God-fearer

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title: "God-fearer" type: doc version: 1 created: 2026-02-28 author: "Wikipedia contributors" status: active scope: public tags: ["1st-century-christianity", "ancient-christian-controversies", "jews-and-judaism-in-the-roman-empire", "biblical-phrases", "early-christianity-and-judaism", "hellenistic-judaism", "mosaic-law-in-christian-theology", "new-testament-words-and-phrases", "noahides", "people-in-acts-of-the-apostles"] description: "Greco-Roman sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism" topic_path: "law" source: "https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God-fearer" license: "CC BY-SA 4.0" wikipedia_page_id: 0 wikipedia_revision_id: 0

::summary Greco-Roman sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism ::

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9e/Sardis_Synagogue,_late_3rd_century_AD,_Sardis,_Lydia,Turkey(18897218314).jpg" caption="Roman civic life]]."] ::

God-fearers (, phoboumenoi ton Theon) or God-worshippers (, Theosebeis)}} which observed certain Jewish religious rites and traditions without becoming full converts to Judaism. The concept has precedents in the proselytes of the Hebrew Bible. Many of these Greco-Roman sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism were worshippers of Caelus (the Roman name/equivalent to Yahweh). More generally, has come to mean someone who is honestly religious.

Overview

Origin, history, status and diffusion

Main article: History of the Jews in the Roman Empire, Second Temple Judaism

Since the mid-1980s, a growing number of scholars of Judaic studies and history of Judaism became interested in the subject of God-fearers and their relationship with Hellenistic Judaism and early Christianity. According to the popular opinion, Jews that lived in the Greco-Roman world during the Hellenistic and Roman period were not involved in active missionary efforts of mass conversion among Pagans, although many historians disagree.

As Jews emigrated and settled in the Roman provinces of the Empire, Judaism became an appealing religion to a number of Pagans, for many reasons; God-fearers and proselytes that underwent full conversion were Greeks or Romans, and came from all social classes: they were mostly women and freedmen (liberti), but there were also artisans, soldiers and few people of high status, like patricians and senators. Despite their allegiance to Judaism, the God-fearers were exempted from paying the "Jewish tax" (fiscus Judaicus).

Martin Goodman stated that Jews converted non-Jews by passively living by example. Non-Jews were given a choice on how to respond. But he notes that some Jews, like the Pharisees, were mostly interested in converting other Jews.

The class of God-fearers existed between the 1st They are mentioned in Latin and Greek literature, Flavius Josephus' and Philo's historical works, rabbinic literature, early Christian writings, and other contemporary sources such as synagogue inscriptions from Diaspora communities (Palestine, Rome, and Asia Minor).

In the Ancient Greek theatre of Miletus, some sitting places seem to have been reserved for the God fearer.

Sources

Hebrew Bible

In the Hebrew Bible, there is some recognition of Gentile monotheistic worship as being directed toward the God of the Jews. This forms the category of yir’ei HaShem/yir’ei Shamayim (, meaning "Fearers of the Name"/"Fearers of Heaven",{{refn| This was developed by later rabbinic literature into the concept of Noahides, i. e. Gentiles that follow the Seven Laws of Noah, which rabbinic writings assigned to the Noahic Covenant.

In inscriptions, texts, and papyri

The Greek and Latin terms that refer to God-fearers (theosebeis, sebomenoi, phoboumenoi, metuentes) are found in ancient literature (Greek, Roman, and Jewish) and inscriptions discovered in Aphrodisias, Panticapaeum, Tralles, Sardis, Venosa, Lorium (in Rome), Rhodes, Deliler (Philadelphia) and at a theater in Miletus.

Judging from the distinctions in the Acts of the Apostles, it is thought that they did not become gerim tzedekim, which required circumcision, although the evidence across the centuries varies widely and the meaning of the term may have included all kinds of sympathetic Gentiles, proselytes or not. There are also around 300 text references (4th century BCE to 3rd century CE) to a sect of Hypsistarians, some of whom practiced Sabbath and which many scholars see as sympathizers with Judaism related to God-fearers.

