GENTILE

person who is not Jewish. The word stems from the Hebrew term goy, which means a nation, and was applied both to the Hebrews and to any other nation. The plural, goyim, especially with the definite article, ha-goyim, the nations, meant nations of the world that were not Hebrew. The Latin versions of the Bible translated goyim as gentes (singular: gens), or gentiles. In modern usage, Gentile applies to a single individual, although occasionally (as in English translations of the Bible) the Gentiles means the nations. In postbiblical Hebrew, goy came to mean an individual non-Jew rather than a nation. Because most non-Jews in the Western world were Christians, Gentile came to be equated with Christian. Strictly speaking, however, any non-Jew is a Gentile. In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (Mormons), whose members regard themselves as the true Hebrews, Gentile denotes any person, including a Jew, who is not a Mormon.