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  • From: "David Hindley" <dhindley AT compuserve.com>
  • To: "'Corpus-Paul'" <corpus-paul AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Corpus-Paul] The defection of Corinthian God-fearers to Paul
  • Date: Sun, 6 Aug 2006 11:55:22 -0400

Bob,

<<Where does this term "God-fearers" come from? I cannot find it in any
Biblical references.>>

Richard and I may be using this term differently, although I am trying to
conform my use to follow the evidence presented in the
most recent edition of E. Schurer's _History of the Jewish People in the age
of Jesus Christ_.

The index contain the subject 'God-fearers' (Vol. III.2, pp. 935-936). Among
these are entries concerning "various inscriptional
references to", "whether formed a distinct category", "Poppaea described as
such", "to be found throughout the Hellenistic-Roman
world", "extent of observance of Jewish law", the "meaning of terms
sebomenoi, phoboumenoi, and theosebeis", and "distinct from
ger-toshab".

The term seems to have been used occasionally by some Jews to designate
themselves, but in other cases it appears to refer to both
converts to Judaism and, mainly, gentile "hangers-on". The kind of
"god-fearers" being referred to here has been "hangers-on", that
is, gentiles who are associating with Jews for whatever reasons they might
have had, and wanted to be incorporated into (or just
included in) the Jewish community to some extent.

The extent to which gentiles associated pagan deities with the Jewish God,
and to what degree Hellenistic Jews were willing to
tolerate that kind of (mis)understanding, is discussed among the entries for
"God-fearers" just mentioned and those for the subject
"Theos Hypsistos", and can be found in footnotes elsewhere with a little
digging.

Respectfully,

Dave Hindley
Cleveland, Ohio USA









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