Thursday, June 08, 2017

The biblical stranger

PHILOLOGOS: Who Is the Biblical Stranger, and What Should the Bible's Teaching Mean Today? The shifting historical meaning of “Thou shalt not oppress a stranger” (Mosaic Magazine). As frequently, the meaning of the word ger has changed over time, notably from the Bible to the Rabbinic literature. That much is easy to establish. But the question of what the Bible's teaching about this (or most anything) should mean today is a difficult one, with lots of underlying assumptions to parse. Philologos makes a start, but doesn't pretend to provide a definitive answer.