Hebrew goyim, Greek ethne, peoples, nations. With this term, generally used like this, in the plural, the people or the non-Jews, who did not belong to the chosen people, are designated the uncircumcised. They were considered g. to those who were not of the Jewish religion, for which rigorous laws existed in order not to allow the contamination of the Israelites with the idolatry and paganism of other nations, Jc 14, 3; 15, 18; 1 S 14, 6; 31, 4; 2 S 1, 20; 1 Cro 10, 4. In Deuteronomy, it is said that the bastard will not be admitted to the assembly, as the Hebrew term mamzer is translated, which according to some exegetes, refers to the descendant of the marriage union of an Israelite with a foreigner; neither the Ammonite nor the Moabite will be admitted, Dt 23, 3-4; Ezra 9, 10-12; Ne 10, 31; 13, 23-27; Ez 44, 7-9. The Psalmist calls Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, the Chaldeans, Arameans, Ammonites and Edomites who profaned the Temple and sacked the city of Jerusalem, in the year 587 BC, g. C., Ps. 79 (78), 1; the prophet Jeremiah, in the book of Lamentations, calls them pagans, a synonym in the Scriptures of g., Lm 1, 10. In the temple of Herod, even in the times of Jesus Christ, an inscription in Greek was read, which identifies the gentile with the foreigner: “Let no foreigner penetrate inside the balustrade and the enclosure that surrounds the sanctuary. Whoever is surprised, no one should accuse more than himself of the death that will be his punishment †.
When a pagan Canaanite woman, and therefore a Gentile, approached Jesus asking him to cure her demon-possessed daughter, he replies: “I have been sent only to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, Mt 15, 24; and when entrusting his mission in the world to the disciples, he tells them “Do not take the way of the Gentiles or enter the city of the Samaritans: go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel”, Mt 10, 5; that is to say, that the Jews must first receive the offer of salvation, Mk 7, 27. However, since the unfaithful Jews rejected the call to salvation, the g. they will take their place, “and they will come from east and west, from north and south, and will recline at table in the Kingdom of God”, Lk 13, 22-30. In apostolic times, similar words are said by Paul to the Jews, who contradicted the Apostle, when he preached in the synagogue, in Antioch of Pisidia: “It was necessary to preach the word of God to you first; but since you reject it and you yourselves do not consider yourselves worthy of eternal life, see that we turn to the g.† , Acts 13, 44-46. After rising, Jesus appears to his disciples and sends them with this universal mission, in which is the call to the g. to participate in the promise: “make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit”, Mt 28, 19; Mark 16, 15-16; Lk 24, 47. This indicates that g. they were not excluded from the promise, Saint Paul calls them “Joint heirs, members of the same body and partakers of the same promise in Christ Jesus through the Gospel”, Eph 3, 9. By the blood of Christ reconciliation has been carried out between Jews and g. and that of all men with the Father: “Because he is our peace: he who made one of the two peoples, breaking down the dividing wall”; through Christ, “one and the other have free access to the Father in the same Spirit”, Eph 2, 11-22; that is to say, all men by faith in Christ are children of God, the baptized have clothed themselves with Christ, therefore there is no longer any distinction, there are no longer Jews and Gentiles, circumcised and uncircumcised; if they all belong to Christ, they are descendants of Abraham, “heirs according to the promise”, 1 Cor 12, 13; Ga 3, 26-29; Col 3, 10-11.
Despite the universal character of the call of Jesus to participate in the promise, initially made to the chosen people, Israel, difficulties and controversies arose in the early days of the Church between the Judeo-Christians, circumcised, and those G., uncircumcised, who were converted to Christianity; these differences also reached the apostles, Ga 2, 11-21. In Jerusalem, the faithful headed by Santiago remain within the Jewish Law, Acts 15, 1-5; 21, 17-25.
The so-called “Hellenists” with Esteban at the head, think that it is not necessary to stay within the old Law. These differences with respect to the Law of Moses and the way of accessing the g. to salvation, originated the meeting of the Jerusalem assembly, where the apostles Peter and Paul, especially the latter, make their thinking accepted that only by faith in Christ is salvation obtained, with which the g. they are freed from the shackles of Mosaic obligations, from legal impurities, from circumcision. Peter, in his speech to the assembly, says of the g.: “And God, who knows hearts, testified in their favor by communicating the Holy Spirit to them as he did to us, for he purified their hearts by faith”, Acts 15:7 -eleven; as the voice from heaven had told Peter in the ecstasy he had in the house of a certain Simon, in Joppa: † œWhat God has purified, do not call it profane †, Acts 10, 15; and it is that, later, the Holy Spirit fell on those who listened to the word of Peter, g., in the house of the Roman centurion Cornelius, in Caesarea, and ordered them to be baptized, without further requirements, Cornelius being the first Gentile to receive baptism . In such a meeting, the apostle Peter said about the g.: “Can anyone deny the water of baptism to these who have received the Holy Spirit like us?”, Acts 10, 44-48. The Jerusalem assembly concluded on g. converted to faith in Jesus, not to demand of them more burdens than abstaining from the meat of animals sacrificed by the g. idols, and in this sense it was written to the other churches, Acts 15, 19-29.
