Gentiles

One of the words that is difficult to understand in the Book of Mormon is Gentile.  Part of the challenge is that it means different things in different contexts.  In the Bible Dictionary it says this of the word Gentiles: “As used throughout the scriptures it has a dual meaning, sometimes to designate peoples of non-Israelite lineage and other times to designate nations that are without the gospel, even though there may be some Israelite blood therein. This latter usage is especially characteristic of the word as used in the Book of Mormon.”  One of the most obvious meanings is that of the people outside of the House of Israel at the time of Jesus who received the gospel through the administration of the apostles.  For example, in the first usage of the word Nephi recorded this summary of his father’s teaching: “And after they had slain the Messiah, who should come, and after he had been slain he should rise from the dead, and should make himself manifest, by the Holy Ghost, unto the Gentiles” (1 Nephi 10:11).  We know much about the taking of the gospel to these Gentiles in the New Testament through the ministry of the apostles in eastern Europe and Asia Minor.  The Savior referred to this same group when He was among the Nephites, saying about those disciples at Jerusalem, “And they understood me not, for they supposed it had been the Gentiles; for they understood not that the Gentiles should be converted through their preaching” (3 Nephi 15:22).  Again here the Gentiles are those who were converted by the early apostles.

The Book of Mormon in general, though, uses the word Gentiles to refer to the European nations and America.  The majority of the references are found in the writings of Nephi and the words of the Savior in 3 Nephi.  We see this particularly in Nephi’s great vision when he so much of the future events related to his posterity.  An angel showed Nephi “the nations and kingdoms of the Gentiles,” and Nephi told us that “many waters… divided the Gentiles from the seed of my brethren.”  He then described a man that is generally believed to be Columbus who was “among” these Gentiles and who crossed the waters to meet the descendants of the Lamanites.  Nephi went on to describe the Revolutions War, speaking of “mother gentiles” and “gentiles that had gone out of captivity” (1 Nephi 13:3, 10, 17, 19).  From this it is pretty clear that the Gentiles spoken of in this chapter were the European nations as well as those who were in America.  When the Savior visited the Nephites He also seemed to refer to these same nations when He spoke of the Gentiles.  He said, “But wo, saith the Father, unto the unbelieving of the Gentiles—for notwithstanding they have come forth upon the face of this land, and have scattered my people who are of the house of Israel” (3 Nephi 16:8).  “This land” of course was the Americas where the Nephites were when Jesus was giving this message, and so those who “came forth upon the face of this land” and scattered the remnants of the Nephites were the Europeans.  He also told the Nephites how His words would “come forth from the Gentiles, unto your seed which shall dwindle in unbelief because of iniquity” (3 Nephi 21:5).  Those words that were to come forth of course were the Book of Mormon and the “Gentiles” that brought them forth were people of America.  There are other uses of the word gentile in the Book of Mormon, but many point to the people of Europe and America as the bearers of the title gentile.  Most importantly, though, is that the gospel is for both “Jew and Gentile” and that “all are alike unto God, both Jew and Gentile” (2 Nephi 26:33).