So, what is a “ger”?

In a recent entry I mentioned that a particular young man and his wife are moving to Israel and will then transition from a zar to the position of a ger in the Bible, and that this was exciting for us.  I also recently wrote that “It’s okay to be a gentile, really.” after other recent entries about being servants to Israel.  These thoughts have been running around in my head for years and only recently have they been significant parts of discussions with friends, neighbors and others.  Now that it’s been a subject of discussion twice today already and it’s fresh in my mind, I thought I’d try to communicate my thoughts on the issue and discuss it with my friends here.

Let’s start off with what ger means.  Strong’s translates the hebrew word ‘ger’ as stranger, sojourner, alien.  It is defined as:  a)  a temporary inhabitant, a newcomer lacking inherited rights  b) of foreigners in Israel, through conceded rights.  A “ger” is one who dwells among Israel as one who is not against them, but alongside them.  The ger has no inheritance rights and therefore has no way to support themselves and their family because they own no land.  The ger is listed as one of the disadvantaged people in the Torah – “the widow, the orphan and the foreigner…”  They, therefore, are given special place as servants in the families of Israel.  That’s not at all like modern slavery or the slave trade in the days of the early Americas up through the Reconstruction period.  To be a “ger” in Israel and a servant meant you were protected, provided for, you were part of an Israelite household.  And there was no shame in this!  Ger is contrasted with ‘ezrach which is a “native born” as in “native born Israelite”.  Take a look at Exodus 12:19 where both the ger and the ‘ezrach are mentioned in the same passage.

Now, to be clear there are several words that are translated as “foreigner” or “sojourner”.  Let’s touch on those really quick.

• Toshav is another word that often translates as “sojourner” and it is also a foreigner who has taken up residence in Israel.  The key with toshav and ger is that they sojourn “with you”.   Toshav is used in Leviticus 25:45 as “strangers that do sojourn among you”.
• Zar is the word used in Isaiah 61:5 and speaks of an outsider, one who is estranged.  Zar is a stranger, a foreigner.  Zar is also the word used when speaking of strange fire.  A zar would be one who is different,  and is used to describe someone who is not walking with Israel.
• Neichor (nochri) is another word for foreigner or stranger.  The neichor is one who is hostile to Israel and whose allegiance is toward another god.  Deuteronomy 23:20 uses the word neichor as the stranger that is treated differently than the Israelites.

The issue here is that there are a few words used to speak of non-Jews who have left their native land or native position to join themselves to Israel (ger and toshav) while there are also a few words used to speak of those who are estranged from Israel and those who are hostile toward her and HaShem (zar and neichor).  Ger and toshav are often used together with ger being the most common word used, these are like resident aliens who have joined themselves to Israel in one way or another.  In English, they all translate the same:  stranger, sojourner, foreigner, alien, etc.  It is important to know which type of people a particular verse is referring to and to understand that the Torah’s applications are different for the differing classes of people.  It is from these classes of people that we begin to draw our identity.

So, what are we?  As non-Jews who are grafted-in to the heritage of Abraham by our faith, where do we stand in this list?  Or the question might be better phrased – who do we best represent, and who are we supposed to represent?

By the times of Yeshua’s ministry and the teachings of the Apostles, the word ger had come to mean proselyte.  This is how it was translated into Greek about 200 years before Yeshua’s ministry.  A proselyte is one who was not born a Jew and yet found the truth of the One True G-d and His ways, and wanted to join Israel, to convert.  These people converted from paganism of whatever variety to Judaism, which was the only expression of faith in the G-d of Abraham, the G-d of Isaac and the G-d of Jacob.   It is true that there were many sects of Judaism and the variety then was just about as wide as the variety of denominations in Christianity, but Judaism was the core of all of them.  It is important to remember that in the First Century when Jews and Greeks came to faith in Yeshua as Messiah, they did not convert out of Judaism.  The only converts were the pagans to Judaism and the sect of Jews who believed that Yeshua is the promised Messiah were among the most (if not the most) accepting of these now former pagans.  In the economy of the Torah, these converts were not able to own property in Israel because they were not born from any particular tribe and had no inheritance rights.  HaShem’s provision for these ger/proselytes/converts was that they joined the households of the Israelites as servants and therefore were provided for, protected, welcomed and taught.  But by the days of the Second Temple it was not possible for Israel to own it’s land and dwell under self-rule as in the days of King David and King Solomon.  Because of this, and the diaspora, the issues of household servanthood and land rights were not at all addressed in the Apostolic Writings.  The Apostolic Writings focused on the Gentile Inclusion and how to walk out the teachings of the Torah in the First Century.  But the land rights and servanthood are alluded to in the Prophets and this is part of what our family draws from when looking at our position as non-Jews in the Kingdom.

It is possible, and unfortunately not too uncommon, to be Pro-Israel and yet still be anti-semetic and/or rejecting our role as servants in a Jewish “household”.  Many of us know friends, neighbors and even relatives who strongly support Israel but there is still an aversion to Jewish people or interpretation for whatever reason.  These people may be “grafted in” but they stand in the position of a zar  in that they are different, separate, estranged and not walking alongside of Israel.  But is it possible to be a sojourner, a ger, and be anti-semetic? I find it hard to believe that this is at all possible.  And what, then, does it look like to be a sojourner, a ger?

I was advised to make my entries shorter, if at all possible, and I’m going to reserve the subject of “what then does it look like to be a sojourner, a ger?” for another entry.  However, I’d love to hear your thoughts on that and the rest of the entry above.

How have you come to understand the difference between the various types of sojourners, foreigners and strangers in the Bible?