GENTILES (Lat. gentilis, belonging to a clan, or family, from Bens, tribe, family). A term of ten used in the Bible, especially in the New Testament, to designate the non-Israelitic peo ples. It represents the Hebrew goyim (pl. of goi), 'nations.' The peculiar significance of the term Gentile in Jewish and early Christian usage simply marks the crystallization of a long pre vious process of doctrinal development.
Prior to the conquest of Canaan, Israel's life was of a strictly tribal character, and in accord ance with the common Semitic ideas the tribes constituting Israel probably felt that they dif fered from other tribes or peoples only in the fact that they worshiped their God, Yahweh, while the other peoples worshiped their particular deities. Hence in the old stories of the patri archal age there is manifest no special hostility or attitude of superiority toward the surround ing nations.
The occupancy of Canaan and the development of a vigorous Hebrew nationality after a long struggle with the old inhabitants and with out side nations led to a new and more positive na tional consciousness. Israel was now a people (Heb. 'am), Yahweh's people, one of the goyim of the earth, ready to assert its peculiar rights and privileges.
The historical narrative pointed out how Israel was specially called of Yahweh to be His own peculiar people, and the legislation defined the legal status of foreigners residing in the borders of Israel. The early Hebrew law distinguished two classes of such non-Israelites—the ger, i.e. sojourner, a permanent resident and in sympathy with Israel's life, and the zar or nokri, i.e. the stranger or foreigner, who was not looked upon so favorably. As to the ger, the law required of him obedience to the Sabbath law, and provided that he was not to be vexed or oppressed. lie could also present an offering to the priests, which was not allowed to the nokri (Lev. xxii. 25).
In the prophetic teaching (c.750 B.o. to the Exile) the contrast between Israel and the na tions (goyim) is most forcibly expressed. Israel's place is unique, and while Yahweh's gracious attitude toward other nations is fully asserted, still it is through Israel that such blessings are to come to them. With this advocacy of Israel's peculiarly exalted position the prophets also in sisted on the open-hearted favorable treatment of the sojourners in Israel required by the older laws.
The legislation in Deuteronomy, influenced by prophetic thought and the teachings of Ezekiel, and the later priestly legislation of the Penta teuch reveal the growth of the tendency to draw the lines more rigidly between the Israelites and the foreigners. As a result we have such teach ings as these: The ger and nokri may eat that which dies of itself (Dent. xiv. 21) ; the nokri is not entitled to the privilege of the year of release (xv. 3) ; no nokri has a right to the throne of Israel (xvii. 15) ; one may lend on interest to the nokri (xxiii. 20). Furthermore, not only could no nokri make an offering, but he also could not enter the sanctuary (Ezek. xliv. 7, 9), nor eat of the Passover (Ex. xii. 43). If a ger desired to eat of the Passover, he must be circumcised, and thus become legally a full Israelite (Ex. xii. 48).
Such principles as these, which were the funda mental law of the Jewish communities of exilic and post-exilic time, show how at last the con viction became deeply rooted and clearly ex pressed that Israel was, theoretically, a holy entity, a people by itself, altogether unique among the peoples of the earth. The other peo
ples, the goyim, were per se profane. The Israelite could not meet them as equals. The work of Ezra and Nehemiah was of great influ ence in this respect. Henceforth the attitude toward the non-Israelite manifested two marked phases. On the one hand was the insistence on the idea of separation, of exclusiveness, under all circumstances, so that the Jew, not only in Palestine, but also in the Dispersion, scattered among the Gentiles, was ever a Jew, holding him self aloof from intimate familiar intercourse with the non-Israelite, with a lofty contempt for Gentile ideas and customs. These feelings were the more intensified by the bitter struggles of the 14faccabean times, and were shared by the great majority of Jews, even of the humble classes, in New Testament times (cf. Acts x. 28). Prac tically, violations of these principles were con stantly occurring. There were certain limits, however, which no Gentile could ever overstep, e.g. the prohibition in the Temple of Herod mark ing off the court of the Gentiles from the pre cincts in which Israelites were allowed, reading as follows: "No foreigner may enter within the railing and fence about the sanctuary. Whoever is caught so doing renders himself guilty, for death follows." On the other hand, the early and prophetic teachings, and the legal sentences recommending kindness to the ger and emphasizing Yahweh's care for the nations, coupled with the conviction that as a Jew he possessed in his Scriptures the only satisfactory all-sufficient revelation, all com bined to make the Jew willing, even anxious, to win over the foreigners with whom he was in contact, to adhesion to Judaism. Hence arose the practice of proselyting. In later Jewish usage the word for proselyte was the old word ger, which indicated the most favorable status of the foreigner. The Maccabean princes com pelled conquered peoples—the Idumnans, for ex ample—to become Jews, i.e. be circumcised. But more usually these efforts were carried on pri vately and with astonishing success, when we re member the almost universal contempt for Jews among the cultivated Greeks and Romans. Strictly speaking, there was but one class of proselytes—those who fully accepted Judaism, and, if males, became circumcised. These were called in later rabbinical literature 'proselytes of righteousness.' Others, who did not fully em brace Judaism, but were favorably disposed toward it, and accepted many of its doctrines and practices, were held in high esteem in the Jewish communities.
In the early Church the relation of the Gen tiles to Christianity became a most important question—were they to be received mediately, through Judaism, and thus become Christian Jews, or immediately accepted into the Christian brotherhood without being required to be circum cised and obligated to keep the Jewish law? While many early Christians took the former position, Paul advocated the latter, and thus broke down the barrier between the religion of Yahweh and the Gentile world.