Reference: Proselytes
Fausets
geerim. 1Ch 22:2, "the strangers," in Septuagint "proselytes, i.e. comers to Palestine, sojourners (Ex 12:48; 20:10; 22:21; Le 19:33). In New Testament converts to Judaism, "comers to a new and God-loving polity" (Philo). Israel's religious attitude attracted neighbouring people from the first. The Shechemites are an instance, only that passion and interest were their motive (Genesis 34). Circumcision was required as the condition. At the Exodus "a mixed multitude went up with Israel" (Ex 12:38). "The stranger" was bound by the law of the Sabbath (Ex 20:10; 23:12; De 5:14) and the Passover when he was circumcised (Ex 12:19,48), the feast of weeks (De 16:11), tabernacles (De 16:14), the day of atonement (Le 16:29), prohibited marriages (Le 18:26), and blood (Le 17:10), and Moloch worship (Le 20:2), and blasphemy (Le 24:16).
The city of refuge was open to him (Nu 35:15). Kind treatment in remembrance of Israel's own position as strangers formerly in Egypt (Ex 22:21; 23:9; De 10:18-19; Le 19:33-34), justice (Le 24:22; De 1:16; 24:17,19-21), share in gleanings and tithe of the third year (De 14:29), were the stranger's right. But he could not hold land nor intermarry with Aaron's descendants (Le 19:10; 21:14), he is presumed to be in a subject condition (De 29:11); Hobab and the Kenites (Nu 10:29-32; Jg 1:16), Rahab of Jericho (Jos 6:25), and the Gibeonites as "hewers of wood and drawers of water" (Joshua 9), are instances of strangers joined to Israel. The strangers were assembled with Israel at the feast of tabernacles at the cnd of every seven years, to hear the law (De 31:10-12; Jos 8:34-35).
Under the kings strangers rose to influential positions: Doeg the Edomite (1Sa 21:7), Uriah the Hittite (2Sa 11:3), Araunah the Jebusite (2Sa 24:23), Zelek the Ammonite (2Sa 23:37), Ithmah the Moabite (1Ch 11:46, the law in De 23:3 forbidding an Ammonite or Moabite to enter the congregation to the tenth generation does not forbid their settlement in Israel, the law must have been written in times long before David whose great grandmother was Ruth the Moabtress), Ittai the Gittite (2Sa 15:19), Shebna the secretary of state under Hezekiah (2Ki 18:37; Isa 22:15), Ebedmelech the Ethiopian under Zedekiah (Jer 38:7), the Cherethites and Pelethites. (See CHERETHITES; PELETHITES.) Hezekiah's triumph over Sennacherib was followed by many bringing gifts: unto Jehovah to Jerusalem (2Ch 32:23); this suggested the prophecy in Psalm 87 that Rahab (Egypt) and Babylon (whose king Merodach Baladan had sent a friendly embassy to Hezekiah), Philistia, Tyre, and Ethiopia should be spiritually born (Ps 51:5,10; 22:31; Isa 66:8; Joh 3:3,5; both Old and New Testament teach the need of the new birth) in Jerusalem as proselytes.
Tyre's alliance with David was a prophetic earnest of its future union with the kingdom of God, of which the Syrophoenician woman was a firstfruit (Mr 7:26), as Candace's eunuch the proselyte (Acts 8) was a pledge of Ethiopia's conversion. In times of judgment on Israel for apostasy the stranger became "the head" (De 28:43-44); but under David and Solomon they were made to do bondservice, 70,000 bearers of burdens, 80,000 hewers, 3,600 overseers (1Ch 22:2; 2Ch 2:17-18). In Ps 94:6, as the pagan do not make widow and strangers their chief object of attack, "the stranger" is probably the saint in relation to this world (Ps 39:12), and "the widow" is the widowed church awaiting Christ's glorious epiphany to avenge her on antichrist (Lu 18:3-8).
All the prophets anticipate the future sharing of proselytes in the kingdom of God, and even in the Holy Land as "sojourners" (Eze 47:22; Isa 2:2; 11:10; 56:3-6; Mic 4:1), and meantime plead their cause (Jer 7:6; Eze 22:7,29; Zec 7:10; Mal 3:5). After the return from Babylon many "had separated themselves from the people of the lands unto the law of God" with their families (Ne 10:28). Many, in Esther's time (Es 8:17), "of the people of the land became Jews, for the fear of the Jews fell upon them." In New Testament times these appear in the synagogues (Ac 13:42-43,50; 17:4; 18:7), come up to the feasts at Jerusalem (Ac 2:10). Roman centurions, a class promoted for military good conduct, were noble specimens of these proselytes (Lu 7:5; Ac 10:2,7,30), and were most open to gospel truth.
