Common biblical errors and mistakes

2nd Timothy 2:15
Study to shew thyself approved unto God, a workman that needeth not to be ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth.

This article is for the average Christian, but also more importantly the Christian preacher, pastor, minister, leader, author, scholar, and theologian. It regards a mistake, an error, widely made throughout the Church when preaching, discussing, or writing about the children of Israel in the Old Testament particularly in the time period before the split of Israel into the two houses. This covers the first five books of the Torah and the books of the bible from Judges to 2nd Kings covering the story of Genesis and Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to God's changing of Jacob’s name, to the birth of Israel’s children, to their entrance into Egypt, to the children of Israel’s salvation from Egyptian bondage, to God’s covenant with Israel at Mt Sinai, to Israel’s entrance to the land of Canaan, to Israel’s strife between Saul and David, to King David’s reign over all twelve tribes, to Solomon’s rule over all Israel and his building of the temple, to YHWH God removing the united kingdom of Israel from Solomon, to the division of Israel.

It is within this context of time just illustrated, that Christian preachers, pastors, leaders, authors, scholars, and theologians make a common mistake when speaking about “Israel” or the “children of Israel.”

Examples are as follows:

Moses was teaching the people the law that God gave to the Jewish people at Mt Sinai.

In Deuteronomy God gave to the Jews the blessings and curses if they did not obey God.

The Jewish Old Testament is where we learn about the Passover. Moses commanded the Jews to kill the Passover lamb…

God gave the Jewish people the promise of the land of Canaan that was promised to their forefather Abraham.

Abraham, a Jew, obedient to God set about to sacrifice his son Isaac.

The Jews of the northern house of Israel in Samaria set up two golden calves which greatly angered God.

Moses, who was Jewish, likely wrote the first five books of the law or the Torah.

Did you catch the errors in the above examples?

Aside from obvious errors of Moses and Abraham and the Old Testament being “Jewish,” which they were not; most of the errors deal with using the words “the Jews” or “Jewish” in place of the proper biblical name of “Israel.”

The use of the “Jews” in place of “Israel” is most common mistake made today in the churches, in commentaries of our modern bibles, in Christian books about the bible or biblical topics.

Part of this confusion has to do with a misunderstanding of the Hebrew word for “Judah,” the tribe of Judah, and the Hebrew word for “the Jews,” of the house of Judah, which divided away from the house of Israel.

Before we get to the Hebrew words, let us clear up some facts in the Holy Bible.

First, Abraham, his son Isaac, and Isaac’s son Jacob were not Jews or Jewish according to the Bible.

Abram, whom God changed his name to Abraham, was a Hebrew and later we learn his kinsmen were of Syrian lineage from Mesopotamia out of Ur of the Chaldees and born of the lineage of Noah’s son Shem.

Genesis 25:20
And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel the Syrian of Padanaram, the sister to Laban the Syrian.

Genesis 28:5
And Isaac sent away Jacob: and he went to Padanaram unto Laban, son of Bethuel the Syrian, the brother of Rebekah, Jacob’s and Esau’s mother.

It is in Jacob, whom God changed his name to Israel, Jacob had 12 sons and one daughter, thus his children become known as “the children of Israel” and his twelve sons become twelve tribes of peoples of Israel.

Only one son of Jacob, or Israel, was named Judah.

Judah is technically the only tribe of the 12 tribes that could possibly be said to be “Jewish” though this is not biblically what Judah was known as. Judah was known in the Holy Bible as the men of Judah, or Judahites. Judah was an Israelite, thus a tribe of Israel.

Judah was born of Jacob’s wife Leah and while his brothers were Rueben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Zebulun, born of the same mother and retain characteristics and genetics of same, Rueben, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, and Zebulun are never known in the bible as Jews or Jewish. They, like Judah, were only identified in the Holy Bible as Israelites, and Israelite tribes.

Judah’s other brothers are born of three different mothers Rachel, Bilhah, and Zilpah, who Jacob had as wives.

