Nation and Nation States

Why we need to understand the difference between the modern Nation state and Nation. As a note, If you wish, I have now written an additional blog "Understanding Israel" that extends atleast in part from this blog.

Introduction

Reading the word nation in the Bible, we often read it with our modern political mindset. We often read ‘nation’ in an identical way to our understanding of a ‘nation-state’.

This makes sense, in the last century or so in particular nation-states have become the primary identifying factor, at least for many people, our nations’ have flags, distinct borders and passports that give us legal responsibilities and protections. The problem is, however, that the biblical and historical world was very different from the modern world.

As we dive into this, I don’t want to lose the link and overlaps between these two ideas, but I do want to draw out some crucial distinctions. If we don’t we can not only misinterpret scripture but also place expectations of one onto the other.

It matters that we rightly understand the difference between “nation” in the ancient world of the Bible and “nation-state” in the modern world.

It matters for reading the Bible, for loving our neighbour, and for mission.

It matters for how we even consider ourselves in terms of identity, the struggles different people go through, especially when understanding themselves, and the way we interact with the wider world. So let’s dive in.

1. The Biblical Languages Use the Word “Nation” to describe Ethnic Peoples, not Political States

In the Old and New Testaments, the Hebrew word for nation is ‘goyim’ (plural of goy) the Greek word ‘ethnos’.

The basic meaning of both these terms is ethnic group or people.

This is what the Bible means when it talks about nations, not nation-states which are often made up of numerous people groups (or nations).

These nations (ethnos / goyim) are groups who share common culture, history, language, worldview and often ancestry.

They often did not have a defined political territory, central authority, or a single national flag. These may have developed to degrees, but they were never primary.

The Great Commission calls us to make disciples of all nations (Matthew 28:19, NIV). The Greek word here for nations is ethnē, which speaks of people groups, not 20^th Century nation-states. This is important because, as said, within modern ‘Nation states” are many ‘Nations”.

Some countries are walking the journey of becoming multi-cultural nation states formally. They aim to function as a “Nation” (Political entity) and many “Nations” (cultural / ethnic groups).

Historic empires were somewhat like this however they normally did not confuse the two. The empire (political entity) and the ethnicities within it were evidently not the same. Often the ethnicities or religious groups within empire had their own legal processes for their community which then submitted to the wider Imperial rule of law. In the modern world, this can be confusing for people.

One can be Australian (citizen) and Aboriginal (from a specific clan or people)

One can be French (Citizen) and Moroccan (Ethnically)

One can be Turkish (Citizen) and be Greek, Laz or Kurdish ethnically.

Now, the reality is that people, whether embracing or struggling with this, will often feel the natural need to sacrifice one for the other or otherwise feel torn at all times as one identity, for historic or cultural reasons, often feels in conflict with the other. To be practical, often there is no actual resolution, rather a tension.

Sometimes nations have a distinct form of national identity cultivated around ethnic expression. Traditionally, Turkish nationalism, as an example, was like this, with exceptions. Minority languages were discouraged; a central language mandated and ethnic identities often redefined to align more closely with the Nationalist based identity.

Kurdish people for instance, were at times redefined as ‘Mountain Turks’. Now, without casting dispersions, nation-states seek to create unity and these are mechanisms used to one degree or another by all nation states.

I say this simply to emphasise, when thinking of biblical nation and even political worldview, nation-states have nearly always been made up of nations.

When God promises to bless all peoples on earth through Abraham (Genesis 12:3), He uses a word (goyim) which, in context, does not indicate a clearly defined sovereign territory but instead groups, clans, and tribes.

Nation states try to replicate the sense of identity that ethnic groups have but naturally run into difficulties.

2. Ancient nations were about ‘who you were born to, not where you were born in’.

Identity in the biblical world was found in kinship, tribe, language, and normally shared religion. It rarely had anything to do with a centralised political state or “country” in the modern sense.

In the ancient world, you were part of a nation by birth and by belonging. You were a Jew because you were born of Jewish parents. You were a Greek because your father was a Greek. You were a Turk because your grandparents and great-grandparents had all been Turkish for centuries.

