PROSELYTE

(Yunanca köken — orijinale bakınız.) A term in use among the Jews after their connection with the Greeks, and applied to such fo. reigners as embraced their religion. These they divided, according to the common opinion, into two cla es; distinguished by the terms proselytes of the gate, and proselytes of righteousne . Of these the former were such as merely renounced idolatry, and believed in and worshipped the true God, observing the precepts of the natural law, and, from being admitted within the first gate of the temple, received this appellation. The latter cla were those who submitted to circumcision, and in every other respect conformed entirely to the customs of the Jewish people. Dr. Burton, however, it must be admitted, thinks this distinction unfounded. {Lectures on tlie Eccl. Histoi-y of the First Three Centuries, 1. iii.) [s. 1005]