> -----Original Message-----
> From: [log in to unmask]
> [mailto:[log in to unmask]]On Behalf Of Richard
> Landes
> Sent: Monday, September 27, 1999 8:20 AM
> To: [log in to unmask]
> Subject: Re: pagans vs. gentiles
>
>
> At 09:53 AM 9/27/99 +0100, you wrote:
> >Dear All
>
> >Sometimes I dream of a world in which the word 'pagan' was banished from
> >scholarly discourse.
> >
> >Which of us in discussing the political history of a particular
> country would
> >think of doing so in terms of 'indigines' and 'foreigners', except very
> >occasionally in the case of topics such as zenophobia or migration.
> >Graham Jones
> >
> what about "gentiles," which doesn't have the necessarily negative
> connotations of pagan. gentile philosopher makes more sense than pagan
> (peasant) philosopher, and is unquestionably an accurate
> description of how
> both christians and jews saw such people as plato and virgil.
>
> richard
>
The problem with "gentile(s)" is that the term is inevitably associated in
students minds with "non-Jewish," which means the word covers Christians
too. I also have qualms about how accurate such an appellation would be if
applied to Christians after, say, 200 CE.
Mike
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