---
title: Exodus 12:48
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/exodus-12-48/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/exodus-12-48.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Exodus 12:48
testament: OT
section: Law
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Exodus 12:48

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> If a foreigner resides with you and wants to celebrate the LORD’s Passover, all the males in the household must be circumcised; then he may come near to celebrate it, and he shall be like a native of the land. But no uncircumcised man may eat of it.

## JW Usage

JWs point to the alien-resident provisions in the Law to defend the two-class reading of the new covenant: the Great Crowd, like OT alien residents, enjoy covenant blessings without being full parties. Exodus 12:48's conditional admission of foreigners into Passover is read as support for a tiered-participation model under the new covenant.

## Protestant Usage

Read the verse carefully — it argues the *opposite* of the two- class reading. "And in case a foreign resident resides as an alien with you and actually celebrates the Passover to Jehovah, let there be a circumcising of every male of his, and only then may he come near to celebrate it; and he must become like a native of the land." The inclusion is full, not partial. The foreigner who entered the covenant sign became "like a native" — no second-tier status, no special category of beneficiary. The Old Testament's own provision is for real membership, not adjacent spectatorship. The new covenant makes the principle universal: Galatians 3:28 — "there is neither Jew nor Greek… for you are all one in Christ Jesus." Ephesians 2:14-16 — Christ "made the two groups into one and broke down the wall of partition… that he might create the two peoples in union with himself into one new man." If even the Mosaic provision admitted foreigners as equals, the new covenant cannot produce a two-tier arrangement the old one never had.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [The New Covenant Includes All Believers](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/new-covenant-anointed-only.md) — Jeremiah 31:34 / Hebrews 8:11 — 'From the Least to the Greatest' [Salvation]