answersLogoWhite

0

The biblical tradition is that the Israelites were all descended from one man, Jacob, or Israel, who lived around 2000 BCE.

Scholars say that the Israelites really emerged in the mountainous hinterland of Palestine around 1250 BCE, as a small rural community closely related to their Canaanite neighbours, and at first speaking the same language. Whether or not there was ever a United Monarchy, we know that around the beginning of the first millennium BCE, there were two separate Hebrew kingdoms - Israel in the north and Judah in the south, with its capital in Jerusalem.

Israel soon fell to the Assyrians, and its people were deported from Israel in 722 BCE, although some Israelites fled south into Judah and gradually assimilated into that culture. In the seventh century BCE, King Josiah of Judah instituted far-reaching religious reforms, including the introduction of monotheism. It is this religion that we now call Judaism. By the time of the Babylonian Exile, the people of Jerusalem had become known as Jews. Centuries earlier, the Israelite refugees had been encouraged to hope to regain their homeland in Israel, and that hope was now a Jewish article of faith and would remain so for thousands of years.

The Jews of the Old Testament were brown-skinned Semitic people, much like the Palestinians of today. However, from Roman times onwards, there were conversions to Judaism and intermarriages with people of other races. It would be true to say that Jewishness is now defined more by religious belief than by racial origin.

AnswerThe Hebrews were a very old Semitic nationality which no longer exists. Judaism is a religion. The present-day Israelis are a nationality that speaks Modern Hebrew. Since Judaism is a religion, not a race, present-day Jews can be of any race.
User Avatar

Wiki User

13y ago

What else can I help you with?