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
Yeast must not be found in your houses for seven days. If anyone eats something leavened, that person, whether a foreign resident or native of the land, must be cut off from the community of Israel.
An ethnically diverse crowd also went up with them, along with a huge number of livestock, both flocks and herds.
If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.
If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the Lord's Passover, every male in his household must be circumcised, and then he may participate; he will become like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person may eat it.
And the Lord told Moses, "Go to the people and purify them today and tomorrow. They must wash their clothes
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work-you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates.
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work-you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates.
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work-you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your livestock, or the foreigner who is within your gates.
"You must not exploit a foreign resident or oppress him, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
"You must not exploit a foreign resident or oppress him, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
You must not oppress a foreign resident; you yourselves know how it feels to be a foreigner because you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
"Do your work for six days but rest on the seventh day so that your ox and your donkey may rest, and the son of your female slave as well as the foreign resident may be refreshed.
But if she doesn't have sufficient means for a sheep, she may take two turtledoves or two young pigeons, one for a burnt offering and the other for a sin offering. Then the priest will make atonement on her behalf, and she will be clean."
"This is to be a permanent statute for you: In the seventh month, on the tenth [day] of the month you are to practice self-denial and do no work, both the native and the foreigner who resides among you.
"Anyone from the house of Israel or from the foreigners who live among them who eats any blood, I will turn against that person who eats blood and cut him off from his people.
But you are to keep My statutes and ordinances. You must not commit any of these abominations-not the native or the foreigner who lives among you.
You must not strip your vineyard bare or gather its fallen grapes. Leave them for the poor and the foreign resident; I am the Lord your God.
"When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him.
"When a foreigner lives with you in your land, you must not oppress him. You must regard the foreigner who lives with you as the native-born among you. You are to love him as yourself, for you were foreigners in the land of Egypt; I am the Lord your God.
"Say to the Israelites: Any Israelite or foreigner living in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech must be put to death; the people of the country are to stone him.
He is not to marry a widow, a divorced woman, or one defiled by prostitution. He is to marry a virgin from his own people,
Whoever blasphemes the name of the Lord is to be put to death; the whole community must stone him. If he blasphemes the Name, he is to be put to death, whether the foreign resident or the native.
You are to have the same law for the foreign resident and the native, because I am the Lord your God."
Moses said to Hobab, son of Moses' father-in-law Reuel the Midianite: "We're setting out for the place the Lord promised: 'I will give it to you.' Come with us, and we will treat you well, for the Lord has promised good things to Israel." But he replied to him, "I don't want to go. Instead, I will go to my own land and my relatives." read more. "Please don't leave us," Moses said, "since you know where we should camp in the wilderness, and you can serve as our eyes. If you come with us, whatever good the Lord does for us we will do for you."
These six cities will serve as a refuge for the Israelites and for the foreigner or temporary resident among them, so that anyone who kills a person unintentionally may flee there.
I commanded your judges at that time: Hear [the cases] between your brothers, and judge rightly between a man and his brother or a foreign resident.
but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the Lord your God. You must not do any work-you, your son or daughter, your male or female slave, your ox or donkey, any of your livestock, or the foreigner who lives within your gates, so that your male and female slaves may rest as you do.
He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the foreign resident, giving him food and clothing. You also must love the foreigner, since you were foreigners in the land of Egypt.
Then the Levite, who has no portion or inheritance among you, the foreign resident, fatherless, and widow within your gates may come, eat, and be satisfied. And the Lord your God will bless you in all the work of your hands that you do.
Rejoice before the Lord your God in the place where He chooses to have His name dwell-you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, the Levite within your gates, as well as the foreign resident, the fatherless, and the widow among you.
Rejoice during your festival-you, your son and daughter, your male and female slave, as well as the Levite, the foreign resident, the fatherless, and the widow within your gates.
No Ammonite or Moabite may enter the Lord's assembly; none of their descendants, even to the tenth generation, may ever enter the Lord's assembly.
Do not deny justice to a foreign resident [or] fatherless child, and do not take a widow's garment as security.
"When you reap the harvest in your field, and you forget a sheaf in the field, do not go back to get it. It is to be left for the foreign resident, the fatherless, and the widow, so that the Lord your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. When you knock down the fruit from your olive tree, you must not go over the branches again. What remains will be for the foreign resident, the fatherless, and the widow. read more. When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you must not glean what is left. What remains will be for the foreign resident, the fatherless, and the widow.
