What is a Gentile?

Gen’tiles - Nations

Many of our readers are no doubt aware that the words translated "Gentiles," whether in the Old Testament or in the New, simply denote "nations." Any distinctive use of these words must therefore have commenced when God had selected one nation, Israel, from among the rest, to be peculiarly His own. Israel thus became the one nation, owned, protected, and blest of the Lord; while all others began to be designated "the nations" or "Gentiles," as distinct from the one thus favoured and chosen of God. All that is written in the Old Testament, whether of Israel or "the Gentiles," may be referred to as illustrative of this remark.

The Hebrew word goi is also translated 'Gentiles,' and 'people,' and very often 'nations:' it is used in contrast to Israel irrespective of those designated being civilised or not. All the nations were idolaters, but this is not implied in the word goi, nor in the ἔθνος of the N.T., which is more frequently translated 'nations' and 'Gentiles.' In Matt. 18:17 ἐθνικός has a peculiar application: if an offending brother will not bear the church, the injunction is "let him be unto thee as an heathen man and a publican," that is, as an outsider, the heathen being outside the privileges of Israel, as one to be avoided: cf. Rom. 16:17; 2 Thess. 3:6, 14.

goi, γοι, ἔθνος, is translated 'nation,' and refers to the Jewish nation. Deut. 26:5; Luke 7:5; John 11:48. In the plural the same words refer to the nations generally in distinction from Israel, and are translated 'nations,' 'Gentiles,' and 'heathen.' Deut. 18:9; Deut. 32:43; Isa. 60:3; Isa. 62:2; Joel 2:19; Acts 11:1, 18; Acts:13:19; Acts 28:28; etc.

In the N.T. ἔθνος is twice rendered 'people': Acts 8:9, referring to the Samaritans, who could not well be called a nation, and who differed from the Gentiles; and Rom. 10:19, which is a quotation from Deut. 32:21. In the plural it is commonly translated 'Gentiles' as a proper name, and 'nation' or 'nations' as an appellative; in a few instances 'heathen,' but it would be better 'nations.'

And God chose Paul, another Jewish apostle, to reveal the marvellous truth of this, "the dispensation of the grace of God" (Eph.3:1), in which it is declared that both Jews and Gentiles should be "fellow heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel" (Eph.3:6). Gentiles did not become proselytes to the Jewish religion (in fact the Jewish religion rejected what Paul taught); but a totally new dispensation is introduced, in which all believers in the Lord Jesus, whether Jews or Gentiles, were "baptised into one body" (1 Cor.12:13). This is the church which, in Matt.16:18, the Lord Jesus spoke of building. It is totally separate from the Jews' religion, just as it is totally separate from the Gentile world. Compare 1 Cor.10:32; "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God." There are three classes of men as seen by God in the world today, all fully distinct.

Gentiles are the nations of the world. Jews are of that nation that looks strictly for an earthly inheritance. But the church is of a far higher order. Her citizenship is in heaven (Phil.3:20); has an inheritance reserved in heaven (1 Peter 1:4). The lord Jesus has prepared a place for her in the Father's house (John 14:2,3). She is emphatically "not of this world" (John 15:19; 17:14).

"The Gentiles," in the widest sense of the term, are all the nations of mankind, except God's chosen, favoured nation — Israel. Given up, for their idolatry, to follow their own ways, while Israel was made the theatre of God's manifested government, we only read of the Gentiles, through a great part of the Old Testament, as being in one way or another connected with Israel. When God's people were obedient, the Gentiles were either friendly to them or subjected to their yoke; when God's people were rebellious, the Gentiles were used to chasten them for their sins. Things continued thus till the time of Nebuchadnezzar. Ephraim, or the ten tribes, having been previously carried away captive by Assyria; and Judah having by their sins become insupportable in God's sight, they too are now given into the hands, not of Assyria, but of the king of Babylon; and God's throne being removed from Jerusalem, a solemn grant of universal dominion is made of God to Nebuchadnezzar. The times of the Gentiles commenced with him. In his days began that rejection of "the Jews," and supremacy of the Gentiles, by which the times of the Gentiles are characterized throughout. "Jerusalem," says our Lord Himself, "shall be trodden down of the Gentiles until the times of the Gentiles are fulfilled."

