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
Seven days see that there be no leavened bread found in your houses. For whosoever eateth leavened bread, that soul shall be rooted out from the multitude of Israel: whether he be a stranger or born in the land.
And much common people went also with them, and sheep, and oxen, and cattle exceeding much.
If a stranger dwell among you, and will hold Passover unto the LORD, let him circumcise all that be males, and then let him come and observe it, and be taken as one that is born in the land. No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.
If a stranger dwell among you, and will hold Passover unto the LORD, let him circumcise all that be males, and then let him come and observe it, and be taken as one that is born in the land. No uncircumcised person shall eat thereof.
And the LORD said unto Moses, "Go unto the people and sanctify them today and tomorrow, and let them wash their clothes:
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt do no manner work: neither thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, neither thy manservant nor thy maidservant, neither thy cattle neither yet the stranger that is within thy gates.
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt do no manner work: neither thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, neither thy manservant nor thy maidservant, neither thy cattle neither yet the stranger that is within thy gates.
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God, in it thou shalt do no manner work: neither thou nor thy son, nor thy daughter, neither thy manservant nor thy maidservant, neither thy cattle neither yet the stranger that is within thy gates.
Vex not a stranger, neither oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Vex not a stranger, neither oppress him, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt.
Thou shalt not oppress a stranger, for I know the heart of a stranger, because ye were strangers in Egypt.
Six days thou shalt do thy work and the seventh day thou shalt keep holy day, that thine ox and thine ass may rest and the son of thy maid and the stranger may be refreshed.
But and if she be not able to bring a sheep, then let her bring two turtles or two young pigeons: the one for the burnt offering, and the other for the sin offering. And the priest shall make an atonement for her, and she shall be clean.'"
"And it shall be an ordinance forever unto you. And even in the tenth day of the seventh month, ye shall humble your souls and shall do no work at all: whether it be one of yourselves or a stranger that sojourneth among you,
And whatsoever man it be of the house of Israel or of the strangers that sojourn among you that eateth any manner of blood, I will set my face against that soul that eateth blood, and will destroy him from among his people,
Keep ye therefore mine ordinances and judgments, and see that ye commit none of these abominations: neither any of you nor any stranger that sojourneth among you
Thou shalt not pluck in all thy vineyard clean, neither gather in the grapes that are overscaped. But thou shalt leave them for the poor and stranger. I am the LORD your God.
If a stranger sojourn by thee in your land, see that ye vex him not:
If a stranger sojourn by thee in your land, see that ye vex him not: But let the stranger that dwelleth with you be as one of your selves, and love him as thy self, for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt. I am the LORD your God.
"Tell the children of Israel, whosoever he be of the children of Israel or of the strangers that dwell in Israel that giveth of his seed unto Moloch, he shall die for it: the people of the land shall stone him with stones.
but no widow nor divorced nor polluted whore. But he shall take a maiden of his own people to wife,
And he that blasphemeth the name of the LORD, shall die for it: all the multitude shall stone him to death. And the stranger as well as the Israelite if he curse the name, shall die for it.'
Ye shall have one manner of law among you: even for the stranger as well as for one of yourselves, for I am the LORD your God."
And Moses said unto Hobab the son of Reuel the Midianite, Moses' father-in-law, "We go unto the place of which the LORD said, 'I will give it you.' Go with us and we will do thee good, for the LORD hath promised good unto Israel." And he said unto him, "I will not: but will go to mine own land and to my kindred." read more. And Moses said, "Oh nay, leave us not, for thou knowest where is best for us to pitch in the wilderness: and thou shalt be our eyes. And if thou go with us, look what goodness the LORD showeth upon us, the same we will show upon thee."
And these six free cities shall be for the children of Israel and for the stranger and for him that dwelleth among you, that all they which kill any person unawares, may flee thither.
