Jews
By Richard Gunther
All through my
childhood, and right through Sunday school, and all through my time at
Middleton Grange – an Interdenominational Christian school, then on through
dozens of church services, and in the text of novels and in books about the
Bible . . . I have been told that Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Israel
and king David were all Jews. You probably believe this too, if you have had
any contact with modern evangelists, or a similar upbringing. It seems to be
one of the most unquestioned statements ever made, and to even suggest that
these Bible people were not Jews may seem not only too radical to
accept, but even bordering on the ‘fringe’. It might sound like a
‘flat-earther’ trying to convince an astronaut that the world is a pancake, or
a devout Catholic that the Shroud of Turin is a fake.
But when certain
indisputable facts are presented, the truth about the true nationality of
Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses and king David – and the Jews, should be
reasonably obvious. And it will not be the first time that traditional beliefs
have been proved wrong.
First please read
the definition of “Jew” in the International Inductive Bible Study:
1. Originally an inhabitant of Judah
– 2Kings 16:6
2. ‘Judean’ shortened to ‘Jew’
during exile – 2Kings 25:25
3. Synonym for Hebrew – Ezra
4:12,23, Neh.4:1,2, Est.4:3,7, Jer.34:9
4. Later term for all Israelites in
the land and in the Diaspora (the Dispersion) – Mat.27:11, Mark 7:3, Luke
23:51, John 4:9, Acts 22:3, Rom. 3:1, Gal. 3:28, Rev.2:9
Now let us go
through these points carefully and see what they mean.
1. Originally
an inhabitant of Judah. A Judean – 2Kings 16:6. This is
the first reference to Jews in the Bible. I cannot stress this point
enough. Up until this time there are no references to Jews anywhere in the
Bible. The word is used in the context of the time when Rezin king of Syria came and drove the men of Judah from
Elath. Up until that time there was no such thing as a Jew. Abraham is called a
Hebrew, Isaac was a Hebrew, and Jacob was a Hebrew. Jacob’s name was changed to
Israel
and his descendants became known as Israelites.
During the time of
Moses, the “Hebrew midwives” were called to deliver the baby Hebrews. When the nation of Israel
marched out of Egypt
and finally made it to the Promised land, it was a nation of Hebrews. Some
years later the one nation split into two nations, or kingdoms. Rehoboam ruled
the southern kingdom of three tribes, and Jeroboam ruled the northern kingdom
of 10 tribes. The northern kingdom was usually called Israel, and the southern kingdom was usually
called Judah.
Still there were no Jews in the world.
Some 200 years
later Rezin invaded Judah’s
territory, and word ‘Jew’ appeared in the language. The Jews were driven from
Elath during the rein of king Pekah. (In his 17th year Ahaz began to
rein) This event took place only one king short of the end of the house or kingdom of Judah.
Up until Rezin
arrived there were no Jews in the world – only Hebrews and Israelites. Despite
this accurate presentation of history, there are millions of people who
continue to call all the Israelites before tis time ‘Jews’.
2. Judean shortened to ‘Jew’ during the exile – 2Kings 25:25. Ishmael came and struck down
Gedaliah, the Jews, and some Chaldeans. This event occurred after the last king
of Judah, king Hezekiah, was taken away to Babylon, about 587 BC.
3. Synonym for Hebrew – Ezra 4:12,23, Neh.4:1,2,
Est.4:3,7, Jer.34:9. These passages refer to the people of Judah, who returned with Ezra and Nehemiah to
help rebuild the city walls and Temple in Jerusalem. None of these
people were of the other, northern kingdom of Israel,
which had been taken into captivity to Syria in about 721 BC, over a
hundred years beforehand. One could therefore, never refer to an Israelite of
the kingdom of Israel as a Jew. They were Israelites
and Hebrew but never Jews.
4. Later term for all Israelites in the land and in
the Diaspora
- Mat.27:11, Mark
7:3, Luke 23:51, John 4:9, Acts 22:3, Rom. 3:1, Gal. 3:28, Rev.2:9.
Pontius Pilate
asked Jesus “Are you the king of the Jews?” and Jesus said ‘Yes, this was so’.
(Mat.27:11) Jesus had come for the remnant, the tiny proportion of the kingdom of Judah which had gathered some 400 years
earlier during the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, and who had waited for the return
of the Messiah, and who had become the nation of the Jews. Jesus came for this
remnant, but the leaders of this remnant rejected him, so the gospel went out
into all the world. The Jews were the only visible representatives of the whole
kingdom of Israel – all 12 tribes.
Other references to ‘Jews’:
· “For the Pharisees and the Jews do
not eat unless they wash their hands” Mark 7:3
Aramathea was a city of the Jews Luke 23:51
· The woman at the well thought
Jesus was a Jew, but she was puzzled, because she said “Jews have no dealings
with Samaritans” John 4:9
· Paul said “I am indeed a Jew, born
in Tarsus of Cilicia, but brought up in this city at the feet of Gamaliel . .
.” Acts 22:3
· Paul asks what advantage the Jews
have in being circumcised. The Jews hung on to the rituals long after the rest
of Israel
abandoned them Rom.3:1
· When people are “in Christ” there
is neither Jew nor Greek, male nor female, bond or free Gal.3:28
· Jesus reproves people who “say
they are Jews and are not”Rev.2:9. Here the word ‘Jew’ is used in the place of
the word ‘Christian’. This statement is also made in Rev.3:9.
· Rom.2:29 shows that being a
Christian is called “circumcision of the heart”. The same sort of name
association occurs in Gal.2:15, where Moffat translates it as “We who are Jews
by birth and not ‘Jews by nature’, or, “uncircumcised in heart”.
· Rom.3:27,28 shows that both Jews,
the circumcised, and Gentiles, uncircumcised, can come to God by faith, without
any need of the Law for justification.
Conclusion.
The use of the name
or word ‘Jew’ is strictly confined to a small group of people. If we imagine
the whole nation of Israel
as a square of 10x10 squares, we can subtract about 75% of the whole square as
the northern kingdom. They were never called Jews. Now, out of the small area
left, take another 75% as people who were also never called Jews. But a small
fraction of them were taken as captives to Babylon. This tiny percentage left represents
the few thousand Jews who returned to rebuild the city and Temple, and who became known as Jews. Since
then these Jews have remained a distinct population, and today they number in a
few millions. They have kept their family trees intact and if any more Jews
appear they are either born from Jewish parents, or they have adopted the
Jewish religion and grafted themselves into the Jewish population.
All the above is
reliably confirmed by all the Scriptures, and by history. The Old Testament
prophets also had no trouble distinguishing the Jews from the rest of Israel. They
addressed their predictions either to the house of Jacob, the house of Judah, or to
the Jews. If these people of God, speaking by divine inspiration, made a clear
distinction when it came to setting the Jewish people apart, why do so many
pastors, ministers, evangelists and Christian writers still blanket the whole
of Israel from Abraham onwards with the name ‘Jew’? On what grounds do they do this?
And where is their
proof?