There is much confusion and antisemitism rising to the surface. Please see this short video refuting the myth that all Israeli Jews are descendants of the Khazars. Also, make sure to read the article below the video by Dr. Tommy Ice also refuting this error.
Chapter 6 excerpt from the book, Zionism by Dr. Tommy Ice.
https://prophecywatchers.com/product/case-zionism-christians-support-israel-dr-thomas-ice/
Are Modern Jews Descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob?
“Modern Jews are a separate nation of people with a self-identity, spread out among many other nations. The closest analogy to them are the Gypsies. The only difference between Modern Jews and Gypsies is that the Modern Jews claim to have a relation to the Bible Jews, a claim I maintain is false. . . . Modern Jews think of themselves as Jews, but they are not Jews. They are counterfeits of Biblical Jews. I say this not to disparage them, but to be accurate.”[1] — James Jordan, Replacement Theology Theologian
“In summary . . . the largest, and most influential, proportion of Eastern European Jews came from Central Europe. By this analysis we can show that the dominate ethnic element among Eastern European Jews is Judean — the ancient Jewish people of Judea in the Middle East.”[2] — Kevin Alan Brook, Jewish Researcher
Some people contend that modern Jews do not have the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in their veins. They contend that modern Jews, whether in or out of the land of Israel, have no genetic basis from which to claim that they are Jews, let alone the chosen descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Some say that since they are not true Jews then they are not descendants of those who were scattered across the globe in a.d. 70, and they cannot return to what they never really left, which is the land of Israel. Is this true or just another effort to disinherit God’s ancient chosen people?
Are Modern Jews Frauds?
The conviction that modern Jews are fraudulent has been clearly expressed by Presbyterian replacement theologian James B. Jordan.[3] “With the passing away of the Old Covenant, there is no longer any such a thing as a Jew in the Biblical sense,” declares Jordan. I wonder, “Is there any other sense in which one could be a Jew except for the biblical sense?” “Unless by ‘True Jews’ we mean Christians. There is no covenant, and therefore there is no nation, no ‘race.’ ”[4] Nowhere does the New Testament call Gentile Christians “True Jews,” “Jews,” “Israel,” or any such term. New Testament believers are called the seed of Abraham because he was the father of those who believe. Abraham was the only Gentile in the history of the world who became a Jew or Israelite, since the Jewish race descended from him, Isaac, and Jacob. Thus, all Christian believers in the current Church Age, whether Jew or Gentile, are offspring of the spiritual seed of Abraham (Rom. 4:1–5; Gal. 3:6–7, 14, 16–18). Abraham is both the father of physical Israel, known as the Jews, and father of spiritual descendants, that is, everyone who believes in Jesus as the Messiah, whether Jew or Gentile (Gen. 15:6).
Jordan makes one of the most outlandish statements possible on this topic when he declares: “It is entirely possible that there is not one drop of Abraham’s blood in any modern Jew.”[5] One might think that only a radical Islamic terrorist would publicly write such things, but Jordan is an Evangelical Christian. He does not stop with the preceding comment, he continues with the following pontification:
Modern Jews are a separate nation of people with a self-identity, spread out among many other nations. The closest analogy to them are the Gypsies. The only difference between Modern Jews and Gypsies is that the Modern Jews claim to have a relation to the Bible Jews, a claim I maintain is false. . . . Modern Jews think of themselves as Jews, but they are not Jews. They are counterfeits of Biblical Jews. I say this not to disparage them, but to be accurate.[6]
Jordan’s “scholarship” leads him to believe that today’s Jews (he even coins a special term for the Jews of today — “modern Jews”) are fraudulent, merely posing as Jews. History would be totally different if Hitler had thought this way, or if the Muslims of today would come to learn of Jordan’s discovery. “Modern Jews are people who choose to think of themselves as descendants of Israel,” insists Jordan. “Most modern Jews are not semites, but are descended from Eastern European tribes converted to Judaism in the middle ages.”[7] So Jordan believes that the true Jews of the Bible and history lost their identity in the Middle Ages in relation to a nation called Khazaria.
The Khazar Theory
One of the tactics used by some anti-Zionists is to say that most modern Jews are not true descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. This errant theory is based upon wrong conclusions they have drawn from the history of a medieval nation named Khazaria in which some of the Gentiles converted to Judaism. This is alleged to have diluted the stock of Jewish progeny through a great influx of Gentiles into Judaism. Through racial inflation, the Jews are said to have lost their genetic descent from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, resulting in the loss of genuine Jewish DNA in those who call themselves Jews today.
