Gentilizing Jews

The New Testament frequently turns prophetic texts inside out. In Revelation 3, for instance, Jesus applies prophecies that originally promised that Gentiles would bow to Jews to Jews bowing to the (largely Gentile) church of Philadelphia (3:9; cf. Isaiah 60:14). In one respect, the import is obvious: The church is the new and true Israel, the Jews are now outsiders.

But how do the biblical writers justify this kind of twist? Is it just a clever rhetorical inversion?

If it is more than that – more than rhetoric – these uses of Old Testament prophecy have to assume not only that the Jew/Gentile church is the legitimate heir to the promises to Israel, but also that the Jews have moved outside, taking the role of Gentiles.

When did this happen? We can locate several possible moments: When they took Caesar’s side instead of Jesus’; when they tried to halt the apostolic preaching; when they stoned Stephen. For the New Testament writers, these are not slips like Israel’s failures in the Old Covenant. These are acts of apostasy, which remove Israel from its status as Israel. Jesus means what he says quite literally: “They say that they are Jews, and are not, but lie.” The Jews have been Gentilized, and so prophecies about Gentiles suddenly apply to them.