06 | April | 2015 | AHA Bible Moments

Most today ascribe the New Testament to the life of Christ, his disciples, the Apostles and the early development of the Christian church. Few today, however, understand that the early Christian church was allowed to develop under the eyes and protection of the Romans. Roman officials viewed this new christianity movement as a cult or branch of Judaism.Today in our ignorance we refer to modern Israel as “Jews”. This is so even from our church pulpits. This isn’t quite accurate. Jews when mentioned in the Bible are distinct from members of the other Tribes of Israel.First of all, there were 12 Tribes of Israel; 13 if you count the equal blessing given to Joseph’s two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, by Jacob [Genesis 48: 12-16]. Judah is one tribe.

The Bible does not refer to the Jews meaning all of the Tribes of Israel. In fact, in the Hebrew there are those who descend from Judah (Yahudah) and those “others” who come from the land of Judah but are not Tribal Jews.

AHA MOMENT

What is the “aha moment”? All Jews are Israelites but not all Israelites are Jews. All Israelites are Hebrew (Semite) but not all Hebrews are Israelites. This strongly suggests that the modern country of Israel is but a small representation of the original Tribes of Israel.

Who are the other Hebrews? They are the descendants of Ishmael [Arabs], Esau [Edomites, sometimes referred to as “dirty Arabs”], the six sons [today’s identity?] of Abraham and Ketu’rah and Joktan, one of the two sons of Eber. Genesis 10:25

All those belonging to the Tribes of Israel are Hebrew, but not all Hebrews [Semite] are Israelites. Arabs are also Hebrew; i.e descendants of Abraham. All Jews are Israelites but not all Israelites are from the Tribe or country of ancient Judah. Jews [Yehudah] are from the Tribe of Judah.Judaism is a religion, not a sect or race of people. Go back to Table of Nations in Genesis 10 to get the peoples straight in one’s mind. [see below from Wikipedia]

DoEber (עֵבֶר, Standard Hebrew Éver, Tiberian Hebrew ʻĒḇer)…[Wikipedia]…is an ancestor of the Israelites, according to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10-11 and 1 Chronicles 1.Eber was a great-grandson of Noah’s son Shem. He was the father of Peleg born when Eber was 34 years old, and of Joktan, Eber’s other son; i.e. a distant blood line relative of Abraham through Shem (Semites).

According to the Hebrew Bible, Eber died at the age of 464 (Genesis 11:14-17) when Jacob was 20. Abraham – Issac and Jacob: Do the simple math. This means that Eber was still alive after these three patriarchs of the Israelites were still walking on the earth.

Too often skeptics say that word-of-mouth history loses so much in the translation. Considering these facts about Eber’s life-span, there is little “pass it on” loss when information is handed down first-hand.

Eber lived 464 years (Genesis 11:14-17)
…Peleg
…Reu
…Serug
…Nahor
… Terah
… Abraham
… Isaac
… Jacob (Jacob is the father of the 12 sons/Israelites)

Following Genesis 10, nations of the world, Eber was living when Jacob was born.

There is an ancient legend that the Avars of Central Asia are descendants of Abraham through his last wife, *Ketu’rah [*see article in this publication]. If this is so, than these people(s) are descendants of Eber [see article to the left] through his great (5 times) grandson Abraham.Many scholars point to the name Eber as the root from where the name HEBREW comes. Linguistics link the Avars to an Oghur Turkic group of peoples. They originally settled in present-day Turkey.Over history many different groups of people settled in Turkey just as they did in Greece. What we see in modern history is “the last group” of people to settle and dominate these areas. Remnants of former peoples remain.

Travel Photos of Israel - Jerusalem Western Wall The story between the stories… If all descended from Noah and his three sons, the global population expanded over the centuries from a centralized geography. This includes the Avars. We must also consider to where the Assyrians moved the 10 captive tribes of Israel after they overran the northern Israelites in 700’s B.C.

We can’t end one population of 7 or 8 million people without beginning another history of people someplace else. It is hard to hide millions of transplanted Israelites without a new group of people popping up somewhere.

