LEGAL vs ILLEGAL: A BIBLICAL VIEW The Bible has much to teach us about “aliens” or “sojourners” - Abraham, Isaac and Jacob were aliens in Canaan, and the Children of Israel sojourned in Egypt. In the Gospel of Matthew, Joseph and Mary with the young child Jesus were sojourners in Egypt for a time (Matthew 2:13-15 NIV). To understand the concepts of stranger, sojourner, alien and foreigner, i.e. “immigrant” from a biblical perspective, we need to look at relevant biblical terms and how they were applied in OT times. In Hebrew, there are three words with the above meanings that translate into English: “ger” “nekhar” and “zar.” Of these, a clear distinction is made in the Old Testament in the application of “ger” versus the other two terms, “nekhar” and “zar.” Note that the Patriarchs had to negotiate treaties and secure agreements to “sojourn” in the territory of and obtain water rights from the local Canaanite and Philistine kings (Gen. 20, 21 & 26). Pharaoh gave Joseph permission for his family to “sojourn” in Egypt (Gen. 45:17-18), and when the family arrived in Egypt the brothers asked Pharaoh for permission to “sojourn” in Egypt with their flocks (Gen. 47:5-6). From these and other references, I conclude that a ger was a foreigner who comes to live in another land with permission of a host or proper authority. Second, the Old Testament law insists that once a foreigner attained ger status in Israel, he was to be treated like a native born Hebrew (Exod. 14:49; Lev. 18:26), enjoying legal protection, social benefits and religious inclusion. The Law, however, did not offer these same benefits to nekhar and zar. For example, an Israelite was not allowed to charge interest to a ger, but could to a nekhar (Lev. 25:35-37; Deut. 15:3). Similarly, the ger could participate in Passover observances while the nekhar was prohibited (Exodus 12:43-49). These distinctions show that “foreigners” and “aliens” did not have equal standing in biblical law with those who had attained “ger” status. Applying these observations to our time, I propose a correlation between the ger of the OT to the legal immigrant of today... i.e., one who has gained permission and fulfilled all obligations to become a citizen versus the “foreigner” or stranger who has failed to do so, i.e., the illegal immigrant. Based on a Guest Post by James K. Hoffmeier, Professor of Old Testament & Near Eastern Archaeology,Trinity Evangelical Divinity School
Posted on: Mon, 31 Mar 2014 14:56:31 +0000