View source for Does Exodus 12:43-49 mean that a stranger in the land must become a covenant member before he or she can be treated equally under the law?

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No. Consider the following verse:

{{:Scriptblockformat|{{:Erasesentencefromend|{{#scripture:Deuteronomy 14:21|scriptrefstyle=scriptrefblock}}|1}}}}

The difference between ''ger'' and ''nekhar'' in the above verse is purely functional. It seems to imply that the ''nekhar'' is something like a foreign trader who is wealthy enough to purchase food, and the ''ger'' is a foreign sojourner who is poor and begging at the gates.

Covenant members were forbidden from eating "anything that dies of itself". But sojourners(''ger'') were allowed to. If sojourners/''ger'' were equivalent to covenant members, they would also have been forbidden from eating it, because it was considered (ceremonially) "unclean". This shows that ''ger'' were not always converts.

Therefore, it seems to me that sojourners(''ger'') were only required to be circumcised covenant members if they wanted to participate in the Passover. Even if sojourners(''ger'') weren't circumcised, they were still protected by Biblical law.

Biblical law contains many explicit distinctions between persons to whom the law applies differently at different times/situations (such as the example I gave above). There are distinctions between men and women, servants and masters, sojourners and native, etc.

Exodus 12:49 says:

{{:Scriptblock|Exodus 12:49}}

I don't think we can take this as meaning "Biblical law applies -- in every respect -- the same to the ''ger'' as to the native covenant member." That would directly contradict the verse that I cited above (and God does not contradict himself).

I think verse 49 is just summarizing the following general principle:

* Biblical law applies -- as a whole, and respecting its own distinctions -- to everyone in the land.

No one is considered to be an "outlaw" (not protected by the law) merely because they are foreign-born.
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[[Category:Answered Questions]]
[[Category:Deuteronomy 14:21]]
[[Category:Differing treatment under the law]]
[[Category:Exodus 12:43]]
[[Category:Questions about various individual laws]]
[[Category:Sojourners]]
[[Category:Questions about the differing treatment of persons in Biblical law]]