About a week ago I decided to download a “Word of the Day” app on my iPhone. It was in an effort to help increase my vocabulary and because, well, I love learning new things.
Over the last week there have been easy words that I have already known, obscure words I could never use, and my favorite; new words that teach me something and expand my understanding of something. Today’s word was just that.
At the scheduled time of two o’clock PM my phone alerted me to check out the word of the day. I opened it and was hit with a three letter word that led me down a bit of a rabbit trail.
goy: n. – gentile.
Literally the shortest definition I have seen yet. If you don’t know what gentile means, it is simply anyone not Jewish. Any culture outside that of the Jewish faith.
As someone who likes to understand things fully and take things apart, I needed to know more. I went to google and started searching. I knew there was something biblically relevant here.
The following may be elementary for some of my theology and biblical studies friends and I knew some of what I learned, but I just had a great time learning more about what the Word really tells us.
Goy comes from the Hebrew word for nation. It was used to refer to the gentiles or anyone not jewish. This led me to look at some of the bible verses I know use the word nation.
First, since we know the New Testament was written in Greek, I needed to make sure the word used for nation was of the same meaning in Greek. The Greek word used for both gentiles and nation is:
ethnos: where we get the english word ethnic.
So in the Great Commission in Mathew 28:19…
“Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them in the Father, Son, and the Holy Spirit,…”
…it tells us to go to all ethnic groups. Not to go to each country, or city, or church to church. There is no set list of places we need to go. Simply put an ethnos is any group of people who have the same beliefs and behaviors.
TANGENT BEGIN
Using goy in place of ethnos, it tells us to go to anyone not Jewish. This is one area where I appreciate the Greek over the Hebrew.
In my research I read some articles online where some have misinterpreted this to mean we should not reach out to the Jews, because they are already chosen and had their time as God’s people. All I know is that Jesus would want me to love and share Him with anyone I come into contact with.
TANGENT END
This also means I do not need to go half way around the world or on a trip to the inner city of Chicago, to fulfill The Great Commission. Where are the ethnos in your every day life? What ‘groups of people’ do you come across on a regular basis?
Even in a local workplace you have different ethnic groups. You have the sports fans who talk of yesterdays game in the break room. There are cliques everywhere. In schools they are all over the place. It’s where we learned the divisions.
Try looking at the Great Commission in simpler terms. The nations are all around you.
