An attempt has been made to prove that in many places where the word

Gentile occurs in the New Testament it really means the scattered tribes of

Israel who had so far left the teaching and customs of their calling as to

have become:

'Aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the

covenants of promise' (Eph. 2:12),

but such an idea is in conflict with the assertion of Paul when he said,

'Unto which promise our Twelve Tribes, instantly serving God day and

night, hope to come' (Acts 26:7).

James too addressed his epistle to

'The Twelve Tribes which are scattered abroad' (Jas. 1:1).

The so -called 'lost' tribes have been a convenient peg upon which to

hang other teachings beside this.  Neither Paul, nor James, nor old Simeon

would have considered the dispersion to be 'Gentiles'.  In Ephesians 2, where

at verse 12 this assertion is made, we have an intended correspondence with

Romans 9.  In Romans 9 Paul speaks of his kinsmen 'according to the flesh'

who are Israelites and that to them pertain 'the covenants'.  In Ephesians 2

he spoke to those who had been 'Gentiles in the flesh', and it is an

impossibility to teach that a 'Gentile in the flesh' could really mean 'an

Israelite' who had departed from the teaching or customs of this people.

Wherever an Israelite may have settled, and however 'Gentilized' he might

have become, he would always remain one of Paul's 'brethren according to the

flesh'.  These 'Gentiles in the flesh' were rightly called 'Uncircumcision',

the negative description of all nations outside the covenant.  To such

Gentiles, in contrast to Israel, Barnabas and Paul were ministers, as

recognized by Peter, James and John in Galatians 2.  Further, immediately

following Ephesians 2:12 comes the glorious new creation of 'one new man',

the 'both' having access by one Spirit unto the Father.  Where is there a

shred of evidence that the dispersed and Gentilized Jew ever entered into

such an exclusive relationship?  The Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word goi

is ethnos and is found both in the LXX and in the New Testament many many

times.  Liddell and Scott say of ethnos under heading number (3),

'Generally, a nation, people, but in the New Testament and

ecclesiastical Greek ta ethne, the nations, Gentiles, i.e.

All except

Jews and Christians: cf. Barbaros'.

Under the heading Barbaros, Liddell and Scott say,

'Barbarous, i.e. not Greek, strange to Greek manners or language,

Just as the Scriptures divide mankind up into Jew and Gentile, so Plato

divided mankind into Barbarians and Hellenes.  The Egyptians had a like term

for all foreigners.  The Romans even called themselves Barbarians, until the

Greek language and literature were naturalized at Rome.  Our word 'heathen'

is derived from the Greek ethnos.  The Greek word ethnos occurs some 160

times in the New Testament and is variously translated Gentiles, heathen,

nation and people.  Of this number, ethnos is translated 'Gentiles' 93 times.

It will not be possible, nor will it be necessary to review separately each

of the 93 occurrences, but we can give a specimen from the Gospels, Acts, the