Episode 6 of the Theopologetics Podcast is available! In this episode I am joined by a close friend of mine, asking and answering the question, “Who is a Jew?” This will be the first in a periodic series discussing Israelology, the study of Israel and her people.
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Hello Brother,
ReplyDeleteI just listened to one of your podcasts and I wanted to let you know how much I enjoyed it. Great stuff... You and I have quit a bit in common, even so far as Hannegraaf's program. We should talk. And thanks for your input in the Baptism thread on Tweb.
Thanks so much for the kind words, Michael, and thanks for listening! Yes, it does appear we have a lot in common, and I would love to talk sometime. Looking forward to it :)
ReplyDeleteHi, I just listened to this podcast today and found it interesting.
ReplyDeleteRegarding your guest's definition of a Jew being one physically related to Jacob, do you think he'd say that anyone related to the lines of the Northern Kingdom of Israel who were disbursed by the Assyrians would be Jews, and if their records were lost, how would one know they weren't a Jew? (and why would that be important?)
My thoughts are that being Jewish stopped being relevant after Jerusalem was destroyed by the Romans, which would have been a future event (in my view) of all the New Testament books.
Thanks, and I look forward to exploring more of your podcasts!
Hi, Dave. Thanks for listening, and for chiming in! I'll send your comment my friend's way, but for now I'll share my thoughts with you.
ReplyDeleteI think we demonstrated that by the New Testament era, the word Jew (Ἰουδαῖος) had extended to include not just descendants of the Kingdom of Judah but descendants of the Kingdom of Israel as well. The concept of Gentile never included either kingdom, and yet in the New Testament the only meaningful racial categories are Jew and Gentile, and Jew is applied to all those who celebrate Passover, which would have included Israelites.
As for the records being lost, while that may make it difficult to legally prove lineage, I suspect parents passed on to their children successively the knowledge that they were descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.
While I would agree with you that there is ample biblical evidence that Judaism as expressed in the Mosaic Covenant came to an end with the destruction of the temple, I see no biblical evidence that Jewishness was to end. And I'm sure my friend and I will get more into this in future episodes in the Israelology series.