The Just shall live by Faith
Distinctions
between Israelite and Jew of the Tribes of
Israel in the Hebrew Scriptures -
Studies in the books of Esther, Jeremiah, and Zechariah; also
in the New Testament.
Volume
1, Study
4
In Volume 1, Study 2, I wrote of the ‘Jews’ when discussing the
persecutions
of the
early church in Rome to whom Paul was writing. Now I have decided to
use
scripture to demonstrate why I believe there is a distinction of
meaning in
scripture between ‘Israelite’ and ‘Jew’, the former being the term for
all
individuals of all the tribes of Israel even as the term has always
been from
ancient times.
In the early days of God’s people
Israel, when they escaped from Egypt, the whole of twelve tribes were
called
Israel after Father Jacob who had been spiritually renamed by God as
‘Israel’.
From Jacob’s loins were twelve sons of whom came twelve tribes. In the
Sinai
Peninsula during the time of the Exodus Epoch, God issued the Mosaic
Law to the
nation. That law called for a priesthood and a set of workers to labor
under
the priests in the duties, paraphernalia, and housing of the
sacrifices…sacrifices that were instituted for the covering of the sins
of the
people. The first “housing” of the sacrifices was the mobile tabernacle
built
during the latter months of the first year out of Egypt. The priests
appointed
to the sacrificial duties of the Law were Moses’ brother, Aaron, and
his sons.
Under their authority were appointed men of their same tribe (Levi)
from twenty
years unto fifty years old for the duties of carrying the tabernacle
from
encampment to encampment.
These assignments and all that went
with the sacrifices were given to the entire tribe of Levi, the priests
being
of the family of Aaron and the workers being of the other major
families of
that tribe. The assignments were fixed and were an essential part of
the Mosaic
Law. The duties of the priests and the workers carried over from that
time unto
the time of the temple built by David’s son, Solomon.
This arrangement, then, left the
nation with eleven “regular” tribes. However, God desired that the
number of
tribes be twelve and so He ordered that the tribe of Joseph be divided
into two
tribes to make up a total of twelve tribes plus the tribe of Levi which
was
given over unto the ministry of the Mosaic Law. The two sons of Joseph,
and
thus the names of the two tribes from them, were Ephraim and Manasseh.
The men
of Levi who functioned as laborers under the priests were referred to
as ‘the
levites’. Now the modem way of referring to them is ‘the Levites’ with
a
capital L; however, it seems to me that speaking of ‘priests’ and
‘Levites’
places undue significance on the workers in comparison to the
‘priests’.
Therefore, I have taken up the practice of referring to them as ‘the
levites’
even as I refer to ‘the priests’, and I have done so in all of my
writings.
Shortly after the death of Solomon,
the son that took the throne in his stead greatly antagonized all the
tribes of
Israel, which resulted with the majority of the tribes splitting off
from the
kingdom of David to form their own kingdom and this large group of
tribes
continued using the title, ‘Israel’. Therefore, the kingdom of David
became
known for its major tribe from which David came, ‘Judah’. Now it so
happened
that the tribe of Simeon had its bounds within the larger bounds of
Judah, and
the tribe of Benjamin was located directly north of Judah; and the
people of
Benjamin decided to remain loyal to the original kingdom’s capital
city, the
holy city of Jerusalem where recently had been built the new temple by
Solomon.
The northern tribes on both sides of
the Jordan River, known as ‘Israel’ in scripture, shall be called in
this study
the ‘northern kingdom of Israel’ so as not to be confusing. The
predominate
tribe in the northern kingdom of Israel was the tribe of Ephraim…and
occasionally the prophets of scripture referred to the northern kingdom
as
‘Ephraim’ since Ephraim was the lead tribe leading the people of the
northern
kingdom astray from God’s way for His people Israel.
~~
Eventually the northern kingdom of
Israel in 721 BC was taken off exiled into Assyria and consequently the
people
of those tribes were scattered into Assyria’s conquered nations. Later
some of
them managed to return to their homeland, but ‘Israel’ (i.e. people of
the
northern tribes) was never again a kingdom. Even so, the people of
those
northern tribes will be drawn in unto their homeland by God in the Time
of the
End to be reunited with the southern tribes to again form the (united
again)
Kingdom of David with Christ Jesus sitting upon its throne.
