Recently there was an article posted on line about the idea that so many people can read the Bible and come away from it with different conclusions. There are a few very good reasons for this. Here are just two.
Let me suggest a scenario where I tell a story about three dogs. The story eventually gets to a part where the dogs go into hibernation. Some readers might not notice anything strange about that. Some readers might see that as strange that dogs were going into a winter hibernation. If I told you that the story was supposed to be about bears then the part about hibernation would make more sense.
A number of people through the years, including one of the founders of the united States, disregarded scripture because they would read in scripture about some people and then compare them to what was believed to be the modern portion of those same people. It did not make sense. Many misunderstand scripture because of the people who today call themselves Jews. The story wasn’t about dogs, but bears. Scripture is not about a modern people called Jews, but rather a people who were Hebrews, called Israelites, and in scripture a portion of them were referred to as Judeans or Judahites. These words were changed in English Bible translations to Jews in 1775. The term Jew did not exist before 1775.
About ninety percent of today’s Jews are Ashkenazi Jews who descend from a grandson of Japheth, Ashkenaz through Gomer. Around ten percent are descended from Esau who is Edom. “Edom is in modern Jewry” is a quote from the Jewish Encyclopedia. The rest are Sephardic Jews who’s history we won’t get into here. The fairy tale concerning Jews being Israelites continues on today with as much validity as the Easter Bunny. Much of the available evidence for this comes from Jewish writers although scripture has plenty to say about this as well. There are an endless number of quotes that could be cited.
So the first problem for many in reading scripture is that the wrong people have been assigned to the most important roll. Israelites are not modern day Jews. Modern day Jews are not Israelites.
“Strictly speaking it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a ‘Jew’ or to call a contemporary Jew an Israelite or a Hebrew.” (1980 Jewish Almanac, p. 3, A brief History of the Terms for Jew).
“Khazars, a non-Semitic, Asiatic, Mongolian tribal nation who emigrated into Eastern Europe about the first century, who were converted as an entire nation to Judaism in the seventh century”. (The Jewish Encyclopedia)
The term Gentile does not mean non-Jew as it is misunderstood today. The term Gentile is a Latin word first used by Jerome in his Latin translation of scripture for the Greek ethnos. The term Gentile includes the idea of kinship. The basic meaning of ethnos is nation or race. The idea was that a nation was made up of a people of the same race, they were kin.
There are several instances where translations use the word Gentile, but the context clearly refers to Israelites. I have covered this elsewhere, but my favorite is in Romans 2:14-15 where we are told a group of Gentiles has the Law of God written on their hearts. Scripture is very plain stating in Jeremiah 31, Hebrews 8 and Hebrews 10 that only Israelites have the Law written on their hearts as a part of the new covenant agreement. This is a contract and has never been amended in scripture to include any other people.
The basic story of scripture starts with a man described as Adam in Genesis 2 and follows his descendants down through a man named Jacob, renamed Israel. From that point on scripture is mainly only about a people who descended from Jacob Israel. To suggest otherwise makes God a promise breaker and a liar.
There is a group that would like this truth to remain unknown. Because of that there is a lot of incorrect and misleading information on the internet concerning who truly is Israel today. It’s not a spiritual only group. It is a physical people who’s history is obvious when one does just a bit of research. If you are interested you can start at this very short web site for just the beginning.
Tim