Are Jews the Real Descendants of Israel?

Are Abraham, Isaac and Jacob their forefathers? What Does history reveal??

2025-10-23 by Steve Forkin

As a Christian in the reformed tradition and yet, due to being of Jewish descent from my mothers side, I have a always had a natural interest in the historical plight of the Jewish people

As a Christian in the reformed tradition and yet, due to being of Jewish descent from my mothers side, I have a always had a natural interest in the historical plight of the Jewish people. Having said that, I too have been horrified by the way the secular nation Israel, has handled the war in Gaza in these last two years.

Since I have already spilled enough ink on that subject, I felt it necessary to dispel some myths that seem to re-appear every few years, on the question of whether the Jews of today have a real and valid claim to be real Jews in the line of their forefathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

In short, yes Jewish people today have every right to call themselves Jews and with that, aright to appeal to their ancestry right back to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob.

How so I hear you ask?

First up let me say categorically what I do not mean by this. Given the proliferation of DNA tests available to the average citizen willing to forfeit the correct amount of money, it’s not hard now to ascertain one’s genetic makeup and with that a reasonable degree of certainty relating to ancestry. Most will not be surprised to find a mixture…

This is not what I am referring to..

Some years ago, I needed to obtain a high military clearance for a an IT job I was contracted to do — no I am not going to divulge the details, just that this was merely for an online learning company. As part of this clearance I needed to prove my ancestry by providing evidence — in the way of birth records — of myself, my father and even my grandfather. I can’t tell you how difficult this was…

Now relate this to all those — whether Jew or Gentile — who claim that their physical ancestry goes all the way back to let’s say Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, as pertains to the Jews. Doesn’t anyone realise, just how ridiculously impossible such a claim is to prove? Yes I thought you would agree with me, but here we are, apparently there are people who think they can actually prove this, or equally, can disprove it.

Now that we have got the “mythological” difficulties out of the way, let’s just do a high level walk through the history of God’s people — both in the Old and New Testaments — to demonstrate who can legitimately use the term Jew, today.

What is the Biblical term Jew, who are the true Jews of the Bible?

To save those from despair who want to say Christians are the real Jews, according to Paul in Romans 2. Yes, this is indeed so as pertains to the term Jew in the truest of spiritual sense. But that is not the meaning of the term I am dealing with in this post. The New Testament for example, frequently uses the term Jews to refer to the spiritual leaders of the day, and clearly the gospel authors had the Pharisees in mind.

The term is a complex term, for sure. This post is dealing with the term in relation to ancestry and the Jewish religion.

I am going to quote a few Bible passages along the way, not in the way of giving you insurmountable evidence, but rather as pointers to help you in your own study. The diligent student will read the context of each passage and the bigger picture will soon emerge!

Here is a brief run through of Biblical history, with some evidence for each claim:

• Abraham, Isaac & Jacob —> become Israel. We see this take place as Jacob wrestles with an angel who tells him: “Your name shall no longer be called Jacob but Israel”. (Gen 32:28) From here on his descendants are called by the name “Israel”.

• Before the Law of Moses was given, one was a part of God’s people by birth yes, but also by faith and by promise. Genesis 17 has the inauguration of the covenant of circumcision. It’s important not to miss here that the covenant includes all the men in Abraham’s household, including his slaves. Later in Genesis 21 we see the covenantal relationship established with Isaac and not Ishmael, yet both were the sons of Abraham. Already here we need the notion of promise coming to the forefront. In case we are in any doubt that God’s promise is the prime driver, Paul re-affirms this in Romans 9:7-16. Note especially verse 8: “This means that it is not the children of the flesh who are the children of God, but the children of the promise are counted as offspring.” Clearly both Isaac and Ishmael were children by birth, but the promise is only given to Isaac. The story of the Bible is not — who is born of whom as a matter of importance, no, the story of redemption centers on Christ and those who believe in Christ are his true children!

• Israel’s descendants spend 400 years in bondage in Egypt. Strangers could join God’s people and become members of Israel. At the institution of the passover meal, God gives instructions for how strangers can become part of the household of Israel (Ex 12:48, 49). When, they depart Egypt, they depart as a mixed multitude!

• We simply do not know the ratio of how many real descendants to those who joined them from Egypt! (Ex 12:38)

• Moses was married to an Arab (Midianite)

• Rahab, a Canaanite prostitute is in the lineage of Jesus himself!

• Ruth, a Moabite (another Pagan) also in the lineage of Jesus

• After Solomon’s rule the kingdom was divided into Israel in the North & Judah in the South. Even though we think of Israel in the North as the ten tribes and Judah in the south as the two tribes. The story is much more complex than this as we shall see. Let’s not forget that the tribes of Reuben & Gad had already settled across the Jordan in the area of Gilead. Then we also have the issue that Levites did not have any allotted land and lived amongst all the tribes in both the North and the South!

• After the split — faithful members of ALL tribes descended South to Jerusalem as seen in 2 Chronicles 11:16-17. The covenantal promises were always to those who were faithful to God. The Southern kingdom, whilst known as Judah (and to a lesser degree Benjamin) now has faithful Israelites from all tribes!