~~
After the people of the northern
kingdom of Israel were exiled the people of the southern kingdom of
Israel,
‘Judah’, were conquered in 587 BC and put under subjection by the new
and powerful
kingdom of Babylon; however, at a later date many citizens of the
higher crust
of Judah were exiled to Babylon; and then another exiling occurred as
the
greater number of the people were taken into the city of Babylon and
its nearby
districts.
Book of Esther
So,
when in scripture were the people of the southern kingdom of Israel
(Judah)
first referred to as ‘Jews’? Strong’s Bible numbering system and word
definitions record (for the Old Testament) that ‘Jew’ is first found in
the
book of Esther where it occurs a number of times, particularly for
Esther’s
uncle, Mordecai. Mordecai was taken (much like Daniel was taken) into
captivity
with a group that also contained Judah’s king, Jehoiakim. This happened
in 605
BC. In the book of Esther, the text has ‘the Jew Mordecai’. Strong’s
definition
for Jew is ‘Jehudite’ or ‘Judaite’, which simply means ‘a descendant of
Judah’.
Now Mordecai was of the tribe of
Benjamin (i.e. not of the tribe of Judah) of the kingdom of Israel
(Judah). By
this time in history (with the northern kingdom of Israel long sense
having
been exiled from their land) we see that the southern kingdom of Israel
was the
only part of the Promised Land (as yet acknowledged as such by the
world) that
had Israelites still living there. Indeed, some of the citizens of the
southern
kingdom were from all the tribes of Israel, some of them having escaped
from
their exile lands. Jerusalem, the holy city, was the predominate
feature of the
southern kingdom. Jerusalem was the center of the religion of Yahweh.
The
people of the little nation of Judah (since Israel split into two
kingdoms) had
considered themselves the keepers of the Yahweh religion with the
priesthood
and the temple. This is why the people of ‘Judah’, particularly those
sympathetically and financially tied to the Yahweh religion, referred
to
themselves as ‘Judaites’, which in time became shortened to ‘Jews’.
Many of the
other religions of the world (and there were many) considered ‘Jews’ as
a sect.
Book of Jeremiah
The next place (in time and
scripture) that we can find the word Jew is in Jeremiah 34:9. Consider
Strong’s
numbers as they can be observed in the verse:
That
every manH376 should let(H853) his manservant,H5650 and every manH376
(H853) his
maidservant,H8198 being an HebrewH5680 or an Hebrewess,H5680 goH7971
free;H2670
that noneH1115 H376 should serve H5647 himself of
them, to wit, of a JewH3064 his brother.H251
Here
is the verse without Strong’s numbers:
That every man
should let his manservant,
and every man his maidservant, being an Hebrew or an Hebrewess, go
free; that
none should serve himself of them, to wit, of a Jew his brother.
It seems that most people of modern
times take this particular verse to mean that all Hebrew people were
called
‘Jew’. But I see in this verse a major distinction between 1) the
people who
called themselves ‘Jews’ and 2) other people groups whom ‘the Jews’
knew as ‘Hebrews’.
From the Bible we see that Hebrews were a much larger grouping of
people than
were the Israelites (a branch out of the Hebrew people). I will not go
into all
of this: however, for an example consider that out of the loins of
Abraham were
several people groups, one of which was Isaac, then Jacob, and then
Jacob’s
twelve sons…from whom came the early nation of Israel (i.e. before it
split). Nonetheless,
Abraham had other children, and from them came people groups of whom
scripture
often refers to (in the whole) as ‘the nations’. Each group was well
acquainted
with the other groups of common ancestry. Hebrew people groups were
separate
from Assyrians, Babylonians, Egyptians, etc. The reader can study this
in the
earlier chapters of the book of Genesis.
Now let us consider the passage. It
is during the latter stage in the southern kingdom of Israel, not long
before
many of the people would be taken exile off the land. A great many
people over
quite a few years had moved for protection into the walled city of
Jerusalem.
