Jul 30, 20233 min read

What is a Messianic Gentile?

Why do some Messianic groups have this all wrong?

One of the greatest misdirections in all of Christianity is the use of the word "gentile" to represent the Greek word "ethnikos" (people groups) or the Hebrew word "goyim" (nations). Let me explain. Gentile is of Roman origin from "gens". In that culture, it referred in part to the upper-crust Etruscans who founded and ruled Rome at the beginning. It was by birth and family name that one was determined gentile. Gens is specifically in reference to identity by birth. This is the opposite of the meaning of Greek ethnikos, the word the authors of scripture used to describe people groups. Read below for a synopsis of what a Greek historian from that time period says and your mind will be opened to what scripture is actually saying.

Polybius was a Greek historian who lived in the 2nd century BC and wrote a universal history of the Mediterranean world, focusing on the rise of Rome. In his work, he used the term ethnikos (ἐθνικός) to describe people who belonged to a certain nation, culture or ethnicity. He contrasted ethnikos with politikos (πολιτικός), which meant someone who was a citizen of a polis (city-state) and participated in its political life.

According to Polybius, ethnikos was not a fixed or innate characteristic like race as we understand it, but rather a result of education, customs and habits. He argued that people could change their ethnikos identity by adopting different ways of life and values. For example, he praised the Romans for being able to assimilate various peoples into their empire and make them adopt Roman ethnikos. He also criticized some Greeks for being too attached to their own ethnikos and refusing to learn from other cultures.

He argued that people could change their ethnikos identity by adopting different ways of life and values.

Polybius did not give a precise definition of ethnikos, but he implied that it involved some common elements such as language, religion, laws, traditions and history. He also recognized that there could be variations and subdivisions within a single ethnikos group, such as different tribes, clans or regions. He used the term ethnikos both in a positive and negative sense, depending on whether he approved or disapproved of the behavior and character of a certain people.

If this is the term that the authors of the Bible used, what were they really saying with regard to people that joined Israel before and after the arrival of Yeshua?

Messianic Judaism is plagued by a serious problem. So-called Messianic Gentiles should be recognized for the ethnikos they are in the congregation and not the ethnikos they were. The doctrine of distinction where there is a common ethnikos is a manufactured separation that does not exist among Christians or non-Messianic Jews. Why does it exist among Messianics?

Let's look closely at the words we use. "Gentile" has no place among followers of Yeshua. If we are going to follow scripture as it was written, let's use ethnikos and it's related words from their original context. Everyone following the language, religion, laws, traditions and history of Israel and the Torah is grafted in, period.