These include Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin. None of these were ever biblically labeled as “Jewish,” or “of the Jews,” at this point in time. I stress ‘at this point in time’ because about a thousand years later in Israel’s history the Israelite tribe of Benjamin will join the Israelite tribe of Judah to form the divided “house of Judah” or “the Jews.”

1st Kings 12:21
And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon.

Now that we have distinguished the single tribe of Judah and the future house of Judah let’s look at the Hebrew using the Strongs Concordance.

The Hebrew for word Judah is Yëhuwdah

03063 Yëhuwdah yeh-hoo-daw’

from 03034, Greek 2448 and 2455 ; n pr m/n pr loc; [BDB-397a] {See TWOT on 850 @@ "850c"}
AV-Judah 808, Bethlehemjudah + 01035 10; 818

Judah= "praised"

n pr m
1) the son of Jacob by Leah
2) the tribe descended from Judah the son of Jacob
3) a Levite in Ezra’s time
4) an overseer of Jerusalem in the time of Nehemiah
5) a Levite musician in the time of Nehemiah
6) a priest in the time of Nehemiah

n pr loc
1) the territory occupied by the tribe of Judah
2) the kingdom comprised of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin which occupied the southern part of Canaan after the nation split upon the death of Solomon

Let us look at the Hebrew word used to designate the words “the Jews” meaning those of the house of Judah.

03064 Yëhuwdiy yeh-hoo-dee’

patronymically from 03063; adj pr gent; [BDB-397b] {See TWOT on 850 @@ "850a"}

AV-Jew 74, Jew + 0376 1, Judah 1; 76

1) Jew

The first use of the words “the Jews” only is found first in 2nd Kings 16:6 of the Authorized King James Bible.

2nd Kings 16:6
At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.

Other modern bibles use the words “Judeans” such the New American Standard Version or “men of Judah” as in the English Standard Version Bible.

Regardless of bible translation the Hebrew word used is Yëhuwdiy where we get the word ‘Jew’ from.

Let us now look at 2nd Kings 16:6 in greater detail to understand the serious flaw in referring to ‘Israel’ as the ‘Jews’.

2nd Kings 16:5-6
¶ Then Rezin king of Syria and Pekah son of Remaliah king of Israel came up to Jerusalem to war: and they besieged Ahaz, but could not overcome him. 6 At that time Rezin king of Syria recovered Elath to Syria, and drave the Jews from Elath: and the Syrians came to Elath, and dwelt there unto this day.

Did you notice what is contained in verse 5? Israel, that is the ten tribes of the house of Israel was coming up to war against Judah in Jerusalem.

It is here that very first use of the words the ‘Jews’ is found in the bible, a thousand years later from Israel’s birth of children in time of the biblical narrative of Israel showing the division which took place following the fall of Solomon’s kingdom from the grace of YHWH God.

You see, Solomon disobeyed God’s commandments and worshipped the idols of his foreign wives, and YHWH took away the united kingdom from Solomon. He gave one tribe to Solomon’s son Rehoboam, the tribe of Judah only. When this happened, Israel as twelve tribes was divided and eleven tribes were split away from Israel.

One of these tribes, Benjamin, splits away from the other tribes to join Judah and worship God in Jerusalem, the headquarters of the house of Judah. The remaining Israelite tribes formed the ten northern tribes of the house of Israel in Samaria.

The ten tribes, ruled by Jeroboam, worshiped in Mount Shechem the golden calves of Jeroboam. When this happened part of the tribe of Levi leaves to join Judah and Benjamin, thus almost three tribes make up the house of Judah.

From this point in time onward, the ten tribes are separated from the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

The ten tribes of Israel include the tribe of Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Reuben, Levi, Simeon, and Joseph which is encompassing two tribes of Joseph, Ephraim, and Manasseh.

Ephraim, and Manasseh were both sons of Joseph born to Joseph’s wife who was Egyptian priestly blood lineage. This means a new mix to the genetics of Israel.