Judah’s king has just given a compassionate order to the higher class,
the
well-to-do families of the kingdom living in the expanded city. The
command was
for the well-to-do to recognize, and at least to some extent honor, the
kindred
Hebrew people who had immigrated to the city for refuge, many of whom
had
escaped the conquering nation (at this time it was Babylon) to arrive
in Jerusalem
very poor and usually with nothing.
These poor people, to survive, had
sold themselves into indentured servitude to the wealthy families that
could
afford to keep them. The wealthy considered this their compassionate
duty to
all of the poor. However, the king in his compassion ordered the
wealthy
families to set all of their Hebrew servants free. The wealthy families
obeyed,
realizing that it was the correct thing to do according to the Mosaic
Law.
However, the poor could not survive without help, and instead of giving
help
with no strings attached, which was the Law, the wealthy families
responded by
taking the poor back again as servants or even as slaves.
God became angry (i.e. the reason
Jeremiah was speaking in the city). The first action by the wealthy
families
was good, but by the Law they should have been helping the poor with
food and
shelter. The wealthy families did so, but soon (and not according to
the Law)
their help returned to again making the poor to be their servants or
even their
slaves.
Here, then, the very people
referring to themselves as ‘Jews’ (keepers of the Law, the temple, the
sacrifices, etc.) were self-righteous in caring for their ‘brother
Hebrews’;
doing it in a demeaning fashion that was a slap at the Law and a slap
in the
face of God. The “keepers of the brethren” were acting in a manner
which God
despises. Here, then, is the distinction that I wish to make between 1)
‘the
Jews’ and 2) all of the other people and people groups that were Hebrew
which
were thought of by ‘the Jews’ as not worthy ‘to
be considered Jews’.
Note that ‘Hebrews’ in this passage
means all people other than ‘Jews’ that
could trace their lineage back to the man, Heber, in the Bible.
Israelites were but one of the lines
from Heber. There were other lines and therefore there were many
non-Israelite
Hebrews in Jerusalem for protection. Also, there were many Israelites
of the
northern tribes who had returned and were seeking refuge. However, even
citizens of the tribes of Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin who were too poor
to be
financial supporters of the Yahweh religion were excluded from the term
‘the
Jews’. I trust that the reader sees the distinction made by the
‘Jewish’ king
and by ‘the Jews’ themselves. In other words, the term ‘the Jews’ was
reserved
for citizens of the tribes Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin…but only those
who had
the financial means to support the Yahweh religion or who worked within
the
workings of the Mosaic Law in Jerusalem. The time of it was 520 BC.
In the Book of Esther we have seen
that an important man, Mordecai, was called ‘a Jew’ by the author of
that book,
and that other exiles in that same book also were called ‘Jews’. This
means
that they had been important ‘Jews’ in the southern kingdom of Israel
and in
Jerusalem before they had been captured by Assyria and exiled. Consider
that
Mordecai had been exiled in 605 BC and that some 85 years later the
passage
(and episode described just above) occurred in Jerusalem. Therefore, in
the
southern kingdom not long before it would be captured by Babylon, the
people
who considered themselves keepers of the Yahweh religion were ‘the
Jews’. Also,
however, people in exile who had been similarly connected in sympathy
to
Jerusalem, the temple, and the priesthood...and who longed for God to
glorify
Himself and defeat the enemy and return His people to the homeland and
the holy
city...were referred to as ‘Jews’. That is, in scripture they were
referred to
as ‘Jews’ by some of the writers of scripture.
Therefore, know that the word ‘Jew’
was used in scripture after the northern kingdom of Israel was exiled.
But more
specifically know that it came into broad usage when true believers of
the
Yahweh religion were taken from the southern kingdom (Judah)...even
while a
mixture of Israelites and other Hebrew peoples were yet living in the
southern
kingdom of Israel. For the books of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel
were
continued warnings to the people of the southern kingdom who were not
yet
totally taken off exile into Babylon. In those years, there was a
connection
and a communication between the people yet in Jerusalem with exiled
people
groups of both Judah (the southern kingdom) and Israel (the totally
exiled
northern kingdom). The people in exile and the people in Jerusalem were
holding
onto a hope (perpetrated within false prophesies) that Yahweh would
forgive
them and return the exiles to the homeland. However, meanwhile,
Jeremiah and
Ezekiel were prophesying to all of the people that the southern kingdom
of
Judah and Jerusalem would be completely defeated and the people taken
into
exile. Moreover, this would happen to the neighboring nations
throughout
Palestine.
