Who Are The Jews?

By Jacob Prasch  

There is a controversy in the church today regarding the true identity of the Jews. Who are the physical descendants of the twelve tribes of Israel and where does the church fit in? Has God given up on Israel forever in favor of a Gentile church? Are the secular citizens of modern-day Israel God’s chosen people? These are just some questions that come up frequently among Christians when talking about Israel.    

Let’s begin our study by looking at two passages of Scripture that speak of the time of the Gentiles. One is in Romans 11:25 where Paul dealt with it from a salvation aspect when he said, “the time of the Gentiles will come to an end.” Jesus dealt with the national prophetic aspect when He said in Luke 21:24, “ Jerusalem will be trampled down by the feet of the Gentiles until the time of the Gentiles comes in.”    

God’s purposes for the Jews were put on the backburner partially and temporarily, although there has always been individual Jews who have believed. It didn’t just end one day. God didn’t say, “That’s it - I’m going to the Gentiles.” It began in Acts 10 when the first Gentiles came to believe in the house of Cornelius. Then there was the ministry of Paul and Barnabas in the 13 th chapter of the book of Acts.    

It was progressive. It wasn’t one day, now the Jews then the Gentiles – there was a period of transition. And so it is when the time of the Gentiles comes to a close. There is a period of transition when God turns His grace from the Gentiles back to the Jews.  

Isaiah prophesied the Millennial return of the Messiah. The early church was all pre-millennial and the New Testament prophesied the return of Christ in a time when God would again restore his grace to Israel. His hardening is partial and it is temporary. So he said to Israel, “I called you but you broke my covenant, so I sent you Jeremiah and you put him in prison. I sent you Isaiah but you sawed him in half; I sent you preachers of righteousness who brought revival; I sent you King Josiah, King Hezekiah; I sent you Ezra and Nehemiah but you have forgotten those revivals. You have broken My covenant and now you have rejected My Son, the Messiah. I am gong to the Gentiles.”    

But Paul told us a time would come when the boot would go on the other foot. So we have the Gentiles and we have the Jews. But who are these Jews?    

There are five promises to Abraham in Genesis 12 and Paul’s description of what a true Jew is in Romans 2:29. Paul wrote wordplay.    

“But he is a Jew, who is one inwardly and circumcision is that which is of the heart, but the spirit, not of the letter and is praise, not from men, but from God.” That word praise is the key; it’s wordplay. The word “Jew” comes from the tribe of Judah – Yehudah. Its root meaning “praiser of God.” He is doing a word play here. He is saying his praise is not from men. It is a play on the word of what a “Jew” means: praisers of God from the tribe of Judah.    

Gentiles Redefined “Jews”    

The popular definition of what we call a “Jew” today largely emerged from the Babylonian captivity. Originally, they were called Israelites. Now it is interesting that the term “Jew” was first applied to all the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, mainly by Gentiles and not by Jews themselves. This is even evident in the gospels. In Mark 15:32, Jesus is called “King of Israel” by the Jews, but in the same chapter in verse 2 He is called “King of the Jews” by the Romans. For the Jews, it was “Israelites.” This idea of the popular term “Jew” was something that largely developed during and after the Babylonian captivity. We have the geographical definition of the inhabitants of the southern kingdom of Judea, according to 2 Kings 16. The only thing a “Jew” was, was the descendants of the Judeans who returned from the Babylonian captivity. Originally, they were called “Israelites” which came from the Hebrews. An “Israelite” was a descendant of Jacob, wrestlers with God -- this embodies the Jewish character. The Jewish people wrestle with God. Jacob wrestled with the Angel of the Lord. The Rabbis call this the “Metatrone.” We know it to be a Christophony -- an Old Testament manifestation of Christ.    

Now remember, Jacob wrestled all night with the Angel of the Lord until he saw his face. The night is the most common metaphor in biblical typology for the Great Tribulation. “Watchmen, watchmen, how far is the night? Is He coming in the second watch of the night, or the third? He is coming life a thief in the night. Work while you have the light; night will come when no man will work. Jacob wrestled till the end of the night. Unbelieving Israel goes through the entire tribulation and then it recognizes Jesus at the end of the tribulation. When you see Jacob in the Bible, its ethno-specific to the Jews. They are wrestling with God. But before they became a nation, after the Exodus, they were called the “Hebrews.”    

