How did the Jews become the Jews?

Answer 1

Answer">Answer

The first instance of Israelites of all tribes being referred to as Jews in the Tanach (Jewish Bible), is in the Book of Esther.

Answer:

A Jew is merely a descendant of one of the tribes of Israel, Judah. They have always been Jews. It is through the tribe of Judah (the Jews) from which the Messiah and salvation is prophesied to come... and from whom royal lineage is named... ultimately to be fulfilled in the King of kings, Jesus Christ.

"Judah, your brothers will praise you... the scepter will not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until He comes to whom it belongs and the obedience of the nations is His." (Gen.49:8-10)

When the tribes of Israel split into two separate kingdoms, the majority of the tribes were led away by the two "brother-tribes" of Ephraim and Manasseh, who were the two sons of Joseph who had the name of "ISRAEL" named on them by Jacob (Israel) on his deathbed:

"...may He (God) bless these boys. MAY THEY BE CALLED BY MY NAME..." (Gen.48:16). The name of "Israel" was never named on the Jews... it was named on "Joseph."

And with the separation of the two kingdoms of the children of Israel... the followers of Ephraim and Manasseh were called the House (or Kingdom) of Israel. And the followers of Judah (the Jews) were called the House (or Kingdom) of Judah - or just plain, Jews.

So, the Jews became "distinguishable" from the rest of the tribes with the splitting of the two houses of the Israelites. In fact... the first time the word "Jew" is used in The Bible... ISRAEL IS AT WAR WITH THE JEWS!

The tribes of the house of Israel were allied with a Syrian king against the Jews:

"Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, (the Jewish king in Jerusalem) but could not overcome him. 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." (II Kings 16:5-6)

So, Ahaz, the Jewish king in Jerusalem sent messengers to the king of Assyria to elicit help from him against Syria and his brother tribes, the House of Israel:

"...come up, and save me out of the hand of the king of Syria, and out of the hand of the KING OF ISRAEL, which rise up against me." (verse 7)

Eventually, the ten tribes of the House of Israel were defeated and scattered among the nations by Assyria... and disappeared in world history. The Assyrian king removed Israel from the land and replaced them with Gentiles (see II Kings 17).

The Jews were all that was left of the Israelite tribes after that. A Jewish kingdom made up of the tribe of Judah, Benjamin, the priestly tribe of Levi and remnants of Simeon and others.

Although they would go into Babylonian captivity about 130 years later... they returned to Jerusalem, resettled, and have been the visible "Jews" the world recognizes to this day.

Additional Comments:

Correctly noted above, since the birth of the 4th son of Jacob (Israel), 'Judah,' (born circa 1950 B.C. while some other traditions say 1755 B.C.. In either dating scenario, Judah existed at least/about 1000 years before the Babylonian captivity and the first usage of the shortened name 'Jew') he and his descendants have been noted in the Scriptures. The shortened term 'Jew' does not seem to come into usage until sometime during the Babylonian captivity - probably around circa 560 BC as noted in 2 Kings 25:25 when "Evil-Merodach" succeeded Nebuchadnezzar and reigned for a very short time (561-560 B.C.).

Many Bible students often see the timeframe (circa 720 B.C.) with the fall of Elath to the Syrian King Rezin to be the first time the term 'Jew' is used but other versions of Scripture - New King James Version - continues using the term Judah or men of Judah:

2 Kings 16:5-6

New King James Version (NKJV)

5 Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah the son of Remaliah, king of Israel, came up to Jerusalem to make war; and they besieged Ahaz but could not overcome him. 6 At that time Rezin king of Syria captured Elath for Syria, and drove the men of Judah from Elath. Then the Edomites[a] went to Elath, and dwell there to this day.

Answer 2

Tradition holds that Judaism began with Abraham in Israel, around the year 2000 BCE, when he recognized the existence of one God above all others.

Archeological evidence for Jews in Israel dates back to about 1600 BCE.

Answer:

According to tradition, Abraham founded Judaism, and Moses later received the Torah from God.

Abraham, tenth generation descendant of Noah, of Hebrew lineage, was the son of Terah, uncle of Lot, father of Isaac, grandfather of Jacob, and ancestor of the Israelites. His story is in Genesis ch.11 (end), through ch.25. Jewish tradition states that he was the first to teach belief in One God; and it is in his merit that Jews continue to exist (Genesis 18:19, and ch.17).

Abraham (18th century BCE) came from ancestry that had been God-fearing a couple of centuries earlier but had afterwards slipped into idolatry (Joshua 24:2). Nimrod, the idolatrous tyrant, had brought Abraham's father (Terah) from the Semitic ancestral seat near the conjunction of the Balikh and the Euphrates, and instated him in a position of power in his army in the royal Babylonian city of Ur, where Abraham was born. Nimrod persecuted any who would question his idolatrous cult.

