Few issues have been surrounded by as much obscurity as the question of who, or what, is a Jew. Even among many Jews themselves there seems to be little understanding of the true nature of Jewish identity.

The issue is clouded by various appeals to concepts of race and religion. A Jew is customarily viewed as "a person who adheres to the Jewish religion". This glosses over the racial aspect of Jewishness. Others will insist that Judaism is not a religion but a race. The former view implies that Jewishness is something that one can acquire simply by converting to the Jewish religion. The latter view correctly appreciates the racial dimension of the Jewish religion but does not properly bring out the religious aspect. Overshadowing these disparate ideas about the Jews is the perennial chestnut about whether the Jews are a "race" as distinct from some lesser form of national entity.

These tedious attempts to define just who is, and who is not, a Jew are an exercise in circular reasoning ad nauseum. The only way to gain a proper understanding of the nature of Jewishness is through the biblical concept of the chosen people, and of the covenant relationship existing between this people and their God.

This vagueness concerning the special character of the Jewish people is a product of general Bible ignorance (especially of the Old Testament). Everyone has heard of the Old Testament and the New Testament. Like so much of the terminology of Christianity, these terms smack of religious jargon like the words "communion", "gospel", etc. which serve more to mystify than explain or reveal. How many people know that the word "testament" means simply "covenant" or "contract". The word "testament" in the Bible context simply invokes the idea of an agreement, just like a legal contract, between God and man. How many Christians have ever thought of their relationship with God in this way?

The Old Testament is the story of a contract between God and a nation, a people. The people in question, whether you call them a nation, a race, a tribe or whatever other term might seem appropriate, were a semitic people of Western Asia called the Hebrews, or the Israelites. How did this covenant relationship come about? As its title suggests the Old Testament is the story of this relationship, how it originated, and how it developed. At this point perhaps we should briefly work our way through the Old Testament, book by book in order to provide the background for what follows.

If you take a Bible in your hands and look at the table of contents you will find that the various books have been arranged in a certain order which corresponds roughly with the contents of each book. For example, the books from Isaiah to Malachi are the writings of the Hebrew prophets from about the eighth to the fifth centuries B.C. The books from Genesis to Esther are books detailing the history of the Hebrew people from the Creation to within a few centuries of the birth of Christ. The books in between are miscellaneous books of poetry, teaching and inspiration, such as Psalms, Proverbs and the Song of Solomon.

It can be seen therefore that the Old Testament is a methodically organised work covering the fields of history, prophecy and teaching.

We begin our survey with the book of Genesis:

Following the Creation (about 4000 years B.C.) mankind spreads out from the area of the Garden of Eden. Man is deeply corrupt and sinful. God resolves to destroy Man from the face of the earth by a great flood (about 2500 B.C.). Only Noah and his family are accounted worthy to escape and God commissions him to preserve as many species of animal life as possible aboard the Ark, and to be the founder of a new instalment of the human race through his three sons, Shem, Ham and Japheth. From these three, the great races of man are descended: the Caucasians, the Negroids, and the Asiatics. Note that slavery was prophesied for the descendants of Ham, the black Africans (Gen.9:25). God pronounces a special blessing on Shem and from his descendants chooses a man to be a test case of faith and obedience to the divine will. This man is called Abraham, and he lived in about 2000 B.C. It is important to note here that Abraham is described in the Bible as a "Hebrew". It would appear that this term derives from an ancestor of Abraham, in the line of Shem, called Eber (Gen.10:21,24). This man seems to have been an important figure of the early historical period. Archeological finds at Ebla have revealed the existence of a king by this name. In the Bible the words Hebrew, Jew and Israelite are by no means synonymous as will appear later.

Abraham is required to obey God in all things, and in return receives the blessings of multitudinous offspring and possession of a land set aside by God to be inhabited by his descendants (hence the "promised land"). At this point it is not at all clear that there is such a thing as a "chosen people" as such, only that Abraham will became the father of many nations. Abraham is obedient to God, and is a man of great faith. The promises of progeny are particularly hard to believe as Abraham is a very old man (pushing 100) and his wife is infertile! Added to all this, God's supreme test of this man's faith is that he should sacrifice the one son (Isaac) he gives him according to the promise. Abraham successfully passes this test and qualifies as the "father of the faithful". In the process Isaac's life is spared and through him the divine promise of nationhood is continued.

Isaac's son Jacob receives a personal re-affirmation of the divine blessings of land and nationhood given to his grandfather (Gen.28:3), and is given a new name by God following a titanic wrestling match with an angel! The name is Israel and means literally "he who strives against God". The people of Israel have proved themselves worthy of this designation ever since!