The Khazar theory was introduced to the broader public in 1976 by Arthur Koestler, a Jewish communist and novelist in his book entitled The Thirteenth Tribe.[8] The theory had been floating around various Arab and anti-Semitic groups for a number of years before Koestler’s book.[9] It is not surprising to learn that his theory has been very attractive to Arabs, Muslims, Holocaust deniers, skinheads, Nazis, Christian Identity, some within Evangelical Christian circles who hold to replacement theology, and even a number of leftist Jews. The Khazar theory is a convenient way for some to simply dismiss the modern state of Israel, since according to this view the Jewish people in the land are not really descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Therefore, the so-called “Jews” do not have legitimate claim to the land of Israel. Robert B. Thieme Jr. outlines the implications of the Khazar theory:
If the Khazars, not the biblical Israelites, are indeed the ancestors of European Jews, then European Jews have no connection with God’s people of the Old Testament, and do not fall under the protective auspices of Genesis 12:1–3. Since European Jews constitute the largest group of immigrants in present day Israel and in the United States, how much easier for anti-Semites to discredit and persecute those whom they consider to be impostors, disconnected with the elect, Old Testament race of people. Anti-Semites sometimes cite this “loophole” to justify their hatred and persecution of Jews. Also, Middle Eastern Arabs can reject the Semitic background of Jewish immigrants to Palestine and thereby preserve the concocted view that gives sanction for conquest of the Land.[10]
Since Khazar theory teaches that the Jews are largely a people who are now extinct as an ethic people, therefore, it renders mute, in their minds, the issue of the land of Israel as a future promise that will be fulfilled by God to the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. When people, especially those within Christendom, start thinking this way, it usually does not take long for anti-Semitic pogroms to arise. Today, with the re-established state of Israel, the Jew-hatred will increasingly be directed toward the national collective — the nation of Israel, which constitutes the new anti-Semitism.
Growth of the Khazar Theory
Many who traffic in Jew-hatred or anti-Zionism have taken Koestler’s thesis and run with it. They have developed a whole school of thought revolving around the notion that “Jews are such imposters to begin with and I can prove that they are not even really Jews at all.” Thus, many influenced by the Khazar theory expand its horizons far beyond Koestler’s intentions, as misguided as they were to begin with. In fact, Koestler concludes, “The problem of the Khazar infusion a thousand years ago, however fascinating, is irrelevant to modern Israel.” Again he declares, “I am aware of the danger that it may be maliciously misinterpreted as a denial of the State of Israel’s right to exist.”[11] This is exactly what is now taking place! Israel’s opponents use these claims in an attempt to justify their enmity to individual Jews and especially against the modern state of Israel, especially in the Muslim world. Princeton scholar Bernard Lewis tells us, “This theory, first put forward by an Austrian anthropologist in the early years of this century [20th], is supported by no evidence whatsoever. It has long since been abandoned by all serious scholars in the field, including those in Arab countries, where the Khazar theory is little used except in occasional political polemics.”[12]
Just as Hitler’s Mein Kampf and The Protocols of The Learned Elders of Zion have become popular reading in much of the radical Muslim world, so too has the Khazar theory made significant inroads onto the radical Muslim must-read list. One Muslim writer in an article on Aljazeera.com said,
The irony of “the law of return” is that many of today’s jews have no direct ancestral link to the jews of the Old Testament. Many, perhaps even most jewish people are descended from the Khazars, a people whose rulers converted to Judaism sometime during the 800’s a.d. The Khazars never even set foot in Palestine![13]
James Jordan spews forth an invective when he speaks of “the heresy of Christian Zionism.”[14] He then concludes “that most modern Jews are not Jews at all: They are Khazars.”[15] Jordan continues as follows:
The Khazari race seems to lie behind the Ashkenazik Jews of Eastern Europe. This kind of assertion can, of course, be debated. The real problem in the discussion is the notion that Jewishness is a blood or racial phenomenon. It is not.
Biblically speaking, a Jew is someone who is covenanted into the people of Jews by circumcision. . . .
All these people were Jew, but only a small fraction actually had any of Abraham’s blood in them. . . . What this demonstrates is that covenant, not race, has always been the defining mark of a Jew.[16]
Following Jordan’s lead, another replacement theologian, Southern Baptist John L. Bray, asserts that “the pure fact is that many of the Jews of the world are not only not pure Jews, but not even Jews at all.”[17] “In addition to findings about the Khazar Jewish beginnings, we need to consider also that because of intermarriage, cross-breeding, etc.,” declares Bray, “there is very little that can be called ‘Jewish race’ today.”[18]
Evangelical Theodore Winston Pike, another militant anti-Zionist, also is attracted to the Khazar theory in his polemics against the legitimacy of the modern state of Israel. Pike tells us:
The truth is, the majority of Jews living in Palestine highhandedly expelling Arabs from their homes are no more the descendants of Abraham than such Jewish converts as Sammy Davis Jr., Marilyn Monroe, or for that matter, the rest of us.
The Jewish encyclopedias admit, of course, that the kingdom of Khazaria was converted to Judaism, but they do not pursue the implications of that fact as does the Jewish author, Koestler. It was Nesta Webster in the 1920s who first perceived the Khazar origins of most Eastern European Jews. Her deduction, however, was dismissed as “anti-Semitic” until Koestler, a liberal Jew of equal scholarship, has made the same claim with even greater insistence.[19]
Application of the Khazar theory can lead to a significant distortion of a Christian understanding of God’s Word. Jordon wonders: “Are Bible-believing Christians supposed to support a Jewish State, for theological reasons? Such is the assertion of Jerry Falwell, and of the heresy of Christian Zionism.”[20] I will now examine the veracity of such claims.
