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Bible Dictionaries
People (2)
Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament
or (λαός and ὁ λαός)
λαός (without art._) designates ‘Israel’ in Judges 1:5 (cf. Sirach 46:7, Wisdom of Solomon 18:13), ‘Gentile believers’ in St. James’s speech at the Council (Acts 15:14); the fact that St. Luke himself does not use λαός of Christians is justly regarded as a proof of the early date of Acts (Harnack, Acts of the Apostles, Eng. tr._, London, 1909, p. 51). λαοὶ Ἰσραήλ in the prayer of the Church (Acts 4:27) is an interesting addition to those ‘gathered together against the Lord and against his Christ’ (Psalms 2:2). In Romans 9:25-26 St. Paul applies the promises of Israel’s restoration in Hosea 1:10; Hosea 2:23 to the calling of the Gentiles (‘God, in reversing His sentence on Israel, embraces in the arms of His mercy all who were not His people, and says of them all, that they should be My people and beloved’ [E. B. Pusey, Minor Prophets, London, 1886, p. 22]; cf. Romans 11:25-26; Romans 11:32). In 1 Peter 2:10 Hosea’s prophecy is applied to the Gentile Christians of Asia Minor: they, before receiving the gospel, belonged to the most diverse races, and were not a people at all; now they are become ‘a people of God,’ even a λαὸς εἰς περιποίησιν (v. 9; cf. Isaiah 43:21, Malachi 3:17 LXX_). In Titus 2:14, Christians are called a λαὸς περιούσιος-the LXX_ rendering of òÇí ñÀâÀiÌÈä in Exodus 19:5, Deuteronomy 7:6 (see S. R. Driver’s notes, Cambridge Bible for Schools, ‘Exod.’, Cambridge, 1911, p. 171, ICC_, ‘Deut.’2, Edinburgh, 1896, p. 100). The occurrence of λαός (without art._) in Luke 1:17, Acts 18:10 also deserves attention. ὁ λαός is the usual designation for the Jewish people in the religious or political sense (Matthew 2:4; Matthew 4:23, John 11:50; John 18:14, Acts 3:23; Acts 21:28; Acts 26:17; Acts 26:23, Hebrews 7:11; 2 Peter 2:1). In Matthew 1:21 (τὸν λαὸν αὐτοῦ = τὸν Ἰσραήλ in Psalms 129:8 LXX_) the apologetic purpose of this Gospel reveals itself as in Matthew 1:1 -‘Jesus the Messiah, who fulfils the promises to the house of David and the seed of Abraham.’ ὁ λαὸς αὐτοῦ also designates Israel in Luke 1:68; Luke 7:16, Romans 11:1; Romans 15:10, St. Paul having in mind in Romans 11:1 a phrase that appears in 1 Samuel 12:22, Ps 93:14, Psalms 94:4 LXX_. Israel’s title, ὁ λαὸς τοῦ θεοῦ, is extended in Hebrews 4:9; Hebrews 11:25 to the NT Church: ‘it was a point with the Author to identify Christian Hebrews with “the people of God” ’ (A. B. Davidson, Epistle to the Hebrews, Edinburgh, n.d., p. 95)._
In the foregoing survey we see the designation passing over from the OT to the NT Church. The process was gradual. The idea would not occur to the members of the Christian community at Jerusalem, who continued to attend the Temple and the synagogues, that their kinsmen according to the flesh had lost their right to be called the λαὸς θεοῦ. On the contrary, they were willing to admit that the people and their rulers had acted κατὰ ἄγνοιαν in putting Jesus to death, and they looked for their repentance and conversion, which should bring in the promised καιροὶ ἁναψύξεως and χρόνοι ἀποκαταστάσεως πάντων at the speedy return of their Lord (Acts 3:17-26). But as time went on, and Jewish hardness and unbelief remained unchanged, they must have recalled such sayings of Jesus as those about the vineyard of the wicked husbandmen being given to others, and the supper that should not be tasted by the first-bidden guests (Mark 12:9, Luke 14:24). It is remarkable that while Jesus Himself occasionally referred to the Jews as ὁ λαὸς οὗτος, He never once spoke of them as the λαὸς θεοῦ (cf. DCG_ ii. 334). John 8:39 reports His having denied that His opponents were true ‘children of Abraham,’ which