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Do not violently strain a text by illegitimate spiritualizing. Never spiritualize for the sake of showing what an uncommonly good fellow you are: and in no case allow your audience to forget that the narrativesw which you spiritualize are facts, an not mere myths and parables. (Charles H. Spurgeon, 1834-1892, Sermons Vol. 1)

Judeo-Christian Myth #2: Gentiles are non-Jews.

Consider what would happen if we should find that "Gentiles" does not mean "non-Jew" or "non-Israelite.". Who were the people the Apostle Paul preached to? How does that affect our view on prophecy today? Without question, if "Gentile" does not mean "non-Jew" then the foundation of much Judeo-Christianity is is shambles.

If you have believed that "gentile" means "non-Jew" or "non-Israelite" then you are about to find out that - inarguably - this cannot be true. Instead, the opposite can be true!

 The words “Jew” and “Israelite” cannot be interchangeable.

Not all Israelites were from the tribe, or kingdom, of Judah , so calling the ten tribes – collectively - “Jews” cannot be correct. The Bible never refers to members of the northern 10 tribes (the Diaspora) as “Jews” – they were referred to as Israelites and Gentiles. Did you know that the Bible never refers to the patriarchs (Abraham, Isaac, Moses and Jacob himself) as Jews?

If it can be demonstrated that the Jews do not (and never did) comprise the entire 12 tribes of Israel , then “Gentile” can never simply mean “non-Jew.” It CAN mean the nations outside the context of Judea (a context which was often used in first century Judea , who maintained the temple system, etc. and considered themselves solely the people administering the covenantal rituals – in contrast to the uncircumcized heathen outside of the Mosaic Law Covenant.)

The first appearance of the word "Jew" in the Bible is found in 2 Kings 16:6, and it occurs after the two houses separated and was never used to identify the other tribes. Today's Jews even admit this:

It is interesting ... to know that these tribes [Israelites from all twelve tribes entering Canaan ] and their subsequent confederacies were not yet really Jews; that there was no "Jewish" nation. It was not for many years after these earliest origins of these people that we find the word "Jews" in the Biblical texts. Probably the earliest such reference is in the Second Book of Kings, chapter 18, verse 26, in which the language of the people of the southern kingdom of Judah is called "the Jews' language." This passage is in connection with an incident close to the period of the Babylonian Exile, and the people themselves and their religion are not spoken of, by the Bible, as Jews until after the Exile ( A Partisan History of Judaism , Rabbi Elmer Berger)

Virtually all Bible Dictionaries agree:

Strictly speaking, the name is appropriate only to the subjects of the kingdom of the two tribes after the separation of the ten tribes, B.C. 975. (Robert Young's Analytical Concordance to the Bible)

Along with many secular sources:  

Since the severance, the God of Israel had ceased to be the centre of a national worship, and any traces of such worship, which had been retained in the north from the time of David, were quite insignificant.... In reality the Ten Tribes ... were not, therefore, "Jews." ( Harmsworth History of the World)

The famous Jewish historian Josephus agrees:

So the Jews prepared for the work: that is the name they are called by from the day that they came up from Babylon, which is taken from the tribe of Judah, which came first to these places [Jerusalem and the land of Judah], and thence both they and the country gained that appellation (Flavius Josephus)

 Common Arguments:

It is often maintained that the two houses of Israel were reunited at the time of Ezra and Nehemiah after returning from Babylon (thus creating the common term “Jew” for all tribes):

Then rose up the chief of the fathers of Judah and Benjamin, and the priests, and the Levites, with all them whose spirit God had raised, to go up to build the house of Yahweh which is in Jerusalem ... them of the captivity that were brought up from Babylon unto Jerusalem. – Ezra 1:5-11

...the adversaries of Judah and Benjamin heard that the children of the [Babylonian] captivity builded the temple unto Yahweh God of Israel. - Ezra 4:1

Today's Jewish scholarship disagrees with this theory:

