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

89 In reality, the Old Testament foresaw the accomplishment of the Gentile mission not apart from, but by means of the Law. Isaiah prophesied: and many peoples shall come, and say: "Come, let us go up to the mountain of the LORD, to the house of the God of Jacob; that he may teach us his ways and that we may walk in his paths." For out of Zion shall go forth the law, and the word of the LORD from Jerusalem (Isa 2:3). It was precisely when Israel obeyed the Law that she would be a light to the nations as Isaiah says again, "Listen to me, my people, and give ear to me, my nation; for a law will go forth from me , and my justice for a light to the peoples (51:4). And it was Jesus who said, '"My house shall be called a house of prayer for all the nations'" (Mark 11: 17). Finally, Paul looked to Isaiah 49:6 as justification for the mission through Israel to the Gentiles as well (13: 47). The end of the Law was not a necessary prerequisite to the Gentile mission. 101 A second criticism of the view involves the unity of the Law. If in fact the vision signals the end of the kosher guidelines, then the implications go well beyond food laws. The principle of "to transgress in one point of the law is to transgress the whole" (James 2: 10 and Gal 3: 10) is based on the unity of the Law . It was given as a single covenant to the nation breaking a social custom but not necessarily Old Testament law. "If ... we suppose that Luke deliberately chose d0tµt TO<; rather than the more specific avoµo<; precisely becau e it had a more general meaning, it may express his awareness that the distinction between clean and unclean was seen to be part of the order of things, a matter of ingrained cu tom and practice, rather than the result of a legal prescription. If so, then the effect of the i ion i not to contravene the law as such but to challenge what Luke knew to be the common Jewi h practice of segregation from Gentiles . Certainly it contradicts the view of the Jamnian age and what wa probably the view of pre- 70 Phari ai m a well a the practi of man oth r Jew , but the law as uch i not at take . If thi i what Luke mean then what i oth r i the only incident in Act where Jew or Jewi h- hri tian are di couraged from ke ping th ir law di appear and we are left with a uniform picture ," tephen . Wil n, Luke and Law, oc1ety for w Te tament tudie Monograph erie 50 ( ambridg : ambrid ni r it Pre , 1983), 70. . eifrid, "Me iah nd Mi ion in t : Bri f R p n t J . B. 1 -3 I 1 7]" in Journal for the tudy of the e Te tament (Jun h m 1 t that the ntile mi ion ould not ur until th M i L