American Torah

Who Is Israel? Episodes 1-4

• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Episode 4

As I noted regarding Episode 1, the text below is the transcript of a video, so it doesn’t read as smoothly as something intended to be read.

Welcome to episode two of Who Is Israel. In episode one we covered the history of Israel from God’s covenant with Abraham up to the reign of King Solomon. Let’s pick up right where we left off.

King Solomon made Israel into a trade giant and created large public works, but he also generated enormous personal wealth and imported foreign religions.

Big government always brings higher taxes, and Solomon’s government was no different. He increased taxes and other demands on his own people, including sending many of them to foreign lands as slaves and hired workers. All of this fomented divisions between the tribes that dated from before Saul.

Solomon died around 930 BC, and his son Rehoboam became King after him. Rehoboam continued the domestic practices of Solomon, raising taxes even higher and importing more idolatry. His misguided policies finally split the nation in two.

Jeroboam, in Ephraim, led the ten northern tribes in rebellion.

In order to break spiritual ties to the south, he created an alternate religious system with a temple in his own tribal territory, and in order to break economic dependence, he formed stronger ties with foreign peoples to the north. The end result was two kingdoms, both Israel.

The southern kingdom was primarily made up of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin with parts of Levi and Simeon. When the two groups split, many refugees from the northern tribes fled south to join relatives who already lived there.

The southern kingdom was called Judah because that tribe was dominant, but is sometimes referred to in the Bible simply by the name of her capital city, Jerusalem.

The northern kingdom was dominated by Ephraim. In Scripture, she is called Israel, Ephraim, Samaria, or Shomron and was made up of the ten northern tribes: Zebulon, Issachar, Naphtali, Dan, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, and Gad with parts of Levi and Simeon. And just as some from the north move south to Judah, some from Judah undoubtedly settled in the north.

The nation was divided between two kingdoms, but whether in the north or the south, the natural descendants of Jacob as well as those who had been naturalized into Israel over the centuries were all Israel, God’s chosen people.

This is when things begin to get more complicated.

The Assyrian Empire engaged in a series of invasions of Israel between 740 and 720 BC with the brutality of Israel’s earlier Canaanite invasion, but on a much larger scale. The Assyrians killed millions of people across the Middle East, but they fought a different kind of conquest.

They didn’t just take the land and subjugate people. They wanted to incorporate those whom they had conquered into their own, to destroy them as a separate people and turn them all into Assyrians. In order to do that, they employed a systematic program of relocation. After killing a significant portion of the conquered nation, they would scatter the survivors throughout their empire, thus destroying their former national identity and helping to prevent future rebellions.

During these invasions the people of Israel followed four paths.

Many fled south to Judah. Every war has its refugees. The wealthy and the landless were able to escape more quickly and they were mostly assimilated by Judah.

Others were resettled within the Assyrian Empire. They were scattered from the Black Sea to the Persian Gulf where they mixed with other people who were already there. This was a deliberate attempt to destroy their ethnic identity.

Many years later when Babylon gave Judah a similar, but less drastic treatment, some few of Israel who had managed to retain their heritage by banding together in small communities were assimilated by exiled Judah. Most, however, completely forgot their identity as Israel and were assimilated by other people within Assyria.

A few more escaped beyond Assyria’s reach into Egypt, Arabia, and the Mediterranean. Some, who were taken away by the Assyrians, kept going into Persia and Central Asia, and most of these forgot their identity as Israel as well.

Despite the violence of Assyria’s invasions, some remained in the Land of Israel. They were farmers, in small villages, and hill people. They eventually merged with other peoples resettled by Assyria in their land and became the Samaritans and, later, Hellenized Jews.

The end result was that there were two groups of Ephraim in exile:

Ephraimites, living in Judah and still in cohesive communities when Babylon replaced Syria, mostly came to identify as Jews.

Other Ephraimites, including many of those still in the Land of Israel, were scattered and assimilated into the nations.

