Excerpt from Discover the Story of Your Biblical Heritage, by Lawrence Blanchard, pp. 6-10
Of all the promises that God made to Abraham, this next one is, perhaps, the most important in terms of understanding what the Bible says and what it means by what it says. This promise that God made to Abraham was that he would “be the father of a multitude of nations” (Genesis 17:4). This promise was made also by “covenant”:
Now when Abram was ninety-nine years old, the LORD appeared to Abram and said to him, “I am God Almighty; walk before Me, and be blameless. I will establish My covenant between Me and you, and I will multiply you exceedingly.” Abram fell on his face, and God talked with him, saying, “As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you will be the father of a multitude of nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I will make you the father of a multitude of nations.”– Genesis 17:1-5
To begin to grasp the significance of this covenant promise, let’s define the word “nations” and how it is variously translated in other parts of the Bible.
Meaning of Words:
What does “nations” mean? “Nations” is translated from the Hebrew word goy. – Strong’s Hebrew Dictionary #1471
Goy can be translated by the following words: Gentile, heathen, nation, people. So goy can be translated either Gentile or heathen or nation or people.
Goy. Gentile, heathen, nation, people… It is difficult to ascertain the exact definition of the term. However, if one takes the various usages into consideration...one must conclude that the basic idea is that of a defined body or group of people, or some specific large segment of a given body. The context will generally indicate the specific quality or characteristic which is to be understood… The term goy is used especially to refer to specifically defined political, ethnic or territorial groups of people without intending to ascribe a specific religious or moral connotation. – Harris, Archer, Waltke, Theological Wordbook of the Old Testament, Vol. I, Chicago, IL: The Moody Bible Institute, 1980, pp. 153-154
There are two points here about the Hebrew word goy. First, it is variously translated “nation,” “Gentile,” “heathen” or “people” depending on the translator’s choice. In other words, the word “nation” is interchangeable with the word “Gentile.” We have been taught that the word “Gentile” means someone who is not a “Jew.” But that is incorrect. It’s simply another word for “nation.”
Nation = Gentile
Gentile = Nation
Second, the context determines the specific meaning of the word “nation” (or “Gentile”), who it applies to and how it’s under-stood. In other words, if you want to understand who “nation” or “Gentile” refers to, it must be determined from the context in which it is used.
There is another helpful English definition of “nation” that we can use to determine what it means. Consider the original definition of this word:
Nation, as its etymology3 imports, originally denoted a family or race of men descended from a common progenitor, like tribe, but by emigration, conquest and intermixtures of men of different families, this distinction is in most countries lost. – Noah Webster, An American Dictionary of the English Language, Vol. I, New Haven, CT: S. Converse, 1828, (emphasis added in part)
We have highlighted for emphasis the fact that the “etymology” (or origin of the word) of “nation” is “a family or race of men descended from a common progenitor.”4 Of course, “nation” has all but lost that original meaning due to foreign immigration and political identity such as the United Nations. That’s how we think of the word today – not a race of people, but many races in a specific country, regardless of race.
If we take this original English definition and the context of Genesis 17:1-5, there are definite clues as to how “nations” is used and applied. For example, God told Abraham that he would be “the father of a multitude of nations.” The Hebrew word for “father” is ab. The word is used overwhelmingly in the Old Covenant Scriptures in “kinship terms…[with]…the basic meaning ‘(natural) father (of his children)’ ”5 and often can refer to father, grandfather, great-grandfather and so forth. Furthermore, the context tells us that God would “establish My covenant between Me and you [Abraham] and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant” (Genesis 17:7). The word “descendants” or “seed” in other translations is the same word we discussed previously meaning physical descendants (Genesis 13:14-16, 15:1-5 and 22:17). So, the facts of the context of “nation” or “nations” indicate that the promised “nations” that would come from Abraham would be his physical descendants.
This is an important point, as you will discover in future chapters, because there is a major religious assumption today that “Gentiles” means people who are not the physical descendants of Abraham. When the translators use the word “Gentiles,” they are implying this interpretation which may not be accurate. In the case and context of God’s promise to Abraham that he would become the father of many “nations,” the meaning and application of “nations” (or “Gen-tiles”) as anyone other than his physical offspring, cannot be true.
This assumed definition of “Gentiles” in modern day Christian theology forces the translators of the Hebrew word goy (goyim – plural) to use “nations” instead of “Gentiles.” Imagine if Genesis 17:5 read this way: “I will make you the father of many Gentiles.” Can you see where that would cause confusion in the mind of the reader? If it is assumed that “Gentiles” does not refer to the physical descendants of Abraham, then “Gentiles” would not fit the context of Genesis 17:1-56 since the context clearly refers to “nations” as his physical descendants.
“Nations” (or “Gentiles”), in the context of Genesis 17:1-5, means the physical descendants of Abraham. By the way, the word “Gentiles” is from the Latin word gentilis.7 Let’s look at the origin and meaning of the word:
Meaning of Words:
Gentilis, adj. family, hereditary; tribal; national; m. (masculine noun) clansman, kinsman. – John C. Traupman, The New College Latin & English Dictionary, New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1981, p. 122
Another important derivative of genere is the n. gens, originally, “the group of all those who, in the male line, descend from a common (free) male ancestor,” hence a clan. The adj. is gentilis, belonging to the clan, hence in Late Latin (180-600 A.D.), a non-Roman, a foreigner, and in Late to Medieval Latin (600-1500 A.D.) a non-Jew, a non-Christian. – Eric Partridge, A Short Etymological Dictionary of Modern English, 2nd Ed., New York, NY: Macmillan Co., 1959, p. 250
As you can see, originally gentilis referred to a family line and meant the same as the word “nation.”
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3 Etymology means derivation of a word…word origin. – Dictionary. reference. com. 4 Progenitor: 1. a biologically related ancestor: a progenitor of the species... – Dictionary.com (online).
5 Ernest, Jenni, Claus, Westermann, Theological Lexicon of the Old Testament, Vol. 1, Peabody, MA: Hendrickson Publishers, 1997, pp. 1-2. 6 In the Greek version of the Old Testament Scriptures called the Septuagint or LXX, the word translated “nation” is ethnos. It is the Greek equivalent of the Hebrew word goy. We’ll take a look at ethnos later on in this book. 7 The word “gentilis” was first used in the Latin Vulgate Bible, which was published by Jerome around 390 A.D
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