Book Review: A Study into the Meaning of the Word Gentile As Used in the Bible

Title: A Study into the Meaning of the Word "Gentile" as Used in the Bible 

Author: Curtis Clair Ewing

Date: not shown

Publisher: Church of the Covenants

Length: 16 pages

ISBN: none

Quote: "Using the word Gentile to translate these words is often misleading." 

Though printed as a separate book, this little monograph was originally written to fill up a few full-sized pages in a magazine. It's short and concise, and what the author accomplishes is to demonstrate that the words translated by "Gentile" properly mean "tribe" or "nation" and could include the nation of Israel. (Abraham was told his descendants would become a great nation, goy, the same word that's translated in the context of "foreign nation" by "Gentile.")

It's easy to smile and dismiss Ewing as just another non-Jew (or non-Mormon) who didn't want to be a Gentile, but his linguistic study makes a solid case that all instances of goy and ethnos in the Bible should be translated by "nation," "tribe," or "people."

I've not found much information on Curtis Clair Ewing, but have been given to understand that at some point in his career he espoused the Anglo-Israelite Identity Theory, a view of European history that has never been proved or disproved. Like some Anglo-Israelites my family knew well, he apparently accepted the version that teaches that North America was the Promised Land, and, since real descendants of Israel had been led to North America, the U.S. (and presumably also Canada) didn't need to support the nation now known as Israel. So of course they were accused of being haters, for political reasons, whether any of them really was or not. (The ones we knew were not--but many people have heard that they were.) Bible students may or may not want to display copies of Ewing's books, in view of his reputation. The copy I have is usable but never was meant to be displayed, so if you want it for reference or as a rarity only, you might do well to buy it from me.

Amazon has had a copy of this book for sale (a nicer copy than I have, with a jacket--my copy was folded and stapled) but doesn't have one now; it's not an easy book to find. My copy was cheap when new and I'll sell it cheap now, in real life. About the price of cleaner, prettier copies I can make no guarantees.