62. The Judahite : By Grace

It describes the personality of the Jews at the time of The Christ’s Ministry.

Some historical issues involving translation and nomenclature need to be clarified for Christians, and Christian Zionists or Judeo-Christians in particular. The matter is best approached from a historical and a-religious perspective. This way, implications regarding religious beliefs or any political use the revised nomenclature is put to will be secondary to historical matters.

Two excellent peer-reviewed resources in this regard are:

John H. Elliott. Jesus the Israelite
Was Neither a ‘Jew’ Nor a ‘Christian’: On Correcting Misleading Nomenclature. Journal for the Study of the Historical Jesus. 2007. Vol. 5.2 pp.119-154.

Steve Mason. Jews, Judaeans. Judaizina, Judaism: Problems of Categorization in Ancient History. Journal for the Study of Judaism. 2007. Vol. 38 pp. 457-512.

I tried to find a critical response to these journal articles that was comparable in scholarship, but haven’t found one.

One thing should be very clear, namely that
Judahite or
Judean/Judaean
is incorrectly translated as Jew.

Let’s start with:

A brief history of Middle Eastern Jews.

The Canaanite people occupied the region comprising of Palestine, Lebanon, and parts of Jordan, Syria and north-eastern Egypt. The Canaanites were the enemies of the Israelites. The Israelites eventually conquered and slaughtered many Canaanites. [continued on page 5]
Distribution of the various tribes in Palestine at the time of the rebellion of Jeroboam the Ephraimite against Rehoboam the Judahite. The ten Northern tribes were known as Ephraim-Israel or just Israel. Those of the South, Judah and Benjamin, were known as Judah-Israel. The rebellion was according to God’s will [1Kings 12:24].
Distribution of the tribes occupying Palestine following the invasion of Ephraim-Israel by Assyria. All the ten tribes and their possessions were taken into captivity. When released the majority never returned to The Land but were scattered in the world according to God’s plan. [Deut 30:3 Ezekiel 34:5-6]
The Canaanites’ were reduced to occupying the southernmost region of Canaanite territory, and an Israelite tribe, the Judahites (of the tribe ofJudah), occupied the region just north of the Canaanites. The Canaanites eventually came to be known as Edomites and their land known as Idumea (field of Edom). A resident of Idumea was referred to as an Idumean.

In 125 B.C., Judahite King John Hyrcanus led an attack on the Idumeans to decisively end the problem of Idumean raids into Judahite territory. Thus Idumea was incorporated into Judahite territory, Judea, and the Idumeans were made citizens of Judea after Idumean men were given the choice of circumcision or death. At this stage, outsiders would describe Judeans as residents of Judea, but insiders knew the difference between the Judahite Judeans and the Idumeans that had been granted citizenship in Judea. These Idumeans are referred to in the scriptures in an unflattering manner because they only superficially adopted the ways of the Judahites:

Rev. 2:9:I know thy works, and tribulation, and poverty, (but thou art rich), and I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Judahites (true Judaeans). and are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.

Rev. 3:9: Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Judahites (true Judaeans), and are not, but do lie; Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee.

Note that these scriptural passages typically substitute ‘Jews’ for Judahites
or Judeans/Judaeans, which is historically meaningless and a mistranslation, as we’ve just seen.

Eventually, Judea was targeted by the Romans, and the Idumeans in Judea sided with the Romans against the Judahites. Two important Idumeans were Antipater and his son Herod. The Romans practically outlawed the Levitical priesthood of Judea and the Judahite rulers had to appoint priests from among the Essenes, the Sadducees and the Pharisees. Only the Essenes were true to the Law of Moses. When Herod became king, he appointed the Pharisees, who were Idumeans, as the official priesthood, and had many of the Judahite elite killed.

The Middle Eastern Jews can most clearly be traced to the Idumeans (in turn Canaanite-Edomites) who were granted citizenship in Judea in 121 B.C., and the religious beliefs of the Idumeans, which would eventually lead to Judaism as we know it today, came from the Pharisee sect.
Judaism as we know it today can be conceptualized as beginning around the 4th century A.D. and was modified over the next couple of centuries. Thus Judaism borrowed elements from the Torah and Tanakh (Old Testament) and elaborated upon them in the books of the Mishnah, Midrashim and the Talmudim. Prior to the 4th century A.D., it is anachronistic to talk about Jews or Judaism.

