Gentile Contributors of the Bible —

While the vast majority of the Biblical text was penned by Jews, there are a few contributions from non-Jewish writers as well. Proverbs 30, for example, was written by a man named Agur while Proverbs 31 is attributed to King Lemuel. While their identities are unknown to us since they are nowhere else mentioned in the Bible, there are several clues that indicate that they were not Israelites. One thing to pay attention to is a Hebrew word used in both of the introductions of Proverbs 30 and 31. Proverbs 30:1 begins, “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, his utterance.” Similarly, Proverbs 31:1 says, “The words of King Lemuel, the utterance which his mother taught him.” The Hebrew word translated here as “utterance” is massa’ (it is also translated this way in Isaiah 17:1 and 19:1). But massa’ could also be understood as a place name. If so then Proverbs 30:1 would be rendered this way instead: “The words of Agur the son of Jakeh, of Massa.” Likewise, Proverbs 31:1 would read: “The words of Lemuel, king of Massa, which his mother taught him.” If this is the intended meaning, then Proverbs is identifying Agur and Lemuel as citizens of a place called “Massa” which may have been the name of “a tribe in Arabia related to the Ishmaelites mentioned in Ge 25:14; 1 Ch 1:30.” If this is indeed the case, then what we have in Proverbs 30 and 31 are the words of Arabian wisemen. The second thing to pay attention to is their names. Not only is the name Agur not in typical Hebrew form but it is also found in Sabean inscriptions. And as for King Lemuel, there was no king by that name in Israel. Third, there are also linguistic clues that these men were non-Israelites. For example, in Proverbs 31 the Aramaic spellings are used for the words “son” and “king” in verses 2 and 3 respectively. Also, the name Yahweh is conspicuously absent in this proverb. For these reasons, many scholars conclude that Agur and Lemuel were Gentiles.
Another portion of Scripture attributed to a Gentile is Daniel 4 which records the words of the pagan Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar who, after having several dramatic encounters with God, pours out praise to Him. In Nebuchadnezzar’s own words: “Now I, Nebuchadnezzar, praise and exalt and glorify the King of heaven, because everything he does is right and all his ways are just. And those who walk in pride he is able to humble.” (Daniel 4:37)
And then there are the New Testament books of Luke and Acts which were both penned by the historian and physician Luke. Although the Bible does not tell us Luke’s ethnicity, the traditional scholarly view is that he was a Gentile. This is based on Colossians 4 in which Paul seems to make a distinction between Luke and other Jewish colleagues of the faith. Of course, all of the contributors of the 66 books of the Bible whether Jew or Gentile were all moved by the Holy Spirit of God to record His revelation (2 Tim 3:16; 2 Peter 1:21).