When a Plural is not a Plural: The Difficulty in Translating εθνη

In Matthew 28:19-20, Jesus tells his followers to make disciples of all nations. But, what does the word “nations” mean? Many missiologists have contended that because εθνος means “ethnic group,” the plural εθνη should be translated as “ethnic groups” or “people groups.” But does any of these translations accurately convey the sense of εθνη? An analysis of the usage of εθνη and its Hebrew equivalent גוים in biblical literature reveals that this word concept has a rich background and is translated very inconsistently in English translations. It is usually translated as “nations,” “gentiles” or “pagans,” which for the average English reader are totally unrelated concepts. Are εθνη and גוים so polysemous that they have this diverse range of meanings, or could it be that for the ancient Israelite, “nations,” “gentiles” and “pagans” all meant much the same thing? Could we have erred in assuming that the grammatically plural forms of εθνη and גוים carry a semantically plural meaning of the singular? In this paper I argue that for the ancient Israelite, “nations,” “gentiles” and “pagans” were one concept, and that εθνη and גוים were often used, not to describe a plurality of distinct nations or ethnic groups, but to collectively describe everyone who was not part of their group: that is, those people from “other nations,” who are also “gentiles” and “pagans.” This paper also offers suggestions as to how to translate this important term.