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Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews

Years ago, I had a boss who had two doctorates, one of Theology. One day he mentioned that Abraham was the first Jew. I asked him how it was that Abraham could be descended from his own great-grandson (Judah). The thought had never occurred to him. It shows how seminaries can be quite ignorant in some areas.

What is a Hebrew?

Abram (later called Abraham) was the first Hebrew. Genesis 14:13 says,

¹³ Then a fugitive came and told Abram the Hebrew…

This is the first time the word Hebrew appears in Scripture. It means “immigrant, one from beyond.” The word is Ibri, spelled ayin (“eye”), beth (“house”), and resh (“head”). By combining beth and resh, we get a head of a household, bar, a son. So a Hebrew is to see or to be manifested as a son.

In the New Testament, the book of Hebrews teaches us how to immigrate from the Old Covenant to the New Covenant, so that we might be called the sons of God. The sons of God are the true Hebrews, as far as God is concerned. The book of Hebrews sets forth the path, based on Abram’s journey from Ur of the Chaldees to the Promised Land.

What is an Israelite?

Jacob was the first Israelite. In Genesis 32:28 we read,

²⁸ He [the angel] said, “Your name shall no longer be Jacob, but Israel; for you have striven with God and with men and have prevailed.”

Israel means “God rules,” because the -el ending always indicates that God is doing the action. This new name transformed Jacob the deceiver into Israel, carrying the testimony of the sovereignty of God. Jacob had striven with Esau and had prevailed in the matter of the birthright. He had striven with Laban over wages, and he had prevailed. Finally, he had striven with the angel and had lost the wrestling match after “the socket of Jacob’s thigh was dislocated” (Genesis 32:25). In other words, Jacob became weak.

Jacob lost the wrestling match at that point, and all he could do was hold on and ask for a blessing. Yet it was in losing that he actually won, for, as Paul said, “when I am weak, then I am strong” (2 Corinthians 12:10).

We too become Israelites, or sons of Israel, if we follow the pattern of Jacob-Israel. In other words, when we cease our fleshly striving, when we lose confidence in the flesh, when we stop thinking that God needs fleshly help to fulfill His promises, when we finally understand that God is sovereign, then we are Israelites indeed.

What is a Jew?

Judah was the first Jew. Jew is a shortened form of the name Judah. In the KJV, the first time the word “Jew” appears is in 2 Kings 16:6,

⁵ At that time Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war; and they besieged Ahaz [king of Judah] but could not overcome him. ⁶ At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drove the Jews from Elath…

We see here how the Israelites were allied with the Syrians in a war against the Jews (i.e., Judah). It is clear that Israelites and Jews were on different sides of this war and that the Israelites were not Jews.

Judah means “praise.” More literally, the name is based on the Hebrew letter, yood, “hand.” It speaks of raising one’s hands in praise. In other words, a Jew, by God’s definition is one who praises Him. Hence, in Jacob’s blessing upon Judah, he says in Genesis 49:8, “Judah, your brothers shall praise you…your father’s sons shall bow down to you.”

In our relationship with God, a Jew is one who praises God and bows down to Him. Without bowing to Him in obedience, a man’s “praise” is just lip service and is unacceptable to God. In the New Testament, we see Jesus Christ, the King of Judah, to whom all men should offer praise. Most failed to praise the One whom God had sent, and so they lost their status as Judahites.

Paul comments further on this in Romans 2:28, 29,

²⁸ For he is NOT A JEW who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh. ²⁹ 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.

In other words, those who claim to be Jews through a biological connection to Judah and through fleshly circumcision are not Jews at all in the sight of God. One must immigrate to the New Covenant, which sets forth heart circumcision as the way to praise God. Most (if not all) of those Jews who rejected Christ had received physical circumcision, yet they failed to praise the One whom God had sent as their King-Messiah.

However, men continued to recognize them as Jews and to call them by that name, even though God did not recognize them as people who offered true praise to Him. So Paul asserts that those who truly enjoy lawful citizenship in Judah—true Jews, as it were—are not those whom men recognize as Jews, but those who are recognized by God.

Biology or Law?

Biology does not determine whether or not one is a Hebrew, an Israelite, or a Jew. This is how men categorize people. But God looks on the heart. His goal is to make them His people, something that did not come naturally (biologically). So when the Israelites left Egypt, God met them at Mount Sinai and proposed in Exodus 19:5,

⁵ Now then, if you will indeed obey My voice and keep My covenant, then you shall be My own possession among all the peoples, for all the earth is Mine.

In other words, under the Old Covenant, they were required to “obey My voice and keep My covenant” in order to be God’s people. They all failed in this, because “all have sinned” (Romans 3:23). So 40 years later, at the end of their wilderness journey, God proposed a second covenant in Deuteronomy 29:1,

¹ These are the words of the covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the sons of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He had made with them at Horeb.

In this covenant, God Himself made an oath by His own will, while the people gathered to witness that oath. The purpose of that oath is seen in Deuteronomy 29:12, 13,

¹² that you may enter into the covenant with the Lord your God, and into HIS OATH which the Lord your God is making with you today, ¹³ in order that He may establish you today as His people and that He may be your God, just as He spoke to you and as He swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

The only way people can be established as “His people” is for God to do it. The first covenant did not do the job, because it was based on their obedience, rather than on their genealogy. As John 1:13 says, sonship is attained by those “who are begotten, not of bloodline, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man [man’s vows], but of God [i.e., God’s oath].”

New Covenant faith simply believes the promises, vows, and oaths of God, whereas Old Covenant faith is in one’s own vows of obedience to God, where men pray that God will help them fulfill their Old Covenant vows. But what do the Scriptures say? Abraham was “fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform. Therefore it was also credited to him as righteousness” (Romans 4:21, 22).

Hence, the only way to be classed among “His people” is by New Covenant faith in the promise or oath of God Himself. Biology is insufficient, as is Old Covenant faith. To have New Covenant faith we, like Abraham, must be “fully assured that what God had promised, He was able also to perform.” Jacob failed to believe this, because his heart yet deceived him into thinking that he had to help God with his lies—this, in spite of the fact that he was a believer on some level throughout his entire early life.

So we see how all three terms—Hebrew, Israel, and Judah—are distinct and yet related. They all speak into different aspects of Sonship, telling us how to be overcomers. We must transcend all confidence in the flesh. Being God’s people is not based on biology but upon God’s law, and, as Paul says, “we know that the law is spiritual” (Romans 7:14). To say that our status as citizens or rulers in the Kingdom is based on law does not place it in the realm of flesh. Flesh comes when one uses the law with an Old Covenant mindset.

We must also understand the sovereignty of God and the fact that our salvation is not based upon the will of man, but of God. True faith believes God’s promise, not man’s promise.

This is the path of true immigrants (Hebrews) as they find their way to the Promised Land.