Who were the Gentiles of the New Testament?
Dear Children,
There are many who believe that the Gentiles or the Greeks who are named in the New Testament refer to any person that is not a member to the tribes of the man Jacob or Israel. I am not one of those individuals.
Redemption come through the Messiah
First let me tell you, my belief concerning redemption through the Messiah is as follows:
Today it doesn’t matter what race or nation we are born from; there is only one way to be found acceptable in this life and eternity. That one way is by having the testimony of Yeshua the Messiah, obeying the commandments of God and loving our brother more than ourselves.
Revelations tell us that the faithful keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
Rev 12:17 And the dragon was wroth with the woman, and went to make war with the remnant of her seed, which keep the commandments of God, and have the testimony of Jesus Christ.
John tell us it’s by our love for each other, the Body, that we will be known to men as a disciple of Yeshua.
John 13:34 A new commandment I give unto you, That ye love one another; as I have loved you, that ye also love one another 35 By this shall all men know that ye are my disciples, if ye have love one to another.
Corinthians points to having our hope and trust in Yeshua and not in men.
1 Cor 3:21 Therefore let no man glory in men (names, families, leaders, etc). For all things are yours; 22 Whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to come; all are yours; 23 And ye are Christ’s; and Christ is God’s.
1 Corinthians 3:21-22 were the summation after a long discourse in which the Corinthians were dividing themselves into groups according to who had baptized them or more correctly: who had overseen the individual’s ritual cleansing after repentance.
Two House Theory
There’s been a lot written over the years concerning The Two House Theory. The Two House Theory is what some call the Northern Kingdom of Ephraim and the Southern Kingdom of Judah. Some say that the Two Houses are literally Judah and Ephraim. Others say that it is the Jewish nation of Israel and today’s Christian Church. Some say that it is the Jews and any person outside the Jewish nation that has the testimony of the Messiah and keeps the commandments of God. Other’s want you to believe that the Christian Church has replaced the nation of physical Israel as a new spiritualized Israel; that Yehovah has permanently turned His back on the 12 tribes and all future prophecy concerning the Israelites actually refers to the Church now. Wrong.
I’m going to tell you the truth of it now. A biblical Two House theory exists and it is simply this: There’s Yehovah’s House and the Enemy’s House. That’s all. There is no other choice; either you choose Him or you reject Him, there’s no plan B. There are no rules for them and us. Them, meaning the Jews/or Israelites and different rules for us, meaning the non-Jews. For all who call Yeshua or Jesus Lord and keep the commandment of the Father, there is only His House and His Rules.
That doesn’t mean that Israel and Ephraim aren’t in the scriptures or that their history isn’t important for our understanding. It simply means that The Two House theory created from Ezekiel chapter 37 is man-made ideology that man tries to spiritualize and wrap scriptures around. Yehovah divided Jacob or Israel’s twelve sons into two houses, really two kingdoms. Man coined the phrase The Two House theory.
Without a doubt YHVH said we would scatter and re-gather faithless Ephraim and Judah to and from the corners of the world.
Isa 11:12 And He will lift up a standard for the nations and assemble the banished ones of Israel, and will gather the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth.
He said He would whistle/hiss for them and they would return to Him.
Zech 10:8 I will hiss of them, and gather them; for I have redeemed them: and they shall increase as the have increased. 9 And I will sow them among the people: and they shall remember me in far countries; and they shall love with their children, and turn again.
Knowing I believe that even the Northern and Southern Kingdoms must be restored to Yehovah by faith in the Messiah, then why is it important who the Gentiles and Greeks in the New Testament are? History and context lend understanding to what is required of us and what is being said to us from the pages of the bible.
Have you ever started watching a complicated movie in the middle and been confused because you didn’t know the characters or the plot? There are characters and a plot in the bible that tells a whole and complete story from Genesis to Revelation. Without knowing who, when and why it is like starting a movie in the middle with a plot that is so complicated that when the movie finishes you still don’t know what happened because you didn’t see the opening minutes. Or saying it very simply, if you don’t understand the history of the Bible, characters, and patterns of Elohim then the words written in its pages do not make sense.