And I charged your judges the same time, saying, 'Hear your brethren and judge righteously between every man and his brother and the stranger that is with him.
but the seventh day is the Sabbath of the LORD thy God; thou shalt do no manner work: neither thou, nor thy son, nor thy daughter, nor thy servant, nor thy maid, nor thine ox, nor thine ass, nor any of thy cattle, nor the stranger that is within thy city, that thy servant and thy maid may rest as well as thou.
but doeth right unto the fatherless and widow and loveth the stranger, to give him food and raiment. Love therefore the stranger, for ye were strangers yourselves in the land of Egypt.
and the Levite shall come because he hath neither part nor inheritance with thee, and the stranger and the fatherless and the widow which are within thy city, and shall eat and fill themselves: that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the works of thine hand which thou doest.
And rejoice before the LORD thy God: both thou, thy son, thy daughter, thy servant and thy maid, and the Levite that is within thy gates, and the stranger, the fatherless and the widow that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to make his name dwell there.
And thou shalt rejoice in that thy feast; both thou and thy son, thy daughter, thy servant, thy maid, the Levite, the stranger, the fatherless and the widow that are in thy cities.
The Ammonites and the Moabites shall not come into the congregation of the LORD; no, not in the tenth generation, no they shall never come in to the congregation of the LORD,
Hinder not the right of the stranger nor of the fatherless, nor take widow's raiment to pledge.
When thou cuttest down thine harvest in the field and hast forgotten a sheaf in the field, thou shalt not go again and fetch it: But it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow, that the LORD thy God may bless thee in all the work of thine hand. When thou beatest down thine olive trees thou shalt not make clean riddance after thee: but it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow. read more. And when thou gatherest thy vineyard, thou shalt not gather clean after thee: but it shall be for the stranger, the fatherless and the widow.
The strangers that are among you shall climb above thee up on high, and thou shalt come down beneath a-low. He shall lend thee and thou shalt not lend him, he shall be before and thou behind.
your children, your wives and the strangers that are in thine host, from the hewer of thy wood unto the drawer of thy water;
and commanded them, saying, "At the end of seven years, in the time of the free year, in the feast of the tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before the LORD thy God, in the place which he hath chosen: see that thou read this law before all Israel in their ears. read more. Gather the people together: both men, women and children and the strangers that are in thy cities, that they may hear, learn and fear the LORD your God, and be diligent to keep all the words of this law,
And Joshua saved Rahab the harlot, and her father's household and all that pertained unto her, and she dwelt in Israel - even unto this day - because she hid the messengers which Joshua sent to spy out Jericho.
And after that he read all the words of the law, both the blessing and cursing, according to all that is written in the book of the law - so that there was not one word of all that Moses commanded, which Joshua read not - before all the congregation of Israel, with women and children and the strangers that were among them.
And the children of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, went up out of the city of palm trees, with the children of Judah, into the wilderness of Judah that lieth in the South of Arad, and dwelt among the people.
And there was there, the same day, a certain man of the servants of Saul abiding before the LORD named Doeg; an Edomite, the chiefest of Saul's herdsmen.
And it was answered again, that she was Bathsheba the daughter of Eliam and wife to Uriah the Hittite.
Then said the king to Ittai the Gittite, "Wherefore shouldest thou go with us also? Return and abide with the king, for thou art a stranger and art removed from thine own place.
Zelec an Ammonite; Naharai a Beerothite, the Harness bearer of Joab the son of Zeruiah;
And Araunah the king's friend gave all to the king, and said moreover unto the king, "The LORD thy God accept thee."
Then men told the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations which thou hast translated and put in the cities of Samaria, know not the manner of the God of the land, and therefore he hath sent lions upon them, which slay them, because they know not the manner of the God of the land."
Then Eliakim the steward of household, and Shebnah the scribe and Joah the son of Asaph the recorder, came to Hezekiah with their clothes rent and told him the words of Rabshakeh.
Eliel a Mahavite, and Jeribai and Joshaviah the sons of Elnaam and Ithmah a Moabite;
And David commanded to gather the strangers that were in the land of Israel, and set hewers to hew stone, to build the house of God.
