to include them under the name “the Israel of God” (Gal. 6:16)?’4 And Scot McKnight states that, in view of the Jewish heritage of early Christianity, ‘[t]he Gentile nature of the church … requires historical explanation.’5 Given that several groups within early Christianity engaged in a deliberate mission to the Gentiles,6 one might legitimately ask why this mission began in the first place. We may push the question back one step further and enquire as to what relation Jesus of Nazareth had to the
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