GUEST
ARTICLE
To What Law Were
the Ancient Gentiles Accountable?
“In the Old Testament era,
the Jews lived under the law of Moses. But what about
the ancient Gentiles? To what law were they responsible?”
This is a question that is
puzzling to many Bible students. Let us develop some foundational
points that will help in supplying an answer to this question.
The Law of Moses
The Hebrew nation was organized
officially at the time of its departure from Egypt. God
brought this mighty body of people (of some two to three
million souls) into the region of Sinai. There he gave
them a written code to regulate their moral and religious
activities. The Ten Commandments constituted the core of
that law. These rules, however, were buttressed with an
extensive body of supplementary ordinances. In addition,
the Hebrews had living prophets who expanded God’s message
to them along the way. The Mosaic regime provided for a
specific sacrificial system for the Israelite people, by
which means pardon from sin was bestowed – in view of the
coming Savior (see: Gal. 4:4; Heb. 9:15). Moreover, it
embodied an elaborate system of worship.
In his letter to the Ephesians,
Paul, employing graphic imagery, indicated that the Mosaic
law constituted a “middle wall of partition” that separated
the Jews from the Gentiles (Eph. 2:14). The figure suggests
a barrier that creates a distinction between two parties.
Clearly, that vivid symbolism underscored the fact that
the Hebrews and the Gentiles were not under identical religious
systems.
Patriarchal Law
Prior to the giving of the
Mosaic law, the whole world was under what is commonly
called Patriarchal law. The father of each household was
the family “priest,” so to speak. He led the worship by
the offering of sacrifices to God. The Lord communicated
directly with the people in various ways, e.g., by dreams
(Gen. 31:11), visions (Gen. 46:2), personal appearances
(Gen. 18:1), and specially appointed emissaries like Melchizedek
(see Gen. 14:1ff; cf. also Heb. 1:1). The patriarchal worship
system is well illustrated in the lives of such men as
Job (cf. 1:5) and Abraham (Gen. 12:8; 13:4, etc.). One
historian has observed: “The concept of the patriarchal ‘God
of the fathers’ is paralleled from the Old Assyrian tablets
of the 19th century B.C. found in Cappacodia” (Edwin M.
Yamauchi, “Partriarchal Age,” Wycliffe Bible Dictionary, Pfeiffer,
Vos, Rhea, Eds., Peabody, MA: Hendrickson, 1999, p. 1290).
When the Hebrews were segregated
from the balance of humanity, as a “holy people” for Jehovah’s “own
possession” (Dt. 7:6; 14:2), the Gentiles continued under
the Patriarchal system until they were offered the gospel,
and the Patriarchal regime was replaced by the international Christian
system (Acts 10).
Romans 1:18ff shows how those
ancient Gentiles were accountable to God for their beliefs
and conduct. Romans 2:12-16 amplifies the point by suggesting
that even the patriarchs, who had no written revelation
from the Lord, possessed a threshold sense of the difference
between right and wrong (called “conscience”), and when
they rejected the former and embraced the latter, they
stood condemned. When the Gentiles sinned (and there can
be no sin without law — Rom. 4:15; 1 Jn. 3:4), they were
punished. Ultimately, those antique nations will be judged
by the “light” which they possessed, and not by that which
is available today through the Scriptures. We are under
a significantly greater measure of accountability in this
age.
At times, certain Gentiles
would join themselves to the Hebrews by means of the “proselyte” procedure.
On the day of Pentecost there were assembled at Jerusalem
both “Jews and proselytes” (Acts 2:11; cf. 6:5; 13:43).
This meant that male Gentiles would receive circumcision,
and all of the “converts” to the Israelite system would
accept the responsibilities of the Mosaic law. There was
even a place in the temple (called the Court of the Gentiles)
to accommodate these adherents to Judaism.
Old Testament Emphasis
The Bible student must understand
that the Old Testament gives much more prominence to the
history of the Hebrew nation than it does to the religious
conditions of the Gentiles. And there is a very good reason
for this. The OT writers, under the guiding hand of God,
principally were concerned with relating the story of the
unfolding of Jehovah’s great plan of redemption – to be
consummated by the work of Christ. Since the Lord was using
the Israelite people in the implementation of his sacred
purpose, it is understandable that considerably more attention
was given to these people and their worship practices – which
were a “shadow of things to come” (Col. 2:17; cf. Heb.
8:5; 10:1) – than to Gentile procedures.
This does not imply, however,
that the Almighty was unconcerned with the Gentiles, or
that they were outside the pale of salvation. God’s rebuke
of the nations through his prophets (cf. Amos 1; Jer. 46-51)
bears ample testimony to their accountability to the Creator.
And Jonah’s missionary endeavor to the people of Nineveh
in far-away Assyria is a delightful illustration of the
Lord’s interest in Gentile people – even while the main
focus remained upon the nation of Israel.
--Wayne Jackson
christiancourier.com/articles/
759-to-what-law-were-the-ancient-
gentiles-accountable
|