The New Testament develops this further. In the New Testament, a Jew was a descendant of the Southern Israelites, that is, of the Judeans who returned from the Babylonian captivity and came through the Hasmonean period after the Maccabees. John, however, put a particular slant on it. He used the term, the “Jews,” in a unique way from the other gospels and it has led to much misunderstanding and even suggestions of Christian anti-Semitism inherent in John’s gospel, but not when we understand the context. We have a translation problem from the Greek word iudeos. John mainly used the term “Jew,” except in John 4 when he used the term “Jew” to mean “a member of the religious establishment dominated by the Sanhedrin who lived in and around Jerusalem.” So when you see it saying “because of the Jews,” or “any of the Jews who believed” they were all Jewish. What it meant is those who were party to the religious establishment, usually Pharisees, sometimes from other sects, but all of them under the dominion of the Sanhedrin. The epistles and Acts use the more general term, or use the term “Jew” in a more general sense. One who is not a gentile; one who is not a gaer; or one who is not a Samaritan.      

Judaism    

There are three main kinds of Judaism: Mosaic, Talmudic, and Israeli Juridical. Two are valid; one is not. The first, Mosaic Judaism, is what you read in the Pentateuch, the first five books of the Tanach, the Old Testament. That was a Judaism that has not existed since 70 AD. The prophet Daniel said the Messiah would come and die before the second temple would be destroyed. Whoever the Messiah was, He had to come and die before the second temple was destroyed, according to Sanhedrin 96b -- the Mishnah. In fact, people call Isaiah 53 the forbidden chapter. The Talmud actually says there’s a curse in reading Daniel 9. Why? The time of the Messiah’s coming is foretold in it. The Messiah had to come and die. Many Jewish people will ask, “If Jesus was the Messiah, why are there still wars?” They don’t understand. Daniel said when the Messiah comes and dies, wars are determined to the end with desolations. He brings worldwide peace at His second coming.    

In Judaism, we have two pictures of the Messiah: Mashiach ben-Yoseph and Mashiach ben-David -- the son of Joseph; the son of David. In His first coming, He comes in the character of Joseph, the one who was betrayed by his Jewish brothers into the hands of the Gentiles. His brothers didn’t recognize Him at His first coming -- they recognize Him at the second. And then they wept bitterly with Joseph and so they will do likewise with the son of Joseph. In His second coming, He’s the son of David who will set up the Messianic kingdom. Yes, Jesus will bring peace, but his first coming was to bring salvation. And so we have Mosaic Judaism, the Judaism of Moses which has not existed since 70 AD.    

Nobody picking up a Bible and reading it would arrive at some of the conclusions people would have you to believe. There are thousands of people who became born again just by reading the New Testament. Nobody just picking up a New Testament would ever become a Jehovah’s Witness. Nobody just picking up a New Testament would ever become a Mormon and (don’t tell my mother I said this) nobody just picking up a New Testament would ever become a Roman Catholic. And no Jew ever picking up the Torah would believe Talmudic Judaism is the Judaism of Moses and the prophets. We call him Moshe Rabeinu. The word “rabbi” is not even found in the Tanach.    

That is the second Judaism -- it is Talmudic. And it was founded by Rabbi Moshe Yochanan Ben ZaKai at the Council of Yavne in 90 AD. He was the classmate of St. Paul, from the school of Gamaliel. He was in the same group of rabbis that was trained by Gamaliel, the grandson of Rabbi Hillel, from the Pharisaic school of Hillel. It is a tale of two Rabbis. There were two classmates: Rabbi Saul of Tarsus and Rabbi Ben ZaKai. When the temple was destroyed in 70 AD Rabbi Yochanan Ben ZaKai was smuggled out of Jerusalem in a box, in a casket, and he convened a council where the Hebrew Canon was agreed upon -- the Old Testament. He said, well instead of a temple, now we will have a synagogue; instead of a high priest, we will have a rabbi; and instead of the sacrifices we will have more Mitsvot -- good works.    

