Origins

Who are the Jews and where do they come from? That is a matter of debate today as antisemites and pro-Palestinians try to paint the Israelis as neo-colonial settlers in the land between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River. But the modern science of genetics proves otherwise. Not so surprising to those who have followed what we know of history of the Jews, the DNA from both patrilinear, and matrilineal in most part sources trace the origins of Jews back to the Near East. Major Jewish diaspora populations comprise distinct genetic clusters with shared Middle Eastern children in the genome era: ¹ What then are we to make of these people who have a sense of identity that goes beyond the religious affiliation of most of them and the history of antipathy and hatred that has dogged this group from antiquity? The old American Jewish joke about the two men stranded on a desert island. One frets about the possibility of being saved and the other is nonchalant. The troubled castaway turns to the other and asks: “Why are you sure we will be found?”
The other replies: “I gave a hundred-thousand-dollar pledge to the Jewish Federation – they will surely want to find me!” And on the Jewish other hand, Trotsky never was interested in his Jewish roots or addressing antisemitism but was always referred to by antisemites as nee Bronstein so no one should forget his Jewish roots as he did! The answer is found in the expression often used by both Jews and their enemies—they are a “Tribe.”

A tribe is an extended family with customs, common beliefs and shared inheritance. Many tribes have rituals in which strangers can be assimilated into the tribe. This is the case even with the most stringent of Jewish religious authorities who in their acceptance of “converts” give them new names becoming sons or daughters of Abraham, the reputed ancestor of the Tribe.

In addition, it must be noted that the chief prayer that religious Jews say three times a day and four on special holidays begins with the words:

“Praised are You. Lord our God and God of our Fathers , God of Abraham, God of Isaac and God of Jacob.”

Members of this tribe, albeit few have remained in their ancestral homeland from the most ancient of times. Others have traversed the globe to almost every geographical location leaving their mark on the cultures they have influenced and have been influenced by them.

From what we know of present biblical scholarship the first five books of the Bible known to Jews as the Torah was not assembled as a single corpus until after the return from the Babylonian Exile in 538 BCE. The date assigned to the entrance of Ezra (known as the “Scribe) is assumed by some biblical scholars to a middle date of 400 BCE. (On the editing of the First Five Books of the Bible and the arrival of Ezra ² Ezra read something to the people of Jerusalem interpreted by Levites. That raises the question of why it had to be interpreted. Did the population not know with full understanding the language that was read to them? (Nehemiah 8:1-12) Darius the King of Persia from 522 BCE had made Aramaic the second official language of the Persian Empire. Had the population of the province of Yahud (the Persian designation for the area inhabited by the Jews who were not exiled by the Babylonians) already forgotten their original Hebrew language? If so, it would be the beginning of one of the salient facts of Jewish existence in that in whatever land the Jews migrated to they adopted the language of their environment to the detriment of most not being familiar with the Hebrew language!

In the earliest part of Genesis, that purports to be history Abaham is a native of Mesopotamia. As such he could not be a native Hebrew speaker. Was his native language Akkadian or Aramaic. Whatever he had to learn the language of the land. Thus, the reputed “father” of the “Tribe” was the first to learn Hebrew! What we know for sure of the origins of the Bible are a subject of scholarly debate. The question of whether the Israelites (As the ancestors of the Jews were called at an earlier time) were invaders who slaves in Egypt or indigenous inhabitants of the land or some mixtures were thereof is not of concern in this exposition. What we can say with certainty that this people were in the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan and beyond at the latest from the tenth century BCE. From what we can ascertain from the gospel of Luke 4:16-21 and 24:44 by the time of Jesus early common era it was the custom to read from the Bible in the synagogues of Israel. To quote Luke 24:44: “He (Jesus) said to them, “This is what I told you while I was still with you: Everything must be fulfilled that is written about me in the Law of Moses, the Prophets and the Psalms.” Note well the third part of the Hebrew Bible was not at that time officially sanctioned as sacred!