The captives of Israel exiled beyond the Euphrates did not return as a whole to Palestine along with their brethren the captives of Judah .... Ezra and Nehemiah give the enumeration only of "the children of the province of Judah , that went up out of the captivity, of those which had been carried away unto Babylon , and came again to Jerusalem and Judah, everyone unto his city." ( Jewish Quarterly Review )

But seventy years soon elapsed, and at their ending a small number of Jews, now no longer the united Israelites, returned to repossess their land, and again they dwelt therein.... ( Discourses, Argumentative and Devotional on the Subject of the Jewish Religion , Rabbi Isaac Leeser)

...the return of the ten tribes was one of the great promises of the Prophets, and the advent of the Messiah is therefore necessarily identified with the epoch of their redemption. ...the hope of the return of the Ten Tribes with the Messiah did not cease amongst the Jews during the time of the second Temple .... ( Discourses, Argumentative and Devotional on the Subject of the Jewish Religion , Rabbi Isaac Leeser)

Josephus wrote clearly concerning the fact that the 10 northern tribes, who had been scattered as a result of their Assyrian captivity, could not have been included in the return of the House of Judah:

...the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers. (Josephus )

Note that the International Standard Bible Encyclopedia says “42,360 men and women and children, male and female servants, esp. from the tribes of Judah, Benjamin and Levi” came out of Babylon ; this is not an “immense multitude!”

From this time [the captivity in Babylon ] these people were called Jews, a name which means "people of Judah." ...And because they had once belonged to the twelve tribes of Israel ... they were also spoken of as Israelites. (Jesse Lyman Hurlbut, Hurlbut's Story of the Bible )

 Definition of “Jew” from Bible Dictionaries:

Today's modern secular dictionaries cannot be referenced concerning this problem, simply because the meanings of words change through time and locations or contexts of useages. What is important is this: from the perspective of the Inspired writers of the New Testament, who were the Jews? Let's turn to some respected Bible dictionaries:

JEW: A Jehudite, i.e., descendant of Judah ... a name formed from that of the patriarch Judah and applied first to the tribe or country of Judah or to a subject of the kingdom of Judah (2 Kings 25:25; Jer. 32:12; 38:19; 40:11; 41:3; 52:28) in distinction from the seceding ten tribes, the Israelites. ( The New Unger's Bible Dictionary )

JEW: Originally a member of the state of Judah (2 Ki. 16:6; Ne. 1:2; Je. 32:12) and so used by foreigners from the 8th century BC onwards.... ( New Bible Dictionary )

JEW: This word does not occur in OT literature earlier than the period of Jeremiah. It then meant a citizen, or subject, of the kingdom of Judah (II K 25:25; Jer 32:12, 34:9, etc).( A New Standard Bible Dictionary )

JEW: This name was properly applied to a member of the kingdom of Judah after the separation of the ten tribes [of the kingdom or house of Israel ]. The term first makes its appearance just before the [Assyrian] captivity of the ten tribes. 2 Kings 16:6 ( Peloubet's Bible Dictionary )

 What Jewish Scholars say about the word “Jew”:

Today's "Judeo-Christians" hold to the idea that today's Jews are Israelites. However, today's Jewish scholarship would disagree:

Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a "Jew"....( The Jewish Almanac 1980 Edition )

The Jewish racial myth flows from the fact that the words Hebrew, Israelite, Jew, Judaism, and the Jewish people have been used synonymously to suggest a historic continuity. But this is a misuse. These words refer to different periods in history. Hebrew is a term correctly applied to the period from the beginning of Biblical history to the settling in Canaan . Israelite refers correctly to the members of the twelve tribes of Israel . The Yehudi or Jew is used in the Old Testament to designate members of the tribe of Judah, descendants of the fourth son of Jacob, as well as to denote citizens of the Kingdom of Judah , particularly at the time of Jeremiah and under the Persian occupation. Centuries later, the same word came to be applied to anyone, no matter of what origin, whose religion was Judaism. ( Dr. Alfred M. Lilienthal )