I am going to be showing you patterns, scriptures, and history that will connect the Old Testament with the New Testament. I’m going to show you that there were two sets of Gentiles. The Gentiles from the tribes of Jacob and the Gentiles from the nations of Noah. First we will look at the Gentiles from the tribes of Jacob.
A very brief biblical timeline
In Genesis 48:1-20 Joseph was ruler over Egypt where Yehovah had sent Joseph to save his family (Jacob and Jacob’s eleven other sons) from the famine that was coming. When father Jacob was dying he blessed his sons. When he gets to Joseph’s blessing, Jacob tells Joseph two things: 1) That at Luz in the land of Canaan YHVH told Jacob that he would make him a multitude of people [an assemblage of people] 2) Father Israel said that he was going to take Joseph’s sons for his own sons. In other words, he replaced Joseph’s position in the 12 tribes with the sons of Joseph: Manasseh and Ephraim. Manasseh and Ephraim were father Jacob’s sons in the same way as Rueben and Simeon his firstborn by Leah.
Gen 48:19 And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. 18 And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. 19 And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations.
Please notice that this was a promise to Jacob whose name was changed to Israel by Yehovah during his visitation to Jacob. While Abraham had been promised that his seed could not be numbered to Jacob was given this promise of his seed being mixed with the nations.
Gen 35: 10 And God said unto him, Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and he called his name Israel. 11 And God said unto him, I am God Almighty: be fruitful and multiply; a nation [(גי goy or Gentile) who represented Manasseh] and a company [(קהל assemblage) of nations (גי goyim or Gentiles) who represented Ephraim] shall be of thee, and kings shall come out of thy loins; 12 And the land which I gave Abraham and Isaac, to thee I will give it, and to thy seed after thee will I give the land.
Yehovah had said to Jacob that Ephraim and Manasseh will each become great. Manasseh will be a great people, BUT Ephraim will be a multitude of nations (מְלוֹ meh-lo: fullness, all that is) (גֹּי go-ee: nation, heathen, people, gentile) Fullness of the Gentiles. Paul uses this exact phrase in:
Romans 11:25 For I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery, lest ye should be wise in your own conceits; that blindness in part is happened to Israel (the twelve tribes) until the fulness of the Gentiles (Northern Tribes) be come in.
The fact is the entire book of Romans was written to a congregation made up of the Northern and Southern tribes, or the whole house of Israel.
Rom 11:26 And so all of Israel (a remenant of all the twelve tribes) shall be saved: as it is written, There sall come out of Sion the Deliverer, and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob:
Romans 9:25 As he saith also in Hosea, I will call them my people, which were not my people; and her beloved, which was not beloved. 26 And it shall come to pass, that in the place where it was said unto them, Ye are not my people; there shall they be called the children of the living God. 27 Esaias also crieth concerning Israel, Though the number of the children of Israel be as the sand of the sea, a remnant shall be saved:
Our picture that we are given about the salvation of the nation of Israel is a remnant of the whole. In fact even in the exodus from Egypt the people that left Egypt were described as follows:
Exo 12:38 And a mixed (ערב mixed threads, mixture, mongrel race) multitude (רב abundant, great) went up also with them; and flocks, and heards, very much cattle.
The Israelites were never a pure race of people. Elohim didn’t design it that way. He designed a Law that He gave to the descendants of Abraham who became the vehicle by which all men could know what יהוה required and join themselves to Yehovah through His vehicle the Israelites.
I believe our example has always been there will be a greater number of nations of the world than the number of the remnant of the twelve tribes. But lest we forget, this was the promise of Yehovah to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob that He would multiply their seed into a great number and then save a remnant. And this promise fits into His plan which is the restoration of His Adam, His creation, His man back into His family as eternal Sons of Elohim living in the garden.
Rev 2:7…. To him who overcomes, I will grant to eat of the tree of life which is in the paradise (garden, an Eden) of God.
Moses also prophesied about Joseph and his sons Deut 33: 17 His (Joseph’s) glory is like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the horns of unicorns (rhino): with them he shall push the people together to the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands (of the ethnicity) of Ephraim, and they are the thousands (of the ethnicity) of Manasseh.
