Prosēlytos vs Paroikos
gershom
When I started working on this article, I soon found that the matter of translation is far from straightforward. In fact I was making rather good progress and working towards a nice clean finish, but alas, the whole matter became complicated. I soon found myself preoccupied with researching the different meanings of what is commonly translated sojourner, or sometimes stranger in the Old Testament.
This will be a non-scholarly exploration of the term sojourner in the Old Testament, for I am completely unqualified to treat it in a scholarly manner. Yet, I believe there can be some value in this exercise, if nothing else for my own benefit.
Though title of this post and most of the discussion herein deal with two Greek terms that are used in the Septuagint, I think it important to start by pointing out that there is only one Hebrew word for the concept that is used in the Masoretic Text. That word is גָּר, transliterated gār or ger. Strong’s defines גָּר or gār as, sojourner: 1. a temporary inhabitant, a newcomer lacking inherited rights; 2. of foreigners in Israel, though conceded rights. In the KJV, it is usually translated as stranger, and in other English translations, such as the ESV, it is translated as sojourner. Throughout this post, I will prefer the use of sojourner.
| Reference | Verse |
|---|---|
| Gen 23:4 | [4] “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” |
| Exo 12:45 | [45] No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. |
| Lev 22:10 | [10] “A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing; no foreign guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing, |
| Lev 25:6, 23, 35, 40, 45, 47 | [6] The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, … [23] “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. … [35] “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. … [40] he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. … [45] You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. … [47] “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, |
| Num 35:15 | [15] These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills any person without intent may flee there. |
| 1Ki 17:1 | [1] Now Elijah the Tishbite, of Tishbe in Gilead, said to Ahab, “As the LORD, the God of Israel, lives, before whom I stand, there shall be neither dew nor rain these years, except by my word.” |
| 1Ch 29:15 | [15] For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. |
| Psa 39:12 | [12] “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. |
Proselytos:
| Refernce | Verse |
|---|---|
| Exo 12:48 | [48] If a stranger shall sojourn with you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, let all his males be circumcised. Then he may come near and keep it; he shall be as a native of the land. But no uncircumcised person shall eat of it. |
| Exo 12:49 | There shall be one law for the native and for the stranger who sojourns among you.” |
| Exo 20:10 | but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you, or your son, or your daughter, your male servant, or your female servant, or your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates. |
| Exo 22:21 | “You shall not wrong a sojourner or oppress him, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. |
| Exo 23:9 | “You shall not oppress a sojourner. You know the heart of a sojourner, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. |
| Exo 23:12 | “Six days you shall do your work, but on the seventh day you shall rest; that your ox and your donkey may have rest, and the son of your servant woman, and the alien, may be refreshed. |
| Lev 16:29 | “And it shall be a statute to you forever that in the seventh month, on the tenth day of the month, you shall afflict yourselves[fn] and shall do no work, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you. |
| Lev 17:3 | **If any one of the house of Israel kills an ox or a lamb or a goat in the camp, or kills it outside the camp, |
| Lev 17:8 | “And you shall say to them, Any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who offers a burnt offering or sacrifice |
| Lev 17:10 | “If any one of the house of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn among them eats any blood, I will set my face against that person who eats blood and will cut him off from among his people. |
| Lev 17:12 | Therefore I have said to the people of Israel, No person among you shall eat blood, neither shall any stranger who sojourns among you eat blood. |
| Lev 17:13 | “Any one also of the people of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn among them, who takes in hunting any beast or bird that may be eaten shall pour out its blood and cover it with earth. |
| Lev 17:15 | And every person who eats what dies of itself or what is torn by beasts, whether he is a native or a sojourner, shall wash his clothes and bathe himself in water and be unclean until the evening; then he shall be clean. |
| Lev 18:26 | But you shall keep my statutes and my rules and do none of these abominations, either the native or the stranger who sojourns among you |
| Lev 19:10 | And you shall not strip your vineyard bare, neither shall you gather the fallen grapes of your vineyard. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God. |
