‘Strangers’ in Ancient Bible Texts

The common English word stranger(s) appears in the KJV some 210 times.  However, the ancient language Bible terms rendered “strangers” conveyed various shades of meaning.  These ancient terms meant either: alien, sojourner, non-Israelite, foreigner, proselyte, visitor, guest, etc.  The KJV word “strangers” doesn’t reflect those shades of meaning.  Here we’ll identify and compare Old Testament (OT) Hebrew terms which show the meaning of types of “strangers”.  Also we’ll identify the corresponding terms in the Greek OT Septúagint/LXX and Greek New Testament (NT).

1. Ger Strongs h1616 noun occurs 93 times in the OT Hebrew Masoretic Text (MT).  In KJV English, the Hebrew ger is translated stranger 87 times.  Próselyte Strongs g4339 is the corresponding noun in the Greek LXX (occurs 80 times), and is seen in the Greek NT 4 times.

A ger/proselyte was a (permanent) resident alien in ancient Israel.  He enjoyed civil rights in Israel, but not property rights.  The ger wasn’t a native landowner in the town or rural house where he resided (in the Holy Land).  Bible genealogies were patrimonial; descent was reckoned from the father, not the mother (unlike in later Judaism).  So the son of a ger/proselyte married to an Israelitess was himself a ger, and without property rights of his mother’s tribe.  (That a ger is to have property rights in the future was prophesied in Ezk.47:22-23.)

After Israel exited Egypt for the Land of Canáan, in the LXX there’s no verse using proselyte g4339 that couldn’t refer to a circumcised alien in the Land!  (Ex.22:21 & 23:9 Israelites previously were resident aliens in Egypt.)

By using the LXX term proselyte, the OT meaning is generally clearer than with the MT ger.  But a proselyte (LXX) in the theocracy of ancient Israel differed in some respects from the later concept of a proselyte to Judaism seen in the NT.  The 4 NT occurrences of proselyte are Mt.23:15; Ac.2:10, 6:5, 13:43.  The rabbis’ meaning of proselyte in the Talmud of Judaism (see below) differed from the OT.

The term proselyte g4339 doesn’t occur in the LXX Genesis (or Job).  The first occurrence in the LXX is Ex.12:48-49. “If any proselyte comes to you to keep the Passover to the Lord, you shall circumcise him, and he shall be as a native born of the Land. No uncircumcised man shall eat of it. There shall be one law to the native, and to the proselyte coming among you.”  Israel was authorized to eat the Passover only at the tabernacle/temple city.  The proselyte at that time was a circumcised resident alien only in the Holy Land, not in other nations besides Israel!  (see the topic “Circumcision in the Bible”.)

Le.24:22 “There shall be one judgment for the proselyte and the native, I Am the Lord your God.”  The same law of God and justice system applied to the proselyte as to the native born Israelite. (cf. Nu.15:15-16.)  De.27:19 “Cursed is he who perverts the judgment of a proselyte, orphan, or widow.”

Christ told Moses/Israel in Le.19:18, “You shall love your neighbor as yourself, I Am the Lord”.  v.33-34 “If a proselyte comes to you in the Land, you shall not afflict him. The proselyte that comes to you shall be among you as the native, you shall love him as yourself.”  Love the proselyte as oneself.

De.7:1-6 generally, the seven heathen peoples/“nations” who had inhabited the Land weren’t to be allowed ger/proselyte status.  Intermarriage with them was forbidden; they weren’t to be assimilated into Israel.  Those corrupt peoples were to be destroyed.  (But not all were, see Jg.1:27-ff & 2Ch.8:7-8.)

The OT notes various other peoples who were either restricted, or allowed, proselyte status.  De.23:2-8 Ammonites and Moabites were restricted (males only?); Edomites and Egyptians were allowed.  Eugene Heideman “The two most prominent outsiders to enter fully into the life of Israel were women, Raháb the prostitute of Jericho (Jsh. 2:1-3; 6:22-25) and Ruth the Moabitess (Ru.1:6-19, 4:7-22).”

2Ch.2:17-18 by the time of King Solomon, there were at least 153,600 male proselytes in Israel.  Over the centuries, proselytes/ger and their descendants were assimilated into Israel in the Land.

Of the 93 MT occurrences of ger h1616, 11 times the LXX translates it pároikos g3941 sojourner, instead of proselyte g4339 (permanent) resident alien.

2. Tosháb h8453 noun, occurs 14 times in the MT.  Pároikos g3941 noun/adjective, is the LXX term. It occurs 27 times.  (In 11 of the 27 occurrences, paroikos is used for ger…see below for the verses).

The toshab was an unnaturalized sojourner or temporary dweller (not just a visitor).  Unlike proselytes, he wasn’t fully a citizen in Israel’s religious community.  The toshab was uncircumcised, and therefore not authorized to eat the Passover (unlike the proselyte).  Ex.12:45 “A sojourner [paroikos or toshab] or hireling shall not eat of it.”  Le.22:10 the toshab couldn’t eat holy food.  De.14:21 LXX a paroikos could have an animal that died of itself (was unbled).  Conversely, Le.17:15 a proselyte couldn’t.  (The LXX makes this distinction clearer than the MT.)  Le.25:45-46 the Jubilee law of release didn’t apply to a toshab; his child could be a perpetual slave.  Nu.35:15 city of refuge protection was given the toshab too.  In 1Ch.29:15 & Ps.39:12, David referred to himself and his fathers as temporary sojourners/toshab/paroikos (LXX) on the earth in this fleeting life.

The LXX paroikos g3941 occurs more often than the Hebrew MT toshab h8453.  Again, 11 times the MT h1616 ger is translated paroikos g3941 sojourner in the LXX…in Ge.15:13, Ge.23:4a, Ex.2:22, Ex.18:3, De.14:21, De.23:7, 2Sm.1:13, 1Ch.29:15, Ps.39:12a, Ps.119:19, Je.14:8.  Paroikos generally better fits the sense.  Ex.18:3 the name of Moses’ son Gershom commemorated Moses’ long temporary stay (semi-naturalized?) in Midian (Ac.7:29), before he returned to Egypt prior to the exodus.