It had nearly nothing to do with where you were born, only to whom you were born into.

“The nations in the Old Testament are ethnolinguistic and kinship-based groupings, usually identified through descent from a common ancestor… They were not nation-states in the modern sense.” Christopher J.H. Wright, The Mission of God (2006), p. 455

We see this clearly in Genesis 10, the Table of Nations.

The table of nations lists seventy nations which descend from Noah’s three sons. These people are not primarily administrative areas with central governments and defined borders. They are family groupings which have split, multiplied, and grown into clans and cultural people groups.

You can see how this works because, when the list of nations in Genesis 10 finishes, the text then tracks the numbers of people in each clan as they multiply. So, these nations are primarily kinship-based family units.

The same is true for the identity of the Israelites. Even when Israel is in exile in Babylon or Persia, they are still Jews, they are still a nation. Being Jewish in the diaspora was about shared descent and history and covenant and worship—not simply geography or nation-state.

In considering the Jewish people for instance, we need understand there has always been the ‘Jewish Nation’ or the ‘People of Israel’, even without the modern nation state.

To bless Israel, the nation, stemming from Genesis 12:2 - 3, is to bless the people (גּוֹי gôwy, go'-ee) descended from Abraham. I will talk more about this in a later blog.

In 2025, identity has become a hot topic, self-identification along numerous lines, national identification and the resurgence of ethnic or cultural identification in response to nationalism and globalism has made this an area of conflict.

The word ‘nation’ often gets thrown around with little understanding. We need slow down and ditch the slogans and start to think more deeply.

3. The Modern State Is a Recent, Post-Enlightenment Invention

The modern nation-state with clear political borders and sovereignty, legal citizenship, passports, international recognition is a 17th–19th century idea. It particularly rose up in the West after the Treaty of Westphalia in 1648.

As the European empires started to collapse, more distinct national political entities often based on European geographic administrations emerged.

Benedict Anderson, in his book ‘Imagined Communities’, says

“The nation is an imagined political community… imagined as both inherently limited and sovereign.” Benedict Anderson, Imagined Communities, (1983)

Don’t miss this because the intention has often been good. These new nation states were intended to be ‘limited’, meaning the end of imperial conquest and ‘sovereign’ meaning internally self-ruling. To hold these new nation states together, despite the diversity within is an altogether different challenge. Symbols, myths, new stories of heroes and villains, centralised education systems, national languages all sort to create modern national identity. Sometimes this was easy as the diversity was limited, others exceptionally difficult.

Even ‘successful’ nation-states, have struggled, even well before modern multi-cultural presence.

France for instance, maintained a strong national identity on one hand but has at times struggled with the fact that the Catalan population shares a clear bond, culturally and linguistically with the larger Catalan population in Spain. The Catalan region of Spain, even recently tried to separate from the nation-state of Spain. Why? Because many see themselves firstly as Catalan, not truly Spanish. The result of most nation-states is some form of assimilation, either by force, coercion or simply practical conformation.  

To come back to the key point in this: historically nations were ethnically based and deeply relational.

Modern states are more about government systems, legal citizenship, and collective national identity.

This is not to say that modern states are wrong or illegitimate. However, we need to take care not to project our modern political ideas and categories back onto the biblical world or even onto our discussions of identity and ideas in the modern world.

4. God’s heart has always been for all peoples.

Scripture has a remarkably consistent theme of God’s desire to bless not just Israel, the people but all nations.

Psalm 67:2 says, God called the person and people of Israel “so that your ways may be known on earth, your salvation among all nations.”

John in Revelation sees this hope fulfilled in Revelation 7:9, where he sees “a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb.” (NIV)

In both these passages, the original languages use words that describe people by their culture, ethnicity, and language. It is not a crowd of the approximately 195 nation-states but a crowd of every ethnic people group in the world, vastly more than these nation-states.

This matters for the way we practice our faith.

When we look at the mission of God or community of God in geopolitical terms and start to equate “Christian worldview” with “national ideology” or political power, we corrupt God’s intentions for his community.

