Please help me understand....about Jews
Questions - Is it true that the only people that should be called "Jews are those from the tribe of Judah? - Steven
I also believe the term Jew and Israel are synonymous terms that refer to one and the same people. The terms Jew and Israelite became synonymous terms from about the time of the Captivity in Babylon (586 B.C.). It is one of the historical fallacies of Replacement Theology and its variant Anglo-Israelism to presuppose that the term "Jew" stands for the bodily descendant of "Judah." In the Bible it stands for all those from among the sons of Jacob who acknowledged them, or were considered, subjects of the theocratic kingdom of Judah, which they expected to be established by the promised "Son of David."
The claim "Jews," are not "Israelites;" is false. In the New Testament the same people who are called "Jews" 174 times are also called "Israel" no fewer than 75 times (see such statements as given in Acts 21:39; 22:3; Romans 11:1-3 where Paul calls himself a Jew though he was from the Northern tribe of Benjamin, Romans 9:4-5; 2 Corinthians 11:22; Philippians 3:5).
From the time of the return of the first remnant after the Babylonian exile, sacred historians, prophets, apostles, and the Lord Himself, regarded the "Jews" whether in the land or in "Dispersion" as representatives of "all Israel," and the only people in line of the covenants and the promises which God made with the fathers (see the following passages where the use of Judah and Israel are found interchangeably: Zechariah 1:19; 8:13 10:6 Ezra 6:17; 8:35, etc.).Our Answer - Hi Steven, you error in your basic assumptions, here is the plain Scriptural Truth...
The term "Jew" does not exist anywhere in either the Hebrew or the Greek Set-apart (holy) Scriptures (Bible). The word in the Hebrew that has been incorrectly translated to the word "Jew" is the Hebrew word "Yahudean," a member of the tribe of Yahudah, one of the 12 tribes of Yisrael, or an inhabitant living in the area of the Southern Kingdom called Yahudah. The term "Jew" has nothing to do with the Set-apart Scriptures, and is an incorrect substitute for the word Yahudean. Israelites from the Northern Kingdom were never called Yahudeans, and were equally never called "Jews" in Scripture. Jews are not Yisraelites, and were never Yisraelites. Jews are equally not Yahudium, of the tribe of Yahudah. The term "Jew" did not exist until the beginning of the publishing of "English" translations of the Scriptures about 1000-1400 AD, when it was placed in English translations of the Scriptures, deceptively I believe, in order to give Some Scriptural credibility to a people group of Turkish-Kazar-Edomite-Ashkenazim-Gomer-Japhath-Noah descent that are unrelated to the Yahudium of Scripture. They are also not of Semitic descendancy, since they come from Noah's son Japhath, but not Shem (Gen. 10:3). Equally, the religion of Modern Jews has nothing to do with Scriptural Yahudaism.
The New Testament Greek term Iudaios sometimes translated as "Jews" was a Greek deity, see W. H. Roscher's lexicon of mythology. Jews did not become a people group until the establishment of their religion of Jew-dah-ism about 1,000 years AD. See our document "The History of the Jews"also see the letter "who is a Jew" from Rabbi Bruce Kadden.
Summary
The term in the Scripture is "Yahudean," not "Jew." A Yahudean is a member of the tribe of Yahudah, or was a dweller (which may or may not be an Israelite) in the old area of Palestine called the Southern Kingdom 2 1/2 Tribes of Israel. Israel as the Northern 10 1/2 Tribes was never called Yahudah, and Yisraelites were never "Jews."
A "Jew" is a person who adheres to a Religion called Jew-dah-ism, which is, by the way, very anti-Christian.
If you continue to study using corrupted English translations of the Scriptures, you will never get your terms right as the terms will be incorrectly translated, in many English translation) in the passages you have quoted above. If you replace the English word "Jew" in your Bible with Yahudean, Judah with Yahudah, and Jews (plural) with the word Yahudium, you will be correct. To repeat, the word "Jew" does not exist in the original Scriptures, and is a recent (post 1000 AD) incorrect addition to the Scriptures implying a relationship with Jewish people that does not historically exist, and has nothing do with the Set-apart Scriptures. Modern Jews do not represent Israelites in any way shape or form. As an Israelite (but not a Jew), I know what I am talking about!
I suggest that you get a Bible which uses the correct properly transliterated (not interpreted) original names, such as is found in "The Scriptures," Distributed by the "Institute for Scriptural Research, " Their web-site is:
www.isr-messianic.org
For aletheia (truth)
John William,
Assembly of Yahweh, Cascade
Presented for aletheia, by the Assembly of YAHWEH, Cascade
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