In the NT, paroikos/sojourner g3941 occurs 4 times: Ac.7:29, 7:6; Ep.2:19.  1Pe.2:11 Christians metaphorically are as paroikos/temporary residents in the world.  Paroikos also occurs in the apocrypha.

3. Nokrée h5237 adjective, MT 44 occurrences.

4. Nekár h5236 noun, MT 35 occurrences.

Two Greek terms used for nokree and nekar are: (1) Allótrios g245 adjective/noun, occurs in the LXX 118 times, in the NT 13 times (in Mt.17:25-26; Lk.16:12; Jn.10:5; Ac.7:6; Ro.14:4, 15:20; 2Co.10:15-16; 1Ti.5:22; He.9:25, 11:9, 34).  Allotrios means other, belonging to another, or foreign.  (2) Allogenés g241 adj/noun, occurs in the LXX 27 times, in the NT only in Lk.17:18.  Allogenes means of another race or nation (or tribe).  Nokree was translated in the LXX as: allotrios 37 times, allogenes 2 times, xénos (g3581) 4 times.  Nekar was translated in the LXX as: allotrios 25 times, allogenes 9 times.

These four similar terms refer to everything alien or foreign, regardless of place of residence.  Can refer to a permanent resident alien who once was a resident of another land.  Or a person of a different race.  The KJV usually rendered these terms, and also the terms ger and paroikos…simply as “strange(r).”

3. Nokree: De.15:3 there’s no release of debts for a nokree/allotrios, and he paid interest (De.23:20).  De.14:21 a nokree/allotrios (and a paroikos) could have an animal that died of itself (was unbled).  De.17:15 no nokree/allotrios was allowed to be king in Israel.  De.29:22 nokree is foreign.  Nokrees weren’t native Israelites; e.g. Jg.19:12, Ru.2:10, 1Ki.11:1.  A nokree/allotrios could be from a far country, 1Ki.8:41.  Ex.18:3 “In a foreign [nokree/allotrios] land.”

During the time of Ezra, in Ezr.9:1-2 & 10:2 the returnees from captivity were to put away their nokree/allotrios wives then.  Yet earlier, marriages were allowed with some nokree peoples; again Ru.2:10 & 4:13, Jg.14:3.  2Ch.6:32 some nokree/allotrios were friendly, others weren’t.  Solomon had numerous foreign wives, and wrote about nokree/allotrios adulteresses in Proverbs; Pr.2:16, 5:20, 6:24-26, 7:5-ff, etc.  Barnes Notes Pr.2:16 “One who by birth is outside the covenant of Israel.”  Ellicott Commentary “Belonging to another nation.”

Jesus ben Sírach wrote the book of Ecclesiásticus in Judaea in 180 BC.  His grandson translated it from Hebrew into Greek, 132 BC.  Sir.8:18 “Do nothing confidential in the presence of a stranger [allotrios].”  1 Maccabees was written in 104 BC, relating events of 175-164 BC during the reign of Antíochus Epíphanes.  1Mc.1:38 “Jerusalem became a dwelling place of strangers [allotrios].”

4. Nekar: Ex.12:43 “The Lord said to Moses, ‘This ordinance of the Passover, no nekar [allogenes] is to eat of it.”  The nekar was uncircumcised, so he couldn’t eat the Passover.  He didn’t enjoy privileges of the native born Israelite or the proselyte.  Ge.17:12, 27 a nekar is of a different seed.  Ne.9:2 the seed of Israel then was separated from all nekar.  It seems nekar was a stronger term than nokree.

In several verses, nekar refers to strange/allotrios gods.  e.g. Ps.81:9; De.32:12; Da.11:39; Mal.2:11.  Some nekar were hostile.  Ps.137:1-4 Babylon was a foreign/nekar/allotrios hostile land.  David wrote of foreign foes in Ps.144:11. “Deliver me from the grasp of strangers [nekar/allotrios], who speak lies.”

Allogenes g241 meant of another race or nation.  From intertestamental books: 1Esdras/Ezra 8:83 “The Land is polluted with the pollutions of strangers [allogenes].”  People from other nations were dwelling in Judaea when Ezra returned from Babylonian exile.  1Mc.3:45 “Jerusalem was like a desert. Foreigners [allogenes] were in the citadel; the heathen inhabited that place.”

5. Zoor h2114 verb or noun, MT 77 occurrences.  Zoor takes its meaning from the context.  The LXX used a few terms for the MT term zoor: allotrios 33 times, allogenes 15 times, xenos 2 times.  (The LXX allotrios 118 occurrences is for the MT terms: nokree 37 times, nekar 25 times, zoor 33 times, etc.  Allotrios also can mean ‘other’.)  The LXX allogenes also can mean one from another local tribe of Israel, such as a non-Levite layman.  The MT zoor can mean a stranger to the family, clan or tribe.

De.25:5 an Israelite widow wasn’t to remarry outside the family into a different/zoor tribe.  Nu.16:40 “No stranger [zoor] who is not a descendant of Aaron shall burn incense before the Lord.”  Non-Aaronide laymen weren’t authorized to perform this priestly function.  Nu.1:51 non-Levite zoor/allogenes/laymen weren’t to set up or take down God’s tabernacle.  cf. Nu.18:4-7.

Le.10:1 “Nadáb and Abihú, the sons of Aaron, offered strange [zoor] fire.”  Zoor can refer to profane or unholy.  In Pr.2:16, 5:3, 20 zoor too referred to the strange foreign/nokree woman.  Je.3:13 refers to strangers/zoor/allotrios.  Is.43:12 strange/zoor/allotrios gods.  Ho.7:9, Ezk.11:9, 28:10 zoor/foreigners.

Depending on the context, zoor can mean: unusual, uncustomary, different, strange, estranged, outsider.  Zoor is a term closely related to nokree & nekar (less so to ger/proselyte, toshab/paroikos).  There’s some overlap of terms across the centuries.  In the KJV, zoor too is rendered “strange(r)”.

