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PROSELYTE (Gr.IrpoaiXvros)

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Originally appearing in Volume V22, Page 456 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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PROSELYTE (Gr.IrpoaiXvros) , strictly one that has arrived (=See also:Lat. advena), a stranger or sojourner, a See also:term now practically restricted to converts from one See also:religion to another. It was originally so used of converts to Judaism, but any one who sets out to convert others to his own opinions is said to " proselytize." The word is commonly used in the Alexandrian See also:Greek See also:translation of the Old Testament (See also:Septuagint) for the See also:Hebrew word (ger) which is derived from a See also:root (gur) denoting to sojourn. The See also:English versions often render the word by "stranger;" but though distinguished from the See also:home-See also:born 'ezrah (=one rising from the See also:soil), the See also:person denominated ger became the equal of the native Israelite, and, when the meaning of ger passed from a mainly See also:civil to a religious See also:connotation, enjoyed many rights. Like the Arabic See also:jar (which is philologically cognate to ger), the ger attached himself as a client to an individual or as a protected settler to the community. He shared in the See also:Sabbath See also:rest (Exod. xx. 1o), and was liable to the same duties and privileges as See also:Israel (see references in See also:Oxford Gesenius, p. 158). The Hebrew word later came to mean what we now understand by proselyte, a term which appears in the sense of convert to Judaism in the New Testament (Matt. See also:xxiii. 15; Acts ii. Io). The Rabbinic See also:law recognized two classes: (a) the full proselyte, the stranger of righteousness (ger sedeq), who was admitted after See also:circumcision, See also:baptism and the offering of a See also:sacrifice (after the destruction of the See also:Temple the first two ceremonies were alone possible); and (b) the limited proselyte, the See also:resident See also:alien (ger toshab) or proselyte of the See also:gate (ger ha-sha'ar), who, without accepting Judaism, renounced See also:idolatry and accepted Jewish See also:jurisdiction, thereby acquiring limited citizenship in See also:Palestine. Some authorities think that the " See also:God-fearers " of some of the See also:Psalms and of the New Testament were these limited proselytes.

The Hebrew and Greek terms, however, lost the connotation of a See also:

change of See also:residence, and both ger and " proselyte " came to apply to a convert without regard to his See also:nationality. At various periods there were proselytes to Judaism. The Maccabaeans used compulsion in some cases, but Judaism in the Diaspora was a missionary religion in the less militant sense. Heathens See also:felt in the religion of Israel an See also:escape from their growing See also:scepticism, and a See also:solution to the problem of See also:life. See also:Josephus testifies that there was much proselytism in See also:Rome (Against See also:Apion, ii. 39), and several Latin writers confirm this (See also:Cicero, See also:Pro Flacco, § 28; See also:Juvenal xiv. 96; cf. See also:Reinach, Textes d'auteurs grecs et romains relatifs au Judaisme (1895). The well-known reference in Matt. See also:xxv. 15 supports the view that proselytes were actively sought by the See also:Pharisees, and the famous See also:Didache was probably in the first instance a See also:manual for instructing proselytes in the principles of Judaism. There were, however, varying opinions as to the value to the Jewish See also:body of these accessions. Some rabbis interpreted Israel's See also:dispersion as divinely designed for the very purpose of proselytizing (Pesahim 87b.).

In the Diaspora See also:

admission of converts may have been made easy, circumcision being sometimes omitted, but the conditions became gradually more severe, until they reached their See also:present See also:form. It is thought that the Hadrianic persecution led to this change. The See also:Jews seem to have suffered during the See also:war from the treachery of See also:half-hearted See also:friends. Again, many who had become converts to Judaism afterwards joined the new See also:Christian communities. Moreover, in the See also:middle ages, it was not lawful for the Jews to admit proselytes. Various See also:church See also:councils prohibited it, and the See also:Code of Alfonso X. (1261) made See also:conversion to the See also:synagogue a See also:capital See also:crime. (In 1222 a Christian See also:deacon was executed at Oxford for his See also:apostasy to Judaism: See also:Matthew See also:Paris, ed. Luard, iii. 71.) Again, the pragmatic theory of Judaism, enunciated in Talmudic times, and raised almost to the dignity of a See also:dogma by See also:Maimonides (On Repentance, iii. 5, &c.), was that Judaism was not necessary for salvation, for " the pious of all nations have a See also:share in the See also:world to come " (Tosephta, Sanh. xiii. 2).

If to these causes be added a certain exclusiveness, which refused to meet a would-be convert more than half-way, we find no difficulty in accounting for the reluctance which the See also:

medieval and See also:modern synagogue has felt on the subject. Yet willing proselytes to Judaism are still freely received, provided that their See also:bona fides are proven. In some reformed congregations in See also:America proselytes are admitted without circumcision, and a similar policy is proposed (not yet adopted) by the Jewish Religious See also:Union in See also:London, though the male See also:children of proselytes are to be required to undergo the rite. In 1896 the central See also:conference of See also:American Rabbis formulated as a proselyte See also:Confession of faith these five principles: (I) God the Only One; (2) See also:Man His See also:Image; (3) See also:Immortality of the Soul; (4) Retribution; and (5) Israel's See also:Mission. Most cases of conversion to Judaism at the present See also:time are for purposes of See also:marriage, and See also:female e proselytes are more numerous than male. Female proselytes are admitted after the See also:total See also:immersion in a See also:ritual See also:bath, though in some Reformed congregations this rite is omitted. Proselytes arestill not allowed, in Orthodox circles, to become the wives of reputed descendants of the priestly families, but otherwise marriage with proselytes is altogether equal to marriage between born Jews. See Schiirer, Geschichte See also:des ji dischen Volkes, ed. 3, iii. 102—135, Bertholet, See also:Die Stellung der Israeliten and der Juden zu den Fremden, 179–349 ; articles in Ency. Bib., See also:Hastings's Dict. Bib. and the Jewish Ency.

For the Jewish law of the admission of proselytes, see Shulhan 'Aruch, Yore Deah, § 268. (I.

End of Article: PROSELYTE (Gr.IrpoaiXvros)

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