Who was the ....

Cain? xxxx

 

Adam.

Abraham was a gentile.

 

Adam..............

 

One could say Adam...

However, the question is framed wrongly. Since the Abrahamic covenant was not instituted yet, this covenant being the one seen as the formalization of the Israelite identity or at least intiatation of the ethnic nation of Israel, the better question is "Who is the first Israelite?" since all the world became Gentile at the time of the covenant.

 

The word "Gentile" is not used in the Old Testament. They are referred to as "foreigners" to the nation of Israel. In the New Testament, the word translated "Gentile" is the Greek ethnikos which means a habit, culture or people that is, or who are, different from the society of first century Judea. In other words, it means foreigner, pagan -- unbeliever.

Adam was not an unbeliever. Cain was.

 

It also means anyone who is not a Jew. I am a Gentile believer.

 

Everyone alive when Abraham became the father of the Hebrews.

 

The term "gentile" was probably first coined by Jews to distinguish all the rest of the world from them. From its very first use in scriptures by a Jew (Moses) it is used to describe the "isles" of the Gentiles coming from the offspring of Japeth (Gen. 10:5). From that point forward it is used consistently to refer to non-Jewish human beings.