No worries, a lot of people don’t know this, but I am always happy to teach.
In the original text, “stranger” which was introduced/standardized in the KJV English version the word is גר or גרים plural, or sometimes נכרי. In the Greek, it’s ξένος, ἀλλογενής, or παροικέω (NT). The Septuagint shows that this was understood as the same. Fun fact, the Greek word is also where we get the English word Xenophobia - fear of foreigners/immigrants.
The first use is in Gen 15:13: God said to Abram, “Know surely that your descendants will be גר in a land that is not theirs…” The modern English word for living in a land that is not one’s own is “immigrant.”
It goes on. Ex 12:49 specifies that There shall be one Law for [both] the native-born and for the גר הגר among you. Again, the modern English word for someone who lives in a place where they are not born - “immigrant.” The same is echoed in Num 15:16. Ruth, upon leaving her homeland and becoming a sharecropper in Judah exclaimed to the native-born Boaz: “How have I come to find grace in your eyes, when I am a נכריה?” Is that not the iconic immigrant story?
In all, the word occurs in some form over 100 times in the Hebrew Bible. In truth, the semantic range is a little broader than I portrayed it in my original comment. It can, depending on context, also mean “foreign,” “convert,” or even “traveler.” Regardless, it is surely silly to translate it as “stranger,” which in modern English generally means anyone who is not acquainted to you. But that’s how is was translated a few centuries ago when English was quite different, so it seems like we are stuck with it.
No… its not. Dont just say stuff…
Lol really trying to push an agenda aren’t you?
No worries, a lot of people don’t know this, but I am always happy to teach.
In the original text, “stranger” which was introduced/standardized in the KJV English version the word is גר or גרים plural, or sometimes נכרי. In the Greek, it’s ξένος, ἀλλογενής, or παροικέω (NT). The Septuagint shows that this was understood as the same. Fun fact, the Greek word is also where we get the English word Xenophobia - fear of foreigners/immigrants.
The first use is in Gen 15:13: God said to Abram, “Know surely that your descendants will be גר in a land that is not theirs…” The modern English word for living in a land that is not one’s own is “immigrant.”
It goes on. Ex 12:49 specifies that There shall be one Law for [both] the native-born and for the גר הגר among you. Again, the modern English word for someone who lives in a place where they are not born - “immigrant.” The same is echoed in Num 15:16. Ruth, upon leaving her homeland and becoming a sharecropper in Judah exclaimed to the native-born Boaz: “How have I come to find grace in your eyes, when I am a נכריה?” Is that not the iconic immigrant story?
In all, the word occurs in some form over 100 times in the Hebrew Bible. In truth, the semantic range is a little broader than I portrayed it in my original comment. It can, depending on context, also mean “foreign,” “convert,” or even “traveler.” Regardless, it is surely silly to translate it as “stranger,” which in modern English generally means anyone who is not acquainted to you. But that’s how is was translated a few centuries ago when English was quite different, so it seems like we are stuck with it.