While reading in the book of Acts this past Sabbath we came upon the phrase “WORSHIPER OF GOD”. That reminds me of the similar phrase, “GOD FEARERS”. What in the world does that mean? During my days studying Biblical backgrounds in Israel, I learned the meaning of these terms to be two-fold:
1. GENTILES WHO CONVERTED TO THE RELIGION OF JUDAISM
and
2. GENTILES WHO LIVED LIKE JEWS BUT DID NOT CONVERT TO JUDAISM
But after reading Moore’s Judaism and Schurer’s The History of the Jewish People I became more educated on the subject. Effectively a “WORSHIPER OF GOD” or “GOD FEARER” IS A NON-JEW WHO BECOMES AN ISRAELI CITIZEN. We talked about ISRAELI CITIZENSHIP in a previous blog. The primary requirement was CIRCUMCISION. CIRCUMCISION is the SIGN of CITIZENSHIP. However, in that blog we saw the NT writers, especially the Apostle Paul, REPROACHING the idea of any Christian GETTING CIRCUMCISED (unless they were born into the nation Israel, of course!). The propaganda being peddled to Christians was, you MUST become an Israeli citizen in order to “GET SAVED”. In a word, CIRCUMCISION IS PROHIBITED IN THE N.T. FOR PURPOSES OF “GETTING SAVED”. Remember, we discussed the meaning of “GETTING SAVED” in a previous blog, and it DEFINITELY does NOT mean what modern churches teach!
Here are the Acts texts for this blog:
Then he [Paul] left there and went to the house of a man named Titius Justus, a worshiper of God, whose house was next to the synagogue. (Acts 18.7)
And some of them were persuaded and joined Paul and Silas, along with a large number of the God-fearing Greeks and a number of the leading women. (Acts 17:4)
So he [Paul] was reasoning in the synagogue with the Jews and the God-fearing Gentiles, and in the market place every day with those who happened to be present. (Acts 17:17)
From a common sense perspective, I seriously doubt the synagogues of that time would ever allow any ‘unclean idolatrous gentile’ into their synagogues. That’s a very sound argument in favor of the God-fearing Gentiles not being idolaters, don’t you think? Let’s see what the experts have to say.
Schurer’s discussion begins on page 105 of Vol. III, Sec. 31, under the heading, Judaism in the Diaspora – Internal Organization of the Communities. He talks about SLAVE MANUMISSION, which we discussed in an earlier blog regarding THE SYNAGOGUE OF THE FREEDMAN. Schurer discusses that subject from the GREEK BASIS scholastic position, which I think is WRONG. I believe the GREEK BASIS scholastic position is WRONG because of what I talked about in the THE SYNAGOGUE OF THE FREEDMAN and HERMENEUTICS blogs, which amounts to TALMUDIC AGREEMENTS FREEING THE ‘JEWISH’ SLAVES (caused by WAR CAPTIVITY), being HEBREW BASIS scholastic position instead.
Anyways, Schurer says, “Different as the pagan and Jewish forms are, the connexion is unmistakable.” The bottom line here is, THERE IS NO ‘CONNEXION’ BETWEEN THE TWO! That statement is PURE PROPAGANDA designed to throw you off track so you can’t see what’s really going on here. The FACT is, these agreements about ENSLAVED JEWS were strictly TALMUDIC IN FORM AND FUNCTION. You can get some of the pesky details in Rabinowitz’s Jewish Law. This entire discussion by Schurer (the factual parts) about the history of the thing, has all the signs of ‘JEWISH’ COMMERCE thru-and-thru!
Incidentally, here’s how Schurer’s statement totally contradicts his GREEK BASIS propaganda viewpoint of Biblical scholarship:
(Schurer, Vol III, page 107, cf. page 119)
The Jews has their own LAWS and their own COURTS (for crying out loud!) while living in FOREIGN NATIONS. It’s the same today here in America! One has to wonder how they accomplished that WITHIN THE FOREIGN GOVERNMENT SYSTEMS in which they lived?! I’ll give you a hint: COMMERCE.
Anyways, Schurer gives us two FACTS here:
1. Jews had their own POLITICAL POWER while living IN FOREIGN NATIONS under GENTILE GOVERNMENTS,
and
2. Gentiles BECAME ISRAELI CITIZENS while living under their own GENTILE GOVERNMENTS (= “worshipers of God” and “God fearers”).
I’m not going to get into Fact #1 above. But the obvious questions that arise about Fact #2 above are, HOW and WHY? First let me quote out of Moore’s Judaism to answer the HOW:
(Moore, Vol I, page 329)
Note that “Gentile converts” are subject to all the laws of Israel, both religious AND CIVIL. Becoming a GOD FEARER or WORSHIPER OF GOD was serious business!
(Moore, Vol I, pages 330-1)
Note here that “Gentile converts” MUST SWEAR TO KEEP ALL THE LAW or they are PROHIBITED from becoming 2nd Temple Israeli citizens (“if a proselyte takes upon himself to obey all the words of the law except one single commandment, he is not to be received”). Again, that applies to BOTH religious and CIVIL laws. To reiterate, becoming a GOD FEARER or WORSHIPER OF GOD was serious business!
