GENTILES gĕn’ tīlz (גּﯴיִֽם, LXX ἔθνη; Vulg., Gentiles, Gentes). The Heb. is derived from an Akkad. loan word meaning a “gang” or “group,” such as workmen. The term was originally a general expression that stressed political and social affiliations rather than bonds of kinship, and thus was used of “nations” in the widest sense. The list of the descendants of Noah (Gen 10:2 et al.) showed the affinity of all Near Eastern nations in antiquity, but with the description of the offspring of Abraham the OT narratives found it desirable to make a distinction between them and other contemporary peoples. This, however, was not undertaken in any narrow or exclusive sense (cf. Gen 12:2; 18:18; 22:18; 26:4). When the Israelites entered into a special relationship with God in the Covenant at Sinai (Exod 19:6), they became conscious of nationhood, and thereafter the sense of uniqueness and separation as the people of God was brought to bear upon all their relations with neighboring peoples (cf. Exod 34:10; Lev 18:24, 25; Deut 15:6).

The way in which the blessings of the Covenant between God and Israel would permeate the lives of other nations was outlined in Deuteronomy 28:1-14. This passage continued the spiritual traditions of the promise of God to Abraham (Gen 12:1-3), where those nations that had been living under a curse would receive blessing through the influence of the newly chosen people. The reflexive form of the verb “bless” (Gen 12:3; KJV, ASV, “be blessed,” RSV, “bless themselves”) makes it clear that the nations will not blend their separate identities in a common form of humanity, but that each will receive the blessing suited to its character and destiny. This motif was well understood in the ancient Near E, and is exemplified in such OT narratives as the blessings bestowed upon the sons of Jacob (Gen 49:1-27), or the benediction of Moses upon the Israelites (Deut 33:2-29). The benefits mentioned in Deuteronomy 28:1-14 were conditional upon the adherence of the Hebrews to the ideals of the Sinai covenant; but given this situation, Israel could expect to be promoted to a place of prominence among the nations. Once the latter saw that the Israelites exemplified divine holiness, they would become subservient, and in the period of the universal peace that would follow, all the benefits of prosperity would be poured out upon mankind. No political or social imbalance of the kind that would allow one nation to prosper at the expense of another would be permitted (cf. Mic 4:1-4), and in this general sense the nations would be pursuing their own way of life under the auspices of a covenant relationship.

The Mosaic tradition of a nation chosen out of all the peoples and fitted for the role of ministering priests for the whole of mankind found responsive echoes in the monarchy (cf. 1 Kings 8:41-43), the preexilic period (Isa 19:24, 25; Jer 4:2) and the postexilic era (Zech 8:13; 9:9, 10). This high ideal was virtually nullified by the trends of Hebrew history from the time of Joshua onward, which show that covenant holiness was seldom at the forefront of Heb. thinking. So pervasive were Gentile customs that the Hebrews ultimately succumbed to their allurements, and with the disavowal of the covenant relationship came threats of punishment for Israel. Between 722 and 525 b.c., the Heb. people shared the curse of the nations by being scattered in captivity among them. From then on, the only hope of realizing the ancient ideal of the Torah lay in the survival of a faithful minority of Israelites who would return to their homeland and try to revive the historic spiritual mission of Israel to the world.

The threat of contamination by paganism in the Gr. period led the Jews to adopt a rigorous, exclusive attitude toward non-Jewish peoples, so that by the time of Christ the term “Gentile” had become one of scorn. Yet the Gentiles had a place in prophecies relating to the kingdom, whether as the conquered who would enhance Israelite glory (Isa 60:5, 6), or as themselves seeking the Lord (11:10) and worshiping Him (Mal 1:11), when the Messiah came to illumine them (Isa 42:6) and bring salvation to the world (49:6). In this tradition the gospels hailed the work of Jesus as fulfilling the promise to Abraham (cf. Luke 2:32), and the Savior Himself began His ministry in “Galilee of the nations” (lit. tr.; RSV, “Gentiles”; Matt 4:15). Among the many contacts that Christ had with the Gentiles, it is noteworthy that the mission of the Seventy (Luke 10:1 seq.) was to the “nations,” whereas His entry into Jerusalem revealed Him as the Messianic king who would bring peace to the nations (Matt 21:5; cf. Zech 9:9, 10). The evangelistic and baptismal commission of the primitive church was for the whole world (Matt 28:19, 20; Mark 16:15; Luke 24:47; Acts 1:8), whereas Paul saw in Christ’s atonement the outpouring of the blessings of Abraham on the Gentiles (Gal 3:14). Through Israel’s neglect of her spiritual mission to the world, however, the riches of God would be mediated through the Gentiles.

Bibliography H. H. Rowley, The Missionary Message of the Old Testament (1944); J. Jeremias, Jesus’ Promise to the Nations (1958).