‘Jew,' ‘Hebrew,' ‘Israelite' are sometimes regarded as interchangeable, but that is not always strictly the case. The word ‘Jew' (originally defining the descendants of Jacob's son Judah) carries a wide range of implications - religious, cultural, ethnic, biological - which mean that the term can hardly be employed without misleading effect before the fall of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, or even, some would say, before the return of the exiles [from Babylon].... The designations ‘Israelites' or ‘people of Israel ' are available for the earlier periods.... But once we have reached the epoch when the country has become divided between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, ‘Israelites' and ‘people of Israel' will evidently have to be abandoned as a generic term ( The History of Ancient Israel – Michael Grant)

 Who were the Gentiles?

Whoever the gentiles were, they were the targets of the ministries of the Apostles:

Paul, and Apostle to the gentiles, regarded the Corinthians as gentiles:

Ye know that ye were Gentiles [ ethne ], carried away unto these dumb idols, even as ye were led. - 1 Corinthians 12:2

Yet, he referred to them as Israelites :

Moreover, brethren , I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers were under the cloud , and all passed through the sea ; and were all baptized unto Moses in the cloud and in the sea ; and did all eat the same spiritual meat ; and did all drink the same spiritual drink : for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them: and that Rock was Christ. But with many of them God was not well pleased: for they were overthrown in the wilderness . - 1 Corinthians 10:1-5

This is far from being an isolated example! Numerous references to the literal, genetic ties to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are made to the gentiles:

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting. (James 1:1)

Ted Weiland, author of Mystery of the Gentiles, makes it clear that the word "gentile" cannot mean "non-Jew":

The words "gentiles," " goy " and " ethnos " are not the exclusionary terms that some Christians try to make them. For example, try replacing the word "nations" translated from goyim , with the word "non-Israelites" in Genesis 25:23 where Rebekah is informed about her twin boys, Jacob and Esau:

And Yahweh said unto her, Two non - Israelites are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels; and the one people shall be stronger than the other people; and the elder shall serve the younger.

Try the same in Genesis 48:19 where Jacob blesses Joseph's second son Ephraim:

And his father [Jacob] refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of non - Israelites .

Try replacing the word "nation" with "non-Israelite" in Jeremiah 31:35-36 where Yahweh promised both houses of Israel that He would never forsake them as long as the sun rules by day and the moon by night:

Thus saith Yahweh, which giveth the sun for a light by day, and the ordinances of the moon and of the stars for a light by night, which divideth the sea when the waves thereof roar; Yahweh of hosts is his name: If those ordinances depart from before me, saith Yahweh, then the seed of Israel also shall cease from being a non - Israelite before me for ever.

The preceding examples demonstrate that the definition and application of the Hebrew word goyim is not as narrow as some people would make it.

The same is true for its Greek counterpart ethne . If modern Christianity's definition for ethnos is correct, John 18:35 would have to be translated as follows:

Pilate answered, Am I a Judahite? Thine own non - Israelites and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done?

No amount of ignoring facts can actually change facts: "gentile" did nomean "non-Jew" or "non-Israelite." What, then does "gentile" mean? "Gentile" is a transliteration used for the Hebrew word "goyim" as well as the Greek "ethnos." The answer is found in any Bible concordance; we need only look it up:

...1. Nation, people ... a. specif . of descendants of Abraham ... Gn 12:2 ... 17:6 ... definitely of Israel Ex 19:6 ... 33:13 ... Dt 4:6 ... of Israel and Judah as two nations Ez 35:10.... c. usually of non-Heb. peoples Ex 9:24, 34:10 ... esp. of these peoples as heathen: idolatrous Lv 18:24, 28.... ( The New Brown-Driver-Briggs-Gesenius Hebrew-English Lexicon )

foreign nations not worshipping the true God, pagans, Gentiles... a tribe, nation, people group... usually of non-Hebrew people... of descendants of Abraham... of Israel (Strongs Concordance and Lexicon)

"Gentiles" simply means "nations." How the word is used defines its context. In the New Testament, the world was often - if not mostly - applied to Israelites living among the heathen. This is no small issue. How we define "gentiles" determines our eschatology, and whether we are "Judeo-Christian" or Christian!