• Next we have several periods of Reformation, where faithful members of the tribes in the North emigrated to the South. King Josiah destroys idols in the Southern & Northern kingdoms. (2 Kings 23). During another period of reform, Hezekiah — king in Judah — sent emissaries throughout the Northern Kingdom, encouraging all Israel to be faithful. Many derided the emissaries, but those seeking to be faithful emigrated south to be able to worship at the temple.

• The North is called (Ten tribes) the South is called (Two tribes) — given what we know this split is more of a political name. Much like a Scottish person is Scottish but also British. By now the South had become a mixture of all the tribes, simply consisting of those seeking to be covenantally faithful to Jahweh!

• Due to the apostasy of the Northern kingdom, the Assyrians invade the North in 720 BC - many were killed & many were deported to Assyria - but by no means all!

• Then about a century later, Babylon invades the South in 585 BC. Many were killed & many were deported to Assyria, but again, by no means all!

• Many “unfaithful Jews” — see in particular the Prophet Jeremiah, fled to Egypt where many were killed, but again not all. By the time of Jesus there was a thriving Jewish community in Egypt, no doubt consisting of Jews whose ancestry — if it were possible to trace it — would go back to many if not all of the Israelite tribes!

• 70 years later the Medo-Persian empire becomes invades Assyria & Babylon — all those in “exile” from both exiles are now ruled by the Medo-Persians. The details are seen in the book of Daniel. For further study, note the Beasts, empires and dreams!

• A small community of faithful members of all tribes then return from the exile to a small subsection of the previous Southern kingdom. We are told numbers and we do know that rulers, elites and royals returned who were obviously from the tribe of Judah, but we do not know from which tribes all the returning exiles have come from. Clearly, this is not an important detail. The post-exilic community consists of what is then known as “the faithful remnant” — Jews from all the 12 tribes. When the prophetic texts give us emphasis, it’s usually in relation to the rulers and kings!

• The Myth of the lost ten tribes is simply a misreading of history! There is a small group of people who hold to the idea that the Northern tribes where a fixed entity of 10 tribes, and that they were lost in history for centuries, only to re-appear in Northern Europe, especially in England. History simply does not bear this out, and the texts of the Old and New Testaments tell a very different story. Is it any wonder that those pushing these “strange” ideas, have to resort to claiming that some books don’t belong in the Bible — such as Esther — and others not in the Bible should be. Beware..

• Following the Medo-Persian empire came the Seluecids — who also once again subjected Judea. The Seleucids re-patriated many of the “early exiles” into what is today known as Greece and Turkey. To quote historian FF Bruce: “In the cities of the Phyrgian region… there were large Jewish colonies. Shortly before 200 B.C. Antiochus III gave orders for the transfer of 2000 Jewish families from the Mesopotamian and Babylonian regions of his empire to Phyrgia and Lydia, to be a stabilizing influence in these territories when there was much disaffection there. This Diaspora in Asia Minor expanded rapidly in numbers and influence and the impression which Luke (— see the book of Acts —) of the size and importance of the Jewish communities in Pisidian Antioch and Iconium is confirmed by all other relevant evidence.” (New Testament History, FF Bruce, p. 274)

• By now you have people from all the 12 tribes in former Assyria, in the various regions of the Greco Roman empire — known today as Turkey and Greece, Egypt and yes even all the way to Rome.

• Overtime the tribal distinctions became more and more mixed and the people of the small nation of Judea (a small remnant of the old Southern kingdom) became known as Jews - mostly towards the end of the exile, as seen in the book of Ruth. The Hebrew word “Yehudi” means “of the tribe of Judah” and given that the small post exilic community, under the leadership of Ezra and Nehemiah occupied a subsection of the old nation called Judah, this is the name most of that community were referred to. Archaological evidence for an early use of the term Yehuda exists in a coin minted in 70 BC. This coin has the emperor Vespasian on one side and a “defeated woman” on the back. The woman is called “Yehudi”.

• The book of Esther — as most scholars agree — was written in the late Persian period and it tells of the dispersion of the Northern Tribes, yet also refers to them as Jews: “There is a certain people scattered abroad in all the provinces of your kingdom.” (Esther 3:8) Given what we know of the dispersion of the Northern kingdom by the Assyrians, who are later succeeded by the Babylonians followed by the Medo-Persians and during this period Mordecai — who is the prime character of the story and from the tribe of Benjamin — is used by God to intercede for God’s people in exile, who are from all the 12 tribes. By now these tribes are ruled by yet a new empire namely that of Medo-Persia. The point here is this. The myth of the “missing” ten tribes is a myth after all. The details are all in the Bible for the sincere student willing to look.

• By the time of the New Testament, “Jews” in exile (from all the tribes) were all over the Roman empire

• As Rome became more and more decadent, many Gentiles adopted Jewish monotheism, but reluctant to accept circumcision, basically became known as “God Fearers” — as seen in Acts 10 and the story of Cornelius.

• Hence the Pauline practice on his missionary journeys to first go to the Synagogue and preach the gospel. He had limited success with the Jews but was very successful with preaching the gospel to the God-fearers, who frequently lived close to the synagogue, in some cases even next door.