The southern kingdom of Judah lasted 120 years longer than the Northern Kingdom of Israel. Babylon eventually replaced Assyria as the dominant regional power and began a series of invasions into Judah. The first invasion took place around 605 BC.

Some of Judah fled South to Egypt, Arabia, and other places in the opposite direction from Babylon, but most people stayed, and the kingdom became a vassal state of Babylon.

Within a few years, however, King Jehoiakim switched allegiances to Egypt. This resulted in a second invasion around 597 BC. The city of Jerusalem was besieged and eventually recaptured. The city and temple were looted, and King Jehoiakim was killed.

More refugees fled south, and about 50,000 captives were taken to Babylon, including young Jechoniah. As before, most of the people stayed in the land of Judah and continued as vassals of Babylon.

King Nebuchadnezzar placed Jechoniah’s uncle Zedekiah on the throne in Jerusalem, but like Jehoiakim, he too soon rebelled, and Babylon invaded a third time in 586 BC. This time, Jerusalem was completely destroyed along with the temple.

More refugees fled south across Arabia and Africa, but most of the people of Judah were taken as prisoners to the Euphrates Valley. Very few Israelites were left in Judea after this.

These exiles of Judah in Babylon absorbed many of the people of Ephraim who had maintained their identity as Israel after the Assyrian invasion of the north. However, much of Ephraim was too scattered or had already been assimilated by other peoples by this time.

The end result of Judah’s destruction was two groups of people in exile who came to be known as Jews: the Jews in Babylon and the Jews in diaspora among the nations.

But this was not the end of either Judah or Israel. Centuries before, God had predicted all of this, including that they would fall away and be exiled. But God also promised to have mercy on them and to restore them when they repent.

While Judah was in exile in Babylon, Jews had migrated throughout the Babylonian Empire. Very few lived in Judea. The land was occupied by Samaritans, Canaanites, and others, while Edomites had begun moving in from the southeast.

In about 540 BC, Persia conquered Babylon and became the new supreme power in the Middle East. King Cyrus allowed some Jews to return to Judea and rebuild the temple over a long period between 540 and 440 BC. Zerubabbel, Ezra, and Nehemiah were part of this migration, but all Israel didn’t return at that time. Those who came back to Judea were relatively few and almost exclusively from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

Most Jews remained in distant lands, many migrating across the Persian Empire in Asia. Jews had spread throughout Mesopotamia even into the Indus Valley in Central Asia. In Africa, Jews lived in Egypt, Libya, Ethiopia, and probably even further west and south, but all empires eventually fall.

Around 330 BC, the Greeks and Macedonians conquered Persia and Judea. The Jews continued their migratory pattern of following armies and trade routes of their conquerors into every corner of the new Empire. They moved across the Greek Empire en masse into southeastern Europe around the Black Sea and across North Africa.

Many Jews probably also drifted back to Judea during this brief time of relative peace and tolerance.

Around 160 BC Judah Maccabee revolted and set up a new Jewish Kingdom. Many Jews returned to Judea at that time, although many more still lived outside of the borders of Judea than inside. During their rule the Maccabees conquered neighboring kingdoms including Edom whom they forcibly converted to Judaism. Many individuals of those conquered peoples were assimilated by Judea over the ensuing centuries.

Most of the old Canaanite peoples had vanished by this time, having been completely assimilated, or destroyed. Their descendants among Israel had been recognized as full Israelites for centuries, with little to no distinction between them and fully pedigreed Israelites.

Around 60 BC the Romans conquered Syria and Judea. Under Roman rule, Edom and Judah were separated and recombined in various ways by shifting politics, and Jews migrated further across the Mediterranean and southern Europe.

Over time Jews came to occupy professional classes wherever they went. Nearly every significant Roman city had Jewish settlements and many Roman military units had attached Jewish scribes. By 70 AD the Jews had permanent settlements throughout the world known to the Romans and beyond.

Over the centuries Israel had scattered as refugees beyond the reach of conquerors, they had been subjected to mass forced relocations, large numbers of their people had been enslaved, they endured persecutions and forced conversions to foreign religions.

