God-fearer: Difference between revisions

'''God-fearers''' ({{lang-grc-x-koine|φοβούμενοι τὸν Θεόν}}, ''phoboumenoi ton Theon'')<ref name=Sim>{{cite book |last1=Sim |first1=David C. |last2=MacLaren |first2=James S. |title=Attitudes to Gentiles in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Bloomsbury Publishing]] |year=2013 |pages=9–27 |chapter=Gentiles, God-fearers and proselytes (Chapter 1): God-Fearers (Section 3) |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=qNBBAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA15 |isbn=978-0-56763-766-6 |name-list-style=amp}}</ref> or '''God-worshippers''' ({{lang-grc-x-koine|θεοσεβεῖς}}, ''Theosebeis'')<ref name=Sim/> were a numerous class of [[Gentile]] sympathizers to [[Hellenistic Judaism]] that existed in the [[Classical civilization|Greco-Roman world]],<ref name=Kraabel>{{cite journal |last=Kraabel |first=A. T. |author-link=A. Thomas Kraabel |date=1981 |title=The Disappearance of the 'God-Fearers' |jstor=3270014 |journal=[[Numen (journal)|Numen]] |volume=28 |issue=2 |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |location=[[Leiden]] |pages=113–126 |doi=10.1163/156852781X00160 |eissn=1568-5276 |issn=0029-5973 |lccn=58046229 |oclc=50557232}}</ref><ref name=FeldRein>{{cite book |editor1-last=Feldman |editor1-first=Louis H. |editor2-last=Reinhold |editor2-first=Meyer |editor1-link=Louis Feldman |date=1996 |title=Jewish Life and Thought among Greeks and Romans |chapter="Sympathizers" (God-fearers) |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=_kvhzxTf6QoC&pg=PA137 |location=[[Edinburgh]] |publisher=[[T&T Clark]] |pages=137–145 |isbn=0-567-08525-2}}</ref><ref name=Marcus>{{cite journal |last=Marcus |first=Ralph |year=1952 |title=The Sebomenoi in Josephus |jstor=4465081 |journal=Jewish Social Studies |volume=14 |issue=3 |location=[[Bloomington, Indiana]] |publisher=[[Indiana University Press]] |pages=247–250 |quote=We know from Pagan, Christian, and Jewish sources that during the [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] and [[Roman Republic|early Roman periods]] some Gentiles were so strongly attracted to Judaism that they became [[Conversion to Judaism|converts]] and undertook to observe [[Law of Moses|Jewish laws and customs]] in the same manner as did the Jews themselves. [...] It is also commonly assumed that there were some Gentiles who did not go so far as to become converts but indicated their belief in [[God in Judaism|monotheism]] and gave up the [[Ancient Greek religion|worship of Pagan gods]]. How far they went in openly dissociating themselves from Paganism and in associating themselves with Judaism we do not know. These Gentile sympathizers are commonly thought to be referred by the terms ''sebomenoi'' or ''phoboumenoi ton theon'' and ''metuentes'' in Greek and Latin sources, and ''yir᾿ê shamayim'' "fearers of Heaven" (i.e. God-fearers) in some early Rabbinic passages.