Many of you enjoy reading our weekly outreach reports, especially that we are brought right into many of the conversations and invited to experience the excitement of it all, while appreciating the zeal and courage of the outreach team members. While we all might not have the gift of evangelism, many of us desire to reach out, to speak and share, but feel timid and ill equipped. Currently, with so much antisemitism abounding, we are forced to take a position concerning Israel. Are we here to defend her future and her biblical right to exist as a people and a land? Are we here to share with her the hope that we have found in the redemptive atoning work of the Messiah? Are we ready to share that Yeshua, Jesus is found right in their own Hebrew Bible?
So how can we do this? When we are equipped with knowledge concerning their history and when we take the time to understand the mind-set of the Jewish person. There are also many modern-day misconceptions about Jewish people that we need to correct. And this correction needs to apply to the biblical perspective as well. She has not been rejected by God. The Bible proves it, and Jewish people need to hear this from us. A right perspective along with a strong knowledge of messianic prophecies will help ease us into conversations and provide a base for a growing relationship with that Jewish person.
In a series of short articles, we will address different points and perspectives which will help you in understanding who the Jews are and their place in bible history. We will address Scripture and God’s purpose and plan for this people.
- Numerically speaking, the Jews today form a very small group, constituting 0.2% of the world population. In 2023 it was estimated that there were 15.7 million Jews out of a world population of 8.025 billion people. Despite this small number, they exert much influence on the world. Consider for example, the Nobel prize awards – out of 965 Nobel prizes given out since 1901, and in the various categories, 22% of all recipients were Jews, an amazing statistic when we factor in that they represent less than 1% of the world’s population.
What some have said about the Jew:
- Winston S. Churchill: “Some people like the Jews, and some do not. But no thoughtful man can deny the fact that they are, beyond any question, the most formidable and most remarkable race which has appeared in the world”.
- Mark Twain: “…If statistics are right, the Jews constitute but one percent of the human race … Properly, the Jew ought hardly to be heard of, but … his commercial importance is extravagantly out of proportion to the smallness of his bulk. His contributions to the world’s list of great names in literature, science, art, music, finance, medicine, and abstruse learning are also way out of proportion to the weakness of his numbers. He has made a marvelous fight in this world, in all the ages; and had done it with his hands tied behind him. Twain also wrote: “All things are mortal but the Jew; all other forces pass, but he remains. What is the secret of his immortality?”
Twain posed a great question. Scripture speaks of other nations which existed concurrent with the Jews, but today you will never meet a Hittite, an Amorite, a Hivite, or a Jebusite, yet the Jews are still here. Consider as well that for the last 2600 years the majority of Jews found themselves dispersed among the nations, without a land, without an army and under great persecution. All this is indicative that God’s preservation of this nation is in effect. Psalm 105:8-10 confirms the fact.
He remembers His covenant forever,
The word which He commanded, for a thousand generations,
The covenant which He made with Abraham,
And His oath to Isaac,
And confirmed it to Jacob for a statute,
To Israel as an everlasting covenant.
As bible believers, in our effort to witness to the Jewish people, promises like this need to be shared so that they understand how God sees them and how you see them.
Understanding Israel’s role helps us know the heart of God in a deeper way. For example, God’s faithfulness to Israel (not being rejected by Him), proves that His promises are true and that those same promises of His faithfulness are guaranteed to the church, the Body of Messiah. Also, understanding the Jew in the biblically right way will afford us a great blessing, according to Genesis 12:3 when God promises: “I will bless those who bless you”. So, if someone finds something that is extraordinary about this people, they should be looking at the God who is behind them. Over 200 times in the Bible God is called the God of Israel. The last time we see this is in the Gospels.
Who then is a Jew? What really constitutes Jewishness?
Does the term denote a religion, an ethnic group, or a nationality?
From the secular perspective
There is a problem found within the Jewish community and for the Israeli government as well. They cannot agree on one definition. According to an article written in the Israeli newspaper, Haaretz, on Sept.27, 2015, titled Who is a Jew, they begin by saying that defining “who is a Jew” is complex and tedious; it is a question that’s been dealt with and is still being dealt with not only by Jews, but by non-Jews of all sorts, from admirers of the Jewish people to its bitterest enemies.
And there is story about the complexity of defining a Jew. We are told that after the State of Israel was founded, its first leader, David Ben-Gurion, approached some 60 Jewish wise men – religious and secular, rabbis, philosophers and professors, leaders in Israel and the Diaspora and asked for an answer to the question, who is a Jew? The responses were many and were varied, but one answer stands out, from Shai Agnon: “Mr. Prime Minster”, the author wrote, “Drop this question – it will only get you into trouble”.
One definition that has come to us from the end of the Second Temple period, at the time of Jesus, says that a Jew is a person born to a Jewish mother. They understood that it was not a question of faith, but of ethnicity. From this definition and over some 2000 years, others have been formulated. According to Reform Judaism, one branch of religious Judaism, the main one in the U.S., it says that a person is a Jew if they were born to either a Jewish mother or a Jewish father. Reform Judaism also stresses the importance of being raised Jewish; if a child is born to Jewish parents and was not raised Jewish then the child is not considered Jewish.
One definition we will often encounter is found on the site, Jewish Virtual Library which says, According to Jewish Law, a child born to a Jewish mother or an adult who has converted to Judaism is considered a Jew. In June 13 2013, the Pew Research Center conducted a study asking Jews in the U.S. on what ground is one considered a Jew: 67% said that it has to do with ancestry and culture. Only 13% said that it has to do with religion and 20% said it has to do with both. So, at least they understood the importance of ancestry, as this gets us closer to the true biblical definition.
Why do we have so many points of view? Why can’t they agree on a definition? It is because the true definition is to be found in the Scriptures, and they do not go there to look. It is in the Scriptures where a Jew will find him or herself, his history, his ancestry, his raison d’etre. That they do not go to the Scriptures was Jesus’ argument to the leaders in Mat.22:29 when He said, “You are mistaken, not knowing the Scriptures nor the power of God.”
Sharing the biblical definition of a Jew becomes an opportunity for us to bring the Jewish person back home to the Bible. Where then would be the best source of finding out who is a Jew? In the place where they are first mentioned – the Bible, because this is where we find their origin. They look everywhere, but not in their own book. The Jewish people are all over the Bible. There are over 2000 references to Israel in the Scriptures and 75% of Scripture is the story of Israel, from Genesis to Revelation.
Who is a Jew according to Scripture?
A very simple but biblical definition as to who or what is a Jew, is as follows: a Jew is any descendant of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all such descendants are Jews. Jewishness is rooted in the Abrahamic Covenant in Genesis 12:1-3, the promise that God was going to form a new nation through the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It is through them that the Jewish nation came into being and was established.
It does not matter what the individual Jew may believe or disbelieve; he will always remain a Jew. Of course Jewishness must include the descendants from the three generations (ie Jacob’s children). Although Ishmael came through Abraham and Esau came through Isaac, the people of promise, or the seed of promise was to come through the children of Jacob, the 12 tribes of Israel. A Jew is therefore defined by his ancestry, and not by his faith. Today they say that if a Jew believes in Jesus, he is no more a Jew; but how can they say this if they cannot even define who a Jew is.
More on Jewish evangelism in our next newsletter.