‘Gentile’ is an English word (derived from the Latin gens, meaning family or nation), that is used to refer historically or at the present day to non-Jews in a context concerned with Jews or Judaism. In the Bible, it is frequent in the King James Version, translating, in the Old Testament, the Hebrew goyim or other words meaning ‘nations’, which usually, but not always, refer to other nations as distinct from Israel; sometimes in the Psalms they simply mean all nations. Modern versions generally use ‘nations’ rather than ‘gentiles’.