reminds us of St. Paul’s demonstration in Romans 3-4, Galatians 3-4 that they who have the right to call Abraham their father are those only who believe God’s promise of salvation as he did (cf. Romans 9:7). Another correspondence between this Gospel and St. Paul appears in our Lord’s greeting Nathanael as ἀληθῶς Ἰσραηλείτης (John 1:47), and the Apostle’s distinguishing an Israel κατὰ σάρκα (1 Corinthians 10:18) from an Israel τοῦ θεοῦ (Galatians 6:16; which may refer to the Jewish believers of St. Paul’s circle, but more probably designates all Christians). In discriminating between circumcision as an external rite and the circumcision of the heart (Romans 2:29; cf. Philippians 3:3) St. Paul follows the OT (e.g. Deuteronomy 10:16, Jeremiah 9:26). It is true that in Romans 11:17 f. the Jews still remain the λαός, and the Gentiles are ‘ingrafted’ into the people to whom the promises belong, as the wild olive branch into the good olive tree-a comparison which Harnack thinks ‘must have been very unpleasing to Gentile Christians’ (Date of Acts, p. 48, note 2). But in 1 Corinthians 12:13 (cf. Galatians 3:28, Romans 10:12) Jews and Gentiles are ‘one body,’ having received the same Spirit; and this fundamental idea is fully developed in St. Paul’s later Epistles (Colossians 3:11, Ephesians 2:14; Ephesians 3:6 f., Philippians 3:3 f.)._ St. Peter, without explicitly designating his readers ὁ λαός, applies to them all Israel’s characteristics (1 Peter 2:5; 1 Peter 2:9), and says that it has now devolved upon them to rise to the high ideal set forth in the Law (1 Peter 1:15 f.); with this we may compare St. Paul’s warning to the Jewish and other Christians of Corinth (1 Corinthians 10:1 f.) not to dally with idolatry, lest they should ‘perish in the way’ as their fathers did before reaching the promised land, notwithstanding their having had means of grace which corresponded with the two sacraments instituted by Christ.
Although we Gentile Christians are fully warranted in believing that the title of ‘the people of God’ is included in the ‘all things’ that are ‘ours’ (1 Corinthians 3:21), yet we are forbidden by St. Paul’s words in Romans 11:1-2 ‘to limit God’s “people whom he foreknew” to a spiritual Israel, foreknown and predestined to be saved through their reception of the gospel’ (E. H. Gifford, Speaker’s Commentary, ‘Romans,’ London, 1881, p. 191). We believe that God accepts the äðÌÅðÄé ‘Here am I’ of those who are called to rule over Jewish congregations (see ‘New Chief Rabbi’s Message,’ Scotsman, Feb. 21, 1913).
Literature.-Much valuable information may be found in the works of Zahn and Harnack, both of whom have given special attention to the subject of this article. See T. Zahn, Introduction to the NT, Eng. tr._, Edinburgh, 1909, i. 81, note 9, ii. 142 f., 253 f., 545; A. Harnack, Expansion of Christianity, Eng. tr._, do., 1904-05, i. 60, 67, note 1, 80, note 2, 300, 315, 343 f., The Date of the Acts and of the Synoptic Gospels, Eng. tr._, London and N.Y., 1911, pp. 42, 45, 48, 56, 58, 63, 112. Of great interest is the statement of Harnack (Expansion, p. 344 ff.) that the designation of Christians as ‘the third race’ was ‘perfectly common on the lips of the heathen in Carthage about the year a.d. 200.’ He quotes Tertullian (ad Nat. i. 8.), who says, ‘Plane, tertium genus dicimur.’ The Greeks, Romans, and all other nations were ‘the first race,’ the Jews ‘the second,’ the Christians (with their spiritual God, their lack of images and sacrifices, and their contempt for the heathen deities) ‘the third’ (cf. p. 352).
James Donald.
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Hastings, James. Entry for 'People (2)'. Hastings' Dictionary of the New Testament. https://www.studylight.org/dictionaries/eng/hdn/p/people-2.html. 1906-1918.
