The Two-Hundred-Sixty-Fourth (Gentiles)

We’re going to get into a great topic this week that sort of fills out what we’ve been learning about Israel the past few weeks.  First though, there’s something that needs to be mentioned that is very related to this week’s topic.  It has to do with division and it has to do with how we live our lives as believers.

As believers, part of living our life in the body of Yeshua is not just studying His Word and following His commandments.  Our thoughts and beliefs about the world and what’s happening in it have to be shaped by Him as well.  We should never let someone else decide what we believe about those things, let them coerce us somehow into believing certain things, or change the way we think or believe about those things based on labels people put on us or labels we put on ourselves.

True believers sometimes see it as a “badge of honor,” so to speak, to be called certain things based on their eschatology or theology, but fail to recognize that it’s not just our “-ologies” that need to be shaped and determined by scripture.  Our political beliefs, our understanding of the world, and our assessment of things like conflicts happening in the world, and who should be supported or rebuked in them, need to be based on scripture as well.  I would challenge any believer to avoid calling themselves any worldly label of any kind.  Labels like Republican, Democrat, anti-Semite, pro-Hamas, white supremacist, Christian national, Black, White, Brown, Asian, etc., they’re all meant to divide, but some are also meant to define what someone should believe and who they should follow.

Part of our discernment as believers, and also what we should stand up for and have courage in, is taking a step back, outside these labels and what box they put us in, and figuring out the truth.  When doing that, using scripture and the guidance of the Holy Spirit, we will absolutely find ourselves outside these labels in certain areas.  Politically, for example, we might find ourselves in agreement with certain views on the Democrat side even if most of our views and beliefs fall squarely in the Republican camp.  We have stressed over and over again that you should never let anyone tell you what you should believe about scripture, and that goes the same for what you believe regarding what’s happening in the world and what other political views you hold.  

One of the key markers of evil is to label and divide people, but as believers the only group we should be in is Yeshua’s body, and that requires us to be in Truth (John 14:6).  We’re not going to get into specific political topics here, but I implore you to seek out the truth in everything.  If you see that holding a certain view or believing a certain thing immediately gets you labeled, in a bad/derogatory way, the chances are the view or belief has some truth to it.  The label is intended to coerce you to abandon that view/belief.  Also, if people are telling you that because you’re a believer you have to have a certain stance on something, figure out what stance you should have on your own using scripture and the Holy Spirit.

The last thing we’ll leave on this before we get into this week’s topic is to ask yourself what, really, would Yeshua think regarding things that are happening in the world.  He said, “blessed are the peacemakers” (Matthew 5:9), and “blessed are the merciful” (Matthew 5:7), among other things.  Should we really be blessing those who are not?  I believe a spiritually-influenced separating is happening among believers, between those who will hold to truth and those who will let others tell them what to believe.  Be on the side of truth, letting scripture and the Holy Spirit decide what that is.

Ok, so on to our topic this week!  I’m sure as we get into it you’ll see why our initial message is related.  It’s interesting what you find when you look beyond what happens in the physical and see what spiritual motivation is behind it!

I’m sure you are very familiar with the word Gentile, but have you actually looked into its origin and how it’s used in scripture?  It’s quite telling when you compare the various English translations with the original language, and the pattern shows a potential motivation of dividing people.  That’s not to say any of the translators had any underlying conspiratorial plan to create that division, but it’s certainly how these things have been used throughout history.

The word “Gentile” is not actually in scripture, believe it or not.  At least, it’s not in the original languages with which scripture was written.  The word originates from the Latin Vulgate translation of scripture and was used to distinguish Israel/Jews from non-Israel/non-Jews.  

There are actually a few words in Hebrew and Greek that are used to refer to people, or some subset of people.  We’ll get into those words in a moment, but when you look at how one Greek or Hebrew word is translated one way in one verse and another way in another verse, it’s interesting to see how the translators that chose those words have had such an effect on how English-reading people read and understand scripture.  There is actually no distinct word, either in Hebrew or Greek, to refer specifically to who we would call Gentiles today.  In other words, in any verse where the translator chose to use the word “Gentiles,” it was an interpretation of the translator (or the body of people approving the translation) to use that word.

For example, we see in certain translations, like the NKJV, the word Gentiles is used in a verse based on the interpretation that the writer of the Psalm is of Israel and he must be referring to those not of Israel based on the statement being made (Psalm 115:2).  However, that same Hebrew word (and same Greek word used in the Septuagint), is used in other verses to refer to Israel.  In still other verses, these same Greek and Hebrew words are simply translated to “nations” or “people” for some reason, rather than the translator deciding to specify a non-Israel people or the people of Israel.

So, let’s look at these original language words and figure out what they really mean and how they’re used.  Then, we can decide whether or not it makes sense to add a different word, like Gentiles, to be more specific or if we should leave the translation general and allow the opportunity to study who scripture is referring to in each place the words are used.  The danger, of course, with adding different words to be more specific in certain situations is that once that word is put in place it’s extremely difficult, if not impossible, to make connections across scripture that might actually be there.  Our understanding of the verse in question may lead us to think it has to be referring to a specific people, when in reality that was not YHWH’s intention.  This, I think, is one of the major errors the scholars of Israel and Judah made as they studied and interpreted scripture related to the arrival of their Messiah.

