Semites and Hebrews and Jews, Oh My!

Semites and Hebrews and Jews, Oh My!

Did you ever wonder where these terms come from? And mean? 

Technically, Semites means descendants of Shem (son of Noah), Hebrews means descendants of Eber (great-grandson of Shem), and Jews means descendants of Judah (son of Israel). Some folks writing on the subject say Arabs are descended from Ishmael (son of Abraham) while others say not. But, any descendants of Ishmael would be considered Shemites and Hebrews, technically, since Abraham is descended from Shem through Eber. In practice, though, these terms seem more often to point only to Israelites, who were descendants of Jacob (son of Isaac the son of Abraham).

After David's kingdom split (soon after the death of Solomon) 10 tribes went north. The southern Kingdom at Jerusalem was then called Judah even though it was composed of Judah, Benjamin and Levi. (It's just that Judah had the greatest number of people.) The northern Kingdom, in the region that came to be called Samaria, was known as Israel or Ephraim. (The books of Samuel, Kings & Chronicles describe these things.) The northern kingdom tribes were conquered by the Assyrians in the 700's B.C. and mostly assimilated into gentile people groups and came to be called Samaritans. (The Jews considered the Samaritan-Israelites to be half-breed unclean folks because of their mixture with gentiles. ) But the southern kingdom tribes retained their identities through their exile & return to Jerusalem (500's B.C.). By the time of Jesus the term "Jew" referred to all the "true" Israelites, whether of Levi, or Benjamin or Judah tribes. Paul specifies his tribal specifics (Benjamin) in his letter to Philippians but in general conversation he was lumped into the term "Jew" (as in Romans, Colossians, Thessalonians). In Philippians we see usage of the term "Hebrew" as well.



Addendum:
OT prophets said the 12 tribes would be gathered together again by the coming Messiah. This He has done. Jesus has brought back the 10 lost tribes by bringing in all the gentile people groups (which includes those into which the 10 tribes were assimilated) to join God's Kingdom. This is the restored and perfected Kingdom of David... the new Israel... the new Jerusalem. It is also called His Church. He built His New Kingdom, His Church, on the foundation of the Apostles (Eph2). Jesus commanded and empowered the Apostles to lead/teach/protect/discipline the inhabitants of this restored Kingdom of God, this Church (ie Isaiah22:20ff; Jer­3:15; Matt16:13ff; Luke22:29ff; John21:15ff).