The Khazar Theory Explained and Examined
No informed person on these issues questions the existence of a country in the Middle Ages composed largely of Turkish stock, between the Black and Caspian Seas during the seventh to tenth centuries named Khazaria, where the royal family only converted to Judaism. Khazaria was an actual nation in history.[21] However, it is still an unproved theory, as attractive as it may appear to some, lacking any scientific evidence that Ashkenazi Jews (about 85 percent of world Jewry) are primarily descended from the Khazars.
In 1976, when Koestler, a non-specialist in this field, put forth this theory it was never taken seriously by linguists and most other scientists. This explains why the most vigorous promotion of his views are usually found within the circles of propagandists who have an ideological axe to grind and not by the scientific community. Like the Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, the forged document supporting a supposed Jewish world conspiracy, they so much want their theories to be real history, when they are not. Thieme provides an overview of the Khazars as follows:
Who were the Khazars? They were semi-nomadic, Tataric in origin, a Turkic-speaking people who first appeared north of the Caucuses in the late second century a.d. In the fifth century they were subjugated by the Huns but rose to power two centuries later. Charging across the Russian steppes, these legendary warriors conquered the Crimea and extended their empire from the western shores of the Caspian Sea to the River Don, from the southern Ukraine to the region north of the Black Sea and as far as Kiev. They fought the Persians and Armenians; they battled Arab expansion, which was inspired by the advent of Islam after the death of Mohammed in 632. In addition, they fought the Byzantine Empire, which forcibly tried to make them Christian.
The “khakan” or ruler was also the religious head of state of the Khazars. Tolerant of other religions, the khakan welcomed thousands of Jews from Asia Minor and the Byzantine Empire as well as Mohammedans and Christians. These three religious groups vied to convert the Khazars who practiced a primitive idolatrous religion.
In a.d. 740 after considering the various religious viewpoints among these groups, the khakan embraced Judaism for himself and his people. His conversion was a compromise between Christianity and the religion of Islam. While Judaism was accepted as the official religion of the empire, the Khazar state still maintained tolerance toward other religious groups. The empire continued until a.d. 965 when it was overthrown by a coalition of Christian Russians and the Byzantines.[22]
Why did the khakan convert to Judaism and not Christianity or Islam? It is commonly thought that had the Khazars converted to Islam then they would have been swallowed up into the growing Islamic empire and lost their national identity and their autonomous authority as rulers. The same would have been true had they converted to Christianity. Khazaria would have been likely become part of the Byzantine Empire as well. By converting to Judaism, the khakan was able to maintain complete independence for the territory that he ruled. “But it could only maintain its independence by accepting neither Christianity nor Islam,” notes Koestler of the Khazarian rulers, “for either choice would have automatically subordinated it to the authority of the Roman Emperor or the Caliph of Baghdad.”[23]
Some scholars in this field of study think that it was primarily the elite of the Khazars that converted to Judaism[24] since “Khazar Judaism was never very strong.”[25] Some think a primary reason for the national conversion is because some of the advisors were already Jewish, having immigrated there years earlier and worked their way up into governmental positions. Steven Collins, quoting from The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia tells us, “It was chiefly due to the cultural superiority of the Daghestan Jews that the ‘Kahan’ (king) of the mighty state of Khazars was converted to Judaism together with his court and part of the Khazar population between the 8th and 9th centuries.”[26] Besides the rulers, only a part of the Gentile Khazar population adopted Judaism over the next century, which means the Khazars were a majority Jewish state. Other than the Jewish leadership, only a sizeable minority of Jews resided within Khazaria. “A total of only 4,000 new conversions to Judaism in a large nation was actually a small number of converts. The requirement of circumcision was likely a disincentive for most Khazar men to convert to Judaism.”[27]
It is clear that there were already a great number of Jews who lived in Khazaria in the 8th century. “Large numbers of Jewish refugees had settled in what became Khazaria long before the Khazars were even a recognizable people,” notes Collins. “The Jews had seen the Caucasus region as a hospitable refuge for centuries, and they went there in large numbers.”[28]
When word began to circulate that the nation of Khazaria had converted to Judaism we learn that many Jews, especially from the Byzantine Empire and the Muslim world immigrated to Khazaria since Jews were commonly persecuted in those Empires. They migrated to Khazaria for sanctuary and religious freedom. “Khazaria itself was full of Jewish immigrants from Constantinople . . . and these immigrants actually outnumbered the converts according to some sources,”[29] says Cameron Sawyer. This immigration greatly increased the number of Jews in the nation and it was known to have a very large population of Jews migrating in from many other counties in those days. Sawyer makes the following point:
Also, if the Ashkenazis are supposed to be Khazars, what happened to all the “real” Jews of Europe? The Khazars were only converted to Judaism in the 8th century. Jews — descendants of Jews from biblical Israel — have been living on the Black Sea coast, Southern Russia, and the Caucasus since before the birth of Christ . . . not to mention Germany, France, Italy, and Spain. So all these people just disappeared one day, to be suddenly replaced by Khazar converts?[30]
Since Khazaria was one of the few nations on earth at that time practicing religious freedom, this explains why the nation also had large populations of Christians, Muslims, and pagans who never converted to Judaism. The notion that multitudes of Gentiles simply overwhelmed Jewish bloodlines is simply not the case. The Jews of Khazaria appear to have had Jewish bloodlines just as strong as other Jews of their day.