The first words we’re going to look at are ones you might already be familiar with.  In the Hebrew, it’s goy, or goyim in the plural, and in the Greek it’s ethnos.  You may even still hear Jews today use the word goyim to refer to those not of Israel, but the truth is that this word, just like ethnos, simply means nation, or nations.  It is not specific to whether the nation is of Israel or of who we would call Gentiles today.

The reason we know this is because both of these words, the Hebrew and the Greek, are not just used in scripture to refer to non-Israel nations, they are also used to refer to Israel as a nation.  For example, these words are used, both in the Hebrew and Greek Septuagint versions, to prophesy that Israel will be made into a “holy nation” (Exodus 19:6).  Now, you may say, “ok, but with what we know from our studies and what we see in the New Testament, perhaps this particular usage was one of the “hidden mysteries” that YHWH had in scripture.”  In other words, maybe this was always meant to refer not specifically to Israel, because in fulfillment and in the New Testament it seems like it’s referring to the “church.”

I’ll take that counter argument, and provide you with another couple verses involving the same thing.  This time, involving something very specifically of Israel.  In the Septuagint, ethnos is used in the commandment for the “people of the land” to stone anyone of the Israelites who sacrifice their children to Molech (Leviticus 20:2).  Obviously, non-Israelites would not be participating in this type of commandment-related action, so this is most certainly a reference to Israelites.  

In the Hebrew and the Septuagint, goy and ethnos, respectively, are used to refer to Israel very specifically regarding following the commandments (Deuteronomy 4:6).  It states that by following them, other people, non-Israelites, would see Israel as a “great nation,” and wise and understanding.  The original language is appropriately translated to nation here, but this verse also includes part of another set of Hebrew and Greek words that deserve our attention as we continue in this study.

What we find is that the Hebrew word am is translated in this verse to “people.”  In Greek, we have a similar situation where you find the word laos translated to people.  Now, you may think, “that’s weird. Why would you have two different words that basically mean the same thing: a group of people?”  The difference is that use of am and laos is intended to make a more specific reference to a group of people that have something in common.  They’re connected to each other in some way.

However, we cannot make the generalization that these words are always used to reference Israel, or in the New Testament the church.  These words are used to refer to Israel (Exodus 33:13, Luke 20:1), non-Israel (Deuteronomy 4:27, Luke 6:17), and even to specify a distinction between a certain people and a subcategorization of those people (Acts 10:41-42).  In the New Testament, laos is also used to refer only to believers (Acts 2:44-47, Titus 2:14).

We know from past experience that when we see words like these used together in a verse it can help us get a better idea of what they mean because it provides an opportunity for the verse to provide the distinction necessary for this.  In fact, in Hebrew, we can find not only these words used together in a verse, but they’re used for people of Israel and people not of Israel at the same time!  In praise of YHWH, David refers to Israel as goy in the first half of the verse and in the second half to non-Israel (2 Samuel 7:23).  In Greek, we see that for some reason laos and ethnos are both seemingly used to refer to Israel, with a context that suggests there was some distinction to be made between them (John 11:50).  John went on to write that Caiaphas was prophesying about Yeshua dying for the nation, ethnos, but also seems to distinguish between an Israel ethnos and the “scattered children of YHWH” (John 11:51-52).  In other words, rather than stating that Yeshua died for all nations, John was specifying that He died for the nation of Israel and those of YHWH all throughout the rest of the world.  

So, as we can see, all of the Hebrew and Greek words we just looked at could be used to refer to Israel, non-Israel, believers, non-believers, and even “people of the Lord.”  It depends on context as to what we should understand these words to mean in each of the verses they are used, and sometimes our preconceptions, or even misconceptions, cause us to insert specificity, or certain people groups, when we shouldn’t.  That last reference is a perfect example of that.    

Regarding that reference, what we find is when Paul was in Corinth, he originally attempted to preach the gospel to Jews in the synagogue, but when that was unfruitful he decided to only go to the “Gentiles” (ethnos) and preach (Acts 18:1-6).  Paul seemed to be wary of staying in Corinth for this mission, so he was given a vision to reassure him, and in that vision the Lord (which I assume to mean Yeshua) told him He had many people (laos) in the city (Acts 18:9-11).  This convinced Paul to stay for a whole year and a half, but the point is that laos was used to refer to Yeshua’s people even though they had not heard the gospel, or at least were not taught the Word, and therefore were not yet believers.

What’s the point of all this?  Why does it matter if we add some word like Gentiles to our vocabulary?  Other than what was already mentioned, the fact that it causes us not to see connections that are there in scripture, it causes us to misunderstand context and what YHWH was actually trying to tell us in His Word.  The bottom line is that the only words definitively used to refer solely to those who are not of YHWH is the Hebrew words nokri/nekar we looked at a few weeks ago.  There are a few Greek words that seem to follow this pattern as well, like allotrios, allogenes, and xenos, but unless we see these words used we cannot assume scripture is referring to a certain people group over another.  

Whenever we come across these words in our studies, we need to ask for guidance from the Holy Spirit on what He meant by their usage.  Sometimes goy and ethnos refer to non-Israel and sometimes they refer to all the people of the world, Israel included.  Sometimes am and laos refer to Israel or believers, and sometimes they refer to non-Israel or non-believers.  Take the time, as you read through scripture and study it, to think twice about whether or not you should be reading “Gentile(s)” or rather “nation(s).”  Look at what words the original language used, and ask Him for understanding.

Shabbat shalom and YHWH bless you!

-Rob and Sara Gene