Nations
VIEW:28 DATA:01-04-2020
NATIONS.In many places where in the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] we have Gentiles and heathen the RV [Note: Revised Version.] bas rightly substituted nations, and it might with advantage have carried out the change consistently.
The Heb. (goi) and Greek (ethnos) words denote invariably a nation or a people, never a person. Where in the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] (only NT) we find Gentile in the singular (Rom_2:9 f.) the RV [Note: Revised Version.] has Greek, following the original. In nearly every example the singular nation stands for Israel, though we have a few exceptions, as in Exo_9:24 (of Egypt), Pro_14:34 (general), and Mat_21:43. It is often applied to Israel and Judah when there is an implication of disobedience to God, sinfulness and the like: see Deu_32:28, Jdg_2:10, Isa_1:4 etc. This shade of meaning became very common in the later writings of the OT. Quite early in Israelitish history the singular as a term for Israel was discarded for the word translated people (am), so that am (people) and goi (nation) came to be almost antithetic terms = Israelites and non-Israelites, as in Rabbinical Hebrew. For the reason of the change in the use of goi (nation), see below.
In the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] Gentiles often corresponds to Greeks in the original, as in Joh_7:35, Rom_3:9 etc. In the RV [Note: Revised Version.] the word Greeks is rightly substituted, though the sense is the same, for to the Jews of the time Greek culture and religion stood for the culture and religion of the non-Jewish world.
The two words (Heb. and Greek) translated nation have their original and literal sense in many parts of the OT and NT, as in Gen_10:5; Gen_10:10 etc., Isa_2:4 (= Mic_4:2 f.), Job_12:23; Job_34:20, Act_17:28, Gal_3:14. In other passages this general meaning is narrowed so as to embrace the descendants of Abraham, e.g. in Gen_12:2; Gen_18:18; Gen_17:4-6; Gen_17:15. But it is the plural that occurs by far the most frequently, standing almost invariably for non-Israelitish nations, generally with the added notion of their being idolatrous and immoral: see Exo_9:24; Exo_34:10, Lev_25:44 ff., Num_14:15, Deu_15:5, 1Ki_4:31, Isa_11:10; Isa_11:12, and often. These are contrasted with Israel the people of Jahweh in 2Sa_7:22, 1Ch_17:21 etc.
This contrast between Israel (united or divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah) as Jahwehs people, and all the rest of the human race designated nations, runs right through the OT. Such a conception could have arisen only after the Israelites bad developed the consciousness of national unity. At first, even among the Israelites, each nation was thought to be justified in worshipping its deity (see Deu_3:24; Deu_10:17, 1Ki_8:23, Isa_19:1 etc.). As long as this idea prevailed there could be no necessary antagonism between Israelites and foreign nations, except that which was national, for the nations god was identified with the national interests. But when the belief in Jahwehs absolute and exclusive claims possessed the mind of Israel, as it began to do in the time of the earliest literary prophets (see Amo_9:1-15 ff., Mic_7:18 etc.), the nations came to be regarded as worshippers of idols (Lev_18:20), and in Psa_9:5; Psa_9:15; Psa_9:17 (cf. Eze_7:21) nations and wicked people are, as being identical, put in parallelism. It will be gathered from what has been said, that the hostile feelings with which Israelites regarded other peoples varied at various times. At all periods it would be modified by the laws of hospitality (see art. Stranger), by political alliances (cf. Isa_7:1 ff., and 2Ki_16:5 ff., Ahaz and Assyria against Israel and Syria), and by the needs of commerce (see Eze_27:11 [Tyre], 1Ki_9:28; 1Ki_10:11; 1Ki_22:28 etc.).
The reforms instituted by king Josiah in the Southern Kingdom (2Ki_22:1 f.), based upon the Deuteronomic law newly found in the Temple, aimed at stamping out all syncretism in religion and establishing the pure religion of Jahweb. This reformation, as also the Rechabite movement (Jer_35:1-19), had a profound influence upon the thoughts and feelings of Jews, widening the gulf between them and alien nations. The teaching of the oldest prophets looked in the same direction (see Amo_2:11; Amo_3:15; Amo_5:11; Amo_5:25; Amo_6:8; Amo_8:5, Hos_2:19; Hos_8:14; Hos_9:10; Hos_10:13; Hos_12:7 ff; Hos_14:4, Isa_2:6; Isa_10:4; Isa_17:10, Zep_1:8; Zep_1:11, Jer_35:1 ff; Jer_37:6 f. etc.).
