Why Did Paul Preach to the Gentiles?
بِسۡمِ ٱللهِ ٱلرَّحۡمَـٰنِ ٱلرَّحِيمِ ,
At Paul’s time there were two primary groups of which he could have targeted to preach his new self developed brand of soteriology to; the Jews and the Gentiles. However, as history dictates, Paul chose the gentiles and quickly won favour among their peoples. So much so, that he eventually entitled himself with the position of the ‘Apostle of the Gentiles‘:
For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office – Romans 11:13.
The question therefore begs itself, why did Paul choose to preach to the gentiles over the Jews? After all, he was a Pharisee and would have been familiar with the knowledge, teachings, methodologies and mistakes of his Pharasaic brothers. Thus, he would have been the best person to preach to them his interpretation of soteriology. Yet he did not do so. He left the task to James, Peter and the rest, dubbing them as the ‘super apostles’.
The real reason Paul preached to the gentiles is because they were ignorant. They did not know the Torah. They did not possess intimate knowledge of Judaism, its scripture or its doctrine. Therefore Paul was not presenting his new religion to his own brethren because they would be able to debunk him. Due to this, logically speaking, he preached to those who would find his new faith appealing. The gentiles would not argue about Christ’s deity, or about the new doctrine of salvation, but the Jews would and vehemently so. Thus the path of least resistance is among the gentiles who would eventually see him as an authoritative figure, as opposed to the Jews who would see him as a heretic and shame him. Yet with the gentiles, he is able to avoid these problems and ascend to power and authority very quickly.
wa Allaahu ‘Alam.
Calling Christians 
Hi Ijaz
Why do you keep trying it? I sometimes wonder why you Muslims hate Paul accusing of making up his own brand of Christianity.
You pick up on what you think is an isolated statement and then start with your little lies about Paul. if you don’t already know it was Jesus who sent Paul to the Gentiles.
If you look at the bible carefully you will see the text below says it is Jesus and you will probably have something about that but anyway here it is.
Firstly God always had a plan in mind for the Gentiles
Luk 2:28 Then took he him up in his arms, and blessed God, and said,
Luk 2:29 Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in peace, according to thy word:
Luk 2:30 For mine eyes have seen thy salvation,
Luk 2:31 Which thou hast prepared before the face of all people;
Luk 2:32 A light to lighten the Gentiles, and the glory of thy people Israel.
Luk 2:33 And Joseph and his mother marvelled at those things which were spoken of him.
Jesus speaks to Paul.
Act 9:11 And the Lord said unto him, Arise, and go into the street which is called Straight, and enquire in the house of Judas for one called Saul, of Tarsus: for, behold, he prayeth,
Act 9:12 And hath seen in a vision a man named Ananias coming in, and putting his hand on him, that he might receive his sight.
Act 9:13 Then Ananias answered, Lord, I have heard by many of this man, how much evil he hath done to thy saints at Jerusalem:
Act 9:14 And here he hath authority from the chief priests to bind all that call on thy name.
Act 9:15 But the Lord said unto him, Go thy way: for he is a chosen vessel unto me, to bear my name before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel:
Act 9:16 For I will shew him how great things he must suffer for my name’s sake.
And then again we read
Act 13:46 Then Paul and Barnabas waxed bold, and said, It was necessary that the word of God should first have been spoken to you: but seeing ye put it from you, and judge yourselves unworthy of everlasting life, lo, we turn to the Gentiles.
Act 13:47 For so hath the Lord commanded us, saying, I have set thee to be a light of the Gentiles, that thou shouldest be for salvation unto the ends of the earth.
As for the ignorance of the Gentiles well lets be honest you said they didn’t know the Torah.
Act 8:27 And he arose and went: and, behold, a man of Ethiopia, an eunuch of great authority under Candace queen of the Ethiopians, who had the charge of all her treasure, and had come to Jerusalem for to worship,
Act 8:28 Was returning, and sitting in his chariot read Esaias the prophet.