The Israelites became slaves in Egypt after the new pharaoh forgot who Joseph was. When the twelve tribes left Egypt they received the commandments at Sinai from Yehovah.
In Exodus Chapter 19-24 is the agreement the people of Israel entered into with Yehovah. Exodus 24:12 Yehovah כָּתַב ka-tav wrote the words. .כ.ת.ב is the root for כְּתוּבָּה keh-tu-vah. Ketubah is a word that is still used for ‘contract’ in marriage in modern Israel. In Exodus 24:12 the twelve tribes accepted the terms of the ketubah and were then married to YHVH and they were sprinkled with blood. Immediately following their commitment they entered into with Yehovah the tribes begin breaking their covenant by mixing the worship of an image of golden calf-god from Egypt with the worship of Yehovah. The Israelites sins only continued to get worse over the years as they refuse to obey and strayed further and further away.
The twelve tribes stayed in the wilderness for 40 years for not trusting and having faith in יהוה until that original generation that exited Egypt had all died in the desert, and then with Joshua the next generation crosses over the Jordan River into the land Yehovah had promised to bring them to.
The twelve tribes are ruled by judges 300 plus years.
The twelve tribes were ruled by four kings for 120 years from Saul to Rehoboam.
The twelve tribes are then split into two kingdoms: the Southern Kingdom who is Judah, some Levi and some of Benjamin; the Northern Kingdom is the rest of the brothers or tribes with some of the Levities living as judges among them. The Southern Kingdom is where the Temples were built in Jerusalem on Judah’s tribal land. Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom’s government seat was in Samaria.
For 160 years the Kingdom of Israel (the Northern Kingdom, Ephraim) lived in their tribal territories in Israel were ruled by their ungodly kings. The Kingdom of Judah (the Southern Kingdom) was given an additional 160 years of living in their tribal territories on the land of Israel (320 years total) under their more righteous kings. At the end of the 320 years, both of the kingdoms had been carried away to captivity. Ephraim or the Gentiles never returned to live in their tribal land again.
This is important. This is the path of disobedience the son’s of Jacob took that caused them to be carried away to the ends of the earth.
Review: What was the path of disobedience for the Israelites? It started at Sinai. After agreeing to the ketubah of YHVH they immediately built a golden calf (an Egyptian god Ex 8:26) and mixed the worship of YHVH with the worship of a pagan god
Ex 32:5 Aaron built an altar before the calf AND proclaim the next day as a feast day to Yehovah.
The twelve tribes, the sons of Israel; broke the terms of Exodus 19-24. Throughout their history they continued to break the terms of this ketubah.
In Jer 3:8 Yehovah divorces the ‘house of Israel’ (the Northern Kingdom, the Gentiles)
… And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah (the Southern Kingdom) feared not, but went and played the harlot also.
Yehovah never divorced Judah
Jer 3:9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her (the Northern Kingdom’s) whoredom, that she defiled the land (by breaking Sh’mita and Jubilee which were land Sabbaths), and committed adultery with stones and with stocks (pagan gods). 10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah (the Southern Kingdom) hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord.
In Jeremiah’s prophecy, the Northern Kingdom of Israel is called by the names: Ephraim, Joseph, Israel and the Northern Kingdom. They are the Gentiles, who Yehovah called the Nations and who Jacob called the Nations, who Paul called the nations. They were backslidden (מְשֻׁבָה meh-shu-bah, apostasy). Judah, the Southern Kingdom was treacherous (בָּגַד ba-gad, acted covertly or deceitfully)
Remember Gen 49:19… and his seed (natural) shall become a multitude of nations (melo goyim, fulness of the Gentiles). Hosea 7:8 Ephraim, he hath mixed himself among the people, Ephraim is a cake not turned.
Ephraim was mixed among the other nations of the world. Right now everyone must claim to be of the tribe of Judah, because we have been redeemed by our kinsman redeemer to Yeshua ben (son of) David ben Judah ben Abraham ben Adam. We take His name and His identity. Those that are calling themselves Ephraim are claiming something OTHER than their kinsman redeemer Yeshua’s tribe or family name.
