Who is Israel?
Many Christians today might read the Holy Bible and proclaim to be fairly read or understood of the Holy Bible, but amazingly they will seldom ask or study the question of "Who is Israel?"
If you were to ask them, many will tell you Israel is "the Jewish people" or "The State of Israel" formed in 1948.
For most Christians, and non Christians, they have been taught that this is "Israel". However, if one reads the Holy Bible and carefully studies its texts, one learns that Israel, Biblically speaking, is far from the notion that millions of people have come to know as "Israel".
The best way to understand "Who is Israel" is to conduct a search for the word "Israel" and discover what the Holy Bible actually states about "Israel"
A quick word search of the Holy Bible for "Israel" will bring one to the book of Genesis.
Genesis 32:28 (KJV)
And he said, Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, but Israel: for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men, and hast prevailed.
Perhaps a better question to start our study with is Who is Jacob?
Jacob was the son of Isaac, whom was the son of Abraham of the Hebrew line of Shem.
Now it comes as a shock to many Christians, many Jews, and everyone else usually, to learn that Jacob was not a "Jew."
Jacob could not be a "Jew" or "Jewish" for the simple reason that the word in Hebrew for which today we derive for “Jew" from the biblical word "Judah" has not even come about in the Holy Bible, or Hebrew book of Genesis, just yet.
Judah was one of the many sons of Jacob.
Now in Genesis 32:28 we learn that God changes Jacob's name to "Israel" and just so you did not forget it, this is repeated in Genesis 35:10
Genesis 35:10 (KJV)
And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and He called his name Israel.
Now Jacob or Israel is a person— a person whose name was changed by Almighty God to the name of "Israel"
Israel, the Holy Bible records has 12 sons or 12 children.
Exodus 1:1-5 (KJV)
Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. [2] Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, [3] Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, [4] Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. [5] And all the souls that came out of the loins of Jacob were seventy souls: for Joseph was in Egypt already.
The Holy Bible refers to Israel's sons as "the children of Israel."
Israel had 12 sons born to him by his two Hebrew wives and each wife her own (Hebrew or non Hebrew?) female slave or servant.
As stated before, many people automatically assume that Israel's children were all racially or ethnically Jewish, but the facts are that only one son of the twelve meets the biblical evidence of being "Jewish"— Israel's son named Judah.
Having said that, you will never see the actual word "Jewish" in the Holy Bible book of Genesis, or Exodus, you will only find the name "Judah" or "the men of Judah."
The actual words "the Jews" does not appear in the Holy Bible until the Book of the second chronicle of the kings of Israel.
2 Kings 16:6 (KJV)
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.
What most Christians fail to realize is that "The Jews" here indicated, biblically speaking, are only two tribes and part of another tribe (Levi).
By this time Jacob or "Israel's" children have long, long multiplied into an enormous mass of "Israelites" known biblically as "tribes" or "the 12 tribes of Israel."
By the time of this mention of "the Jews" the 12 tribes of Israel have been split into to two main groupings.
One grouping was known as the northern house or kingdom of Israel and consisted of 10 tribes.
The second grouping is "the Jews" or the southern house/kingdom of Judah those two tribes and a minority of another tribe.
What is most amazing at this point of the Holy Bible (2 Kings 16:6) is not only are the "Jews" consisting of only two full tribes, but they are actauly at war with the ten Israelite tribes of the "house of Israel."
Look closely at the full context.
2nd Kings 16:5-6 (KJV)
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.
"Israel" here, is the northern ten tribes (ruled by "Pekah") which resided in Samaria, is warring against "Jerusalem", the headquarters of (king Ahaz) the southern house of Judah ( The "Jews").
So the Bible makes a direct distinction between the kingdom of Israel and the second kingdom of Judah.
Thus we have two kingdoms or two houses which comprise all 12 tribes of the "children of Israel," but only two full tribes make up the "the Jews."
The children of Israel of course live on the "land of Israel" which was divided up amongst all 12 tribes.
This biblical land mass actually exceeds the modern day borders of the "State of Israel" which was founded as a "Jewish state for a Jewish people."
Many Christians therefore assume this creation by the United Nations of the "Israeli state" was the fulfillment of the prophecy contained in the Holy Bible, but this is not biblically possible.