6. Xénos g3581 adjective/noun, LXX 8 occurrences, NT 14.  This Greek term didn’t have an exclusive counterpart in the MT.  Ruth said in Ru.2:10, “I am a foreigner [nokree/xenos]”.  La.5:2 nokree/xenos.  In the KJV NT, xenos is the most common word for “stranger”, often meaning guest.  Mt.25:38 “I was a stranger [xenos] and you took me in.”  Ep.2:12 they’d been strangers/xenos from the covenants.

7. Parepídemos g3927.  This Greek adjective/noun appears 2 times in the LXX (Ge.23:4 & Ps.39:12 for toshab), and 3 times in the NT (He.11:13, 1Pe.1:1, 2:11).  It means immigrant (or pilgrim).  It’s the  compound of the verb epideméo g1927 (seen only in Ac.2:10, 17:21), meaning ‘to be among people’.

With the passing of time, languages change.  Some terms become synonymous, or may take on added meanings.  Many become obsolete.  And over the centuries, the meaning of proselyte/ger changed, as Jews spread their religion to other nations.  They began to call converts outside the Land…proselytes!

ISBE “It did not belong to the economy of Old Testament religion to spread the knowledge of God directly among the Gentiles (Jonah is an exception to this). There was certainly no active propagandism. Though we read in Nehemiah 10:28 of those who ‘separated themselves from the peoples of the lands unto the law of God’, the spirit of exclusiveness prevailed; the doubtful elements were separated (Ezra 4:3); mixed marriages were prohibited by the chiefs, and were afterward disapproved of by the people (Ezra 9; Ezra 10; Nehemiah 13:23).  Direct proselytism did not begin till about a century later.”

Then proselytism grew.  By the 1^st century AD, “proselyte” had come to mean a religious convert to Judaism in the Land…or outside!  The rabbis called him a Proselyte of Righteousness, ger tzedék.  He had four basic requirements; physical circumcision, immersion, bring a sacrifice to the temple, accept all the written and oral law…the whole law (Ga.5:3)!  Ac.13:43 Paul was in Galatia (not in the Land). “Many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas.”  Expositor’s Greek NT “προσήλυτοι means those who became circumcised and were full proselytes.”  Mt.23:15 Jesus opposed this unscriptural practice outside Israel!  Also many women in the Roman Empire converted to Judaism.

And in the 1^st century AD, the term toshab referred to righteous gentiles.  Rabbis called these gentiles a Proselyte of the Gate, ger toshab (not tsedek toshab/righteous ‘gentiles’).  They were (resident) limited proselytes, or ‘half-proselytes’.  The terms ger & toshab appear in the same MT verse 7 times: Ge.23:4; Le.25:23, 35, 47; Nu.35:15; 1Ch.29:15 (not in the LXX); Ps.39:12.  In NT times he obeyed the so-called Noahide laws.  He believed the God of the Jews is God, frequented (fringes of) synagogues, and many abstained from eating unclean creatures.  (also see the topic “Gentiles in the Bible”.)

Easton’s Bible Dictionary “They were bound only to conform to the so-called seven precepts of Noah, viz., to abstain from idolatry, blasphemy, bloodshed, uncleanness, the eating of blood, theft, and to yield obedience to the authorities. Besides these laws, they were required to abstain from work on the sabbath, and to refrain from leavened bread during the time of the Passover [cf. 1Co.5:8?].”

‘God-fearers’ had similar traits elsewhere.  e.g. Ac.10:2, 13:16, 26; 1Pe.2:17.  Revised English Version Commentary Ac.10:2 “Cornelius was what the Jews referred to as a proselyte of the gate.” In Caesárea.  A.T. Robertson on Ac.16:14, “Lydia was a God-fearer or proselyte of the gate”. In Phílippi.

This topic has highlighted five Hebrew MT and six (corresponding) Greek LXX & NT terms related to “stranger(s)”.  Other Hebrew & Greek terms had trace usage.  As this survey shows, the various terms in ancient Bible languages are more explicit than the general English term “stranger(s)” as they’re rendered in the KJV!

The only NT occurrence of allogenes g241 (often used for nekar in the Hebrew OT) is Lk.17:18.  The stranger here is a Samaritan (v.16).  There was historic hostility between the Jews and the Samaritans.

In the Hebrew MT, the most profane or hostile “strange(r)” to God’s people was perhaps the nekar h5236.  Yet in the everlasting New Covenant (He.13:20, Is.55:3), even the nekar will be grafted-in, converted to the Lord!  Is.56:1-8 “Thus saith the Lord, ‘The strangers [nekar/allogenes] who commit themselves to the Lord, to be His servants and keep the sabbath from polluting it, and hold fast My covenant; even those will I bring to My holy mountain. For My house will be called a house of prayer for all peoples.”  Benson Commentary Is.56:6 “There can be no doubt this verse alludes particularly to the conversion of the Gentiles.”  Pulpit Commentary “A foretaste of their position in the Christian church, where there will be neither Jew nor Gentile.”  Jews & gentiles as one, with equal access to God.

Ps.98:3 All the ends of the earth see the salvation of our God!  Salvation is universal!  He.8:10-11 “Saith the Lord, ‘For all shall know Me.”  As the future unfolds, hostile “strangers” no more…not to God or His people.  Praise the Lord!

‘Gentiles’ in the Bible

Over the centuries, Gentiles have been viewed negatively by some, positively by others.  Too often this has resulted in judgmentalism, strife, and division between opposing camps.  Who were the gentiles?

The term “Gentiles” appears 130 times in the KJV English…30 times in the Old Testament (OT) and 100 times in the New Testament (NT).  It’s almost always plural in our Bibles.  We may speak of ‘a gentile’, but the singular rarely appears.

The term gentiles came into the English language around 1300 AD from the Latin terms gens/géntis and géntilis (and the French gens).  The Latin nouns gens & gentis (genitive singular) meant a nation, people, tribe, or clan in a non-theological ethnic sense.  The Latin adjective gentilis meant of or belonging to/pertaining to a nation, people, etc.

