The English word “Gentile” essentially refers to anyone not an ethnic Jew, but there are various applications of the word in scripture. The Greek ethnos can refer to a race, nation, people (pl. nations), or in the negative sense of unbelieving non-Jews or non-Christians, pagans, or heathens.
According to the biblical record, all humans descended though the line of Noah (Gen. 10-12) – the Jews through his son Shem via Abraham, Isaac, Jacob; everyone else (Gentiles) through Noah’s other sons and Shem’s line through Abraham’s other children and Isaac’s son Esau. Prior to the Law of Moses, God worked through patriarchs (heads of families and tribes), who also served as priests in the sense of mediating between God and those subject to their authority: Gen. 8:20; Job 1:5; Gen. 22:9-13 (cf. 12:7, 8; 13:4, 18); Gen. 14:18-20 (Heb. 7:1-10); Ex. 2:16; 3:1.
In order to keep faith alive as his messianic plan unfolded through history, God set apart the people of Jacob (Israel), a.k.a. the Jews, as a kingdom of priests to mediate between God and the nations around them (Ex. 19:3-9; 1 Kings 8:38-43; Isa. 43:8-13, 21; Psa. 67; Jonah 1:1-2). Later Jewish people appear to have been more evangelistic (cf. Matt. 23:15), and in the NT we find a number of proselytes (full-converts to Judaism) (Acts 2:10; 6:5; 13:43) and God-fearers (semi-converts) (Acts 10:2; 13:16, 26; 17:17; 18:7).
Jesus broke down the dividing wall between ethnic Jews and ethnic Gentiles, bringing them together in his one church (Eph. 2:11-22) through the universal gospel (Matt. 28:18-20; Rom. 1:16-17). Through history God has provided sufficient evidence and opportunities to the Gentile world, so unbelief is inexcusable (Rom. 1:18-21). In the NT the term “Gentiles” continues to be used as an ethnic reference (Rom. 3:29; 9:24; 11:13), but also in the derogatory sense of unbelievers (1 Cor. 5:1; 10:20; 12:2; Gal. 2:15; Eph. 4:17).
--Kevin L. Moore
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