GENTILES (Heb. ; Sept. gOv?1). The word 4% a people, is derived from the obsolete verb q, confrxit, and was originally used in a general sense of any nation, including the Jews themselves, both in the singular (Gen. xii. 2 • Dent. xxxii. 28 ; Is. i. 4), and in the plural (Gen. xxxv. xi). It is also used poetically (like the Greek gOvea, Hom. //. ii. 87, Od. xiv. 73, and the Latin gentes, Virg. Geor.-. iv. 430) of in.sects and animals (Joel i. 6 ; Zephe. 14).
But as the sense of a peculiar privilege dawned on the minds of the Jewish people, they began to confine the word CINb to other nations, and al though at first it did not connote any unpleasant associations, it benan gradually to acquire a tile sense, which' never attached itself to the other terms, rtitb, tongues ' (Is. lxvi. 18), or the peoples.' In proportion as the Jews began to pride themselves upon being the first born of God' (Exod. iv. 22), the people of the covenant,' a holy nation, and a kingdom of priests' (Exod. xix. 4), they learned to use the in different expression 'Goyim' to imply that all other nations were more or less barbarous (Ps. ii. z, 8 ; ix. 6 ; x. 16 ; cvi. 47), profane (Jer. xxxi. zo ; Ezek. xxiii, 3o), idolatrous, uncircumcised, and unclean (Is. lii. ; Jer. bc. 26). So that age after age the word became more invidious, and acquired a significance even more contemptuous than that of the Greek pcippapas, which, being an onomatopccia to imitate the strange sound of foreign tongues, is paralleled by the Hebrew /lb, X6, a stammerer,' applied to foreigners in Ps. cdv. 1, Is. xxviii. z, 3oodii. 19. The word D':!2 gains its last tinge of hatred as applied by Jews to all Christians. Other expressions, intended to point out the same dis tinction, are used with a shade less scorn ; such, for instance, as anysfirl, those without,' which is Hebraistically used in the N. T. (I Tim.
iii. 9. See Otho, Lex. Rd,. p, ; Schoettgen, Hor. Hebr. in r Con v. 12. In Mark iv. it is applied to the incredulous Jews themselves) ; and kingdoms' (r Chron. xxix. 3o). The Jews applied the terms nirki, 'lands,' and, ac cording to some Rabbis, IVTI region of the sea,' to all countries except Palestine, just as the Greeks distinguished between Hellas and gapflapor (2 Chron. xiii. 9 ; xvii. to ; Ezra ix. I ; Luke xii. 3o ; Lightfoot, Centuria Chorus.. i., ad init.) Although the Jews thus separated between themselves and other nations, they hesitated as little as the Romans did to include themselves in the Greek term pdpfiapos (Joseph. .egIntiq. xi. 7. r; cf. Justin Alm-. ApoL i. 46. See BARBARIAN).
In the N. T. gOv/ (although sometimes used in the singular of the Jewish nation, Acts X. 22 ; 'Luke vii. 5) is generally opposed, red Xai? Ocag, to Israel, God's people (Luke ii. 32). But the most frequent rendering of in:t is (not eOrn, but) 'EAXnpes, which is distinguished from 'Danincrra2 (Acts vi. 1), and means Gentiles ' rather than Greeks (except in Acts xviii. 17 ; Rom. i. 14), be cause of the general prevalence of the Greek Ian guage (Rom. i. 16, and passim ; Cor. 22 ; Gal. iii. 28, etc.) Thus Timothy, who was of Lystra, is called "EXXnv (Acts xvi. 3), and a Syrophcenician woman 'EXXavis (Mark vii. 26), and the Jews of the Dispersion, Outcrop& 7.8.31, 'EXXajrcur (John vii. 35). This usage is even found in the apocryphal writings, where 1XXnvicrAs is made a synonym to &NAcupuNto-u6s (2 Maccab. iv. 13), and re& AxnviKa len are pagan morals (Id., vi. 9) ; and even so early as the LXX. version of Is. ix. 12, rAXTIVES iS adopted as a rendering of lynTi9n, Philistines.' In the Greek fathers 'EX XnpLo-i.E2,s is used for the Pagan, in contradistinction to the Christian world (Justin Mart. Resp. ad Quast. 42, etc.), and thcy call their Apologies Alryot rpds "EX/opas, or xara. 'EXX7jvap (Schleusner, Lex. N.
ii- 759).
