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NASB | Isaiah 56:3 Let not the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, "The LORD will surely separate me from His people." Nor let the eunuch say, "Behold, I am a dry tree." |
AMPLIFIED 2015 | Isaiah 56:3 Do not let the foreigner who has joined himself to the LORD say, "The LORD will most certainly separate me from His people." And do not let the eunuch say, "Look, I am a dry tree." |
Bible Question:
In Sunday School recently, our teacher asked said that in Old Testament times there was a prevision for Gentile conversion to Judaism. That a Jew could not turn out a Gentile from his home and that Gentiles who desired to convert were called "seekers". I can not find this provision. Do you know whre it is and what he was talking about? |
Bible Answer: Someone who wished to become an Israelite was called a Proselyte. Here is an article which explains it. 1. GER IN THE OLD TESTAMENT: No difficulties were put in the way of those strangers who wished to settle down in the land of Israel. All strangers, the third generation of Egyptians and Edomites included, and only Ammonites and Moabites excluded, could enter “the congregation of God” without circumcision and without the obligation to keep the ceremonial law. ‘The stranger within the gate’ was free to eat meat which was prohibited to the Israelite (Dt 14:21). If, however, the stranger wished to take part in the Passover, a feast permeated with national ideals, he must be circumcised. The keeping of the Sabbath and other feasts was regarded rather as a privilege than as a duty (Ex 23:12; Dt 16:11, 14); but according to Lev 16:29 the was obliged to keep the fast of Atonement. He was forbidden on pain of death to blaspheme (Lev 24:16) or to offer children to Molech (Lev 20:2). If he desired to bring a burnt offering, the same law applied to him as to the Israelites (Lev 17:8; 22:18). Though the law of circumcision was not forced upon the , it seems that the Mosaic Law endeavored to bring him nearer to the cult of Israel, not from any proselytizing motives, but in order to preserve theocracy from admixture of foreign elements, which would speedily have proved fatal to its existence. Though the God of Israel, when He is thought of only as such, ceases to be God; though Israel was chosen before all nations for all nations; though Israel had been again and again reminded that the Messiah would bring a blessing to all nations; and though there were instances of pagans coming to believe in Yahweh, yet it did not belong to the economy of Old Testament religion to spread the knowledge of God directly among the Gentiles (the Book of Jonah is an exception to this). There was certainly no active propagandism. Though we read in Neh 10:28 of those who “separated themselves from the peoples of the lands unto the law of God” (compare Isa 56:3, “the foreigner, that hath joined himself to Yahweh”—the only and exact description of a proselyte proper in the Old Testament), the spirit of exclusiveness prevailed; the doubtful elements were separated (Ezr 4:3): mixed marriages were prohibited by the chiefs, and were afterward disapproved of by the people (Ezr 9; 10; Neh 13:23 ff). Direct proselytism did not begin till about a century later. The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia in Parsons Technology 1992 -1989 Rainbow Maker |
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Questions and/or Subjects for Is 56:3 | Author | ||
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pkbro2000 | ||
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Rainbow Maker | ||
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Jajula |