Gentile (from Latin gentilis 'of or belonging to the same people or nation', from gēns 'clan; tribe; people, family') is a term that usually means 'someone who is not a Jew'.[1] Other groups that claim Israelite heritage sometimes use the term to describe outsiders.[2]

The term is used by English translators for the Hebrew גוי (goy) and נכרי (nokhri) in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek word ἔθνη (éthnē) in the New Testament. The word gentile is derived from Latin and not itself an original Hebrew or Greek word found in the Bible.

The original words goy and ethnos refer to "peoples" or "nations" and are applied to both Israelites and non-Israelites in the Bible.[3]


"Gentile" derives from Latin gentilis, which itself derives from the Latin gens, meaning clan or tribe. Gens derives from the Proto-Indo-European *ǵénh₁tis.[4] The original meaning of "clan" or "family" was extended in post-Augustan Latin to acquire the wider meaning of belonging to a distinct nation or ethnicity. Later still, the word came to refer to other nations, 'not a Roman citizen'.[citation needed]


Hebrew Bible[edit]


In the pre-exilic times the relationship between Israelites and gentiles was mostly hostile and the non-Israelites such as Babylonians, Egyptians, and Assyrians were always seen as an enemy. After the Babylonian exile, the Jewish-gentile relationship became less hostile. The books of Ruth and Jonah reject the racialization of the Israelite religion by Ezra.[3]

In rabbinical writings[edit]


Rabbinical writings often show more hostility towards gentiles due to frequent persecution of the Jews by these nations. Eliezer ben Hurcanus writes that the mind of every gentile is always intent upon idolatry.[3] He believed that gentiles only perform animal sacrifice to make a name for themselves. He further believed that gentiles have no share in the world to come.

Other rabbis show a more positive attitude towards the gentiles. Joshua ben Hananiah believed that there are righteous men amongst the gentiles who will enter the world to come. He believed that except for the descendants of the Amaleks, the rest of the gentiles will adopt monotheism and the righteous among them will escape Gehenna. There is also a story about a dialogue between Joshua ben Hananiah and the Roman emperor Hadrian in which he tries to demonstrate that God deals with Israel with greater punishment for similar crimes.

Eleazar of Modi'im wrote that Jews, when guilty of the same sin as gentiles, will not enter hell whereas the gentiles will.[3] Eleazar ben Azariah believed that the rulings performed by a gentile court are not valid for Jews. Rabbi Akiva believed that Israel's monotheism is far superior to the ever-changing beliefs of the gentiles. Jose the Galilean criticizes Israel for inconsistency compared to the faithfulness of the gentiles to their ancestral beliefs. He believed the good deeds of the gentiles will be rewarded as well.

The most famous of the anti-gentile teachers is Simeon bar Yochai. He is often quoted by antisemites in his sayings: "The best among the Gentiles deserves to be killed", "The most pious woman is addicted to sorcery" and "The best of snakes ought to have its head crushed".[3]

Judah ben Ilai suggests that the recital "Blessed be thou ... Who has not made me a gentile" should be performed daily.

Hananiah ben Akabia believed that shedding the blood of the gentiles, although not punishable in human courts, will be punished in heavenly judgement.

Jacob, the grandson of Elisha ben Abuyah, wrote that he saw a gentile binding his father and throwing him to his dog as food.

Simeon ben Eleazar does not favor social interaction between Jews and gentiles.


Hananiah bar Hama wrote about the extreme immoralities perpetrated by gentiles. He believed that in messianic time only the heathen will be subject to death. Hezekiah ben Hiyya believed that treating gentiles with hospitality results in the exile of the children. Johanan bar Nappaha wrote of the mistreatment of the Jews by gentiles. He believed that the evil of the serpent was neutralized in Jews, whereas the gentiles still have that in their blood. While he also wrote that the wise amongst the gentiles should be treated as a wise man, he further wrote that a gentile who reads Torah deserves death. He has also said, "Whoever abandons idolatry is called Jew." Abbahu complains of gentile mistreatment of Israel. He endorsed the law according to which a gentile should not be compensated if his ox was damaged by an Israelite. Assi suggested that gentiles should not be taught about the laws of the Torah. Abba b. Kahana refers to the book of Ruth and preaches against the racial arrogance of Israel.