But Jewish fanaticism sought proselytes also by force and fraud, as John Hyrcanus offered the Idumeans the alternative of death, exile, or circumcision (Josephus, Ant. xiii, 9, section 3). Casuistry released the proselyte from moral obligations admitted before; and superstition chained him anew, hand and foot, e.g. the korban (Mt 15:4-6); and circumcision, canceling all previous relationships, admitted of incestuous marriages. Any good in paganism was lost, and all that was bad in traditional Judaism was acquired. Thus the proselyte became "twofold more the child of hell" than the scribes themselves (Mt 23:15). Considering that the end justified the means, the scribes "compassed sea and land to make one proselyte," yet, when made, the Jews despised the proselyte as a "leprosy cleaving (in perversion of Isa 14:1) to the house of Jacob"; "no wise man would trust a proselyte to the 24th generation" (Jalkuth, Ruth f. 163 a). They classed them into
(1) "Love proselytes," wishing to gain the beloved one.
(2) Man for woman or woman for man, where one embraced the married partner's Judaism.
(3) Esther proselytes, to escape danger (Es 8:17).
(4) King's table proselytes, seeking to gain court favor, as under Solomon.
(5) Lion proselytes, through dread of judgments: 2Ki 17:26 (Gem. Hieros., Kiddush 65, section 6). Simon ben Gamaliel said: "when a pagan comes to enter the covenant we ought to stretch out, our hand to him and bring him under the wings of God" (Jost, Judenth. 1:447).
The distinction between "proselytes of the gate" (from Ex 20:10, "the stranger that is within thy gates") and "proselytes of righteousness" was minutely drawn by the talmudic rabbis and Maimonides (Hilc. Mel. 1:6). The proselytes of the gate were not bound to circumcision, only to the seven precepts of Noah, namely, the six said to have been given to Adam:
(1) against idolatry,
(2) blasphemy,
(3) bloodshed,
(4) uncleanness,
(5) theft,
(6) the precept of obedience to authorities, and
(7) that given to Noah against "flesh with the blood"; but he had not the full Israelite privileges, he must not study the law nor redeem his firstborn.
But all this is rabbinical systematizing theory; in fact, the New Testament only in a general way recognizes two degrees of converts to Judaism. The eunuch of Candace was a sample of the full convert, circumcised and baptized at his admission (Otho, Lex Rabb., Baptism, for which the rabbis quoted Ex 19:10), followed by his presenting the corban offering of two turtle doves, as after a birth (Le 12:8). The presumed existence of this proselyte baptism for males and females throws light on John's baptism and the priests' question, "why baptizest thou then?" (Joh 1:25) and Joh 3:5,10, the Lord's words to Nicodemus, "art thou a master (teacher) of Israel, and knowest not these things?" Nicodemus ought to have understood the deeper sense to which Christ applied the familiar phrase "new birth" in connection with "baptism" of proselytes.
However, there is no mention of baptism of proselytes in the Bible, the Apocrypha, Philo, Josephus, or the older targums. The centurion Cornelius was a proselyte of a less strict kind, which the rabbis would call a proselyte of the gate; otherwise a special revelation would not have been needed to warrant Peter's opening the gospel kingdom to him, as it had not been needed to open the gospel to Candace's eunuch (Acts 8; 10). "Proselyte" occurs in New Testament only Mt 23:15; Ac 2:10; 6:5; 13:43. The common phrase is" devout men," "fearing" or "worshipping God" (Ac 10:2,7; 13:16,26,43,50; 16:14; 17:4,17; 18:7; Joh 12:20). From them came the largest accession to the Christian church.
See Verses Found in Dictionary
For seven days leaven is not to be found in your houses. Indeed, any person who eats anything leavened, is to be cut off from the congregation of Israel, whether an alien or a native of the land.
A mixed multitude also went up with them, along with a very large number of livestock, including sheep and cattle.
If an alien who resides with you wants to observe the Passover to the LORD, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may come near to observe it. He is to be like a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person is to eat it.
If an alien who resides with you wants to observe the Passover to the LORD, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may come near to observe it. He is to be like a native of the land, but no uncircumcised person is to eat it.
The LORD told Moses, "Go to the people and consecrate them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes,
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work neither you, nor your son, nor your daughter, nor your male or female servant, nor your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you
"You are not to wrong or oppress an alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
"You are not to wrong or oppress an alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt.
