Prosélyte

The documentary starting point is the biblical text itself, where the term ger first designates the foreigner settled in the midst of Israel. The Torah multiplies protective prescriptions regarding him: he must neither be oppressed nor wronged, on the grounds repeatedly recalled that the Hebrews themselves were once foreigners in Egypt. This figure of the ger toshav, the resident foreigner, is not yet the convert in the full sense, but it prepares the later category. Mosaic Law contained precise clauses for persons of non-Israelite origin who resided in Israel; such foreign residents could become worshippers of the true God. [Proselyte — Watchtower Online Library]

The decisive shift hinges on the Exile. The destruction of the First Temple and the deportation to Babylon scatter the Judeans and bring them into contact with new populations. As a consequence of the exile to Babylon, Judaism spread. [Proselyte — Watchtower Online Library] This displacement transforms the relationship to the foreigner: it is no longer merely the foreigner living among Israel, but Israel living among the nations, and thus becoming visible, imitable, adoptable. It is in this post-exilic context that the category of the proper convert takes shape, gradually distinguished from the mere resident. Rabbinic terminology will later fix this distinction: the ger tzedek, proselyte of justice, fully integrated into the covenant, separates from the ger toshav, the foreigner who resides without embracing the whole of the Law.

The very word we use is a Hellenistic inheritance. In translating the Hebrew Bible into Greek at Alexandria, the translators of the Septuagint render the Hebrew ger as prosêlytos, literally "one who has arrived," "the newcomer." The French term "prosélyte" derives directly from it, and its meaning became specialized to designate conversion to a religion. The French-speaking Jewish tradition has preserved, in parallel, the Hebrew terms: a convert to Judaism is called guer tzedek — "righteous proselyte" or "proselyte of justice" — or simply guer, proselyte. [Conversion to Judaism — fr-academic]

This dual nomenclature, Greek and Hebrew, is not insignificant: it reflects the world in which Jewish proselytism knew its greatest influence, that of the Hellenistic and Roman diaspora, where Judaism, the religion of a people, found itself exposed to sympathizers from paganism. Around the synagogues gravitated "God-fearers," attracted by monotheism and Jewish ethics without taking the step of complete conversion. The proselyte, by contrast, took that step. The vitality of this attraction is attested by independent ancient sources. Ancient historians, the Jew Flavius Josephus and the Greek Ptolemy, speak of the forced conversion of Idumea to Judaism. [Historionymy — Ph. Fabry] The conversion of the Idumaeans under the Hasmoneans shows that adherence could also be imposed by political constraint, the darker side of a phenomenon that was otherwise voluntary.

The most striking example of ancient conversion is not that of an obscure individual but of a dynasty. In the 1st century CE, the reigning family of the kingdom of Adiabene, in upper Mesopotamia, embraces Judaism. Queen Hélène and her son Izatès convert, and we know of the episode through the detailed account by Flavius Josephus. In it we see the queen arranging for provisions to be sent to Jerusalem during a famine, and monuments to the dead of this royal house turned Jewish were still shown in the city. The account preserves the memory of a halakhic debate in action: was circumcision necessary for Izatès, with the political risk it entailed? Jewish tradition would make Adiabene one of the great testimonies to the attractiveness of Judaism at the turn of our era, at a time when proselytism had not yet been hindered by the Roman imperial prohibitions that would later come to restrict conversion.

This episode illustrates an essential dimension of ancient proselytes: conversion was neither marginal nor hidden, but could engage sovereigns and entire courts, with diplomatic consequences and a memorial posterity inscribed in the landscape of Jerusalem itself.

Rabbinic tradition placed at the heart of its scriptural enterprise two figures of proselyte translators, whose historical and legendary data respond to each other and sometimes merge. Aquila of Sinope, a proselyte of the second century, produced a Greek translation of the Bible renowned for its rigorous literality, intended to correct, in the eyes of rabbinic Judaism, Christian readings of the Septuagint. In parallel, tradition attributes to Onkelos the proselyte the Aramaic Targum of the Pentateuch, which would become the standard Aramaic translation. Talmudic sources bring the two names so close together that some scholars see in them a single figure doubled between the Greek and Aramaic worlds — which makes this chapter a place where traditional Memory and historical analysis nuance each other mutually.

What matters here is the sense of the thing: tradition entrusted to converts the signal task of transmitting the sacred text in the languages of the nations. The proselyte, far from being kept at a distance, finds himself associated with the very work of mediation of Revelation. Rabbinic recognition of the convert finds in these figures its highest expression: he who comes from outside becomes the conveyor of the text toward outside.

