8/14/2019 Curtis Clair Ewing A Study Into The Meaning Of The Word Gentile As Used In The Bible

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Thefollowing study material appeared twice before in leadingreligious magazines, and many calls have come for the materialin tract form. So we offer it now in this form in hopes that it willshed light on the Bible and also opens the way for a readyacceptance of the proper identity of Israel as the Anglo-Saxon andkindred people.

A Study Into theMeaning ofthe WordGentile as Used in theBible

Afewyears ago the writer was in the home ora friend, ap.das I looked over her books I saw that she had one of theselarge dictionaries that are usually found only In publiclibraries. I said to her, "MayI use your dictionary?" I knewthat she had always been interested In the correct use ofwords, so I thought that this would be a good way to start aconversation regarding our identity with Israel. I turned thepages to find the word ''gentile.'' Immediately the lady asked,''Whatis the word you are looking for?"I replied, "Iam lookingup the word 'gentile'." Then she wanted to know what thedictionary had to say. I gave her to understand that if thedictionary was correct she couldn't possibly be a gentile,which she had always claimed to be. Then I read her thisdefinition. "Agentile is a pagan or a heathen or some one whois not a Jew or a Christian." "Now," I said, "since you are aChristian you cannot possibly be a gentile." She was ratherstartled at what I told her. Then I went into the meaning ofthat same word as used in the Bible, and you may be assuredthat before I was through she had many of her

longestablished ideas upset.A great deal of confusion and misunderstanding has been

caused by the use of the word "gentile" in the Englishtranslation of the Bible. Let us take up a brief study of it. Itshould always be remembered that foreign languages oftenlose the strength of their meaning through translation. Thenit should also be remembered that some words have manymeanings.

Take the word man as an illustration. Generically speakingit means mankind generally, both men and women. But if itis used In the same sentence with the word woman, it meansthe male of the species. If it is used In the same sentence withthe word boy it means the mature of the species. Thus theword man has threemeanIngs, the meaning of the word being

determined by its use In the context.Now the word gentile is a translation of the Hebrewword

goi (singular) and goyim (plural) and the Greek word etbnos(singular) and ethne (plural). Using the word gentile totranslate these words is often misleading because it is amisapplication of the Hebrew and Greek words as used In theBible. The modern use of the word has come to meannonJew or non Israel, but that meaning cannot bemaintained in the face of the evidence I will present In thisstudy.

The Hebrew wordgoi is a collective nO\ln meaning nationor sometimes a collective body of people. But it has beentranslated into English many different ways. The word occurs557 times in the Old Testament. The Authorized Version of

the Bible translates it gentile 30 times; heathen 142 times;nation 373 times; people 11 times; another once. But theAmerican Standard Revised Version cuts the occurrence ofgentile from 30 to 9 times, and then shows In the footnotesof 5 of those 9 times that the word nations should have beenused.

Of course the word nation is not always an exactequivalent term because there is too much of a politicalsignificance attached to it. But it is much better than the wordgentile and some of our best translators prefer the wordnations. This is also shown by the way the RevisedVersioneliminates the word gentiles.

The same thing is true of the Greek word ethnos. It occurs164 times in the New Testament. In the Authorized Version

it is translated gentiles 93 times; heathen 5 times; nation ornations 64 times; andpeople twice. In the American StandardRevisedVersion it is gentiles 96 times In the text and 7 timesin the footnotes, making 103 occurrences altogether. But inthe footnotes it is corrected 15 times to read nations, makingthe final count 88. So not only the Hebrew word goi but alsothe Greek word ethnos has been translated to read nationsmore than any other word.

Though the word gentiles and the word heathen are usedmany times in the Bible, we must face the facts that there areKno Hebrew or Greek words that would demand thistranslation.

If the reader will consult a good dictionary, you will findthat the word gentile is derived from the Latin word gentilisand properly understood means non-something. As used byaJew or an Israelite it would mean non-Jew or non-Israelite.But they are not the only people who have a right to use theword.

