When the word Jew was first introduced into the English language in the 18th century its one and only implication, inference and innuendo was Judean. However during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries a well-organized and well-financed international pressure group created a so-called secondary meaning for the word Jew among the English speaking peoples of the world. This so-called secondary meaning for the word Jew bears no relation whatsoever to the 18th century original connotation of the word Jew. It is a misrepresentation. . . There is not a person in the whole English-speaking world today who regards a Jew as a Judean in the literal sense of the Word. That was the correct and only meaning of the word in the 18th century . . . (Facts Are Facts, by Benjamin H. Freedman, p. 15-21). The meaning of the word Jew in our Bible is not the same as the colloquial idiom. In the Bible the word Jew means a resident of the land of Judaea regardless of their tribe, race or religion just as an Australian or Englishman may in fact be a Chinese, Negro or an Eskimo, or perhaps a member of the tribe of Judah (Judahite). According to the Greek Lexicon in Strongs Exhaustive Concordance: Jew: Greek word #2453 Ioudaios (ee-oo-dah-yos); from #2448 (in the sense of #2455 as a country); Judaean, i.e. belonging to Jehudah [Judah in Hebrew language of Old Testament]: KJV Jew (-ess), of Judaea. Greek word #2448 Iouda (ee-oo-dah); of Hebrew origin [Hebrew word #3063 or perhaps #3194]; Judah (i.e. Jehudah or Juttah), a part of (or place in) Palestine: KJV Judah. Greek word #2455 Ioudas (ee-oo-das); of Hebrew origin [Hebrew #3063]; Judas (i.e. Jehudah), the name of ten Israelites; also of the posterity of one of them and its region: KJV Juda (-h, -s); Jude. Genesis 49:10 prophesied, The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be. Judah was the largest and the most influential of the twelve tribes with the governing right. Jacob prophesied it would maintain its pre-eminence until Shiloh, or Messiah, came. He would then take headship and receive the allegiance of true spiritual Israel as Isaiah 9:6-7 foretold. Matthew 1 and Luke 3 trace Jesus human lineage to David, Judah, Jacob and Abraham. Jesus took the sceptre from Judah and we who receive Him as Messiah give Him our allegiance. In the days of His flesh few of the citizens of Judea were Judahites. Some belonged to one of the other tribes of Israel, and many were descendants of Esau (Edomites) who had assimilated and become co-religionists with the Judahites and remnants of the other tribes in the hybrid religion of Pharisaism developed during the captivity in Babylon. This is the religion of the Talmud is called Judaism today; it was condemned by Jesus since it is the antithesis of the Mosaic Law and the prophets and makes the Word of God of no effect (Matthew 15:1-9). John 7:1, After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for He would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill Him. According to Strongs Greek Lexicon, the English word Jewry in this verse was translated from the Greek word #2449 Ioudaia {ee-oo-dah-yah} feminine for the land of Judea. Modern translations no longer use the word Jewry but the correct translation, Judea, as in the New American Standard Bible: And after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee; for He was unwilling to walk in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him. The New International Version uses the same word. However, these translations continue to improperly use the word Jews in the same verse. A consistent translation would read: . . . He was unwilling to walk in Judea, because the Judeans were seeking to kill Him. Today most people think of Jews as the people of Israel, but that is not correct. An Israelite was one who had descended from Jacob. In Jesus time individual Jews may or may not have descended from Jacob, but they all recognized Pharisaism and not the Law of Moses. A Jew is properly a Judean. The point is that one who is called a Jew in the Bible is not necessarily a chosen man of God, a follower of Moses and the prophets, a member of the tribe of Judah, an Israelite, or even a Semite, but one who is a resident of Judea. A Judean. But a well-organized and well-financed international pressure group created a so-called secondary meaning for the new word Jew which is not the understanding intended by the Scripture of truth. Those who call themselves Jews today falsely imply they are somehow descendants of the tribes of Israel and chosen of God. Yet few of them are Jews as they are not Judeans, or residents of Judea. So if modern day so-called Jews are not the Jews of the Bible, who are they? When asked, Who is Israel? - Who is a Jew? the Israeli Governments Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) unhesitatingly answered: The term Israelite is purely Biblical. An Israeli is a citizen of Israel, regardless of religion. A Jew is a person anywhere in the world born to a Jewish mother, or converted to Judaism, who is thus identified as a member of the Jewish people and religion (Information Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem; February, 1998). The Jewish Almanac concurs: Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a Jew. Or to call a contemporary Jew [an] Israelite, or a Hebrew. The first Hebrews were not have been Jews at all, and contemporary Palestinians, by their own definition of the term Palestinian, have to include Jews among their own people (The Jewish Almanac, October, 1980, page 3, Bantam Books, Inc). The Online Etymology Dictionary describes the etymology of the word jew, but perhaps because its editor is not a Bible student it exhibits an ignorance of the meaning of the original Greek word Ioudaios derived from the Aramaic jehudhai which did not refer to members of the tribe of Judah but to Judeans, the residents of the Babylonian province of Judea. The spelling of our present-day English word Jew is a transliteration of an abbreviation or slang word coined by their Babylonian conquerors for Judeans without reference to the race or religion of the captives. The editor has inadvertently discriminated the Semitic tribesmen of the sons of Israel from the diverse mass of races and religions then resident in Judea by applying the incorrect colloquial idiom, not having recognized the true and Biblical meaning of the original words. Please go read it all, then remember you have been played used and lied to. It is time to judge the tree by its fruit. biblebelievers.org.au/jew.htm
Posted on: Sat, 13 Sep 2014 16:49:38 +0000
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