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