And David commanded to gather the strangers that were in the land of Israel, and set hewers to hew stone, to build the house of God.
Insomuch that many brought presents unto the LORD to Jerusalem and precious gifts to Hezekiah king of Judah, so that he was magnified in the sight of all nations from thenceforth.
And the other people, the priests, Levites, Porters, singers, Nethinims, and all they that had separated themselves from the people in the lands unto the law of God, with their wives, sons and daughters, as many as could understand it,
And in all lands and cities, into what places soever the king's word and commandment reached, there was joy and mirth, prosperity and good days among the Jews: insomuch that many of the people in the land became of the Jews' belief: for the fear of the Jews came upon them.
And in all lands and cities, into what places soever the king's word and commandment reached, there was joy and mirth, prosperity and good days among the Jews: insomuch that many of the people in the land became of the Jews' belief: for the fear of the Jews came upon them.
They shall come, and declare his righteousness unto a people that shall be born, whom the LORD hath made.
Hear my prayer, O LORD, and with thine ears consider my calling; hold not thy peace at my tears. For I am a stranger with thee, and a sojourner, as all my fathers were.
Behold, I was born in wickedness, and in sin hath my mother conceived me.
Make in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me.
They murder the widow and the stranger, and put the fatherless to death.
It shall come to pass in the last days that the mount of the house of the LORD, shall be set in the top of the mountains, and shall be lifted up above the hills: and all nations shall resort thereto.
Then shall the Gentiles enquire after the root of Jesse, which shall be set up for a token unto the Gentiles; for his dwelling shall be glorious.
But the LORD will be merciful unto Jacob, and will take up Israel again, and set them in their own land. Strangers shall cleave unto them, and get them to the house of Jacob.
Thus sayeth the LORD God of Hosts, "Go in to the treasury unto Shebna the governor, and say to him,
Then shall not the stranger, which cleaveth to the LORD, say, "Alas the LORD hath shut me clean out from his people." Neither shall the gelded man say, "Lo, I am a dried tree." For thus sayeth the LORD, first unto the gelded that keepeth my Sabbath - namely, that holdeth greatly of the thing that pleaseth me, and keepeth my covenant - read more. Unto them will I give in my household and within my walls, a better heritage and name than if they had been called sons and daughters. I will give them an everlasting name that shall not perish. Again, he sayeth unto the strangers that are disposed to stick to the LORD, to serve him, and to Love his name: That they shall be no bondman. And all they, which keep themselves, that they unhallow not the Sabbath - namely, that they fulfill my covenant -
Who ever heard or saw such things? Doth the ground bear in one day? Or are the people born all at once, as Zion beareth her sons?
If ye will not oppress the stranger, the fatherless and the widow; if ye will not shed innocent blood in this place; if ye will not cleave to strange gods to your own destruction;
So Jeremiah stuck fast in the mire. Now when Ebedmelech the Ethiopian, being a chamberlain in the king's court, understood that they had cast Jeremiah in to the dungeon:
In thee have they despised father and mother, in thee have they oppressed the stranger, in thee have they vexed the widow and the fatherless.
The people in the land useth wicked extortion and robbery. They vex the poor and needy and oppress the stranger against right.
and divide it to be a heritage for you, and for the strangers that dwell among you, and begotten children. For ye shall take them among the children of Israel, like as though they were of your own household and country, and they shall have heritage with you among the children of Israel.
But in the latter days it will come to pass, that the hill of the LORD's house shall be set up higher than any mountains or hills: Yea, the people shall flow unto it,
Do the widow, the fatherless, the stranger, and poor no wrong: and let no man imagine evil against his brother in his heart."
I will come and punish you, and I myself will be a swift witness against the witches, against the adulterers, against false swearers: yea, and against those that wrongfully keep back the hireling's duty, which vex the widows and the fatherless, and oppress the stranger, and fear not me, sayeth the LORD of Hosts.
