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Matthew 10: The Twelve sent to Israel, and not to the Samaritans

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AFGHANISTANALGERIAAUSTRIAAZERBAIJANBAHRAINBENINBOSNIA AND HERZ.BULGARIABURKINA FASOCHADCYPRUSDJIBOUTIEGYPTERITREAFRANCEGEORGIAGREECEHUNGARYIRANIRAQISRAELITALYJORDANLEBANONLIBYAMALIMALTAMAURITANIAMOROCCONIGERNIGERIAOMANPAKISTANPALESTINEPORTUGALQATARROMANIASAUDI ARABIASERBIASOMALILANDSPAINSUDANSWITZERLANDSYRIATUNISIATURKEYTURKMENISTANUNITED ARAB EMIRATESUZBEKISTANYEMENMediterranean SeaDead SeaJordanSea of GalileeGomorrah — named here, no site fixedSodomSodomGomorrah

Matthew 8:28ESV

And when he came to the other side, to the country of the , two demon-possessed men met him, coming out of the tombs, so fierce that no one could pass that way.

ESV

Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of and than for that town.

Matthew 11:21ESV

“Woe to you, ! Woe to you, ! For if the mighty works done in you had been done in and , they would have repented long ago in sackcloth and ashes.

Matthew 8
Matthew 11

Jesus gives his twelve disciples authority over unclean spirits and disease, names them, and sends them out with orders to go nowhere among the Gentiles and enter no town of the Samaritans, but to go to the lost sheep of the house of Israel (10:5-6). A town that will not receive them will fare worse on the day of judgment than the land of Sodom and Gomorrah (10:15), and they will not have gone through all the towns of Israel before the Son of Man comes (10:23). The chapter does not say where Jesus is when he sends them.

Map of Matthew 10: The Twelve sent to Israel, and not to the Samaritans — 1 sites plotted

Regions on this map

Verse 5: the towns of the Samaritans, which the Twelve are told not to enter.

  • In 10:5 Jesus tells the Twelve to "enter no town of the Samaritans." The Samaritans are the people of Samaria, the hill country between Galilee and Judea; the chapter names the people, not the land. The gazetteer's one point, on 500 votes, is the city of Samaria at Sebastia, standing for the region.

    a region, not a site: the one point on record is the city of Samaria at Sebastia, standing for the whole hill country

Verse 15: the land of Sodom and Gomorrah, held up as a measure for the town that refuses them.

  • Named with Sodom in 10:15, "the land of Sodom and Gomorrah." Its leading identification is the point Sodom already stands on, so it is drawn as an open ring rather than a second dot on one spot.

    415 votes put it on the plain south of the Lisan, which is Sodom's point; the next candidates are north of the Dead Sea (78) and Numeira (52)

  • In 10:15 the land of Sodom and Gomorrah will fare better on the day of judgment than a town that will not receive the apostles. Where the city stood is unknown: 477 votes put it on the plain south of the Lisan at the south end of the Dead Sea, 112 north of the sea and 109 at Bab edh-Dhra.

    Today: disputed; most often the plain south of the Lisan, at the south end of the Dead Sea (representative point)

Matthew 10, verse by verse

  1. Matthew 10:15Truly, I say to you, it will be more bearable on the day of judgment for the land of and than for that town.