}}</ref><ref name=Bromiley>{{cite book |last=Bromiley |first=Geoffrey W. |author-link=Geoffrey W. Bromiley |title=The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia |year=1986 |edition=Fully Revised |page=1010 |volume=3 |publisher=[[Eerdmans]] |location=[[Grand Rapids, Michigan]] |isbn=0-8028-3783-2 |quote=Many scholars see a parallel between the "God-fearers" in [[rabbinic literature]] and the "God-fearers" in the [[New Testament]] (NT). In rabbinic literature the ''[[Ger toshav|ger toshab]]'' was a Gentile who observed the [[Noahide laws|Noachian commandments]] but was not considered a convert to Judaism because he did not agree to [[circumcision]]. [...] some scholars have made the mistake of calling the ''ger toshab'' a "proselyte" or "semiproselyte." But the ''ger toshab'' was really a resident alien in [[Israel]]. Some scholars have claimed that the term "those who fear God" (''yir᾿ei Elohim''/''Shamayim'') was used in rabbinic literature to denote Gentiles who were on the fringe of the synagogue. They were not converts to Judaism, although they were attracted to the Jewish religion and observed part of [[Law of Moses|the law]].}}</ref> which observed certain [[Judaism|Jewish religious rites and traditions]] without becoming full [[Conversion to Judaism|converts to Judaism]].<ref name=Sim/><ref name=Kraabel/><ref name=FeldRein/><ref name=Bromiley/><ref name=Lewin>{{cite book |last=Trebilco |first=Paul |chapter=I «Timorati di Dio» |editor-last=Lewin |editor-first=Ariel |year=2001 |title=Gli ebrei nell'Impero romano: saggi vari |location=[[Florence]] |publisher=La Giuntina |pages=161–193 |isbn=88-8057-120-6 |language=it}}</ref><ref name=Treblico>{{cite book |last=Trebilco |first=Paul |chapter=The Jews in Asia Minor, 66-c. 235 CE |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=BjtWLZhhMoYC&pg=PA80 |editor-last1=Davies |editor-first1=William David |editor-last2=Finkelstein |editor-first2=Louis |editor2-link=Louis Finkelstein |editor-last3=Katz |editor-first3=Steven T. |title=The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period |location=[[Cambridge]] |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |year=2006 |pages=80–82 |isbn=978-0-521-77248-8}}</ref><ref name=Goodman>{{cite book |last=Goodman |first=Martin |author-link=Martin Goodman (historian) |chapter=Identity and Authority in Ancient Judaism |year=2007 |title=Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Essays |chapter-url= https://books.google.com/books?id=YVI2a9jc4pMC&pg=PA30 |location=[[Leiden]] |publisher=[[Brill Publishers]] |series=Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity |volume=66 |pages=30–32 |doi=10.1163/ej.9789004153097.i-275.7 |isbn=978-90-04-15309-7 |issn=1871-6636 |lccn=2006049637 |s2cid=161369763}}</ref> The concept has precedents in the [[Proselyte|proselytes]] of the [[Hebrew Bible]].