| Lev 19:33 | “When a stranger sojourns with you in your land, you shall not do him wrong. |
| Lev 19:34 | You shall treat the stranger who sojourns with you as the native among you, and you shall love him as yourself, for you were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the LORD your God. |
| Lev 20:2 | “Say to the people of Israel, Any one of the people of Israel or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel who gives any of his children to Molech shall surely be put to death. The people of the land shall stone him with stones. |
| Lev 22:18 | “Speak to Aaron and his sons and all the people of Israel and say to them, When any one of the house of Israel or of the sojourners in Israel presents a burnt offering as his offering, for any of their vows or freewill offerings that they offer to the LORD, |
| Lev 23:22 | “And when you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap your field right up to its edge, nor shall you gather the gleanings after your harvest. You shall leave them for the poor and for the sojourner: I am the LORD your God.” |
| Lev 24:16 | Whoever blasphemes the name of the LORD shall surely be put to death. All the congregation shall stone him. The sojourner as well as the native, when he blasphemes the Name, shall be put to death. |
| Lev 24:22 | You shall have the same rule for the sojourner and for the native, for I am the LORD your God.” |
| Lev 25:23 | “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. |
| Lev 25:35 | “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. |
| Lev 25:47 | “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, |
| Num 9:14 | And if a stranger sojourns among you and would keep the Passover to the LORD, according to the statute of the Passover and according to its rule, so shall he do. You shall have one statute, both for the sojourner and for the native.” |
| Num 15:14 | And if a stranger is sojourning with you, or anyone is living permanently among you, and he wishes to offer a food offering, with a pleasing aroma to the LORD, he shall do as you do. |
| Num 15:15 | For the assembly, there shall be one statute for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you, a statute forever throughout your generations. You and the sojourner shall be alike before the LORD. |
| Num 15:16 | One law and one rule shall be for you and for the stranger who sojourns with you.” |
| Num 15:26 | And all the congregation of the people of Israel shall be forgiven, and the stranger who sojourns among them, because the whole population was involved in the mistake. |
| Num 15:29 | You shall have one law for him who does anything unintentionally, for him who is native among the people of Israel and for the stranger who sojourns among them. |
| Num 15:30 | But the person who does anything with a high hand, whether he is native or a sojourner, reviles the LORD, and that person shall be cut off from among his people. |
| Num 19:10 | And the one who gathers the ashes of the heifer shall wash his clothes and be unclean until evening. And this shall be a perpetual statute for the people of Israel, and for the stranger who sojourns among them. |
| Num 35:15 | These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills any person without intent may flee there. |
| Deu 1:16 | And I charged your judges at that time, ‘Hear the cases between your brothers, and judge righteously between a man and his brother or the alien who is with him. |
| Deu 5:14 | but the seventh day is a Sabbath to the LORD your God. On it you shall not do any work, you or your son or your daughter or your male servant or your female servant, or your ox or your donkey or any of your livestock, or the sojourner who is within your gates, that your male servant and your female servant may rest as well as you. |
| Deu 10:18 | He executes justice for the fatherless and the widow, and loves the sojourner, giving him food and clothing. |
| Deu 10:19 | Love the sojourner, therefore, for you were sojourners in the land of Egypt. |
| Deu 12:18 | **but you shall eat them before the LORD your God in the place that the LORD your God will choose, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, and the Levite who is within your towns. And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God in all that you undertake. |
| Deu 14:29 | And the Levite, because he has no portion or inheritance with you, and the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, who are within your towns, shall come and eat and be filled, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands that you do. |
| Deu 16:11 | And you shall rejoice before the LORD your God, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite who is within your towns, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are among you, at the place that the LORD your God will choose, to make his name dwell there. |
| Deu 16:14 | You shall rejoice in your feast, you and your son and your daughter, your male servant and your female servant, the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow who are within your towns. |
