PROSELYTE (rpool7Xtrros), the name applied in the N. T. and the Sept. to converts from heathenism to Judaism (srpocrOttros. of es 7rpoTeX7fXi106res eel Kara, rubs 9eIovc 7roNtreancero1 p6p.ous, Suidas, iu voc.) The Hebrew word for which the LXX. use this is 14, stranger, advewa.
Of these 1]P13 there were always from the earliest periods of Israelitish history numbers who on various accounts were settled among the people of Israel, and were distinguished from such foreigners as merely visited the land 41;) and such as dwelt in it, but had no rights as citizens (=AP) They were incorporated with the chosen people by circumcision (D+iTnn, and shared with them in the privileges of the covenant. It is probable that slaves who were circumcised, being thereby privileged to partake of the pass over (Exod. xii. 44), were in a sense counted prose lytes; and certainly the children of heathen slaves ` born in the house' wpm were circumcised, and as part of the household reckoned among the worshippers of Jehovah, though being still retained in bondage they could not stand on an equal footing with a freeborn Israelite. There was no law or regulation which forbade any foreigner (excepting an Ammonite or Moabite, Dent. xxiii. 3) who chose to accept the prescribed conditions to enter the community of Israel, and become a partaker of its advantages ; only in the case of an Egyptian and an Edomite this could not be done till the third generation (Dent. xxiii. 7, 8). Those thus received into the congregation had the same privileges asborn-Israelites (Exod. xii. 48, 49; Num. xv. 14). It was, however, forbidden to a priest to marry the daughter of a proselyte (Lev. xxi. 14 ; comp. Ezek. xliv. 22), a prohibition which probably had respect to the ceremonial purity and sanctity of the priestly office (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Luc. i. 5 ; Joseph. Cont. Ap. i. 7 ; Antiq. xi. 3. ro). Nor could a proselyte hold any public office, or be a member of the Sanhedrim, unless his mother was an Israelite ; and even in this case he could not be king, or general, or president of the supreme council (Maimon., Hilk. Sank., ii. 9 ; i.) Even when a stranger did not become a proselyte, he might reside in the land, and even be employed near the person of the sovereign (comp. 2 Sam. xi. 6 ; xv. 18 ; xxiv. 16-24 ; 1 Chron. xi. 39, 46), provided he did not offend by indulging in heathen abominations or blasphemy (Lex. xvii. 10, ff. ; xx. 2; xxiv. 16). Among prose lytes to Judaism, though of an inferior class, may be ranked the Nethinim [NETHimm]. When the Jews returned from Babylon, a number of proselytes went up with them (Neh. x. 28 ; comp. Esther viii. 17). The whole Jewish state was considered as composed of the two classes, Jews, and strangers within their gates, or proselytes. In later years this distinction was observed even to the second generation ; a child of pure Jewish descent on both sides being designated p 4123,t, *Eppaios ei 'Eppalcur (Phil. iii. 5), whilst the son of a proselyte
was denominated ; and if both parents were proselytes he was styled by the Rabbins nn, a contraction for r11rp,1 nrp (Pirke Avolk. cap. 5).
In the earlier and better ages of Judaism, though in accordance with the law (Exod. xii. 48 ; Lev. xvii! 8 ; Num. xv. 15, etc.), which made provision for the reception of strangers, they were freely ad mitted, no special encouragement seems to have been given to proselytism ; on the contrary, the fear of tempting to it by improper motives those who still retained the taint of heathenism, induced a disposition rather to thros; impediments in the way of converts uniting themselves to the Jewish community. At a later period this strictness be came greatly relaxed, and even a fanatical desire to make proselytes by any means took possession of the minds of Jewish religionists. Our Lord charges it on the Pharisees, that they compassed sea and land to make one proselyte, and declares that the result of their unprincipled zeal was only to make him twofold more the child of hell than themselves (Matt. xxiii. 15)—a charge the truth of which may be amply substantiated from the pages of the historian (cf. Joseph. Antig. xiii. 9. I ; 11.3; xviii. 3. 4 ; Vit. 23 ; Hor., Sat. i• 4. 142 • Dio, xxxviii. p. 21, and the other pas sages cited by Wetstein in his note on Matt. xxiii. 15). These proselytes were not respected either by the heathen whom they had left, or by the Jews to whom they had gone over ; while the former them opprobrious epithets, such as curtus and 'verpes (Hor., Sat. i. 4. 142; Mart., vii. 29, 34, Si, etc.), and subjected them to various indignities and oppressions (Sueton., Claud., 25; Domit. 12; Tacit., Ann., ii. 85) ; the latter, if we may judge from the Talmud, regarded them with aversion and suspicion, speaking of them as a leprous scab on Israel 013)1V 3.tn3 $tiler$, Yebam. xlvii. 4), classing them with the most flagitious characters (Lightfoot, Hor. Heb. in Matt. xxiii. 15), and pronouncing them unworthy of trust even to the 24th generation (Jalkuth Ruth 1. 163, etc.) That many of the proselytes, however, were true converts, drawn by purely religious motives to join the Jewish community, we have the best assurance in the notices given of them in the N. T., where they were spoken of as Oopoonevot or o-cf36p.epot row cOacpels, and ciiXapE2r (Acts x. 2, 7 ; xiii. 16, 26, 43, 50 ; xvi. 14 ; xvi- 4, 17 ; xviii. 7 ; ii. 5 ; comp. John xii. 20 ; Joseph. Antiq. xiv. 7. 2) ; though it may be doubted if all to whom these terms are applied had formally become Jews by circumcision ; many of them probably were per sons who had accepted the religions beliefs of the Jews without having incorporated themselves with the Jewish nation.