Land of Zebulun, land of Naphtali lying to the sea, across the Jordan, Galilee of the Gentiles!

These twelve men Jesus despatched with the following instructions, "Do not go among the Gentiles, and do not enter a Samaritan town,

and you will be haled before governors and kings for my sake ??it will be a testimony to them and to the Gentiles.

Here is my servant whom I have selected, my Beloved in whom my soul delights; I will invest him with my Spirit, and he will proclaim religion to the Gentiles.

and the Gentiles will hope in his name.

and hand him over to the Gentiles to be mocked and scourged and crucified; then on the third day he will be raised."

but Jesus called them and said, "You know the rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men overbear them:

Then men will hand you over to suffer affliction, and they will kill you; you will be hated by all the Gentiles on account of my name.

This gospel of the Reign shall be preached all over the wide world as a testimony to all the Gentiles, and then the end will come.

"We are going up to Jerusalem," he said, "and the Son of man will be betrayed to the high priests and scribes; they will sentence him to death and hand him over to the Gentiles,

so Jesus called them and said, "You know the so-called rulers of the Gentiles lord it over them, and their great men overbear them:

to be a light of revelation for the Gentiles and a glory to thy people Israel."

he will be betrayed to the Gentiles, mocked, illtreated, and spat on;

they will fall by the edge of the sword, they will be carried prisoners to all nations, and Jerusalem will be under the heel of the Gentiles till the period of the Gentiles expires.

But Jesus said to them, "The kings of the Gentiles rule over them, and their authorities take the name of 'Benefactor':

who said to our fathers by the holy Spirit through the lips of thy servant David, Why did the Gentiles rage, and the peoples vainly conspire?

In this very city they actually mustered against thy holy Servant Jesus, whom thou didst consecrate ??Herod and Pontius Pilate, together with the Gentiles and the peoples of Israel,

But the Lord said to him, "Go; I have chosen him to be the means of bringing my Name before the Gentiles and their kings as well as before the sons of Israel.

Now the Jewish believers who had accompanied Peter were amazed that the gift of the holy Spirit had actually been poured out on the Gentiles ??46 for they heard them speak with 'tongues' and magnify God. At this Peter asked,

Now the apostles and the brothers in Judaea heard that the Gentiles also had received the word of God.

On hearing this they desisted and glorified God, saying, "So God has actually allowed the Gentiles to repent and live!"

So Paul and Barnabas spoke out fearlessly. "The word of God," they said, "had to be spoken to you in the first instance; but as you push it aside and judge yourselves unworthy of eternal life, well, here we turn to the Gentiles!

For these are the Lord's orders to us: I have set you to be a light for the Gentiles, to bring salvation to the end of the earth."

When the Gentiles heard this they rejoiced and glorified the word of the Lord and believed, that is, all who had been ordained to eternal life;

[Move to follow vs 3] But the refractory Jews stirred up and exasperated the feeling of the Gentiles against the brothers.

But, when the Gentiles and Jews along with their rulers made a hostile movement to insult and stone them,

On their arrival they gathered the church together and reported how God had been with them, what he had done, and how he had opened a door into faith for the Gentiles.

The church sped them on their journey, and they passed through both Phoenicia and Syria informing the brothers, to the great joy of all, that the Gentiles were turning to God.

But some of the believers who belonged to the Pharisaic party got up and said, "Gentiles must be circumcised and told to observe the law of Moses."

and a keen controversy sprang up; but Peter rose and said to them, "Brothers, you are well aware that from the earliest days God chose that of you all I should be the one by whom the Gentiles were to hear the word of the gospel and believe it.

So the whole meeting was quieted and listened to Barnabas and Paul recounting the signs and wonders God had performed by them among the Gentiles.

Symeon has explained how it was God's original concern to secure a People from among the Gentiles to bear his Name.

that the rest of men may seek for the Lord, even all the Gentiles who are called by my name, saith the Lord,

Hence, in my opinion, we ought not to put fresh difficulties in the way of those who are turning to God from among the Gentiles,

They conveyed the following letter. "The apostles and the presbyters of the brotherhood to the brothers who belong to the Gentiles throughout Antioch and Syria and Cilicia: greeting.

But as they opposed and abused him, he shook out his garments in protest, saying, "Your blood be on your own heads! I am not responsible! After this I will go to the Gentiles."

He came to us, took Paul's girdle and bound his own feet and hands, saying, "Here is the word of the holy Spirit: 'So shall the Jews bind the owner of this girdle at Jerusalem and hand him over to the Gentiles'."

and after saluting them Paul described in detail what God had done by means of his ministry among the Gentiles.

Now, they have heard that you teach all Jews who live among Gentiles to break away from Moses and not to circumcise their children, nor to follow the old customs.

As for Gentile believers, we have issued our decision that they must avoid food that has been offered to idols, the taste of blood, flesh of animals that have been strangled, and sexual vice."

But he said to me, 'Go; I will send you afar to the Gentiles ????'"

I will rescue you from the People and also from the Gentiles ??to whom I send you,

I announced to those at Damascus and at Jerusalem in the first instance, then all over the land of Judaea, and also to the Gentiles, that they were to repent and turn to God by acting up to their repentance.

that the Christ is capable of suffering, and that he should be the first to rise from the dead and bring the message of light to the People and to the Gentiles?"

Be sure of this, then, that this salvation of God has been sent to the Gentiles; they will listen to it."

through whom I have received the favour of my commission to promote obedience to the faith for his sake among all the Gentiles,

Brothers, I would like you to understand that I have often purposed to come to you (though up till now I have been prevented) so as to have some results among you as well as among the rest of the Gentiles.

