiles,' i.e. to utilize for the spread of the gospel, as St. Paul afterwards did, those great roads in which the ends of the earth met. He even forbade them to enter any village of the Samaritans (Mt 10^). In His initial words to the Sj'^rophoenician woman He contrasts the children of the Promise with the Gentile dogs (Mt 15^^), though probably there was that in His manner which encouraged her to her clever repaitee. To the woman of Samaria He pointedly asserted that ' salvation is of the Jews ' ( Jn 4^^). He saw the fail- ings of the Gentiles, and spoke of them as a warning to Christians. His disciples were to avoid their vain repetitions in prayer (Mt 6'), their greedy search and labour for food and clothes (Mt 6^^), their ser- vility with princes, and their desire of honour (Mt 20^). There is little doubt that His words (regard- ing John) about those who are clothed in soft raiment and who live in kings' houses, were meant to be understood in scorn of Herod (Mt 11*).
On the other hand, it is equally clear that He refused to countenance the virulent spirit of an- tagonism, either religious or patriotic. Nothing met Avith more frequent or more unsparing condem- nation than the sanctimonious exclusiveness of the Pharisees, who made a religion of avoiding their fellow-men. Nor did He intermeddle with the revolutionary politics or methods of His day. On the contrary. He paid tribute ; and when the ser- vants of the high priest came to .seize Him, He strongly condemned the use of weapons even in defence, and with a quiet request permitted Him- self to be bound. The general impression which the narratives give is certainly one of kindly feel- ing for Gentiles. His interest and appreciation were always frank and open. He shielded His Roman judge from ' the greater sin ' in His con- demnation (Jn 19"), and pleaded the ignorance of His actual murderers in His dying prayer (Lk 23^*). He evidently liked to point out cases of Gentile superiority to Jews. At the outset of His ministry He offended the Nazarenes by His words about Naaman and the \\adow of Sarepta (Lk 42«- ^) ; and on a later occasion He made the men of Nineveh and the queen of Sheba a foil to the unbelief of His generation (Mt 12«-^). The phrase which He used on .several occasions of Gentile believers has become proverbial, ' I have not found so great faith, no, not in Israel' (8^*> etc.). The impression which such conduct must have produced was cer- tainly one of strong Gentile sympathies, and Matthew aptly quotes regarding Him the words of Isaiah, ' in his name shall the Gentiles trust ' (12").
From this it is already evident that Jesus can- not be placed in the third class, with those who merely accepted the Gentiles as facts in the .situa- tion. Politically, that was His attitude towards them, but as individuals He often delighted in them. He appreciated their broader outlook and
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want of Pharisaic narrowness. He was frankly relieved by their unconventionality and natural- ness, which gave Him air to breathe after the stifling atmosphere of Rabbinisni. To Him, in general, they stood for human nature, plain and unsophisticated.
When we inquire into tJie reasons for that Jewish exclusive- ness against which Jesus thus protested, we come upon a fact of far-reaching significance. The Pharisees had much to justify their narrow views and practices in the fear of heatlienism. The dearly won victory of the prophets over idolatry seemed to be in danger of being undone by the Grsco-Ronian invasion of a new heathenism. The old struggle renewed itself, and in Jesus' time the religious men of Israel were keeping back the encroach- ing worship of idols with both hands. In Samson's country the new Philistines (for so the followers of Epiphanes seemed to the faithful) had built an altar to Zeus (Hausrath, i. •19). Herod was known to have taken part in the completion of Jupiter's temple at Athens (ib. ii. 4). Much of the modern style, with its pictured art, must have savoured of idolatry to men who still took the Second Commandment literally, and the religious men of Israel were filled with the gravest apprehensions as they watched the advancing tide. In the whole speech of Jesus there is no attack upon heathenism to be found, nor any sense of serious danger from it. .\t Caesarea Philippi He had seen the temple raised by Herod to Augustus, and the rock-cut niches dedicated to Pan and the nymphs where Jordan issued from its cave, jet no word of His is recorded in protest. True, He might upon occasion use such a current expression as ' Let him be unto thee as a heathen man and a publican ' (Mt 181'), but His own attitude to publicans would be sutticient commen- tary upon that for His enemies. Evidently He was not in the slightest degree afraid of heathenism as a real danger, and He set Himself systematically against those maxims and practices as to clean and unclean things in which the Pharisaic spirit saw one of its best safeguards.