What is a Jew?

[Gabbylittleangel]

Some claim that to be Jewish one must have a certain percentage of Hebrew blood. Being Jewish is to be a member of a race. A direct descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Some claim that to be a Jew, at least one parent must be Jewish.

Some claim that it is a matter of faith. You must belong to a religious organization that is identified as Jewish...attend a synagogue....go through Jewish ceremonies....

Where does that leave Messianic Jews? (Jewish believers in Jesus Christ)

If you ask ten different Jewish people what it means to be a Jew, you will most likely get ten different answers.

What is a Jew? Who decides what is and is not a Jew? Can one be Jewish without being able to trace their genealogy back to the nation of Israel? Once Jewish ~ always Jewish? In the eyes of God, what is a Jew? What is the difference between a Jew and a non-Jew?

There are many promises to the people of Israel in the Old Testament. Promises that endure forever. Do Jews have carte blanche, or don't Christians need to reach them with the gospel of Jesus Christ also?

May God bless the Jewish people with salvation, and bless those with an abundant harvest, who are reaching them with the gospel of Jesus Christ.

 

[golfjack]

reply

Modern Israel, with its Zionist principle of the right of return, offers to any Jewish person in the world the privelege to live in Israel and creates the heated debate, Who is a Jew. For they are not all Israel who are of Israel. ( Romans 9:6).

In the Old Testament, when ancient Israel went after other gods, every Jew in Israel was aware of the contrast made by the prophets between the nation as a whole and the remnant ( Rom. 11:5). When Christ was born in Bethlehem, the nation of Israel as a whole was going about its business with little true faith. It was only a few, like Mary and Joseph, Elizabeth and Zacharias, who looked for redemption in Jerusalem ( Luke 2:38).

When Jesus began His public ministry and saw Nathaniel for the first time, He said, Here is a true Israelite ( John 1:47). This is exactly the distinction Paul is making in this chapter of Romans.

Paul's prime example of a true Israelite was Abraham. Abraham was not saved by circumcision, because he was declared to be righteous before God in Genesis 15:6, which was years before his circumcision. Abraham was not saved by keeping the Law, because the Law was not given until the time of Moses, which was four hundred years after Abraham's time.

How did Abraham become a true Israelite? It was by faith, not works, as indicated in Genesis 15:6: And he ( Abraham) believed in the Lord ( faith), and He ( the Lord) counted it to him ( Abraham) for righteousness.

Paul writes: They are not all Israel who are of Israel ( Rom. 9:6). Paul is saying there's a difference between all those who claim to be Abraham's descendants and those who constitute Isarael as the people of God.

Paul demonstrates, first, that Israel is a matter of election rather than birth ( Rom. 9:6-13). Not all those called children of Abraham ( natural descendants) are actually his seed as demonstrated in Genesis 21:12, which states, In Isaac your seed shall be called.

Remember that Abraham had 2 sons. His first son was Ishmael, born to the Ejyptian maid Hagar. ( see Geneses 16). But, says Paul, Ishmael, though a physical descendant of Abraham, was not of the seed ( Greek word sperma) that produced Isaac, the spiritual child.

Ishmael was reproduced when Abraham was able to have children in his own sexual strength. Isaac was born by a supernatural act of God, since both abraham and Sarah were well past the age of childbirth.

In Romans 9:8 Paul shifts from the children of the flesh ( Abraham) to children of God. The shift is subtle but very significant. If Abraham's spiritual seed comes through God's promise and power, the Jewish people are not simply Abraham's seed, but quite literally God's children.

Who wants to tackle the subjecty of Divine Election, which is very controversial?


May God bless, golfjack

 

[ChristineES]

Jews are from Judah, Israel's (or Jacob's) third son. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin were separated from the other 10 tribes during the son of Solomon, Rehoboam. (This is in 2 Kings). That means that Jews are from Judah and Benjamin.
There is a lot of discussion about what happened to the other 10 tribes.
:

 

[Gabbylittleangel]

Jews are from Judah, Israel's (or Jacob's) third son. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin were separated from the other 10 tribes during the son of Solomon, Rehoboam. (This is in 2 Kings). That means that Jews are from Judah and Benjamin.
There is a lot of discussion about what happened to the other 10 tribes.
:

So...

what happens to the Jews who marry outside of the tribe? Their children would be 50% Jewish and 50% something else.

The descendants of those families....can they be considered Jewish?

 

[mutzrein]

From Romans 2

A man is not a Jew if he is only one outwardly, nor is circumcision merely outward and physical. No, a man is a Jew if he is one inwardly; and circumcision is circumcision of the heart, by the Spirit, not by the written code. Such a man's praise is not from men, but from God.

 

[Georges]

Gentiles wishing to proselyte to Judaism are considered Jews upon conversion....Jews none the less.

If they happen to be believers in Jesus as the Messiah, technically, they would be Nazarene Jews....upon Proselyte conversion.


Yikes, I've been away for awhile...I was free of forum's tempting clutches, but I feel I'm being sucked back in.... :

 

[ChristineES]

I am always glad to see you, Georges.

 

[mutzrein]

I wondered where you were Georges. And there is nothing like the feeling of being sucked in by of a collective of suckers. :

 

[Georges]

I wondered where you were Georges. And there is nothing like the feeling of being sucked in by of a collective of suckers. :

Been concentrating on a rewrite of a Messianic commentary on The Revelation. It's been a six year process so far. I've had to completely redo the Letters to the Churches in light of what I've learned concerning Paul.

Still I check back on the forum every once in a while to see if anything has changed.... :