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For example, Jew is used synonymously with Hebrew in Jeremiah 34:9. Mordecai was called a Jew although he was from the tribe of Benjamin (Esther 2:5). Christs apostle Paul/Saul (Hebrew Shaul) calls himself a Jew (Acts 21:39), and he also calls himself an Israelite from the tribe of Benjamin (Romans 11:1, Philippians 3:45). Another usage in the NT of the word (Ioudaios), usually translated Jew, should be noted. It probably mainly means Jew in the widest sense (descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob) when used by or to gentiles. When used among Jews, it was probably mainly a sectional term meaning Judean. This reflected the mutual dislike between Judeans and Galileans. The latter included Christ and his disciples who were most strongly opposed by Judeans. To illustrate the difference, the Roman Pontius Pilate had Jesus labeled: King of the Jews (Mat. 27:37) while the Jewish leaders said: If He be the King of Israel [including Galilee and the Diaspora] (Mat. 27:42). In the Bible, Jewishness was determined through the fathers line, as is clear from the genealogies. Modern Orthodox Judaism, which dates from about AD 70, and is not the same as biblical Judaism, has declared from about the time of the Crusades that Jewishness is determined through the mothers line, but the scriptural teaching is all that matters. After all, King David himself had both a gentile great grandmother and greatgreat grandmother (Matthew 1:5, Ruth 4:2122).
although he also said that God had not cast off the Jews as a whole (Romans 11:1). Jesus fulfilled many of the prophecies of the Jewish prophets (e.g. Genesis 3:15; Is. 7:14, 9:6, 53:112; Micah 5:2), and took away the sins of the world (John 1:29) by dying on the cross and being resurrected from the dead (1 Corinthians 15:14). By believing on Him, both Jews and Gentiles can become spiritual children of Abraham, who himself believed the LORD, and he credited it to him as righteousness (Genesis 15:6, Romans 4:3, Galatians 3:6).
A number of times, the Jews were scattered from their homeland. The kingdom founded by Saul and David in c. 1000 BC split into two in the time of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, 930 BC. Assyria scattered the northern 10 tribes of Israel, whose capital was Samaria, in 722 BC. The neo-Babylonians under Nebuchadnezzar captured Jerusalem in 587 BC. 70 years later, the Persian king Cyrus decreed that the Jews could return to their homeland. This first happened under Zerubbabel, then later under Nehemiah (see the books of Ezra and Nehemiah). But many Jews stayed behind, and there were sizable communities in Babylon and Persia (see Esther). Even at the time of Christ, there were sizable Jewish communities outside Israel, and they were referred to as the Diaspora (dispersion). 1 Peter 1:1 uses this Greek word because he is writing to the Jews of the Dispersion, and he was writing from Babylon (1 Peter 5:13), where there was still a major Jewish center at the time. Faithful Diaspora Jews would come to Jerusalem for the major feasts of the Law of MosesActs 2:5. In AD 70, the Romans under Titus sacked Jerusalem, and over a million Jews were slaughtered. Significantly, no Jewish Christians lost their lives. They had heeded Jesus warning in Luke 21:2021: When you see Jerusalem being surrounded by armies, you will know that its desolation is near. Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, let those in the city get out, and let those in the country not enter the city. When the Roman siege was temporarily lifted in AD 66, they fled to Pella in the Transjordan. When Jerusalem was captured, most of the records were destroyed. This is significant, because no (false) Messianic claimant since then can fulfil the biblical requirements, because there is now no way to prove Davidic descent. Therefore the Messiah must have come before the destruction of Jerusalem. This also fits the timetable of the Seventy Sevens of Daniel 9. Since then, Jews kept very reliable records, so most claiming Jewish ethnicity have a reliable basis for their claims. But they cannot trace which tribe they come from. That is, with the exception of the tribe of Levi. The Rabbis took special care to preserve the genealogical records of the Levites because they were the priestly tribe. Even today, it is possible to identify the Levites, because they have names such as Levy, Levine, Levinson, Levental (or Lwenthal in German orthography). The rabbis also kept records of one subset of Levites, the only ones who could be actual priests, the descendants of Aaron (Exodus 40:1, 1216) through Zadok (Ezekiel 40:46, 43:19, 44:15). These Jews have the name Cohen, the Hebrew for priest, or variants like Cohn, Kohn, Cowen, Kogan, Kagan, etc. Bar Kochba led a revolt against the Romans in AD 132, in the reign of Hadrian. At first, Jewish Christians joined the revolt as loyal Jews. But Rabbi Akiba declared Bar Kochba to be the Messiah, and the Jewish Christians then refused to follow a false Messiah. The rebellion was crushed in AD 135, and Jerusalem was plowed under, renamed Aelia Capitolina, and declared off-limits to the Jews.