You are not to oppress the resident alien, because you were aliens in the land of Egypt."
You are to do your work for six days, but on the seventh day you are to refrain from work so that your ox and donkey may rest, and so the son of your maidservant and the alien may be refreshed.
If she cannot afford a goat, then two turtledoves or two young doves one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering will serve for him to make atonement for her, so that she becomes clean."
"This is to be a perpetual statute for you: On the tenth day of the seventh month, you (including both the native born and the resident alien) are to humble yourselves by not doing any work,
"If anyone from the house of Israel or a resident alien who lives among you eats any form of blood, I'll oppose that person who ate the blood and eliminate him from his people,
"Therefore, keep my statutes and ordinances. You are not to do any of these detestable things this applies to the native born and the resident alien who lives among you
You are not to gather your vineyard or pick up the fallen grapes of your vineyard. Leave something for the poor and the resident alien who lives among you. I am the LORD your God."
"If a resident alien lives with you in your land, you are not to mistreat him.
"If a resident alien lives with you in your land, you are not to mistreat him. You are to treat the resident alien the same way you treat the native born among you love him like yourself, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
"Tell the Israelis that when an Israeli or a resident alien who lives in Israel offers his child to Molech, he is certainly to be put to death. The people who live in the land are to stone him with stones.
He is not to marry a widow or one who has been divorced, has been defiled, or has been a prostitute. Instead, he is to take a virgin from among his people as his wife.
because the one who blasphemes the name of the LORD is certainly to be put to death. The entire congregation is to stone him to death. As it is for the resident alien, so it is to be with the native born: when he blasphemes the Name, he is to be put to death.
You are to have for yourselves consistent procedures in deciding a case. As it is for the resident alien, so it is for the native born. I am the LORD your God."
Then Moses told Reuel's son Hobab, Moses' relative by marriage from Midian, "We are traveling to the place about which the LORD said "I will give it to you.' So come with us and we'll be good to you, because the LORD has spoken good things about Israel." But he said, "I won't go with you because I'm returning to my land and to my own family." read more. Then Moses responded, "Please don't leave us now, since you know where we can camp in the wilderness. You could be our guide. And when you come with us, the good things that the LORD will grant us, we'll give you as well."
that is, places of refuge for the Israelis, the resident alien, and any travelers among them. Anyone who kills a person inadvertently may flee there."
I charged your judges at that time, "When you hold a hearing between brothers, judge fairly between a man and his brother or between foreigners.
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. You are not to do any work neither you, your son, nor your daughter, your male and female servants, your oxen and donkeys, nor any of your livestock, nor any foreigner who lives among you, so that your male and female servants may rest as you do.
He executes justice for the orphan and the widows, loves the foreigner, and gives them food and clothing." "You are to love the foreigner, because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
so the descendants of Levi who have no tribal allotment as you do foreigners, orphans, and widows who live in your cities may come, eat, and be satisfied. That way, the LORD your God shall bless you in everything you do."
Rejoice in the presence of the LORD your God with your son, daughter, male and female slaves, the descendants of Levi who is in your city, the stranger, the orphan, and the widow among you, at the place where the LORD your God will choose to establish his name.
Rejoice in your festival you, your son, your daughter, your male and female slaves, the descendants of Levi, and foreigners, orphans, and widows, who live in your cities.
No Ammonite or Moabite may participate in the assembly of the LORD, and none of their descendants shall be admitted to the assembly of the LORD, to the tenth generation,
"Don't deny justice to a foreigner or to an orphan, nor take a widow's garment as collateral for a loan.
"When you are reaping in the field, and you overlook a sheaf, don't return to get it. Let it remain for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow, in order that the LORD your God may bless everything you undertake. When you harvest the olives from your trees, don't go back to the branches a second time. What remains is for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow. read more. When you harvest the grapes in your vineyard, don't go back a second time. What remains are for the foreigner, the orphan, or the widow.
The foreigner in your midst will be elevated higher and higher over you, while you are brought low little by little. He will lend to you, but you won't lend to him. He'll be the head, but you'll be the tail.
along with your children, your wives, even the foreigner in your camp, including the woodchopper and the water drawer
Then he gave these orders: "At the end of seven years, the year designated for release, during the Festival of Tents, when all of Israel comes to appear in the presence of the LORD your God at the place that he'll choose, read this Law aloud to them. read more. Gather the people the men, women, children, and the foreigners that live in your cities so they may hear and fear the LORD your God, and so they may be careful to obey the words contained in this Law.
