Editing Gentile (section)

{{short description|Term referring to a non-Jew}}
{{Other uses|Gentile (disambiguation)}}{{Italic title}}{{Jews and Judaism sidebar}}
'''''Gentile''''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|dʒ|ɛ|n|t|aɪ|l}}) is a word that today usually means someone who is not Jewish.<ref>{{cite Merriam-Webster|gentile|access-date=2014-06-06}}</ref><ref name=":4" /> Other [[Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites|groups that claim Israelite heritage]], notably [[Mormons]], have historically used the term ''gentile'' to describe outsiders.<ref name=LDSWebsite /><ref name="jon">{{cite journal |last=Needham |first=John |title=The Mormon-Gentile Dichotomy in PMLA (letter to editor) |journal=Publications of the [[Modern Language Association]] of America |volume=114 |issue=5 |pages=1109–10| doi=10.2307/463472 |date=1999 |jstor=463472 |s2cid=164189324 |doi-access=free }}</ref><ref name=collins>{{cite Collins Dictionary|gentile}}</ref> More rarely, the term is used as a synonym for ''heathen'', ''[[pagan]]''.<ref name=collins /> As a term used to describe non-members of a religious/ethnic group, ''gentile'' is sometimes compared to other words used to describe the "outgroup" in other cultures<ref name=Magid> See for example a discussion of the similarity to the Japanese term ''[[gaijin]]'' in {{cite journal | last=Magid | first=Shaul | title=Theorizing 'Jew" 'Judaism' and 'Jewishness': Final Reflections |journal=Journal of Jewish Identities |volume=11 |issue=1 |date=2018|pages=205–215 | doi=10.1353/jji.2018.0014 | via=Academia.edu | url=https://www.academia.edu/41218495 | access-date=29 December 2022| doi-access=free }}</ref> (see [[List of terms for ethnic out-groups]]).

In some translations of the [[Quran]], ''gentile'' is used to translate an Arabic word that refers to non-Jews and/or people not versed in or not able to read scripture.<ref>{{CiteQuran Ayah|3|75|b=y|c=y|t=p}}</ref>

The English word ''gentile'' derives from the [[Latin language|Latin]] word {{wikt-lang|la|gentilis}}, meaning "of or belonging to the same people or nation" ({{etymology|la|{{wikt-lang|la|gēns}}|clan, tribe, people, family}}). Archaic and specialist uses of the word ''gentile'' in English (particularly in linguistics) still carry this meaning of "relating to a people or nation."<ref name=collins />  The development of the word to principally mean "non-Jew" in English is entwined with the history of [[Bible translations]] from Hebrew and Greek into Latin and English. Its meaning has also been shaped by [[Rabbinic Judaism|Rabbinical Jewish]] thought and [[Christian theology]].<ref name="Ophir & Rosen Zvi">{{cite web |url=http://humanities1.tau.ac.il/segel/adiophir/files/2015/08/Rozen-Zvi-and-Ophir-Paul-and-the-invention-of-the-Gentiles.pdf |last2=Ophir |last1=Rosen Zvi |title=Paul and the Invention of the Gentiles |website=tau.ac.il}}</ref>