The Middle Ages offers an exceptional testimony of conversion documented by the convert himself. Obadiah the Proselyte, also known as Johannes of Oppido, was an Italian convert to Judaism in the early twelfth century. [Obadiah the Proselyte — Wikipedia] Born Christian under the name Johannes, son of Dreux, from a Norman milieu in southern Italy, he embraced Judaism and took the name Obadiah. His singularity is twofold. He is best known for his memoirs and for the oldest notation of Jewish music that has survived, two unique testimonies. [Obadiah the Proselyte — Wikipedia]

These memoirs, found notably in the Cairo Genizah, give a rare voice to the medieval convert: they recount from within the journey of a man who abandons the Church for the synagogue at a time when, in Christian lands, such a choice could cost one's life. The musical notation he left behind constitutes moreover a capital document for the history of Jewish liturgical music. Obadiah thus embodies the persistence of proselytism well beyond Antiquity, in a medieval world where the Church and Islam severely regulated conversions to Judaism, and where the convert assumed immense risk.

Over the centuries, Jewish tradition has codified with precision the passage toward Jewishness, transforming attraction into procedure. Full conversion, that of the ger tzedek, presupposes acceptance of the commandments, circumcision for men, and ritual immersion in water, all before a rabbinic court. This requirement explains the technical distinction maintained until the contemporary era between degrees of adhesion.

The debates extended into the margins of the Jewish world, as shown by the case of Sabbatarian movements in Eastern Europe. The terms Gery and Gerami are employed in Russian for the Subbotniks, a fringe of Sabbatarian Christians. [Conversion to Judaism — fr-academic] These populations, adopting the observance of the Sabbath and certain Jewish practices, posed to rabbinic authorities the question of boundaries: where does conversion begin, where does it end? The proselyte thus remains, in halakha, at once fully welcomed — tradition forbids reminding him of his past and assimilates him, once converted, to a newborn child — and subject to an exacting threshold that guarantees the integrity of the covenant he joins.

Helen of Adiabene (1st century, exact dates unknown) — Queen of the royal house of Adiabene in upper Mesopotamia, she converted to Judaism along with her sons. Flavius Josephus reports that she had provisions sent to Jerusalem during a famine and that she built funerary monuments there that were still pointed out to visitors. Her conversion, along with that of her son Izates, remains the great ancient testimony to Judaism's attractiveness to sovereigns, and to the place that royal proselytism could occupy in the 1st century.

Izates II of Adiabene (died around 55 CE) — Son of Helen and king of Adiabene, he embraced Judaism and, according to Josephus, hesitated at length over circumcision because of its political risk before resolving to undergo it. His case preserves the memory of a halakhic debate lived at the summit of a State. His conversion, like that of his mother, made his dynasty one of the most cited examples of non-Jews entering the covenant in the era of the Second Temple.

Aquila of Sinope (2nd century, dates unknown) — A proselyte of Greek origin, he produced a highly literal Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, adopted by rabbinic Judaism against Christian readings of the Septuagint. Talmudic tradition connects him to the circle of sages of his time. His figure illustrates the confidence placed in the convert to transmit the sacred text in the language of the nations, and his work left a lasting mark on the history of biblical translations.

Onkelos the proselyte (around 2nd century, dates unknown) — Tradition attributes to him the Aramaic Targum of the Pentateuch, which became the standard Aramaic translation read alongside the biblical text. Talmudic sources present him as a convert close to the rabbinic masters, and some scholars bring him so close to Aquila as to see them as the same figure. His name remains attached to the idea that a proselyte could become the authorized transmitter of Revelation into Aramaic.

Obadiah of Oppido / Johannes (born around 1070, active in the early 12th century) — Norman knight from southern Italy, born Christian under the name Johannes, son of Dreux, he converted to Judaism and took the name Obadiah. He left memoirs, recovered notably in the Cairo Genizah, and the oldest preserved notation of Jewish music. His life testifies to the persistence of proselytism in the midst of the Christian Middle Ages, at considerable risk, and gives a rare voice to the medieval convert.

Tracking the proselyte through the ages is traversing a history made not of lineage but of decisions. From the ger protected by Mosaic Law to the convert of rabbinic courts, from the queen of Adiabene to the Norman knight who became Obadiah, the same figure crosses the centuries: that of the stranger who, through spoken word and bodily commitment, enters into the covenant of Israel. The history of Jewish proselytism follows that of the dispersions — it is exile that, by spreading Judaism among the nations, made it visible and adoptable — and that of the constraints that the Christian and Muslim empires subsequently imposed upon it. What remains, throughout the sources, is a constant: Jewish tradition reserved for the convert an eminent place, even entrusting him with the translation of the sacred text, while keeping intact the threshold he had to cross. The proselyte is not an accident in Jewish history; he is one of its revealer, he through whom are measured, at each epoch, the openness of Israel to the nations and the rigor of its covenant.