When the nation was conquered, the Jews fled to other countries, and most of the population of Khazaria which were not Jewish were killed in these battles, immigrated elsewhere, or joined up with the Muslims and Christians. We are told, “The Jews of Khazaria migrated to Kiev and parts of Russia, while the remaining Khazars joined the Magyars and migrated to modern Hungary, becoming Christians.”[31] Those converting to Christianity would not come into play when analyzing the modern Jewish gene pool. Here is a summary of what happened after the breakup of Khazaria:
Most of the East European Jews migrated from the west to the east of the continent, and were not descended from the inhabitants of the Khazar Empire. They are actually a fusion of Balkan-Greek Jews from the Byzantine Empire, Babylonian Jews from the Abbasid Caliphate, Yiddish-speaking Jews from Germany, Sephardic Jews fleeing the Spanish inquisition, and Khazars. All these groups intermarried over the centuries, so that the Khazar converts disappeared as a distinguishable ethnical entity and their descendants became fully Jewish with Israelite ancestry. . . .
If Khazarian ethnicity may be considered in any way of relevant influence among Russian Jews, the same is not valid for those of Poland; which is confirmed also by the following facts:
Polish life is completely extraneous to the Khazars.
The majority of Polish Jews came from the west, not the east.
There are no places in Poland that may recall Khazar origin.
Most Ashkenazi Jews have Germanic, not Khazar, surnames and customs.
There’s not any relevant trace of the Khazarian language among Jews; on the contrary, the Ashkenazim’s tongue, Yiddisch, is evidently of German origin.[32]
It seems clear, based upon the historical records of the matter that the Khazar aspect of Ashkenazi Jewish history provided a very small contribution to the makeup of their gene pool. Based upon the historical records alone, there is precious little support to actually think that about 85 percent of Jews in the world today are not descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The Khazar theory falls to the ground due to lack of evidence to support its conclusions based upon sifting the historical evidence.
DNA and the Khazars
The opinion previously reached by historians and ethnologists concerning the Khazars is now confirmed with the development of the modern science of DNA analysis as a reliable way to discover one’s genealogical heritage. Kevin Alan Brook[33] is a leading researcher on the Khazars and tells us the following:
We no longer need to rely on speculation. It is now a known FACT that German Jews mingled with other Jews when they came east. It is also clear that the ancient Israelites possessed those Y-DNA patterns that are found in common among Sephardic Jews, Ashkenazic Jews, Kurdish Jews, and Indian Jews, despite the fact that ultimately those patters may have earlier stemmed, in part, from somewhere in Kurdistan or Armenia or Iraq. The Middle Eastern Y-DNA patterns in the J and E haplogroups cannot be explained by Khazars.[34]
Brook’s overall conclusion of Khazar origins is as follows:
In summary, Eastern European Jews are descended from a mixture of German and Austrian Jews, Czech Jews, and East Slavic Jews. The East Slavic Jews may have roots in both the Khazar and Byzantine empires, hence necessitating our further study of Jewish life in those lands. But the largest and most influential proportion of Eastern European Jews came from Central Europe. By this analysis we can show that the dominant ethnic element among Eastern European Jews is Judean — the ancient Jewish people of Judea in the Middle East.[35]
Cameron Sawyer, based upon examination of DNA analysis, comes to a similar conclusion about the authenticity of the ethnic descent of the Jewish group under investigation.
In any case, modern genetic analysis now gives us very precise information about bloodlines, migrations, and the genetic relationships between peoples, and has settled the matter once and for all. Ashkenazi Jews are, in fact, close relatives of Sephardic and other Jews (except, apparently, the Ethiopian Jews), somewhat less close but still very close relatives of the Arabs and other Eastern Mediterranean peoples, and are predominantly descended from the Hebrews who lived in Israel 2,000 years ago, with a notably small admixture of European, Slavic, and other blood. Tracing direct paternal lines of descent (based on analysis of the “Y” chromosome), researchers found that the most common direct paternal ancestors of modern Ashkenazi Jews are the Judeans of ancient Israel, with more than 50% of modern Ashkenazi Jews being so descended. 12.7% of modern Ashkenazi Jews have direct paternal lines of descent from either Eastern Europeans (including Slavs) or Khazars.[36]
DNA analysis is able to establish with certainty what history has already demonstrated: the Jews of modern Israel really are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as concluded by Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman:
The genetic studies of Jewish men from all of the major communities of the Jewish Diaspora confirm that the original Jewish population originated in the Middle East, and from there, spread throughout the world. As the Bible predicted, the Hebrews who lived in the Land of Israel for over one thousand years were dispersed and scattered literally to the four corners of the earth. . . .
