One not native to a land. Any non-Israelite having temporary contact with Israel was considered a “foreigner” and, if friendly, was entitled to hospitable treatment. Israelites were frequently warned that extended contact with foreigners would lead to religious corruption (
Exod 23:31-33;
Isa 2:6-8). In contrast, a “sojourner” was a resident alien who enjoyed some social and religious privileges. This distinction is frequently blurred in English Bibles, which also use “stranger” to translate both terms. NT writings continued the OT usage of “foreigner” (
Luke 17:18;
Acts 26:11), but such terms as “foreigner” and “sojourner” also developed a metaphorical, theological orientation: (
Eph 2:19) states that those accepting Jesus as Christ are “no longer strangers and sojourners, but . . . fellow citizens with the saints” (NRSV).
Exod 23:31-33
31I will set your borders from the Red Sea to the sea of the Philistines, and from the wilderness to the Euphrates; for I will hand over to you the inhabitants ... View more
Isa 2:6-8
6For you have forsaken the ways of your people,
O house of Jacob.
Indeed they are full of diviners from the east
and of soothsayers like the Philistines,
and th ... View more
Luke 17:18
18Was none of them found to return and give praise to God except this foreigner?”
Acts 26:11
11By punishing them often in all the synagogues I tried to force them to blaspheme; and since I was so furiously enraged at them, I pursued them even to foreign ... View more
Eph 2:19
19So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God,
