Who Are Modern-Day Jews?
Do Western Christians Really Know?
The vast majority of Western Christians, including most Pastors and teachers, are quite ignorant in regards to the history of modern-day Jews.
One of the foundational misconceptions is that modern Jews are actual, traceable, descendants of Biblical Jews.
This is one of the biggest misconceptions currently embraced by the Western Christian Church today.
Anyone claiming that their Jewish ancestry is traceable to ancient Israel would need to produce accurate genealogical records going back at least two thousand years. NO ONE can trace their ancestry back that far today, NO ONE!
In the Bible, the recorded genealogies of Jesus, in Matthew 1:1-16 & Luke 3:23-38, (or the first 9 chapters of the book of 1 Chronicles, and others) give us a good example of how these genealogical records would need to be.
Therefore, this needs to be said again; no person alive has that kind of ancient documentation available, and therefore, again, there are no traceable descendants of Biblical Jews alive today. NONE!
Even in the Bible, Nehemiah 7, records the returning Babylonian exiles as needing accurate documentation to prove that they were descendants of Israel. In Nehemiah 7:61-64, it records several groups who could not accurately show that they were descendants of Israel, and even the Levites were considered unclean and therefore excluded from the priesthood without documented proof of their Levitical lineage......and that was after only 80 years of exile.
If God had intended any group to have a traceable lineage, back to the time of Christ, the necessary records would be there today.
Therefore no person alive today has a legitimate, traceable, claim to be a descendant of a Biblical Israelite. There are no traceable descendants of Biblical Israelites or Jews alive today. NONE.
Many if not most modern Jews have a genealogy entirely of Gentile origin which began around the mid 700’s A.D.
History records two separate lineages for the Jews of today—the Sephardic Jews, and the Ashkenazi Jews.
Sephardic Jews:
Sephardic Jews, percentage-wise, are a very small group among those claiming a Jewish identity today. The Sephardic Jews are said to come from those Jews who survived the Roman siege and destruction of Jerusalem in A.D. 70. The Jews who populated Jerusalem at that time were either killed, enslaved, or brought back to Rome for imprisonment or enslavement. However, not all Jews were living in Jerusalem, or the surrounding area at that time, therefore many non-resident Jews survived and 65 years later, in A.D. 135, many of the descendants of these Jews were again crushed by the Roman army in Jerusalem in what was called the 2nd Jewish revolt.
Even though Sephardic Jews may possibly have the closest connection to Biblical Jews, whatever remains of their original Jewish genetic lineage, from 2000 years ago, has been diluted to the point that none can trace a genealogy, the way genealogies are traced in the Bible, back to Biblical Israel. However, if anyone on earth today, they would probably have the closest claim, albeit a very weak and un-provable claim, to being the descendants of Biblical Jews.
Note- It needs to be noted that Sephardic Jews in Israel are looked down upon, and considered inferior, by the majority who are Ashkenazi Jews. It is also a recorded historical fact that Israel deceptively forced sterilization upon Ethiopian Sephardic Jews, and it was done under the guise of mandatory health vaccines. Therefore Israel is a nation that actually practices, what they call anti-Semitism, in their treatment of the Sephardic Jews.
Ashkenazi Jews:
The exact historical records for the Ashkenazi Jews are somewhat in dispute, but almost all seem to agree that their origin is from an area of Central and Eastern Europe. Ashkenazi Jews are said to be the descendants of the Khazars from the gentile empire of Khazaria that converted to Judaism around 740 A.D. and continued well into the 13th century. Judaism became the Khazar's state religion and lasted for almost 500 years. It is also claimed by some historians that the vast majority of European Jews who died in WWII, and their descendants in the world and Israel today, come primarily from this Ashkenazi Gentile-based genealogy.
Although the depth of the Jewish Khazars connection is disputable, much of what is considered Jewish culture today comes from this Ashkenazi culture and has no roots in Old Testament Judaism. The Yiddish language, along with much of what is called Jewish food, is an example of such. It was also the descendants from this group of Jews, with their non-existent Biblical Jewish genealogy, who, in the late 19th century, started the Zionist movement to create the Jewish state called Israel. None of these people are the traceable, unbroken, direct descendants of ancient Israel (of course it must also be noted that no human alive has a traceable genealogy, the way the Bible traces genealogies, to ancient Israel).
GAZE Jews:
GAZE Jews. (pronounced Gah - Zee)
As much as we can tell the name GAZE Jew is only an acronym, of unknown dated origin, which appears to stand for; Global - Atheist - Zionist - Elitist. Therefore it could apply to anyone identifying as Jew. We mention this only to address the term itself as it has no particular importance to the false Biblical Jewish identity currently embraced by the Western Christian Church today. Moreover, the acronym, if it is correct, could only apply to a very small percentage of those who identify as Jews, and then only to the wealthy and/or politically connected elite.
Gaze is also a surname of some Jewish families who migrated to South America in the 1900s, but there appears to be no connection between the acronym and the families with that surname.
Note: If anyone has more information regarding the acronym, GAZE Jew, please e-mail it to us via the e-mail address at the bottom of the cover page.