Also predicted and prophesized was that, despite worldwide dispersal, the Jewish nation would not become lost among the nations. Scriptures prophesized and promised that the Jewish People would retain their unique identity, and eventually be restored to their ancient homeland. The genetics studies have shown that this most unlikely scenario has in fact come true as well.[37]
Khazar Conclusions
The Khazar theory has been completely refuted by both scholarly research into the history of the Khazars and, more recently, by ethnologist evidence showing that Jews from all parts of the world are genetically closely related to Middle Eastern Jews and not so closely related to non-Jewish Russians, Eastern Europeans, or others from that region. “Dr. Michael Hammer showed that based exclusively on the Y-chromosome (parental) shows that Ashkenazi Jews are more closely related to Yemenite Jews, Iraqi Jews, Sephardic Jews, Kurdish Jews, and Arabs than they are to European Christian populations,”[38] notes Joel Bainerman. True research on the matter reveals that only a small percentage of Jews have any descent through the Khazars. So it appears that the Khazar theory is just that, a theory, and not a very good one.
The Khazar theory canard was developed last century by individuals and groups that were already predisposed toward anti-Semitism. When the self-hating Jew, Arthur Koestler, penned his book in the 1970s, these groups were attracted to his work like a bee to honey. Driven by anti-Zionist impulses, many of these biased “researchers” exaggerated Koestler’s claims. Even Koestler did not claim that Ashkenazi or Khazar Jews have no Middle Easter ancestry. Koestler did not want his research, flawed as it may have been, taken to extreme conclusions.
In the first place, I am aware of the danger that it may be maliciously misinterpreted as a denial of the State of Israel’s right to exist. But that right is not based on the hypothetical origins of the Jewish people, nor on the mythological covenant of Abraham with God; it is based on international law — i.e., on the United Nations’ decision in 1947 to partition Palestine, once Turkish province, then a British Mandated Territory, into an Arab and a Jewish State. Whatever the Israeli citizens’ racial origins, and whatever illusions they entertain about them, their State exists de jure and de facto, and cannot be undone, except by genocide. Without entering into controversial issues, one may add, as a matter of historical fact, that the partition of Palestine was the result of a century of peaceful Jewish immigration and pioneering effort, which provide the ethical justification for the State’s legal existence. Whether the chromosomes of its people contain genes of Khazar or Semitic, Roman or Spanish origin, is irrelevant, and cannot affect Israel’s right to exist — nor the moral obligation of any civilized person, Gentile or Jew, to defend that right. Even the geographical origin of the native Israeli’s parents or grandparents tends to be forgotten in the bubbling racial melting pot. The problem of the Khazar infusion a thousand years ago, however fascinating, is irrelevant to modern Israel.[39]
“The results support the hypothesis that the paternal gene pools of Jewish communities from Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East descended from a common Middle Eastern ancestral population,” concludes Sawyer, “and suggests that most Jewish communities have remained relatively isolated from neighboring non-Jewish communities during and after the Diaspora.”[40] It is safe to conclude that most of the Jews living today in Israel and still in the Diaspora are clear descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Are Modern Jews Really of Jewish Descent?
In addition to advocating the Khazar theory, James Jordan tells us: “The real problem in the discussion is the notion that Jewishness is a blood or racial phenomenon. It is not.” Jordan continues, “Biblically speaking, a Jew is someone who is covenanted into the people of the Jews by circumcision. . . . What this demonstrates is that covenant, not race, has always been the defining mark of a Jew.”[41] Jordan does not stop with these remarks; he was just warming up. He states further, “Modern apostate Jews have absolutely no theological, and therefore no historical and legal right to the land of Palestine.”[42] “Christian Zionism is blasphemy. It is heresy. Christians have no theological stake whatsoever in the modern State of Israel. It is an anti-God, anti-Christ nation.”[43] So those who think like Jordan believe that Israel either never had a Jewish racial identity or lost it over time.
It is the Bible that divides mankind into Jew and Gentile, denoting one’s descent by birth. One may repudiate the religious aspects of Judaism, but they cannot escape the genealogical fact that they were born within the Jewish race. The same is true of a Gentile. One may be born of Chinese descent but there is nothing they can say or do to change the fact that they are Chinese. The Nazis during the Holocaust made little distinction between deeply religious Jews and secular Jews. They killed them all when they had the opportunity. The same is true today. The Muslims kill Jews today whether they are religious or secular. It does not matter to them.
The Biblical Definition of Jewishness
Since the Bible is God’s inerrant revelation, it is the supreme authority on which to settle any matter to which it speaks. God’s viewpoint on any issue is how we know ultimately what is true or false. The Bible speaks clearly and loudly concerning the issue of Jewishness. Scripture teaches that those who are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob make up the people or nation we call Israel (Gen. 12:1–3, 13:15–16, 15:4–5, 26:2–5, 24, 28:13–15). Jewishness is a nationality based upon descent, whether one obeys God or not. Hebrew Christian Arnold Fruchtenbaum correctly summaries Israel as “all descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, also known as the Jews, the Jewish people, Israelites, Hebrews, etc. The term is not limited to the present political and national state in the Middle East, which is merely a part of the whole; nor is it limited to those who adhere to the religion of Judaism only.”[44] British postmillennialist Erroll Hulse provides an excellent overview of the biblical use of the word Jew.
