“In the biblical perspective salvation was always and everywhere understood as destined precisely for Israel. ‘Salvation’ and ‘Israel’ were utterly inseparable. There was never a Saviour apart from a saved Israel, nor would there be a Messiah apart from messianic Israel. From end to end the Hebrew scriptures (as well as the non-canonical literature of Judaism) understood salvation in terms of: ‘all Israel’ (kol yisra’el) or ‘the people of Israel’ (`am yisra’el), the assembly (qahal), the congregation (`eda), and the like; Israel, in short, understood salvation in ecclesial terms. Where the salvation of the nations was promised or announced, this was conceived as an assimilation to saved Israel.” (The Aims of Jesus [San Jose: Pickwick Publications, 2002], 133-34.)