 

 

==Overview==

[[Judaizers|Judaizing]] Gentiles and God-fearers are considered by modern scholars to be of significant importance to the growth of [[early Christianity]];<ref name=Dunn2009>{{cite book |last1=Dunn |first1=James D. G. |author-link1=James D. G. Dunn |date=2009 |title=Beginning from Jerusalem: Christianity in the Making |volume=2 |location=[[Grand Rapids, Michigan]] |publisher=[[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company|Eerdmans]] |page=446 |isbn=978-0-8028-3932-9}}</ref><ref name=Bisschops2017>{{cite book |last1=Bisschops |first1=Ralph |date=January 2017 |chapter=Metaphor in Religious Transformation: 'Circumcision of the Heart' in Paul of Tarsus |chapter-url= https://www.researchgate.net/publication/312589528 |chapter-format=PDF |editor1-last=Chilton |editor1-first=Paul |editor2-last=Kopytowska |editor2-first=Monika |title=Language, Religion and the Human Mind |location=[[New York City|New York]] |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |pages=1–30 |doi=10.1093/oso/9780190636647.003.0012 |isbn=978-0-19-063664-7 |access-date=11 April 2020}}</ref> they represented a group of Gentiles who shared religious ideas and practices with Jews, to one degree or another.<ref name=Marcus/><ref name=Bromiley/><ref name=Lewin/><ref name=Goodman/> However, the God-fearers were only "partial" converts, engaged in certain [[Judaism|Jewish rites and traditions]] without taking a step further to actual [[conversion to Judaism]], which would have required full adherence to the [[613 Mitzvot]] (including various prohibitions such as [[kashrut]], [[Circumcision in the Bible|circumcision]], [[Shabbat]] observance, etc.) that were generally unattractive to would-be Gentile (largely Greek) converts.<ref name=Lewin/><ref name=Goodman/> The [[Brit milah|rite of circumcision]] was especially unappealing and execrable in [[Classical antiquity|Classical civilization]]<ref name=Bisschops2017/><ref name=Rubin1980>{{cite journal |last1=Rubin |first1=Jody P. |title=Celsus' Decircumcision Operation: Medical and Historical Implications |journal=[[Urology (journal)|Urology]] |publisher=[[Elsevier]] |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=121–124 |date=July 1980 |url= http://www.cirp.org/library/restoration/rubin/ |doi=10.1016/0090-4295(80)90354-4 |pmid=6994325 |access-date=11 April 2020}}</ref><ref name=Hodges2001>{{cite encyclopedia |last1=Broydé |first1=Isaac |author1-link=Isaac Broydé |last2=Friedenwald |first2=Aaron |last3=Jacobs |first3=Joseph |author3-link=Joseph Jacobs |last4=Hirsch |first4=Emil G. |author4-link=Emil G. Hirsch |first5=Kaufmann |last5=Kohler |author5-link=Kaufmann Kohler |url= http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4391-circumcision#anchor4 |title=Circumcision: In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature |encyclopedia=[[Jewish Encyclopedia]] |year=1906 |publisher=[[Kopelman Foundation]] |quote=Contact with Grecian life, especially at the games of the arena [which involved [[nudity]]], made this distinction obnoxious to the Hellenists, or antinationalists; and the consequence was their attempt to appear like the Greeks by [[epispasm]] ("making themselves foreskins"; I Macc. i. 15; Josephus, "Ant." xii. 5, § 1; Assumptio Mosis, viii.; I Cor. vii. 18; Tosef., Shab. xv. 9; Yeb. 72a, b; Yer. Peah i. 16b; Yeb. viii. 9a). All the more did the law-observing Jews defy the edict of [[Antiochus Epiphanes]] prohibiting circumcision (I Macc. i. 48, 60; ii. 46); and the Jewish women showed their loyalty to the Law, even at the risk of their lives, by themselves circumcising their sons.}}; {{cite journal |last=Hodges |first=Frederick M. |year=2001 |title=The Ideal Prepuce in Ancient Greece and Rome: Male Genital Aesthetics and Their Relation to Lipodermos, Circumcision, Foreskin Restoration, and the Kynodesme |journal=[[Bulletin of the History of Medicine]] |volume=75 |issue=Fall 2001 |pages=375–405 |publisher=[[Johns Hopkins University Press]] |url= http://www.cirp.org/library/history/hodges2/ |format=PDF |access-date=11 April 2020 |doi=10.1353/bhm.2001.0119 |pmid=11568485|s2cid=29580193 }}</ref> because it was the custom to spend an hour a day or so exercising [[Sexuality in ancient Rome#Male nudity|nude]] in the ''[[Gymnasium (ancient Greece)|gymnasium]]'' and in [[Thermae|Roman baths]], therefore Jewish men did not want to be seen in public deprived of their [[foreskin]]s.<ref name=Rubin1980/><ref name=Hodges2001/> [[Hellenistic period|Hellenistic]] and [[Culture of ancient Rome|Roman culture]] both found circumcision to be cruel and repulsive.<ref name=Rubin1980/><ref name=Hodges2001/>

 

 

In Paul's message of salvation through faith in Christ as opposed to submission under the Mosaic Law,<ref name=Bisschops2017/><ref name=Dunn1993/><ref name=Thiessen2014/> many God-fearers<ref name=Sim/> found an essentially Jewish group to which they could belong without the necessity of their accepting Jewish Law.<ref name=Sim/> Aside from earning Paul's group a wide following, this view was generalized in the eventual conclusion that converts to Christianity need not first accept all Jewish Law (see [[Council of Jerusalem|Apostolic Decree]]), a fact indispensable to the spread of the early Christians which would eventually lead to the [[Split of early Christianity and Judaism|distinction between Judaism and Christianity as two separate religions]].