Społeczne i prawne normy dotyczące obcych i przybyszów w Biblii Hebrajskiej

Abstract

Fragments of the Bible have recently became an important argument in the discussion about the attitude that should be adopted by Europeans referring to their JudeoChristian roots with reference to refugees/immigrants from Africa and the Middle East. Considering that the quoted texts are mainly from the Old Testament, it is worth looking more closely at what the Hebrew Bible actually says about the postulated attitude of the Israelites to the strangers and newcomers. The author presents fragments directly related to the problem of receiving or not accepting refugees and examples of hospitality towards strangers. These texts come from different periods in the history of Israel and from different theological traditions, so they could be treated as representative of the teaching of the Hebrew Bible in this topic. However, this is not a complete picture, but only orders and norms referring to the alien determined by the term גּר and consistently translated by the “stranger”, very often in the plural. An analysis of the meaning of this concept in Hebrew language and culture, the legitimacy of using plural translations (when in the original is single) and supplementing the above statement with other terms used in the Hebrew Bible to describe strangers or newcomers (such as derivatives from the root נכר or גּוי (leads to surprising conclusions.