For instance, suppose a Buddhist priest spoke Latin andhe wanted to refer to the nations that were not Buddhist, hewould call them gentilis. In Hebrew and Greek, there is notexact equivalent to the Latinwordgentilis or the Englishwordgentile, nevertheless, if this same priest spoke Hebrew andGreek alohg with his Latin and wanted to refer to the nationsthat were not Buddhist, he would call them goyim if speakingHebrewanq. ethne if speaking Greek, and each time he wouldnaturally include the Jewish and Israel people. likewise aMoslem priest could use the three languages and refer to theJews and Israel asgentilis, goyim and ethne,~

One important thing to always keep In mind is thatgoi andetbnos are collective nouns and cannot properly be translatedto mean an Individual person. They always refer to a group.

There is no such thing as A GEN11LE;it is always plural.Gentiles In its plural sense may at times be used to translategoi and etbnos but its use gives an added thought notIntended In the original word which cannot In every case be

justified.

Another important word found In the Hebrew text, whichneeds only passing notice is the Hebrew word "am" and isfound many times In the Old Testament text. It is translatednation by 17 times. It is usually translated people, for it occursthat way 1,835 times in our English text. Occasionally it isqualified by the phrase, "every people," but when it isrendered" thepeople" it usually means Israel. But this is notthe word that has been the source of misunderstanding.Translations of the Hebrew word goi and the Greek word

etbnos have caused the trouble.The Hebrew word goi and the Greek word ethnos in their

singular and plural forms are used three ways in the Bible.

1.In referring to the Israel and Jewish people, let us notethe verses which follow below found in the Old Testamentand New Testament which refer either to Israel or the Jewsas a nation and use the Hebrewwordgoi and the Greek wordetbnos. To demonstrate the absurdity of always translatingthe wordgoi or etbnos as gentile we suggest that you read thefollowingverses substituting the word gentile or heathen, fornation or nations:

Gen. 12:2-"1will make of thee a great nation."

Gen. 17:4,5-"Afather of many nations have I made thee."

Gen. 20:4-"Lord, wilt thou slay a righteous nation?'(heathen).

Gen. 25:23-"Two nations are in thy womb." (Try the wordheathen or gentile in that verse).

Gen. 35:11-'14. nation and a company of nations."

Gen. 48: 19-"11ryseed shall become a multitude of nations. "

Isa. 1:4-'14.bsinful nation, a people laden with iniquity."

Isa. 10:6-"Send him against an hypocritical nation."

Jer. 31:36-"Shall ceasefrom being a nation before me."

Luke 7:5-''He loveth our nation and hath built us a

synagogue. "John 11:48-"TbeRomans will come and take our place andnation."

John 11:5Q-"Tbat one man should die for the people andthat the whole nation perish not. "

Acts 24:2-''Worthy deeds are done unto this nation by the providence. "

Acts 24:17-''[ came to bring aIm to my nation."

From the foregoing verses and many others that could begiven, it can easily be seen that the Hebrew word goi and theGreek word etbnos do not always refer to non-Israel people.

Now let us read a few verses where the same words are

used and, as can be seen, refer very definitely to non-Israelpeople.

Gen. 14:9-''With Chedorlaomer the king of Elam. and withthe Tidal king of nations. "

Gen. 21:13-'\4.nd also the son of the bond woman will Imake a nation. "

Gen. 21:18-'~or I will make of him a great nation."

8/14/2019 Curtis Clair Ewing A Study Into The Meaning Of The Word Gentile As Used In The Bible

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Ex. 9:24-"...There was none like it in all the land of Egyptsince it became a nation."

Ex. 34:24-"...For I will cast out the nations befOl'ethee."

Isa. 37:12-"Have the gods of the nations delivered themwhich my fathers have destroyed?"

Matt. 10:5-"Go not in the way of the gentiles."

