In later centuries, some Jewish rabbis did express extreme views, such as that a Jew should not even help a Gentile who was in peril of death.

HOW WERE GENTILES VIEWED AND TREATED?

19. What does the Bible show as to relations between Jews and non-Jews?

¹⁹ The apostles who heard Jesus’ words that are recorded at Matthew 18:17 were Jews and knew that their countrymen did not socialize with Gentiles. The Law distinguished between Jews and Gentiles, serving to keep the Israelites separate from the surrounding nations. (Deut. 7:1-4; Num. 15:37-41; Eph. 2:11-14) At Passover 33 C.E. the Jews would not enter the Roman governor’s palace “that they might not get defiled.” (John 18:28) And the separation between the Jews and the Samaritans, who even accepted the Pentateuch, was so wide that a woman at a well in Samaria expressed surprise that Jesus, “despite being a Jew,” would ask her for water.​—John 4:9.

20. What can be learned from Peter’s experience with Cornelius as to how Jews dealt with persons of the nations?

²⁰ Furthermore, in 36 C.E., when God purposed to demonstrate that uncircumcised Gentiles could then be accepted as heirs of the Kingdom, he directed the apostle Peter to the Roman army officer Cornelius. But Peter told Cornelius: “You well know how unlawful it is for a Jew to join himself to or approach a man of another race.” (Acts 10:28) Peter’s remark shows how deeply Jews felt that there should be no fraternization with a man of the nations. Also, when it became known that Peter had gone to Cornelius, some Jewish Christians strongly objected that Peter “had gone into the house of men that were not circumcised and had eaten with them.” Yes, Jews regarded it as a shocking thing to be with and eat with a “man of the nations.”​—Acts 11:1-3; compare Galatians 2:12.