The Hebrews called the Gentiles גויים, ἔθνη, _the nations_, that is, those who have not received the faith or law of God. All who are not Jews, and circumcised, are _goiim_. Those who were converted, and embraced Judaism, they called proselytes. Since the Gospel, the true religion is not confined to any one nation or country, as heretofore, God, who had promised by his prophets to call the Gentiles to the faith, with a superabundance of grace, has fulfilled his promise; so that the Christian church is now composed principally of Gentile converts; and the Jews, too proud of their particular privileges, and abandoned to their reprobate sense of things, have disowned Jesus Christ, their Messiah and Redeemer, for whom, during so many ages, they had looked so impatiently. In the writings of St. Paul, the Gentiles are generally denoted as Greeks, Rom. i, 14, 16; ii, 9, 10; iii; x, 12; 1 Cor. i, 22–24; Gal. iii, 28. St. Luke, in the Acts, expresses himself in the same manner, Acts vi, 1; xi, 20; xviii, &c....

COURT OF THE. Josephus says there was, in the court of the temple, a wall, or balustrade, breast-high, with pillars at particular distances, and inscriptions on them in Greek and Latin, importing that strangers were forbidden from entering farther; here their offerings were received, and sacrifices were offered for them, they standing at the barrier; but they were not allowed to approach to the altar. Pompey, nevertheless, went even into the sanctuary, but behaved with strict decorum; and the next day he commanded the temple to be purified, and the customary sacrifices to be offered. A little before the last rebellion of the Jews, some mutineers would have persuaded the priests to accept no victim not presented by a Jew; and obliged them to reject those which were offered by command of the emperor, for the Roman people. The wisest in vain remonstrated with them on the danger this would bring on their country; urged that their ancestors had never rejected the presents of Gentiles; and that the temple was mostly adorned with the offerings of such people; at the same time, the most learned priests, who had spent their whole lives in the study of the law, testified that their forefathers had always received the sacrifices of strangers. From the above particulars, we learn the meaning of what the Apostle Paul calls “the middle wall of partition,” between Jews and Gentiles broken down by the Gospel.

GENTILESCHI, Artemisia and Orazio de’, painters. Orazio (1565-1646) is generally named Orazio Lomi de’ Gentileschi; it appears that De’ Gentileschi was his correct surname, Lomi being the surname which his mother had borne during her first marriage. He was born at Pisa, and studied under his half-brother Aurelio Lomi, whom in course of time he surpassed. He afterwards went to Rome, and was associated with the landscape-painter Agostino Tasi, executing the figures for the landscape backgrounds of this artist in the Palazzo Rospigliosi, and it is said in the great hall of the Quirinal Palace, although by some authorities the figures in the last-named building are ascribed to Lanfranchi. His best works are Saints Cecilia and Valerian, in the Palazzo Borghese, Rome; David after the death of Goliath, in the Palazzo Doria, Genoa; and some works in the royal palace, Turin, noticeable for vivid and uncommon colouring. At an advanced age Gentileschi went to England at the invitation of Charles I., and he was employed in the palace at Greenwich. Vandyck included him in his portraits of a hundred illustrious men. His works generally are strong in shadow and positive in colour. He died in England in 1646. Artemisia (1590-1642), Orazio’s daughter, studied first under Guido, acquired much renown for portrait-painting, and considerably excelled her father’s fame. She was a beautiful and elegant woman; her likeness, limned by her own hand, is to be seen in Hampton Court. Her most celebrated composition is Judith and Holofernes, in the Pitti palace; certainly a work of singular energy, and giving ample proof of executive faculty, but repulsive and unwomanly in its physical horror. She accompanied her father to England, but did not remain there long; the best picture which she ...