Genesis 41:50-52
And unto Joseph were born two sons before the years of famine came, which Asenath the daughter of Potipherah priest of On bare unto him. 51 And Joseph called the name of the firstborn Manasseh: For God, said he, hath made me forget all my toil, and all my father’s house. 52 And the name of the second called he Ephraim: For God hath caused me to be fruitful in the land of my affliction.

None of these tribes are ever biblically referred to as “Jewish” or “of the Jews” they are Israelites of the house of Israel.

It may surprise the reader to learn that the term “Jew” is nowhere to be found in the Torah, or first five books of the written law of God. In fact, the words the “the Jews” are not found in the books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, First and Second Samuel, and the book of First kings. Nor are "the Jews" found in the books of First Chronicles, or the book of Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Song of Solomon.

The words “the Jews” (meaning the house of Judah) are found in books of 2nd Kings, 2nd Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Daniel.

If this is the case why then do Christian pastors, preachers, writers, and theologians continue to use the words the “Jews” or “the Jewish people” to describe the children of Israel?

Because they incorrectly view the Jewish people as Israel today, and they are looking at the bible with a modern view context rather than a biblical context view.

As stated already, over 70% of the 12 tribes have never been Jews or Jewish. Only the two tribes of Benjamin and Judah and small portion of Levi make the house of Judah or the Jews.

Why is this important?

To understand the reason why this should be important is to understand what happened to the two divided houses of Israel.

The ten tribes of Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Reuben, Levi, Simeon, and Joseph and a minor portion of Judahites were taken away the Assyrians in 722 B.C. by the wrath of God for their sins and the worship of other gods and their worship of the golden calves of Jeroboam.

Where were they taken?

Were the ten tribes destroyed by the Assyrians?

No, they were simply relocated beyond the Euphrates River and to the land of Medes to what would be a region below modern Turkey and modern Armenia just before the Caucasus pass into Europe.

2nd Kings 17:6
In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.

The ten tribes disappeared into “the Gentiles” according to the bible narrative never to return to the land of Israel.

Hosea 8:8
Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.

God left Israel a remnant of Judah and Benjamin and part of Levi and very small portion of the former ten tribes who escaped the Assyrians. About 130 years later after the house of Israel has long been taken away and lost among ‘the Gentiles’ as “no more a people of God,” YHWH brings judgment upon the sinful house of Judah and brings the nation of Babylon to take away most of Judah to a captivity for 70 years.

The Chaldean Babylonians came sacking Jerusalem and looting the Jews’ kingdom of all it had and burning the temple of YHWH to the ground in 586 B.C..

Except for a small portion of Judahites the over whelming population of Judah was taken away to Babylon, Persia by Nebuchadnezzar to reside in Babylon for seventy years of captivity. From this huge captivity of Judah when seventy years was accomplished less than 50,000 Jews returned to build Jerusalem’s walls and rebuild the temple. This return is recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah.

Aside from the book of Esther and Daniel the Jews return and slowly over time more of Judah returns to the land of Israel only now a new religious current has been created among Judah in Babylon, that of an oral torah or oral laws which teach and comment on the written law of YHWH. This growth of an oral tradition eventually corrupts the holy original written Hebrew law of the Old Testament and ancient faith of Israel.

Deuteronomy 4:2
Ye shall not add unto the word which I command you, neither shall ye diminish ought from it, that ye may keep the commandments of YHWH your God which I command you.

Deuteronomy 12:32
What thing soever I command you, observe to do it: thou shalt not add thereto, nor diminish from it.

This new oral tradition is the basis of Judaism formed in first 600 years before Christ, largely in what is known as the 400 years of ‘the intertestamental’ period of time. By the time Jesus is born, all of Israel is under the sway of Judaism or Pharisaical traditions.

The confusion of “Judaism” as being the same as the faith of ancient Israelites or the Old Testament is another key mistake made by many Christians today.

Judaism only came about after the Babylonian captivity, and originated from the Jewish sages in Persia, Babylon.