Now we can clarify some issues.

Jesus was an Israelite, not a Jew

Jesus and his followers referred to himself as an Israelite (his people), a Galilean (where he spent most of his life), a Nazarene (based on his birth place, Nazareth), but not as a Judean, and we’ve already noted that Judean can’t be translated as Jew. Jesus served the House of Israel (note that Israel refers to a people, not a place).

The only people who called Jesus loudaios (IoudaioV) (i.e., Judean) were non-Israelite outsiders (e.g., Romans or Greeks) who described as Judean all residents of Judea, together with all those connected to Judea by blood relations, Torah allegiance, patriotism, and loyalty to Judea, the holy city of Jerusalem and the Temple.

Jesus was Yeshua bar Joseph. Yeshua is Jesus in Aramaic. The letter J wasn’t present during Jesus’ lifetime, and has come into existence only in recent centuries. Correspondingly, Judahite was Yehudite in Aramaic. Note also Jesus being referred to as son of Joseph rather than son of Mary, a Judahite. The Judahites traced lineage through the father, unlike the Canaanite-Edomite Idumeans who traced it through the mother, which their descendents, the Middle Eastern Jews, and others who adopted Judaism do to this day. Whereas Christians don’t believe that Joseph was the biological father of Jesus, we concern ourselves with the historical matter of how Jesus was referred to, and note that his lineage was traced through the father.

Khazar converts to Judaism are the bulk of Jews

In the 8th century, many Khazars living in south-eastern Europe converted to Judaism, and their descendents, commonly called the Ashkenazim today, constitute 90% of Jews. This can be inferred from both the genetics of the Jews and their skull shapes.
Religious Implication: The Holy Land promised to an Israelite people, not Jews.

According to the Bible, the Holy Land has been promised to an Israelite people, but the Jews are not the Israelite tribe ofJudah (Judahites or true Judeans/Judaeans). The Middle Eastern Jews descend from people pretending to be Judahites and the Ashkenazi are south-eastern European converts to Judaism.

Religious Implication: ‘Judeo-Christianity’ oxymoron and the sick joke of Christian Zionism

As Judaism and Christianity took shape in the 4th century A.D., they became very different religions compared to the beliefs and practices that the Judahites and Idumeans shared in Judea around the lifetime of Jesus, and not only were many of these similarities superficial since the Idumeans never fully took to Judahite ways, but important differences were recognized, as evident in Jesus’ condemnation of the Pharisees. Just take a look at what the uncensored books of the Talmud have to say on Christians and Christianity. Judeo-Christianity is an oxymoron. Christian Zionists have been duped into supporting their greatest enemy, a non-Israelite people, the Jews, occupy the Holy Land.

Religious Implication: Did Jews kill Jesus?

We can’t talk about Jews during the lifetime of Jesus because of the anachronism, but the Idumeans who would eventually go on to become Middle Eastern Jews conspired with the Romans against the Judahites and had Jesus crucified. But none of the Khazars had adopted Judaism during this time, and therefore weren’t present in Judea during the time of Jesus, and their descendents are free of any blame/culpability for Jesus’ crucifixion.

Links:
[1] http://www.judenfrei.org/files/jesus-not-jew.pdf
[2] http://www.judenfrei.org/files/judaeans-not-jews.pdf
[3] http://www.judenfrei.org/origins-of-jews
[4] http://www.judenfrei.org/talmud-on-christians

The distribution of the nations in and around Palestine at the time of The Christ’s ministry under Roman occupation. Judea now incorporated the dominant tribe of Idumaea the Roman name for the tribe of Edom/Esau. They called themselves Jews, but are not [Rev 2:9, 3:9] They were the ruling class, the serpent people, called by The Christ ’a generation of vipers’, King Herod himself being an Edomite.