It is at this point that the concept of the "people of Israel" begins to take on tangible form. Jacob (or Israel) through assorted wives and concubines gives rise to twelve sons whose descendants in their turn become the legendary twelve tribes of Israel.

The family of Israel migrates to Egypt during a famine in the land of Canaan, "the promised land" (1800-2000 B.C.), and become a nation of several million people. God sends Moses to deliver them from their condition of slavery, and the subsequent events constitute the real beginnings of the Israelite people as a corporate entity. Through a series of miracles, God rescues the people from Pharaoh's army and makes an agreement with the Israelites that if they will be obedient to him he will bless them, and if not he will lay curses upon them. The Israelites incur God's wrath by worshipping a golden idol, and are condemned to wander in the wilderness for forty years before being allowed to enter the land promised to the ancestors (Abraham, Isaac and Jacob/Israel).

These books record the laws which God gives to Moses to convey to the people of Israel as part of the covenant he has made with the chosen people. It is here that we encounter the body of law which is the basis of the precepts and observances of the Jewish religion. It is the first systematic statement in the Bible of God's law. It is not however the first indication of the existence of such a body of divine law. Many centuries previously, God has commended Abraham as a person who has kept "my commandments, my statutes, and my laws" (Gen.26:5).

The five books covered so far are called the Pentateuch, or the Torah (by religious Jews), and it is from these books of the Bible that observant Jews derive most if not all of the "613 commandments" that are the core of the Jewish religion. Over the centuries these laws came to be supplemented by writings outside of the Bible record, such as the Mishnah and the Talmud. These later additions became known as the "oral law" (as opposed to the "written law" of the Bible). When Jesus criticises the Pharisees for being too rigid and doctrinaire in their observances, it is excessive zeal in regard to the precepts of the oral law, and not simple obedience to the laws of the Torah, which is being called into question. The latter were given directly by God (Ex.20:1; compare Mat.4:4).

After entering the promised land, the Israelites under Joshua - Moses was forbidden to enter the promised land because of an act of faithlessness - evict the Canaanites and in the process inflict upon them punishments ordained by God for a people who have polluted the land with their own brand of idolatry and barbarousness (including child sacrifice to the God Molech!; Jer.32:33-35).

The people of Israel become settled in the land of their ancestors. However the previous inhabitants have not been completely driven out and are an ever-present threat to the Twelve Tribes. These nations are used by God to punish the Israelites when they fall into idolatry and sinfulness, and the book takes its title from the record of illustrious leaders and prophets who arise and save Israel in times of trouble. These figures are known as "judges" because the Twelve Tribes were not (and were never intended to be) governed by human rulers. It was God's intention that the chosen people should inhabit the promised land as separate communities ruled over directly by the Lord himself! The judges were divinely inspired men and women whose knowledge of the will of God gave them special status as leaders in times of crisis, and no doubt they exercised considerable authority on matters religious, social and political in times of peace.

Samuel is the last of the judges and plays a central role in setting up a monarchial form of rule in Israel, when the people cry out for a king to rule over them, in opposition to the will of God. God reluctantly agrees. King Saul of the tribe of Benjamin is ordained by Samuel (1050 B.C.) but proves unworthy, and is eventually replaced by David, from the tribe of Judah. It is during one of Israel’s perennial wars with the Philistines (a nation with whom the Israelites share the promised land) that the future king slays Goliath. Saul, sensing a possible rival in David, evicts him from the court. With the help of Jonathan (Saul's son), David survives numerous attempts on his life by the king and flees to the land of the Philistines. Saul eventually meets his death on the battlefield. David becomes king of Judah by popular acclaim and later unites the other tribes under his rule.

Although not Israel's first king, David is the most important for various reasons. Firstly, it is under David's rule that Israel becomes a significant power in the Middle East area, and becomes the prototype of the Messianic kingdom of the future. Secondly, in making Jerusalem his capital, he establishes this city as the centre of the Israelite religion and the resting place of the ark of the covenant (the box containing the Ten Commandments which the Israelites had carried through the wilderness, after the giving of the law on Mount Sinai). Thirdly, David's great faith and his role as the divinely appointed ruler over the people of the covenant, establishes him as the forerunner of the future Messiah figure of the prophecies. These prophecies will identify the Messiah as a descendant of David.

At this point the people of Israel are still in a covenant relationship with God despite the existence of human institutions of rule. This fact is illustrated by the story of Nathan the prophet, who exposes the sins of David with regard to Uriah the Hittite and his wife Bathsheba. The rejection of Saul may be attributed to his failure to submit to the will of God in his rulership of Israel, and to feel no remorse or repentance for this shortcoming, unlike David. The theocratic nature of Israel's monarchy, and that of David, is particularly important in understanding the covenant dimension of the Israelite people.