Jerome’s Latin Vulgate version of the Bible was composed around 400 AD.  It used the Latin term gens and sometimes gentilis.  The English term gentiles in the Bible is derived from the Latin Vulgate.

In Biblical Hebrew and Greek, there is no exact equivalent for the Latin term gentilis.  The term “gentiles” doesn’t appear in the Hebrew or Greek language OT, nor in the Greek NT.

In the Hebrew OT, goy or góyim (plural) Strongs h1471 is the term translated “gentiles” in English (via the Latin).  The KJV OT translates goy/goyim as nation 374 times, heathen 143 times, people 11 times, Gentiles 30 times (usually as non-Jews).  The term translated “gentiles” in the Greek OT Septúagint/LXX and Greek NT is éthnos g1484.

Also the Greek term Héllen g1672, meaning Greeks, occurs in the NT 27 times.  But it is translated “Gentiles” 7 times in the KJV English (in Jn.7:35; Ro.2:9 & 10 singular, Ro.3:9; 1Co.10:32, 12:13).

The Greek term ethnos, generally meaning nation, is used in both the Greek OT (translated by Jews) and Greek NT.  To compare ‘apples to apples’ so to speak, I’ll use ethnos (rather than the Hebrew goy/goyim) as the primary term to identify gentiles in the OT (LXX) and the NT both.

Ethnos g1484 occurs 550 times in the LXX and 164 times in the NT.  Ethnos means nation or a people group with the same nature/genus.  Ethnos singular is a collective noun referring to a collective people group.  But ethnos isn’t used in scripture for a single ‘gentile’ (‘gentile’ for ethnos doesn’t appear).  Of the 164 NT uses, 100 are the plural éthne, translated “gentiles” (not “nations”) 93 times in the KJV.

Not in the OT LXX, nor in the NT, do we see one consistent sole application for the term ethnos.  The term ethnos (and goy in the Hebrew OT) can represent parts (sometimes opposing), or, the whole of humanity.  A sýnecdoche figure of speech is when the whole/majority is used for a part, or a part of the whole for the whole macrocosm.  For example, the United States is often called ‘America’, but actually there are many countries/nations in the Americas.  The term ethnos is used somewhat similarly.

The term ethnos g1484 (and the Hebrew goy h1471) represents or is applied three ways in the Bible.  Here’s the three representations with scriptural examples.

1. Ethnos can refer to either Israel or Jews as a nation.  (But usually “people” LXX & NT laós g2992, Hebrew OT am h5971, is used for Israel/Jews.)  Following are verses where ethnos refers to Israel/Jews:

Ge.35:11 a nation and company of nations would come from Jacob/Israel.  Ex.19:6 Israel was to be a holy nation (ethnos)…Israel was to be a holy goy (Hebrew)!  Is.1:1, 4 the southern kingdom of Judah became a sinful nation (ethnos)…a sinful goy.   Is.10:5-7 Assyria would come against the hypocritical nation of Israel (and others).  Je.31:36 the posterity of New Covenant Israel would remain.  Lk.7:2-5 the centurion built a synagogue for the Jewish nation (ethnos).  Jn.11:47-48 priests feared the Romans would take away the Jewish nation.  Jn.18:35 Pilate spoke of the Jews’ nation (ethnos).  Ac.10:22 the Italian Cornelius got a good report from the Jews’ nation.  Ac.26:4 Paul’s manner of life was known by his Jewish nation.  In the preceding sample of verses, ethnos/ethne referred to Israel or the Jews.

2. Ethnos most commonly refers to non-Israelites or non-Jews.  Over time, the term gentiles became synonymous with heathens or non-Jews, outsiders distinct from Jews.  Although this trend didn’t fully absorb the basic ethne definition “nations”, the trend contributed to the ethnic sense of the Latin term gentilis.  In this sense, the Latin term (and the English term “gentiles”) does express the intended meaning or perceived disparity.  Also see the topics, “Strangers’ in Ancient Bible Texts” and “Israelites Identification”.

In the NT, ethne are people in general who are distinct from the Jews.  However, in the NT Greek the term doesn’t reflect Jesus or His apostles speaking of them in an emphatically disparaging manner.  In Judaism, the term goy (ethnos in Greek) increasingly was used in a disparaging sense of negative judgment.  Many Jews viewed it like…us versus them (and vice versa for gentiles).  To many Jews, children of mixed marriages were bastards, De.23:2.  (ref Jn.18:28 & Ac.11:3 for Jewish prejudice).

That’s one reason why many Greeks & Romans disliked Jews.  Some, but not all, rabbinic writings display hostility toward gentiles, because the “nations” frequently persecuted the Jewish people.

Around 1600 AD (the time of the English KJV) the term gentiles referred to (Christian) non-Jews in European cities which had Jewish minorities.  And today, gentiles means non-Jews or non-Israelites.  Following are verses where ethnos refers to non-Israelites/non-Jews:

Ge.10:5, 20, 31-32 nations come from Noah’s three sons in those early post-Flood years, before there were any Jews.  Ge.17:20 a nation (ethnos) was to come from Abraham’s son Ishmaél.  Ex.9:24 Egypt was a nation (ethnos).  Ge.25:23 Jacob and Esau to be two nations.  (But to apply the term ‘gentiles’ to Jacob in this verse wouldn’t fit, according to today’s evolved definition!)  1Sm.8:5 nations other than Israel had kings.  2Ki.17:26 people from foreign nations replaced most Israelites in Samaria (assimilation ensued).  1Ch.18:11 nations are listed.  Is.37:11-12 nations had gods.  Je.10:1-2 nations/heathen observed signs from heavenly bodies.  Lk.18:32 Jesus was to be delivered to Pilate and the Romans, people of other nations.  1Co.10:20 other nations sacrifice to demons.  Ep.2:11 people of other nations (gentiles) were the uncircumcised.  Ep.4:17-19 peoples of nations were then even past feeling, according to Paul.  In these sample verses, ethnos/ethne referred to non-Israelites or non-Jews.

