Are they Hebrews? So am I. Are they Israelites? So am I. Are they descendants of Abraham? So am I. Are they servants of Christ? I know I sound like a madman, but I have served Him far more!
2 Corinthians 11:22-23
The Jews were called Hebrews, but were not named after Abraham. If they had been they would have been called Abrahamites, and not Hebrews. Abraham himself is called a Hebrew.
Genesis 14:13
The first reference to the Israelites or Israel outside of the Bible is found in Merenptah’s Stele, dated around 1212BC according to one time frame. Merenptah was the Egyptian Pharoah, son of Rameses II, who reigned from 1213 to 1203 BC. (Yes I know I should use BCE if I were to be intellectually up to date. I chose to be faithful to what I know to be true rather than intellectual.) The term Hebrew first surfaces in the Amarna Letters where many references were found of letters written to Egypt complaining about the Habiru around the time when the Israelites were settling in Canaan. Most experts believe Abraham was called a Hebrew by others (see above) and so too his descendants. Clearly these are accepted names for the people of God used by people outside of the group themselves. The most likely derivation is that they are called Hebrew from Heber, the father of Peleg, around the time of the tower of Babel and the confusion of languages. Shem is said to be the father of all the children of Heber, Gen 10:21 that is, the Hebrews.
It seems that these false apostles were Jews, since Paul doesn’t denied their claim, but accepts it. They boasted of being Hebrews, the descendants of the ancient patriarch Heber in the line of Abraham. Paul of course matched them, and asserts himself to be an Hebrew too. He was a Hebrew of the Hebrews, he was a Hebrew on his father and his mother’s side.
The Jews were called Israelites from Israel, a name which was given to Jacob their ancestor. Jacob’s name actually mean “twister” or “deceiver”. But he is renamed Israel, “prince with God”. The Jews are very extravagant in the praise of Israel and Israelites. They considered themselves the favourites of God. But there are times when Israel is used to connotate the negative link to Jacob’s name as well.
Abraham is synonymous with faith; he is the epitome of the Father of Faith. Many times Abraham is associated with trust and belief in God. He is their spiritual Father, descendants of the spiritual seed of God. He is the archetype believer in the promise. He is the child of the promises of God which is then passed on to his descendent through Isaac as the true child of promise, as opposed to Ishmael, the seed of the flesh.
While there are differences in the use of these names for Paul’s descendants and most certainly intended. Paul matches all of those those aspects of Ancient Israel’s qualities but so too the similarities. Paul is not only selecting names that indicate the various faces of his people but he is also stacking names for the same concept. Whichever way you look at it, it’s both and. You false prophets claim to be bone fide representatives of the people of God. If you can claim that then I, Paul, am more so. Why does he sounds like a madman? Because he is claiming to be a servant of Christ? Or is there something else he is alluding to? He is also meaning if they claim to be servants of Christ then He is certainly more so given the fact that they are false to the cause of Christ.
A lot of kneeling will keep you in good standing.
Anon
He who kneels before God can stand before anyone one.
Anon
Suffering from Truth decay? Brush up on your Bible.
Anon