GENTILES (Latin gentilis, from gems, a tribe, clan or family) originally used by the Jews to signify non-Israelitic peoples. It is used to signify, in Scripture, all the nations of the world, excepting the Jews. In the Old Testament it is the rendering of the Hebrew word gains, peoples, nations, the plural of goi, a nation, a people. At first it was used as a mere ethnological word, and quite respectfully, but as the Jews became more conscious of their privileges they employed it more and more scornfully of the nations around (Gen. x, 5; Isa. lxvi, 19; Jer. xiv; 22). This attitude was especially noticeable after the occupancy of Canaan and the growth of Hebrew national spirit and power; and it was due, in part at least, to the fierce and frequent struggles with the surrounding nations, which had early taken on a semi-religions, semi-political complexion which tended to increase among the Jews the feeling that they were a race peculiarly favored by the Lord of Hosts and the God of Gods. In the New Testament Gentiles is the render ing of the Greek etkne, the plural of etknos, a number of people living together, a nation. Saint Peter, moved by a vision, was the first of the Twelve to preach to the Gentiles (Acts x); but the Apostle of the Gentiles was Saint Paul (Gal. ii, 15). Jewish law divided the Gentile residents in Palestine into two classes, the permanent (ger), resident and stranger (within the gates, ear). The former had nu
merous privileges which the latter did not have,• in fact they had some privileges not accorded to the Jews, as, for instance, the removal of certain food restrictions. In the course of time the idea that the Jewish people constituted a specially and divinely privileged people, a sort of holy entity, treated peculiar relations be tween them and the Gentiles who were conse quently looked upon as unholy, and as, there fore, the inferior of the Jews. They could not. therefore, be met by the latter as equals. • This attitude accounts for the fact that the Jew has ever since retained 'his racial characteristics wherever he has preserved his religious faith. See BARBARIAN; PHILISTINES; ISRAEL.
Consult Bertholet, (Die Stettung der Israe liten and der Juden zu den Fremden' (1896); Farrar, (Saint Paul); Josephus, (History of the Jewish
Oehler, (Old Testament Theology); Pfleiderer, (Paulinismus): Schultz, (Old Testament Theology); Scheurer,
cient Hebrew Tradition);
(Histories); French,