Tuesday, January 15, 2019

BIBLICAL PATRIARCHS WERE SYRIANS, NOT JEWS

The biblical patriarchs were Syrians who came to be called Hebrews. The term "Jew" was a much later term applied to the Israelites from the tribe of Judah. The Holy Scriptures speak of Avram/Avraham(“father of peoples”) and his sons, Ytzack (“to laugh”) and Yaaqov (“to supplant”) as “Hebrews,” their names being Hebraic (Genesis 14:13). We may assume Hebrew to have been their [own] dialect since they were identified as Ivrit (Hebrews) in the holy scriptures, although ethnically they were Syrian. Avram was a wondering/perishing Syrian by birth (Deuteronomy 26:5). Ytzack, was then full-blooded Syrian (being the son of Avraham and Sarah), and Revkah his wife was also Syrian living with her brother Laban, before her marriage to Ytzack in Paddan-Aram, the Aramean capital of Mesopotamia (Genesis 25:20; 28:5; 31:24). Later, Yaaqov a Syrian by birth of Revkah and Ytzack, and his grandparents, Avraham and Sarah(Genesis 29) was sent here to obtain a wife and obtained two, both Syrian.
Yaaqov took two wives, RachEl and LeAch, both Laban’s daughters, both Syrian, as was Yaaqov’s two handmaids, Bilhah and Zippah (Genesis 28:5; 31:20,24). This being true, the twelve sons of Yaaqov who became the twelve tribes of Ysrael (Israel was Yaaqov’s new (born-again name) were then, Syrian, that is, ethnically. 
Yisrael was not initially an ethnic group, but an appellation placed upon Yaaqov by God. Yaaqov wrestled with God and not letting God go without a blessing, he was thereby rewarded with the new name Yisrael. His genealogy, blood-line, DNA, and family genome was not altered, just his soul; flesh remained flesh. Ysrael was a name given to a man who was by descent, a Syrian. A Syrian became Israel. All twelve of this man’s sons and a daughter named Dinah all ethnically Syrian came to be called Yisrael, the appellation of their father, Yaaqov. If we could go back and visit them, and enter their tribal camp, we could legitimately say, “Shalom to all the Syrians now calling themselves Yisrael. Shalom! Shalom!”
Later, the term Yisrael was used to identify the family of Yaaqov’s land, then, his myriad descendants formed a nation and called themselves, Yisrael. Later, they were the confederacy of the northern ten tribes in contrast to the southern kingdom of Yehudah (Judah).
           As for the term, Jew, it is an English word derived from the Hebrew, Yehudi i.e. the tribe of Yehudah (Judah) distinguished from the other eleven tribes. No one was ever called “Jew” until the invention of the English language, and just as the plural of Jew is “Jews, Yehudim is the plural of Yehudah. So, during the time of the patriarchs, Avraham, Ytzack, and Yaaqov the term Yehudi or Jew did not exist of a people group since Yehudah was not yet born. It was during the Babylonian captivity that the term was applied, speaking of those of the tribe of Yehudah who was most in number. Collectively, the twelve tribes were called Ivrit (Hebrews) and Yisrael.
            When God exiled the northern ten nations collectively called Yisrael, He exiled them back home, to Syria. Syria and Israel share a common border, although this new ‘spiritual’ people, the “Israel of God” are promised not only their land today and not only the land of Syria today, but some 500,000 square miles of land which includes the totality of the fertile crescent which includes Lebanon, Iran, Turkey, Iraq, and more.
            Today, Syria, the people of OT Israel, the people of the biblical patriarchs, need our prayers. 6.5 million Syrians are displaced internally. 1.5 million Syrians have been driven from their homes. 70% of Syria are without adequate drinking water. The UN says that $3.2 billion dollars is needed to help 13.6 million Syrian people, 6 million who are children. 500,000 Syrian people are in 15 besieged locations, and the IS (Islamic State) has capitalized on the chaos and taken control of large swathes of Syria and Iraq. There is also a humanitarian crises in Syria. 4.5 million Syrians have fled Syria, mostly women and children, and Lebanon, Jordan, and Turkey are struggling to deal with the exodus.                  

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