{Sidelight: Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 17:11:4 lists the peoples of Lk.3:1, plus others, among the countries of Palestine (paying tribute to Rome).  These regions/nations/provinces were in a state of flux.  They had an éthnarch prince.  These countries were then: Judaea, Samaria, Decapolis, Batania, Abilene, Trachonitis, Gaulanitis, Peréa, Galilee, Iduméa, Ituréa. (cf. Mt.10:18, 23)  Josephus called Idumeans & Itureans “half Jews”.  In 120 BC, John Hýrcanus compelled Idumeans (Edomites) to accept Judaism and be circumcised.  Itureans were Arabians living between the Sea of Galilee and Damascus, circumcised forcibly by Jews in 100 BC.  Alexander Jánaeus tried to force circumcision on Galilee gentiles.  Samaritans practiced circumcision.  In Acts 15, circumcision was a big issue for the early church…to be saved, “gentiles” needn’t first become Jewish proselytes!  (see “Circumcision in the Bible”.)

Jesus told eleven apostles the great commission of Mt.28:19. “Go and instruct all nations [ethnos]”.  Yet later, disciples were contentious when the first uncircumcised gentiles were granted repentance…in Caesárea, the admin capital of the Judaea province (Ac.10:1, 24, 45, 11:3, 18)!  Had the disciples in Ac.11 misunderstood the commission?  Benson Commentary Mt.28:19 “The prejudices of the apostles led them, at first, to mistake the sense of it, and to imagine that it referred only to their going to preach the gospel to the Jews among all nations, or to those who should be willing to become Jews.”  Later it was primarily Paul who apostled nations/gentiles westward, outside the Palestine countries (Ep.3:1-8).}

3. Ethnos can refer to all the nations…this includes Israelites/the Jews and non-Israelites/non-Jews.  Following are verses where ethnos refers to all nations:

Ge.22:18 “In your [Abraham’s] seed shall all nations of the earth be blessed.”  All to be blessed through his seed (Jesus, Ga.3:16).  Ps.22:27-28 all families of the nations will worship the Lord.  Ps.72:11 all nations & kings shall serve God.  Mt.24:14 the gospel of the kingdom of God to be preached to all nations of the inhabited earth.  Ac.17:26 God has made all nations on earth of one blood!

Ethnos/nation g1484 is used for those having a common government, territory or ethnicity.  Other Bible terms which relate to ethnos are people laos g2992 (those having a common history), tribe phulé g5443 (those having a common descent), tongue glossá g1100 (those having a common language).

Some verses which reflect all these related terms: Da.4:1 LXX “King Nebuchadnézzar to all peoples, tribes, and tongues who dwell in all the earth.”…in other words, to whoever might hear it.  Da.7:13-14 “The Son of Man was given dominion, glory, and a kingdom; that all peoples, tribes and tongues should serve Him.”  Re.5:9 “You were slain, and did redeem us to God by Thy blood, out of every tribe, and tongue, and people, and nation.”  Re.7:9 “Behold, a great multitude which no one could count, from all nations and tribes and peoples and tongues, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.”  Re.14:6 “The eternal gospel to proclaim to those dwelling on the earth, to every nation, tribe, tongue, people.”  Revelation fulfills the prophecy of Da.7:14!

If those verses in Revelation don’t mean all nations/people groups, Jews and non-Jews, what other old Greek terms would have better conveyed “all”?!  (Terms for groups comprising “all”, “pas” g3956.)

And all nations (ethnos) includes people groups descending from Noah’s sons Shem, Ham and Jápheth after the Flood (Ge.10:1, 5, 20, 31-32).  e.g. Is.19:23-25 Israel, Egypt and Assyria reconciled.

To recap…Nation/ethnos/goy can refer to:  1. Israelites or Jews.  2. Non-Israelites or non-Jews.  3. All nations/people groups (1 + 2).  Generally, the best translation of ethnos is “nations”.  The Latin gentilis (English gentiles) secondarily came to mean peoples considered by Jews to be outside God’s covenant.

But according to Paul, the nations/gentiles are grafted-in to partake of the Lord’s New Covenant with the house of Israel (He.8:10)!  Paul in Ro.11:13, “I speak to you nations [gentiles], as I am the apostle to the nations [gentiles]”.  v.17 “You, being a wild olive branch, were grafted in among them and became partaker with them.”  v.23-26 “But a hardening has come to part of Israel until the fullness of the nations [gentiles] be come in. All Israel shall be saved.”  Salvation is available to all people groups!

Col.3:11 “There is no distinction between Greek (Hellen g1672) and Jew, circumcised and uncircumcised, slave and free, but Christ is in all.”  Humanity is of one blood (Ac.17:26 KJV).  God is love (1Jn.4:8), and will have all men to be saved (1Ti.2:3-4), and to love one another (Jn.13:34-35).  Jews and gentiles.

The day will come when strife & division among peoples and nations will end.  Cooperation will ensue.  No more biased us versus them!  Re.21:23-26 “The city…Light is the Lamb. And the nations [gentiles] that are saved shall walk in the light of it, and the kings of the earth bring the glory and honor of the nations into it.”  Nations/gentiles and peace in the holy city, New Jerusalem (v.2).  To God be the glory!

Israelite Deportations by Assyria

The Lord God is to be obeyed.  Humanity’s first sin was an act of disobedience to God (Ge.3:1-ff).  The result…Adam & Eve were cast out, away from their garden home and God’s Presence (Ge.3:22-24).

Anciently, the nation of Israel was the people Christ loved above all other peoples.  Moses said of them rhetorically in De.4:5-8, “What great nation is there that has a god so near to it as is the Lord our God? What great nation is there that has statutes and judgments as righteous as this whole law?”  None other!  Christ was their God YHVH, their Rock, 1Co.10:4. (see the topic “Jesus Was The Old Testament God”.)  Christ their Passover (1Co.5:7) ‘passed over’ Egypt and freed the Israelites from bondage.  Years after the exodus, as Israel (then consisting of 13 tribes) was entering the Promised Land, the people were given God’s conditions which they must obey to remain in their new home-Land.

