jews and gentiles

[JudfWhite]

1. where did the gentiles come from?
2. when and where was the division made?
3. was it the people alive that became jews?
4. or was it their offspring that became jews?
5. does it come from solomon's time into the tribes?
6. because we all came from noah, and noah from adam and eve, does that make us all jews?
7. what makes you a jew?
8. what percentage of genes?
9. are you still a jew even if you have just a small percentage of jewish genes?



thanks,
jud

 

[Henaynei]

1. where did the gentiles come from? Gentile means "of the nations" - Until HaShem separated out a people unto Himself in Avraham all peoples were "gentiles."
2. when and where was the division made? The word "Jew" is first used in the Book of 2Kings
[font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]2Ki 16:6[/font] [font=Arial, Geneva, Helvetica]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. [/font]

The division actually did not come until the exodus from Egypt - although the sons of Jacob, aka Israel, were known as Israel before then. But they were only about 70 persons when they went into Egypt - they were close to 1 million persons 400 years later when they left Egypt. It was then, at the foot of Mount Sinai, in the desert, that they made covenant with HaShem and agreed to "become His people."

HaShem did all this because of a promise He made to Avraham - that He would bless his children/seed and that they would have a homeland in Cannan and would be His people.

3. was it the people alive that became jews? I am not clear what you are asking here
4. or was it their offspring that became jews? See answer #2
5. does it come from solomon's time into the tribes? The names of the tribes are from the families of the sons of Israel, his 12 sons. They were apparently known by thes family/tribe names in Egypt.
6. because we all came from noah, and noah from adam and eve, does that make us all jews? No, we are all, indeed from the sons of Noah. But as you can see from answers above, that does not make every one a Jew
7. what makes you a jew? There are 2 ways to be a Jew, be born a Jew or convert to Judaism. To be Jewish by birth your mother must be Jewish, os her mother must be Jewish, and *her* mother must be Jewish, etc....
8. what percentage of genes? See answer #7
9. are you still a jew even if you have just a small percentage of jewish genes? No, not accoroding to Jewish Law.



thanks,
jud

Thanks for asking

b'Shalom
Henaynei

 

[RyanLJohnson1]

Hen,

Jud is my friend. I helped him set up his account and I was the one that typed the message for him

Anyway, what he/we meant when we typed "3. was it the people alive that became jews?" can be better put like this:

Were the formerly Gentile people suddenly termed "Jews?" Example:

Yoshem is a Gentile. He was raised a Gentile. He is now called a Jew.

Or was it more along the lines like this?

Yoshem is a Gentile. He was raised a Gentile. His children will now be Jewish.

This is a very tough question. Just wondering if you know If you need for the question to be better explained, just ask. Thanks again, Hen!

Love in Yeshua,
Ryan

 

[simchat_torah]

Anyway, what he/we meant when we typed "3. was it the people alive that became jews?" can be better put like this:

Were the formerly Gentile people suddenly termed "Jews?"

No. It was a specific race of people that was already established that became named "Jews".

While the term "jew" and "gentile" hadn't existed prior, the races certainly did. It was merely at this point that the two were aptly named.

shalom,
yafet