So what exactly does gentile mean in Bible?
A person that is not of the Jewish race? Or an unbeliever of Judaism?
The modern meaning seemed to be non-Jewish.
However, it seemed to mean unbeliever of Judaism in Bible. Because Bible also made the distinction of Samaritans.
So, is a non-Jewish converted to Judaism still a gentile?
How about a Jewish unbeliever of Judaism?
Well, in Salt Lake City . . . .
Just as the definition of Jew gets really fuzzy very quickly, (as has been argued in numerous threadson this board), the definition of Gentile is probably dependent on context to a large degree.
Biblically, I suspect that Gentile refers to those outside the Jewish ethnic community for the simple fact that Judaism the religion and the Jewish people as an ethnic entity were pretty much identical in the period of the Old Testament. There was a growing diaspora following the Babylonian captivity that accelerated in period following the Greek conquest of the Eastern Mediterranean when Jews began to become merchants. During this same period, there was a influx of converts to Judaism in the diaspora communities. However, by the time of the New Testament, I am not sure that such converts were of such numbers as to be recognizable as “non-Jewish” Jews and intra-marriage among converts and birth Jews would have eliminated those distinctions within a generation, anyway. Aside from Samaritans, the Jewish religious and ethnic identities were pretty much identical (particularly in the region around Jerusalem). Matthew 10:5 notes Gentiles and Samaritans as though they were separate groups. We could probably have a long discussion whether this means that the writer considered Samaritans as a specific subset of Gentiles worthy of naming or whether the writer considered them as not Gentiles but it is hardly explicit in the text, itself.
However, once a person has been accepted into Judaism, that person is considered to be “of the tribe” and so any “ethnic” distinction (in 21st century terms) disappears in discussions prior to the 19th century.
Any non-Jew.
You must make the distinction between being a Jew by geneolodical descent and a Jew who practices or professes Judaism.
Yes.
No.
True
Samaritans were half-breeds, not wholly Jews nor Gentiles.
Yes, i.e. not by geneological descent but is a Proselyte or Convert to Judaism.
No, an Apostate Jew.
OnLine Dictionary:
gen·tile Pronunciation Key (jntl)
n. often Gentile
tomndebb beat me to it, hope this wii help also and not muddy the waters.
The word “gentile” translates the Hebrew word “goy”, which in the Bible means “nation”. It is used to refer to the Israelites, as well. In rabbinic literature, it exclusively means “non-Jewish” nations. There a few other words for “nations” in the Bible, and the text always makes clear what is being meant.
There main word for “non-Jew” in the Bible is “nochri”.
Samaritans are descended, as far as we can tell, from Jews who remained behind when many of the residents of Judea were exiled to Babylonia around 586 BCE, and they intermarried with non Jewish locals, and other populations brough in by the Babylonians and likely by their predecessors, the Assyrians, when the northern Kingdom of Israel was exiled in 722 BCE.
“Half breeds” is an inaccurate term, because it seems to designate a Jewish parent and a non-Jewish parent. Samaritans have some Jewish ancestory, but also non-Jewish ancestry. They formed a religion different from Judaism, and Jews did not recognize them as Jews. Since they are not recognized as Jewish, intermarriage is forbidden in traditional Jewish law.
While in Orthodox Jewish law, some special laws apply to converts, in general, they are fully Jewish. The take on the Hebrew name “son/daughter of Abraham”. They are most definitely not understood as a “gentile” who practices Judaism. They are Jewish in every respect (Yisra’el le-chol davar)
There’s a Jewish “race”?
What does the winner get?
Sailboat
So gentiles should mean people of non-Jewish descent.
But it’s not that clear cut. Because gentiles could become Jewish? (at least after a generation?)
Thanks a lot for you help.
If a gentile converts, he’s not a gentile anymore. He becomes a Jew.
Before someone with an incomplete understanding rushes in: Lynwood Slim is exactly correct in his description. As goy/goyyim passed from Hebrew to Yiddish, it picked up a distinctly pejorative connotation, but the original word in Hebrew did simply mean “nation” (as translated to ethna in Greek and then to gens/gentilis in Latin, from which the English word “Gentile” derives).
And I’d suggest that this is also where the waters become muddy because at some point heredity gets smeared with belief and you have people who are not descended from anyone in particular but who chose to adopt a particular set of beliefs and who are called Jews. And in a short time, you have people referring to Jews as a race of people. And Aryans as a race of people. I understand the OP’s question, but the implications and inferences raise, what, yellow caution flags?
“race” itself is an imprecise term. During the strong nationalist period in European history, roughly late 1800’s to early 1900’s, race was understood as definitive dimension of a human being. As I recall from my studies, there was even talk of the Norwegian race vs. the Swedish race. The Jewish race was a turn mostly used by anti-semites, to distinguish them from Euorpean “races.”
In general, race is a political term, used when dividing up people is important. For some purposes, Korean and Japanese can be a different race (e.g., Japanese subjugation of Koreans), and for others, they are the same (Western depiction of “Asian” race).
Jews are not a race – they are a one way porous religious ethnicity. You can be born a Jew, you can join the Jewish people if you adopt their beliefs and are formally admitted, but you remain a Jew even if you stop believing and you can’t leave – in Jewish law, you can’t “convert out”. If you adopt another religion, you are a “mumar” an apostate, but you remain a Jew.
In short, as far as I know, Jewish identity (ethnos? religion? both?) is a unique construct, does fall into any neat category.
In fact, in the saying from the Prophet: “They shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall there be war any more” the word “nation” is represented in the Hebrew as “goy”.
A Gentile is someone who is not Jewish. Though the distinction has always been a bit fuzzy (was Disraeli Jewish?), it became a lot more fuzzy in my generation.
The phrase “unbeliever of Judaism” suggests someone who was born (and raised?) Jewish but consciously chose to depart from Judaism. As far as I know, the only word for that is Hebrew/Yiddish “Apikoros”.
I’m almost sure that this word is used to describe a character in Potok’s The Chosen, and I think it was also used in Wouk’s War and Remembrance by the main character (?) Jastrow the author to describe himself.
It derives, by the way, from Greek! During the rise of the Greek civilization in the Middle East, many non-Greeks admired the Greek culture and adopted its ways.
More secular Jews living in “Palestine” were no different; they adopted Greek names, wore Greek clothing, shaved their faces, and followed other Greek practices that went directly against rabbinic teachings. These Jews consciously followed the philosophical school of Epicuros. So, their conservative critics sneeringly called them “Epicureans” -> Apikoros. And the name stuck.