 Not All Israelites Were Jews

Just because a poodle is a dog doesn't make all dogs poodles! Just because a Texan is an American doesn't mean all Americans are Texans! In a like manner, a Jew (a Judean; one from the region of Judea) would be an Israelite, but all Israelites (scattered among the nations - "gentiles" - are not Jews.

It was the Jews that persecuted the saints, and the focus of the destruction of the Holy City was specific tothe Jews. The Diaspora didn't have the law - they were "not a people." So, more correctly, the saints were persecuted by the Jews. There is much confusion here! For instance, some Bible teachers assert that the "Jews" were being persecuted by the Jews located among the "Gentiles" (nations.) The confusing use of "Jews" to rather than "Israelites" is murky and inconsistent.

The Jews (past/present) never comprised all 12 tribes. History and the Bible clearly establish this fact. It will not do for us to ignore it. What will you do with this knowledge? Understanding the implications, are you willing to unravel so much of the false doctrine that has roots in erroneous definition?

 The Implications of Mis-use.

The Gentiles play an important part in the eschatology of Israel:

1. The "time of the Gentiles" was a period that must come to pass prior to the Parousia ("2nd Coming".)

2. The writers of the New Testament epistles addressed Gentiles; Paul called himself an "Apostle to the Gentiles."

3. The Jews were afraid that Jesus would spread His message to the Israelites scattered among the Gentiles (John 7:35).

There was a period of time where the gospel was preached to the nations ("Gentiles") - and then the end was to come (Matthew 24:14). Elijah and Micah were among the prophets who prophecied concerning the restoration of the two houses of Israel, which must have taken place concurrent with the destruction of Jerusalem and the gathering of the bride (the 144,000.) Ezekiel prophecied of this restoration in the "two-sticks" language of Ezekiel 37.

If the Gentiles are all non-Israelites, then the inspired writers of the New Testament epistles misidentified their audience. The audience \ of the writer of Hebrews is inarguable (in fact, Hebrews chapter 8 quotes Hosea – a prophet to the dispersed House of Israel - directly.) The audience of Romans were Israelites (Romans 4:1, Romans 4:16.) The Corinthians to whom Paul wrote were Israelites (1 Corinthians 10:1) but were also called Gentiles (1 Corinthians 12:2)!

The target of the ministry of Jesus and His disciples were the Gentiles; the lost sheep of the house of Israel, who were scattered among the nations. They had become uncircumsized heathen - "not a people." Though "gentilized," the diaspora was to be once again a people (Hosea 1:10), and restored with the remnant of Judah as the bride. The remnant of Israel, found in 144,000, is described by John in Revelation 14 as the tribes of Israel.

I will even betroth thee unto me in faithfulness: and thou shalt know the LORD. And it shall come to pass in that day, I will hear, saith the LORD, I will hear the heavens, and they shall hear the earth… (Hosea 2:19-21)

On the other hand, if we ignore the problems associated with trying to cast all Gentiles as non-Israelites, a number of serious problems arise:

1. The House of Israel is still scattered, and Israel is not restored. As a result, there is no redemption.

2. Because the promises were given first to the Jews - then the Gentiles - we (as Gentiles) have no salvation today because the Jews rejected Him.

3. A antichrist people small in number, having none of the markers of Israel, are the Covenant people, and a people having all the markers of Israel and known by their god - Yahweh - are not the Covenant people.

Truly, understanding the translated the words "Gentile" in our translations is crucial in understanding the Old and New covenants, and the people to who the covenants applied. If we don't understand what "Gentiles" means, we can't understand the time and nature of His return. Most importantly, we are crippled in our implementing the Kingdom here on earth, today.

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