And, first of all, let us see who are the parties arraigned. "Before Him shall be gathered all nations." This is very definite. It is the living nations. It is not a question of individuals, but of nations — all the Gentiles. Israel is not here, for we read in Numbers 23:9, that "the people shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the nations." If Israel were to be included in this scene of judgment, then would Matthew 25 stand in palpable contradiction to Numbers 23, which is wholly out of the question. Israel is never reckoned amongst the Gentiles, on any ground or for any object whatever. Looked at from a divine point of view, Israel stands alone. They may, because of their sins, and under the governmental dealings of God, be scattered among the nations; but God's Word declares that they shall not be reckoned among them; and this should suffice for us.

In 1 Cor. 10:32, three classes of persons are mentioned: "Give none offence, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentiles, nor to the CHURCH of GOD." These are very distinct. The Jews were not the Church; the Gentiles were not the Church; it was a distinct thing, composed, I say, of believers from both Jews and Gentiles. In Eph. 2:11-12, Paul speaks of those who were "in time past Gentiles in the flesh," "being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world." And in verse 14, etc., "Christ is our peace, who hath made both one," that is, Jew and Gentile, "and hath broken down the middle wall of partition" that parted them asunder, "having abolished in his flesh the enmity" between them, i.e. "the law of commandments in ordinances; for to make in himself of the twain, one new man" — i.e. a new kind of man, Himself the pattern, — "So making peace" between them, who were before at enmity with one another. And not only that, but "that He might reconcile both unto God," with whom they were both at enmity, "in one body by the cross, having slain the enmity thereby."

<Thus, it is not at all that Gentiles were now to be admitted into blessing with the Jews, (a thing abundantly spoken of in the Old Testament, in such passages, as "Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people," Deut. 32:43; Ps. 18:49; Ps. 117:1; Isaiah 11:1, 10, etc., for the accomplishment of which promises, we must evidently wait till the Jews get their own blessings, in the enjoyment of which the Gentiles are to be associated with them, as will be fully realized in the millennium), but that both were to be taken from off the ground on which they naturally were ― the Jews as a special people, near to God on earth, and in earthly privileges, the Gentiles as afar off, ― and both made the subjects of Divine grace, shining out through the cross of the Lord Jesus Christ, and reconciled unto God in one body by that cross, and brought, ― not as an earthly people into earthly privileges, which are reserved for restored Israel, but ― as a heavenly people into heavenly relationships and privileges, to find their consummation in heaven, though entered into now on earth and enjoyed, by the Spirit.

In order that we may understand this very important aspect of the Church, the apostle reminds us of the distinct position held by Israel in the times before the cross. At that time there existed a very sharp distinction between Jew and Gentile. In the ways of God on earth the Jew enjoyed a place of privilege to which the Gentile was an entire stranger. Israel formed an earthly commonwealth with earthly promises and earthly hopes. They were in outward relationship with God. Their religious worship, their political organization, their daily pursuits, their domestic affairs, all, from the highest act of worship to the smallest detail of life, was regulated by the ordinances of God. This was an immense privilege in which the Gentiles, as such, had no part. It was not that the Jews were any better than the Gentiles, for, in the sight of God, the great mass of the Jews were as bad as the Gentiles, and some even worse; and on the other hand, there were individual Gentiles who were truly converted men, such, for instance, as Job. But in the ways of God upon earth, He separated Israel from the Gentiles and gave them a place of special outward privilege; or even if unconverted (as indeed was the case with the mass) it was an immense privilege to have all their affairs regulated according to the perfect wisdom of God. The Gentiles had no such position in the world. They enjoyed no public recognition by God. Their affairs were not regulated by the ordinances of God. And the very ordinances that regulated the life of the Jew, sternly kept Jew and Gentile apart.