In T. Levi 11:2, Levi explains that while in Canaan he had a son whom he named “Gersam,” “for we were in a land of alien residence” (paroikia), the name in Hebrew consisting of ger, meaning “stranger” (paroikos), and šam, meaning “there;” for a similar explanation of naming, see Exod 2:22. Its use in Pss. Sol. 17:19 is particularly instructive, for here it denotes a community of Judeans residing as strangers in the Diaspora, a situation closely akin to that envisioned for the addressees of 1 Peter.
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