Rabbinic Ideas of Jews and Gentiles Have Deep Roots in the Bible

In their book Goy: Israel’s Multiple Others and the Birth of the Gentile, Adi Ophir and Ishay Rosen-Zvi examine the evolution of ancient Jewish notions of the non-Jew, from the Bible, through the Second Temple Period, and in ancient rabbinic texts. Focusing on the term goy, which literally and originally meant “nation,” they argue that in the early parts of the Bible, Israel is simply one of many goyim. But in the later books of Ezra and Nehemiah, the difference between Jew and Gentile begins to grow starker, so that by the talmudic era a strict, binary distinction prevails that erases differentiation among non-Jews. While praising the book for “offering a veritable treasure of the best scholarship on the subject,” Christine Hayes also takes issue with its thesis: