For the 1st part of this series (Nations, Pagans, Gentiles) click here.
From here on I will transliterate the term ἔθνος as ethnos.
When thinking over the idea of ethnos as people or nations, a quote from a movie came to mind.
“Asgard is not a place, it’s a people.”
Thor Odinson; Thor Ragnarök
This line is important when thinking about ancient cultures because in these cultures a person is more often identified with a people group rather than a place of living.
“Then one who escaped came and told Abram the Hebrew. And he was living at the oaks of Mamre the Amorite [in Canaan]…”
Genesis 14:13 LEB
Abraham, identified as a Hebrew,* is living at the Oaks of Mamre in Canaan. His ethnos is in his ancestry, not his location.
*While we often identify the H-ebre-ws as the descendants of Abraham, the name actual takes its roots from Abraham’s great-great-great-great-grandfather, Eber. עבר (Eber) compared to עברי (Hebrew).
Even our word of study, ethnos, is the root of our english word ethnicity. This idea of a people or culture is deeply entrenched within the term.
So how does this play out in the Old Testament itself?
First and foremost we can see this with Israel. They were a nomadic group living within Egypt, then wandered the desert for 40 years, and only after 5 books into the Bible do they arrive at a land which is later called Israel.
The ethnos of Israel were the members of the people descended from Jacob. The land still didn’t not receive the name Israel at their arrival in the land. The land of Canaan was still full of Canaanites.
Ethnos draws from the connection of culture but also heritage.
We see this true with all the different cultures living within the land of Canaan as well. While the land is called Canaan, many of the residents of the land are not identified as Canaanite, but as separate ethnos.*
*I will note “Canaanite” does act as a blanket term in parts of the Historical Books, but these groups still maintain their individual identities throughout the Bible as well.
We can trace each of these ethnos back to different figures found in the story of Genesis. Each of these ethnos find their significance in their heritage.
I don’t want to spoil too much for Part 3 so we will stop there.
But let’s take away from Thor a hint:
“[Ethnos] is not a place, it’s a people.”
Thank you for joining me for part 2. Part 3 is already in the works, but I thought a popular media reference would be a good way to help draw these ideas out.
Trent Hipp 