, in criminal cases
such as blasphemy he was subject to the death-penalty just like the
native.(1301) Still, the _Ger_ was not admitted as a citizen, and in the
Mosaic system of law he was always a tolerated or protected alien, unless
he underwent went the rite of circumcision and thus joined the Israelitish
community.(1302)

4. With the transformation of the Israelitish State into the Jewish
community--in other words, with the change of the people from a political
to a religious status,--this relation to the non-Jew underwent a decided
change. As the contrast to the heathen became more marked, the _Ger_
assumed a new position. As he pledged himself to abandon all vestiges of
idolatry and to conform to certain principles of the Jewish law, he
entered into closer relations with the people. Accordingly, he adopted
certain parts of the Mosaic code or the entire law, and thus became either
a partial or a complete member of the religious community of Israel. In
either case he was regarded as a follower of the God of the Covenant. In
spite of the exclusive spirit which was dominant in the period following
Ezra, two forces favored the extending of the boundaries of Judaism beyond
the confines of the nation. On the one hand, the Babylonian Exile had
visualized and partially realized the prophecy of Jeremiah: "Unto Thee
shall the nations come from the ends of the earth, and shall say: 'Our
fathers have inherited naught but lies, vanity and things wherein there is
no profit.' "(1303) For example, Zechariah announced a time when "many
peoples and mighty nations shall come to seek the Lord of Hosts in
Jerusalem and to entreat the favor of the Lord," and "Ten men shall take
hold, out of all the languages of nations, shall even take hold of the
skirt of him that is a Jew, saying, 'We will go with you, for we have
heard that God is with you.' "(1304) Another prophet said at the time of
the overthrow of Babylon: "For the Lord will have compassion on Jacob, and
will yet choose Israel, and set them in their own land, and the stranger
(_Ger_, or proselyte) shall join himself with them, and they shall cleave
to the house of Jacob."(1305) The Psalmists especially refer to the
heathen who shall join Israel,(1306) so that _Ger_ now becomes the regular
term for proselyte.(1307)

In addition to this inward religious desire we must consider the social
and political impulse. The handful of Judaeans who had returned from
Babylonia were so surroun