But the Deuteronomic law (about b.c. 620) made legally obligatory what earlier teachers had inculcated. Israelites were not to marry non-Israelites (Deu_7:3), or to have any except unavoidable dealings with them.
The feeling of national exclusiveness and antipathy was intensified by the captivity in Babylon, when the prophetic and priestly instructors of the exiled Jews taught them that their calamities came upon them on account of their disloyalty to Jahweh and the ordinances of His religion, and because they compromised with idolatrous practices and heathen nations. It was in Babylon that Ezekiel drew up the programme of worship and organization for the nation after the Return, laying stress on the doctrine that Israel was to be a holy people, separated from other nations (see Eze_40:1-49; Eze_41:1-26; Eze_42:1-20; Eze_43:1-27; Eze_44:1-31; Eze_45:1-25; Eze_46:1-24; Eze_47:1-23; Eze_48:1-35). Some time after the Return, Ezra and Nehemiah had to contend with the laxity to which Jews who had remained in the home land and others had yielded; but they were uncompromising, and won the battle for nationalism in religion.
Judaism was in even greater danger of being lost in the world-currents of speculation and religion soon after the time of Alexander the Great. Indeed, but for the brave Maccabæan rising in the earlier half of the 2nd cent. b.c., both the religion and the language of the Jew might, humanly speaking, have perished.
The Apocrypha speaks of the nations just as do the later writings of the OT. They are uncircumcised, having sold themselves to do evil (1Ma_1:15); they break the Sabbath, offer no sacrifice to Jahweh, eat unclean food and such as has been offered to idols (2Ma_5:6; 2Ma_5:9; 2Ma_5:18; 2Ma_15:1 f. etc. etc.).
The NT reveals the same attitude towards foreign nations on the part of the Jews (see Act_10:45 et passim). In Rabbinical writings Jewish exclusiveness manifested itself even more decisively (see Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, vol. i., esp. ch. xvi.). But, as in the OT a broader spirit shows itself constantly, culminating in the universalism of Christianity, so enlightened and broadminded Jews in all ages have deprecated the fanatical race-hatred which many of their compatriots have displayed.
T. Witton Davies.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
nā?shunz. See GENTILES; GOIIM; HEATHEN; TABLE OF NATIONS.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
The Heb. (goi) and Greek (ethnos) words denote invariably a nation or a people, never a person. Where in the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] (only NT) we find Gentile in the singular (Rom_2:9 f.) the RV [Note: Revised Version.] has Greek, following the original. In nearly every example the singular nation stands for Israel, though we have a few exceptions, as in Exo_9:24 (of Egypt), Pro_14:34 (general), and Mat_21:43. It is often applied to Israel and Judah when there is an implication of disobedience to God, sinfulness and the like: see Deu_32:28, Jdg_2:10, Isa_1:4 etc. This shade of meaning became very common in the later writings of the OT. Quite early in Israelitish history the singular as a term for Israel was discarded for the word translated people (am), so that am (people) and goi (nation) came to be almost antithetic terms = Israelites and non-Israelites, as in Rabbinical Hebrew. For the reason of the change in the use of goi (nation), see below.
In the AV [Note: Authorized Version.] Gentiles often corresponds to Greeks in the original, as in Joh_7:35, Rom_3:9 etc. In the RV [Note: Revised Version.] the word Greeks is rightly substituted, though the sense is the same, for to the Jews of the time Greek culture and religion stood for the culture and religion of the non-Jewish world.
The two words (Heb. and Greek) translated nation have their original and literal sense in many parts of the OT and NT, as in Gen_10:5; Gen_10:10 etc., Isa_2:4 (= Mic_4:2 f.), Job_12:23; Job_34:20, Act_17:28, Gal_3:14. In other passages this general meaning is narrowed so as to embrace the descendants of Abraham, e.g. in Gen_12:2; Gen_18:18; Gen_17:4-6; Gen_17:15. But it is the plural that occurs by far the most frequently, standing almost invariably for non-Israelitish nations, generally with the added notion of their being idolatrous and immoral: see Exo_9:24; Exo_34:10, Lev_25:44 ff., Num_14:15, Deu_15:5, 1Ki_4:31, Isa_11:10; Isa_11:12, and often. These are contrasted with Israel the people of Jahweh in 2Sa_7:22, 1Ch_17:21 etc.
