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The Israelites were earlier known as Hebrews. "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.
(See: 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.
"Jews" refers to the 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.
Wiki User
∙ 9y ago
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoThe term, Israelites, is ambiguous. It could refer to the people of the northern Hebrew Kingdom of Israel or to the the Hebrews as a whole, residents of both Israel and Judah, before they eventually became known simply as Jews. The Hebrews were said to have been descended from Israel, a grandson of the legendary Abraham, but are now believed to have been simply a West Semitic group who gradually began to settle in the Palestinian hinterland somewhere around 1250 BCE.
Wiki User
∙ 8y agoThey were and are His, our Creator's, chosen people; descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and all apart of 12 tribes.
Wiki User
∙ 12y agoBecause one of the names of the father of the twelve tribes, Yaakov, was Yisrael.
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Who are the Torah people?
The people around whom the Torah focuses are the Jews, also known as Israelites.
Hebrews have been know as the what?
Hebrew people later became called Israelites, then Judaeans, then Jews. Today they are called Jews.
Why did the Hebrews become known as israelites?
Because they were the descendants of Yaakov (Jacob), who was also known as Israel.
What were the descendants of the Israelites known as?
They are known as Jews.
What people are also known as Israelites?
Hebrew people are also known as Israelites, because of the biblical tradition that they were descended from the patriarch Israel. In later times, the Hebrew people of the Babylonian Exile were known as Jews. However, the population of the northern kingdom of Israel had already been assimilated into other Near Eastern cultures and had lost their ethnic identity as Hebrews or Israelites. Conversely, not all modern Jews are descended from the ancient Hebrews.
When the Assyrians conquered Israel and scattered the tribes these people became known as the?
The Ten Lost Tribes of the Israelites.
How did descendents of abarham come to be known as israelites?
because of the son of his son, Jacob also called Israel.
When the Assyrians conquered Israel and scattered the ten tribes these people became known as the?
The Ten Lost Tribes of the Israelites.
Who are the israelites of today?
The Jewish people are descendants of the Israelites.
What did moses give the israelites?
Moses brought the ten commandments to the Israelites, as he climbed down Mt. Sinai. Thus, he gave them knowledge of God's law.
What is the faith of the israelites known as?
Judaism. (However, it is also true that in ceremonial practice, Judaism has evolved and developed practices that would be strange to the original Israelites, nonetheless, the roots of those practices, which is the faith, or belief system, is the same.)
What was known to the israelites as the way?
Jesus Christ.
