Now we look at the book of John
*This is interesting. After a quick skim through the book, I found NO references to Jesus interacting with or talking about Gentiles. There is the incident with the Samaritan woman at the well, only found in John. But I haven't been counting Samaritans as Gentiles, even in the other gospel accounts, because they have a unique relationship with the Jews and worship the same god. John does talk about "the world" a lot, but he seems to be referring to his immediate surroundings and the Jewish community, not the entire world.
Another interesting thing I found this dialog in John 9:48-49: "The Jews answered him,"Aren't we right in saying that you are a Samaritan and demon-possessed?" "I am not posessed by a demon," said Jesus.... Jesus denies being possessed by a demon but he never denies being a Samaritan! Of course, in the story of the woman at the well, Jesus is clearly a Jew. However, wouldn't that be a fascinating twist if the actual historical Jesus (presuming he existed) turned out to have been a Samaritan. Perhaps that was an early accusation that Jews made about the Jesus sect.
Also, at the end of John, there is no comission to the apostles to go out and spread the gospel to all nations. There is only the instruction of Peter to "feed my sheep." Who were his sheep?
*There you have it. The sum of Jesus's interactions with, and words about, gentiles. I may have missed one or two small things. Even so, it doesn't seem to add up to much, a couple of exorcisms, a healing, and an exhortation to the disciples to preach to all nations. The two exorcisms were couched in the insulting terms of pigs and dogs. Matthew, Mark, and Luke contain the story of the mad man and the pigs. Luke doesn't have the story of the gentile woman with the demon possessed daughter. Mark doesn't have the story of the centurian. Luke's explanation for the healing of the centurian's servant was that the Centurian had built a synogogue for the Jews, so he deserved it.
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