After King David passes from the scene, he is followed by his son Solomon. Solomon is commissioned by God to build the Temple as a permanent dwelling place for the ark of the covenant, and centre of Israelite worship of their God. David was denied this privilege because he was "a man of blood" ie. a man of war. This stands in contrast with the popular view of the God of the Old Testament as a wrathful warlike figure.

The books of Kings and Chronicles are an account of the kings of Israel following the reigns of David and Solomon over a span of about 500 years (from about the eleventh to the sixth centuries B.C.). During this period a significant division occurs in the Israelite tribal confederation. This occurs when the Israelites of those tribes not associated with the monarchy, revolt from the oppressive rule of the southern tribes (Judah and Benjamin) and set up their own kingdom in the northern part of the country. The people of Israel thus become divided into two separate nations as distinct as the Northern and Southern states of America in the Civil War period, with the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom calling itself "Israel"(or "Samaria" - after its capital city), and the two tribes of the south calling themselves "Judah". This division between the tribes becomes a permanent feature of Israelite history, and the books of Kings and Chronicles largely concern themselves with the rivalry and warfare that ensues between the two kingdoms.

The lasting effect this division had on the subsequent history of the Hebrew people is echoed in the phrase "Judea and Samaria", used by hard-liners in modern Israel to describe the territory on the west bank of the River Jordan captured by the Israelis in the Six-Day War. This term is a reference to the two halves of ancient Israel, and is used to validate the historic nature of Zionist claims to Palestine.

This period of Israel's history is not a particularly glorious one to invoke however, as the people of both kingdoms have fallen ever deeper into apostasy and idolatry, and the leaders into ever more corrupt and oppressive rule. Several great prophets arise at this time (such as Elijah, Elisha, and Isaiah to name but three) and warn the people of the coming judgment of God. The people do not repent and complete disaster follows for both Israel and Judah.

Israel is the first to be destroyed. A succession of powerful and predatory empires appear in the Middle East at about this time (the middle of the 8th Century B.C.), and set about destroying the surrounding smaller states. One of these empires was that of the kingdom of Assyria. The Assyrians, chiefly through Kings Tiglath-Pileser III and his successor Shalmaneser V, gradually subjugate and conquer the northern kingdom.

Like the Nazis of the 20th century, the Assyrians had a penchant for "final solutions". One of their favourite practices was to deport the entire population of a defeated nation. This policy was based on the supposition that a conquered people cut off from their native soil, and totally dependent on their conquerors when resettled elsewhere, would have all cause for revolt taken from them. (In reality, this policy appears to have had the effect of hastening the decline of the victorious nation by creating conditions of instability and ferment within the realm.) In 2 Kings 17:18 the Bible forlornly records that the people of Israel (the Northern Kingdom) were removed from their land and that "none was left but the tribe of Judah only", and later states that they are there "until this day" (2 Ki.17:23). This last point is re-affirmed in 1 Chron.5:26, written after the return of the Jews from the Babylonian exile. This proves that, as far as the biblical chroniclers were concerned, the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom never returned to the promised land.

These exiled Israelites are never heard of again in Bible history (some survivors are described as a "remnant of you who have escaped from the hand of the kings of Assyria" in 2 Chronicles 30:6), but they figure prominently in Bible prophecies relating to the coming of the Messiah. In fact the uniting of the people of Israel with the people of Judah in the future will be one of the great acts to be performed by the Messiah upon his return, as is attested by the prophets Jeremiah (3:18) and Ezekiel (37:15-22). If Bible prophecy is to be believed there must be millions of Israelites in the world today who are not Jews and whose return to the land of Israel, not only has not, but indeed cannot, come about until the return of Christ to this earth.

What was the fate of these people in secular history? The Hebrew people, when forced into captivity by a foreign power referred to themselves as "the Exile" (in Hebrew Gola or Galut). Tribes bearing these names appeared in Western Europe in the form of the Gauls (or Galatae), as recorded in the annals of the Greek and Roman historians, and are thus represented by the Celts of Britain and Europe, and related peoples. These Hebrews, or Ibri as they were called in Hebrew, left behind traces of their migrations in European place names such as Iberia, which contains the Ebro or Hiberus River, Hibernia (the ancient name for Ireland), the Hebrides Islands, Le Havre, and so on. Wales, called Cumri in the Welsh language, retains the name of ancient Israel. Anciently Israel was known as Beth Omri, after the Israelite King. The Assyrians, who took captive the Ten Tribes, referred to it by the name of Bit Khumri. Their descendants were the nomadic peoples known as the Cimmerians or Cimbri. They later gave their name to the Cimbric Peninsular (Denmark), and place names in Britain such as Cambria and Cumbria.

