1:25,26, is dealing with the great secret of the present dispensation, both

terms are used.  The exception mentioned a few lines above is Ephesians 3:21,

where the A.V. reads:

`Unto Him be glory in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages,

world without end.  Amen'.

This is corrected in the R.V. margin, which reads `Gr. all the generations of

the age of the ages', which instead of looking back, as does Ephesians 3:5 and

Colossians 1:26, looks down the vista of time to the consummation when God

shall be all in all.  See This Generation9 in the volume devoted to Prophecy

for another approach to this problem.

Gentile.  The English word Gentile comes from the Latin, and means one

belonging to the same class or clan (gens).  Gens in Latin indicates the race

and surname, and in Roman law a Gentile indicated a member of the same gens.

The Scriptural standpoint, however, is that of the Hebrew, and the word Gentile

in the Bible refers to the non -Jewish nations of the earth.  The Greek word

translated Gentile is ethnos, and this has given rise to a number of words in

English such as ethnology, the science which treats of the various races of

mankind.  Ethnos is probably derived from ethos, `custom, manners, etc., and

means a people bound together by similar habits, manners and customs'.  Those

of our readers who may use Dr.  Bullinger's Greek Lexicon, should be apprised

of a slip in the explanatory note under the word Gentile.  It reads: `In the

Old Testament those who were not of Israel (this of course is true) and in the

New Testament those who are neither of Israel nor of the Church, see 1

Corinthians 10:32'.

It is the reference to 1 Corinthians 10:32 that needs care, for a

superficial reading uses this verse to indicate the threefold division, `Jew,

Gentile and Church of God'.  The fact is, however, that the word translated

`Gentile' in this verse is hellen, which is the more limited term `Greeks'

as opposed to the `Barbarians'.  Both, however, were `Gentiles' in the eye of

the Jew, but while all Hellens were Gentiles, all Gentiles were not and could

not be Hellens.  The word `Gentile' meets us in the Old Testament first in

Genesis 10, where the progeny of Japheth, the son of Noah, is given:

`By these were the isles of the Gentiles divided in their lands; every

one after his tongue, after their families, in their nations' (Gen.

The R.V. corrects this by reading, `Of these were the isles of the

nations divided', for until we have a Jew, we cannot have a Gentile, the one

being used to distinguish the rest of the population of the earth from the

Hebrew nation, and the Hebrew nation did not exist until after the call of

Abraham in Genesis 12.  The Hebrew word thus translated is goi, a word derived

from a root, meaning to form into a mass or a body.  It is used in Job 30:5,

where it is rendered `among (men)'.  Goi indicates a congregation of men

associated together.  The word goi, in the plural, occurs six times in Genesis

10, being translated `nations' with the exception of the rendering of verse 5

already noted.  It is evident that the word Gentile could not be used in

Genesis 12:2, in the promise to Abraham, `I will make of thee a great nation',

neither could the word Gentile be used in such a passage as Exodus 19:6, `an

holy nation'.

We find the word translated `heathen' on occasion (Deut. 4:27), and

`people' as in Joshua 3:17, but after considering all the factors in the case,