Most references to the Jews (Yehudiim) made in the Old Testament are to be found in the book of Esther, but frequently also in Jeremiah, Nehemiah, and Ezra. In Babylon, the word Jew in the strict sense signified someone of Judah. Almost every reference (and there are about two hundred) in the New Testament refer to the Jews in a general sense whether they lived in the South, the North or abroad. The terms “children of Israel” and “sons of Jacob” are often used in the Old Testament to describe the Jews.[45]
The broader term Israel “appears over two thousand times in the Old Testament and seventy times in the New Testament. This term refers to a specific ethnic group. . . . The name Yisra’el was conferred on Jacob (Ge 32:28), Abraham’s grandson, and means ‘solider of God’ or ‘God persists.’ ”[46] Israel began as a patriarchal clan when Abraham came out of Babylon, went to Egypt, and 400 years later returned to the Promised Land as a true nation of two or three million. Yet Jordan imagines a problem in that Israel did indeed incorporate into the nation many non-Jews down through her history.
When Abraham was commanded to circumcise, he was told to circumcise his entire household, including his 318 fighting men and his other domestic servants (Gen. 14:14, 17:10–14). Competent scholars imagine that Sheik Abraham’s household probably included at the very least 3,000 persons. These servants multiplied as the years went by, and Jacob inherited them all (Gen. 27:37). Although only 70 from the loins of Jacob went down into Egypt, so many servants went along that they had to be given the whole land of Goshen in which to live.[47]
Is this supposed to be a problem? Over time it appears that the Gentiles who became part of Abraham’s clan integrated with his descendants so that by the time of the Exodus that nation was indeed Jewish — descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. At least this is the view that the Bible takes toward this matter. The Lord promised Abraham: “To your descendants I will give this land” (Gen. 12:7). “I will make your descendants as the dust of the earth, so that if anyone can number the dust of the earth, then your descendants can also be numbered” (Gen. 13:16). “And He took him outside and said, ‘Now look toward the heavens, and count the stars, if you are able to count them.’ And He said to him, ‘So shall your descendants be’ ” (Gen. 15:5). “God said to Abram, ‘Know for certain that your descendants will be strangers in a land that is not theirs, where they will be enslaved and oppressed four hundred years’ ” (Gen. 15:13). “Moreover, the angel of the Lord said to her, ‘I will greatly multiply your descendants so that they will be too many to count’ ” (Gen. 16:10). “I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you throughout their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and to your descendants after you” (Gen. 17:7). I could go on with many more similar passages that indicate that God thought of all of those in the line of descent as the offspring of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Even though the Jews surely have intermarried with Gentiles, that does not invalidate their Jewishness any more than intermarriage that was practiced in the Old Testament did not invalidate their Jewishness. Jesus Himself had a number of Gentiles within His genealogical line, yet He was certainly Jewish. In the time of the New Testament these people were still known as Jews — the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Jesus referred to the residents of Israel in His day as Jews. When reading the New Testament, there does not appear to be a problem identifying who the Jews were in Christ’s day. The notion that Jews cannot have the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob flowing through their veins is purely one manufactured by those with an anti-Semitic bias.
Since there was about a 2,000-year period from the call of Abraham until the time of Christ, and Jesus referred to the residents of Israel as Jews, then we have a precedent to do so today. It has been about another 2,000 years since the time of Christ until our present day. If the descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were considered Jews after 2,000 years by Jesus in His day, then why should they not be considered descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob today, after another 2,000 years have passed? In fact, the last 2,000 years have seen some Gentile intermarriage, but for the most part, the nations have shut up the Jewish people into their own ghettos and not allowed them to intermingle with Gentiles. Even though an unintended result by perpetrators, anti-Semitism has helped to keep the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob flowing through the veins of modern Jewry. Also, those Jews that have repeatedly married Gentiles have lost their Jewish identity and are no longer part of the Jewish race and indeed are not considered Jews after a while.
Future Biblical References to Jews
Since the Bible is the ultimate authority on any matter, it is significant to realize that both the Old and New Testaments speak of a specific destiny for Israel or the Jewish people in a day future to our own time. Since God’s Word tells us that there will be Jewish people in the world even beyond our own day, then Divine viewpoint should trump the imaginations of human viewpoint any day. This means that there has to be Jewish people who have the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob flowing through their veins for these prophecies to occur. When has God ever failed to bring to pass what He has decreed? Never! What are some of these passages?
About 3,400 years ago Moses predicted a future time when the nation of Israel “will seek the Lord . . . with all your heart and all your soul. When you are in distress . . . in the latter days, you will return to the Lord your God and listen to His voice” (Deut. 4:29–30). No biblically literate person would say that the nation of Israel has ever fulfilled this passage at any time in their past, thus, it is still a future event. So there must me a nation of Israel in the future, which would mean that the Jews of today would have to be actual Jews in order to provide a bridge to this future time.