Every Jew will follow one of these two classmates, either Yochanan Ben ZaKai who had no assurance of salvation, or Rabbi Saul of Tarsus who had the assurance because Yeshua was his Messiah.    

Talmudic Judaism is not the Judaism of Moses and the prophets. It is a hybrid -- the same as nominal Christianity. It comes in various forms -- Hassidic (Kabalistic believers in Jewish Mysticism), Orthodox, Conservative and then the Liberal Reformed who are basically humanists. The religion has more to do with culture and ethics than with real belief. That’s Talmudic Judaism. Then there is a third kind of Judaism, also valid. It is what Paul and the Apostles observed. It’s that Judaism which says Jesus it the Messiah who fulfilled the Torah -- Messianic Judaism. However, within the Messianic movement today there is the good, the bad and the ugly.    

Let’s talk about a definition of status -- what a Jew is not. Paul wrote in Romans 2: 28,29, “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, neither is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh, but he is a Jew who is one inwardly, and circumcision is that which is of the heart, by the spirit, not by the letter, and his praise is not from men but from God.” By the spirit, not by the letter.    

Now, he is a Jew who is one inwardly. A misinterpretation of these two verses is one of the things that has bolstered the belief in Replacement Theology. “Oh, we are Jews inwardly, our heart is circumcised.” However, if you were to receive a letter, you cannot take an excerpt from the letter and read it in isolation from everything else in the letter. Romans is a letter and that interpretation is directly contrary to what you read further on in the letter. In chapter 11 alone, the writer of the letter, Paul, writing under the direct inspiration of the Ruach Ha Kodesh, the Holy Spirit, draws a distinction between the natural and the engrafted branches.    

In Jeremiah 31:31 we read, I will make, literally, I will cut a new covenant with the house of Israel and the house of Judah, not like the one I made with their fathers. I will make a new covenant with who? The church? Jesus never made a covenant with the church. He made a covenant with Israel and the Jews. If God is finished with the Jews, He’s finished with this place. If He is finished with the Jews, He’s finished with all of us. Fortunately, the validity of a covenant never depends on the faithfulness of man, but the faithfulness of God. God knew from the beginning that His people would be unfaithful. Anything I can say about the infidelity of Israel, I can say as much or more so about the infidelity of the backslidden church.    

It is true that Gentiles, non-Jews who believe, replace Jews who don’t. That is true. Believing Gentiles replace unbelieving Jews who are cut off from their own tree. But it’s not a new tree; it’s the same tree. You don’t see the root, but if that root was dead, the tree would be dead. If God is finished with Israel, He is automatically finished with the church.    

What about the ten lost tribes of the north? The Scriptures tell us what happened to them. The faithful people from the northern kingdom of Israel came south in the days of King Asa and kept their tribal identity. That is why the epistle of James is addressed to the “twelve tribes.” Anna, in the nativity narrative in the book of Luke, was from the tribe of Asher. The Mishnah has all kinds of records of people’s tribal identity all the way to the 3rd and 4th centuries. They were never lost according to Scripture. Others stayed and intermarried with the Assyrian invaders or became the Samaritans. And then others disappeared into the Assyrian empire and became the Jewish communities of central Asia or just assimilated.    

Look at Romans 2:28-29: “He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, circumcision is that of the heart.” Jeremiah 9:25-26 uses the term “those who are circumcised yet not yet circumcised.” He says of them, “I will punish those who are circumcised yet uncircumcised, Egypt and Judah and Edom and the sons of Amon.” Notice he puts Judah in there right with the gentile nations. Why? If you behave like pagans, you’re no better than they are. You’ve forsaken your Jewish heritage. The Jewish people who rejected their Messiah have forsaken their Jewish heritage. As Paul says, they can be grafted in again to their own tree. God can make Jews believe quite easily because He has already done something more difficult. He has made Eskimos believe in the Jewish God. He has made Venezuelans believe in the Jewish God. He has made Chinese people believe in the Jewish God. He has made Europeans believe in the Jewish God. If He can take all the nations in fulfillment of Isaiah 11:1 that the goyim will come to the root of Jesse; if He can make non-Jews believe in the God of this despised little nation, how much more easily can He make Jews believe in their own Messiah.    