Later sages[edit]

Rav Ashi believed that a Jew who sells a gentile property adjacent to a Jewish property should be excommunicated. The violation of Jewish women by gentile men was so frequent that the rabbis declared that a woman raped by a gentile should not be divorced from her husband, as Torah says: "The Torah outlawed the issue of a gentile as that of a beast."[3] A gentile midwife was not to be employed for fear of the poisoning of the baby. The gentiles should be dealt with caution in cases of using them as witness in a criminal or civil suit. The gentile does not honor his promises like that of a Jew. The laws of the Torah were not to be revealed to the gentiles, for the knowledge of these laws might give gentiles an advantage in dealing with Jews. Shimon ben Lakish wrote that "A gentile who observes Sabbath deserves death".[3]

In modern times[edit]

Under rabbinical law, a modern-day gentile is required only to observe the Seven Laws of Noah, while Jews are bound by Mosaic law. In periods of decreased animosity between Jews and gentiles, some of the rabbinical laws against fellowship and fraternization were relaxed; for example Maimonides himself was a physician to the Sultan. Even though most rabbinical schools do not teach the same hostility as Middle Age rabbinical teachings, some Orthodox rabbinical schools hold extreme conservative views. For example, scholars from the Zionist HaRav Kook yeshiva are schooled in the doctrine that Jews and gentiles have different kinds of souls. One of the yeshiva's scholars, David Bar-Hayim, published an paper in 1989 explaining the doctrine, entitled "Yisrael Nikraim Adam" (Jews Are Called 'Men'). In his conclusion, Bar-Chayim writes:

There is no escaping the facts: the Torah of Israel makes a clear distinction between a Jew, who is defined as "Man," and a Gentile. This distinction is expressed in a long list of Halachic laws, be they monetary laws, the laws of the Temple, capital laws or others. Even one who is not an erudite Torah scholar is obligated to recognize this simple fact; it cannot be erased or obscured ... One who carefully studies the sources cited previously will realize the abysmal difference between the concepts "Jew" and "Gentile" -- and consequently, he will understand why Halacha differentiates between them.[5][6]

Bar-Chayim further quotes Abraham Isaac Kook (1865–1935), founder of the yeshiva and the first Ashkenazi chief rabbi of British Mandatory Palestine:


Similar anti-gentile remarks have been expressed by the late chief Sephardi Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, in which he stated in a sermon in 2010 that "The sole purpose of Gentiles is to serve Jews". He said that gentiles served a divine purpose: "Why are Gentiles needed? They will work, they will plow, they will reap. We will sit like an effendi and eat. That is why Gentiles were created.[8]

These remarks by Yosef were sharply criticized by many Jewish organizations such as Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and American Jewish Committee.[9]

In Kabbalah[edit]

Some Kabbalistic writings suggest a distinction between the souls of the gentiles and the souls of the Jews. These writings describe three levels, elements, or qualities of soul:[10]


Both Jewish and gentile souls are composed of these three elements. The human soul has two additional elements that are completely outside of the lower realm of existence that all humanity currently lives in. These parts of the soul are neither felt nor experienced even by a Jew who has them. It cannot be experienced by any person while they are living in the physical (lower) universe. That obviously does not mean these additional parts do not exist. They are called the Chaya and the Yechida.[11] The only distinction between a Jewish soul and a gentile soul is how it is nourished. Each part of the soul is nourished by a different aspect of fulfillment of a commandment. Gentile souls require and are completely fulfilled by more basic nourishment which comes from the Seven Laws of Noah. The Jewish soul derives additional nourishment that it requires from the proper observance of the additional commandments.


The Greek ethnos where translated as "gentile" in the context of early Christianity implied non-Israelite. Jesus himself in Gospel of Matthew forbade his disciples from preaching onto the gentiles in Matthew 10:6-7:


Later on with the ministry of Saint Paul the apostle the gospel began to be spread among the non-Jewish subjects of the Roman empire. A question existed among the disciples whether receiving the Holy Spirit through proselytization would be restricted to Israelites or whether it would include the gentiles as in Acts 10:34–47:


Within a few centuries, some Christians used the word "gentiles" to mean non-Christians. The alternative pagani was felt to be less elegant.[12]

Christian Bibles[edit]

In the King James Version, "gentile" is only one of several words used to translate goy or goyim. It is translated as "nation" 374 times, "heathen" 143 times, "gentiles" 30 times, and "people" 11 times. Some of these verses, such as Genesis 12:2 ("I will make of thee a great nation") and Genesis 25:23 ("Two nations are in thy womb") refer to Israelites or descendants of Abraham. Other verses, such as Isaiah 2:4 and Deuteronomy 11:23 are generic references to any nation. Typically, the KJV restricts the translation to "gentile" when the text is specifically referring to non-Jewish people. For example, the only use of the word in Genesis is in chapter 10, verse 5, referring to the peopling of the world by descendants of Japheth, "By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations."[13]