Matt. 24:7''[lornation shall rise against nation. "

Luke 21:24-"ThEryshall fall by the edge of the sword, and

shall be led away captive into all nations. "Acts 7:7-''Andthe,nation to whom thEryshall be in bondage

, willI judge, said God."

Acts 8:9''But there was a certain man called Simon whichbefore time in the same cttyused sorcery, and bewitched allthepeople of Samaria."

ActsI0:45-" ...Because that on the Gentiles also was pouredout the gifts of the Holy Ghost."

In the above verses three words have been used totranslate the same Greek word ethnos, and they are nations,gentiles, and people.

3. Now we come to the third way in which the words havebeen used, and that is to describe all nations, which of coursealways includes Israel and non-Israel nations.

Gen. 22: 18-''Andin thy seed shall all the nations of the earthbe blessed."

Gen. 25:23-"Two nations are in thy womb."

I Cbron. 16:23,24-'Veclare his glory among theheathen...his marvelous works among the nations."

I

Psa. 9:19,20-" ... Let the heathen be judged in thystght. Putthem infear, oh Lord; that the nations may know themselvesto be but men. "

Notice the last two verses have used the two words heathenand nations to translate the same word in one passage.

Matt. 24:9, 14-"...andyeshall be hated of all nationsfor myname's sake. " "Thisgospel of the kingdom shall bepreached for a witness to all nations. "

Matt. 28: 19"Goye therefore and teach all nations. "

Acts 10:35-''But in every nation he that feareth him, andworketh righteousness, is accepted with him. "

Attention should also be called to another Greek worderroneously translated gentiles. The word is hellen andmeans Greeks. It is used 27 times in the New Testament In20 places it is properly translated Greeks, but in 7 other placesin the Authorlzed Version it is erroneously translatedgentiles.1his has been corrected in the Revised Version and nearly allsubsequent translations. For example, the AuthorizedVersion translates John 7:35 to read: "Will he go unto thedispersed among the Gentiles, and teach the Gentiles?"Nearly all revised versions translate this to read: "Willhe gounto the dispersed among the Greek and teach the Greek?"Take as another example I Corithians 10:32 "Give noneoffense, neither to the Jews, nor to the Gentil~s, nor to thechurch of God. " Now the writer has read several articles bywell-known Bible tea,chers who reject the Israel identity ofthe Anglo-Saxon people because they say that this verse givesthe only classes that God now recognizes. In other wordsthey daimon the authority of this verse that the human raceis divided into Jews, Gentiles and the Church of God.

That is a good example of how anything can be proved bytaking a verse out ofits context The context shows that Paulwas admonishing people to be conscientious in their walk so

as not to offend a weak brother. The division made in the textis onlyinidental to the pointhe was trying to make.-Andthentoo, the text does not say that there are only three classes ofpeople. Whatit does :say is, "Giveno offence, neither to the

Jews, not to the Gentiles, nor to the church of God."

Now if this text were given to show a division of humanity,then it leaves the vast majority of the race out entirely,becausethe word that is translated gentiles is a palpable mistranslationand should be translated Greeks. This is exactly the way theRevised Version gives it, as is also true of most privatetranslations. But you do ,not even need a Revised Version todiscover this error. ArlYgood Bible with a marginal readingwill show this to be true. The Greek word that has beentranslated gentiles in this verse is hellen and means Greeks.

So if, as these men have claimed, this verse proves there areonly three classes of people in the world which God nowrecognizes, then they are the Jews, the Greeks and theChristians. Everybody else is left out.

By using the same method of reasoning we could quoteGalatians 3:28 and prove that God does not recognize anydistinction in the human race; then we could go to the othc;:r

'.extreme .and quote Colossians 3:11 to prove that God.recognizes eight divisions of mankind. In both cases wewotildbe taking the verses out of their context just as thesemen have done. But all the confusion over this text would

'have been avoided if the word Greeks had been used insteadofgentiles. Paul was writing to the Corinthians. Corinth wasin Greece. They had three classes of people there Jew, Greekand Christian. Had Paul been writing to the Romans he nodoubt would have said, "Give none offence, neither to theJews, not to the Romans, nor to the church of God."