From then until the founding of the State of Israel in 1948, the Jews were scattered in communities around the world, including large numbers in Spain, Poland, and then the USA. They are often regarded as comprising two main groups, the Ashkenazim and Sephardim, a division that even predates the fall of Jerusalem. The Ashkenazim are the descendants of Jews who settled in Eastern Europe, and take their name from the Hebrew word for that region, Ashkenaz, named after the grandson of Japheth (Genesis 10:23) whose descendants migrated there after Babel. The word Sephardim comes from Sepharad (Obadiah 20), now the Hebrew word for Spain, because the Sephardim come from Jews who settled in Spain, Portugal and North Africa. Jews faced many persecutions, sadly some from professing Christians, although the Bible strongly condemns anti-Semitism and racism of all formssee also Alleged Antisemitism in the New Testament. For example, it is absurd to persecute the Jews on the grounds that they are Christ-killers the New Testament clearly states that Jesus was sentenced to a cruel death by a Roman leader, flogged by a Roman whip, fastened to a Roman cross by Roman nailsbut no-one is crazy enough to persecute Italians as Christ-killers! Acts 17:26 teaches that God made all people from one man (one blood in the Majority Text), so Answers in Genesis has always stood strongly against racism (see Q&A: Racism) and anti-Semitism (and its common corollary, Holocaust denial). The main Jewish communities in turn have largely ostracised Jewish Christians ever since they were forced out of the Bar Kochba rebellion. And this century, they faced their worst enemy to date, the evolution-inspired Nazi Holocaust (see The Holocaust and evolution), which killed six million Jews, solely because they were ethnically Jewishmany thousands of Jewish Christians and atheistic Jews were slaughtered pitilessly alongside Orthodox Jews. Its important to realize that although professing Christians have persecuted the Jews in history, they were acting contrary to the teachings of Christ and the Bible (which are one and the same). Its more likely that the pseudo-biblical rationalizations were excuses for prejudice and for stealing the Jews property. Conversely, as even many evolutionists have noted, Hitler was acting consistently with evolution, even overtly trying to conform Germany to evolutionary principles.
Humans have 23 pairs of chromosomes, including one pair of sex chromosomes which are XY in males and XX in females. Thus the Y chromosome is passed down only through the male line, from father to son. A 1995 study
of a section of Y chromosomes from 38 men from different ethnic groups around the world was consistent with the biblical teaching that we come from one man, Adamsee Y-chromosome Adam? Females have no Y chromosome, but an analogous test can be performed on themits only through the female line that mitochondrial DNA is transmitted.* The mtDNA evidence is consistent with all humans being descended from a single woman as the Bible teaches, although it doesnt actually prove that there was ever only one woman in existence. And recent evidence about rapid mutation rates in mtDNA is consistent with this Mitochondrial Eve having lived only about 6,000 years agosee A shrinking date for Eve.
Application to Jews
Michael Hammer at the University of Arizona in Tucson and colleagues, some from Israeli universities, analysed 18 sections of the Y chromosomes from 1,371 men. They came from 29 different populations, including seven Jewish (Ashkenazi (European), Roman, North African, Kurdish, Iraqi and Iranian, Yemenite and Ethiopian Jews), five Arabic (Palestinians, Lebanese, Syrians, Israeli Druze and Saudis) and 16 non-Semitic groups.2 The close similarities within the Jewish Y-chromosomes, even from widely scattered populations, was compelling evidence that they all come from a common ancestor. The study also showed that Arabs are closely related to Jews. Dr Harry Ostrer, director of the Human Genetics Program at New York University School of Medicine, one of the co-authors of the paper,2 said: Jews and Arabs are all really children of Abraham And all have preserved their Middle Eastern genetic roots over 4,000 years.3 The study also showed that the Jewish populations had generally remained genetically isolated from gentile populations all this time. It is further evidence that modern Jews largely kept the Old Testament laws (albeit with extra man-made traditions) for centuries after they were dispersed, until quite recently. This is consistent with an earlier study by a team involving Dr Hammer, on the Cohanim (Hebrew plural of Cohen) from both Ashkenazi and Sephardic Jews; from Israel, the UK and the USA. They analyzed their Y chromosomes for the presence or absence of the Y alu polymorphic (YAP) insert, and they concluded that the evidence is consistent with the common descent of all Cohanim/Cohens from a common ancestor at a time consistent with the biblical chronology, well before the division into Ashkenazic and Sephardic communities.4,5
British Israelitism
Some have promoted the idea that the British people are descended from the 10 allegedly lost tribes of Israel. Alas, a major feature of British Israelitism is that it ignores or explains away the weight of biblical evidence, which must be normative for the Christian. It also ignores the well-documented history of the Jews after the close of the Biblical Canon, but places a heavy weight on non-biblical accounts of dubious reliability. Fact is, the tribes were not lost. The Bible is clear where the tribes went, and that representatives of all tribes returned from Israel (Ezra 6:17). The prophetess Anna was a Jewess from the tribe of Asher (Luke 2:36), which proves they were not lost even by the time of Christ. Even later, James wrote an epistle To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations (literally To the twelve tribes which are in the diaspora/dispersion) James 1:1, and it would be hard to know where to mail it if 10 of the tribes had been lost! Some try to justify British Israelitism by spurious linguistic and historic connection.8 For example, connecting the name Dan with names like Danube, Denmark, etc., without any historical records to demostrate the connection. Another claim is that the tribe Saxons is alleged to come from Saacs Sons, a contraction of Isaacs Sons. Probably the most common claim is that the word British comes from berith ish, supposedly meaning man of the covenant.
