The "ben neichar" who is banned from eating the Korbon Pesach

Question

Exodus 12:43 says that a "ben neichar" would not be able to eat the Korbon Pesach (the Passover offering) when the Temple is rebuilt, placing this category of persons in the same category as non-Jews. According to the Sefer HaMitzvot, Negative Commandment 128, explains this this mitzvah with reference to Targum Onkelos who says that a "ben neichar" is "any Jew who has converted" (Targum Onkelos, Ex. 12:43), and the Mechilta which says "[t]he phrase, 'Any ben neichar,' refers to a Jew who has converted and worshipped idolatry" (Mechilta D'Rashbi). See also Hilchos Korban Pesach 9:7, where the Rambam explains the expression ben neichar (literally, "son of a stranger") as meaning, "one who serves a strange god."

Given the fact that Christian censors often changed or removed phrases and sentences they deemed offensive to Christians, I would not be surprised if Onkelos was more specific and applied the term to Jews who converted to Christianity in his day. Is there any proof of this? Can we know from other sources if Christians were forbidden to register for the Korbon Pesach?

Answer 1

I really doubt that picking a specific application of the halacha would have been Onkelos' job, not to mention he's estimated to have lived around the year 110, so Christianity per se was just barely getting off the ground.

All Onkelos is doing is rendering the Talmudic interpretation of the verse, as close to the wording as possible. The phrase is "ben nechar", "a foreign person." The Talmud's interpretation is that one who has become a foreigner from Judaism is included; thus Onkelos translates "one who has adopted a different faith."