Is our Kinsman Redeemer named Ephraim or Judah?
To say that they redeemed by the Messiah but call themselves Ephraim is like saying ‘I’m married to John Smith, but I want to use the family name ‘Ishkabibble’ rather than the family name ‘Smith.’ Ishkabibble is a name, which they have no claim to and if we have a right to be called Iskabibble then we are joined to the wrong kinsman redeemer.
I’m going to take a pause in the journey of father Israel’s Gentile Nations. I want to show you that Yehovah always has made a provision for a person who is not a natural descendant of Abraham, Isaac, or Jacob.
There was always a provision to belong to יהוה for the nations of the world
The Hebrew language of the Torah used specific words to describe foreign nations or Non-Judah; Non-Israel/Gentile people groups. If specific terms relating to foreign people groups did not exist in Biblical Hebrew how could we be positive of our finding? How would we do know when a foreign people group was mentioned? Are we to believe that a foreign people group was never mentioned in the Old Testament? That’s just silly thinking.
I want to show you some of the words; I say some because it is quite possible others exist in addition to those that I will use to express foreign non-Judah, non-Israel/Gentile nations. With these few words we can say with assurance there are words for foreign-nations and it is not the word goyim or nations or gentiles.
אֻמָּה oo-mah in Numbers 25:1 foreign collective, people, tribe,
Daniel 3:29 Therefore I make a decree, that every people nation (אֻמָּה), and language, which speak any thing amiss against the God of Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, shall be cut into pieces, and their houses shall be made a dunghill: because there is no other God that can deliver after this sort
הָמֹן hamon in Judges 4:7 tumult , crowd, multitude
Judges 4:7 And I will draw unto thee to the river Kishon Sisera the captain of Jabin’s Army, with his chariots and his multitude המן and I will deliver him into thine hand.
Of course, there are many specific foreign countries mentioned by name in the scriptures, just like in the last verse I used which mentioned the Rephaims. The words I’ve shared are mostly generic terms for indicating a foreign country.
Genesis 14:5 And in the fourteenth year came Chedorlaomer, and the kings that were with him, and smote the Rephaims in Ashteroth Karnaim, and the Zuzims זוּזִים in Ham, and the Emins in Shaveh Kiriathaim.
Pausing to look at the exodus from Egypt
Exodus 12:38 records when the twelve tribes of Israel left Egypt a ‘mixed multitude’ left with them. All of Egypt had seen ten terrible plagues at the hand of the Elohim of Israel. The last plague took the lives of all of the first-born males on all of the land of Egypt. It is a wonder to me that all of the Egyptians didn’t leave with the twelve tribes. But how was it that a mixed multitude left with the twelve tribes? Why didn’t it just say ‘and some of the Egyptian went up with them also’?
Gen 41:47 And all countries came into Egypt to Joseph for to buy corn; because that the famine was so sore in all lands
As the people ran out of possessions to sell to the pharaoh in exchange for food the Bible records that eventually they sold themselves to the pharaoh so they could feed their families.
Gen 47:23 Then Joseph said unto the people, Behold, I have bought you this day and your land for Pharaoh: lo, here is seed for you, and ye shall sow the land.
From this verse, we can see how a mixed multitude could be in Egypt and come out of in the exodus with the 12 tribes. But just exactly is a mixed multitude? (עֶרֶב er-ev mixed, foreign people, foreigner) ( רַב rav great, multitude, much, mighty.) A great number of foreign people came out of Egypt with the twelve tribes. Moreover, I believe the foreign people were married to the women of the tribes of Jacob and that is why they were called ‘mixed’. When the Pharaoh killed all of the male children in Egypt at the time of Moses birth it left a huge deficit in the Jewish population of eligible males to marry the Israeli daughters.
Ex 1:8 And Pharaoh charged all his people, saying, Every son that is born ye shall cast into the river, and every daughter ye shall save alive.
Logically, they turned to the foreigners for husbands to marry their daughters. We know that the Israelites had forgotten the ways of Elohim while they were in Egypt, there was nothing to keep them from marrying their daughters to pagans.
