ἐθνικός, “foreigner” a “gentile.” Another common term for “heathen” in ecclesiastical Greek is ῞Ελλην, but neither “Gentile” nor “Greek” expresses the required sense so well as “Heathen,” which, like the cognate “Pagan,” simply denotes a countryman and villager, and marks the age when Christianity was found to be mainly in towns.