In the first book of Samuel 9:9 we read that the person who would be called a prophet was formerly called a seer. From fortune teller to proclaimer of the word of God was an innovation that must have happened early in the Israelite settlement in its land. It is not unique to find persons who are proclaimed or proclaim for themselves that they are speaking in the name of their God. What is unique in the Jewish experience is that these persons are not of the religious or government establishment though they may be affiliated as the lone exception Ezekiel (who was a priest). Samuel who functioned as a priest, judge and prophet was the promoter of the prophet as being outside but above all others in that he spoke with command of the Deity: Samuel said, “Has the LORD as great a delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices as in obedience to the voice of the LORD? Behold, to obey is better than sacrifice, and to heed [is better] than the fat of rams.” (I Samuel 15:22). Ultimate and final obedience to that which is proclaimed to be the wish of the Deity is something that from that time forward was accepted by Jews, Christians and Muslims. The moral imperative trumps all other considerations! According to the accounts in 1 Kings and II Chronicles about 932/931 BCE the kingdom that was established by David and his son Solomon was split with but the smaller part remaining with Solomon’s son Rehoboam and the northern greater part consisting of at least ten tribes under Jeroboam. In the Book of Kings, we have the prophetic careers of the northern prophets Elijah and his disciple Elisha. These men are distinguished for not only being dedicated worshippers of the God of Israel to the exclusion of all others but also, they were known for miracles of increasing victuals and bringing the dead back to life. These qualities were to be attributed by the authors of the gospels to Jesus who himself came from the same northern Israelite milieu as Elijah and Elisha. It is with the career of Amos (c 750 BCE) that we begin to see fully blown the prophet as not a fortune-teller, but a severe critic of society based upon an unwavering belief that the Deity demands morality in both personal and national affairs. In what seems to be an address to the people of Israel to the north and Judah to the south, Amos uses a rhetorical device to lull his listeners into a frenzy of national chauvinism. Starting with enumerating the sins of the nations around Israel and their coming punishment he slowly builds up the momentum until he declares to Israel because of its sins they will be punished. In chapter three he turns the idea of Israel being chosen on its head and says: “Hear this thing that YHVH has said unto you Israelis, all the tribe that I brought up from the land of Egypt. You alone have I known from all the tribes of the land; therefor I will punish you for all your sins.” Amos establishes and fixes in the mind of the people their special relationship to this Deity they worship. But that relationship is special only in that the people follow the dictates of that Deity! From that point on the Jews think of themselves as a chosen people and that is one source of the anti-Jew hatred of the gentiles. Or to put it with the quip:

How odd of God to choose the Jews

Not so odd the Jews chose God!

It was the mark of these later prophets that unlike Elijah and Elisha they were not wonder workers but the moral guardians of the ethos of the people. The prophet Hosea who was a younger contemporary of Amos probably experienced a breakdown in his marriage and the adulterous affairs of his wife. His first impulse was to subject her to punishment and renounce her children.
But in a remarkable turn of hatred to forgiveness and compassion he makes his personal alienation of affection to be symbolic of God’s alienation from Israel. And as he finds forgiveness for his wife that is symbolic of God’s forgiveness of Israel.
Hosea 2:16 “Therefor I will seduce her and walk her through the “Wilderness” (Of Sinai), and I will speak to her heart. And I will give her from there her vineyards from the valley of Akor to the “entrance of hope” and she will answer there as in her youth as in the day she came up from the land of Egypt.” Amos and Hosea set the pattern for the prophets who follow them. Isaiah and Micah in the moral insistence of Amos. The prophet Jeremiah expands on Hosea’s theme of love and forgiveness between husband and straying wife. In the second chapter of Jeremiah, God the husband remembers the love of youth. “Go and say in the hearing of Jerusalem: I remember unto you the love of your youth, the love of your espousals, your following me in the wilderness (Sinai) in an unsown land. Israel is Holy (dedicated) to YHVH, it is the first of His harvest all who consume it will be destroyed!” In the Bible fluid personality is not a problem and the same Jeremiah who sees the relationship between Israel and God as between husband and wife can turn and depict the loving father who has an errant son.

“Is not Ephraim (Israel) my beloved son, is he not a delightful child? For whenever I speak of him, he most certainly reawakens my love, so that my inner being trembles with emotion, I will surely love him says YHVH.” (Jeremiah 31:19)

No wonder Jews feel special! These are the words they have taken to be from their God. In a generation time past it was not unusual to hear a Jew in the midst of statutory prayer exclaim: (Oy Tate Zisenyu-O Sweet father). But that special relationship also demands thought and action. But in a window to future discussion Yehudah the Pious who lived in the Rhineland in the thirteenth century even after the terrible massacres of Jews during the Crusades could write that a Jew who steals from another Jew is a thief but a Jew who steals from a gentile has profaned the name of God. Being God’s errand boy means responsibility!

Footnotes

1. Atzmon G, Hao L, Pe’er I, Velez C, Pearlman A, Palamara PF, Morrow B, Friedman E, Oddoux C, Burns E, Ostrer H (June 2010). “Abraham’s Ancestry”. American Journal of Human Genetics. 86 (6): 850–9. doi:10.1016/j.ajhg.2010.04.015. PMC 3032072. PMID 20560205. ↩

2. See pages 257 -556-7 The Old Testament An Introduction-Otto Eisfledt translated by Peter R. Ackroyd, Harper and Row Publishers, New York and Evanston 1965) ↩