Circumcision is a metaphor for conversion. What is the status of non-Jews who are born again believers? We read about it in Isaiah 56:3 and in Ephesians 2:12. Isaiah tells us “let not the foreigner, the non-Jew who has joined himself to the Lord say, the Lord will surely separate me from his people.” God will not separate you from the Jewish people if you have faith in the Jewish Messiah. Remember, Abraham is the father of all who believe; that is because he was a Jew who was converted from being a Gentile. Abraham ethnically was both a Jew and a Gentile. That is why he is the father of all who believe. That is why we see Gentiles in the genealogy of Jesus. He would be the Savior of all. Paul used a political term for citizenship in the Greek language in Ephesians 2:12: “Remember that you non-Jews were at that time separate from the Messiah, excluded from the Commonwealth of Israel and strangers to the covenant and promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now with Christ Jesus you formerly far off have been brought near by the blood of the lamb.”    

Gentiles are grafted in through faith in Jesus by adoption and patriarchal inclusion. In adoption, the father becomes legally the baby’s father; the mother legally his mother. And of course with this in Scripture goes patriarchal inclusion. In 1 Corinthians 10, Paul writes to a mainly Gentile church “Our fathers were all under the cloud and all passed through the sea.” By faith in the seed of Abraham, Abraham becomes the father of all, irrespective of race.    

Secondly, by conversion -- a change of belief. There are two kinds of conversion. When a Buddhist gets saved, he stops being a Buddhist. When a Hindu gets saved, he stops being a Hindu. When a Jew gets saved, it’s a different word for conversion – it’s teshuva. He turns from sin toward God and his Jewish identity becomes complete. Only a Gentile can convert, a Jew completes. Jewish completion is teshuva. This is shown in the case of the adoption of a black African infant of pagan origin who gets adopted by a Christian Polish family. He becomes Polish by legal adoption and he’s converted to Christianity. But then he grows up and marries a Polish girl; he becomes Polish by matrimony, and learns to speak Polish. So he becomes a Pole by culture, but his skin is still black. So it is when a non-Jew becomes a believer in Jesus. Through a patriarchal inclusion he becomes, not a Jew, but a son, by adoption --by conversion -- religious conversion. Or he becomes a son by matrimony, because Christ is the bridegroom of the predominantly Gentile church. In 1Corinthians 9 we read about acculturation when Gentiles take the Lord’s supper they are celebrating the natural successor and meaning of the Pesach, the Passover, that is the status of a Gentile Christian. 

Just think of this kid from Africa who’s adopted by a European family out of poverty. For all intents and purposes for any legal, matrimonial or cultural reasons he becomes as a Pole, but he still remains a black African; he keeps his own identity. Yet, he is just as good as any other Pole. He’s loved as much as any other child. It takes no less love to adopt a child then it does to procreate one. He has the same legal rights; the same legal status.  

Then there’s the legal definition. The first is the Israeli law of return. The fathers of the Zionist movement argued about this -- not for years but for decades. Finally Ben Gurion said, “let our enemies decide who is a Jew.” So that’s what they did. Because the Nazis said if you have one Jewish grandparent, you go to a concentration camp, the Israeli government said if you have one Jewish grandparent you have the right to make Aliya and emigrate to Israel. That was the original law of return.    

