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could not have dealings with one of any other tribe of Israel, then the case
is so absurd and so untrue as to claim no further time or study.
Let us pass over for the time being the usage of the word ethnos in the
epistles, and observe its usage in the book of the Revelation. There it
occurs twenty -two times. The simplest treatment of this phase of our study
will be to give a concordance of the word, and let the Scriptures speak for
themselves:
'To him will I give power over the nations' (Rev. 2:26).
'Every kindred, and tongue, and people, and nation' (5:9).
'A great multitude ... of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and
tongues' (7:9).
'Thou must prophesy again before many peoples, and nations; and
tongues, and kings' (10:11).
'It is given unto the Gentiles ... forty and two months' (11:2).
'And they of the people and kindreds and tongues and nations' (11:9).
'And the nations were angry, and Thy wrath is come' (11:18).
'A man child, Who was to rule all nations with a rod of iron' (12:5).
'Over all kindreds, and tongues and nations' (13 7).
'To every nation, and kindred, and tongue, and people' (14:6).
'She made all nations drink of the wine' (14.8).
'All nations shall come and worship before Thee' (15 4).
'The cities of the nations fell' 16:19).
'Peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues' (17:15).
'All nations have drunk of the wine' (18:3).
'By thy sorceries were all nations deceived' (18:23).
'A sharp sword, that with it He should smite the nations' (19:15).
'That he should deceive the nations no more' (20:3).
'And shall go out to deceive the nations ... Gog and Magog' (20:8).
'The nations of them which are saved' (21:24).
'The glory and honour of the nations' (21:26).
'The leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations' (22:2).
The reader will not fail to observe how closely many of these passages
resemble the phraseology of Genesis 10, 'tongues, families, nations'. In
this same chapter Babel comes into view, and in Genesis 11 comes the building
of the tower of Babel. In the Revelation we find 'Mystery Babylon' bringing
the beginning of this kingdom of evil (Gen. 10:10) to its inglorious end. It
would be an insult to the reader's intelligence to attempt a laboured proof
that these twenty -two occurrences of the Greek word ethnos refer to Gentiles
as distinct from Jews. The writers of the Gospels had no compunction and
faced no linguistic problem over using ethnos sometimes of Israel 'He loveth
our nation' (Luke 7:5) where Israel is intended, and 'the nations of the
world' (Luke 12:30) where the Gentiles are intended.
From a canvass of the use of ethnos in the New Testament it appears
that as a general rule, where it occurs in the singular, the word refers to
Israel, and the translation will be 'nation', but where it occurs in the
plural, the translation will be either 'nations' or 'Gentiles'. When Paul
declared that he was an apostle of the Gentiles, it was in a context in which
his own people Israel were in apposition (Rom. 11:12,13). The fulness of the
Gentiles is to anticipate the salvation of 'all Israel' (Rom. 11:25,26). The
blessing of the Gentiles in Romans 15:9 follows, and is distinguished from
the ministry of Christ to 'the circumcision'. What therefore are we to
understand, when we read in the Prison epistles, the word 'Gentiles',
remembering that Israel had become 'lo -ammi' 'not My People' and God had