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

86 Cornelius, one must assume first that Cornelius ' household was non-kosher. As we have seen before 93 by the way Luke describes Cornelius ' attachment to , and reputation among , the Jewish nation it is quite possible that he followed the food laws. It is, of course , also possible that he did not keep a kosher kitchen, but the point to be made is that if Cornelius ' non– kosher kitchen is a critical point in understanding the meaning of the vision as Dibelius would make it , then we could at least expect Luke to make the point certain. Therefore , what is certain from a textual standpoint is that we can not assume that Peter was non-kosher when he ate with Cornelius . In addition, and this brings us to our next point which is historical , it was possible for a Jew to eat in a kosher way even at a non-kosher table. Several historical possibilities can be suggested . Even if Cornelius ' kitchen was not kosher , it is hard to imagine that one so sympathetic toward the Jewish nation would be so insensitive as to offer his guest (for whose arrival he had four days to prepare and at whose , feet he fell at their first meeting!) unclean food . Sanders addresses the question of how a Jew could see a Gentile socially : One answer was to eat Jewish food . We do not hear that vessels in which pork had been cooked were a problem, and it seems to have been only the actual food that constituted a difficulty. The king in Aristeas had Jewish food prepared , pre umably in the regular kitchen . All a Gentile would have to do to entertain a Jewi h friend would be to buy meat and wine from a suitable source. It wa not nece ary to have a eparate set of Jewish dishes and utensil . 94 ven if orneliu was extremely crude in hi ensibilitie and offered que tionabl food, P t r could till have imply chosen only the clean. After givi ng everal ampl mental lit rature de igned to advi e Jew how to handle th m Iv land r at non-k her G nti le tabl , and r ummanz in th 93 f . th di cu 1 n f rn liu n pa 80 . 94 p , J i t h Law from J e u to the Mi hnah (Plul d lplu Int rnat1 n l , l f intert ta- id th m t nd nmt Pr