It was pel haps impossible for the Jews, absorbed as they were in the contemplation of their own especial mission, to rise into any true or profound conception of the common Ijrotherhood of all nations. Hedged round liy a multitude of special institutions, and taught to regard the non-observance of these customs as a conditi(m of uncleanness, imbued, too, with a blind and intense national pride — the}' often seem to regard the heathen as only existing at all for the purpose of punishing the apostasy of Jnda'a (Deut. xxviii, 49; 1 Kings viii, 33, etc.), or of undergoing vengeance for their enmity towards lier (Isa. l.xiii, 6). The arrogant, unreasoning hatred towards other nations, generated by too exclusive a brooding upon this partial and nar- row conception,' made the Jews the most unpopular nation of all antiquity (Tacitus, Hist, v, 2; "gens te- terrima," ib. v, 8 ; Juvenal, Sat. xiv, 103; Quint. Just. iii, 7, 21 ; Pliny, xiii, 9 ; Died. Sic. Eel. 34 ; Dio Cass.
GENTILIS
GENTILLET
Ixviii, 32 ; Philostr. Ajiolog. v, 33 ; Ammian. Marcel, xxii, 5, '■^fatentcs Jiidaii," etc., '■'■contrary to all men,'' IThess. ii,15). See Jew. This disgust and scorn un- fortunately fell on the earlj' Christians also, who were generally confused with the Jews until the time of Bur- Cochba (Tacit. An7i. xv, 44; Sueton. Claud. 25; Nir. IG). To what lengths the Jews were carried in recip- rocating this bitter feeling niaj' be seen in the writings of the Kabbins ; the Jews did not regard the Gentiles as brethren, might not journey with tiiem, might not even save them when in peril of death (Maimonides, Rozeach. iv, 12, etc.), and held that thev would all be destroyed and burned at the Messiah's coming (Otho, Lex. itahbiii. s. v. Gentes, p. 231 ; Eisenmenger, Eiit- deckt. Judent. ii, 206 sq.). There is the less excuse for this violent bigotrj% because the Jews not only held that all nations sprang from one fiither (Gen. x), but had also received abundant prophecies that God was but leaving his heathen children in temporary darkness (Acts xiv, IG), and intended hereafter, in his mercy, to bring them under tiie ^Messiah's sceptre, and make them "one fold, under one shepherd" (Isa.lx, 2, and passim ; Mic. iv, 1 ; Zeph. iii, 9 ; Psa. xlv, 18 ; ex, 1, etc.). The main part of the N.-T. history is occu- pied in narrating the gradual breaking down of this l-Uffuroixoi' rou f/)ony^(oi} (the strong barrier of imme- morial prejudice which separated Jew and Gentile, Eph. ii, 14), first in the minds of the apostles, and then of their converts. The linal triumph over tliis obsta- cle was mainly due to the inspired ministry of him who gloried in the title of ciodaKaXog twv tOviov (1 Tim. ii, 7 ; see Conj'beare and Ilowson, i, 219 sq.), who has also given, in a few pregnant sentences, tlie most powerful description of the blessings which God had granted to the Gentiles, the means of serving him which they possessed, and the shameless degoneracj' which had ensued on their neglect of the natural law, written on their consciences (Rom. i, 18-32). See Heathen.
In one or two places the words D'l'IJ and tOi^r] are used as proper names. Thus we have "Tidal, king of nations," i. e. of several conquered tribes (Gen. xiv, 1, 2; Kalisch, ad loc). In Josh, xii, 23 we iind " the king of the nations of Gilgal," where Gajjlm is possi- bly the name of some local tribe QiaaiXtvc Trnju^iAi- ag, Interpr. Anon.). In Judg. iv, 2, " Ilarosheth of the Gentiles" probably received its name from the mixture of races sut)jugated by Jabin, and settled in the north of Palestine (Donaldson, Jasliar, p. 2G3). See H.VKosHETir. The same mixture of Canaanites, Phoenicians, Syrians, Greeks, and Philistines, origin- ated the common expression " Galilee of the Gentiles," C'l'lJin ?"'P5, Sept. r«X(Xa(rt dWofiiXwp V. r. rwv t6- vojv, Isa. ix, 1 ; Matt, iv, 15 (Strabo, xvi. 760 ; Jose- phus, Life, 12 ; Euseb. Onom. s. v.). See Gat.ilee.
On the various meanings of the phrase "Isles of the Gentiles" (D^Bn '^'^X, Gen. x, 5; Zeph. ii, 11; Ezek. xxvii, 15, etc.), see Gesenius, Thesaurus, p. 38, 272, and Isle. On the Court of the Gentiles, see Tejipli;, and Josephus, War, vi, 3. — Kitto, s. v.
Gentilis, Giovanni Valentino, an Arian, was born at Cosenza, in Calabria, about 1520. Having be- come a convert to the Reformation, he was obliged to take refuge at Geneva, where several Italian families had already formed a congregation. Here he became dissatisfied with the orthodox doctrine of the Trinitv, and, together with George P.landrata, John Paul Alci- ati, and Matthew Grimbaldi, formed a society to dis- cuss the sense of the passages of Scripture referring to the subject. " The result of their discussions was that the terms co-essential, co-equal, and co-existent, were improperly applied to the Son and Spirit, and thatthej' were subordinate in nature and dignity to the Father. But however privately their meetings were held, such information was conveyed to the Italian consistory as led them to suspect that the associates had departed