Saint Paul was called “Apostle of the g.” and the Lord told Ananias so when he ordered him to go to the house of Judas, on Straight Street, in Damascus, in search of Saul of Tarsus, after he had been knocked down from his horse by God, on the way to this city: “Go, for this is my chosen instrument to carry my name before the g., the kings and the children of Israel” , Acts 9, 15. In the speech to the Jews, in Jerusalem Paul recalls the events of his conversion and how Ananias announced to him from the Lord that he would be a witness before all men of what he had seen and heard. Paul goes on to say how later, being in the Temple of Jerusalem in prayer, he fell into ecstasy and the Lord said to him: “Go, because I will send you far away, to the g.”, Acts 22, 1-21; 26, 17. In the epistle to the Galatians, Paul tells how he persecuted the Christians and how his zeal was in keeping the Law and traditions of his fathers, educated within the Pharisee thought, and how God separated him from the womb and gave him revealed his Son so that he might announce him before the g., Ga 1, 16; 2, 2; †œTo me, the least of all the saints, was granted this grace: that of announcing to the g. the unfathomable riches of Christ† , Eph 3, 8. This mission among the g. it was officially entrusted to Paul by the apostles James, Peter and John, Ga 2, 7-9.
Digital Bible Dictionary, Grupo C Service & Design Ltda., Colombia, 2003
Source: Digital Bible Dictionary
(Heb., goy, plural goyim, nation, people). In Spanish the word heb. appears as Gentiles, people, pagans, and nation. Sometimes goy refers to Israel (Gen 12:2; Deu 32:28; Josh 3:17; Josh 4:1; Josh 10:13; 2Sa 7:23; Isa 1:4; Zep 2:9). In the NT the gr. ethnos (gentiles) is a translation of goy, while laos corresponds to the heb. †™am. Hellenes translates as Gentiles or Greeks.
In times of peace, gracious treatment was accorded to Gentiles under OT law (eg, Num 35:15; Deu 10:19; Deu 24:14-15; Eze 47:22). The men of Israel frequently married Gentile women, of which Rahab, Ruth, and Bathsheba are outstanding examples, but the practice was frowned upon after the return from exile (Ezr 9:12; Ezr 10:2-44; Neh 10: 30; Neh 13:23-31). The separation between the Jews and the Gentiles became stricter, until in the NT period the hostility was total. The intensity of this feeling varied and yielded to exceptional kindness (Luk 7:4-5).
Although Jesus’ teachings eventually united Jews and Gentiles (e.g., Rom 1:16; 1Co 1:24; Gal 3:28; Eph 2:14; Col 3:11), Jesus limited his ministry to the Jews, with rare exceptions (Mat 15:21-28; Mar 7:24-30; Joh 4:1-42; Joh 12:20-36). He commanded his disciples not to go to the Gentiles or the Samaritans (Mat 10:5). Jesus’ mission was first to Israel, his own (John 1:11), God’s chosen people.
In Acts, the Gentiles became increasingly prominent after Paul’s appointment as an apostle to the Gentiles (Acts 9:15). Even the epistles specifically addressed to Jewish Christians (Romans 9-11; Hebrews; James; 1 Peter) are also relevant to Gentiles.
Source: Hispanic World Bible Dictionary
Non-Jews, Isa 11:10, Mar 10:33, Rom 1:13, Eph 2:11.
Christian Bible Dictionary
Dr. J. Dominguez
http://bible.com/dictionary/
Source: Christian Bible Dictionary
see, ALIEN
see, All the nations that were not of the Israelite race (Is. 49:6; Rom. 2:14; 3:29). The Jews were God’s chosen people; their lofty religion contrasted sharply with the false cults of the Gentiles. There were rigorous laws to prevent the corruption of customs and true religion, punishing promiscuity with idolaters. This led the Jews to look down on the Gentiles, and to be unfair to them. God had chosen Israel to be “a light to the Gentiles” (Isa. 49:1-6); he also had promises for them (Is. 2: 2-4; Am. 9:12; Zec. 9: 7). Peter, instructed by the vision at Joppa, crossed the barrier that separated the Israelites from the pagans, visited Cornelius the Gentile, eating with him, which greatly scandalized even the Jewish Christians (Acts 10:28; 11:3 ). When Paul, from the stairs of the Antonia tower, declared that God had given him the commission to preach to the Gentiles, the Jews gathered in the temple court demanded his death with great clamor (Acts 22:21, 22) . The early churches were made up primarily of Gentiles. The first Jerusalem council rejected the imposition of the Mosaic ordinance burden on Gentile Christians (Acts 15:1-29). (See FOREIGN).
Source: New Illustrated Bible Dictionary
The non-Jews, in New Testament terminology, which was the usual among the members of the chosen people and which also passed to the early Christians. Among the Jews it had a pejorative character (those not chosen). The Christians soon realized that it was the breeding ground for the Christian message, since the Jews resisted the faith.
In the Old Testament they are called by the term “goyim” (Gen. 2.5; Is. 8. 23; Sal. 2. 1). In the LXX version, the term is translated by…