GENTILES
All nations that were not of the Israelite race (Is. 49:6; Rom. 2:14; 3:29).
The Jews were God’s chosen people; Their high religion contrasted sharply with the false cults of the Gentiles. There were rigorous laws to prevent the corruption of customs and true religion, punishing promiscuity with idolaters.
This led the Jews to despise the Gentiles, and to be unfair to them.
God had chosen Israel to be “a light to the Gentiles” (Is. 49:1-6); he also had promises for them (Is. 2:2-4; Am. 9:12; Zech. 9:7).
Peter, instructed by the vision in Joppa, crossed the barrier that separated the Israelites from the pagans, visited Cornelius the Gentile, eating with him, which greatly scandalized even the Christian Jews (Acts 10:28; 11:3 ).
When Paul, from the steps of the Antonia tower, declared that God had given him the commission to preach to the Gentiles, the Jews gathered in the temple courtyard demanded his death with a loud cry (Acts 22:21, 22) .
The early churches were made up primarily of Gentiles.
The first council of Jerusalem rejected the imposition of the burden of the Mosaic ordinances on Christians from the Gentiles (Acts 15:1-29).