All Jews are Israelites, but not all Israelites are Jews!
Abraham was called 'A Hebrew' (Gen.14:13)
Abraham was not Jewish, although of course he was the founder
of the Jewish
nation and of the faith of all Israel. He is called, as we read in Genesis 14:13
"An Hebrew"
Oxford dictionary: ‘Hebrew’ = ‘One of the Hebrew people’
‘Hebrew’ = A descendent of Eber (Strongs 5680 Ibriy (Ib-ree)
from 5677) 'Eber'= ‘Set apart'
(or, Ay-ber) from 5674 (Abar) = 'A descendent of Shem'
Gen. 49, 8-12.
Jacob had 12 sons, and from them stemmed the 12 Tribes.
They were all Israelites,
Each tribe
bore the name of the son from whom they came. i.e. the Tribe of Dan came from
Dan the son of Jacob,
the tribe of Isaachar came from
Isaachar another of the sons of Jacob, and so on until we come to Jacob's son, Judah.
The descendents of this tribe became known as the 'Jews.'
Yahshua came
from this tribe so was of
course, a Jew.
A short history:
Abraham, not Jewish, but an Hebrew Gen. 14:13, ‘set apart.’
Jacob begat 12 sons Gen. 30.
Now, in Exodus 2:1-10 we read of Moses, and that he was a descendent of Levi, so
an Hebrew and Israelite (not Jewish) who later led all 12 Tribes out of Egypt.
However, Ezekiel 37:11-23 states that Israel (10 lost tribes) will one day return to the land.
Jeremiah chapter
31 also declares that they will return. There are many more scriptures which support this
understanding, that Israel is divorced, but will return, in His time,
and be accepted as God's (Yahweh)
people once again.
The parables of Yahshua in Luke 15, The lost sheep, lost coin, lost son, are all related. The
son lost his identity,
while his brother (Judah) looked after the land.
Isaiah 49 says that "They" (Ephraim) will return to the land, and everyone thinks these are
the Jewish people. Not so.
Judah, of which the Jewish people are descended were taken captive by the Babylonians in
586 B.C. and returned to the
land 70 years later with Zerubbabel, Ezra and Nehemiah. That’s right, Judah returned to
the land with some
Ephramites who had assimilated into the tribe of Judah.
Let us therefore then, understand the mystery of
'All Jews are Israelites but not all Israelites
are
Jews' the subject of this article.
With this understanding will come the great joy in knowing that Yahweh will destroy the
barriers between the Jew and the returning
Gentile Israelites
and make them once again a united people in the Land.
The term "Jew" is derived therefore, from the name of Jacob's fourth son,
Judah, named Yehudah, in
Hebrew. So, the term 'Jew' or 'Jewish' simply means,
of the Tribe of Judah. The other
descendents from the eleven other sons are therefore not Jews.
After the death of David's son, King Solomon, a civil dispute split the twelve tribes of
Israel into
two kingdoms: the Kingdom of Judah in the south, which included the tribes of Judah and
Benjamin
(and some Levites and priests) and was centered around the capital Jerusalem and the
Holy
Temple;
and the northern Kingdom of Israel, which included the other ten tribes.
In the 5th century BCE, the Kingdom of Israel was conquered by Assyrian King Sennaherib,
and the ten
tribes were exiled and lost. See "Israel the Beloved".
The only remaining Israelites
were the residents
of the Kingdom of Judah,
but somehow, the term "y'hudi" or "Jew" eventually came to refer to
all Israelites,
regardless of their tribal ancestry.
With the destruction of the northern kingdom of Israel (Samaria), the kingdom of
Judah became the sole Jewish state and the term y'hudi was applied to all Israelites.
When the word makes its first appearance in writing (in the book of Esther) its
meaning has already expanded to include converts to the Jewish religion as
well as descendants of Israelites.
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Abraham begat Isaac, not Jewish but Hebrew Gen. 21:1.
Isaac begat Jacob, not Jewish but Hebrew. Yahweh called him ‘Israel’.
Gen. 32:1-30 and Hosea 12:1-5.
Reuben, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite).
Simeon, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite).
Levi, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite).
Judah, Jewish,
and also Hebrew, from whom came
the Jewish people, from
whom Yahshua (Jesus) was descended, who also was
Jewish.
Issachar, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite)
Zebulun, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite).
Dan, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite).
Gad, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite).
Asher, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite).
Naphtali, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite).
Joseph, Israelite, but Hebrew (Israelite).
Benjamin, was not Jewish, but Hebrew (Israelite).
