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Sense of the Day: God-Fearing Gentile

May 16, 2014 by Jonathan Watson

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Sense: God-fearing gentile

n. — a person who performed the actions and rites associated with the worship of the God of Israel, but was not a member of the commonwealth of Israel (that is, was uncircumcised).

So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

Acts 17:17

This interesting group of people is difficult to translate. To maintain translational literalism, the ESV goes no further than to say “devout person.” On the other hand, the BSL is not constrained by the limits of one or two words for a translation. This was a unique class of individuals who were attracted to the God of Israel but were also intimidated by some of the requirements in the Law—namely circumcision. We can only speculate on some of the specifics about this group, but they probably composed a large percentage of the early converts to Christianity. When the God of Israel became accessible to Gentiles without the ceremonial hurdles that existed before, these were likely the first people to sign up!

What is the Bible Sense Lexicon?

Sense of the Day is based on content from Logos’ Bible Sense Lexicon, which organizes biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek words by meaning based on a variety of semantic relationships. Sense of the Day provides examples of senses in context, along with insight into their application for theology and interpretation.

The Bible Sense Lexicon is a Logos dataset available in Logos 5 Gold and higher base packages. If you’re enrolled in the Logos Academic Discount Program, you can also find the Bible Sense Lexicon in the Biblical Languages base package. Take your studies even further by exploring semantic domains, engaging the biblical text like never before.

Learn more about the Bible Sense Lexicon.

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