Were the borders open in Biblical times? Are border checks and visas a modern invention? Did the countries even have borders back then? I found an interesting article dealing with this issue. Below is an excerpt:
The very positive statements about the treatment of strangers in the
Bible, some of which were already quoted, show compassion for the alien
in ancient Israel. The defenders of illegal aliens point to these
passages as the rationale for rewriting current laws. The problem is
that they make a simplistic correlation between the ancient Israelite
social law and the modern situation as if the Bible was addressing the
same problem. Three important questions must be raised before one
attempts to apply Israelite law to the modern situation: 1) Was there
such a thing as territorial sovereignty in the second millennium B.C.
when these laws originated; 2) Within that socio-legal setting, what was
a “stranger” or “sojourner;” and 3) How does one obtain this status?
If you are interested, read the whole article over here.
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