De.28:1-2 “If you will diligently obey the Lord your God, the Lord will set you above all the nations of the earth. Blessings will come upon you, if you obey the Lord.”  Blessings were promised to Israel for obedience.  v.15-16 “But if you will not obey the Lord your God, then all these curses shall come upon you. Cursed shall you be in the city, and cursed in the country.”  Many curses for disobedience follow.  v.32-33 “Your sons and daughters shall be given to another people you do not know. And you shall be oppressed and crushed.”  Captivity!  v.36 “The Lord will bring you to a nation neither you nor your fathers have known.  Exile!  v.49 “The Lord will bring against you a nation from afar.”  Invasion!  v.63-64 “You shall be torn from the Land you are entering to possess. Moreover, the Lord will scatter you among all peoples.”  If Israel disobeyed Christ their God, they would be cast out of the Holy Land.

After the death of King Solomon, in the 900s BC Christ divided the united nation of Israel into two (1Ki.12).  The northern kingdom retained the name Israel, the southern kingdom was called Judah, the Jews.  (In 2Ki.16:5-6, the Jews/Judah were actually fighting against an alliance of Israel and Syria!)

The northern kingdom of Israel disobeyed Christ!  The prophet Hosea lived in Israel, and prophesied to them circa (c) 755–725 BC.  The northern kingdom was also known as Ephráim (son of the patriarch Joseph), and Samaria (the capital city, located in the area of Israel allotted to Ephraim’s descendants), and the Ten Tribes.  Ho.5:3, 9 “Ephraim has played the harlot. Israel has defiled itself. Ephraim will become a desolation in the day of rebuke. Among the tribes of Israel I will declare what is sure.”  God would bring upon Israel the curses of De.28!  Ho.11:1-6 “When Israel was a youth I loved him, out of Egypt I have called My son. They kept sacrificing to Báal and burning incense to idols. Assyria will be their king. The sword will whirl against their cities, and consume them.”  When Hosea prophesied, their captivity to Assyria was imminent!  Ho.13:16 “Samaria will be held guilty, for she has rebelled against her God.”  Christ the Lord proceeded to cast out Israel from the Land.

Between c 734 and c 669 BC, in four periods of invasion the Assyrians removed the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel (and took many cities of Judah the southern kingdom).  Later c 610 BC, Christ told Jeremiah to write to Judah, Je.7:15b “I have cast out all your brothers of Ephraim.”  Most of the northern kingdom of Israel didn’t return to the Land!  (1^st century AD Josephus Antiquities of the Jews 11:5:2 “The ten tribes are beyond [east of] Euphrates until now, an immense multitude.”)

Is.7:8 is a significant prophecy. “Thus says the Lord God, ‘Within another 65 years Ephraim will be shattered.”  Isaiah prophesied the removal of Israel would be complete in 65 years.  It happened between c 734 and c 669 BC.  Targum of Isaiah 7:8 “At the end of 65 years, the kingdom of the house of Israel shall cease.”  Adam Clarke Commentary “It was 65 years to the total depopulation of the kingdom of Israel by Esarháddon, who carried away the remains of the ten tribes which had been left by Tíglath-Piléser and Shalmanéser.”  International Standard Bible Encyclopedia “It appears certain there were various episodes of deportation and repopulation connected to the Northern Kingdom.”

The Assyrian invasions and subsequent exile of most in the ten tribes took place during the time of Israel’s last four kings. Menahém, Pekahiáh (no invasion during his two-year reign, 2Ki.15:23-24), Pékah, Hoshéa.  Hoshea would be their final king.  The northern kingdom of Israel would cease being a nation.  Ho.1:4 “The Lord said, ‘I will put an end to the kingdom of the house of Israel.”

Following are the four main invasions and four deportations in the prophesied 65-year period:

Deportation #1: The first period of invasion and first deportation of Israelites occurred near the time of Isaiah’s prophecy.  The progressive captivity of Israel began with King Tiglath Pileser III (an assumed name) of Assyria, who ruled from c 745–727 BC.  He was a great military leader and conquered much of the known world.  His birth name was Pulu or Pul.  2Ki.15:19 “Pul, king of Assyria, came against the Land, and Menahem gave him 1,000 talents of silver.”  In Pul’s invasion, he exacted tribute from King Menahem of Israel.  Pekah (after Pekahiah) then succeeded Menahem as king in Israel.

Pul lessened the chances of revolts against Assyrian rule by forcing deportations of peoples across his empire.  He continued his attacks.  2Ki.15:29 “In the days of Pekah king of Israel, Tiglath Pileser king of Assyria came and took…Hazór, Gileád and Galilee, all the land of Naphtalí; and carried them captive to Assyria.”  1Ch.5:26 “The God of Israel incited Pul, king of Assyria, even Tiglath Pileser. He carried them away into exile; namely Reuben [v.6], Gad, and the half-tribe of Manasséh.”  Those 2 ½ Israelite tribes east of the Jordan River plus the tribe of Naphtali were deported initially, c 734 BC.  These weren’t reunited later with Judah.  (ref 2Ch.29:1-3, 30:1-12, 18 this later letter from King Hezekiah of Judah went to other tribes not taken by Tiglath Pileser III in the first deportation.)

Deportation #2: Progressive captivity continued during the reigns of the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser V (727–722 BC) and Sargón II (722–705 BC).  Hoshea was king in Israel (730–721 BC).  2Ki.17:1-7 “Shalmaneser king of Assyria found conspiracy in Hoshea, so the king of Assyria bound him in prison. He then invaded the whole Land and besieged Samaria 3 years. In the 9^th year of Hoshea he captured Samaria and carried Israel away into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Haláh and Habór on the River of Gozán, and in the cities of the Medes.”  v.23 “The Lord removed Israel from His sight, as He spoke through His servants the prophets. So Israel was carried away into exile from their Land to Assyria until this day.”  This Assyrian invasion led to the second deportation.  The accepted date is 721 BC.

