The True Origins of Professing Jews

THE TRUE ORIGINS OF PROFESSING JEWS

The word “Jew” is a shortened form of Judean or Judahite.  The term can be found in the KJV of the Bible in 2 Kings 16:6.  This passage clearly demonstrates that Israel and Judah are not the same nation.  After the death of King Solomon, ten of the tribes, excluding the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, revolted against the new king and his excessive tax plan and launched a separate northern nation which they called Israel.  The name Israel, for their new nation, was legitimate because they contained the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh which were the sons of Jacob who was renamed Israel by God.  The southern nation did not have the legitimacy of the name “Israel” and called themselves Judah. 

The northern nation of the ten tribes called Israel were conquered and deported by Assyria between 745 and 721 BC.  The majority were taken to northeastern Assyria and they never returned.  Whenever the prophets write concerning the House of Israel and their ultimate restoration they were speaking of the ten tribes of northern Israel and not the nation of Judah.  This will include the major prophets, Ezekiel and Jeremiah as well as others. 

It is important that Bible readers and students make this distinction.  Many of today’s Christians and others have been told that Jews are Israel but this is totally untrue.  The prophecies speaking of the restoration of “Israel” are not being fulfilled by the people calling themselves Jews in the modern state of Israel.  Actually, the current nation of Israel has no legitimate right to call themselves Israel.

Although Judah was a son a Jacob and a tribe of the united Israel under the reigns of Saul, David, and Solomon, it because a national name when the united kingdom divided into two nations.  This division broadened the term “Judah” and the prophets used the broadened name accordingly.

The House of Judah or national Judah was conquered by Babylon between the years of 604 through 586 BC.  Many were killed and some were deported to Babylon.  Due to the destruction of the nation of Judah it could no longer be specifically used as a national name or term.  In the book of Esther we find the term “Jew” employed rather than Judah or Judahite. 

Esther 8:17 KJV  And in every province, and in every city, whithersoever the king's commandment and his decree came, the Jews had joy and gladness, a feast and a good day. And many of the people of the land became Jews; for the fear of the Jews fell upon them.

Persian Jews

Also notice in the last sentence that “many of the people of the land became Jews”.  Through fear of possibly being hung, many of the Persians became Jews in a religious sense, not in a genealogical manner.  This accounts for the so-called Persian Jews that invaded the land of Canaan as prophesied in Ezekiel 38-39.

Ezekiel 38:5 KJV  Persia, Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:

These Persians or Persian subjects were not former citizens of the nation of Judah, but rather were converts who had never lived in the land of Canaan.  At the return of a portion of the Jews back to the land of Canaan after the 70 years of punishment had been fulfilled, it is certain the Persian Jews did not accompany them.

Edomite Jews

The First Book of Maccabees appears to regard the Maccabean revolt as a rising of pious Jews against the Seleucid king who had tried to eradicate their religion and against the Jews who supported him. The Second Book of Maccabees presented the conflict as a struggle between "Judaism" and "Hellenism".  Most modern scholars argue that the king was reacting to a civil war between traditionalist Jews in the countryside and Hellenized Jews in Jerusalem, though the king's response of persecuting the religious traditionalists was unusual, and was the immediate cause for the revolt.  

Some modern scholarship considers the Maccabean revolt less as an uprising against foreign oppression than as a civil war between the orthodox and reformist parties in the Jewish population and by the persecution of people who observed the Torah by having their children circumcised and refusing to eat pork.

Whatever the actual reason, the Maccabeans conquered their neighbors and forced them to either convert to Judaism or to be exiled.  Most of the conquered people chose conversion, particularly the Edomites, and all became Jews, with no distinction between them.  Remember that Esau, the founder of the Edomites, was a brother of Jacob thus they were all related to some degree.

The Jewish historian, Josephus, recorded this event in his Antiquities of the Jews.  He was a descendant of the Maccabees and initially fought against the Romans during the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 AD. 

“Hyrcanus took also Dora and Marissa, cities of Idumea, and subdued all the Idumeans; and permitted them to stay in that country, if they would be circumcised, and make use of the laws of the Jews; and they were so desirous of living in the country of their forefathers, that they submitted to the use of circumcision and the rest of the Jews’ ways of living; at which time therefore, this befell them, that they were hereafter no other than Jews.”

