Who Was The First ....

[wpe3bql]

.....Gentile?

Somebody once asked me this, and I had to admit that I couldn't find any specific verse in God's Word that said, "X was the first Gentile."

Maybe it was Cain because he seems to have been the first to practice a "non-bloody" sacrifice (Gen. 4:5), but that per se doesn't necessarily mean that Cain definitely was the first Gentile.

What are your thoughts/comments as to who you think was the first Gentile?

 

[Van]

I think first we need to decide what we mean by Gentile. If we define Gentile as those without the Law, then we would have a slew of people who did not receive the Law from Moses.

If we want to back up farther, and say Gentiles are not part of God's chosen people, then all those alive when Abraham was chosen might fit the bill.

If we want to back up even farther, then we might look at Luke 3:38, and note that the line from Seth leading to Jesus excludes all the other sons and daughters of Adam and Eve.

So perhaps all those who are born anew siblings of Jesus should be consider as children of the promise?

 

[JonC]

Gentiles are/were people who are not Jewish. I suppose Adam would, technically, be the first Gentile (except that there was no Israel at that time). It's almost (actually, exactly in principle) like asking who was the first non-American, or non-German, etc.

 

[SovereignGrace]

Maybe everyone from Isaac back were gentiles? Jacob the first Jew? He was given the name Israel. Food for thought.

 

[JamesL]

JonC is right. Good stuff, man.

Gentile comes from Latin. The biblical words are...
Hebrew: goy
Greek: ethnos

Both mean "peoples" or "nations" and are used in the sense of "outsiders" when contrasting Israel.

Until there was Israel, there were no ethnicities outside of Israel.


.

 

[robycop3]

JonC is right. Good stuff, man.

Gentile comes from Latin. The biblical words are...
Hebrew: goy
Greek: ethnos

Both mean "peoples" or "nations" and are used in the sense of "outsiders" when contrasting Israel.

Until there was Israel, there were no ethnicities outside of Israel.


.

On the day God renamed Jacob "Israel", everyone on earth not of his immediate family became gentiles. "Gentiles" are an ISRAELI thingie, not from God, who made all people. It became more-pronounced among the Israelis when Assyria filled Samaria with non-Israelis after conquering the ten tribes.

 

[JamesL]

On the day God renamed Jacob "Israel", everyone on earth not of his immediate family became gentiles. "Gentiles" are an ISRAELI thingie, not from God, who made all people. It became more-pronounced among the Israelis when Assyria filled Samaria with non-Israelis after conquering the ten tribes.

I agree with the Israeli thingie, but i don't think it correlates to when God renamed Jacob, and his family at the time

Gentile = nations, not families.

It would have been when the tribes were established and a nation was formed,

 

[SovereignGrace]

Just a thought to hopefully further the discussion:


Could the gentiles have come from the lineage of Cain? He did go to the land of Nod and met his wife and 'knew' here.