And yes the text goes on to say that Phillip helped this man understand what he was reading from the book of Isaiah, and who knows if he read the Torah or not, you are talking like the Gentiles no idea of the word of God.
the one thing the above response fails to address is that what is being suggested by Jesuisms is that the four gospels from the new testament are the foundation for what is genuine and true. He quotes from the book of Acts, which isn’t a book that would be recognized as genuine by the jesuists. He does however quote from the book of Luke, which would be a recognized book, but the translation is not from the original greek, and thus can be misinterpreted. e.g. the wyncliff bible translation, which is one of the earliest translations , the above quotes from Luke are translated as follows:
25 And lo! a man was in Jerusalem, whose name was Simeon; and this man was just and virtuous, and abode tthe comfort of Israel ; and the Holy Ghost was in him.
26 And he had taken an answer of the Holy Ghost, that he should not see death, but he saw first the Christ of the Lord.
27 And he came in Spirit into the temple. And when his father and mother led the child Jesus to do after the custom of the law for him,
28 he took him into his arms, and blessed God, and said,
29 Lord, now thou lettest go thy servant after thy word in peace;
30 for mine eyes have seen thine health,
31 which thou hast made ready before the face of all peoples;
32 light to the showing of heathen men, and glory of thy people Israel.
33 And his father and his mother were wondering on these things, that were said of him.
This is basically saying Simeon can die in peace now that he has seen the Christ and that Christ will be for all people, a light to the showing of heathen men, and glory to the people of Israel. It makes no reference to Paul. Also, remember Jesus has warned us of false prophets
and of people who will use the book for their dreams and not for the Lord’s. Paul was never mentioned in any of the four gospels.
The books of the bible were canonized by the bishops and popes and scribes of the times.
there are many books that could have been selected to be canonized…but the bishops, and popes and romans selected them. and of course, they would select the ones that would agree with what they wanted to be taught to the people. it is my observation, and correct me if i am wrong, that Paul could have very well be used as a spy for the romans. they also used spies in those times. also, paul had never seen Jesus, never heard him preach, was his number one enemy, and was out to kill Jesus when he was suddenly “changed” “converted” on the road to Damascus. How do we know if this wasn’t a plan for romans to infiltrate the christians and disciples circle to gain information on Christ, so they , themselves, would be able to control the peoples of their times. the romans saw how masses of people began following Jesus and they soon realized this could be a very good way to control their people. that is when they came up with the plan to put a spy , Paul, into their circle to gain information…and this worked very well for them…they had paul write the pauline scriptures, including the book of Romans, and he addressed all the churches and peoples of that time in his other scriptures and instructed all these people how to live. or should i more accurately say how the roman empire wanted them to live so they could effectively and profitably govern and control them. this has for the most part been successful for them…but to the true, serious followers of Christ, they can recognize that the teachings from the four gospels do not genuinely agree with the pauline scriptures. As Jesus said “sheep can tell who their real shephard is and they know to follow him”. the pauline scriptures tend to fall into the line of what a roman government would want its people to believe. lets face it, the Roman catholic church was one of the most corrupt entities that ever existed. it could very well be that rome never fell but went underground in the guise as the roman catholic church. some of the popes were some of the most tyranical, evil people that ever lived, but fooled many many people because they would put the fear of god into them, and uneducated people would believe anything they were told by these tyrants…this still is true today, when the politicians together with many church leaders cherry pick from the bible what they want people to believe so they can control society. i don’t know if anyone will read this since we tend to only read what we already believe, and fail to acknowledge that we all have a lot to learn that we never knew we never knew. but, if you disagree with this, please give me accurate true info that i would be willing to discuss.
Hi Cynthia.
You don’t know what you are talking about.
You said…How do we know if this wasn’t a plan for romans to infiltrate the christians and disciples circle to gain information on Christ, so they , themselves, would be able to control the peoples of their times. the romans saw how masses of people began following Jesus and they soon realized this could be a very good way to control their people.
You’re wrong thousands of Jews rejected Jesus and the religious Pharisees of whom Paul belonged were killing and putting the Christians in prison.
The Romans already had the Jewish people under a measure of control and were crushing all sorts of rebellion.
In the letters Paul wrote they had nothing to do with getting the people to obey Rome, but rather to live for God hence the scriptures speak of Aquila and Prisilla who escaped Rome and made friends with Paul.
