Topic(s): Old Testament, Bible Study,

Bob Prichard

As strange as it may seem, Abraham was not actually a Jew, but was instead the first Hebrew. Abraham may have been called a Hebrew because of his ancestor, Eber, but more likely “Hebrew” comes from a Hebrew word meaning “to pass over,” or “from beyond the river. This name was appropriate for him because Abram, as he was originally known, and his family passed beyond the Jordan River to enter Canaan. The first reference to “Abram the Hebrew” is Genesis 14:13. Abram [Abraham] and all of his descendants are Hebrews.

In addition to “Hebrew,” two other words, “Israelite” and “Jew” were used to describe God’s people under the old covenant. After wrestling with an angel at Peniel, the angel said to Jacob, “Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed” (Genesis 32:28). From that time forward, all descendants of Jacob, or Israel, were known as Israelites.

The term “Jew” means a descendant of Judah, one of the sons of Jacob. After the reign of Solomon, the kingdom of Israel divided into the northern nation of Israel, which eventually went into idolatry, and the southern kingdom of Judah. The kingdom of Judah was made up of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, many Levites and others who opposed the rebellion of Jereboam who broke away in the kingdom of Israel. After the kingdom of Judah returned from Babylonian captivity, the faithful remnant that returned called their nation “Israel,” and called themselves “Jews.”

“Jew,” “Israelite” and “Hebrew” have similar meanings, but “Israelite” has a broader application than “Jew,” and “Hebrew” has an even broader application. All Jews by blood are Israelites, but not all Israelites are Jews. A descendant of Jacob who was not also a descendant of either the tribe or kingdom of Judah would not be a Jew. All descendants of Abraham are Hebrews, but all are not Jews or Israelites, because Abraham had other descendants besides Isaac and Jacob. The Arab nations today, the descendants of Ishmael, the son of Abraham, are actually Hebrews, but not Israelites. Abraham’s wife Keturah “bare him Zimran, and Jokshan, and Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah” (Genesis 25:2). These descendants were also “Hebrews” but not “Israelites.”

By the New Testament period, it appears that the term “Hebrew” had come to mean the Jews who spoke the Aramaic (closely related to Hebrew), and read the Hebrew scriptures. “And in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplied, there arose a murmuring of the Grecians against the Hebrews, because their widows were neglected in the daily ministration” (Acts 6:1). Paul called himself “an Hebrew of the Hebrews,” because he considered himself a pure-minded Jew, who was also “of the stock of Israel” (Philippians 3:5). The true Hebrews, Israelites, and Jews of today are those who follow God. “Know ye therefore that they which are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham” (Galatians 3:7).