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Commentary Index | Return to PrayerRequest.comJamieson Fausset Brown Commentary - Matthew 10:5 - 10:5
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Mat 10:5-42. The twelve receive their instructions.
This directory divides itself into three distinct parts. The first part (Mat 10:5-15) contains directions for the brief and temporary mission on which they were now going forth, with respect to the places they were to go to, the works they were to do, the message they were to bear, and the manner in which they were to conduct themselves. The second part (Mat 10:16-23) contains directions of no such limited and temporary nature, but opens out into the permanent exercise of the Gospel ministry. The third part (Mat 10:24-42) is of wider application still, reaching not only to the ministry of the Gospel in every age, but to the service of Christ in the widest sense. It is a strong confirmation of this threefold division, that each part closes with the words, “Verily I Say Unto You” (Mat 10:15, Mat 10:23, Mat 10:42).
Mat 10:5-15. Directions for the present mission.
These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not - The Samaritans were Gentiles by blood; but being the descendants of those whom the king of Assyria had transported from the East to supply the place of the ten tribes carried captive, they had adopted the religion of the Jews, though with admixtures of their own: and, as the nearest neighbors of the Jews, they occupied a place intermediate between them and the Gentiles. Accordingly, when this prohibition was to be taken off, on the effusion of the Spirit at Pentecost, the apostles were told that they should be Christ’s witnesses first “in Jerusalem, and in all Judea,” then “in Samaria,” and lastly, “unto the uttermost part of the earth” (Act 1:8).