Descendants of Shem, sons of Eber, Habiru; the Sinai tribal confederation

In the Bible, Hebrews, or Jews, are a religious and ethnic group descended from Abraham and bound to God by a series of covenants. The formation of the Hebrew people can be dated from the covenant God made with Abraham around the seventeenth century B.C. Later, Abraham's descendants, together with several other Semitic tribal groups, fell into slavery in Egypt. In Egypt these Semitic slaves received the common name "hapiru," or "habiru"; the ethnonym "Hebrews" appears to go back to this word. The Bible, however, derives the name "Hebrews, sons of Eber" from Eber, one of Abraham's ancestors. In any case, these Semitic tribes, or at least most of them, preserved the memory of Abraham's faith, ancient Semitic monotheism. During the Exodus from Egypt, around the thirteenth century B.C., Semitic tribes living in the Sinai desert joined the refugees. This diverse tribal confederation became the ethnic foundation for the formation of the Hebrew people. According to tradition, it included the so-called twelve tribes of Israel: twelve tribes, each tracing its origin to one of the descendants of Abraham's grandson Jacob-Israel. The tribes were united into one whole by the covenant God made with them at Mount Sinai. During the conquest of Palestine, eleven tribes divided its territory among themselves, while the tribe of Levi received no land allotment but was entrusted with the priestly ministry.

The people of the covenant: you will be My people; the fence of the law (do not mix)

The laws of the Sinai covenant forbade any cultural, and especially religious, mixing of the Hebrews with the inhabitants of Palestine, and this protected them from pagan temptations. The inner unity of the Hebrew people was secured mainly by the unity of faith. The basis of the people's existence was God's promise: "you will be My people." In the first period after the settlement of the Holy Land, there was not even unity of worship. In public life the tribes of Israel were governed by charismatic leaders, the judges, who had spiritual authority more than political power. Since the judges came from different tribes, they also served as a force for the inner integration of the Hebrew people. The many disasters that befell the Hebrews during the period of the judges were understood by the biblical authors as the result of the people's departure from faithfulness to the Sinai covenant. In the end, the covenant came to be seen as the Hebrews' only support. The era of the judges later came to be regarded as the ideal of charismatic theocracy. In the middle of the eleventh century B.C., however, when the line of judges had grown weak, the Hebrews demanded that the last judge, the prophet Samuel, appoint a king for them so that they would be "like the other nations." At the turn of the eleventh and tenth centuries B.C., under King David, the monarchy with its capital in Jerusalem extended over the whole territory of the Holy Land and over all the tribes of Israel. Less than a century later, however, after the death of David's heir Solomon, his kingdom split into two parts: the northern kingdom, with its capital in Samaria, included ten tribes and was called Israel, or Ephraim after its leading tribe; the southern kingdom, with its capital in Jerusalem, included only the tribe of Judah and was called Judea.

In 722 B.C. the Northern Kingdom was destroyed by the Assyrians, and its inhabitants were mixed with pagan tribes as a result of the Assyrians' mass deportations. The Southern Kingdom lasted until 597 B.C., when it fell under the blows of the Babylonians. After the return from the Babylonian captivity at the end of the sixth century B.C., the remnant of the tribe of Judah spread throughout the whole land. Because the Judeans were decisively predominant in number, and also because pagan elements were present in the religious culture of the northern tribes, after the Babylonian captivity the terms "Hebrew" and "Jew" became practically synonymous. In biblical literature, especially in the postexilic period, Hebrew and Jew mean first of all an adherent of Sinai monotheism, a person who honors the one God and keeps His commandments. The ethnic meaning of these names is secondary. A foreigner who comes to the Sinai faith becomes a member of the chosen people, that is, a Jew.

According to the Bible, Israel is chosen by God and given a special mission. The prophets call Israel God's beloved planting: "The vineyard of the Lord of hosts is the house of Israel, and the men of Judah are His beloved planting" (Isa. 5:7). This chosenness of the Hebrews and Jews means first of all this people's special responsibility before God: "You only have I known of all the families of the earth; therefore I will punish you for all your iniquities" (Amos 3:2). The Lord says that the people of Israel are chosen to bear witness to Him: "You are My witnesses, says the Lord, and My servant whom I have chosen, that you may know and believe Me, and understand that I am He. Before Me there was no God, and after Me there will be none. I, I am the Lord, and besides Me there is no Savior. I foretold and saved and proclaimed; and there was no foreign god among you. You are My witnesses, says the Lord, that I am God" (Isa. 43:10-12). In the last days this witness will be shown to the whole world: "Thus says the Lord of hosts: In those days ten men from all the nations of every language shall take hold of the hem of a Jew's garment and say, 'We will go with you, for we have heard that God is with you'" (Zech. 8:23).

The Lord Himself confirms this in the New Testament: "You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews" (John 4:22). Many representatives of the Hebrew people, from the Most Holy Mother of God to the thousands who believed as a result of the apostles' preaching after Pentecost, accepted the Lord Jesus Christ. Yet the Hebrew people as a whole, as a religious and ethnic community, did not receive Christ (John 1:11-12). Stirred up by their religious leaders, the Jews cried out to Pilate, "Crucify, crucify Him!" (Luke 23:21). Therefore Christ, grieving over the chosen people, said: "Jerusalem, Jerusalem, who kills the prophets and stones those sent to you! How often I wanted to gather your children together, as a bird gathers its young under its wings, and you were not willing! See, your house is left to you desolate" (Matt. 23:37-38).

The apostle Paul, speaking in the Letter to the Romans about the destiny of Israel, compares the Hebrew people to a cultivated olive tree, into whose root all the rest of humanity is grafted by God's mercy. Hardening, that is, the rejection of Christ, happened in Israel in part, until the time when the full number of the Gentiles enters the Kingdom of God. On the basis of the apostle's words in Rom. 2:28-29, that "Jew" is not an ethnic concept but a spiritual and inward one, meaning a person who believes and obeys the God of Israel, the Christian Church came to regard itself as the New Israel, grafted onto the broken root of Old Israel. At the same time, the opinion spread in Christian circles that the Hebrew people will be the last to turn to faith in Christ, and that this conversion will mark the end of the world.