God-Fearers: Separated to Do : FFOZ Blogs

Today I am referring to a couple of Blogs featuring topics of the place of Gentiles in the Kingdom.
I have pasted portions to peak your interest!

Shalom

Are Gentiles Cool?
By Rabbi Levi Welton

"As a rabbi, I am intrigued by how people translate terms from the Old Testament. Written in ancient Hebrew, the Torah is replete with words that have multiple meanings, layers and messages often lost in translation from ancient script to contemporary dialect. One of these terms is "gentile" or "non-Jew." I have heard this term being used by many different groups and even as it appears in publications, essays and articles. Perhaps I am being overly analytical, but I believe this translation is a massive and subtle misrepresentation.

When I hear the word "non-Jew," all I know about them is that the person in reference is not of the Jewish faith or culture. They could be of any other religious or cultural background, but this expression strips their identity down into one faceless lump of "gentile." Is this a spiritually mature way of speaking about other people? As a "non-entity"?

If you read the "Word of God," you will see that not once does God use the term "non-Jew" in the Torah. Throughout the entire Bible, the Creator of heaven and earth describes people who aren't Jewish not as "non-Jews" but as "other families" or "nations of the earth" (Genesis 28:14). This illustrates that the Torah view of Jewish people in society is "us withthem" and not "us against them." This may be why Judaism is not a religion that believes you must convert to her in order to obtain divine salvation. On the contrary, Judaism actively discourages converts from converting and instead highlights the "righteous men and women" of the Bible who attained epic spiritual heights without the need to convert (Talmud Sanhedrin 58b)."http://www.huffingtonpost.com/rabbi-levi-welton/gentiles-are-cool_b_3295375.html


God-Fearers: Separated to Do
By Toby Janicki

In the first chapter of my book, God-Fearers, I sought to define the term Gentile (goy) and show that it is not a derogatory term as some have supposed. After all, Genesis uses it to describe both Abraham’s offspring—“I will make of you a great nation (goy)” (Genesis 12:2)—and Ishmael’s—“I will make him into a great nation (goy)” (Genesis 17:20). [1] In fact, the nation of Israel is called a goy in the Torah. One of the strongest examples of this is found in Exodus 19:6:
God-Fearers: Separated to Do : FFOZ Blogs