By the time Jesus our Lord comes on the scene, Israel is more than 700 years scattered into the Gentiles and those waiting upon the Messiah are of the Jews of the house of Judah and others who were proselytes of Pharisaical Judaism.

This idea that Christians today have about Gentiles being meant to mean to those people not of Israel, or non-Jewish, is also incorrect for as I have just shown ISRAEL WAS LOST INTO THE GENTILES!

The notion that Christians have today about the Jewish people being all of the 12 tribes of Israel today is also incorrect for over 70% of Israel HAVE NEVER BEEN JEWISH OR JEWS.

The idea that Christians have that the Jewish people deserve all the land of Palestine is also therefore incorrect, for the land of Israel largely belongs to the ten tribes of Israel, not to the two tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The ten tribes cannot be found in mass among the Jews today, for they were not Jews to begin with, nor did they practice Judaism. THEY WILL BE FOUND AMONG THE GENTILES.

Today the Jews in the state of Israel are trying to annex territory from Arab Palestinians that God never gave or ordained to be given to Judah, or the Jews, for it BELONGS TO THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL AND WHO ARE TODAY ARE CHIEFLY FOUND IN THE GENTILES.

Understanding that the Jews are not all of Israel and that Jesus sent his disciples to preach the gospel first to the Jews of Israel and then sent them to the Gentiles, it is easy to see that God is seeking out his lost sheep of Israel those of Judah and those of Israel disguised as Gentiles for Israel was lost into a sea of Gentiles and became as the Gentiles.

This helps to explain why the apostolic Church was made of Jews and Gentiles.

Today incorrectly Christians see the Church as the Gentile church, when they are in fact partly of ancient lost Israelites, both Jews and Israelites who are in Christ Jesus, representing the new ISRAEL OF GOD.

Today incorrectly Christians see the Jews in the state of Israel as all of Israel or representing of all 12 tribes of Israel.

Thus, they make mistakes like interpreting the 144,000 as all being Jewish.

Do you now see the danger to using the words “the Jews” to describe “Israel” or in place of “Israel?”

This very basic error is dangerous to one’s interpretation of not only the Holy Bible, but how one views the land of Israel today and prophesies concerning Israel and has a profound effect on Bible eschatology.

To Recap:

The ten tribes of Israel (millions) were lost into the Gentiles.

The two tribes of Judah were overwhelmingly lost into the Gentiles of Babylon and other nations.

The house of Judah remnant would wait on the Messiah.

There arose a new religious current named Judaism which today most Jews are Jews from their ancestors who practiced and were converted to Judaism.

The Jewish people are today are possibly descendants of the house of Judah and Gentiles who converted to Judaism.

As Christians we are to preach the gospel, which was given to the Jew first, or Israelite, and the Greek, or Gentile.

Jesus sent his disciples to Judea the home of Judah, to Samaria the home of Israel and to the uttermost regions of the world, the Gentile nations where Judah and Israel were lost into.

Romans 1:16-17
¶ For I am not ashamed of the gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth; to the Jew first, and also to the Greek. 17 For therein is the righteousness of God revealed from faith to faith: as it is written, The just shall live by faith.

Acts 1:6-8
¶ When they therefore were come together, they asked of him, saying, Lord, wilt thou at this time restore again the kingdom to Israel? 7 And he said unto them, It is not for you to know the times or the seasons, which the Father hath put in his own power. 8 But ye shall receive power, after that the Holy Ghost is come upon you: and ye shall be witnesses unto me both in Jerusalem, and in all Judaea, and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of the earth.

O Holy Heavenly Father, you know the truth, and that all men are liars. Please open the eyes of the blinded and let your people see the error of their ignorance that they would teach the full truth of your Word and only that which is contained in your Holy Word. For as I have illustrated preaching a false notion has profound effects on the larger picture of your glorious plan and understanding what your will is for Israel and all others.

I thank you for your Son JESUS who has redeemed the 12 tribes of Israel by his precious blood!

I pray this article will open eyes and show forth the truth. In Jesus’ name, I pray.

If you wish to educate your pastor you can download this article in pdf format here.