NOTE:
Links to Bible references are from the website, It is an excellent reference to God's Word and available to anyone with access to a computer. They have no connection to our site nor do they endorse us in any manner.
See addendum below.
No one today can even define what a Jew is without his or her definition coming under dispute. Encyclopedias state that there is presently no Jewish race because throughout the years they have intermarried and become absorbed into other nationalities. Now we realize that encyclopedias are not the Word of God, and therefore are often wrong. Nevertheless from our research, that is the consensus when one searches for the * definition of a Jew. To repeat; a single definable definition of a Jew does not exist.
After the Israelite's exodus from Egypt, and prior to the Cross, God kept the sons of Israel separate, and for the most part, kept the lineage somewhat pure until their last few hundred years. God said, as recorded in 1 Kings 11:2, “…you shall not associate with them (the surrounding nations), neither shall they associate with you, for they will surely turn your heart away after their gods.” He commanded the Israelites not to intermarry with the other nations (a command many did not always obey, including Israel’s wisest king, King Solomon), but at the Cross, all that changed. God’s Word and blessings now went out to all nations and all people.
However, today the most common consensus is if the mother is Jewish then all of her offspring are Jews. This is an interesting change, and a modern one at that, because for the Israelites of the Old Testament the lineage was carried and traced through the father, not the mother (Acts 16:1-3). That is also probably why the first lineage of Jesus, recorded in the New Testament, was through Joseph, even though he was not the biological father of Jesus. However, whether it comes through the father or mother, it is still irrelevant because the genealogical records that would tie any modern Jew to ancient Israel do not exist.
Some people claim to be able to trace a Jewish ancestry through the modern science of DNA, but since there is no accurate Jewish DNA available from 2,000 years ago, their conclusions are, at best, nothing but, foolish, wishful speculation.
What do others say in regards to who is a Jew.
1. On page 312 in the book entitled The World’s Religions by Huston Smith, copyright © 1991 (paperback edition)
It states “…in what does this (Jewish) identity consist? Not doctrine, for there, is nothing one has to believe to be a Jew. Jews run the gamut, from those that believe that every letter and punctuation mark of the Torah was dictated by God, to those who do not believe in God at all. Indeed, it is impossible to name any one thing that of itself suffices to make one a Jew.”
2. From the website Judaism 101, as of this writing in 2013.
“It is important to note that being a Jew has nothing to do with what you believe or what you do. A person born to non-Jewish parents who have not undergone the formal process of conversion but who believes everything that Orthodox believe and observes every law and custom of Judaism is still a non-Jew, even in the eyes of the most liberal movements of Judaism, and a person born to a Jewish mother who is an atheist and never practices the Jewish religion is still a Jew, even in the eyes of the ultra-Orthodox. In this sense, Judaism is more like a nationality than like other religions, and being Jewish is like a citizenship.”
3. Encyclopedia Britannica (online version):
“In the modern world, a definition of Jew that would be satisfactory to all is virtually impossible to construct, for it involves ethnic and religious issues that are both complex and controversial.”
4. Encarta MSN Dictionary.
“What constitutes Jewish identity came into question during the 19th and 20th centuries, however, some Jews today, especially in Israel, reject the Jewish religion but insist that they belong to a distinct identity, an ethnic or national community. Other Jews, especially in the West, reject the ethnic component of Jewish identity while claiming they follow a distinct religion. Still others in the West define themselves as cultural Jews, meaning that they lack a religious affiliation and feel part of some other ethnic group, but they believe there is a distinctive Jewish culture in which they participate. In all parts of the world, there are Jews who insist that Jews are both an ethnic and a religious group. Finally, there are those who insist that Jewish religious law defines Jewish identity. In this view, anyone born to a Jewish mother or anyone who has properly converted to the Jewish faith is a full-fledged member of the Jewish people and religion. Thus, today there is no consensus on the definition of a Jew”
Therefore:
If one studies history with a truly open mind, it soon becomes obvious why there is no consensus on the definition of a Jew today. Furthermore, for the Western Christian Church to hold up the nation of Israel today, and the Jews that populate it, as anything other than just another nation in the world, is foolishness. Moreover to ascribe any kind of special sacredness to either Israel, or the Jews who populate it, and then consider that as being based on God's Holy Word, is false teaching at the least, and even borders on, if not outright, blasphemy.
Moreover, modern Israel is the only nation in history that has ever been founded on the spirit of the antichrist. 1 John 2:22 and 1 John 4:3 clearly defines what the spirit of antichrist is. Modern Israel was founded as a Jewish state, with Judaism as it is only truly accepted and government-supported religion, therefore it formally denies Jesus as the Messiah and fulfills the definition of the spirit of antichrist. Other nations throughout history have embraced the spirit of the antichrist but only one, the modern state of Israel, was founded around Judaism, therefore, denying Jesus as the Messiah.
If the Western Christian Church is going to successfully pray for revival and healing across our nations, then we must clean up our own act first. Therefore blasphemy such as this must be purged out of the Church.
However, it is certainly acceptable for a Christian to pray for Israel today, but not on the basis that they are any more special than any other nation, but rather that they are just another nation that needs the salvation of Jesus preached within their borders.
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