In early Christian writings

In the New Testament and early Christian writings, the Greek terms God-fearers and God-worshippers are used to indicate those Pagans who attached themselves in varying degrees to Hellenistic Judaism without becoming full converts, which describes the Apostolic Age of the 1st century. ::quote[attribution="Paul]] stood up, and motioning with his hand said: "Men of Israel, and ''you that fear God'' (οἱ φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν), listen"."] So [[Paul the Apostle ::

::quote[attribution="RSV]])"] Brethren, sons of the family of Abraham, and those among you that fear God (ἐν ὑμῖν φοβούμενοι τὸν θεόν), to us has been sent the message of this salvation. ::

Role in 1st-century Christianity

Main article: Christianity in the 1st century

::figure[src="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/96/Saint_James_the_Just.jpg" caption="blood]]..." ([[NRSV]])"] ::

Judaizing Gentiles and God-fearers are considered by modern scholars to be of significant importance to the growth of early Christianity; they represented a group of Gentiles who shared religious ideas and practices with Jews, to one degree or another. because it was the custom to spend an hour a day or so exercising nude in the gymnasium and in Roman baths, therefore Jewish men did not want to be seen in public deprived of their foreskins. Hellenistic and Roman culture both found circumcision to be cruel and repulsive.

The Apostle Paul in his letters fiercely criticized the Judaizers that demanded circumcision for Gentile converts, and opposed them; he stressed instead that faith in Christ constituted a New Covenant with God,}} Nonetheless, American scholar of Jewish studies A. Thomas Kraabel asserts that the God-fearers named in the New Testament (such as Cornelius the Centurion) should be considered as fictional characters in the Acts of the Apostles.

Eventually, the Apostolic Decree issued by James the Just in Jerusalem () decided that Gentiles who converted to Christianity were not obligated to keep most of the rules prescribed to the Jews by the Mosaic Law, such as Jewish dietary laws and other specific rituals, including rules concerning the circumcision of Jewish males. In Paul's message of salvation through faith in Christ as opposed to submission under the Mosaic Law, many God-fearers found an essentially Jewish group to which they could belong without the necessity of their accepting Jewish Law. Aside from earning Paul's group a wide following, this view was generalized in the eventual conclusion that conversion to Christianity doesn't require to follow the Jewish Law, a fact indispensable to the spread of the early Christian communities in the Roman Empire which would eventually lead to the distinction between Judaism and Christianity as two separate religions.

