Matthew 10:5

Matthew 10:5. The way of the Gentiles would lead northward, they were to go toward Jerusalem, as we infer from the rest of the verse.

Go ye not. This prohibition was removed after the resurrection (Acts 1:8). To have taken the way of the Gentiles at this time would have closed the way to the hearts of the Jews, who must form the basis of the Christian Church.

And into a city of the Samaritans enter ye not. Samaria lay between Galilee, where they were, and Judea, whither they probably went. They were not forbidden to pass through that region, but only to stay there. The Samaritans were half-heathen, the descendants of Gentiles who had been partially instructed in the Jewish religion (comp. 2 Kings 17:27-41) when they first occupied the territory of the ten tribes. With them the Jews had no dealings in the time of our Lord (John 4:9), treating them as heretics. They received the law of Moses, once had a temple on Mount Gerezim; and they expected the Messiah, and our Lord had already avowed Himself the Christ and gained converts among them (John 4:9-42). But the harvest He there promised was to be reaped after His death (Acts 8:5) not through this sending forth of laborers. They received the gospel after the Jews and before the Gentiles. The utterance of this prohibition hints that the Apostles had some idea of the wider extension of the gospel.