The foreign resident among you will rise higher and higher above you, while you sink lower and lower. He will lend to you, but you won't lend to him. He will be the head, and you will be the tail.
your children, your wives, and the foreigners in your camps who cut your wood and draw your water-
Moses commanded them, "At the end of [every] seven years, at the appointed time in the year of debt cancellation, during the Festival of Booths, when all Israel assembles in the presence of the Lord your God at the place He chooses, you are to read this law aloud before all Israel. read more. Gather the people-men, women, children, and foreigners living within your gates-so that they may listen and learn to fear the Lord your God and be careful to follow all the words of this law.
But Joshua spared Rahab the prostitute, her father's household, and all who belonged to her, because she hid the men Joshua had sent to spy on Jericho, and she lives in Israel to this day.
Afterwards, Joshua read aloud all the words of the law-the blessings as well as the curses-according to all that is written in the book of the law. There was not a word of all that Moses had commanded that Joshua did not read before the entire assembly of Israel, including the women, little children, and foreigners who were with them.
The descendants of the Kenite, Moses' father-in-law, had gone up with the men of Judah from the City of Palms to the Wilderness of Judah, which was in the Negev of Arad. They went to live among the people.
One of Saul's servants, detained before the Lord, was there that day. His name was Doeg the Edomite, chief of Saul's shepherds.
So David sent someone to inquire about her, and he reported, "This is Bathsheba, daughter of Eliam and wife of Uriah the Hittite."
The king said to Ittai the Gittite, "Why are you also going with us? Go back and stay with the king since you're both a foreigner and an exile from your homeland.
Zelek the Ammonite, Naharai the Beerothite, the armor-bearer for Joab son of Zeruiah,
[My] king, Araunah gives everything here to the king." Then he said to the king, "May the Lord your God accept you."
The settlers spoke to the king of Assyria, saying, "The nations that you have deported and placed in the cities of Samaria do not know the custom of the God of the land. Therefore, He has sent lions among them, which are killing them because the people don't know the custom of the God of the land."
Then Eliakim son of Hilkiah, who was in charge of the palace, Shebna the court secretary, and Joah son of Asaph, the court historian, came to Hezekiah with their clothes torn and reported to him the words of the Rabshakeh.
Eliel the Mahavite, Jeribai and Joshaviah, the sons of Elnaam, Ithmah the Moabite,
So David gave orders to gather the foreigners that were in the land of Israel, and he appointed stonemasons to cut finished stones for building God's house.
So David gave orders to gather the foreigners that were in the land of Israel, and he appointed stonemasons to cut finished stones for building God's house.
Many were bringing an offering to the Lord to Jerusalem and valuable gifts to King Hezekiah of Judah, and he was exalted in the eyes of all the nations after that.
The rest of the people-the priests, Levites, singers, gatekeepers, and temple servants, along with their wives, sons, and daughters, everyone who is able to understand and who has separated themselves from the surrounding peoples to [obey] the law of God-
In every province and every city, wherever the king's command and his law reached, rejoicing and jubilation took place among the Jews. There was a celebration and a holiday.And, many of the ethnic groups of the land professed themselves to be Jews because fear of the Jews had overcome them.
In every province and every city, wherever the king's command and his law reached, rejoicing and jubilation took place among the Jews. There was a celebration and a holiday.And, many of the ethnic groups of the land professed themselves to be Jews because fear of the Jews had overcome them.
They will come and tell a people yet to be born about His righteousness- what He has done.
"Hear my prayer, Lord, and listen to my cry for help; do not be silent at my tears. For I am a foreigner residing with You, a sojourner like all my fathers.
Indeed, I was guilty [when I] was born; I was sinful when my mother conceived me.
God, create a clean heart for me and renew a steadfast spirit within me.
They kill the widow and the foreigner and murder the fatherless.
In the last days the mountain of the Lord's house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. All nations will stream to it,
On that day the root of Jesse will stand as a banner for the peoples. The nations will seek Him, and His resting place will be glorious.
For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob and will choose Israel again. He will settle them on their own land. The foreigner will join them and be united with the house of Jacob.
The Lord God of Hosts said: "Go to Shebna, that steward who is in charge of the palace, [and say to him:]
No foreigner who has converted to the Lord should say, "The Lord will exclude me from His people"; and the eunuch should not say, "Look, I am a dried-up tree." For the Lord says this: "For the eunuchs who keep My Sabbaths, and choose what pleases Me, and hold firmly to My covenant, read more. I will give them, in My house and within My walls, a memorial and a name better than sons and daughters. I will give each [of them] an everlasting name that will never be cut off. And the foreigners who convert to the Lord, minister to Him, love the Lord's name, and are His servants, all who keep the Sabbath without desecrating it, and who hold firmly to My covenant-
Who has heard of such a thing? Who has seen such things? Can a land be born in one day, or a nation be delivered in an instant? Yet as soon as Zion was in labor, she gave birth to her sons.
if you no longer oppress the alien, the fatherless, and the widow and no longer shed innocent blood in this place or follow other gods, bringing harm on yourselves,
But Ebed-melech, a Cushite court official employed in the king's palace, heard Jeremiah had been put into the cistern. While the king was sitting at the Benjamin Gate,
Father and mother are treated with contempt, and the foreign resident is exploited within you. The fatherless and widow are oppressed in you.