In the New Testament, the Greek word ethnos is used for peoples or nations in general, and is typically translated by the word "people", as in John 11:50. ("Nor consider that it is expedient for us, that one man should die for the people, and that the whole nation perish not.") The translation "gentiles" is used in some instances, as in Matthew 10:5–6 to indicate non-Israelite peoples:


Altogether, the word is used 123 times in the King James Version of the Bible,[15] and 168 times in the New Revised Standard Version.[16]

Latter Day Saint movement[edit]

In the terminology of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church), the word "gentile" takes on different meanings in different contexts which may confuse some and alienate others. Hence, in LDS contexts the word can be used simply to refer to people who are not members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, since members of the LDS Church regard themselves as regathered Israelites. According to John L. Needham of Utah State University, "Mormons in the American West applied 'gentile', as an adjective as much as a slur, to nearly everyone and everything that did not adhere to their faith or desert kingdom." Because they had suffered persecution, the word gentile was "a call to circle the wagons socially and politically around the fold."[2] In such usage, Jewish people may be colloquially referred to as "gentiles" because they are not members of the LDS Church.[17] However, the traditional meaning is also to be found in the introduction to the Book of Mormon, in the statement written to both "Jew" (literal descendants of the House of Israel) and "gentile" (those not descended from the House of Israel or those of the tribe of Ephraim scattered among the "gentiles" throughout the earth). Needham writes that Mormons have "outgrown the term."[2] The LDS website states this about the meaning of gentile. "As used in the scriptures, gentiles has several meanings. Sometimes it designates people of non-Israelite lineage, sometimes people of non-Jewish lineage, and sometimes nations that are without the gospel, even though there may be some Israelite blood among the people. This latter usage is especially characteristic of the word as used in the Book of Mormon and Doctrine and Covenants.[18]


Some translations of the Quran, such as the famous Pickthall translation, employed the word "gentile" in some instances of the translation of the Arabic word Al-ummīyīn (الْأُمِّيِّينَ). For example, in the following verse:




See also[edit]


  1. ^ Gentile." Merriam-Webster, n.d. Web. 6 June 2014.
  2. ^ a b c John L. Needham, "The Mormon-Gentile Dichotomy in PMLA", PMLA, Vol. 114, No. 5 (October 1999), pp. 1109–1110
  3. ^ a b c d e f g "GENTILE -".
  4. ^ "Kind"; in: M. Philippa e.a., Etymologisch Woordenboek van het Nederlands
  5. ^ Learned Ignorance: Intellectual Humility Among Jews, Christians and Muslims By James L. Heft, Reuven Firestone, Omid Safi, Oxford University Press, USA, 2011, p. 163.
  6. ^ "Yisrael Nikraim Adam", Tzfiyah, v. 3, 1989, pp. 45-73.
  7. ^ "Daat Emet: Gentiles in Halacha". Retrieved 2015-12-25. citing Orot Yisrael chapter 5, article 10 (page 156)
  8. ^ "5 of Ovadia Yosef's most controversial quotations".
  9. ^ Mozgovaya, Natasha; Service, Haaretz (20 October 2010). "ADL Slams Shas Spiritual Leader for Saying non-Jews 'Were Born to Serve Jews'" – via Haaretz.
  10. ^ Qabbalistic Magic: Talismans, Psalms, Amulets, and the Practice of High Ritual. Salomo Baal-Shem, Inner Traditions / Bear & Co, 2013, Chapter 5.
  11. ^ 1934-1983., Kaplan, Aryeh, (1991). Innerspace : introduction to the kabbalah, meditation and prophecy. Sutton, Abraham. New York: Moznaim Publishing Corporation. ISBN 0940118564. OCLC 228219990.CS1 maint: extra punctuation (link)
  12. ^ Alan Cameron, The Last Pagans of Rome (Oxford University Press 2010 ISBN 978-0-19978091-4), p. 16
  13. ^ "Bible Gateway passage: Genesis 10:5 - King James Version". Bible Gateway.
  14. ^ "Bible Gateway passage: Matthew 10 - King James Version". Bible Gateway.
  15. ^ Did a search for "Gentile" in KJV. Used Archived 2007-07-26 at the Wayback Machine. It returned 123 results of the word "gentile". Retrieved 11 Feb 2007.
  18. ^ "Gentiles".
  19. ^ "The Meaning of the Glorious Qur'ân,: 3. Al-Imran: The Family Of Imran".

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