XVII. X.
The account of the Acts shoAvs that proselytes often became converts to Christianity, and this Avas an important factor in the establishment of the Gentile Christian Church. The struggle betAveen St. Paul and the Judaizers (Ac 15 and Ep. to Galatians) Avas an attempt on the part of Christian Pharisees to compel Gentile Christians to become 'l^roselytes of Righteousness.'
4. Moral quality of Jewish proselytes. — Prose- lytes Avho had accepted Judaism from pure motives must have been men of high character ; neverthe- less proselytes are spoken of slightingly by the
PKOTEVANGELIUM
PROVERBS
445
Talimul. Thus ve read (Bab. Mi(hl«h, fol. 13. 2) : ' Proselytes and sodomites liiiider the coniing' of the Messiah.' This is exphiined to mean tliat jiroselytes often erred through ignorance of the Law. We can readily imayine that in.sistence ujion the minutiae of Pharisaic tradition (cf. Mt ■I'A*) would tend to protluce a debased character such as is charged against some in Mt 23'1 Eders- heim, however, suggests (LT ii. 412) that tiie word 'proselyte' in this passage may signify the winning of a convert to Pharisaism, rather than a convert from heathendom to Judaism.
5. Christ's relations with proselytes. — Although the number of i^roselytes in Palestine must have been very great, references to them in the Gospels are few. We Hnd : (1) The centurion (Mt 8^''^ Lk •ji-io)^ who was an officer in the army of Herod Antipas. There is no reason to think of him as a ' proselyte of Righteousness,' for in that case {n) he need have had no hesitation in asking Jesus to go to his house, and (6) the words of Jesus (Mt 8'') would not be so suitable. But fi'om the fact that he had built a synagogue (Lk T''), he was clearly one of the wider class of adherents to Judaism, called in later days ' proselytes of the Gate' (see Edersheim, LT \. 546).— (2) The Greeks (Jn 12-"). P'rom the fact that these came to attend the Feast, they would appear to have been ' prose- lytes of Righteousness.' (Geikie, however. Life of Christ, ii. 434, considers that they were ' proselytes of the Gate'). — (3) On Mt 23''' see preceding para- graphs on 'Proselytizing' .and 'Moral quality.' — (4) Pilate's ivife '(Mt 2V% Tradition (earliest recorded in the Gospel of Nicodemus, ch. 2) asserts that Pilate's wife was a ' proselyte of the Gate.' Origen says that she became a Christian.
Literature. — Selden, rfe J«r« Nat.et Gent., Lib. ii. ; Buxtorf, Lex. Talmud, et Rabbin, s.n. -13 ; Schiirer, UJP n. ii. 291-327; Harnack, Expansion of Chrixtianiti/, ii. 1-24; Hausrath, i\'T Times: Time 0/ Apostles, i. 123; Allen in Expos. 4th ser. .\. (1894) 264 ; art. ' Proselyte ' in Hastings' DB and in EBi.
F. E. ROBIN.SOX.
PROTEYANGELIUM.— See art. Fall in vol. i. p. 571''f.
PROVERB is the rendering of wapajSoXr] in Lk 4=^ (RV ' parable ') and of irapoifxia in Jn 16-'- ^^ (RVm 'parable '). In Jn 10*' Trapoi/ula is rendered ' parable ' (RVm 'proverb'). Ordinarily Trapa/iioX?? means 'parable,' wapoifiia 'proverb'; but the words are soMietimes interchanged in Helleni.stic Greek. Both represent the Heb. mdshcll, the primary meaning of which is 'comparison.' Such com- parison lies at the base of many proverbs as well as parables ; in fact many proverbs are only con- densed parables ; and a proverb usually sets up a single case as the type of a whole class. In the LXX mCishrd is nearly always rendered Trapa/SoX??, even when a proverb is clearly meant (1 S KJ''^
241a (14)^ 1 K 43- (28), Ezk 1222- -^3 182.3. j^ j^Q^^g of
these places Aq. or Symm. substitutes irapoLfxia). ■n-apoi.fj.la is found in the canonical OT only in Pr P 25' (AK- ; BK' have TratSeiai) ; it occurs 5 times in Sirach, irapafioXr] 10 times ; at 39^ and 47" they stand together. Thus Lk., like the LXX, uses irapa/SoXTj for ' proverb' as well as ' parable ' ; while Jn., on the contrary, uses wapoifx-ia in the sense of 'figurative language, allegory' (10^), or ' d.-irk saying' (IG'-^'-'J) rather than 'proverb'; perhaps ' figure " best represents his use of the word. On our Lord's use of proverbs see following article.
Literature. — Cremer, Lexicon, s.v. TKpxi3o\r, ; Trench, Parables, ch. 1; art. 'Proverb' in Hastings' DB (by Konig) and Encyc. Bibl. (bv Paterson) ; Konigsmann in Hase and Iken, Thes. Nov. ii. 501 ; Driver, LOTf^ p. ;549.
Harold Smith. PROVERBS (Jk.sus' use of).— It is a saying of the Rabbis that ' the Law spoke in the tongue of
the cliildren of men.' And so did our Blessed Lord. He did not use the jargon of the schools, but ex- pressed His heavenly teaching, albeit profounder than either Jewish tlieology or Greek philosophy, in language which the simj)lest could understand. The Oriental mind delights in proverbs, and Jesus, in His gracious desire to reach the hearts of His hearers, did not disdain to weave into His discourse the homely and often humorous sayings which were current in His day.
1. 'It is yet four months, and the harvest cometh' (Jn 43^). It is usual to find here a note of chrono- logy (cf. Meyer). The harvest began in April, early enough sometimes for the unleavened bread of the Passover to be baked with new flour (Orig. in Joan. xiii. § 39) ; and since, it is argued, the harvest was four months distant, it was in Decem- ber that Jesus visited Sychar in the course of His journey from Jerusalem to Galilee. Theie are, however, insuperable objections to this view.