Biblical Jews were generally from the southern kingdom of Judah. Around BC930, the kingdom split to make two kingdoms, northern (Israel) and southern (Judah). The northern kingdom consisted of ten tribes, while the southern kingdom consisted of three tribes and later, two. The northern kingdom (Israel) was conquered in BC721 by Assyria and taken captive. At this point, they became divorced from God (Jer 3:8), were no longer bound by the terms of the Mosaic Covenant and were called “not my people” by God in Hosea 1:9 but later, in Christ, became a people of God once again.
According to the story, God divorced the northern kingdom of Israel in 721 BC (Jer 3:8). The Mosaic Covenant was a covenant of marriage between Yahweh and the nation of Israel, but after being divorced the house of Israel could no longer lay claim to that covenant. Those Israelites became strangers to the covenants of promise but God promised to bring them back into the fold in the latter days, the days of the end of the old covenant religious system and temple community which is what the New Testament is about.
The term “gentile” was used to refer to any non-Jew in the ordinary sense. For example, those who mocked and carried out the actual crucifixion (Matt 20:19) and those who over-ran the temple in AD70, Roman legions consisting of Italians, Greeks, Arabs, Syrian and Persian detachments (Luke 21:24).
To Jews, exiles from the northern kingdom were considered ‘gentiles’ (GK Ethnos) and were called “nations” because they had stopped being Torah observant and had stopped practicing circumcision. To a Jew, apostate Israelites dispersed among the nations were no different than any other nation. These were the gentiles of Matthew 24:31 that were gathered, the fullness of which came in by the time of the end, which was in the first century.
Many gentiles were non-Jewish descendants of the tribes of Israel who were scattered among the nations, those whom Peter and James called the “elect diaspora” (1 Peter 1:1, James 1:1). The gentiles Paul was writing to were these descendants of the tribes of Israel. They were being redeemed the nations. These were the gentiles Paul spoke of in...
(Rom 11:25 ESV) Lest you be wise in your own sight, I do not want you to be unaware of this mystery, brothers: a partial hardening has come upon Israel, until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in.
Some gentiles were referred to as “Greeks” were descendants of the tribes of Israel who were Greek cultured Israelites who worshipped God with Jews at the festival (John 12:20). They were the “Greeks” of Acts 18:4 whom Paul reasoned with in the synagogue and the Greeks in Corinth who believed the gospel per Romans 1:16, like Justus (Acts 18:7) and Cornelius (Acts 10:2), and like the gentile proselytes of Antioch (Acts 13:42-43). In each case, there was a link to old covenant Israel.
Both Paul and Jesus referred to some of their Israelite audiences as 'gentiles', which clearly shows that they were paganized Israelites.
1 Corinthians 12:1-2 “Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I do not want you to be ignorant: 2 You know that you were GENTILES, carried away to these dumb idols, however you were led.”
Those “gentiles” in Corinth were hellenized Israelites who were uncircumcised idol worshipers. Israelites would have been led away from their Israelite religion. Pagans weren’t led away from anything.
Paul also called his Roman audience 'Gentiles' when he said...
(Rom 9:24 ESV) Even us, whom he hath called, not of the Jews only, but also of the Gentiles?
Paul then followed up in Roman 9:25 by quoting from Hosea 1:9 to inform his Roman gentile audience that they were the “people once not a people but now have become a people” that Hosea spoke of. Clearly, these Roman gentiles were descendants of Abraham.
Paul also called his Ephesian audience of descendants of the tribes of Israel 'gentiles'.
Eph 2:11Therefore remember that at one time you Gentiles in the flesh, called “the uncircumcision” by what is called the circumcision, which is made in the flesh by hands
Eph 3:1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles They were called “gentiles” and “uncircumcision” by Jews because, like the Colossians, they were guilty of not keeping the ritual of circumcision.
Non-Israelite nations were never required to be circumcised. Still speaking to the same people as in Eph 2:2, it is clearly seen that these gentile Ephesians were descendants of the tribes of Israel, part of the diaspora who had adopted pagan cultural practices but who had responded to the gospel and come out of the nations. Through the disciple's great commission, these elect diaspora were brought near when they were once far, grafted in with those of the natural vine, the “other sheep” found by the shepherd, once considered strangers but later adopted as sons, become a people of God when at one time they had not been.
Jews even considered other Jews to be gentiles, of a different ethnos, because they were apostate, or held to opposing religious or political beliefs. Even Jesus considered disobedient Jews to be “gentiles”
“If your brother sins, go and show him his fault in private; if he listens to you, you have won your brother. 16 But if he does not listen to you, take one or two more with you, so that by the mouth of two or three witnesses every fact may be confirmed. 17 If he refuses to listen to them, tell it to the church; and if he refuses to listen even to the church, let him be to you as a GENTILE and a tax collector.” (Matthew 18:15-17)
Did you catch that? Jesus told his fellow Jews that an unrepentant Israelite should be to them as a GENTILE. Proof positive that sinful and non-Torah practicing Israelites were considered “gentiles” by their fellow Jews.
So, we know who Jews were and we have seen examples of the three different types of gentiles. Two of the three were linked to Israel by faith and physical descent. They were the only type of gentile who needed salvation. Nobody today is a biblical t to Jew or gentile that needs salvation.
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