But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, along with her family and everyone who was with her. Her family has lived in Israel ever since, because she hid the scouts whom Joshua sent to observe Jericho.
Afterwards, Joshua read all the words of the Law both the blessings and the curses according to everything written in the Book of the Law. There wasn't one word of everything Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read in front of the entire assembly of Israel, including the women, their little ones, and the foreigners who lived among them.
The descendants of the Kenites, the tribe from which Moses' father-in-law came, accompanied the descendants of Judah from the city of the palms to the Judean wilderness, which is in the desert area south of Arad, and lived with the people there.
Now, Doeg the Edomite, one of Saul's officials, was there that day, detained in the LORD's presence. He was the chief of Saul's shepherds.
David sent word to inquire about her, and someone told him, "This is Eliam's daughter Bathsheba, the wife of Uriah the Hittite, isn't it?"
Then the king suggested to Ittai the Gittite, "Why should you have to go with us? Return and stay with the new king, since you're a foreigner and exile. Stay where you want to stay.
Your majesty, Araunah gives all of this to the king." Araunah also told the king, "May the LORD your God be pleased with you!"
As a result, they reported to the king of Assyria, "Because the nations whom you exiled to live in the cities of Samaria don't know the law of the god of the land, he has sent lions among them. Look how the lions are killing them, because they don't know the law of the god of the land!"
But Hilkiah's son Eliakim, who managed the household, Shebna the scribe, and Asaph's son Joah the recorder came back to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and told him what Rab-shakeh had said.
David subsequently issued orders to conscript the resident aliens who lived in the land of Israel and appointed stonecutters to prepare stones for building a temple for God.
David subsequently issued orders to conscript the resident aliens who lived in the land of Israel and appointed stonecutters to prepare stones for building a temple for God.
Many brought gifts to the LORD in Jerusalem and brought presents to King Hezekiah of Judah. As a result, he was exalted in the opinion of all nations thereafter.
The rest of the people, the priests, the descendants of Levi, the gatekeepers, the singers, the Temple Servants, and everyone who had separated themselves from the nations of the surrounding lands for the Law of God their wives, their sons, their daughters, and all who had knowledge and understanding
In each and every province, and in each and every city, in the places where the king's order and edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jewish people, along with a festival and a holiday. Many of the people of the land became Jews, because they had come to fear the Jewish people.
In each and every province, and in each and every city, in the places where the king's order and edict reached, there was gladness and joy among the Jewish people, along with a festival and a holiday. Many of the people of the land became Jews, because they had come to fear the Jewish people.
They will come and declare his righteousness to a people yet to be born; indeed, he has accomplished it! A Davidic Psalm.
Hear my prayer, LORD, pay attention to my cry, and do not ignore my tears. I am an alien in your presence, a stranger just like my ancestors were.
Indeed, in iniquity I was brought forth; in sin my mother conceived me.
God, create a pure heart in me, and renew a right attitude within me.
The wicked kill widows and foreigners; they murder orphans.
"It will come about in the last days that the mountain that is the LORD's Temple will be established as the highest of mountains, and will be raised above the hills; all the nations will stream to it.
At that time, as to the root of Jesse, who will be standing as a banner for the nations, the nations will rally to him, and his resting place is glorious.
However, the LORD will have compassion on Jacob and will once again choose Israel. He will settle them in their own land, and foreigners will join them, affiliating themselves with the house of Jacob.
"Let no foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say: "The LORD will surely exclude me from his people.' Furthermore, let no eunuch say, "Look! I am just a dry tree.'" For this is what the LORD says: "To the eunuchs who observe my Sabbaths, who choose the things that please me, and who hold fast my covenant read more. to them I will give in my house and within my walls a monument and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that will not be cut off. "Also, the foreigners who join themselves to the LORD, to minister to him, to love the name of the LORD, to be his servants, and to bless the LORD'S name, observing the Sabbath without profaning it, and who hold fast my covenant
Who has ever heard of such a thing? And who ever sees such things? Can a country be born in a single day, or can a nation be brought forth in a single moment? Yet no sooner was Zion in labor than she delivered her children.
and if you don't oppress the alien, the orphan, and the widow, and don't shed an innocent person's blood in this place, and if you don't follow other gods to your own harm,
Ebed-melech the Ethiopian, a eunuch in the king's house, heard that Jeremiah had been put in the cistern. The king was sitting in the Benjamin Gate,
They've treated mothers and fathers among you with contempt. They've oppressed the foreigner among you. They've maltreated the orphan and the widow among you.
