Dict: easton - Heathen

easton:

Heathen @ (Heb. plural goyum). At first the word goyim denoted generally all the nations of the world kjv@Genesis:18:18; comp. kjv@Galatians:3:8). The Jews afterwards became a people distinguished in a marked manner from the other goyim. They were a separate people kjv@Leviticus:20:23 kjv@Leviticus:26:14-45; Deuteronomy:28), and the other nations, the Amorites, Hittites, etc., were the goyim, the heathen, with whom the Jews were forbidden to be associated in any way kjv@Joshua:23:7; kjvKings:11:2). The practice of idolatry was the characteristic of these nations, and hence the word came to designate idolaters kjv@Psalms:106:47; kjv@Jeremiah:46:28; kjv@Lamentations:1:3; kjv@Isaiah:36:18), the wicked kjv@Psalms:9:5 kjv@Psalms:9:15, 17). The corresponding Greek word in the New Testament, ethne, has similar shades of meaning. In kjv@Acts:22:21, kjv@Galatians:3:14, it denotes the people of the earth generally; and in kjv@Matthew:6:7, an idolater. In modern usage the word denotes all nations that are strangers to revealed religion.