A Gentile is a person who is not a descendant of Jacob or of his twelve sons. Gentiles, then, are people who are not Jews.
* In Scripture, Gentiles are occasionally referred to as the "uncircumcised" because many of them did not circumcise their male children as the Israelites did.
* Because God chose the Jews to be his special people, they thought of the Gentiles as outsiders who could never be God's people.
* The Jews were also called Israelites or Hebrews at different times in history. Everyone else was called a Gentile.