Hello Jeffrey,<\/p>\nThe Apostle Paul in Acts 24:17 shows that he brought alms, supplied by churches, to his nation.\u00a0Alms would be mercy benevolence to the poor of that region.\u00a0The New Testament Greek word for “nation” in this passage is ethnos<\/em>.\u00a0Thayer defines this word as a multitude associated or living together.\u00a0Louw & Nida’s Greek Lexicon of the New Testament based on Semantic Domains Vol #1 defines ethnos<\/em> : So I don’t believe you can prove syntactically and conclude, that Paul’s ministration to his “nation” excluded any Jews except Christians.<\/p>\n Respectfully.<\/p>\n\t While Paul said, “Now after several years I came to bring alms to my nation and to present offerings<\/em>” (Acts 24:17), you did not conclude that Paul gave funds to the entire nation. You assumed that it was limited to the poor because of the word “alms.” I point this out because it is a typical figure of speech where one object stands in place of another. In a synecdoche, the whole of something is used for the part or the part is used for the whole. For example, “Now it will come about that In the last days the mountain of the house of the LORD will be established as the chief of the mountains, and will be raised above the hills; and all the nations will stream to it<\/em>” (Isaiah 2:2). We understand this prophecy about the church means that people from every nation will become Christians. We know that God is not saying every nation as a whole will join the church.<\/p>\n If Acts 24:17 were the only verse on this topic, you might have a point, but there are numerous passages that give greater detail.<\/p>\n Because the detailed accounts specifically state that the funds went to the poor among the brethren in Judea, we understand that the synecdoche does not mean the whole nation, or all the poor in the nation, but specifically the poor Christians in Paul’s nation.<\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Question: Hello Jeffrey, The Apostle Paul in Acts 24:17 shows that he brought alms, supplied by churches, to his nation.\u00a0Alms would be mercy benevolence to the poor of that region.\u00a0The New Testament Greek word for “nation” in this passage is ethnos.\u00a0Thayer defines this word as a multitude associated or living together.\u00a0Louw & Nida’s Greek Lexicon…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[20],"tags":[194,154],"class_list":["post-50907","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-answer","tag-benevolence","tag-church-funds"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":13364,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-the-difference-between-a-greek-and-a-gentile\/","url_meta":{"origin":50907,"position":0},"title":"What is the difference between a Greek and a Gentile?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"December 11, 2007","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Can someone help me understand who is referred to when the Bible speaks of a Greek and Gentile? For instance, Timothy's father was Greek. Does that mean he was a Gentile? And Paul said in Romans 1, \"It is the power of God ... to the Jew first and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1324,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/could-cornelius-have-been-an-israelite-of-foreign-birth\/","url_meta":{"origin":50907,"position":1},"title":"Could Cornelius have been an Israelite of foreign birth?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"April 7, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: This man is used by many as an example of a so-called \"Gentile\" non-Israelite being saved. The place of birth, or citizenship tells us nothing about race. But this man's race can be determined by Scripture, even if he is not described as a \"Jew\" [or \"Judean\"]. In the\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":1190,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-jews-and-christians-both-follow-the-teachings-of-the-old-testament\/","url_meta":{"origin":50907,"position":2},"title":"Do Jews and Christians both follow the teachings of the Old Testament?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"March 31, 2004","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do Jews and Christians both follow the teachings of the Old Testament? Answer: The Old Testament was given solely to the nation of Israel. \"And Moses called all Israel, and said to them: \"Hear, O Israel, the statutes and judgments which I speak in your hearing today, that you\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":3951,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/do-angels-preach\/","url_meta":{"origin":50907,"position":3},"title":"Do angels preach?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"January 27, 2006","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: Do angels preach? Answer: \"God, who at various times and in various ways spoke in time past to the fathers by the prophets, has in these last days spoken to us by His Son, whom He has appointed heir of all things, through whom also He made the worlds\"\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":14214,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/the-new-testament-was-written-in-hebrew-not-greek\/","url_meta":{"origin":50907,"position":4},"title":"The New Testament was written in Hebrew, not Greek!","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"February 18, 2008","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: You seem to teach that the original New Testament was originally written in Greek. I hate to differ with you. Nowhere is that fact proven. I believe that Luke may have written his manuscript in Greek, since he was of Syrian descent and also perhaps the books of Acts,\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-content\/uploads\/2008\/02\/John-Rylands-Fragment-300x169.jpg?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":37668,"url":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/what-is-meant-by-handwriting-of-ordinances\/","url_meta":{"origin":50907,"position":5},"title":"What is meant by “handwriting of ordinances”?","author":"Jeffrey Hamilton","date":"September 4, 2021","format":false,"excerpt":"Question: What is meant by the \"handwriting of ordinances\" that Paul says was against \"us\" (including himself along with his audience)? Was the church at Colosse Jewish, Gentile or both? Answer: Colosse is located in the area that we now know as Turkey. The city was located in a valley\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Answer"","block_context":{"text":"Answer","link":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/category\/answer\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50907","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=50907"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/50907\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=50907"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=50907"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.lavistachurchofchrist.org\/cms\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=50907"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nThe largest unit into which the people of the world are divided on the basis of their constituting a socio-political community. Focus attention upon a particular people as a socially functioning unit.\nAnswer:<\/h2>\n
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