Though the terms 'Hebrews,' 'Israelites' and 'Jews' are often used interchangeably, they do not refer to the same thing.
'Hebrew' originally referred to all the descendants of Israel, and is equivalent to "the sons of Israel."
'Israelite' is the term used more frequently of the members of the nation of ancient Israel; the modern counterpart is 'Israeli.'
The term 'Jew' derives from yehudi, meaning a descendant of the tribe of Judah (yehudah). Though used by foreigners from the 8th Cent BC onwards to refer to members of the state of Judah, it did not come into common usage within Judah until about the 6th-5th Cent BC onwards. By then, the ten tribes of Israel had already been exiled by the Assyrians and dispersed, irretrievably lost, among the nations. Only the tribe of Judah (with the tribe of Simeon assimilated into it) remained. We find the term used for the first time in Jer 34:9, where the prophet called for the people not to hold a fellow Jew in bondage. When Judah was exiled by the Babylonians and the land taken over by the Persians after that, the land became known as Yehud. In the New Testament, the term was used of members of the Jewish faith or their representatives. In the Gospel of John the term is used as a official opponents of Jesus (e.g., 2:18; 5:10ff.; 6:41).
The term continues to be used of the people who are descended from the ancient tribe. The popular usage, however, hides the highly divisive question among the Jews themselves about who is a Jew. Orthodox Jews, though a minority, want to include subscription to Judaism (and, more particularly, their version of Judaism) as a necessary part of the definition, while secular—atheistic and non-practising—Jews would have none of it. The Israeli government, which grants automatic citizenship to any Jew, has so far side-stepped the quarrel by defining a Jew as someone born of a Jewish mother (contravening the ancient custom of patrimony) or one who has converted to Judaism.
Hidden beneath all these facts, however, lies a vital theological question: Who is the true Jew, the true Israelite, who inherits the promise of God made first to Abraham and renewed to David? This is, of course, not a question that can be answered here but it is one that needs careful reflection.
Further Reading:
L. A. Schiffman, Who Was a Jew? Rabbinic and Halakhic Perspectives on the Jewish-Christian Schism. Hoboken: KTAV, 1985.
David E. Holwerda, Jesus and Israel: One Covenant or Two?. Grand Rapids/Leicester: Eerdmans/Apollos, 1994.
Resources:
Jon A. Weatherly, "The Jews in Luke-Acts," Tyndale Bulletin 40.1 (1989): 107-117.☰
©ALBERITH
200516lch