[Move vss 14,15 to follow vs 16] (When Gentiles who have no law obey instinctively the Law's requirements, they are a law to themselves, even though they have no law;

Why, it is owing to you that the name of God is maligned among the Gentiles, as scripture says!

Or is God only the God of Jews? Is he not the God of the Gentiles as well? Surely he is.

What if he means to show the wealth that lies in his glory for the objects of his mercy, whom he has made ready beforehand to receive glory ??24 that is, for us whom he has called from among the Gentiles as well as the Jews?

What are we to conclude, then? That Gentiles who never aimed at righteousness have attained righteousness, that is, righteousness by faith;

Now I ask, have they stumbled to their ruin? Never! The truth is, that by their lapse salvation has passed to the Gentiles, so as to make them jealous.

Well, if their lapse has enriched the world, if their defection is the gain of the Gentiles, what will it mean when they all come in?

I tell you this, you Gentiles, that as an apostle to the Gentiles I lay great stress on my office,

To prevent you from being self-conceited, brothers, I would like you to understand this secret: it is only a partial insensibility that has come over Israel, until the full number of the Gentiles come in.

and also in order that the Gentiles should glorify God for His mercy ??as it is written, Therefore will I offer praise to Thee among the Gentiles, and sing to thy name;

or again, Rejoice, O Gentiles, with his People;

or again, Extol the Lord, all Gentiles, let all the peoples praise him;

or again, as Isaiah says, Then shall the Scion of Jessai live, he who rises to rule the Gentiles; on him shall the Gentiles set their hope.

as a priest of Christ Jesus to the Gentiles in the service of God's gospel. My aim is to make the Gentiles an acceptable offering, consecrated by the holy Spirit.

I will not make free to speak of anything except what Christ has accomplished by me in the way of securing the obedience of the Gentiles, by my words and by my deeds,

Such was their decision; and yet this is a debt they owe to these people, for if the Gentiles have shared their spiritual blessings, they owe them a debt of aid in material blessings.

who have risked their lives for me; I thank them, and not only I but all the Gentile churches as well.

has now been disclosed and made known on the basis of the prophetic scriptures (by command of the eternal God) to all the Gentiles for their obedience to the faith ??27 to the only wise God be glory through Jesus Christ for ever and ever: Amen.]

but our message is Christ the crucified ??a stumbling-block to the Jews, 'sheer folly' to the Gentiles,

I have been often on my travels, I have been in danger from rivers and robbers, in danger from Jews and Gentiles, through dangers of town and of desert, through dangers on the sea, through dangers among false brothers ??27 through labour and hardship, through many a sleepless night, through hunger and thirst, starving many a time, cold and ill-clad, and all the rest of it.

and when he chose to reveal his Son to me, that I might preach him to the Gentiles, instead of consulting with any human being,

(It was in consequence of a revelation that I went up at all.) I submitted the gospel I am in the habit of preaching to the Gentiles, submitting it privately to the authorities, to make sure that my course of action would be and had been sound.

and when they recognized the grace I had been given, then the so-called 'pillars' of the church, James and Cephas and John, gave myself and Barnabas the right hand of fellowship. Our sphere was to be the Gentiles, theirs the circumcised.

Before certain emissaries of James arrived, he ate along with the Gentile Christians; but when they arrived, he began to draw back and hold aloof, because he was afraid of the circumcision party.

But I saw they were swerving from the true line of the gospel; so I said to Cephas in presence of them all, "If you live like the Gentiles and not like the Jews, though you are a Jew yourself, why do you oblige the Gentiles to become Jews?" ??15 We may be Jews by birth and not 'Gentile sinners,'

If it is discovered that in our quest for justification in Christ we are 'sinners' as well as the Gentiles, does that make Christ an agent of sin? Never!

Besides, Scripture anticipated God's justification of the Gentiles by faith when it announced the gospel beforehand to Abraham in these terms: All nations shall be blessed in thee.

that the blessing of Abraham might reach the Gentiles in Christ Jesus, so that by faith we might receive the promised Spirit.

Remember, then, that once upon a time you Gentiles in the flesh, who are called 'the Uncircumcision' by that so-called 'Circumcision' which is itself the product of human hands in the flesh ??12 remember you were in those days outside Christ, aliens to the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers to the covenants of the Promise, devoid of hope and God within the world.

For this reason I Paul, I whom Jesus has made a prisoner for the sake of you Gentiles ??2 for surely you have heard how the grace of God which was vouchsafed me in your interests has ordered it,

namely, that in Christ Jesus the Gentiles are co-heirs, companions, and co-partners in the Promise.

less than the least of all saints as I am, this grace was vouchsafed me, that I should bring the Gentiles the gospel of the fathomless wealth of Christ

It is His will that they should understand the glorious wealth which this secret holds for the Gentiles, in the fact of Christ's presence among you as your hope of glory.

by hindering us from speaking words of salvation to the Gentiles. So they would fill up the measure of their sins to the last drop! But the Wrath is on them to the bitter end!

not to gratify sensual passion like the Gentiles in their ignorance of God ??6 no one is to defraud or overreach his brother in this matter, for the Lord avenges all these sins, as we told you already in our solemn protest against them.

and I was appointed to be its herald and apostle (I am not telling a lie, it is quite true), to teach the Gentiles faith and truth.

but omit the court outside the temple, do not measure that, for it has been given over to the Gentiles; and the city will be under their heel for two and forty months.