Book of Zechariah
The Old Testament has ‘Jew’ only
eleven times: nine in Esther, one in Jeremiah, and the last in Zechariah
8:23 -
Thus saith the LORD of hosts; In those days it
shall come to pass, that ten men shall take hold out of all languages
of the
nations, even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew,
saying, We
will go with you: for we have heard that God is with you.
We see in this verse that there will
be a returning of a remnant to the homeland and the
holy city Jerusalem; note that the New Testament explains this to be
in the Time of the End. Moreover, even when many Israelites are
beckoned by the
Spirit to join in this returning, it
shall be the faithful ‘Jews’ who will be helping and leading many
people of the
nations to go with them to God’s chosen land. This, then, is according
to the
early and ongoing promises of God, which the Apostle Paul terms as ‘a
mystery
through the ages’ and ‘in the last days it shall come to pass’. Indeed,
Paul
for some years thought that he was living in ‘the last days’, even
though he
knew and preached that God was delaying the second coming of Jesus for
the bringing in of many people of the nations before
completing His promises to United Israel (with Jesus Christ sitting on
David’s
throne).
By all of the above, we see that the
term ‘Jew’ was used in a specialized fashion in the Old Testament and
that it
was not a generalized term for all Hebrews or even all
Israelites. At least this is my understanding of the matter.
~~~
But what of the term ‘Jew’ used in
the New Testament? Strong’s numbers are
-
G2455
= ‘the name Judah’,
G2453
= ‘of Judah’,
G2452
= ‘judicially’ (i.e. ‘in a manner resembling a Judean’ which means
“like a Judean would do it…whether in
faith, action, or even dress”), and
G2450
= ‘to become a Judean’ (i.e. ‘becoming Judaized’ which means “to become
a
proselyte of the Yahweh religion”).
The New Testament was written more
than 400 years after the last occurrence
of the word ‘Jew’ in the Old
Testament. During those 400 years, the southern kingdom of Israel was
reestablished with a revitalized city of Jerusalem and a new temple.
However,
the nation was without a king until the Romans assigned them a king. In
the
latter years of that extended period, King Herod rebuilt the temple in
a rather
glorious manner so that by the days of Jesus the temple was a pride and
joy of
the Israelites…both in the homeland and among the many still scattered
Israelite
groups among the nations. The Israelites among the nations sympathized
greatly
with the people and the ideals of the homeland. Therefore, they stayed
as true
to the Yahweh religion as they could, given their circumstances, and so
they
stayed as “separated from the Gentiles” as they could. Even though many
Israelites had been absorbed into the fabric of the nations, there
remained the
smaller number of them in cloistered groups, who longed to see Yahweh
glorify
Himself by bringing His people back to the homeland and to Jerusalem…as
He had
promised.
Ah, but also during those
400-plus-years, the Yahweh religion had become modified. It had become,
to some
extent, twisted and modernized to accommodate the modern state of
Judaea (i.e.
the revitalized southern kingdom of David); but also this modernization
was to
take into account the many cloistered groups among the nations longing
for
their Messiah. Indeed, some people of these groups were coming to
Jerusalem in
yearly pilgrimages. This, then, was the state of the religion (i.e. the
Mosaic
Law broken down) when Jesus reproved the leading ‘Jews’ of his
day…whereupon
eventually they crucified him. This, then, was the state of the
religion when
Saul experienced Jesus on the road to Damascus and Saul’s name was
changed to
Paul.
Consider Pilate speaking to Jesus:
John 18:35) Pilate answered, Am I a Jew? Thine own nation
and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?