The problem, most Christians do not realize, is that God did not give the land to Judah only. It is not theirs to inherit and Jerusalem belongs only to Almighty God!
In fact, Judah and another tribe, Benjamin, which together constitute the house of Judah (The Jews) only were given most of the southernmost part of the biblical land of Israel consisting of the bottom half of the modern borders of the state of Israel.
Many Christians never seem to realize that Judah was never granted the rest of the northern part of the land which Biblically extended to cover much more of the modern Middle East.
The present reality is, that only a minority of today's European (German/Polish/Russian) origin Jews who settled the new "state of Israel" (1948) since the early 1800s onward, could possibly consist of either a smaller remnant of the northern house of Israel or the southern house of Judah.
The over-whelming majority of Jewish people today cannot consist of the northern house of Israel, simply because the house of Israel consisted of 10 tribes, none of whom were biblically "Jews" nor did they at all practice the customs asssociated to Judaism.
There is a chance they could possess some of lost or scattered Judah, which had been taken away in 586 BC into Babylon and did not return to the land of Israel.
After the destruction of the first Temple, Judaism was born out of Babylon (the Babylonian Talmud) and continues up this day.
Realise the house of Israel (Israelites) and a very small portion of Judah (Jews) disappeared about 720 BC when they were forcibly taken into Assyria and later disappeared into the surrounding nations and migrated elsewhere.
Israel as 12 tribes largely was lost into the surrounding "nations" or the biblical word for "the Gentiles."
Hosea 8:8 (KJV)
Israel is swallowed up: now shall they be among the Gentiles as a vessel wherein is no pleasure.
From 720 BC and even before that, Israel had traveled the world and migrated many places.
After 720 BC to 586 BC roughly higher than 90% of the total 12 tribes of Israel were now scattered and lost among into the other nations.
After the Assyrian captivity 720 BC Judah and an extremely smaller minority of the remnant of 10 tribes remained in the land of Israel.
After the Babylonian captivity 586 BC, out of this portion only less than 50,000 Jews of only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained in the land of Israel intermingling with other peoples of the lands to repopulate the region up until the arrival of Israel's Christ.
That means the majority higher than 90% of Israel (both house of Israel and Judah) as a whole was now living among the nations ("the Gentiles") who were not of Israel, and the majority (Israelites) had long lost their Israelite customs, laws, religious practices, and identity as "Israelites"—lost and scattered sheep.
Jeremiah 50:17 (KJV)
Israel is a scattered sheep; the lions have driven him away: first the king of Assyria hath devoured him; and last this Nebuchadrezzar king of Babylon hath broken his bones.
When you read the word "Israel" in the Holy Bible it overwhelmingly refers to a people.... rarely a land.... never a modern middle east state.
Who is Israel?
Israel is a people, 12 diverse tribes, divided into two houses, consisting of Hebrews and non Hebrews, of Jews and non Jews, of "Israelites" and later "Gentiles".
Jeremiah 31:1-2 (KJV)
At the same time, saith YHWH, will I be the God of all the families of Israel, and they shall be my people. [2] Thus saith YHWH, The people which were left of the sword found grace in the wilderness; even Israel, when I went to cause him to rest.
Jeremiah 31:10 (KJV)
Hear the word of YHWH, O ye nations, and declare it in the isles afar off, and say, He that scattered Israel will gather him, and keep him, as a shepherd doth his flock.
Jeremiah 31:31-33 (KJV)
Behold, the days come, saith YHWH, that I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel, and with the house of Judah: [32] Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day that I took them by the hand to bring them out of the land of Egypt; which my covenant they brake, although I was an husband unto them, saith YHWH: [33] But this shall be the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel; After those days, saith YHWH, I will put my law in their inward parts, and write it in their hearts; and will be their God, and they shall be my people.
"Israel" is perhaps the most confused word and a concept found in the Holy Bible that is widely misunderstood among Christians, Jews and and many others.
It does not have to be such.
There are many other in-depth articles on this website that biblically study and look at Israel, God's Chosen People, but I hope that this introduction has helped you in better understanding exactly just who was and still is biblical "Israel."
This article was just a primer on the fully expansive topic of “Israel.”
If you would like to learn more about the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and why it is important to understand “who Israel is today”, then please click the large blue link below and continue learning about God's Chosen Peoples -- Israel.