Ex 14:12 Is not this the word that we did tell thee in Egypt, saying, Let us alone, that we may serve the Egyptians? For it had been better for us to serve the Egyptians, than that we should die in the wilderness.
Ex 12:37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand of foot men, besides children
Six hundred thousand men plus a ‘great multitude’ of people came out with the twelve tribes. I believe the plan was always a remnant of the seed of Abraham, Issac, and Jacob along with their ‘fellows or companions’ would be saved from destruction.
Eze 37:16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions:
Eze 37:19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand.
Returning to the language in the Torah to indicate foreigners
In Number 11:4 the same mixt multitude is call אֲסַפְסֻף as-pes-oof assemblage, rabble
Numbers 11:4 And the mixt multitude that was among them fell a lusting: and the children of Israel also wept again, and said, Who shall give us flesh to eat?
Iתֹּשָׁב to-shav Exo 12:45 foreigner, sojourner, stranger.
Ex 12:25 A foreigner and an hired servant shall not eat thereof.
Here are SOME of the verses that use toshav as sojourner. Lev 22:10; Lev 23:35; Num 35:15, Psa 39:12
נֵכָר Neh-kar Isa 61:5 alien, foreigner, heathendom
Here is the real word we need to focus on, this word is used exclusively for someone who was not born from Jacob’s line who made Yehovah the Elohim over their lives and who lived with and as a natural born member of one of the twelve tribes.
גֵּיר geyr Lev 16:29 sojourner, alien, stranger also in Lev 17:12 and 15; Lev 18:26 and many other
There are plenty of biblical words that describe a foreigner living among the twelve tribes of Israel. The King James words: Gentile and the Nations are not among them. Gentile was a word reserved for a specific group of people who would be apostate from their Elohim, Yehovah. It was a specific term provided to us in the Torah and biblical prophecy to understand the end times.
Yehovah had a lot to say about the foreigner (גֵּיר geyr) who wanted obey and live a separated life holy to Him. He wanted to assimilate all geyr into His ketubah.
The following is a list provisions for geyr found in the Law:
Exodus 12:19 provisions for the foreigner for unleavened bread Exodus
12:48-49 provision for the foreigner for Passover
Exodus 20:10, 23:12 provision for the foreigner for the weekly Friday Sabbath
Exodus 22:21 a warning not to oppress a foreigner
Leviticus 16:29 provision for the foreigner for Yom Kippur
Leviticus 17:12 foreigner living with Israel ate no blood, the same as Israel
Leviticus 17:15
Leviticus 18:26 warning to the Israelites and foreigner living with Israel not to follow the ways of the foreigner of the land YHVH was giving to Israel
Leviticus 19:10
Leviticus 19:33 And if a stranger sojourn with thee in your land, ye shall not vex him. 34 But the stranger that dwelleth with you shall be unto you as one born among you, and thou shalt love him as thyself; for ye were strangers in the land of Egypt: I am the Lord your God.
Leviticus 23:22 taking care of the poor and the widows
Leviticus 24:16
Leviticus 24: 22 Ye shall have one manner of law, as well for the stranger (גיר), as for one of your own country: for I am the Lord your God.
Lev 25:35
Lev 25:47
Numbers 15:14-16
Numbers 15:26
Numbers 15:29-30
Numbers 19:10
Deuteronomy 1:15-16
Deuteronomy 5:14
Deuteronomy 10:18, 19 Deuteronomy 14:21
Deuteronomy 14:29
Deuteronomy 16:11
Deuteronomy 16:14
Deuteronomy 23:7
Deuteronomy 24:17
Deuteronomy 24:19-21
Deuteronomy 26:11-13
Deuteronomy 27:19
Deuteronomy 31:11, 12
Twenty-eight times Yehovah took the time to include the geyr/foreigner in the commands AND he gave TWO specific verses to say, “if they are keeping my covenant, the terms of my Ketubah, then THEY are the SAME as YOU! Treat them the same, they are not different.
In the timeline after Numbers eleven the geyr who left Egypt during the exodus with the twelve tribes were never mentioned again as גיר by Yehovah except to say when He gave the Law: THEY are the SAME as YOU, when speaking to the people gathered at Sinai. The geyr had been assimilated into the Sinai marriage covenant; they had become part of the commonwealth of Israel.
