The tribe of Judah was a subset of the kingdom of Judah, but there were other Hebrew tribes which belonged to the kingdom of Judah which also made them Jewish, such as the tribes of Benjamin and Levi, for example. The English term Jew originates from the Biblical Hebrew word Yehudi, meaning "from the Kingdom of Judah." For a Jew was originally a person from the kingdom of Judah, not the tribe of Judah. What makes things a little confusing is that the kingdom of Judah was named after the tribe of Judah, which was the royal tribe of the kingdom. For the term "Jew" didn’t start out as a descendant identifier, but rather as a national identifier. The word Jew would later go on to include an even broader spectrum which included all the twelve tribes of Israel, but it was never used to identify a single tribe. The attempt of this work will be an effort to clear up the misunderstandings of who is a Jew, and this presentation will also strive to identify the origins of the Ishmaelites, a people group who share the patriarch Abraham as a common ancestor along with the Jews.
Now when it comes to the account of the Ishmaelites, as found in the pages of the book of Genesis, it is clearly understood that Ishmael and his descendants were of both Semitic and Hamitic bloodlines. For example, Ishmael's father Abraham was a Hebrew from the lineage of Shem, and Ishmael's mother was an Egyptian from the lineage of Ham. Going further, we also see that Hagar, Ishmael's Egyptian mother, took for him a wife out of the land of Egypt (Genesis 21:21). So even though Ishmael possessed Hebraic roots through the lineage of his Hebrew father Abraham, Ishmael's descendants would also share strong racial ties to the Egyptians due to the matriarchal elements of both his Egyptian mother and his Egyptian wife. Therefore, the ethnic origins of the ancient Ishmaelites lean more in the direction of the Hamitic races, rather than dominantly stemming from the ancient Semitic people groups. Yet even though the Ishmaelites are of Hamitic stock through their matriarchal DNA, their tribal heritage is firstly Hebraic due to Ishmael's descendant from Abraham who was a Hebrew. For when two people of different ethnicities have children, their offspring are associated with the father's race, due to the dominance of the patriarchal DNA. So even though the Ishmaelites retained much Hamitic blood, they are also classified as Semitic due to their lineage and descent from Abraham.
Concerning Abraham and his people, we see that the geographical area of ancient Mesopotamia was the homeland of the various Semitic tribes which Abraham was a part of. More specifically, Abraham and his entire family originally lived in the Sumerian city state of Ur of the Chaldees, before Abraham was called by Yahweh to leave the land of his birth and go to a land that the Lord would show him (Genesis 12:1). Also in Genesis 14:13 Abraham is called a Hebrew, for it is understood that the title of Hebrew originated with Eber, a distant ancestor of Abraham. Now, the Hebrew word Eber is connected with crossing over. Considering that other names for the descendants of Shem also stand for places, Eber can also be considered the name of an area, perhaps near Assyria. The prevailing view of scholars is that the Hebrews had received their name from Eber, while also pointing out that the name "Hebrew" meant "those who cross", in reference to those who crossed the Euphrates river with Abraham from Ur to Harran, and then to the land of Canaan.
When examining the name "Canaan", we see that it appears all throughout the Old Testament, especially in Genesis where it corresponds to "the Levant", in particularly the areas of the Southern Levant which provides the main setting for the stories found within the Bible. Though the term Canaan referred to a physical location, Canaan was also the name of one of the sons of Ham. For shortly after the Great Flood, the Bible tells us that Noah cursed Canaan the son of Ham, due to Ham uncovering his father's nakedness (Genesis 9:20-27). Now the descendants of Ham are believed to have populated the continent of Africa, and due to the fact that Noah cursed Canaan the son of Ham and prophesied that he would be a servant of servants to his brethren, this has led many to conclude that the plight of the African slave trade can be traced back to the curse placed upon Canaan by his grandfather Noah. However, it is traditionally held that the land of Canaan was not originally populated by Hamites but by Semitic peoples, namely the Phoenicians, within the territory we know today as the country of Lebanon and parts of the modern state of Israel. Additionally, in the Book of Joshua, Canaanites were included in the list of nations that God commanded the Israelites to exterminate. So whether Canaan was African or Lebanese, the fact remains that Canaan was cursed. Yet since the name associated with a generational curse is the same name used to denote a blessed piece of real-estate, described in the Bible as a land flowing with milk and honey, a further study into this anomaly is indeed required, but is beyond the scope of this present work to be expanded upon.