Josephus op. cit. 9:14:1 “Shalmaneser, king of Assyria besieged Samaria three years, quite demolished the government of the Israelites, and translated all the people into Média and Persia.”  Shalmaneser V began the attack, but died toward the end of the siege.  Most of the remaining tribes of Samaria were removed by Shalmaneser before he died.  His successor Sargon completed this in 721 BC.

Sargon II (Is.20:1) recorded his campaign on the palace walls at Dur-Shárrukin (Khorsabad). “In my first year of reign, the people of Samaria to the number of 27,290 I carried away. Fifty chariots for my royal equipment I selected. The city I rebuilt. I made it greater than it was before. People of the lands I had conquered I settled therein. My official I placed over them as governor.”  Sargon called his rebuilt city Samarina.  Assyrian records say they took captive the “House of Omrí”.  (Omri had been Israel’s king c 875 BC, ref 1Ki.16:23-24.)  The kingdom/government of Israel ceased to exist as such.

The 6 ½ tribes of Ephraim, Zebulún, Ashér, Issachár, Dan, Simeón, half of Manasseh (west of the Jordan), those not previously removed by Pul, were now also gone from the Land.  The Land of Samaria became an Assyrian province with an Assyrian governor.  2Ki.17:24 “The king of Assyria brought people from Babylon, Cutháh, Avvá, Hamáth, Sepharváim, and settled them in the cities of Samaria in place of the sons of Israel. So they possessed Samaria and lived in its cities.”  The Land area of the ten tribes of Israel was repopulated with non-Israelites.

Some Bible historians think Sargon II didn’t remove all remaining peasants from northern Israel.  Over the years, any remaining peasants from the northern tribes became assimilated into the foreign peoples Assyria conquered and resettled in Samaria.  The (new) inhabitants of northern Israel became known as Samaritans.  The remaining southern kingdom consisted of Judah (some from Simeon lived in Judah), Benjamin, Levi.

The foreigners Assyria placed in the Land were a mongrel people who held various pagan beliefs.  2Ki.17:25-34 Assyria returned a captive (apostate) Israelite “priest” to the Land of Samaria to teach the new residents about God.  The result was mongrel religion which mixed corrupt pagan practices and superstitions with God’s ways.  e.g. 2Ch.34:6-7 many of the imported foreigners continued in their idolatry.  Je.41:5 these residents even gashed their own bodies (forbidden in Le.19:28 & De.14:1).

2Ki.18:9-12 is a recap. “In the 4^th year of [Judah’s] King Hezekiah, which was the 7^th year of Hoshea king of Israel, Shalmaneser king of Assyria besieged Samaria. At the end of 3 years they captured it [721 BC]; in the 6^th year of Hezekiah and 9^th year of Hoshea, Samaria was captured. The king of Assyria carried Israel away into exile, because they did not obey the Lord their God.”  Some think Hezekiah was co-regent in Judah with his father Aház for 12 years…the exact regnal dates are hard to pinpoint.  The northern kingdom of Israel was cast out because they continued to disobey Christ the Lord.  Over all their years of existence, the southern kingdom of Judah had a few good kings, e.g. Hezekiah.  But the northern kingdom of Israel had no good kings…they were all bad!

Deportation #3: Assyria’s third period of invasion of the holy Land was by King Sennacheríb (705–681 BC), who succeeded his father Sargon II. (Sargon may have been a son of Tiglath-Pileser III.)  2Ki.18:13 “In the 14^th year of King Hezekiah, Sennacherib king of Assyria seized all the fortified cities of Judah.”  This invasion of the southern Land is dated 702 BC.  1Ki.18:1-2 Hezekiah’s 29-year total regency was possibly c 727–698 BC.  If there’d been an initial joint reign of Hezekiah with his father Ahaz within that time, then the 14^th year of Hezekiah’s remaining sole reign is c 702 BC.

Assyrian (Akkádian) annals claim Sennacherib sacked 46 cities of Judah and captured 200,150 people!  Mic.1:8-13 lists some of the cities.  It may have been a dual campaign.  A number of Jews were carried away into Assyria.  2Ki.19:14-34 but when Sennacherib besieged Jerusalem, it was spared due to Hezekiah’s prayers.  v.35 “That night the angel of the Lord went out and struck 185,000 soldiers in the Assyrian camp.”  v.36 “Sennacherib departed, and returned home to Nineveh.”  He made Nineveh the capital of the empire, and it became the largest city in the world for 50 years.  There is no known deportation of any cities of Samaria (in the north) during Sennacherib’s rule.

2Ki.19:37 “Esarhaddon his son became king in his place.”  This is several years later.  Esarhaddon succeeded his father Sennacherib, and ruled for 12 years from 681–669 BC.

Deportation #4: The fourth period of invasion and deportation was by King Esarhaddon, during the reign of Manasseh (c 698–643 BC) king of Judah.  2Ch.33:10-13 “The army of the king of Assyria captured Manasseh and took him to Babylon. And when he was in distress he entreated the Lord his God and humbled himself. He was moved by his supplication, and brought him again to Jerusalem into his kingdom.”  Barnes Notes 2Ch.33:11 “Esarhaddon mentions Manasseh among his tributaries and from time to time, held his court at Babylon.”

In 680 BC, Esarhaddon rebuilt Babylon and resided there.  He conquered Judah.  King Manasseh of Judah (he wasn’t from the tribe of Manasseh) was Esarhaddon’s vassal and became one of his deportees.  Manasseh then repented to God and was restored as vassal king in Jerusalem.  Talmud scholar David Kimchí said Manasseh was carried to Babylon by the king of Assyria’s captains in the 22^nd year of his reign.  Circa 676 BC.

Around 140 years later, more than 40,000 Jews (Ezr.2:64) returned to the Land from exile.  Ezr.1:5 & 2:1 “Judah and Benjamin and the priests…The people who returned to Jerusalem and Judah, each to his city.”  Pulpit Commentary Ezr.2:1 “Jerusalem wasn’t the only site occupied by the people on their return. Many took up their abodes in the neighboring towns and villages, such as Jericho, Tekoah, Gibeon, Mizpah, etc.”  In 538 BC, these Jews came back to the prior tribal areas of Judah and Benjamin.