I hope you can begin to see that while the term Gentile was used specifically at times to designate the Northern Kingdom, or if you will allow me, the ten lost tribes, there are many other terms for those not born as the natural seed of Jacob. Those people by called by other terms had become the nations of the world. We who were not natural-born to Jacob have always been provide a road to the Yehovah through faith and obedience, just as was required of Abraham, who by the way was not an Israelite or circumcised when he entered into a covenant with Elohim. He was however, the first one to crossover into covenant with Elohim from the nations of the world.
1 Now the Lord had said to Abram: “Get out of your country, From your family And from your father’s house, To a land that I will show you. 2 I will make you a great nation; I will bless you And make your name great; And you shall be a blessing 3 I will bless those who bless you, And I will curse him who curses you; And in you all the families of the earth shall be blessed.” 4 So Abram departed as the Lord had spoken to him, and Lot went with him. And Abram was seventy-five years old when he departed from Haran.” Genesis 12
This very laborious point I’ve been making is that unless we understand the cast of characters how can we understand the story? If we don’t know who the words in the scripture represent, how can we apply what we are reading?
Did you know of the 613 laws in the Old Testament (leave it to the rabbis they love numbering and counting things) not all 613 laws apply to all people? Jessica, I’m sure you know this and Abby you probably know this. Some were written to women only, some to men only, some to Levites only, Cohenim only, contagious people only…..and the list goes on. It is easy to see how the “not all thing apply to all people rule” applies through out the Old and New Testament. i.e. not all prophecy is for Israel, not all prophecy is for Judah.
If we have our understanding correct then correct-knowledge will bring understanding in the New Testament as well.
But first children a brief history lesson about the years between the last prophet of the Old Testament and The Prophet of the New Testament.
The Hasmonean Dynasty
We will now call Judah the Jews as they are called today and as they were called in the New Testament. After the Jews returned from Babylonian exile it wasn’t long until the Greeks invaded their lives and ruled the land of Israel. I think all of you know the history of Hanukah and the story of Judas Maccabee and his band of brothers that threw the Greeks out of the Temple and cleanse the temple, etc. That’s just one small part of the story of the Hasmonean Dynasty.
The ancient Greeks had control of a large amount of territory. In addition to the land of Israel they controlled Asia Minor. The Northern Kingdom never came back to live in their tribal land in Israel once they were carried out by the King of Assyria. It was only Judah that inhabited the areas around Jerusalem and other parts of the land of Israel. Because the land was known as Israel, the Jews also become known as Israel in the New Testament. Why? Because in the Jewish understanding of the Torah they were all of the sons of Jacob that were left, because Yehovah had divorced and set the Northern Kingdom out of His house (Temple) and out of His land.
As the story of Hanukah taught, Judas Maccabee and his brothers liberated Jerusalem and the Temple from the Greeks. Judas Maccabee and Judas’ brothers that ruled after him ruled as High Priests and Kings, types of Melchizedeks. It was done so at the will of the people. This was called the Hasmonean Dynasty or the Hasmonean Period. I can imagine the discussion about the King of Salem, the original Melchizedek, that the people had when it was decided by them to make the Maccabee brother govern them as a king-priest. Melchizedek is Melech Tzadik ( מלך צדיק) in hebrew. A compound word meaning king-priest or righteous king
After the Maccabees liberated Israel from the Greeks one of the Maccabee brothers entered into a treaty with Roman on behalf of the Israelites. Rome was coming an up-and-coming power in the same regions where Greece’s former conquests had been. Greece no longer had Asia Minor, Roman was its ruler. The Maccabees thought it good to make an alliance with Roman. It went like this: I will fight for your cause if you need me to, if you will fight for my cause when I need you to. In the same way that the Egyptian pharoah forgot the twelve tribes once Joseph who made the treaty had died, the new rulers of Roman that came into power after the Israeli-Roman treaty no longer remembered the terms of the treaty between the Israeli and Roman empire. Roman had become a might force and by force because the occupier of Israel.
