Pagans

OT use of the term ``pagan''

Used of foreign adherents of heathen religions

Isaiah 2:6 See also 2 Kings 23:4–7; Zephaniah 1:4–6

For You have abandoned Your people, the house of Jacob, because they are filled with influences from the east; they are soothsayers like the Philistines; they strike hands with the children of foreigners.

Used of heathen religions, peoples and countries

Isaiah 57:8 See also Lamentations 1:10; Amos 7:17

Behind the door and doorpost you have set up your memorial. Forsaking Me, you uncovered your bed; you climbed up and opened it wide. And you have made a pact with those whose bed you have loved; you have gazed upon their nakedness.

In the Gospels pagans'' is synonymous withGentiles''

Matthew 6:7 See also Matthew 5:47, Matthew 6:32 parallel Luke 12:30; Matthew 18:17

And when you pray, do not babble on like pagans, for they think that by their many words they will be heard.

The term ``pagans'' is used to refer to people who were neither Jews nor Christians

Pagans as idolaters

1 Corinthians 12:2 See also 1 Corinthians 10:7; Exodus 32:6; 1 Corinthians 10:20

You know that when you were pagans, you were influenced and led astray to mute idols.

Pagans as immoral

1 Peter 4:3 See also 1 Corinthians 5:1

For you have spent enough time in the past carrying out the same desires as the Gentiles: living in debauchery, lust, drunkenness, orgies, carousing, and detestable idolatry.

Many believers lived among the pagans

1 Peter 2:12 See also 3 John 1:7

Conduct yourselves with such honor among the Gentiles that, though they slander you as evildoers, they may see your good deeds and glorify God on the day He visits us.