But not all of their population changes had been involuntary. They followed trade routes to and from distant lands, they intermarried with foreign peoples, many non-Jews became proselytes and were adopted into Israel, and, just as Israelites were enslaved and forced to convert, so too Israel subjected others to slavery and forced conversions, and all of this before their most infamous confrontation with Rome.

At the end of the first Diaspora, in one respect Israel looked very much like they had at the beginning, but from another angle they look very different indeed.

Israel started as two camps: Judah and Ephraim. Each change in world power caused the Israelites, both Jew and Ephraimite, to scatter even further until they settled far beyond the boundaries of the world known to other Mediterranean peoples. They scattered among the nations separately. First Ephraim and then Judah. Many Ephraimites were absorbed by Judah, but each of them also adopted people from out of the nations and were in turn adopted into the nations.

Israel ended the first diaspora as she began: in two camps. But the nature of the two groups had changed dramatically. Members of both Judah and Ephraim were assimilated into the nations in the places where they were scattered, but Ephraim had long faded to invisibility in the world as a distinct people, while Judah attempted to keep herself separate.

As it always does, history soon repeated itself. A Jewish revolt in 66 AD was the first of several over the next century sparked by nationalist uprisings, false messiahs, and liberation movements. Subsequent Roman invasions resulted in mass crucifixions and millions dead. Ultimately the Jews were banished from Judea by Rome, the land was renamed Palestina after the Jews’ old enemies, the Philistines, and Jerusalem was renamed Aelia Capitolina. The Jewish people were scattered further than ever, many trying to escape the reach of Rome just as Ephraim had fled Assyria.

But another movement spread with and ahead of the Jews.

We’ll hear more about that in episode 3. Don’t miss it and don’t forget to stop by the blog at AmericanTorah.com.

This is Jay Carper for the kingdom of God and a stronger America.

Be blessed.

Who Is Israel? Episodes 1-4

• Episode 1
• Episode 2
• Episode 3
• Episode 4

There is a lot of confusion and many competing theories today about the place of Gentiles who have come to believe in Israel’s Messiah. Are we Israel? Are we Ephraim? Are we something else entirely? In my Who Is Israel video series, I attempt to answer these questions as well as closely related questions about the Jews.

This is episode 1. I posted a transcript below the video, but don’t expect it to read like a polished text article. It’s awkward, repetitious, and simplistic. In part, that’s the nature of video transcripts. It’s also an artifact of my lack of experience in creating videos. I expect the video, sound quality, and transcripts will improve as I get more practice.

TRANSCRIPT:

Christians of all denominations, whether Catholic, Protestant, Orthodox, or Messianic, all love God and want to do what’s right and obey him, but I’m afraid that we’ve forgotten our roots. Most of us have.

The New Testament writings are rooted in the Old Testament and can’t be understood without it. Almost every teaching of Jesus, John, and all the New Testament writers are straight from the Old Testament. Paul’s letters, for example, are primarily commentary on the Old Testament for Gentiles who are new to the faith.

Hi, my name is Jay Carper from American Torah, and my mission is to highlight the deep roots of New Testament theology in the Old Testament. I want to make all of the Bible relevant for Americans today.

Since I write a lot about Torah and keeping God’s law, people frequently ask me if I’m Jewish. I’m not, but it’s a reasonable question. I also see a lot of discussion on social media about the technical meaning of the word Jew.

Who is a Jew? Are the Jews the same as Israel? Are the Jews of today the same as the Jews of Jesus’ day? Is the church Israel? Did God reject the Jews in favor of the church? Where did the Ten Lost Tribes go? Where they lost at all?

These can be sensitive questions even when asked completely without any rancor. I understand why some people get defensive and angry when they hear them, but I don’t think it’s wrong to ask honest questions. I can’t think of anything that shouldn’t be questioned to some extent. Sincere and thoughtful questions deserve sincere and thoughtful answers.