This contrast between Israel (united or divided into the kingdoms of Israel and Judah) as Jahwehs people, and all the rest of the human race designated nations, runs right through the OT. Such a conception could have arisen only after the Israelites bad developed the consciousness of national unity. At first, even among the Israelites, each nation was thought to be justified in worshipping its deity (see Deu_3:24; Deu_10:17, 1Ki_8:23, Isa_19:1 etc.). As long as this idea prevailed there could be no necessary antagonism between Israelites and foreign nations, except that which was national, for the nations god was identified with the national interests. But when the belief in Jahwehs absolute and exclusive claims possessed the mind of Israel, as it began to do in the time of the earliest literary prophets (see Amo_9:1-15 ff., Mic_7:18 etc.), the nations came to be regarded as worshippers of idols (Lev_18:20), and in Psa_9:5; Psa_9:15; Psa_9:17 (cf. Eze_7:21) nations and wicked people are, as being identical, put in parallelism. It will be gathered from what has been said, that the hostile feelings with which Israelites regarded other peoples varied at various times. At all periods it would be modified by the laws of hospitality (see art. Stranger), by political alliances (cf. Isa_7:1 ff., and 2Ki_16:5 ff., Ahaz and Assyria against Israel and Syria), and by the needs of commerce (see Eze_27:11 [Tyre], 1Ki_9:28; 1Ki_10:11; 1Ki_22:28 etc.).
The reforms instituted by king Josiah in the Southern Kingdom (2Ki_22:1 f.), based upon the Deuteronomic law newly found in the Temple, aimed at stamping out all syncretism in religion and establishing the pure religion of Jahweb. This reformation, as also the Rechabite movement (Jer_35:1-19), had a profound influence upon the thoughts and feelings of Jews, widening the gulf between them and alien nations. The teaching of the oldest prophets looked in the same direction (see Amo_2:11; Amo_3:15; Amo_5:11; Amo_5:25; Amo_6:8; Amo_8:5, Hos_2:19; Hos_8:14; Hos_9:10; Hos_10:13; Hos_12:7 ff; Hos_14:4, Isa_2:6; Isa_10:4; Isa_17:10, Zep_1:8; Zep_1:11, Jer_35:1 ff; Jer_37:6 f. etc.).
But the Deuteronomic law (about b.c. 620) made legally obligatory what earlier teachers had inculcated. Israelites were not to marry non-Israelites (Deu_7:3), or to have any except unavoidable dealings with them.
The feeling of national exclusiveness and antipathy was intensified by the captivity in Babylon, when the prophetic and priestly instructors of the exiled Jews taught them that their calamities came upon them on account of their disloyalty to Jahweh and the ordinances of His religion, and because they compromised with idolatrous practices and heathen nations. It was in Babylon that Ezekiel drew up the programme of worship and organization for the nation after the Return, laying stress on the doctrine that Israel was to be a holy people, separated from other nations (see Eze_40:1-49; Eze_41:1-26; Eze_42:1-20; Eze_43:1-27; Eze_44:1-31; Eze_45:1-25; Eze_46:1-24; Eze_47:1-23; Eze_48:1-35). Some time after the Return, Ezra and Nehemiah had to contend with the laxity to which Jews who had remained in the home land and others had yielded; but they were uncompromising, and won the battle for nationalism in religion.
Judaism was in even greater danger of being lost in the world-currents of speculation and religion soon after the time of Alexander the Great. Indeed, but for the brave Maccabæan rising in the earlier half of the 2nd cent. b.c., both the religion and the language of the Jew might, humanly speaking, have perished.
The Apocrypha speaks of the nations just as do the later writings of the OT. They are uncircumcised, having sold themselves to do evil (1Ma_1:15); they break the Sabbath, offer no sacrifice to Jahweh, eat unclean food and such as has been offered to idols (2Ma_5:6; 2Ma_5:9; 2Ma_5:18; 2Ma_15:1 f. etc. etc.).
The NT reveals the same attitude towards foreign nations on the part of the Jews (see Act_10:45 et passim). In Rabbinical writings Jewish exclusiveness manifested itself even more decisively (see Eisenmenger, Entdecktes Judenthum, vol. i., esp. ch. xvi.). But, as in the OT a broader spirit shows itself constantly, culminating in the universalism of Christianity, so enlightened and broadminded Jews in all ages have deprecated the fanatical race-hatred which many of their compatriots have displayed.
T. Witton Davies.
Hastings' Dictionary of the Bible
Edited by James Hastings, D.D. Published in 1909
nā?shunz. See GENTILES; GOIIM; HEATHEN; TABLE OF NATIONS.
International Standard Bible Encyclopedia
PRINTER 1915.
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