The apostle Paul says the same thing this way:
And I testify again to every man who receives circumcision, that he is under obligation to keep the whole Law. (Galatians 5:3)
Incidentally, the Apostle Paul’s statement revolves around CITIZENSHIP OBLIGATIONS, and he’s right. He’s merely adapting the legal requirement to his argument about CIRCUMCISION (which RESULTED FROM becoming a citizen, not which CAUSED it). But really, as we saw above, a Gentile would NEVER be afforded CITIZENSHIP if he didn’t VOW/SWEAR/TOTALLY COMMIT to obey all the 2nd Temple laws BEFORE becoming an Israeli citizen. And he did that in front of THE AUTHORITIES (pretty scary!). There’s a saying in feudal English law, based on Talmudic law: the debtor ATTESTS to the having heard and understood THE PAIN OF THE STATUTE that applies to him if he FAILS to repay his debt. “Pain of the statute” … LOL! NO KIDDING!
So you see, Paul’s statement is a RESULT of the PROCESS of becoming a citizen, because the OBLIGATION TO OBEY EVERYTHING comes first. That’s the BASIS of Paul’s statement, not like the theologians misunderstand him, due to their lack of the above facts. Moreover, there was an entire sphere of LAW and LEGAL PROCESS involved with becoming citizens. Compare that with the previous couple blogs on Acts 15, where James decrees a HANDFUL of REQUIREMENTS for Gentiles who “GET SAVED” (become ‘Christian’). That would make an excellent topic for another blog, that is, 2nd Temple CITIZENSHIP LEGAL PROCESS, compared to what James determined in Acts 15, don’t you think? I sure do!
It’s important to note that the term JUDAIZE is relevant to this subject, because when a Gentile becomes an Israeli citizen, he’s said to have JUDAIZED! In other words, he’s made a life-long commitment to learn and obey ALL THE LAWS OF THE LAND of 2nd Temple Israel. We discussed JUDAIZE in a previous blog in the narrow sense of BEING COERCED INTO OBEYING 2nd Temple law by LEGAL SOPHISTRY (lawyer-bureaucrat THREATS). But that’s a whole different topic, since GENTILE CONVERSION WAS (presumably) VOLUNTARY. Here’s what Moore has to say about JUDAIZING:
… ‘become a proselyte’ … convert some one to Judaism, make a proselyte of him. … ‘turn Jew,’ adopt the religious customs of the Jews. 1″ (Vol I, page 330, P 1)
fn 1:
(Vol I, page 108)
“IOUDAIZEIN” in the Greek (in the above fn) is a transliteration of the Hebrew term JUDAIZE. I won’t get into another intriguing aspect of GENTILE CONVERSION, except to say that, as FOREIGN BORN, the Gentile CONVERTS are considered to be LOWER THAN SLAVES in Israeli social status! You can see that in Moore, Vol. I, page 335. So, one has to wonder WHY any Gentile would have VOLUNTEERED to become a JEW? Unfortunately, the WHY, of a Gentile “Judaizing”, is the subject for another blog, because IT’S COMPLICATED. Suffice to say, IMO, the simple truth of the matter was THEY LIKED “JUDAISM” MORE THAN PAGAN IDOLATRY! Or should we say, they BENEFITED MORE as citizens of Israel than as pagan idolaters?
And finally, let me say one thing about #2 above (first paragraph of this blog):
2. GENTILES WHO LIVED LIKE JEWS BUT DID NOT CONVERT TO JUDAISM. That ‘teaching’ which I learned in Israel IS WRONG (according to this blog). Moreover, Moore gives us one possible origin for that FALSE IDEA:
There’s one more thing I feel compelled to say about “BEING SAVED”, which is a bit off topic, but related. Consider how a church minister today SAVES people. He tells them “Jesus died for your sins, you can be forgiven if you ‘accept Jesus into your heart’.” First off, WHAT IN THE WORLD DOES THAT MEAN??!! Sure sounds like BLATHERING EMOTIONALISM to me! There’s nothing whatsoever meaningful and measurable about it! Usually, during a church service, after the minister gives his sermon, he also gives ‘the gospel’ and ‘an alter call’. If one or more people respond to the alter call by going up to the front of the church and kneeling down in front of the minister, he questions them briefly to ‘verify’ that they ‘said the words’ so he can ‘PRONOUNCE THEM SAVED’. How CONvenient!
Now, compare THAT (becoming a citizen of God’s Kingdom) with what you read above about BECOMING A CITIZEN OF ISRAEL. The question begging to be asked at this point is, HOW CAN IT BE SO MUCH MORE EASY TO BECOME A CITIZEN OF GOD’S KINGDOM COMPARED TO BECOMING A CITIZEN OF MAN’S KINGDOM, WHEN GOD’S STANDARD FOR CITIZENSHIP IS FAR MORE STRICT THAN MAN’S? I think that modern churchianity is in it FOR THE MONEY (church membership). “Getting saved” has nothing to do with it! If it did, I doubt there’d be many people populating the church pews, considering the amount of LIFESTYLE CHANGES they would be required to make in order to be a TRUE CHRISTIAN under God’s law. Think about it.
So there you have it: Only one kind of “WORSHIPER OF GOD” or “GOD FEARER” existed during 2nd Temple times. It was a NON-JEW who BECAME A CITIZEN OF ISRAEL while living in his GENTILE HOME LAND. In a nutshell:
A “GOD FEARER” WAS A GENTILE WHO “JUDAIZED”!
See you in the next blog!
Reality Bible 