Returning to the origins of the Israelites, the Bible tells us that the second born son of Abraham, and the firstborn to his wife Sarah, was named Isaac who is also known as the child of promise. For it would be through Isaac's bloodline that the promised Messiah would eventually be birthed from, but not through the descendants of Ishmael, Isaac's half-brother. Isaac would go on to father Esau and Jacob. Though Esau was the eldest, the blessing of Isaac was given to Jacob instead through trickery. Esau, in turn, went on to marry the daughter of Ishmael, and his descendants would be known as the Edomites. Jacob, who would later be known by the name "Israel" a name that means to strive or to struggle with God, would father twelve sons which later developed into tribes. And this ancient Biblical family or people group are known as the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Due to certain circumstances, the initial family of Israel, numbering about seventy souls altogether, found themselves in the land of Egypt and settled there for a period of about 400 years. During their 400-year sojourn in the land of Egypt, the Israelites increased in number and were collectively known as the Hebrews.
After their Exodus from Egypt and their wanderings in the wilderness, the children of Israel established themselves in the promised land around the year 1400 BC or possibly even 1200 BC. At any rate, the Hebrews eventually formed themselves into the united kingdom of Israel around 1000 BC. In approximately 922 BC, the kingdom of Israel split into a northern kingdom, called Israel, and a southern kingdom, called Judah. Although all the twelve tribes were included in the Israelite ethnicity, inhabitants of the northern kingdom were Israelites also by virtue of being from the kingdom of Israel, while inhabitants of the southern kingdom were known as Judeans or Jews by virtue of being from the kingdom of Judah. However, with the destruction of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians in 722 BC, the only Israelites remaining were the Judeans, and thus the terms Israelite and Jew become somewhat interchangeable. The southern kingdom, consisting of two of the twelve tribes (specifically Benjamin and Judah) became known as Judah, and managed to survive until the year 586 BC, when the Babylonians conquered it. Jerusalem fell, the Temple was destroyed, and a large number of Judeans or Jews were deported into Babylon. Thus began the era of Jewish history known as the Babylonian Captivity.
Under Persian rule at the end of the sixth century BC, the Jews were released from their bondage in Babylon. Upon returning to their homeland, the areas around Jerusalem were now named Yehud and the term Yehudi (often translated “Jew” but more properly “Ju-dean”) referred to an inhabitant of Yehud or Judea. Also, it would be some centuries before the term Yehudi was understood to designate an adherent of the tradition of Judaism making one a Jew, rather than an inhabitant of the province of Judea making one a Judean. Concerning the term Hebrew, it is the name employed in some Biblical sources to designate the most ancient ancestors of the Israelite people. It is primarily an ethnic and linguistic term, denoting persons who spoke Hebrew. Now, what happened to the ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel after 722 BC, is a bit of a mystery. For it seems that they have been lost to history. But the tribal heritage of the members of the southern kingdom of Judah were preserved. For the inhabitants of Judea were made up of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, along with elements from the priestly tribe of Levi. And these tribes of Judea would now collectively be known simply as Jews.
In conclusion, it can be understood by combing through the entire Bible that a Jew is not just someone belonging to the tribe of Judah, but is a term that can also be applied to designate all those who make up the various tribes of the children of Israel. For in the Old Testament book of Esther 2:5; we see that someone from the tribe of Benjamin was referred to as a Jew. Also in the New Testament the Apostle Paul calls himself a Jew in Acts 21:39, where elsewhere Paul describes himself as "...of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, an Hebrew..." (Philippians 3:5). So from what has been presented in this work the terms Hebrew, Jew, and Israelite may have had different meanings at different times, spanning all throughout the history of the Hebrews, yet all three are appropriate in their various designations. For the names Hebrew and Jew, are both valid in their descriptions, which include all the twelve tribes of Israel.
References:
Hayes, C. Introduction to the Bible: The Open Yale Courses Series. (Yale University Press, 2012).
Strong, J. The New Strong's Expanded Exhaustive Concordance of the Bible. (Nashville, Tennessee: Thomas Nelson, Inc., 2010).
Zondervan. The Holy Bible, King James Version. (Grand Rapids, Michigan: Zondervan, 2009).
