One Guy's Viewpoint

Not Abraham, Not Noah

Recently on the internet I've run across blogs or other writings where Abraham (several) and even Noah (just one) were referred to as Jews. Not so. These writers were completely mistaken.

Noah was not a Jew. Abraham was not a Jew. Neither were Isaac, Jacob (renamed Israel by God), nor Joseph. Who, then, was the first Jew? The first time the term "Jews" was used in the Bible is in II Kings 16. Let's look at that.

2 Kings 16:1-6
1 In the seventeenth year of Pekah the son of Remaliah Ahaz the son of Jotham king of Judah began to reign.
2 Twenty years old was Ahaz when he began to reign, and reigned sixteen years in Jerusalem, and did not that which was right in the sight of the Lord his God, like David his father.
3 But he walked in the way of the kings of Israel, yea, and made his son to pass through the fire, according to the abominations of the heathen, whom the Lord cast out from before the children of Israel.
4 And he sacrificed and burnt incense in the high places, and on the hills, and under every green tree.
5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him.
6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day. (KJV)

So, during the reign of Ahaz of Judah (an evil king) the kings of Syria and Israel allied and made war on Judah, besieging Jerusalem. When the Syrians retook Elath the terms "Jews" is used referring to those driven out, the men of Judah.

The term is used again in the final chapter of the same book also referring to some people of Judah. "Jews" is found several times in the book of Ezra as a large number of those from Judah are returned from seventy years of Babylonian/Persian captivity to their home area in and around Jerusalem.

Thus, a Jew was a resident of Judah. And the nation of Judah consisted primarily of two tribes, Judah and Benjamin, along with much of Levi, and, no doubt, some of Simeon, However, Judah was the largest and the dominant tribe.

Would it be wrong to refer to Judah, Joseph's half-brother, as the first Jew? Probably. Since other tribes were involved, including a number of people who had migrated south from Israel, and proselytes from other nations who had chosen to become Jews.

But all this was long after Abraham.

posted by Burt @ 10:32 AM