Israel and Humanity - The gher Noachide

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§ 3.

We read in Deuteronomy chapter of blessings and curses: "The gher (foreign proselyte) who among you will ever rise above you, and you shall come down lower and lower ". What first strikes the attention in this passage is that it suggests that the class of population to which it refers must be very large, because it is opposed to Israel as a rival, which not be explained if it were only a handful of individuals. It should be pointed out that it is not, however, converts justice fully converted to the law of Moses. They are incorporated for a more or less time, but in any case in a manner fully in Israelite society, there was no question of an antagonism between them and the Jews by birth.

The threat of Moses the Israelites became rebels against God is serious and eminently the contrary is quite understandable, if a class of aliens as the proselytes of the gate or Noachides who, while accepting large principles proclaimed by the Mosaic, however, were not required to observe its precepts, and especially were not part of the urban policy. It was a heterogeneous body lodged in the words of Moses in the national and harmless and even useful as a living organism that lives strong and steady, could become, when it deviated from his line of normal development, a cause of disturbance and a public danger. If you want proof that this is the Gentile Noachide that question, there's compare this verse of the blessing tag, which is said: "You shall lend to many Gentiles (goyim ) and thou shalt not borrow not ". Besides the opposition of this particular idea, since the threat ends precisely by the announcement that Israel will pay the foreign rebel and not borrow from him , there are between the blessing and the curse of expressions such a resemblance that is not possible to doubt whether it's the same subject, that is to say the nice, proselyte of the gate.

Philo has glimpsed it from the latter that Moses heard about this double pass, but there are further distinguished the threat against Israel from a rejection by God in favor of the foreign branch grafted on the tree of Judaism and, remarkably, he does in the same terms that Paul will use later. There is impressive evidence that these ideas are so bold and so offensive to the Jewish self-circulated among the Jews long before the lightning the way to Damascus and that probably it was not necessary to put in charge of liberalism to proclaim. We do not claim that it is education which has expanded the Hellenic religious horizon of Philo, we have seen that the Talmud so narrowed minded, we are told, has also not hesitated to make similar warnings, for example in the parable of the horse that replaces beef once beloved by his master . Philo Paul preached before so that it is not by birth and just because one is a descendant of Abraham that one belongs to the Church of God. Commenting on this passage in Deuteronomy where God tells his people the Jews that it is untrue to the Act, the alien shall prevail upon him and become the master of the Holy Land, he said these words in an entirely spiritual. The gher text mosaic refers to the Gentile converts it to God who has thus secured a place in heaven and he opposes the Jew in the flesh whose infidelity leads to conviction . God dries up the trunk of the tree and wreath offspring.

We do not guarantee that all these ideas are the Alexandrian philosopher in Deuteronomy, but abroad which it is spoken is just as willing Philo, the Gentile converts to the true God is what it would be difficult to deny after the analysis and comparisons of texts that we have made previously.

Here's still another passage in which gher in question is certainly very different from the proselyte of justice, ie Noachide necessarily, unless it be the Gentile outright which would enhance greatly the value of the exhortation made immune to her: "Thou shalt not oppress the gher , because you know the heart of the gher , having been yourself ghérim in the land of Egypt ". So here it is a foreigner who is against the Israelites in the same situation as them vis-à-vis the Egyptians. There was certainly not in the mind of Moses, a community of religion between gher and a Jew, otherwise the comparison he makes with the position of the Hebrews in Egypt would have gone against its purpose and therefore it is not proselytizing Noachide he hears.

We also know that it is the object of the most caring attention from the legislature. The Jew is urged to donate meat to it and it is also forbidden to him that apply all the recommendations made for charitable abroad ( gher ), often appointed with the widow and orphan, such as the obligation to pay interest free and a fortiori the prohibition to withhold pay rightful . All these duties of charity towards the gher Noachide are summarized in the Biblical and Rabbinic: "It is a precept to give him the means to live

We read in Deuteronomy: "You shall not give point to his master a slave who takes refuge to you, ready to have left. He will remain with you, in your midst, in the place he chooses, in one of your towns, wherever he pleases, Thou shalt not oppress him ". The terms of this law can not be more general provisions appear to apply equally to the slave master that nice Jewish, so we have here a striking example of justice and impartiality of the legis-lation mosaic against the second supporting the rights of the first. And what rights! Those of personal freedom center the very institution of slavery which the principle would thus be formally sentenced. But what we want to establish here is that the foreign slave had a right of residence in Palestine as a free man and not say a single word of his religion, what would the Scriptures not failed to mention if it was imposed Mosaic.

We have evidence in the Talmud that these laws were put into effect even in the toughest times for Israel. "It happened once," said a Boraïta, a foreign slave takes refuge in Palestine. His master pursued them and stood before R. Amer, who said: The slave you take out an obligation for the amount of its price and you, you sign it it an act of emancipation. Otherwise I'll drive out under the doctrine of R. Ahi the son of Rav Joschia on this verse of Scripture: they do not live in your country (it is the Canaanites) lest they make thee sin against me. Is this the kind who has renounced polytheism? No, because it is written: You will not leave his master a slave who takes refuge to you after leaving ". All this proves the existence of Palestine ghérim or foreign, other than the proselytes of justice, and about whom we would, with regard to their religious state, in complete ignorance, if the Tradition does complemented the scriptural data.