We
see Pilate 1) distinguishing himself from being a Jew, 2) indicating
that the
word ‘Jew’ was at the time entirely tied up with the insignificant
little
nation of Judaea, the city of Jerusalem, and the temple, but also 3)
indicating
the disconnect between the powerful chief priests and the ancient rules
of the
Mosaic Law.
In
regards to (3), these chief priests were not of the family of Aaron,
though the
priests of the priesthood from the time of Moses to the time of Jesus
(by the
Mosaic Law) had always been of the family of Aaron. These high priests
were but
‘leading Jews’ whom the Romans had appointed in charge over the priests
of the
Aaron priesthood…even as the Romans had appointed Herod as king over
Judaea.
In Acts 10:28, Peter is speaking, And he said unto them, Ye
know how that it is an unlawful thing for a
man that is a Jew to keep company, or come unto one of another nation;
but God
hath shewed me that I should not call any man common or unclean.
Peter speaks of the normal ‘Jewish’ custom
of his time, which hundreds of years ago had taken on the elitism of
‘the
Jews’. Indeed, all who loved Yahweh had become religiously gathered
around ‘the
Jewish hope of Israel’ and so they, too,
were proud to be known as ‘a Jew’. In this verse, then, Peter verifies
that he
is no longer like the modern ‘Jew’ of his day.
How much is the Jews
gathering around the temple in their ‘hope’ of their Messiah (like
in this verse in Acts) like unto Christians today gathering
around their church in their ‘hope’ of the Messiah’s return?
In Acts 18:24-28 we read about
Apollos, And a certain Jew named Apollos, born at Alexandria
[Egypt], an eloquent man, and mighty in the
scriptures,
came to Ephesus. This man was instructed in the way of the Lord [i.e.
the Law, the Psalms, and the Prophets]; and being fervent in
the
spirit, he spake and taught diligently the things of the Lord, knowing [however]
only the baptism of John. And he began to speak
boldly in the synagogue: whom when Aquila and Priscilla had heard, they
took
him unto them, and expounded unto him the way of God more perfectly
[i.e. completely]. And when he was disposed to pass
into
Achaia, the brethren wrote, exhorting the disciples to receive him:
who, when
he was come, helped them much which had believed through grace: For he
mightily
convinced the Jews, and that publicly, shewing by the scriptures that
Jesus
was Christ.
Apollos
was an intelligent man trained much as Paul had been trained and upon
hearing
the preaching of John the Baptist he became (at least for a short
while) John’s
disciple. Likely John (who was not taught in scholarship by men) had
taught
Apollos by the scriptures (of which Apollos was entirely familiar) that
the
Messiah had come to Israel. By God’s Spirit, then, Apollos had not only
become
convinced, but had also become empowered in his discourse to others.
Indeed,
Apollos had been led of the Lord to leave John (or perhaps John had
been taken
from him when Herod captured John and then beheaded him) to begin
preaching
directly from his Bible (the Old Testament).
Here
is the interesting part of this passage: Apollos had left Jerusalem
(where he
would have been rejected by ‘the Jews’ and perhaps he had to flee) to
go out
into the nations to carry the message to scattered ‘Jews’ and
Israelites (i.e.
all of them were God’s people, thus were Apollos’ people). In other
words,
Apollos was already preaching the Gospel to scattered ‘Jews’ and
Israelites,
and in so doing he met Aquila and Priscilla. However, he had not met
Jesus nor
had been baptized in the faith which he was preaching unto God’s people
Israel.
By God’s manipulation of events, the three came together and this very
intelligent man consented to be taught more of God’s Plan of the Ages
by these
two lowly tent makers.
Likely,
Apollos was experiencing more rejection of his message as he worked
among ‘the
Jews’; and so by two tent makers he became aware of many Christians and
of
churches hungering for teaching from the scriptures; and so God surely
redirected Apollos into a ministry similar to that of Paul.
And now I will list together these
verses: Romans 2:9-11; 10:12; 1Corinthians 9:20; and
Galatians 2:14; 3:28. Tribulation and anguish, upon every soul of man
that doeth evil, of the
Jew first, and also of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to
every man
that worketh good, to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there
is no
respect of persons with God. For there is no difference between the Jew
and the
Greek: for the same Lord over all is rich unto all that call upon him.