There are four questions related to Jews and Israel that I want to answer in this video:

• First, who are the Jews?
• Second, who is Israel?
• Third, who or what is the Synagogue of Satan, and
• Fourth, what does this have to do with you and me?

In order to answer those questions, I’m going to trace the history of Israel and the Jews from ancient Mesopotamia all the way through to the 21st century. I’ll touch on their origins in Abraham, their migrations, the invasions, all the spiritual revolutions that happen to Israel over the centuries, what happened to the northern ten tribes after the Assyrian invasion, how yesterday’s Israel became today’s Jews, how the Jews became scattered around the world, who the Jews are today, Israel and prophecy, and what the relationship of the Chris Church is to Israel.

Sometime between 2000 and 1500 BC God began a process of division. He began dividing covenant people from non covenant people.

Abraham was born in Mesopotamia, probably somewhere in modern Iraq. He is widely considered to be the first Hebrew. The word Hebrew comes from an ancient word meaning one who crosses over, and this applies to Abraham in two ways. First, Abraham crossed over from paganism to faith in the true God, and second, he crossed over from his home in Mesopotamia east of the Jordan into the Promised Land.

During his travels, God made covenants with Abraham, including several promises. First, to make him into a great nation and, second, to bless all peoples of the earth through him.

Abraham had a son through his wife’s servant, Hagar. His name was Ishmael. He was born after God made the covenant to make Abraham into a nation,
but Ishmael would not be the vehicle of God’s promises, so he was not counted in the Covenant. God blessed Ishmael, but he did not inherit the Covenant from Abraham.

Later, when Abraham was 99 years old, God promised him a son by his wife Sarah. That sons name was Isaac. Isaac was born when Abraham was 100 and Sarah was 90. He’s called the son of promise, and he is the inheritor of the covenant.

Abraham also married a woman named Keturah. He had more sons, but these sons also weren’t part of the Covenant. Only one son inherited that covenant from Abraham, and that was Isaac.

Isaac also had two sons. His first son was Esau. Esau despised his covenant birthright, so God despised him too and cut him off from the covenant people. Isaac’s second son was Jacob. Jacob wanted the Covenant and so he inherited it from Isaac. As with the previous generation, the Covenant went to one son and not the other.

Ishmael, the sons of Keturah, and Esau were all descendants of Abraham, but they would not become part of Israel. Over two generations God split each family into two camps. One inherited the Covenant and one didn’t. But something changed with Jacob. Instead of subtracting people from the covenant, God began adding them.

Jacob married two women, creating a divided house. Leah, with her servant girl and their sons, became one house. Rachel, with her servant girl and their sons, became another. So Jacobs children formed two sub houses, but, unlike Isaac and Ishmael and Jacob and Esau, the sons of all four women inherited as part of the Covenant. None of his sons were skipped over or cut off from the covenant. Jacob, whom God later renamed to Israel, had twelve sons, and they all inherited it alike.

Abraham and Isaac had many servants in their lifetimes and those servants benefited from being part of their houses, but just like Ishmael and Keturah, they didn’t inherit the Covenant with Isaac and Jacob.

Jacob also acquired servants throughout his journeys, and his sons acquired many more, but the Bible says they entered Egypt as 70 people. These are only only the literal sons of Jacob because the servants aren’t formally counted with Israel. Servants still counted as members of the households and the Egyptians made no distinction. They treated them all as a single people.

The Bible only enumerates the literal sons of Jacob, but we know that many more people than this had been assimilated into Israel and entered Egypt with them. They spent 200 years in Egypt, and there were probably many other people enslaved there with them. Many of them merged with the Hebrews during that time. Jacob’s 70 became a multitude, not just through the growth of their own families, but by the absorption of other people.

At each stage God divided Israel from not Israel. With Abraham and Isaac God subtracted but with Jacob God added.

The Hebrews spent 200 years in Egypt after Jacob’s family of 70 left Canaan and all during this time God continued his refining process of adding and subtracting people from Israel. The Hebrews were persecuted and enslaved in Egypt, but as always God had a plan of salvation.