So, (as in title) All Jews are Hebrews, (Israelites) but not all Hebrews (Israelites) are Jews.
In Numbers 13:8 we read of Joshua, a descendent of Joseph. Moses sent him and
other leaders of the tribes to spy out the land of Canaan before entering it.
In Num 13:16 we read "These are the names of the men which Moses sent to spy out the land.
And Moses called Oshea the son of Nun Jehoshua"
Joshua was later to be the man who led the whole of the 12 Tribes into the Promised Land,
the land of Canaan.
When the 12 Tribes of Israel entered the land, they were ruled by Judges and Kings.
Then, because of Solomon’s
idolatries, Yahweh separated the tribes. 10 Tribes
(1 Kings chapters 11 and 12) moved to the north, into Samaria, called the
Northern Kingdom, or Israel (also known as: Ephraim, Joseph or Jacob)
while the two tribes, Benjamin and Judah
are left in the south, with some Levites with Jerusalem continuing to be capital,
thus the Southern Kingdom.
After this division, the name ‘Israel’ from then on in the Old Testament, refers only to
the Northern Kingdom.
As the southern part of Israel comprised mainly of Judah,
it became known as such, the House of Judah. After the conquering of the ten northern
tribes by the Assyrian Kings, only Judah was left (2 Kings 17:18 "...none left but the
Tribe of Judah only...) until later, Nebuchadnezzar
came and conquered the southern part of Israel, or Judah, and took them away to Babylon.
Israel (known now as Ephraim, Joseph, or Jacob) are taken out of the land by force, by
the Assyrians 7035 B.C.
10% are left in the land of Samaria. Isaiah 6:12-13. The rest is history, they lost their
identity, they became
as Gentiles, mixed in the nations.
The book of Hosea, a prophet to the Northern Kingdom only (called Israel, Ephraim,
Joseph or Jacob)
prophesied over Israel (Ephraim) judgement and future restoration.
Yahweh instructed Hosea the prophet to marry a prostitute,
a symbol of Ephraim and his unfaithfulness and backsliding. The names Hosea is told to
give his children
are a prophecy of Yahweh’s judgement. (Lo ruhama)
"I will no longer have pity upon you."(Israel) and "You will no longer be my people"
(Lo Ami )
In Hosea chapters 1 and 2 we read that Yahweh divorced His people for a season,
they lost their
identity, in other words,
you cannot distinguish them, they look and behave just like everybody else. This is not
the
Jewish people.
The Jewish people have an identity, they have remained faithful in the house.
Yahweh never divorced them!
We all know what they look like and how they live.
(We know, of course, that there
are thousands of Jewish people returning to their homeland in our day, who have been
living in other nations,
but we know who they are, what they look like, they have been
faithful to their national identity, not so the ten lost tribes.)
To speak of the Levites is a subject
of its own, as there were Levites allotted to each tribe, so many remained in Jerusalem
when the Tribes were divided north and south with Jeroboam and Rehaboam respectively. They
continued their temple service until they too with Judah were removed to Babylon.
History from here on in the Bible is the
history of Judah, the Jewish people. (I emphasize 'history,' not prophecy, although there are
some stories involving Israelites who were descended from the 10% the Assyrians left
in the land i.e. the Samaritan woman in the gospels)
It is very clear in the Hebrew language that Yehudim is the word for the Jewish people.
But what about Ephraim? (Israel, Joseph, Jacob) by which the Northern Kingdom is called.
Who are they?
Where are these people who have an inheritance in the land
of Israel, with his brother Judah?
Ezekiel 28:25 "When I shall have gathered the house of Israel from the people among whom
they are scattered,
and shall be sanctified in them in the sight of the heathen, then shall they
dwell in their land that I have given to my servant Jacob."
This is talking of a people who are Israel in the
nations, who have lost their identity (see "Israel the Beloved" article)
who will one day be
joined together with Judah on the mountains of Israel.
What a wonderful day that will be, when Messiah re-unites His people. Just because they
are lost, does not mean that they are forgotten or unknown
by Yahweh. Of course He knows where they are, and He Himself will bring them in the day
appointed. (see article "The beginner's guide to the
future")
Who will deal with the jealousy of Ephraim, and the vexing of Ephraim by Judah?
(Isaiah 11:13) It will take a miracle to bring
the two 'houses' back together again, but our Father is an Elohim of miracles, Who not
only knows where they are, but is also able to make them one
nation again.
Who will bring about this 'togetherness'? Yahweh, by His Spirit, He will do it. In Ezekiel
37:22 Yahweh promises that,
"I will make them one nation
in the land upon the mountains of Israel".