And unto
the Jews I became as a Jew, that I might gain the Jews; to them that
are under
the law, as under the law, that I might gain them that are under the
law; But
when I saw that they [i.e. Peter and other Israelite Christians in
Antioch] walked not uprightly according to the truth of the
gospel [i.e. in Christ, the law was no longer for Christians], I said
unto Peter before them all, If thou, being a Jew, livest after
the manner of Gentiles, and not as do the Jews, why compellest thou the
Gentiles
to live as do the Jews? There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is
neither bond
nor free, there is neither male nor female: for ye are all one in
Christ Jesus.
However, dear reader, here is Romans
3:1-2) What advantage then hath the Jew? or
what profit is there of circumcision? Much every way: chiefly, because
that unto
them were committed the oracles of God.
To
the Jew first: This means the true ‘Jew’; that is, the Israelite with
the love of God in his heart for God’s Glory in
fulfilling the Promises of the Abrahamic and Mosaic Covenants regarding
the
Promised Land, the Holy City, and the True Temple in Heaven as viewed
early on
by Moses, along with the in-gathering of the Remnant to form a United
Israel,
along with the Inclusion of the Gentiles (you and me).
The
Apostle Paul surely mourned for his people Israel and especially for
the many
‘Jews’ who continued resisting their Messiah, who were persecuting
their
brother Gentile Christians, and who - in the Time of the End - will
truly see
their error and see their Messiah and will encourage Gentiles to take
hold of
their Jewish clothing so as to bring them in with the Remnant to the
Holy
City…where Christ Jesus will sit upon David’s Throne.
~~~
Therefore, dear reader, read again
the above passages where Paul writes negatively of ‘the Jews’ when
inferring
their elitism, but he writes positively when
inferring ‘the truly righteous Jew’ and ‘the Jew of God’s promises’.
Though all the people of the loins
of the sons of Jacob are ‘Israelites’, from the time when the northern
kingdom
of Israel was conquered (and the people exiled from the northern land)
there
developed an ongoing contingent of Israelites from the southern kingdom
of
Israel (i.e. ‘Judah’) that considered themselves to be the ‘keepers’ of
the
Mosaic Law and ‘keepers’ of the holy city and the temple. They tried
very hard
to do this, but were conquered by the Babylonians, whereupon the higher
classes
were exiled to Babylon. But after seventy years, God arranged for a
remnant of
these who were taken from the southern kingdom to return, whereupon the
southern kingdom of Israel became known as ‘Judaea’.
The fervor of this returning remnant
heightened within their purpose as ‘the keepers’ for God of the holy
city of
Jerusalem; also they were ‘claimers’ of the promises of the Covenants;
and they
became known as ‘Jews’, the word taken from ‘Judah’ which became
‘Judaea’. Moreover,
any Israelites among the nations who sympathized with this purpose of
‘keeping’
and ‘claiming’ were also called ‘Jews’.
Keep this distinction in mind when
reading scripture; for the promises are to ‘the Jews of the Promises’
even
though many elitist ‘Jews’ made it very difficult for the writers and
Christians
of the New Testament.
There is no practical difference
between ignorance of Christians in a relationship to God
and ignorance within any religious pursuit,
like that of the elitist Jews. In varied ways we Christians also
fight among ourselves…do we not? Fervor among Christians can be ‘fervor
of God’
or ‘fervor for God’. The many characters in the story of the birth of
Jesus
show us the ‘fervor of God’ in them. The Christians in the church of
Corinth
(1Corinthians 1) show us the ‘fervor for God’ in them. It was the
latter that
gave the early churches problems.
And so it was with ‘the Jews’…some
having ‘the fervor of God’ in them and some having ‘a fervor for
God’. It was the latter that gave the early
churches problems.
Even so, ‘Tribulation
and anguish, upon every soul of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first,
and also
of the Gentile; But glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh
good,
to the Jew first, and also to the Gentile: For there is no respect of
persons
with God.’
All
shall be made clear in the judgment.
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