Shalom Fellow Israelite,
Psalm 83:2-4: "For behold, Your enemies make a tumult; and those who hate You have lifted up their head. They have taken crafty counsel against Your people/am, and consulted together against Your sheltered/hidden/treasured ones. They have said, 'Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation/goy, that the name of Israel may be remembered no more'" (Psalm 83:2-4 emphasis added).
For a number of years now I have had cause to suspect the usage, in the English translations, of the Hebrew word "goy" and "goyim." The more I thought and prayed about it, the more I began to be alarmed, especially after reading Psalm 83. Indeed, if the enemies of Israel want to cut us off from being a nation/goy, what better way of doing it than through a change in the definition or translation of words? If, for example, "goy" is understood to mean a non-Jewish person, heathen, or gentile/non-Israelite, then Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob's progeny/seed, who according to YHVH's promises were supposed to be a "goy gadol" (great goy) and m'lo-ha-goyim (fullness or multitudes of nations), would actually turn out to be non-Jewish individuals, heathens, and gentile/pagans. Does not that sound like replacement theology?
Who would be interested in replacing the Israelites as a "nation" and a "company of nations"? The Web Encyclopedia, Wikipedia, provides us with a non-too-subtle hint as to one of the greatest enemies of the Elohim of Israel and His chosen nation/goy, Jacob.
From Wikipedia: "The term Gentile (from Latin gentilis, by the French "gentil", female: "gentille", meaning of or belonging to a clan or tribe) refers to non-Israelite peoples or nations in English translations of the Bible. The Greek word ethnos was translated gentiles when the context for the base term 'peoples' or 'nations', Hebrew, גוי (goy) and נכרי (nokhri) in the Hebrew Bible and the Greek word ἔθνη (éthnē) in the New Testament, indicated non-Israelite peoples or nations. The term gentiles is derived from Latin, used for contextual translation, and not an original Hebrew or Greek word from the Bible. Following Christianization of the Roman Empire, the general implication of the word gentile became "non-Jew." [The Jews at the time represented "the nation of Israel" including the lost, or hidden treasure of YHVH.]
"Ethnos" is typically translated "Gentile." But we have to remember that in the Church's understanding even when it is rendered "nation" all too often it is perceived as a non-Israelite. In Damascus a Jew by the name of Ananias had a vision where "… the Lord said to him, "Go, for he [Saul, the former persecutor of the Believers] is a chosen vessel of Mine to bear My name before Gentiles/ethnos, kings, and the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15). Was Ananias referring to the promises to Abraham, Sarah, and Jacob: "Be fruitful and multiply; a nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body (Genesis 17:6; Genesis 35:11 emphases added)? Was Paul another one who was sent out to the nations to procure the sons of Israel (the "lost sheep") who had become nations and kings? I'm sure Yeshua didn't change his mind when He said that He was sent only to the lost sheep of Israel. In the following scriptures Paul writes (quoting from the Tanach): "For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery, lest you be wise in your own estimation, that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles [ethnos] has come in. And so all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Zion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob…" (Romans 11:25-26 emphasis added). Again, the usage of "Gentiles" totally takes the reader away from understanding the "mystery of the blindness of Israel." The "fullness of the nations/goyim" is of course quoted from the blessing to Ephraim in Genesis 48:19). Additionally, what does "all Israel" and a "Deliverer who comes out of Zion to turn away ungodliness from Jacob," mean if these expressions have nothing to do with Jacob and his seed or progeny?
A similar case could be made in regard to Peter's commentary, where he quotes from the Tanach (Old Testament) about Israel: "But you are a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy nation/ethnos" (Exodus 19:5-6; 1 Peter 2:9). According to the doctrine of the Catholic Church, the Protestant denominations, and unfortunately the Messianic Jewish churches also, these scriptures apply only to the "once- you- were- not- my- people" (Hosea 1:9-10 words spoken to the northern house of Israel), but now are viewed as the Gentiles who are in the 'holy and universal Church,' and are therefore regarded as the new "Israel of God" or the "one new man." What has enabled Christendom to come to this conclusion is the way that this one Hebrew word - "GOY" - has been tampered with.
My question to you is: Did St. Jerome and the Catholic Church have any reason to introduce a translation of the Bible (the Vulgate) that would eliminate Israel as YHVH's legitimate nation/goy? It is not that Latin did not have a word for nation. As a matter of fact, the origin of the English "nation" comes from the Latin "natio" (close in sound to the Greek "ethno," which is the root word the Greeks used for the Hebrew "goy," as mentioned above).
YHVH defined "goy" and "goyim" when He divided the people and divvied out to them their lands (see Genesis 10:5, 32). Thus the true definition of "nation/goy" has three basic aspects: a people, tribe, or families living on a piece of real estate/land and subject to one government. Thereby we could say that government, people, and land are the necessary components that define a "nation." If we look at the covenant with the forefathers, it always entailed these three: land, a people, and YHVH's kingdom government (or man's).
What is so amazing is that even Jewish-Israel of today, as well as the Messianic Jews do not identify themselves as a "goy." They make use of the term "goy" or "goyim" exclusively for non-Jews or "Gentiles." However, "goy" is still the one Hebrew word that YHVH uses to unite us as one people, and one nation (see Ezekiel 37: 22). Without correcting this obvious mistranslation and misunderstanding, the "one new man" idea of Ephesians 2:15 is a nice concept, but it does not bring about unity. The existence of thousands of Christian denominations attest to this fact; nor does it bear witness to YHVH's faithfulness in keeping covenant with Abraham and the "goy gadol" - "great nation" - that was to issue forth from his loins.
Shabbat Shalom,
Ephraim
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