Who Are the Gentiles? A Neville Goddard Interpretation

In traditional religious terms, the Gentiles are often understood to be “non-Jews”—outsiders to the covenant, the law, and the chosen path. But Neville Goddard, who taught that the Bible is a psychological drama playing out within the human imagination, offers a deeper symbolic meaning.

The Gentile as the Unawakened Self

In Neville’s interpretation, the Gentiles are not a race or a people. They are states of consciousness—those aspects of the self that are not yet aware of their own creative power. To be a Gentile, in this symbolic sense, is to live by the evidence of the senses, rather than the unseen reality shaped by imagination.

“The Gentile is the outer man. The Jew is the inner man. The Jew is the awakened imagination.”
— Neville Goddard, The Law and the Promise

The “outer man” relies on facts, logic, memory, and tradition. This man sees the world as something happening to him. The Gentile, then, is not sinful in a moral sense, but simply ignorant of the truth that “I AM” is God—unaware that imagination creates reality.

Redemption Through Awareness

As always in Neville’s world, symbols are never fixed in judgement. Every Gentile has the potential to be redeemed. Redemption in this context means being brought into the awareness that the true kingdom is within. It’s the psychological shift from outer dependence to inner authority.

The biblical promise that the Gentiles shall be “grafted in” speaks not of religious conversion, but of mental transformation. These unconscious or sense-bound states are not rejected; they are meant to be absorbed into the awakened self, brought into harmony with the I AM.

Paul and the Mission to the Gentiles

Neville often referenced Paul’s mission to the Gentiles, reinterpreting it not as a historical journey but as a spiritual one. Paul, who undergoes a dramatic transformation on the road to Damascus, symbolises the mind that has awakened to its divine power. His mission to the Gentiles represents your own inner journey, speaking to those parts of you still in darkness—still believing in fate, luck, and limitation.

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Final Thoughts

So, who are the Gentiles in Neville Goddard’s teachings?

They are the unawakened states within us. They are the beliefs we inherited, the fears we picked up, the habits of thought that see life as something happening outside of us. But they are not enemies. They are invited into transformation, not through condemnation but through recognition.

To become Israel, in Neville’s language, is to remember:

“I AM the Lord... and beside me there is no other.” (Isaiah 45:5)

And from that point on, the Gentile becomes the seed of something new.