The Kuzari (Rabbi Judah HaLevi, 1075-1141) states that Abraham was gifted with high intelligence; and, as Maimonides (1135-1204) describes, Abraham didn't blindly accept the ubiquitous idolatry. The whole populace had been duped, but the young Abraham contemplated the matter relentlessly, finally arriving at the conclusion that there is One God and that this should be taught to others as well. This is what is meant by his "calling out in the name of the Lord" (Genesis ch.12). As a young man, he remonstrated with passersby in public, demonstrating to them the falsehood of their idols; and our tradition tells how he was threatened and endangered by Nimrod.

Subsequently, Terah relocated to Harran; and it is here that Abraham began to develop a circle of disciples (Rashi commentary, on Genesis 12:5).

Later, God told Abraham in prophecy to move to the Holy Land, which is where Abraham raised his family.

He continued his contemplations, eventually arriving at the attitudes and forms of behavior which God later incorporated into the Torah given to Moses.

Abraham, with God's help, singlehandedly trounced the supremacy of the evil Nimrod. He received God's promise of inheriting the Holy Land (Genesis 13). He strove to raise a family (Genesis ch.15, 17, and 24) which would serve God (Genesis 18:19); and God eventually blessed his efforts, granting him many children (ibid., ch.16, 21 and 25), as He had promised (Genesis ch.17). Abraham founded the Jewish people and lived to see his work live on in the persons of Isaac and Jacob; and he taught many other disciples as well (Talmud, Yoma 28b). He saved the population of the south of Canaan from invading foreign kings (Genesis 14); and he was feared by neighboring kings (ibid., ch.12 and 20). Abraham gave tithes (Genesis ch.14), entered into a covenant with God (Genesis ch.15 and 17), welcomed guests into his home (Genesis ch.18) unlike the inhospitable Sodomites (Genesis ch.19), prayed for people (Genesis ch.18), rebuked others when necessary (Genesis ch.20), eulogized and buried the deceased (Genesis ch.23), and fulfilled God's will unquestioningly (Genesis ch.22). He became renowned as a prince of God (Genesis 23:6).

All of these forms of behavior were based upon the ways of God, which Abraham comprehended through his contemplations. These, and similar personality traits, were the teachings of Abraham and his descendants (unlike idolatry, which had tended to go hand in hand with cruel, licentious and excessive behavior, since the caprices which were narrated concerning the idols were adopted as an excuse to imitate those types of behavior).

It is therefore clear why God expresses His love for Abraham (Isaiah 41:8) and calls Himself the God of Abraham (Genesis 26:24), and says that Abraham obeyed Him fully (Genesis 26:5). And this is why, according to our tradition, Abraham is credited with having begun the religion which became known as Judaism. However, Abraham and his descendants observed their traditions voluntarily, until the Giving of the Torah to Moses 3325 years ago, when God made it obligatory.

Moses was an Israelite, a great-great grandson of Jacob. He was born 245 years after the death of Abraham. The time when Moses was born was when the Pharaoh ordered his people to kill all Jewish male infants because he (Pharaoh) was afraid that the Israelites would become too strong for him (Exodus ch.1-2). Moses' mother didn't want him to die. So she made a basket for him and put him in it to float in the Nile reeds. He was found by the Pharaoh's daughter, who took pity on him (Exodus ch.2) and raised him as her own son. He was forced to flee after killing a cruel Egyptian taskmaster, and went to Midian, where he wedded the daughter of Jethro. He eventually achieved the highest level of prophecy (Deuteronomy ch.34) and was called upon by God (Exodus ch.3). He brought the Israelites out of Egyptian slavery (Exodus ch.12). He received the Torah from God (Exodus 24:12) and later recorded it in writing (Deuteronomy 31:24). He went up on Mount Sinai for 40 days and nights (Deuteronomy ch.9-10) and brought down the Two Stone Tablets with the Ten Commandments (Exodus 31:18). He brought the Israelites into the covenant with God (Exodus ch.19 and ch.24), and he oversaw the building of the Tabernacle (Exodus ch.35-40). He was the humblest of men and the greatest of prophets (Numbers ch.12).

Answer 3

A study by Professors Lucotte and Smets has shown that the genetic father of Beta Israel (Ethiopian Jews) was close to the Ethiopian non-Jewish populations. This is consistent with the theory that Beta Israel are descendants of ancient inhabitants of Ethiopia, not the Middle East.

Hammer et al. in 2000, and the team of Shen in 2004, arrive at similar conclusions, namely that the DNA of the Ethiopian Jews probably indicates a conversion of local populations.

A 2012 study showed that while primarily related to the local populations, Ethiopian Jews have very distant genetic links to other Jews, and are likely descended from a few Jewish founders. It has been concluded that the community began when a few itinerant Jews who settled in Ethiopia in ancient times, converted locals to Judaism, and married into the local populations. It has been estimated that this happened some 2,000 years ago.

Additionally, we know that Ethiopians were not the first Christians since we have documentation from Israel, Turkey, and Greece showing Christian communities there before we see Christians in Ethiopia. Ethiopia had Christians relatively soon after the first communities developed in the Levant and was the second state to declare Christianity a state religion (after Armenia). Aside from the sloppy historiography required to allege that Christianity existed in Ethiopia before coming to the Levant, it has no bearing on how Judaism came to Ethiopia.