In the 530s BC, descendants of the foreigners that Assyria had moved into the Land opposed the returning Jews’ new work of rebuilding the temple.  Ezr.4:1-3 “The enemies of Judah and Benjamin heard the returned exiles were building a temple to the Lord God. They said to Zerubbabél, ‘We have been sacrificing to Him since the days of Esarhaddon who brought us here.”  The mixed foreign peoples now assimilated in the Land were suspicious of the Jews who just recently returned from Babylon.  These local adversaries alleged they too worshiped the God of Israel, and demanded they be included in the rebuilding…v.10 “The people whom the great and noble Asnappár deported and resettled in the cities of Samaria and the rest.”  Peoples previously imported into Samaria (Samaritans), Judah, and elsewhere.  Asnappar’s identity is uncertain; most think he was either Esarhaddon’s crown prince Ashurbánipul or chief officer.  Ashurbanipul may have finished the deporting done by his father.

Besides Israelites, Esarhaddon replaced others from “the rest” of the general area with easterners.  Ernest Martin People That History Forgot, p.121 “Eastern peoples were brought by the Assyrians in the 7^th century BC into the whole region we now call Syria, and not into Samaria alone.”  James Pritchard Ancient Near Eastern Texts, p.290…After completely destroying Sidon, Esarhaddon said of the Sidonian king, “I drove to Assyria his teeming people which could not be numbered.”

Charles Fensham The Books of Ezra and Nehemiah “We know from a cylinder of Esarhaddon that he conquered Sidon [c 677 BC?]…and it is most likely that northern Israel (Samaria) was also involved in the rebellion against the Assyrians.”  A rebellion in the Land that had been inhabited by the northern tribes of Israel.  Ezr.4:10 indicates further repopulation of Samaria…Ashurbanipul brought in more foreigners to become Samaritans.

Ashurbanipul (669–628 BC) succeeded Esarhaddon.  Jnh.3:5-10 God had sent the prophet Jonah from the northern kingdom of Israel to warn Nineveh c 770 BC (prior to Tiglath Pileser III).  The king and his people repented of wickedness.  But it wasn’t lasting.  After the death of Ashurbanipul, Nineveh was sacked in 612 BC…and never rebuilt (Nah.1:1, 9).  The Assyrian empire existed from 911–609 BC.

Again, the Is.7:8 prophecy said the northern kingdom of Israel would be destroyed in 65 years.  Gill Exposition “Israel entirely ceased to be a people when new colonies were introduced by Esarhaddon, the son of Sennacherib. This being exactly 65 years…Esarhaddon, after he had settled all his affairs in Syria, marched into Israel and there took captive all those who were the remains of the former captivity (excepting only some few), and carried them into Babylon and Assyria.”  From Lifeway Explore the Bible Quarterly notes, “The 65 years of Ephraim probably refers to 670 BC, when the Bible records the last of the Israelites were exiled by Assyrian ruler Esarhaddon and foreigners were put into Israel/Samaria”.  An amazing fulfillment!  God fulfills His prophecies.

JFB Commentary Ezr.4:2 “On a large cylinder in the British Museum is inscribed a long and perfect copy of the annals of Esarhaddon, in which details are given of a large deportation of Israelites from Palestine, and a subsequent settlement of Babylonian colonists in their place.”  The Esarhaddon Prism was mentioned by Colonel Rawlinson (1861 AD) the English explorer.

In Is.7:8, Isaiah prophesied to the southern kingdom of Judah about the shattering that would befall the northern kingdom of Israel in 65 years.  v.9 the Lord continues with a warning to Judah. “If you will not believe, you surely will not be established.”  Gill Exposition “If ye will not believe; the Targum adds, ‘the words of the prophet’, surely ye shall not be established, that is, in their own land.”  If the Jews don’t believe the prophecies, including the destruction of brother Israel, then the Jews too won’t remain as a kingdom!  v.17-25 Sennacherib subsequently invaded Judah and Deportation #3 occurred.

Then in 597 BC, King Nebuchadnézzar II began his exiling of Jews to Babylon.  In 587-586 BC, he destroyed Jerusalem and the temple.  The southern kingdom of Judah ceased as a nation (2Ch.36:20, 2Ki.24:14-15, e.g.).  God’s word through Isaiah was fulfilled!

Previously we read Je.7:15b, where Jeremiah wrote to Judah.  To now quote the entire Je.7:15. “I will cast you out of My sight, as I have cast out all your brothers of Ephraim”.  Christ the Lord said He would cast out disobedient Judah, as He had disobedient Israel.  That happened, as He said.  (For events of the next period, see the topic “Temple of Zerubbabel”.)

And our belief that Christ loves us and died for our sins doesn’t give us Christians a get out of jail free card if we were to continue to disobey God and adamantly refuse to repent!  Jesus said in Lk.6:46, “Why do you call Me ‘Lord, Lord’, and do not the things that I say?”  Christ requires the obedience of those who are His.

We began with God’s conditions & warnings to His people in De.28.  Let’s conclude with De.30.  v.1-2 “When all these things come upon you, the blessing and the curse, and you return to the Lord your God and obey Him with all your heart, then the Lord will restore you from captivity and have compassion on you.”

Yes, Christ is more than able to re-graft Israel (Ro.11:23), whom He loved!  De.30:6 “Moreover the Lord your God will circumcise your heart and the heart of your descendants, to love the Lord with all your heart.”  v.9-11 “Then the Lord will prosper you in the work of your hand and rejoice over you; if you obey the Lord your God.”  Christ concluded in v.19, “I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. Therefore choose life, that you and your descendants may live.”  (also see the topics “Two Covenants – Heart of the Matter” and “Repentance from Sin”.)

We can learn from the sad lesson of ancient Israel’s history…and can choose a life of obedience to the Christ who died for us!  Let’s us be among the blessed saints at the end of the Book who “Keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus” (Re.14:12).  We’ll be with Him forever!  Jesus is Lord!