This proclamation of Josephus is corroborated by the 1903 Jewish Encyclopedia.

“Judas Maccabeus conquered their territory for a time (B.C. 163; Ant. Xii, 8 par. 1, 2). They were again subdued by John Hyrcanus (c. 125 B.C.) by whom they were forced to observe Jewish rites and laws (ib. 9, par. 1; xiv. 4, par. 4). They were then incorporated with the Jewish nation, and their country was called by the Greeks and Romans ‘Idumea’.

“From this time the Idumeans ceased to be a separate people, though the name ‘Idumea’ still existed (in) the time of Jerome.”

The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia states:

“The Edomites were conquered by John Hyrcanus who forcibly converted them to Judaism, and from then on they constituted a part of the Jewish people, Herod being one of their descendants.”

The above three references all agree that Edom (the Edomites) were absorbed and integrated into the Jewish or Judahite people group.

It has been said the Edomite Jews were the most violent and radical people of Judea and prior to the destruction of Jerusalem by Rome most of the Zealot group were of Edomite origin.  The actions of the Zealots supposedly precipitated the Romans to destroy Jerusalem.

In later years, the Jews began to call Rome and Christian Europe by the name of “Edom”. They obviously did not use the term literally, but symbolically for an oppressive government.  Even so, they seem to have done this in order to explain the many prophecies in the Old Testament about Edom in the latter days.

The prophets considered Edom as being a latter-day enemy. Since the rabbis could not submit to the idea that their own nation might one day have to fulfill those prophecies, they spiritualized them and applied them to other people they considered “enemies”.  Of course, it has been verified by many (including me) that many of the modern Jews are in reality, Edomites or partial Edomites.

Esau and Isaac believed that Esau was entitled to the birthright and scepter kingship promises.  Esau sold the scepter promise for a bowl of soup.  Jacob received the birthright promise by tricking Isaac into thinking he was Esau.  God desired that Jacob receive the birthright but Rebekah and Jacob did not have the faith to allow God to do His miracle work.  As a result, Esau begged for a blessing from Isaac.  Jacob gave him a blessing but it was a prophecy from God.

Genesis 27:39-40 KJV  And Isaac his father answered and said unto him, Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above;  (40)  And by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.

It appears that God has given the birthright back to the ancestors of Esau for a short time prior to the return of Jesus to fulfill His prophecy.  The bad figs of Jeremiah 24 as applied to the Judeans not accepting Jesus as their Messiah were disinherited from the birthright and Judah-ship promises of God.  Their only recourse is to accept Jesus Christ as the Messiah and King of the Kingdom of God.

The Khazarian Jews

During the Middle Ages, a kingdom known as Khazaria existed in southern Russia around the Caspian Sea area.  The faux-Jew Khazar kingdom was conquered by the Rus and many or most of the Khazarian people were scattered.  Most of the Khazars were incorporated into the Russian area and later migrated into Eastern Europe, integrated with other Jewish people (possibly Sephardim) and became known as Ashkenazi.

The Jewish Encyclopedia:  “A people of Turkish origin whose life and history are interwoven with the very beginnings of the history of the Jews of Russia. The kingdom of the Chazars was firmly established in most of South Russia long before the foundation of the Russian monarchy by the Varangians (855). Jews have lived on the shores of the Black and Caspian seas since the first centuries of the common era. Historical evidence points to the region of the Ural as the home of the Chazars. Among the classical writers of the Middle Ages they were known as the ‘Chozars,’ ‘Khazirs,’ ‘Akatzirs,’ and ‘Akatirs,’ and in the Russian chronicles as ‘Khwalisses’ and ‘Ugry Byelyye’.”

Togarmah is a group of imposter-Jew Khazarians who integrated into parts of Russia, such as Moscow and Tubolsk, and eastern European countries.  The seventh son of Togarmah was Khazar, from which the nation of converted-Jews acquired their name.  Togarmah and Ashkenaz were brothers according to Genesis 10.  The Khazar Jewish line became known as the Ashkenazi.