But all this is linguistic nonsense. Saxon is a Germanic word probably coming from the name of the weapon they used, according to the Oxford English Dictionary. It may come from the Latin saxum meaning rock (thus weapon made of rock), or from secare to cut. There is no link to any non-Indo-European language. The alleged derivation from Isaacs Sons is simply untenableIsaac is the Greek form of the name (); the original Hebrew form of the name is Yits-khaq (with four consonants: yod, tsadhe, cheth, qoph).9 It boggles the mind that Israelite tribes allegedly lost centuries before Christ would adopt a name that is a contraction of a fairly modern English grammatical construction based on the Greek form of the name of Israels father! One must also wonder why the same reasoning wouldnt prove a British Edomite theory as well, since Isaac was the father of Esau/Edom too. Also, what about the modern Saxons in Saxony in Germany surely they would have to be Israelites as much as the British? And what about the Celtic Britons (now Welsh and Irish) who lived before the Germanic Saxon invasions of AD 450, or other non-Saxon British such as the Angles (after whom England is named) and Jutesdo they count as Israelites too? The correct Hebrew phrase for man of the covenant is ish haberith. Rather, British/Britain comes from the Celtic tribe of the Britons which inhabited England before any Germanic peoples, of which the Saxons were only one, came. The form Britain comes from the French form of the Latin Britannia, which the Romans would have formed from the name of the Celtic tribe. And I never hear British Israelites apply this etymological chicanery consistently, because then they would have to admit that their own reasoning leads to the word Britain coming from berith ayin meaning without a covenant. Overall, British Israelitism seems to stem from ideas of European superiority. Bill Coopers book After the Flood historically documents how many European peoples, including the British (the Welsh, Saxons, etc.), are descended from Japheth, while Jews come from Shem. And the study by Hammer et al. show that the Jews are a Semitic people group, related more closely to the Arabs than to non-Semitic people like the British.
Conclusion
The Y chromosome evidence is consistent with the Bibles teaching that Abraham would be the ancestor of a great nation, namely Israel or the Jews, and that the Arabs are also children of Abraham (via Ishmael). It is also consistent with the biblical teaching that all Jewish priests are descendants of Aaron. The same evidence confirms that all Jewish people groups today really are physical descendants of Abraham, not from Khazar converts, while the British people are not physical descendants of Abraham. Jesus Himself, while fully God, is a Jew and a descendant of Abraham. Both Jews and Gentiles can become spiritual descendants of Abraham by believing on Jesus.
References
1. Fruchtenbaum, A.G., Hebrew Christianity, Ariel Ministries Press, 1983. Return to text. 2. Hammer, M.F., et al., Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences early edition, pp. 16, 2000. Return to text. 3. Ostrer, H., cited in: Maggie Fox, Middle Eastern Roots: Shared Y Chromosome Illustrates Genetic Map of the Past, Reuters/abcNEWS.com, 9 May 2000. Return to text. 4. Skorecki, K., et al., Y chromosome of Jewish priests, Nature 385(6611):32, 2 January 1997. Return to text. 5. Travis, J., The priests chromosome: DNA analysis supports the biblical story of the Jewish priesthood, Science News 154(14):218219, 3 October 1998. Return to text. 6. Koestler, A., The Thirteenth Tribe: The Khazar Empire and its heritage, Random House, New York, 1976. Return to text. 7. Powledge, J., Replacement Theology: The Denial of Covenant, Appendix C: McKeever, Koestler and the Khazars: Questions of validity and factuality on historical research, M. Div. Thesis, Messiah Biblical Institute and Graduate School of Theology, 1991. Return to text. 8. I acknowledge the linguistic input of Allan Steel, author of The development of languages is nothing like biological evolution, for many points in this section, but any errors are my responsibility alone. Return to text. 9. The common English versions of many OT names are actually derived from Greek versions, starting with the LXX and continued in the NT. For example, Abel (Heb. Khevel), Phineas (Pinchas), Jeremiah (Greek Ieremias, cf. Hebrew Yirmeyahu). The Greeks had trouble with Hebrew velar fricative (guttural) consonants, so they dropped them. This explains the strange double-a (or double alpha ) in names like Aaron and Canaan in English Bibles, whereas the names had gutturals in the Hebrew. The Greeks also had no way of writing the Hebrew sh sound, so they simply used s (sigma ), hence names like Moses (Heb. Moshe), Solomon (Shlomo), Isaiah (Greek Esaias, cf. Heb. Yeshayahu), and of course Jesus (Gk. Iesous, Heb. Yeshua or Yehoshua). Return to text. *This assumption has recently been questionedAwadalla, Ph., Eyre-Walker, A. and Maynard Smith, J., Linkage disequilibration and recombination in hominid mitochondrial DNA, Science 286(5449):252425, 24 December 1999; Strauss, E., mtDNA shows sign of paternal influence, summary in same issue, p. 2436.