| Deu 24:14 | “You shall not oppress a hired worker who is poor and needy, whether he is one of your brothers or one of the sojourners who are in your land within your towns. |
| Deu 24:17 | “You shall not pervert the justice due to the sojourner or to the fatherless, or take a widow’s garment in pledge, |
| Deu 24:19 | “When you reap your harvest in your field and forget a sheaf in the field, you shall not go back to get it. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, that the LORD your God may bless you in all the work of your hands. |
| Deu 24:20 | When you beat your olive trees, you shall not go over them again. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. |
| Deu 24:21 | When you gather the grapes of your vineyard, you shall not strip it afterward. It shall be for the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow. |
| Deu 26:11 | And you shall rejoice in all the good that the LORD your God has given to you and to your house, you, and the Levite, and the sojourner who is among you. |
| Deu 26:12 | “When you have finished paying all the tithe of your produce in the third year, which is the year of tithing, giving it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, so that they may eat within your towns and be filled, |
| Deu 26:13 | then you shall say before the LORD your God, ‘I have removed the sacred portion out of my house, and moreover, I have given it to the Levite, the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow, according to all your commandment that you have commanded me. I have not transgressed any of your commandments, nor have I forgotten them. |
| Deu 27:19 | “‘Cursed be anyone who perverts the justice due to the sojourner, the fatherless, and the widow.’ And all the people shall say, ‘Amen.' |
| Deu 28:43 | The sojourner who is among you shall rise higher and higher above you, and you shall come down lower and lower. |
| Deu 29:11 | your little ones, your wives, and the sojourner who is in your camp, from the one who chops your wood to the one who draws your water, |
| Deu 31:12 | Assemble the people, men, women, and little ones, and the sojourner within your towns, that they may hear and learn to fear the LORD your God, and be careful to do all the words of this law, |
| Jos 8:33 | And all Israel, sojourner as well as native born, with their elders and officers and their judges, stood on opposite sides of the ark before the Levitical priests who carried the ark of the covenant of the LORD, half of them in front of Mount Gerizim and half of them in front of Mount Ebal, just as Moses the servant of the LORD had commanded at the first, to bless the people of Israel. |
| Jos 8:35 | There was not a word of all that Moses commanded that Joshua did not read before all the assembly of Israel, and the women, and the little ones, and the sojourners who lived[fn] among them. |
| Jos 20:9 | These were the cities designated for all the people of Israel and for the stranger sojourning among them, that anyone who killed a person without intent could flee there, so that he might not die by the hand of the avenger of blood, till he stood before the congregation. |
| 1Ch 22:2 | David commanded to gather together the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, and he set stonecutters to prepare dressed stones for building the house of God. |
| 2Ch 2:17 | Then Solomon counted all the resident aliens who were in the land of Israel, after the census of them that David his father had taken, and there were found 153,600. |
| 2Ch 15:9 | And he gathered all Judah and Benjamin, and those from Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon who were residing with them, for great numbers had deserted to him from Israel when they saw that the LORD his God was with him. |
| 2Ch 30:25 | The whole assembly of Judah, and the priests and the Levites, and the whole assembly that came out of Israel, and the sojourners who came out of the land of Israel, and the sojourners who lived in Judah, rejoiced. |
| Psa 94:6 | They kill the widow and the sojourner, and murder the fatherless; |
| Psa 146:9 | The LORD watches over the sojourners; he upholds the widow and the fatherless, but the way of the wicked he brings to ruin. |
| Isa 54:15 | If anyone stirs up strife, it is not from me; whoever stirs up strife with you shall fall because of you. |
| Jer 7:6 | if you do not oppress the sojourner, the fatherless, or the widow, or shed innocent blood in this place, and if you do not go after other gods to your own harm, |
| Jer 22:3 | Thus says the LORD: Do justice and righteousness, and deliver from the hand of the oppressor him who has been robbed. And do no wrong or violence to the resident alien, the fatherless, and the widow, nor shed innocent blood in this place. |
| Eze 14:7 | For any one of the house of Israel, or of the strangers who sojourn in Israel, who separates himself from me, taking his idols into his heart and putting the stumbling block of his iniquity before his face, and yet comes to a prophet to consult me through him, I the LORD will answer him myself. |
| Eze 22:7 | Father and mother are treated with contempt in you; the sojourner suffers extortion in your midst; the fatherless and the widow are wronged in you. |
