The Relationship of Jewish and Gentile Believers to the Law Between A.D. 30 and 70 in the Scripture

145 During Paul's last visit to Jerusalem he took the opportunity to publicly demon- strate his own unflinching loyalty the Law. He joined in the normal Temple purification procedures and paid for the sacrifices of men in a Nazirite vow in order to show that even when outside the land of Israel he always walked orderly and kept the Law. In the last scenes of the book of Acts Luke is careful to record the rejection of the Jews in Rome. While it is true that many Jews believed not only in Rome but throughout the rest of the evangelized world, the reader is left with the impression that this response from individual Jews is insufficient. Paul's condemnation of unbelieving Israelites has forbidding tones of finality (28:26-28) and the future of the corporate Jewish whole looks dim. But as bleak as the future looks for the nation, Luke stresses that the rejection of the Gospel by the Jews has not occurred because the Christian message was incomprehensible to them or antagonistic toward their traditions. "On the contrary, Jewish rejection occurred despite the .,. fact that the Christian message was harmonious with Jewish religious traditions . " 244 Through– out the book Jewish Christians continued to faithfully observe the Law of Mo es , seeing it as the proper expression of faith for the sons of Jacob who had trusted Messiah , and Gentile were welcomed into the Church as Gentiles . The truths revealed in the book of Hebrew had not yet been given and were not a neces ary prerequisite for the Gentile mi ion. Jo ph B on, " h Pr bl m o J i h R j t " Luke t, and the ' Jewi h P ople tght rut al Per pe tt e , d J . mn p h u bur , 1 , 1 0