Orthodox Jews please! How did ancient Jews define Jewishness?

Question

How did the ancient Jews define whether a person was of Jewish heritage? Was it only through the mother's side like modern Jews believe or was it through the father's side also? Didn't the Old Testament record ancient lines through the father's line? I am confused about this. Thanks.

Answer 1

Okay, so the reason you are confused is because you are thinking of stories like Abraham or JAcob. Those stories took place before the people descended to Egypt and solidifed a people, and deffinitely before Mt. SInai. At that point in history, being part of the covenant people was a matter of individual choseness. You could have twin brothers where one was part of the covenant and the other not, such as Jacob and Esau.

From Egypt on, when the people had become a people, and definitely after Mt. SInai on, you can see that Jewishness was passed through the mother. In Numbers there is a story of the son of an Egyptian man and a Jewish woman who blasphemes and is put to death. Why was he in the camp? The text says HaBen. The Son. He wasn't a son, he was the only son of these two people. If he were not Jewish, he'd be dead in the plague of the first born Egyptians.

Also, in the book of Ezrah, Ezrah finds out that the people had forgotten a lot of the Torah and married non-Jewish women. He tells them, "Put aside your foreign wifes and children, and send them away." SO the children went with the women, because they were also considered non-Jews. It's unthinkable a prophet would send Jewish children away with idolatrous mothers.

WIth Ruth it's different because she converted to Judaism. YOu'll recall she said, "YOur people are my people, and your G_d is my G-d."


Now you noticed something subtle:

Jewishness is passed through the mother, but tribal identification is passed through the father, so geneology goes by father. Why? Jewishness is determined by slave law. The son of a lsave woman is a slave regardless of father, the son of a free woman is free regardless of father. A Jew is a slave to G_d, so his status as a Jew is determined by those laws.

Tribal identification and royal dynastic rights follow the laws of property ownership, not slave law, so they are tracked through the father's side.

It's the same in Judaism today. If your mother is Jewish and your father is not, you are Jewish. If both parents are Jewish, your mother is an Ashkenazi Jew, and your father a Sephardi Jew, you are Sephardi.

Hope that helps.

Answer 2

The tribal line is through the father, yes.

However, Jewishness comes through the mother. If she was raped by a foreigner the resulting child is still considered to be part of the Nation even though the man who father him wasn't Jewish. You couldn't always know exactly who the father was since invading groups frequently raped the women. But you could always be sure of who the mother was. So saying that it comes through the mother was good for the child. This is unlike the Christians who called such a child names like "bastard".

Answer 3

Lots of good answers here, but to add one point about Ruth, the first convert in Jewish history, her children were considered Jews just as any other child born to a Jewish woman which makes her a part of the line of David.

Think of this in relation to the concept of the Jewish "race." Any child born to a Jewish convert is a Jew just as any other Jew. It was the Roman Catholic Church that started the "Jewish race" theory by forcing Jews to convert to Christianity, and then limiting their participation and not trusting them because of their "Jewish blood." Just because a child is born of a Jewish mother does not mean that his bloodline goes any further than one generation.
.

Answer 4

Riiiight. by using fact Jews have not have been given something greater useful to do on Christian holidays than tear up some toliet paper. Christmas would not somewhat mean something to Jews, different than consistent with danger that the shops are a lot greater crowded than conventional.

Answer 5

Lineage is done through the father's side. e.g. who is a Levite, who is a Kohen, who has the right to be King.

Someone's Jewish status is done through the mother. Thus, if someone's mother was not Jewish but their father was a Levite then they would not be a Levite since they would not be Jewish and thus the lineage would be irrelevant.

Answer 6

The 12 Tribes of Israel did not refer to themselves as Jews. Only those of the tribe of Judah used that term. When the Promised Land was settled, it eventually divided into two nations. Israel and Judea. The 10 tribes of Israel "disappeared" therefore are referred to as the LOST TEN TRIBES. The two remaining Tribes in Judea, were the tribe of Judah and Benjamin. Members of the nation of Judea were called Judeans, or later Jews. Today, any person who follows the religion of Judaism is referred to as a Jew. Regardless of his tribe or origin.

Answer 7

It seems only christians and muslims are still orthodox.