| Eze 22:29 | The people of the land have practiced extortion and committed robbery. They have oppressed the poor and needy, and have extorted from the sojourner without justice. |
| Eze 47:22 | You shall allot it as an inheritance for yourselves and for the sojourners who reside among you and have had children among you. They shall be to you as native-born children of Israel. With you they shall be allotted an inheritance among the tribes of Israel. |
| Eze 47:23 | In whatever tribe the sojourner resides, there you shall assign him his inheritance, declares the Lord GOD. |
| Zec 7:10 | do not oppress the widow, the fatherless, the sojourner, or the poor, and let none of you devise evil against another in your heart.” |
| Mal 3:5 | “Then I will draw near to you for judgment. I will be a swift witness against the sorcerers, against the adulterers, against those who swear falsely, against those who oppress the hired worker in his wages, the widow and the fatherless, against those who thrust aside the sojourner, and do not fear me, says the LORD of hosts. |
Paroikos
| Reference | Verse |
|---|---|
| Gen 15:13 ESV | [13] Then the LORD said to Abram, “Know for certain that your offspring will be sojourners in a land that is not theirs and will be servants there, and they will be afflicted for four hundred years. |
| Gen 23:4 ESV | [4] “I am a sojourner and foreigner among you; give me property among you for a burying place, that I may bury my dead out of my sight.” |
| Exo 2:22 ESV | [22] She gave birth to a son, and he called his name Gershom, for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land.” |
| Exo 12:45 ESV | [45] No foreigner or hired worker may eat of it. |
| Exo 18:3 ESV | [3] along with her two sons. The name of the one was Gershom (for he said, “I have been a sojourner in a foreign land”), |
| Lev 22:10 ESV | [10] “A lay person shall not eat of a holy thing; no foreign guest of the priest or hired worker shall eat of a holy thing, |
| Lev 25:6, 23, 35, 40, 45, 47 ESV | [6] The Sabbath of the land shall provide food for you, for yourself and for your male and female slaves and for your hired worker and the sojourner who lives with you, … [23] “The land shall not be sold in perpetuity, for the land is mine. For you are strangers and sojourners with me. … [35] “If your brother becomes poor and cannot maintain himself with you, you shall support him as though he were a stranger and a sojourner, and he shall live with you. … [40] he shall be with you as a hired worker and as a sojourner. He shall serve with you until the year of the jubilee. … [45] You may also buy from among the strangers who sojourn with you and their clans that are with you, who have been born in your land, and they may be your property. … [47] “If a stranger or sojourner with you becomes rich, and your brother beside him becomes poor and sells himself to the stranger or sojourner with you or to a member of the stranger’s clan, |
| Num 35:15 ESV | [15] These six cities shall be for refuge for the people of Israel, and for the stranger and for the sojourner among them, that anyone who kills any person without intent may flee there. |
| Deu 14:21 ESV | [21] “You shall not eat anything that has died naturally. You may give it to the sojourner who is within your towns, that he may eat it, or you may sell it to a foreigner. For you are a people holy to the LORD your God. “You shall not boil a young goat in its mother’s milk. |
| Deu 23:7 ESV | [7] “You shall not abhor an Edomite, for he is your brother. You shall not abhor an Egyptian, because you were a sojourner in his land. |
| Jdg 19:1 ESV | [1] In those days, when there was no king in Israel, a certain Levite was sojourning in the remote parts of the hill country of Ephraim, who took to himself a concubine from Bethlehem in Judah. |
| 2Sa 1:13 ESV | [13] And David said to the young man who told him, “Where do you come from?” And he answered, “I am the son of a sojourner, an Amalekite.” |
| 1Ch 5:10 ESV | [10] And in the days of Saul they waged war against the Hagrites, who fell into their hand. And they lived in their tents throughout all the region east of Gilead. |
| 1Ch 29:15 ESV | [15] For we are strangers before you and sojourners, as all our fathers were. Our days on the earth are like a shadow, and there is no abiding. |
| Psa 39:12 ESV | [12] “Hear my prayer, O LORD, and give ear to my cry; hold not your peace at my tears! For I am a sojourner with you, a guest, like all my fathers. |
| Psa 105:12 ESV | [12] When they were few in number, of little account, and sojourners in it, |
| Psa 119:19 ESV | [19] I am a sojourner on the earth; hide not your commandments from me! |
| Jer 14:8 ESV | [8] O you hope of Israel, its savior in time of trouble, why should you be like a stranger in the land, like a traveler who turns aside to tarry for a night? |
| Jer 49:18 ESV | [18] As when Sodom and Gomorrah and their neighboring cities were overthrown, says the LORD, no man shall dwell there, no man shall sojourn in her. |
| Zep 2:5 ESV | [5] Woe to you inhabitants of the seacoast, you nation of the Cherethites! The word of the LORD is against you, O Canaan, land of the Philistines; and I will destroy you until no inhabitant is left. |