God spoke through Jeremiah about 2,600 years ago and said, “ ‘For, behold, days are coming,’ declares the Lord, ‘when I will restore the fortunes of My people Israel and Judah.’ The Lord says, ‘I will also bring them back to the land that I gave to their forefathers, and they shall possess it’ ” (Jer. 30:3). “ ‘Alas! for that day is great, there is none like it; and it is the time of Jacob’s distress, but he will be saved from it’ ” (Jer. 30:7). “ ‘Fear not, O Jacob My servant,’ declares the Lord, ‘and do not be dismayed, O Israel; for behold, I will save you from afar and your offspring from the land of their captivity. And Jacob will return,and will be quiet and at ease, and no one will make him afraid. For I am with you,’ declares the Lord, ‘to save you; for I will destroy completely all the nations where I have scattered you, only I will not destroy you completely. But I will chasten you justly and will by no means leave you unpunished’ ” (Jer. 30:10–11). “ ‘You shall be My people, and I will be your God’ ” (Jer. 30:22). “In the latter days you will understand this.” (Jer. 30:24). When has this ever occurred in the past? Like the passage in Deuteronomy, we see that Israel will go through a time of tribulation or distress, which will be in the latter days, leading to the spiritual restoration of the nation. Once again, no one would say that national Israel has ever in history arisen to such a spiritual level. It can only be in the future, which means the Jews have to exist as Jews future to our own day in order for this to occur.
Many other Old Testament passages could be cited which speak of Jewish existence beyond our current day, but one final example from Daniel will be noted. “Now at that time Michael, the great prince who stands guard over the sons of your people, will arise. And there will be a time of distress such as never occurred since there was a nation until that time; and at that time your people, everyone who is found written in the book, will be rescued” (Dan. 12:1). “He said, ‘Go your way, Daniel, for these words are concealed and sealed up until the end time.’ ” (Dan. 12:9). As in the two previous passages, we see that same pattern in Daniel. There will be a time of tribulation or distress for “your people,” which are Daniel’s people (i.e., the Jewish people). This will take place in the end time and Israel will come into a new spiritual relationship with the Lord.
The Bible anticipates a future time in which God will interact with His people Israel. Such a future period is also expected in the New Testament. Paul speaks of future plans for Israel in Romans when he says, “For I do not want you, brethren, to be uninformed of this mystery — so that you will not be wise in your own estimation — that a partial hardening has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in; and so all Israel will be saved; just as it is written, ‘The Deliverer will come from Zion, He will remove ungodliness from Jacob. This is My covenant with them, when I take away their sins.’ From the standpoint of the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but from the standpoint of God’s choice they are beloved for the sake of the fathers; for the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom. 11:25–29). We see in this passage that current Jewish rejection of the gospel by most, not all, is temporary and will come to an end when the full number of elect Gentiles are added to the Church through faith in Christ. It will be after that time that every Jewish person alive, when the Deliverer will come from Zion, will come to faith in the Messiahship of Jesus. No one would say that this has yet to occur in history. Thus, Jews must exist as descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the future for this to occur. This means that there has to be Jewish people alive and well on planet Earth today.
The Apostle John, in his well-known and final book of the New Testament canon, speaks of future events in Revelation 4 through 22. It is clear that the Jewish people will be around when these events unfold since they are referenced throughout the book. Revelation 12 is an entire chapter that speaks of their persecution during the second half of that seven-year period. However, Revelation 7 not only speaks of a multitude of the bond-servants of God, but that they are said to be “one hundred and forty-four thousand sealed from every tribe of the sons of Israel” (Rev. 7:4). If that is not clear enough, the biblical text tells us the specific tribes of Israel from which 12,000 males are taken from as follows: “from the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand, from the tribe of Gad twelve thousand, from the tribe of Asher twelve thousand, from the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand, from the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand, from the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand, from the tribe of Levi twelve thousand, from the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand, from the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand, from the tribe of Joseph twelve thousand, from the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand were sealed” (Rev. 7:5–8). Even if Israel’s tribal records were lost to human beings 2,000 years ago, it does not mean that God cannot keep track of one’s nationality. After all, He is the one who will seal the 144,000 Jewish servants via a supernatural act.
Revelation 7 not only demonstrates that Jewish men will exist in the future, but that God Himself can identify who they are. Such implications mean that not only are Jews viewed by the Bible as a distinct race in contrast to Gentiles, but they will remain so throughout history. Not only does the Bible teach that Jewish descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob can be identified as a distinct race after almost 4,000 years, but that God will even be able to distinguish their tribal identity into the future. This can only mean that there is a distinct Jewish race today.
Conclusion
Israel, during her 4,000 years of existence, has been by far the most literate people in the history of the world, unlike the Gypsies. Rabbi Kleman’s DNA studies demonstrate that, “Genetics research as described has clearly shown that the Jewish people today are the descendants of the ancient biblical Hebrews.”[48] In addition, no nation has kept better records of her own history, whether through divinely inspired Scripture or mere human writings than the Jewish people. These records provide ample evidence that the Jews of today have had continual existence, even though they were often scattered around the world for much of their existence. We see that not only do recent DNA studies provide a scientific basis for verifying that modern Jewry really are descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, this view is also supported by biblical logic and the testimony of history. Jews are a racial class that stands in contrast with Gentiles, according to the Bible. Only bias or prejudice would lead one to a contrary opinion when examined in the light of Scripture. Therefore, it is with utmost certainty that anyone examining the record should conclude that those who are Jews today, whether in or out of the land of Israel, have the blood of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob flowing through their veins. This fact provides a basis for their Zionistic claim that the land of Israel belongs to the Jews because God gave it to them.