More than 2 million people left Egypt with Moses into the wilderness, and during those 2 centuries in Egypt if every Hebrew family had 10 children who survived into adulthood, and each of those children had ten more of their own, the Hebrews alone could have accounted for all of the people who left in the exodus, but it doesn’t seem likely.

The Hebrews had a very harsh life in Egypt. They endured hard manual labor of slavery. They worked in farming, fishing, and building construction, all of which could be dangerous occupations. Some people, even 3500 years ago, never even had children and many others, like Isaac and Rebecca, only had a few. Some who did have large families unfortunately lose some of their children at a young age through disease or violence, such as when Pharaoh ordered the infant Hebrew boys to be thrown into the Nile. If that weren’t enough some Israelites probably assimilated into Egyptian and other foreign cultures. They got tired of waiting for God’s Redemption and stopped being Hebrews altogether.

The people who left Egypt with Moses were probably mostly descendants of Jacob, but also would have included many people from other nations, including other descendants of Abraham, such as the Midianites and completely foreign people such as Kushites. The Bible calls these people a mixed multitude.

The people who entered the Promised Land were a mixed group of Hebrews, Egyptians, Edomites, Kushites, and others, but God still called them all Israel. In the wilderness Israel lost many people through several rebellions. There was the incident of the golden calf at Sinai, Korah’s rebellion, the faithlessness of the ten spies, and several incidents of the people complaining against God. They had conflicts with Moabites, Midianites, and others. Many people died. They weren’t separated or exiled from the rest of the nation, but they were culled by death.

At the time that Israel entered the promised land, God had told them that they were to conquer all of the peoples across the Jordan. Not immediately, but in time and without compromise. Eventually all of the Canaanites were to be entirely destroyed or dispossessed. They started strong under Joshua’s leadership, but never finished the job. They left Philistines, Moabites, and Midianites in the south. They left Canaanites, Hittites, and others in the north.

During the time of the judges intermarriage and assimilation worked both ways. The Israelites assimilated into Canaanite people and ceased being Israelites at all, while Canaanites assimilated into Israel and became Hebrews. Each group remained a separate people, but the lines between them blurred over the next 400 years.

By the time Samuel anointed Saul king of Israel there was a significant amount of admixture in Israel, yet God still called all of those who are descended from Jacob along with all of those who joined the Hebrews in worshiping Him “Israel”, and treated the whole as a single people.
King Saul was from the tribe of Benjamin, but he began a process of uniting the divided tribes of Israel. They were essentially twelve loosely allied tribes each with their own leadership. Saul mostly united the people and defeated many of Israel’s enemies, but he didn’t destroy all of the Canaanites and Philistines.

King David completed the process of the unification that Saul had begun, but he too failed to purge the land of Canaanites and Philistines. He conquered numerous neighboring kingdoms, subjugated many foreign people, bringing foreign slaves into Israel as laborers and as war captives. History tells us that war almost inevitably brings intermarriage and at least a partial merging of cultures.

David’s son, Solomon, established wide-ranging trade networks. He sent Israelites with Phoenician ships all across the Mediterranean, probably much of the Indian Ocean as well, and through these trade networks, many foreigners immigrated to Israel, including many of Sullivan’s wives. Trade, like war, also brings intermarriage. Solomon married many non-Hebrews and his officials likely did the same.

Israel absorbed many people from the surrounding kingdoms during this time, and many Israelites emigrated to foreign lands and stayed there. Despite all this movement of people, and the assimilation of many foreigners into Israel, in time, there was no real distinction made between the descendants of those people and the descendants of Jacob. God treated them all as Israel.

In this episode, we talked about the origins of Israel in God’s covenant with Abraham, the refining of the Covenant people until Jacob, Israel’s time in Egypt, and Israel as a nation up until King Solomon. In Episode two will begin at Solomon’s death and the division of Israel into two kingdoms.

Don’t forget to check out the blog at AmericanTorah.com.

This is Jay Carper for the kingdom of God and a stronger America. Be blessed.