The New Testament period
In Yeshua’s day, Herod Antipas was a convert to Judaism. He was king of the Jews, a puppet of Rome and the last known Edomite descended from Essau, it was this Herod who had John the Baptist beheaded. Herod Antipas or Herod the Great as he was known was married to a Hasmonean Princess. Her name was Mariamne the Hasmonean. Through the line of the Hasmonean Dynasty Herod married into his position of king and he converted into the Judaism of the New Testamet. In all likelihood, his marriage was highly political and minorly based on love, although history does record that Herod loved Mariamne and he eventually killed her because of his jealousy and mistrust of her. This religious and marital alliance between Mariamne and Herod probably offered Herod a level of acceptance from the Jewish population and an their acceptance as a ‘ruler’ positioned between the Jews and the Romans.
All of this lengthy history about the Greeks and Romans in Israel and Asia Minor was to explain that a Greek in the New Testament was a person from the Northern Kingdom, Ephraim, or a Gentile that grew up speaking Greek in Asia Minor because when Greece has control over Asia Minor the Greek language was common language in the regions of their holdings, meaning Greek was spoken in all of Asia Minor. The Northern Kingdom’s were still know to the Jews who remained in in Israel at the time of Yeshua. Throughout the New Testament period, Greek remained the common language of Asia Minor and is why we see the language of the New Testament being written at least partially in Greek with a Hebrew prespective.
If we were looking for a modern English word to describe someone that joins a religion they were not previously part of what is the first thing that comes to mind? For me, it is the word ‘convert’. There is another word that is very similar that the New Testament uses. It is the word ‘proselyte’ Here’s the definition: a person who has converted from one opinion, religion, or party to another, especially recently. synonyms: convert, new believer, catechumen
Matthew 23: 15 Woe unto you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites! for ye compass sea and land to make one proselyte, and when he is made, ye make him twofold more the child of hell than yourselves.
That’s amazing, isn’t it? The Messiah didn’t use the word Gentile, He used the word proselyte, in Hebrew he probably said geyr (גיר).
Acts 2:10 And how hear we every man in our own tongue, wherein we were born? 9 Parthians, and Medes, and Elamites, and the dwellers in Mesopotamia, and in Judaea, and Cappadocia, in Pontus, and Asia,10 Phrygia, and Pamphylia, in Egypt, and in the parts of Libya about Cyrene, and strangers (Strongs: residents, reside in a foreign country) of Rome, Jews and proselytes (geyr. a coverts to the Jews), 11 Cretes and Arabians, we do hear them speak in our tongues the wonderful works of God.
The countries listed in this section were the Asia Minor homelands of Jewish (Judah and Benjamin) men present when the Holy Spirit was given. Not all of the Jews had returned to the land of Israel after Babylon and many may have chosen not to live in Israel where the Roman soldiers presence was so heavy. Paul speaks of many Jews dwelling in Asia Minor as they were the source of much prosection to him. These were Jews who obeyed the Law and returned to Jerusalem for the three feasts as commanded in the Torah. These were Jews living in Asia Minor.
Acts 6:5 And the saying pleased the whole multitude: and they chose Stephen, a man full of faith and of the Holy Ghost, and Philip, and Prochorus, and Nicanor, and Timon, and Parmenas, and Nicolas a proselyte (geyr, a convert to the Jews) of Antioch;
Notice that Nicolas was chosen and was called a proselyte. While our definition from the dictionary said a proselyte was a ‘new convert’ scripture doesn’t uphold that idea as this proselyte being a new convert . A new convert would not likely have been chosen to serve:
Acts 6:3 Wherefore, brethren, look ye out among you seven men of honest report, full of the Holy Ghost and wisdom, whom we may appoint over this business.
Proselyte was not a word reserved to indicate a new covert.
Acts 13:43 Now when the congregation was broken up, many of the Jews and religious proselytes (geyr) followed Paul and Barnabas: who, speaking to them, persuaded them to continue in the grace of God.
Since they were ‘religious’ geyr these were those who had converted into the rabbinical Judaism of the Jews.