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One thing we have to bear in mind. Paul was a master of Greek philosophy, and to call the Gentile to practice new religion you had to be gentile when you are with them and Paul in he bible that he was Jewish when he was with the Jews and gentile when he was with gentiles.
1 Corinthians 9:19-21(New Living Translation) Even though I am a free man with no master, I have become a slave to all people to bring many to Christ. When I was with the Jews, I lived like a Jew to bring the Jews to Christ. When I was with those who follow the Jewish law,20 I too lived under that law. Even though I am not subject to the law, I did this so I could bring to Christ those who are under the law.21 When I am with the Gentiles who do not follow the Jewish law, I too live apart from that law so I can bring them to Christ. But I do not ignore the law of God; I obey the law of Christ.
So Paul being a master of Greek philosophy knows what buttons to pres to bring he gentiles to believe in Christianity. These were pagans. J.W Jepson .D.min in gospel of truth under The Influence Of Greek Philosophy On The Development Of Christian Theology
writes
The Platonic concept of God as an impersonal One, pantheistically immanent in nature and of which all visible beings are emanations, the concept of mystical reunion of the human soul with the Divine Mind and the acquisition of esoteric gnosis through meditation, inner mental and psychic development and ecstasy, and the concept of the more or less unreality of material being are all present in the various modern “mind science” sects. In most of these systems, Christ is considered to be some kind of demigod, a second-rate Platonic Logos who has attained to a high degree of liberation from the mundane and achieved an advanced spiritual (metaphysical) state. The Arian view of Christ is vigorously taught by the Watchtower Society (“Jehovah’s Witnesses”).
Some (but not all) of these concepts are deeply ingrained in the theology of eastern Orthodoxy. This is to be expected because the roots of the eastern Orthodox churches are deeply planted in ancient Greek thought and culture. Some of these roots are found in the ontology of Athanasius (ca. 298 -373). Eastern Orthodox concepts such as the divinization of nature through the Incarnation of Christ, and theosis (the process of man becoming divine) are based on Greek philosophy. This philosophical premise leads to an ontological interpretation of 2 Peter 1:4 “. . . partakers of the divine nature . . . .” “Divine nature” (physis) is automatically assumed to mean the very essence of God rather than His moral character (as the context clearly demonstrates).
Even the ancient church fathers were masters of Greek Philosophy which they brought into Christianity, the writer goes on to say:
Having devoted most of Book One and some of the remaining sections of his Stromata to a defense of his philosophical approach, Clement proceeded to build on a Neo-Platonic metaphysical foundation what was intended to be a Christian philosophy. To him, the God of the Christians is the God of Plato, now worshiped by Christians more perfectly than by the Greeks. According to Clement, Plato plagiarized revelation from the Hebrews; this gave the Athenian’s highest ideas a flavor of divine authority in the estimation of Clement.
What began in Clement was expanded in one of his pupils, Origen (ca.185 – 254). To Origen, sin is negative, a privation (which makes man the victim of sin rather than its responsible cause).
Eusebius of Caesarea (ca. 265 – 340) agreed with Clement of Alexandria regarding the value of philosophy. He believed that Plato had been enlightened by God and was in agreement with Moses.
J.W Jepson .D.min in gospel of truth under The Influence Of Greek Philosophy On The Development Of Christian Theology
According to he writer :Augustine (A.D. 354 – 430) spent several years of his earlier life in Manichaeism. He was converted in A.D. 386 and later became Bishop of Hippo. His earlier writings, such as Contra Academicos, De Beata Vita, and De Ordine, have a strong Neo-Platonic flavor, which carried through into his later writings. He wrote, “let every good and true Christian understand that truth, wherever he finds it, belongs to his Lord” (Epistle 166).
Augustine taught that the mind of God contains the eternal, changeless Ideas, Forms, or Archetypes of all things. These creative Ideas are independent of matter. They are the rationes seminales which the divine Creative Will developed within time into seen forms (De Ideis, 2). The view that these Ideas are in the Word goes back to Philo and the Stoic Logoi Spermatikoi, and, from Augustine, passed into medieval theology.
So we can see Paul’s influence on he Gentiles and how his mastery of Greek philosophy was crucial for him to bring them in.