The separation of the tribes of Israel was referred to centuries later by the prophet Zechariah when he wrote "I broke my second staff Union, annulling the brotherhood between Judah and Israel" (Zech.11:14). This situation continues to the present day, and reunification will not take place until the return of Christ. This is not simply a piece of theological trivia. It is proof of fulfilled prophecy made thousands of years ago, and proof that there is a meaning to human history. God is working out a great purpose for mankind. The triumphant progress of the Anglo-Celtic peoples provides us with a great panorama of historical destiny designed to demonstrate that there is a supreme intelligence at work in the world. Has he not done this with the Jews themselves? God’s people have always occupied centre stage in world affairs. This is as it should be if these nations are acting out a divine calling and destiny in accordance with God’s promises to Abraham’s descendants outlined in Gen.28:3; 35:11 and 48:19-20.

Following the destruction of the kingdom of Israel, the Assyrian Empire is supplanted by Babylon as the dominant empire in the Middle East. Under Nebuchadnezzar, the Babylonians conquer Judah and deport great numbers of people in 586 B.C. following the destruction of Jerusalem.

At this point it is important to clear up a major misconception on the part of many people, Jews and non-Jews alike, about the origins of the modern day Jewish people. It is commonly assumed that the Jewish people originated with the patriarch Abraham, who as previously noted was himself called a Hebrew, and that all his descendants were simply Jewish people. A careful reading of the Bible however presents a rather different picture.

Where do you think the word "Jew" first appears in the Bible?

On page 1? Page 5? How about page 120?

You wouldn't even be close!

In the King James Version of the Bible the word "Jew" first appears in 2 Ki.16:6, getting on towards halfway through the Old Testament! Moreover, it is in the course of one of the many wars between Israel and Judah, in which the Israelites are engaged in slaughtering Jews, and vice versa.

Why does the Bible take so long to get around to mentioning the Jews by name, after all the Old Testament is supposed to be all about the Jews isn't it?

The fact is that the Jewish people have their beginnings not with the patriarch Abraham, or even Israel (the father of the Israelites), but with one of his sons, Judah, who was the progenitor of the tribe of Judah. There were no Jews before this time! How many Jews, much less Christians, have ever stopped to ask themselves where the very word Jew came from in the first place? The word "Jew" is a shortened form of "Judah". Most people would have seen film footage or photos of pre-war Germany where Nazis carried signs and placards reviling the "Juden". The Jews are the descendants of the tribe of Judah, which became the nucleus of the Southern Kingdom of Judah which was taken into captivity by the Babylonians. It is with the Babylonian captivity that traditional histories of the Jewish people generally begin, because this period forms our earliest link with the Jewish culture which has survived to the present day.

Following the conquest of Babylon by Cyrus of Persia in 539 B.C., the Jewish exiles were permitted to return to their homeland. This return was supervised by Ezra and Nehemiah, and is recorded in the books which bear their names. It is important to note however that comparatively few Jews returned to the promised land. The Babylonian captivity in fact constitutes the true beginnings of the period of exile (Galut) for the Jewish people which has continued to the present. This is still true, notwithstanding the re-establishment of the state of Israel in modern times, as the vast majority of Jewish people still live outside the promised land. Even in the time of Jesus, some centuries after the "return" of 536 B.C., the majority of Jews dwelt in such places as Egypt, Syria, and Babylon. It is here where Jewish life developed over the succeeding centuries, and is the source of the Jewish culture with which we are familiar today. For example, the Jewish religion came to develop around the Babylonian (as distinct from the Palestinian) Talmud. The experience of the exile has constituted the real core of the Jewish historical experience till the present time. It should be observed however, that a Jewish state emerged from the return of the Babylonian exiles, but was mainly subject to rule by the great powers and empires of the pre-Christian era, and ended with the total destruction of the Judean state in 70 A.D. by the Romans. This was followed by the eviction of the Jews from the promised land. This meant that as well as being substantially in a state of exile, the Jewish people were also completely cut off from the land of Israel (eretz Israel or simply "the land" in Zionist parlance), and this situation prevailed until 1948 with the proclamation of independence by David Ben-Gurion.

This brings to a close my very brief survey of Jewish history from biblical times. It now remains to deal with that other great portion of the Bible not yet examined, and that is the prophetical works of the Old Testament (and New Testament ) which I submit not only serves to explain the progress of Jewish history from biblical times to the present day, but also charts the future of the Jews beyond today's world into the new world to come - the Messianic age.

We will then examine the attitude of Jesus himself to the status of the Jewish religion, and on this point it will become evident that he did not envisage the passing away of the old religion and its replacement with a new one, merely that the religion of the Old Testament was incomplete, and needed to be understood in a more deeply spiritual manner.

CONTINUE

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