Be it known therefore unto you, that the salvation of God is sent unto the Gentiles, and that they will hear it.
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John Chrysostom
AD 407
Then why do you discourse to us? Did you not know this? Yes, but that you might be persuaded, and that I might exculpate myself, and give none a handle (against me). (c) The unbelieving were they that withdrew. But see how they do not now form plots against him. For in Judea they had a sort of tyranny. Then wherefore did the Providence of God order that he should go there, and yet the Lord had said, Get you out quickly from Jerusalem? Acts 22:18 That both their wickedness might be shown and Christ's prophecy made good, that they would not endure to hear him: and so that all might learn that he was ready to suffer all things, and that the event might be for the consolation of those in Judea: for there also (the brethren) were suffering many grievous evils. But if while preaching the Jewish doctrines, he suffered thus, had he preached the doctrines of the glory of Christ, how would they have endured him? While purifying himself Acts 21:26 he was intolerable, and how should he have been tolerable while preaching? What lay ye to his charge? What have ye heard? He spoke nothing of the kind. He was simply seen, and he exasperated all against him. Well might he then be set apart for the Gentiles: well might he be sent afar off: there also destined to discourse to the Gentiles. First he calls the Jews, then having shown them the facts he comes to the Gentiles. Acts 24:18 Well spoke the Holy Ghost, etc. But this saying, The Spirit said, is nothing wonderful: for an angel also is said to say what the Lord says: but He (the Spirit) not so. When one is speaking of the things said by the angel, one does not say, Well said the angel, but, Well said the Lord. Well said the Spirit: as much as to say, It is not me that you disbelieve. But God foreknew this from the first. He discoursed, it says, with boldness, unhindered
