The Sojourner as One Who Honors God

In the antiquity, some gentiles attached themselves to Judaism by worshiping in synagogues and observing some laws and traditions, even as they retained a non-Jewish identity. In this comment on Exodus 22:20, Philo asserts that the term proselyte (the Septuagint Greek translation for Hebrew ger, sometimes translated into English as “sojourner”) can refer not only to persons who undergo circumcision and thereby join the covenant but also to persons of moral character who take “refuge in God the savior.” (See also Mekhilta de-Rabbi Ishmael’s similar interpretation of this verse.)