The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy and unlawfully exploited the foreign resident.
You will allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the foreigners living among you, who have fathered children among you. You will treat them like native-born Israelites; along with you, they will be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel.
In the last days the mountain of the Lord's house will be established at the top of the mountains and will be raised above the hills. Peoples will stream to it,
Do not oppress the widow or the fatherless, the stranger or the poor, and do not plot evil in your hearts against one another.
"I will come to you in judgment, and I will be ready to witness against sorcerers and adulterers; against those who swear falsely; against those who oppress the widow and the fatherless, and cheat the wage earner; and against those who deny [justice to] the foreigner. They do not fear Me," says the Lord of Hosts.
For God said: Honor your father and your mother; and, The one who speaks evil of father or mother must be put to death. But you say, 'Whoever tells his father or mother, "Whatever benefit you might have received from me is a gift [committed to the temple]"- read more. he does not have to honor his father.' In this way, you have revoked God's word because of your tradition.
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as fit for hell as you are!
"Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! You travel over land and sea to make one proselyte, and when he becomes one, you make him twice as fit for hell as you are!
Now the woman was Greek, a Syrophoenician by birth, and she kept asking Him to drive the demon out of her daughter.
And a widow in that town kept coming to him, saying, 'Give me justice against my adversary.' "For a while he was unwilling, but later he said to himself, 'Even though I don't fear God or respect man, read more. yet because this widow keeps pestering me, I will give her justice, so she doesn't wear me out by her persistent coming.' " Then the Lord said, "Listen to what the unjust judge says. Will not God grant justice to His elect who cry out to Him day and night? Will He delay [to help] them? I tell you that He will swiftly grant them justice. Nevertheless, when the Son of Man comes, will He find that faith on earth?"
So they asked him, "Why then do you baptize if you aren't the Messiah, or Elijah, or the Prophet?"
Jesus replied, "I assure you: Unless someone is born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God."
Jesus answered, "I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
Jesus answered, "I assure you: Unless someone is born of water and the Spirit, he cannot enter the kingdom of God.
"Are you a teacher of Israel and don't know these things?" Jesus replied.
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
Phrygia and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya near Cyrene; visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes,
The proposal pleased the whole company. So they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and the Holy Spirit, and Philip, Prochorus, Nicanor, Timon, Parmenas, and Nicolaus, a proselyte from Antioch.
He was a devout man and feared God along with his whole household. He did many charitable deeds for the [Jewish] people and always prayed to God.
He was a devout man and feared God along with his whole household. He did many charitable deeds for the [Jewish] people and always prayed to God.
When the angel who spoke to him had gone, he called two of his household slaves and a devout soldier, who was one of those who attended him.
When the angel who spoke to him had gone, he called two of his household slaves and a devout soldier, who was one of those who attended him.
Cornelius replied, "Four days ago at this hour, at three in the afternoon, I was praying in my house. Just then a man in a dazzling robe stood before me
Then standing up, Paul motioned with his hand and spoke: "Men of Israel, and you who fear God, listen!
"Brothers, sons of Abraham's race, and those among you who fear God, the message of this salvation has been sent to us.
As they were leaving, they begged that these matters be presented to them the following Sabbath. After the synagogue had been dismissed, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and persuading them to continue in the grace of God.
After the synagogue had been dismissed, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and persuading them to continue in the grace of God.
After the synagogue had been dismissed, many of the Jews and devout proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas, who were speaking with them and persuading them to continue in the grace of God.
But the Jews incited the religious women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their district.
But the Jews incited the religious women of high standing and the leading men of the city. They stirred up persecution against Paul and Barnabas and expelled them from their district.
A woman named Lydia, a dealer in purple cloth from the city of Thyatira, who worshiped God, was listening. The Lord opened her heart to pay attention to what was spoken by Paul.
Then some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a great number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women.
Then some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, including a great number of God-fearing Greeks, as well as a number of the leading women.
So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and with those who worshiped God, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.
So he left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next door to the synagogue.