Answer 4

After the destruction of the First Temple in 586 BCE, 10 of the 12 tribes of the Hebrews were lost in Babylon. The modern term "Jew" comes from the fact that one of the 2 surviving tribes was Judah. A shorter answer is that Hebrew is just an older term for Jew.

Answer 5

They didn't change from being Israelites to Jews. The Israelites were divided between two kingdoms, Israel and Judah. The Israelites of Israel were conquered by the Assyrians and their culture was effectively cleansed from them during the Assyrian Occupation, making them lose their unique identity. When Babylon later conquered Judah, they were unable to quash the Israelite culture as they had control for far less time. As these Israelites came from Judah, they were called Judeans. Because of sound losses during transmission of a name from language t to a language, the English word for Judean was Jew. (In other European languages, the "d" is preserved such as judio in Spanish or Jude in German.)

Answer 6

"Hebrews" (Ivrim) actually means descendants of Eber (Ever). Ever was an ancestor of Abraham (Genesis ch.10-11) and the earliest Hebrews were Abraham's uncles and cousins for several generations back.
In 1934-39, excavations were conducted at ancient Mari on the Euphrates River. They found that ancient towns were named after the ancestors of Abraham: The city of Nahor was found near the city of Harran which exists to this day. Equally clear signs of early Hebrew residence appear in the names of other towns nearby: Serug (Assyrian Sarugi), Terah (Til Turakhi, "Mound of Terah"), and Peleg (Paliga, on the Euphrates). All these names are found in Genesis ch.11.
Abraham himself was called a Hebrew (Genesis 14) because of his ancestors, not because he was the first one. That is the simple meaning of Genesis 14:13. Poetically, however, Abraham is called Ivri because the name also translates to "other side." Abraham was on "the other side" since he was the only monotheist (Midrash Rabbah 42:8) until his teachings spread.
However, "Hebrews" is often used to refer to Abraham's Israelite descendants. In this sense it can refer to the Jewish people.
"Israelites" refers to the people down to about the time of the destruction of the First Temple some 2500 years ago. "Jews" refers to the people from Second Temple times onward, because after the Assyrian conquest the remaining Israelites were (and are) mostly from the Israelite tribe of Judah.
In 2000, the analysis of a report by Nicholas Wade "provided genetic witness that Jewish communities have, to a remarkable extent, retained their biological identity separate from their host populations, showing relatively little intermarriage or conversion into Judaism over the centuries. The results accord with Jewish history and tradition and refute theories which would allege that Jewish communities consist mostly of converts."

Answer 7

We are not usually described as a race. Rather, we are an ethnic-religious group; a people, or a nation, with one religion.

A race usually refers to a wider swath of mankind, such as Caucasians or Africans. Jews are a much smaller group, which is part of the larger family of Semitic peoples, which includes Arabs, Assyrians, Arameans and Elamites.

To answer the original question, we became a distinct people through the beliefs, practices and traditions of Abraham, and through the Torah which God gave to Moses.

Answer 8

"Hebrews" (Ivrim) means descendants of Eber (Ever). Ever was an ancestor of Abraham (Genesis ch.10-11) and the earliest Hebrews were Abraham's uncles and cousins for several generations back. They were among the Western Semites and lived in northern Mesopotamia, near the confluence of the Balikh and the Euphrates.
Abraham (18th century BCE) was called a Hebrew (Genesis ch.14) because of his wider family.

Poetically, however, Abraham himself is called Hebrew because that name (Ivri) also translates to "the other side." Abraham was figuratively on "the other side" since he was the only monotheist (Midrash Rabbah 42:8) until his teachings took root. His ancestors and cousins had slipped into idolatry well before his time, as is evident from Genesis 31:30, 31:53, and Joshua 24:2. For that reason, Jews do not bestow on them the honorific title of ancestors despite the genealogical connection.
We credit Abraham as our first ancestor despite knowing exactly who came before, since it was Abraham who founded our beliefs. Thus, "Hebrews" is often used to mean Abraham and his Israelite descendants, instead of his wider family. In this sense it can refer to the Jewish people.

• Link: Abraham's biography
  

The word "Hebrews" can continue to refer to Abraham's descendants until the lifetime of Jacob. After that, we prefer "Israelites," since Jacob was given that name by God (Genesis ch.35), and it is considered a national title; one of honor. "Israelites" refers to the people (Jacob's descendants) down to the Assyrian conquest (133 years before the destruction of the First Temple), some 2600 years ago.

• Link: Jewish ancestry
  

"Jews" refers to the same people, from the end of First Temple times up to this day, because after the Assyrian conquest the Israelites who remained in the land were (and are) mostly from the Israelite tribe of Judah, and the land was then called Judea. But all the above terms are occasionally interchanged.

In modern usage, we prefer to use the term "Hebrew" only to refer to the language.