Here begins a new series of short blog posts where I will attempt to define various biblical words I come across to the best of my ability. This is more for me than anyone else as it is a useful way for me to remember but I hope it can help others too. Naturally different translations may use different words so for the sake of consistency I’m going to stick with the English Standard Version (ESV) which I really enjoy and hold in high regard.
In the New Testament the word proselyte refers to Gentiles who have converted to Judaism. The word is only used three times in the whole Bible, although it was apparently used in the Septuagint to refer to foreigners living with the Israelites - what the ESV refers to as sojourners.
Here is a good example from Matthew 23:15:
Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! For you travel across sea and land to make a single proselyte, and when he becomes a proselyte, you make him twice as much a child of hell as yourselves.
Here Jesus criticizes the scribes and Pharisees for converting Gentiles only to place them under the full weight of the law of Moses and the traditions of the Jews and in doing so condemning them to hell since no human being can keep the law perfectly. Although the law brings knowledge of sin, it in itself is insufficient to save. I think Jesus here is also referring to all the extras that the Pharisees added to the law that became such a burden that no one could carry and making themselves out to be such hypocrites.