Beside these two examples, ther.e are four other placeswhere hellen has been translated gentiles where it shouldhave been translated Greeks. These are found ,inRomans 2:910; 3:9; and I Corinthians 12:13. '

While on this subject a few words should be sald about theway the word gentiles has been used in the Epistle to theRomans, one ofthe important books in the New TestamentAnd on this ,matter I will borrow some thoughts from the lateDr. Wm. Pascoe Goard.

In Dr. Goard's book, "Epistle to the Romans," he has givensome illuminating comments on how the word' ethne refers tothe tentribedlsrael.Theseare found in the fourth and fifthchapters of his book He shows very clearly that chapters 9,10 and 11 of Romans refer to ten-tribed Israel. In these

chapters the Apostle Paul quotes quite freely from HoseaIsalahand Elijah, and as Dr. Goardshows,all these quotation~refer to facts in the history often-tribed Israel, and not in thehistory of Judah nor in the history of any other nation. Thuswhen the word gentiles (Greek word ethne) is used in thesethree chapters it definitely is ten-tribed Israel. It is not acontrast between Israel and non-Israel people. It is a contrastbetween Israel in 975 B.C. and Israel known as the nations inA.D. 60.

Do not let the word gentiles mislead you. The Greek wordis ethne and means nations. The Apostle Paul in the Israelsection of his epistle is merely contrasting Israel's formerstate when she was known as Israel with her state in his daywhen ~he was known as the nations. To use the popularizedmeaning ofthe word, they had becomegentiltzed in the sensethat they were not known as Israel. Israel was one nation Godhad called out from among the other nations; now she was

just like the other nations.

She had lost her identity so much that the Apostle Paul saldthat blindness was to stay on Israel until the ':fullness of thegentiles" (nations) be come in. (Romans 11:25.) This

f~llness of the gentiles should be fullness of nations. It is adirect reference to Genesis 48:19, where it is stated thatEphriam was to become a "multitude of nations" in the lastdays. 1his is confirmed by the fact that both Dr. Delitzsch'stranslation of the New Testament in Hebrew-sold by theBritish and Foreign Bible Society-and Ginsburg-Salkinson'sNew Testament, published by the Trinitarian Bible Society,for the use of the Jews, have the very same Hebrew wordsme

10 bag-goyim.in Romans 11:25. that we find in Genesis 48:19,in the Hebrew Old Testament, and in this verse only. We usethe expression "multitude of nations" because it is given as thecorrect reading in most Bibles in preference to fullness ofnations. In other words, Israel was to be blind to her jdentityuntil the tribe of Ephralm became a multitude of nations. Thattime has arrived now and that is the reason our identity asIsrael is becoming known. As Isaiah 25:7 reads "He willdestroy in this mountain the face of the covering c::St over allpeople, and the veil that is spread over all nations." That veilis being lifted now and our real identity and the identity ofother. nations is becoming known.

Some scholars, in translating Genesis 48:19, where theHebrew is me 10 hag-goyim render it a company of gentile

nations. The writer is convinced that a company or71Jl!ltitUtfeof~ti.o~:r.j:r. t!:Jeb.ettertransl.ation, However,there is nothing wrong with the translations if the rightmeaning is attached to the word gentile. That is, they wouldbecome so much like other nations that they would not berecognized as Israel. That, of course, is a different meaninggiven to the word than is meant in the original text.

To summarize: the word gentile is derived from the Latinwordgentilts and is only one of several words that are usedto translate the Hebrew word goi and the Greek wordetbnosinto English. The best word to use is nations. It would havebeen better if the word gentile had never appeared in theEnglish text. Neither goi nor ethnos necessarily meannon-Israel, as has been shown above.

This tract by Pastor Ewibg has been reprinted by:

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