References

1. (2013). "Attitudes to Gentiles in Ancient Judaism and Early Christianity". [[Bloomsbury Publishing]].
2. Kraabel, A. T.. (1981). "The Disappearance of the 'God-Fearers'". [[Brill Publishers]].
3. (1996). "Jewish Life and Thought among Greeks and Romans". [[T&T Clark]].
4. Marcus, Ralph. (1952). "The Sebomenoi in Josephus". [[Indiana University Press]].
5. Bromiley, Geoffrey W.. (1986). "The International Standard Bible Encyclopedia". [[Eerdmans]].
6. Trebilco, Paul. (2006). "The Cambridge History of Judaism: Volume 4, The Late Roman-Rabbinic Period". [[Cambridge University Press]].
7. Goodman, Martin. (2007). "Judaism in the Roman World: Collected Essays". [[Brill Publishers]].
8. [[Florus]], ''Epitome'' 1.40 (3.5.30): "The Jews tried to defend [[Jerusalem]]; but he ''[Pompeius Magnus]'' entered this city also and saw that grand Holy of Holies of an impious people exposed, Caelum under a golden vine" ''(Hierosolymam defendere temptavere Iudaei; verum haec quoque et intravit et vidit illud grande inpiae gentis arcanum patens, sub aurea vite Caelum).'' Finbarr Barry Flood, ''The Great Mosque of Damascus: Studies on the Makings of an Umayyad Visual Culture'' (Brill, 2001), pp. 81 and 83 (note 118). The ''[[Oxford Latin Dictionary]]'' (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1982, 1985 reprinting), p. 252, entry on ''caelum'', cites Juvenal, Petronius, and Florus as examples of ''Caelus'' or ''Caelum'' "with reference to [[Jehovah]]; also, to some symbolization of Jehovah."
9. (21 March 2008). "Shattering a 'National Mythology'". [[Haaretz]].
10. Dunn, James D. G.. (Autumn 1993). "Echoes of Intra-Jewish Polemic in Paul's Letter to the Galatians". [[Society of Biblical Literature]].
11. Hezser, Catherine. (2011). "Jewish Travel in Antiquity". [[Mohr Siebeck]].
12. link. (2022-11-28 , ''[[Biblical Archaeology Review]]'' 12, 5 (1986), Center for Online Judaic Studies.)
13. [[Shaye J. D. Cohen]], ''From the Maccabees to the Mishnah'' (1989), pp. 55–59, [[Louisville, Kentucky]]: [[Westminster John Knox Press]], {{ISBN. 978-0-664-25017-1.
14. A. T. Kraabel, J. Andrew Overman, Robert S. MacLennan, ''Diaspora Jews and Judaism: essays in honor of, and in dialogue with, A. Thomas Kraabel'' (1992), [[Scholars Press]], {{ISBN. 978-15-55406-96-7. "As pious gentiles, the God-fearers stood somewhere between Greco-Roman piety and Jewish piety in the synagogue. In his classic but now somewhat outdated study titled ''Judaism in the First Centuries of the Christian Era'', Harvard scholar George Foot Moore argued that the existence of the God-fearers provides evidence for the synagogue's own missionary work outside of Palestine during the first century C.E. The God-fearers were the result of this Jewish missionary movement."
15. Goodman, Martin. (2006). "Judaism in the Roman World". Brill.
16. and the 3rd century [[Common Era. CE]].Robert F. Tannenbaum, [http://cojs.org/robert-f-tannenbaum-jews-god-fearers-holy-city-aphrodite-biblical-archaeology-review-12-5-1986/ "Jews and God-Fearers in the Holy City of Aphrodite"], ''[[Biblical Archaeology Review]]'' 12, 5 (1986), Center for Online Judaic Studies.
17. Louis H. Feldman. (1992). "Eusebius, Christianity, and Judaism". [[Wayne State University Press]].
18. (2010-04-23). "Jewish Inscription at Miletus Theater".
19. Jeffrey M. Cohen ''500 questions and answers on Chanukah'' 2006 "Hence the references to them in Jewish sources such as Sebomenoi or Yir'ei Hashem (God-fearers). Many of them accepted monotheism, though held back from many other basic ritual precepts."
20. [[Babylonian Talmud]], ''[[Sanhedrin (tractate). Sanhedrin]]'' 56a, 56b.
21. Pieter W. van der Horst, ''[http://classics.oxfordre.com/view/10.1093/acrefore/9780199381135.001.0001/acrefore-9780199381135-e-8035 God-fearers (theosebeis)]'' (2015), Oxford Classical Dictionary.
22. (2004). "The Face of New Testament Studies: A Survey of Recent Research". [[Baker Academic]].
23. (1906). "Proselyte". [[Kopelman Foundation]].
24. Lake, Kirsopp. (1979). "The Beginnings of Christianity: The Acts of the Apostles". [[Macmillan Publishers]].
25. Todd C. Penner, ''In praise of Christian origins: Stephen and the Hellenists'', p. 226, 2004: "The category of Theosebes is notoriously difficult to delineate. It is debatable whether or not the term was ever a widely recognized technical designation of a Gentile "hanger-on," and much of the evidence is difficult to date".
26. James D. Arvila, p. 29.
27. [http://www.journalofbiblicalstudies.org/Issue10/Godfearer.pdf Journal of Biblical Studies: Godfearer, by J. Brian Tucker] {{Webarchive. link. (2010-11-25: "The traditional understanding of God-fearers, i. e. [[F. F. Bruce]], “God-fearers were Gentiles who attached themselves in varying degrees to the Jewish worship and way of life without as yet becoming full proselytes.”")
28. (2009). "Beginning from Jerusalem: Christianity in the Making". [[William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.
29. (January 2017). "Language, Religion and the Human Mind". [[Oxford University Press]].
30. Hodges, Frederick M.. (1906). "Circumcision: In Apocryphal and Rabbinical Literature". [[Kopelman Foundation]].
31. Dunn, James D. G.. (Autumn 1993). "Echoes of Intra-Jewish Polemic in Paul's Letter to the Galatians". [[Society of Biblical Literature]].
32. Thiessen, Matthew. (September 2014). "Paul's Argument against Gentile Circumcision in Romans 2:17-29". [[Brill Publishers]].
33. (2007). "The New Perspective on Paul: Collected Essays". [[Mohr Siebeck]].
34. (2016). "Paul and the Gentile Problem". [[Oxford University Press]].
35. {{Bibleverse. Acts. 15:1-2. NRSV, {{Bibleverse-nb. Acts. 15:6-10. NRSV; {{Bibleverse. Galatians. 5:2-3. NRSV, {{Bibleverse-nb. Galatians. 5:6-12. NRSV, {{Bibleverse-nb. Galatians. 6:12-15. NRSV; {{Bibleverse. Philippians. 3:2-3. NRSV; {{Bibleverse. 1 Corinthians. 7:17-21. NRSV; {{Bibleverse. Romans. 2:17-29. NRSV, {{Bibleverse-nb. Romans. 3:9-28. NRSV, {{Bibleverse-nb. Romans. 5:1-11. NRSV; {{Bibleverse. Titus. 1:10-16. NRSV.
36. Hurtado, Larry W.. (2005). "How on Earth Did Jesus Become a God? Historical Questions about Earliest Devotion to Jesus". [[Wm. B. Eerdmans]].
37. Fredriksen, Paula. (2018). "When Christians Were Jews: The First Generation". [[Yale University Press]].
38. (2005). "The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church". [[Oxford University Press]].

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