[1] James B. Jordan, “The Future of Israel Reexamined” (Part 1), Biblical Horizons, no. 27, July 1991, p. 4.
[2] Kevin Alan Brook, “From the East, West, and South: Documenting the Foundation of Jewish Communities in Eastern Europe” in Roots-Key, Newsletter of the Jewish Genealogical Society of Los Angeles, vol. 24: no. 1, Spring 2004, p. 6.
[3] James B. Jordan is a Presbyterian replacement theologian coming from the preterist, postmillennial, and covenant theology orientation.
[4] Jordan, “Future of Israel” (Part 1), p. 4.
[5] Ibid., p. 4.
[6] Ibid., p. 4.
[7] Ibid., p. 4.
[8] Arthur Koestler, The Thirteenth Tribe (New York: Random House, 1976).
[9] For a history of the rise of the Khazar theory see Robert Singerman, “Contemporary Racist and Judeophobic Ideology Discovers the Khazars, or, Who Really Are the Jews?” on the website of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture located at the following: www2.jewishculture.org/jewish_scholarship/feinstein/singerman.html.
[10] Robert B. Thieme Jr., Anti-Semitism (Houston, TX: Robert B. Thieme, Jr., Bible Ministries, 1991), p. 77.
[11] Koestler, Thirteenth Tribe, p. 223.
[12] Bernard Lewis, Semites and Anti-Semites: An Inquiry into Conflict and Prejudice (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 1999), p. 48.
[13] Albert D. Pastore, The Dancing Israelis: An Unprecedented Honest Analysis of 9/11 and Bush’s War on Terror” from the website Aljazerra.com; www.aljazeera.com/cgi-bin/conspiracy_theory/fullstory.asp?id=303.
[14] James B. Jordan, “Christian Zionism and Messianic Judaism,” in The Sociology of the Church: Essays in Reconstruction (Tyler, TX: Geneva Ministries, 1986), p. 176.
[15] Jordan, “Christian Zionism,” p. 176–77.
[16] Ibid., p. 177.
[17] John L. Bray, Israel in Bible Prophecy (Lakeland, FL: John L. Bray Ministry, 1983), p. 44.
[18] Bray, Israel, p. 44.
[19] Theodore Winston Pike, Israel: Our Duty . . . Our Dilemma (Oregon City, OR: Big Sky Press, 1984), p. 328.
[20] Jordan, “Christian Zionism,” p. 178.
[21] Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 10, reference to “Khazars,” p. 944–54.
[22] Thieme, Anti-Semitism, p. 76–77.
[23] Koestler, Thirteenth Tribe, p. 58.
[24] Kevin Alan Brook, The Jews of Khazaria (Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2002), p. 136–39.
[25] Encyclopaedia Judaica, Vol. 10, reference to “Khazars,” p. 949.
[26] Steven M. Collins, “The Khazars and The Modern Jews,” posted at www.britam.org/steven-collins-khazars.html.
[27] Collins, “The Khazars.”
[28] Ibid.
[29] Sawyer, “Zionism and the Talmud,” World Association of International Studies, Blog Archive at cgi. stanford.edu/group/wais/cgi-bin/index.php?p=108.
[30] Sawyer, “Zionism and the Talmud.”
[31] Collins, “The Khazars.”
[32] Anonymous, “The Khazars: Who were the Khazars, and with whom should they be identified today?” http://www.imninalu.net/Khazars.htm.
[33] Brook, The Jews of Khazaria.
[34] Kevin Alan Brook, “Re: Jews and the Khazars,” on the Jewish Genealogy Forum, www.genealogy.com, posted on Aug. 4, 2004.
[35] Brook, “From the East, West, and South,” p. 6.
[36] Sawyer, “Zionism and the Talmud.”
[37] Rabbi Yaakov Kleiman, DNA & Tradition: The Genetic Link to the Ancient Hebrews (Jerusalem: Devora Publishing Co., 2004), p. 169.
[38] Joel Bainerman, “So What If a Small Portion of World Jewry Are Descendants Of Khazars!” Jan. 3, 2003, www.rense.com/general33/sowhat.htm.
[39] Koestler, Thirteenth Tribe, p.223.
[40] Sawyer, “Zionism and the Talmud.”
[41] Jordan, “Christian Zionism,” p. 177.
[42] Ibid. p. 183.
[43] Ibid. p. 184.
[44] Arnold Fruchtenbaum, Israelology: The Missing Link in Systematic Theology, rev. ed.(Tustin, CA: Ariel Ministries Press, 1992), p. 2
[45] Erroll Hulse, The Restoration of Israel (Worthing, England: Henry E. Walter, Ltd., 1982), p. 175.
[46] Ronald E. Diprose, Israel in the Development of Christian Thought (Rome: Istitutio Biblico Evangelico Italiano, 2000), p. 7.
[47] Jordan, “Christian Zionism,” p. 177.
[48] Kleiman, DNA & Tradition, p. 173.