Second it was the Hilachic one, set up by Jewish religious law. According to Hilachic it would be by matriarchal descent. If your mother was Jewish or if you underwent a Hilachic conversion to Judaism, in other words circumcision, then you would get patriarchal inclusion if your mother was Jewish. The third was the Israeli Rabbinic definition of the status of a Jew that should be the same as the Hilachic, except the quagmire of Israeli politics complicates things. Of the approximately 55 nations of the world that are democracies, there’s only one where a Jew does not have freedom of religion -- that is Israel. That is the Israeli rabbinic definition of what is the status of a Jew. They say you must be in acceptance of the Shulchan Aruch, a codification of the Mitsvot by Rabbi Yosef Karo centuries ago and if you do not accept the Shulchan Aruch, you are not officially a Jew. This created a dilemma for the black African Jews, the Falashe, it created a dilemma for the Jews who came from India, a Yehudin; and it creates a dilemma for any Jew who is not Orthodox. An anti-Zionist Rabbi has no problem being a rabbi but a reformed or liberal rabbi can’t be licensed. Again, we talk about how people deny freedom of religion to Jews, I agree it’s an historical tragedy, a disgrace, but Israel denies freedom of religion to Jews, especially to Messianic Jews.    

That brings us to the Israeli Juridical position. Several years ago they decided that you are not a Jew if you had a conversion to another faith, especially if you had mikve-brit, if you were baptized. Even then it was a politically charged decision. Now when you look at those four legal definitions of what constitutes a Jew in terms of legal status you realize that there’s no consensus. There is no legal consensus and no religious consensus. They make arbitrary decisions based on political expediency to define Jewish identity.    

Scriptural Classifications    

But what does Scripture say? The Tanak, the Old Testament, is mainly paternal, but has a maternal genealogy in Chronicles and then there’s the story of Ruth. This is very important. Orthodox Rabbis will attempt to discredit the Messiah-ship of Jesus and the voracity of the New Testament on the basis of the genealogies. What they don’t like to tell you is that the rabbinic literature itself (Sanhedrin 25C) tells us that Luke’s genealogy is through Mary. “Oh but Jewish identity had to be through the father!” “You Rabbis say that it has to be through the mother.” The Rabbis contradict themselves. But there is a precedent for matriarchal genealogies in Chronicles and in Ruth.    

The New Testament is more generous. It could be either maternal or paternal. Paul circumcised Timothy. Remember, circumcision was not part of the Law of Moses originally; it was given way before that to Abraham. Circumcision, brit-mila, preceded the giving of the law on Mt Sinai.    

If God wanted a great nation to be His messengers of salvation; if God was going to give His word and His salvation to a great nation, He could have chosen Babylon; He could have chosen Assyria. If He wanted people who were smart, He could have chosen the Greeks in the ancient world. If He wanted to choose clever business people, He could have chosen the Phoenicians. Remember even in the days of David and Solomon when Israel was at its peak, it was never a super power and Israel will never be a super power until the Millennial reign of Christ. It will never be a predominant world power until the Millennial reign of Christ. Why does God choose a little nation instead of a great one? The same reason He chooses us. Why is it easier for a poor person to get saved then a wealthy one? Why is it easier for an uneducated person to be saved than an educated one? So no man should boast. Less ground for pride, less grounds for “look at me.” So we’ll know we’re nothing other than the unmerited, undeserved beneficiaries of unmerited grace. That’s why He chose me.    

Don’t misunderstand the nature of election. It is not for status. It’s for service. Secondly, privilege comes with liability. Blessings always have a counterpart. Romans 1:16: “the gospel is the power of salvation to all who believe.” To the Jew first, that is true, as are the consequences for rejecting it. It is available to the Jew first. That’s right. To them belong the oracles of God. The New Testament says so. Salvation is available to them first and so are the results of rejecting that salvation. Why the Inquisition? Why the holocaust? Why the pogroms? Why anti-Semitism? Why even in their own land, the Jews have no peace? Read Leviticus 26, Deuteronomy 28, and not least of all read Deuteronomy 18:18, “I will raise up a prophet like Moses and if you don’t pay attention to him, that’s the Messiah, I will require of you.” Yes, salvation is available to the Jew first, but so are the ramifications for rejecting it.    

A believing Gentile is grafted in; an unbelieving Jew is cut off, from their own tree. What a tragedy!    

Catholics and Reformed Protestants alike have made infant baptism the equivalent of circumcision.. That was a national covenant -- the state church. People thought they were in a relationship with God simply because they were born into a Jewish family and circumcised. This is directly contrary to what it was supposed to be – it’s not like the covenant they made with your fathers.    