It was perhaps impossible for the Jews, ab sorbed as they were in the contemplation of their own especial mission, to rise into any true or pro found conception of the common brotherhood of all nations. Hedged round by a multitude of
special institutions, and taught to regard the non observance of these customs as a condition of un cleanness, ernbued, too, with a blind and intense national pride,—they often seem to regard the heathen as only existing at all for the purpose of punishing the apostacy of Judaea (Deut. xxviii. 49 ; Kings viii. 33, etc.), or of undergoing ven geance for their enmity towards her (Is. lxiii. 6). The arrogant, unreasoning hatred towards other nations generated by too exclusive a brooding upon this partial and narrow conception, made the Jews the most unpopular nation of all anti quity (Tax, Hist. v. 2 ; gens teterrima,' ld. v.8; Juv. Sat. xiv. 103; Quint. .7zist. iii. 7. 21 ; xiii. 9 ; Diod. Sic. Ecl. 34 ; Dio Cass. 68. 32; Philostr. Apolt. v. 33 ; Ammian. Marcel. xxii. 5, Valente! Judxi,' etc., contrary to all men,' Thes. ii. 15 ; see Winer, s. v. ?mien). This disgust and scorn unfortunately fell on the early Christians also, who were generally confused with the Jews until the time of Bar Cochba (Tac. Ann. xv. 44 ; Suet. 16 ; Claud. 25). To what lengths the Jews were carried in reciprocating this bitter feeling may be seen in the writings of the Rabbis ; the Jews did not regard the Gentiles as brethren, might not journey with them, might not even save them when in peril of death (Maimon. Rozeack. c. 4, 12, etc.), and held that they would all be de stroyed and burned at the Messiah's coming (Otho, Lex. Rabb., s. v. Gentes, p. 231 ; Eisenmenger, Entdeckt. yudent. ii. 206, seqq.) There is the less excuse for this violent bigotry, because the Jews not only held that all nations sprung from one father (Gen. x.), but had also received abundant prophecies that God was but leaving his heathen children in temporary darkness (Acts xiv. 16), and intended hereafter, in His mercy, to bring them under the Messiah's sceptre, and make them 'one fold, under one shepherd ' (Is. lx. 2. and par.rinz ; Mic. iv. ; Zeph. iii. 9 ; Ps. xlv. 18 ; cx. t, etc.) The main part of the N. T. history is occupied in nan-ating the gmdual breaking down of this ktec6 rotxor coO Opay,u00 (the strong barrier of imme morial prejudice which separated Jew and Gentile, Eph. 14), first in the minds of the Apostles, and then of their converts. The final triumph over this obstacle was mainly due to the inspired ministry of him wlio gloried in the title of ottlicKa Xos 76.)v Mow (I Tim. ii. 7; see Conybeare and Howson, i. 219, seqq.), who has also given, in a few pregnant sentences, the most powerful de scription of the blessings which God had granted to the Gentiles, the means of serving Him which they possessed, and the shameless degeneracy , which had ensued on their neglect of the natural law, written on their consciences (Rom. i. 18-32). In one, or two places the words Cs.j1 and t'Ora are used as proper names. Thus we have Tidal, king of nations, i.e. , of several conquered tribes (Gen. xiv. 1, 2 ; Kalisch, ad loc.) In Josh. xii. 23 we find the king of the nations of Gilgal,' where Goyi'm is possibly the name of some local tribe (Paaact5r raktOvNias, Interpr. Anon.) In Judg. iv. 2, Harosheth of the Gentiles ' probably received its name from the mixture of races subju gated by Jabin, and settled in the north of Pales tine (Donaldson, yashar, p. 263). The same mix ture of Canaanites, Phoenicians, Syrians, Greeks, and Philistines, onginated the ccuumon expression Galilee of the Gentiles,' ntri res.LNala No4niXesw, LXX. P. Teil V gOVWV;1S. ; Matt. iv.
15 (Strabo xvi. 76o; Joseph. Vit. 12 ; Euseb. Onom. s. v., Winer, s. v. Galilb.).
On the various meanings of the phrase Isles of the Gentiles' (D'irl "ti, Gen. x. 5 ; Zeph. II; Ezek. 15, etc.), see Gesenius, Thesaurus 38. and ISLE. On the Court of the Gentiles, see TEMPLE, and Joseph. De Bell. Yaa'. vi. 3.— F. W. F.