Something to consider if one thinks that the Bible and history are distinctly separate.

They aren’t!!!!

Abraham, Isaac and Jacob probably knew Eber. Information and knowledge didn’t need to go from Eber through multiple generations of folklore. Eber was still alive during at least part of the life span of these three patriarchs. They probably heard God’s stories from Eber first-hand. Also consider the fact that Shem, one of Noah’s three Ark-bound sons lived 600 years. He was barely 100 years old when the Great Flood happened. He lived another 500 years AFTER the Great Flood [Genesis 11:10,11]Aha anyone? Now you know the Rest of this Bible Story.

The Rest of the Bible Story:

In Genesis 20 we find the story of Abraham and Abimelech, a Philistine ruler. Abilelech was a some what common sir-name for several Philistine rulers. It means “father/leader of a king; my father/leader; a king.”

As the story reads, Abraham encounters Abimelech over Sarah, Abraham’s wife. She was beautiful and something to be desired even at 90 years of age. Abraham, supposedly fearing for his life since he lived in the land of Abimelech and knew of Abimelech’s designs on Sarah, told everyone that Sarah was his sister amd instructed her to say the he was her brother. This was not a total lie as Sarah was Abraham’s half-sister. The sin was in the “kavanah” of Abraham’s heart when he made this statement. He intended to deceive Abilelech.

Abilelech took Sarah fully intending on making her his wife. In a dream God revealed to Abilelech that Sarah was also Abraham’s wife. [note that a half-truth is reviled by God just as is a total lie]. God intervened in a dream to Abimelech. As Abilelech put it to Abraham, “What have you done to us? What was your reason for doing this?” [NIV]. In essence God had told Abilelech “You are as good as dead for this deed” [Genesis 20:3b].

AHA MOMENT

Aha #1: Find in verse 20:7 (Genesis) that God identified Abraham as “a prophet.”

Now turn to Genesis 26:1-33. Enter stage left; Abraham and Sarah’s son Isaac. Due to a famine, Isaac moves to the same area as did his father [Abraham] many years earlier (above history note). Isaac states that Rebekah, his wife, is really his sister, as he is worried that the Philistines will otherwise kill him in order to marry Rebekah. After a while, Abimelech spots Isaac sporting with Rebekah and concludes she must be Isaac’s wife, not his sister.

AHA MOMENT

Aha #2: As done between Abraham and Abilelech, , Abilelech seeks a nonaggression treaty between him and Isaac. The difference between these two similar incidents is Abraham feared for his life due to the fact he was in a strange land of mighty people. With Isaac, Abimelech feared Isaac for Isaac had become very wealthy and powerful. Abimelech “clearly saw that the Lord was with him.” Of course we do have the common denominator of both Abraham and Isaac lied about their wives. Another difference is that Isaac’s lie was not a half-truth. It was a lie!

The apple didn’t fall far from the tree.

Future Aha Moments article: Note in Genesis 26:32-33 that Isaac named the well his servants had dug “Shibah”; Beersheba.. Beer means well and Sheba [shibah] means water; Beersheba. Over 500 years later, 42,000 soldiers of a Tribe of (Isaac) Israel were slaughtered because they couldn’t say the letters “sh” [shibboleth].

AHA MOMENT

Aha #3: The treaties made between Abimelech and Abraham/Isaac were made between Philistines and future Israelites. Might you recall the problems Israel had with the Philistines hundreds of years later when Israel became a great nation? Did the Philistines of these latter years no longer “clearly see that the Lord was with them?” [J.I.V.] We can’t ask America to wake up, but we can challenge Christians to wake up. Does America see that “the Lord is clearly with us as Christians?”

AHA MOMENT

Aha #4: Verses 34 and 35 is the only place in the Bible where a major “family in-law” issue between Esau and his parents, Isaac and Rebekah, is specifically identified; almost out of context per the 26th chapter of Genesis. What might be your introspective view [Y.I.V.]?

AHA Bible Moments

Daily Archives: April 6, 2015

Who Are The Israelite’s?

The Apple Falls Close to Tree!

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