TR: ger → proselytos (Stranger/Sojourner → Proselyte)

The Chain

Hebrew OT              LXX (Greek OT)           Greek NT
───────────            ───────────────           ────────
גֵּר (ger)          →  προσήλυτος (proselytos) →  προσήλυτος (proselytos)
H1616, 83x             68x as translation        4x in NT
"resident alien"       of ger                    "proselyte, convert"

OT Usage (Hebrew)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
H1616	גֵּר (ger)	83	resident alien, sojourner dwelling under Israelite law
H1481	גּוּר (gur)	94	to sojourn (root verb)
H8453	תּוֹשָׁב (toshab)	13	temporary resident, tenant (less integrated than ger)

Key OT passages: - Exo 12:48–49 — ger may keep Passover once circumcised; "one law" for homeborn and ger - Lev 19:33–34 — "love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt" - Num 15:15–16 — "one ordinance... for you and for the stranger"

Library: H1616-ger.md

LXX Bridge

Hebrew	Greek Translation	Count	Notes
ger (H1616)	προσήλυτος (G4339)	68x	Primary equivalent — 82% of all occurrences
ger (H1616)	πάροικος (G3941)	15x	Secondary — "dwelling near," emphasizes alien status
ger (H1616)	παροικέω (G3939)	4x	Verbal form — "to dwell as a stranger"

Other Hebrew words mapped to proselytos in LXX:

Hebrew	Count	Notes
gur (H1481)	24x	The root verb of ger
yathom (H3490)	18x	Fatherless — from ger-yathom-almanah triad contexts
ezrach (H249)	13x	Native-born — from ger-ezrach contrastive pairs
almanah (H490)	18x	Widow — from the same social-welfare triad

Semantic shift in translation: The LXX chose proselytos ("one who has come to") rather than xenos ("foreigner") or allotrios ("belonging to another"). This is a deliberate interpretive move: the ger is defined by arrival and integration, not by foreignness. The word already implies crossing over from outsider to insider — a trajectory that the NT era would narrow to mean religious conversion.

NT Usage (Greek)

Strong's	Word	Occurrences	Primary Meaning
G4339	προσήλυτος (proselytos)	4	proselyte — a Gentile convert to Judaism

Key NT passages: - Matt 23:15 — "ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves" - Acts 2:10 — "strangers of Rome, Jews and proselytes" — proselytes present at Pentecost - Acts 6:5 — "Nicolas a proselyte of Antioch" — one of the first seven deacons - Acts 13:43 — "many of the Jews and religious proselytes followed Paul and Barnabas"

Library: TODO(need G4339 study)

Continuity and Shifts

What stays the same across testaments: - The proselyte is someone who has left their own people and joined the community of YHWH's worshippers - Both ger and proselytos carry legal/covenantal obligations, not just physical presence - Both require full inclusion: the ger under "one law" (Exo 12:49), the proselyte at Pentecost (Acts 2:10)

What shifts: - OT ger is primarily a socio-legal category (resident alien with rights and duties); NT proselytos is primarily a religious category (convert to Judaism) - The OT ger did not need to become ethnically Israelite — circumcision was required only for Passover participation (Exo 12:48); by the NT period, proselyte conversion involved circumcision, immersion, and sacrifice as a complete package - Jesus' critique in Matt 23:15 targets the Pharisaic conversion system itself, suggesting the institutionalized proselyte process had become burdensome rather than welcoming — a reversal of the OT ethic of loving the ger - The early church's Gentile inclusion debate (Acts 15) essentially asks: must Gentile believers become proselytes? The answer (no full proselyte conversion required) breaks the ger→proselytos chain and creates a new category

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Generated from: gather_trace_data.py, search_strongs.py (--lxx-map, --hebrew-source, --lookup, --lexicon) Last updated: 2026-04-30