• When Peter & James wrote to “the 12 tribes in dispersion” or the “elect exiles of the dispersion” — this just underpins all the long and varied history of the several dispersions of the tribes of Israel, and thankfully that some did become followers of Jesus. It’s a gross twisting of the greater story of the Bible, and of history, to claim that these “elect exiles” are not Jews. People do this to drive a wedge between the Christian community and it’s historical Jewish origins!

Once one grasps all the history of the various dispersions and exiles the northern and Southern kingdoms followed by ongoing dispersions by both the Seleucid and the Roman Empires, it’s not hard to see that there are no more hard and fast distinctions or boundaries, telling us, which tribe was where.

Perhaps the only distinction that did survive until the days of Jesus, was the Samaritans. After the split into two kingdoms — post the reign of Solomon — Samaria became the capital of the North and Jerusalem of the South.

Jeroboam, the first king of the North sought — for political reasons — to prevent citizens of the North to go to the temple in Jerusalem, thinking this would cause mass defections. He set up false worship centers in the North — two calves of gold, one in Bethel and one in Dan — and this became a snare of idolatry, that is repeated in the books of Kings and Chronicles again and again. The sin of Jeroboam of Nebat!

By the time of Jesus, the faithful remnant that had returned from the Babylonian exile had too become apostate — as always there were some faithful ones left who in their pride “hated” the people of Samaria, who still read the Torah of the Old Testament but were caught up in idolatry and apostasy.

It’s messy!

An additional problem here is that the Assyrian armies had force transported some of its own citizens into the territory of Samaria and ordered them to intermingle with the remaining Israelites.

I told you this is messy!

In Luke’s gospel — in chapter two — there is a faithful Jew called Simeon who is obviously from the tribe of Levi since he is doing his allotted duty in the temple. In the same chapter, Luke mentions a prophetess called Anna who is from the tribe of Asher. All these little details are easily missed, but they affirm that Jews are from all the 12 tribes — originally called Israel!

Given what we know from scripture, there is no myth of the missing Ten tribes — and please don’t get me started on the grand conspiracy that these missing Ten tribes all ended up in England and America. There is no evidence of this, and frankly the Biblical account is not lacking in evidence as to who were Jews in Jesus day.

Basically those who were faithful to the Old Covenant were known as Jews. By the time of Jesus, in order to become a full member of the Jewish community one had to accept circumcision — if you are a man that is — and also go through baptismal washing ceremonies. This is confirmed by the fact that John the Baptist calls all to repent and be baptised. He sees all his country men as “unfaithful” and in need of repentance. The Pharisees — the ones John often refers to as “Jews” - refuse to accept John’s baptism since this would identify them as being like gentiles in need of repentance. Setting aside their obvious spiritual need of repentance, what this does prove is that the Pharisees identified themselves as true Israelites!

There were also set catechism lessons etc. To claim however that one could only be Jewish by birth is simply a denial of history and indeed a denial of the story of the Old Testament, given the many examples of “foreigners” who adopted the Jewish religion.

What then of the Ashkenazi Jews? This article is already too long, and the history of this group of Jews is complicated and varied. Given what we know of the Biblical story concerning the process of being integrated into the Jewish community, by adopting circumcision and being faithful to the covenantal obligations. We have no right to claim that the Ashkenazi Jews — who made up a large segment of those whom the Nazi’s attempted to exterminate during the Holocaust — are not real Jews. This is a claim often made by those seeking to eradicate any and all Jewishness from the New Testament.

Such claims are historically spurious, Biblically illiterate and frankly cultishly deceptive, aiming to drive a wedge between the Christian community and it’s obvious and important Jewish Old Testament history. These outlandish claims are usually made by those who seek to blame all the World’s problems on the Jews. This isn’t new.

Anyone remotely familiar with European history and the many Jewish pogroms, knows this. One such example is the period called “The Black Death”. Two terrifying plagues, where foolish and fearful citizens blamed the plagues on the Jews, which lead to the callous murder of thousands of Jews, and their expulsion from European life.

Jews need the Christian gospel every bit as much as Gentiles. Christians can rightly view themselves as Israelites in a spiritual sense, given that Paul emphatically tells us so: “And if you are Christ’s then you are Abraham’s offspring, heirs according to promise” (Gal 3:29) No one would doubt that Paul is not saying belief means physical descent. What Paul is indeed saying is this: In the eyes of God, physical descent is not the all-important issue, justification by faith is the important issue!

So what should the Christian’s attitude towards Jews be — and I am deliberately not saying towards the nation of Israel, since that is a secular nation much like any other nation today, subject to secular & sinful rulers, who should be judged like any other nation, based on their actions — this is the final question I will leave you with. I believe this is answered rather succinctly by the apostle Paul himself in his letter to the Romans:

“My conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit — that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh. They are Israelites, and to them belong the adoption, the glory, the covenants, the giving of the law, the worship and the promises. To them belong the patriarchs, and from their race, according to the flesh, is the Christ, who is God over all, blessed forever. Amen.” (Rom 9:2-5)