I recently saw a post by a popular Christian political influencer, he made the statement, somewhat paraphrased as either...

“You must choose Christian nationalism or Leftist Globalism and it’s moral decay”.

Such is garbage and we must not fall for such ignorant demands that we choose one of two false positions.

Don’t choose a false merger of the kingdom of heaven and the kingdom of political states in Christian nationalism.

It is Jesus’ kingship that defines us, not a President.

Don’t choose submission to those who pose themselves as false messiahs in globalism, presenting a parallel kingdom without nation, tribe or tongue either but undermine the Kingship of Jesus through submission to every base instinct.

Rather, choose Jesus, as true king, establishing a kingdom without boundary, without nation-state, or human law, choose the kingdom of God and his righteousness (Matt 6:33) a kingdom not of this world but of the heavens (John 18:36)

So often we worry about the things that don’t matter, seek first the kingdom.

When we take in the scope of God’s heart for all people groups—citizens and non-citizens, migrants and minorities, refugees and stateless—we are freed up to love, serve, and witness in creative ways across every border.

You can believe that political borders are beneficial to the rule of law, however as a Christian you can’t believe that inherent value, given by God, which supersedes all law stops within your political border, that is idolatry of the state.

5. The Church is a new kind of nation

Peter famously calls the Church a “chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation” (1 Peter 2:9, NIV).

This does not mean that the Church is a new political entity like ancient Israel or the goal is a Christian nation-state. This holy people is not first and foremost defined by borders and passports but rather kinship. It is our relation to Jesus.

It is not a Turkish church or an Australian church, it is “the Church of Jesus Christ in…”.

The Church is the people of God scattered across every tribe and nation on earth, first and foremost because they belong to the Kingdom of God.

We need be careful with our language that creates divisions when God does not.

To get grammatical, putting a qualifier in front of the word ‘Church’ or even ‘Christian’ is an adjectival modifier. The adjective (for instance, in context the proper adjective "Australian”) modifies the noun ‘Christian’.

There is no modification to our Christian identity, either you are a Christian, or you are not. All other things submit to our primary identity in Christ.

^“So in Christ Jesus you are all children of God through faith, ²⁷ for all of you who were baptized into Christ have clothed yourselves with Christ. ²⁸ There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus. ²⁹ If you belong to Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.” Gal 3:26b - 29

We must never confuse national identity with Christ. You may be Jewish, you may be gentile, you may be Australian or something else but ‘in Christ’, these are

meaningless distinctions. The only thing that matters is that “If you belong to Christ, then you are Abrahams’ seed and heirs according to the promise”.

In a world where nationalism often hardens into division, even within the Church, we are meant to reflect a higher unity: Jew and Gentile, Turkish and Australian, Ethiopian and Brazilian are one in Christ (Galatians 3:28, NIV).

So a quick recap,

1. Biblical “nation” means ethnic people or peoples, not modern political states.

2. Nations in the ancient world were identified by kinship and descent, not by passports or state borders.

3. The modern state with a fixed territory and government is a relatively new idea from the 17th–19th centuries.

4. God’s mission in Scripture has always included all peoples, not just political powers.

5. The Church is a multi-ethnic nation but a different kind of people, rooted in the Kingship of Jesus.

Final Thoughts

When considering our response within our nation-states, within our ideas, even about how God uses people, we need to be careful and biblical in our language and thinking.

If we get these things wrong, we can distort the Bible, misrepresent the gospel, or find ourselves with a misplaced allegiance to a nation-state over the rule of King Jesus and his righteousness (Matt 6:33).

Our goal must always be to have our witness shaped by the consistent heartbeat of God, that every tribe, tongue, and people, whatever their nation-state status might know the saving love of Jesus and find their place in the true royal nation, worshipping around His throne.

You may be Jewish, you may be Gentile (non-Jewish), you may be wealthy or poor, you may have any number of earthly differences to others,

“But (in Christ) you are a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, God’s special possession, that you may declare the praises of him who called you out of darkness into his wonderful light.” 1 Peter 2:9

Ps. ISRAEL AS PERSON AND PEOPLE COMING UP SOON