For God commanded, saying, 'Honour thy father and mother,' and, 'He that curseth father or mother, shall suffer death.' But ye say, 'Every man shall say to his father or mother: That which thou desirest of me to help thee with, is given God.' read more. And so shall he not honour his father or his mother. And thus have ye made, that the commandment of God is without effect, through your traditions.
Woe be unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye which compass sea and land, to bring one into your belief: and when he is brought, ye make him twofold more the child of hell, than ye yourselves are.
Woe be unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites, for ye which compass sea and land, to bring one into your belief: and when he is brought, ye make him twofold more the child of hell, than ye yourselves are.
The woman was a Greek out of Syrophoenicia, and she besought him that he would cast out the devil out of her daughter.
And there was a certain widow in the same city, which came unto him saying, 'Avenge me of mine adversary.' And he would not for a while. But afterward he said unto himself, 'Though I fear not God, nor care for man, read more. yet because this widow troubleth me, I will avenge her: lest at the last she come, and hag on me.'" And the Lord said, "Hear what the unrighteous judge sayeth. And shall not God avenge his elect, which cry night and day unto him? Yea though he defer them: I tell you, he will avenge them, and that quickly. Nevertheless, when the son of man cometh, suppose ye that he shall find faith on the earth?"
And they asked him, and said unto him, "Why baptisest thou then, if thou be not Christ, nor Elijah, neither a prophet?"
Jesus answered, and said unto him, "Verily, verily I say unto thee: except a man be born anew, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Jesus answered, "Verily, verily I say unto thee: Except that a man be born of water, and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Jesus answered, "Verily, verily I say unto thee: Except that a man be born of water, and of the spirit, he cannot enter into the kingdom of God.
Jesus answered and said unto him, "Art thou a master in Israel, and knowest not these things?
Phrigia, Pamphylia, and of Egypt, and of the parts of Libya, which is beside Cyrene; And strangers of Rome;
Phrigia, Pamphylia, and of Egypt, and of the parts of Libya, which is beside Cyrene; And strangers of Rome;
And the saying pleased the whole multitude well. And they chose Stephen, a man full of faith, and of the holy ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicholas, a convert of Antioch,
a devout man, and one that feared God with all his household, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed God always.
a devout man, and one that feared God with all his household, which gave much alms to the people, and prayed God always.
When the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him,
When the angel which spake unto Cornelius was departed, he called two of his household servants, and a devout soldier of them that waited on him,
And Cornelius said, "This day now four days I fasted, and at the ninth hour I prayed in my house, and behold, a man stood before me in bright clothing,
Then Paul stood up and beckoned with the hand and said, "Men of Israel, and ye that fear God, give audience.
Ye men and brethren, children of the generation off Abraham, and whosoever among you feareth God, to you is this word of salvation sent.
When they were come out of the Synagogue of the Jews, the gentiles besought them that they would preach the word of god to them between the Sabbath days. When the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and virtuous converts followed Paul and Barnabas, which spake to them and exhorted them to continue in the grace of God.
When the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and virtuous converts followed Paul and Barnabas, which spake to them and exhorted them to continue in the grace of God.
When the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and virtuous converts followed Paul and Barnabas, which spake to them and exhorted them to continue in the grace of God.
But the Jews moved the worshipful and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas: and expelled them out of their coasts.
But the Jews moved the worshipful and honorable women, and the chief men of the city, and raised persecution against Paul and Barnabas: and expelled them out of their coasts.
And a certain woman named Lydia, a seller of purple of the city of Thyatira, which worshipped God, gave us audience: whose heart the Lord opened that she attended unto the things which Paul spake.
And some of them believed and came and companied with Paul and Silas. Also of the honorable Greeks, a great multitude; and of the chief women, not a few.
And some of them believed and came and companied with Paul and Silas. Also of the honorable Greeks, a great multitude; and of the chief women, not a few.
Then he disputed in the synagogue with the Jews, and with the devout persons; And in the market daily with them that came unto him.
And he departed thence, and entered into a certain man's house named Justus, a worshipper of God, whose house joined hard to the synagogue.