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God-fearer
EntityQ5575788· pop 13· linked from 505 articles

God-fearer

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Also known as God-worshipper

thumb|right|250px|Sardis Synagogue (3rd century, [[Turkey) had a large community of God-fearers and Jews integrated into the Roman civic life.]]

Wikidata facts

Subclass of
believer
Religion
Judaism
Show 1 more fact
opposite of
anti-Judaism

via Wikidata · CC0

~9 min read

Encyclopedic overview

11 sections
Contents
  • Overview
  • Origin, history, status and diffusion
  • Sources
  • Hebrew Bible
  • In inscriptions, texts, and papyri
  • In early Christian writings
  • Archaeology
  • Role in 1st-century Christianity
  • See also
  • Notes and references
  • External links

thumb|right|250px|Sardis Synagogue (3rd century, [[Turkey) had a large community of God-fearers and Jews integrated into the Roman civic life.]]

God-fearers (, Yirei HaShem; , phoboumenoi ton Theon) or God-worshippers (, Theosebeis) were a numerous class of Gentile sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism that existed in the Greco-Roman world, which observed certain Jewish religious rites and traditions without becoming full converts to Judaism. The concept has precedents in the proselytes of the Hebrew Bible. Many of these Greco-Roman sympathizers to Hellenistic Judaism were worshippers of Caelus (the Roman name/equivalent to Yahweh). More generally, has come to mean someone who is honestly religious.

Excerpted from Wikipedia’s “God-fearer” article, available under the CC BY-SA 4.0 licence.

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