The people of the land were vigorously oppressive and took possession of plunder by violence. They've afflicted the poor and the needy and unjustly treated the foreigner.
dividing it by lottery among yourselves and among the foreigners who live among you and bear children among you. You are to treat them like native-born Israelis. Among you they, too, are to be allotted an inheritance with the tribes of Israel.
"But in the last days it will come about that the Temple Mount of the LORD will be firmly set as the leading mountain. It will be exalted above its surrounding hills, and people will stream toward it.
You are not to wrong the widow, orphans, the foreigner, or the poor, and you are not to plan evil against each other.
"I'll come near to you for judgment. I'll be a witness, quick to speak against sorcerers, against adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who defraud the laborer of his wage, against those who defraud the widow and the orphan, against those who deprive the alien of justice, and against those who don't fear me," says the LORD of the Heavenly Armies.
Because God said, "You are to honor your father and your mother,' and, "Whoever curses father or mother must certainly be put to death.' But you say, "Whoever tells his father or his mother, "Whatever support you might have received from me has been given to God," read more. does not have to honor his father.' Because of your tradition, then, you have disregarded the authority of God's word.
"How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to make a single convert, and when this happens you make him twice as fit for hell as you are.
"How terrible it will be for you, scribes and Pharisees, you hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to make a single convert, and when this happens you make him twice as fit for hell as you are.
Now the woman happened to be a Greek, born in Phoenicia in Syria. She kept asking him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
In that city there was also a widow who kept coming to him and saying, "Grant me justice against my adversary.' For a while the judge refused. But later, he told himself, "I don't fear God or respect people, read more. yet because this widow keeps bothering me, I will grant her justice. Otherwise, she will keep coming and wear me out.'" Then the Lord added, "Listen to what the unrighteous judge says. Won't God grant his chosen people justice when they cry out to him day and night? Is he slow to help them? I tell you, he will give them justice quickly. But when the Son of Man comes, will he find faith on earth?"
They asked him, "Why, then, are you baptizing if you are not the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?"
Jesus replied to him, "Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born from above he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Jesus answered, "Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Jesus answered, "Truly, I tell you emphatically, unless a person is born of water and Spirit he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Jesus answered him, "You're the teacher of Israel, and you can't understand this?
Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the district of Libya near Cyrene, Jewish and proselyte visitors from Rome,
Phrygia, Pamphylia, Egypt, the district of Libya near Cyrene, Jewish and proselyte visitors from Rome,
This suggestion pleased the whole group. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a gentile convert to Judaism from Antioch.
He was a devout man who feared God, as did everyone in his home. He gave many gifts to the poor among the people and always prayed to God.
He was a devout man who feared God, as did everyone in his home. He gave many gifts to the poor among the people and always prayed to God.
When the angel who had spoken to him had gone, Cornelius summoned two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of those who served him regularly.
When the angel who had spoken to him had gone, Cornelius summoned two of his household servants and a devout soldier, one of those who served him regularly.
Cornelius replied, "Four days ago at this very hour, three o'clock in the afternoon, I was praying in my home. All at once a man in radiant clothes stood in front of me
"My brothers, descendants of Abraham's family, and those among you who fear God, it is to us that the message of this salvation has been sent.
As Paul and Barnabas were leaving, the people kept urging them to tell them the same things the next Sabbath. When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who kept talking to them and urging them to continue in the grace of God.
When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who kept talking to them and urging them to continue in the grace of God.
When the meeting of the synagogue broke up, many Jews and devout converts to Judaism followed Paul and Barnabas, who kept talking to them and urging them to continue in the grace of God.
But the Jewish leaders stirred up devout women of high social standing and the officials in the city, started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their territory.
But the Jewish leaders stirred up devout women of high social standing and the officials in the city, started a persecution against Paul and Barnabas, and drove them out of their territory.
A woman named Lydia, from the city of Thyatira, a dealer in purple goods, was listening to us. She was a worshiper of God, and the Lord opened her heart to listen carefully to what was being said by Paul.
Some of them were persuaded and began to be associated with Paul and Silas, especially a large crowd of devout Greeks and the wives of many prominent men.
Some of them were persuaded and began to be associated with Paul and Silas, especially a large crowd of devout Greeks and the wives of many prominent men.
So he began holding discussions in the synagogue with the Jews and other worshipers, as well as every day in the public square with anyone who happened to be there.
Then he left that place and went to the home of a man named Titius Justus, who worshipped God and whose house was next door to the synagogue.