The Transition    

Jeremiah said that when the Messiah comes it wouldn’t be like that. When John the Baptist came, using Jewish Midrash to explain it, he said God could raise Abraham’s children out of the stones. Remember what Yeshua said on Palm Sunday, referring to the stones of the temple? If you don’t accept me the stones will cry out. What He was saying in Jewish metaphor was that if you don’t accept me and proclaim me as Mashiach, the Gentiles will -- the stones will cry out. 1 Peter 2:5 states, “we are the stones of the temple.”    

So what makes this time different from the other times in history when believers thought it was the last days? This is not the first time that Middle East events have been at the center of the world’s focus. I have no doubt that what is happening in the Middle East is of prophetic significance, but it’s not the first time.    

After all, the Plymouth Brethren thought that Napoleon was the antichrist. Why is this time different? Believers in England thought Mussolini was the antichrist. Believers in England thought that Napoleon was the antichrist. He invaded the Middle East. He tried to re-confederate the Roman Empire. He put the crown on his head. He made himself emperor. They thought that was him. In the first century, the Messianic Jews thought it was the end, when they escaped from Jerusalem under Simeon, the cousin of Jesus. They thought that was going to be the rapture. When Mount Vesuvius blew up, it put volcanic ash into the atmosphere. The sun and moon didn’t give its light. The temple was destroyed. They thought Nero was an antichrist figure. The Roman Emperors were numbering people, counting people’s heads to gain financial control. They thought that was the end. Why is this time different? There had been no less than seven major times and at least a dozen less notable times when Christians thought it was the last days.    

What makes this time different than the other times in history when true saved born again Christians thought it was the last days? What was missing then that’s not missing now? My Israeli son Eli was missing a hundred years ago, my friend Kev was missing five hundred years ago; my brother Larry was missing 1000 years ago; my brother David was missing 1500 years ago, but they’re not missing now.    

The time of the Gentiles is coming to a close. Fifteen years ago, the American college of Rabbis issued a statement saying that more Jews have come to believe in Jesus as their Messiah in the last eighteen years than in the last eighteen centuries. That was fifteen years ago. We will come to a time when whole synagogues will be won over His Messiah-ship. I have friends who are rabbis -- Orthodox rabbis -- who got saved and believe.    

What did God say to Israel when the time of the Gentiles began? “I held my hands out to you for centuries, oh Israel. I pleaded with you to keep my covenant, to prepare for my Messiah but you rebelled. I sent you Jeremiah, but you put him in prison. I sent you Isaiah, but you sawed him in half. I sent you one prophet after another, but you stoned them between the porch and the altar. I sent you my messengers, I sent you preachers of righteousness Israel, but you rejected them. I sent you men who brought revival; I sent you Hezekiah and Josiah, Ezra and Nehemiah, but you’ve forgotten those revivals. Alas, you have rejected My Son. Now I am going to the Gentiles.”

But now the time of the Gentiles comes to a close. “I called you Gentile church; I called you English speaking nations; I called you Protestant democracies; I called you America; I called you Britain; I gave you my covenant. I sent you John Bunyan, but you put him in prison. I sent you William Tyndale, but you burnt him at the stake. I sent you John Hus but you burned him as well. I sent you preachers of righteousness who brought revival to America; I sent you Jonathan Edwards; I sent you DL Moody and Billy Sunday; I sent you Dwight Moody. You have forgotten those revivals, America. You have rejected My Son. I have taken all I am going to take. Now I am turning my grace back toward My ancient people, Israel.”    

Am I saying that is what is going to happen? I tell you by the Spirit of Jesus, no -- that is what is happening. Before God turned his grace to the Gentiles, the second greatest harvest of Jewish souls took place in the second century. Even the secular Jewish historian Max Dimont said that at least 25% of the Jews in Jerusalem accepted Jesus as their Messiah before Bar Cochba’s rebellion around 120 AD. The most we can believe God for is the same. All I want before God turns his grace back to the Jews is to give America and Britain one more chance to repent. Israel did not deserve it and we do not deserve it either, but He’s turning his grace back to the Jews. The time of the Gentiles is coming to a close. The time will not come again. The time is now.