As we witness the turmoil in and amongst the nations at the moment, Psalm 2 is one of those passages of Scripture which speaks volumes about our world today. It begins: Why do the heathen rage, and the people imagine a vain thing?
The word “heathen” is an older translation of the Hebrew word “goy”. If you have ever spoken with a Jewish person, you will hear them refer to Gentiles as “goyim”. Despite some anti-Semites believing otherwise, this is not intended as an insult because “goyim” literally means “nations”. That is why in later translations of the Bible, the translators substituted the word “heathen” for “nations”. Sadly, those who have failed to understand this have persecuted the Jewish people because they have taken offense at the term. I recently came across a copy of the Jewish Daily Bulletin published in New York on Tuesday, 16 January 1934. A short article read as follows: Max Hirschenberg and Moritz Schriesheimer, Jewish employees of a Karlsruhe firm, were arrested today by the political police and sent to a concentration camp. Secret police declared that Aryan girls employed by the firm had said, “we can no longer stand the Jewish molestation.” Hirschenberg is also charged with having insultingly referred to non-Jews as “Goyim.” The word “Goyim” is merely a translation of the Hebrew word for Gentile.
To prove the point above, in the New Testament, the corresponding word for “goy” is “ethne”, the source of our English word “ethnic”. It is used in Matthew 28:19 when Jesus says: Go therefore and make disciples of all the nations [ethne], baptising them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all things that I have commanded you; and lo, I am with you always, even to the end of the age. Amen…
