ded by heathen tribes that, while the Samaritans
had attracted the less desirable groups, they were glad to welcome the
influx of such as promised to become true worshipers of God. The chief
problem was how to provide a legal form for these to "come over,"
_proselyte_ being the Greek term for "him who comes over." By such a form
they could enter the community while accepting certain religious
obligations. In fact, such obligations had been stated before in the
Priestly Code, which admitted into the political community as "sojourners"
or "indwellers" those who pledged themselves to abstain from idolatry,
blasphemy, incest, the eating of blood or of flesh from living animals,
and from all violence against human life and property. They were debarred
only from marriage into the religious community, "the congregation of the
Lord." Henceforth _Ger_ and _Ger Toshab_ became juridical terms, the
social and legal designation of those proselytes who had abjured
heathenism and joined the monotheistic ranks of Judaism as "worshipers of
God."

5. Thus the first great step in the progress of Judaism from a national
system of law to a universal religion was made in Judaea. The next step was
to recognize the idea of the revelation of God to the "god-fearing men" of
the primeval ages, as described in the Mosaic books, and thus to open the
gates of the national religion for heathen who had become "God-fearing
men" or "worshipers of the Lord." Thus the Psalms, after enumerating the
customary two or three classes, "the house of Israel," "of Aaron," and "of
Levi," often add the "God-fearing" proselyte.(1308) The Synagogue was
especially attractive to the heathen who sought religious truth because of
its elevating devotion and its public instruction in the Scripture,
translated into Greek, the language of the cultured world. This sponsored
a new system for propagating the Jewish faith. The so-called Propaganda
literature of Alexandria laid its chief stress upon the ethical laws of
Judaism, not seeking to submit the non-Jew to the observance of the entire
Mosaic law or to subject him to the rite of circumcision. The Jewish
merchants, coming into contact with non-Jews in their travels on land and
sea, endeavored especially to present their religious tenets in terms of a
broad, universal religion. As a universal faith forms the background of
the entire Wisdom literature, particularly the book of Job, a simple
monotheism could be founded upon a di