The New Testament writers have given us four solid examples of geyrim or proselytes coming to faith in Yeshua. Look again at Eze 37:
Eze 37:16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions (geyr/proselytes) : then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions (geyr/near friends):
Look at what is said about Cornelius in Acts:
Acts 10:24 And the morrow after they entered into Caesarea. And Cornelius waited for them, and he had called together his kinsmen and near friends.
Eze 37:19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord God; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim (who was Cornelius), and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah (who is the Messiah, the Lion of the Tribe of Judah), and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine (Yeshua’s) hand.
Did you see all of what just happened? First of all in Acts chapter two the Judah was put in the hand of the Messiah first when they were filled with the Holy Spirit (to the Jew first). Then in Acts chapter ten the household of Cornelius joined Judah in the Messiah’s hand (and then to the Gentile or Greek). In Messiah’s hand all of the tribes became one stick! God kept his promise in Ezekiel 37 to the letter!
During Yeshua’s time on earth He can come to join what had been divided. The New Testament makes it very clear that that was one new man because of the work that Yeshua had accomplished. That divided man was Jacob, or rather Jacob’s sons. They have been divided into two kindgoms, then they had been divided into different worship. Judah still worship the Yah of their Father Jacob, but Ephraim worshiped the gods of the nations that occuppied their territorial lands when they entered Israel. Who were those nations?
Barbarians
Let me show you the word the New Testament uses for an individual with no natural family connection to the tribes of Jacob. It exists as a further witness to us:
Acts 28:4 And when the barbarians saw the venomous beast hang on his hand, they said among themselves, No doubt this man is a murderer, whom, though he hath escaped the sea, yet vengeance suffereth not to live.
Rom 1:14 I am debtor both to the Greeks, and to the Barbarians; both to the wise, and to the unwise.
1 Cor 1:14 Therefore if I know not the meaning of the voice, I shall be unto him that speaketh a barbarian, and he that speaketh shall be a barbarian unto me.
Col 3:11 Where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all.
Please notice that Greeks and Barbarians were classified as different people groups.
The Greeks of the New Testament were Gentiles, the Northern Kingdom who had become Hellenized. They adopted the culture of the Greeks, the language of the Greeks and the gods of the Greeks. They were uncircumcised and unlearned in Torah.
Gentiles were Ephraim, the Northern Kingdom. Look at these introductions from the letters that John wrote in 2 John:
2 John 1:1 The elder unto the elect lady and her children, whom I love in the truth, and not I only, but also all they that have known the truth;
2 John 1:13 The children of thy elect sister greet thee. Amen
The two sisters
Remember our characters and our storyline? Who were the sisters?
Jer 3:8 Yehovah divorces the ‘house of Israel’ (the Northern Kingdom) … And I saw, when for all the causes whereby backsliding Israel committed adultery I had put her away, and given her a bill of divorce; yet her treacherous sister Judah (the Southern Kingdom) feared not, but went and played the harlot also .
Jer 3:9 And it came to pass through the lightness of her (the Northern Kingdom) whoredom, that she defiled the land *(Sh’mita and Jubilee were land Sabbaths), and committed adultery with stones and with stocks (pagan gods). 10 And yet for all this her treacherous sister Judah (the Southern Kingdom) hath not turned unto me with her whole heart, but feignedly, saith the Lord.
John was a Jew, living in the land of Israel. He was a member of the Southern Kingdom or the Southern sister. He was writing to Ephraim in Asia Minor the other sister, the Northern sister, the Northern Kingdom.
So If we know that even Ephraim and Judah must come back into the covenant through Yeshua why is it important to know who Ephraim is in the New Testament?
Paul said that the Jews require a sign and the Greek require knowledge:
1 Cor 1: 22 For the Jews require a sign, and the Greeks seek after wisdom: 23 But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; 24 But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and the wisdom of God.
Throughout Israel’s history with Yehovah, He gave them signs in their flesh, rememberances to wear on their bodies, and memorials in their land to remember what He had done for them so that they would have faith for what He had promised to do that had not yet happened. And as you know, children, I wholeheartedly believe the Laws that Yehovah gave to the twelve tribes were absolutely physical concrete things that had to be physically performed but they followed with a spiritual application or understanding.
When you read the promises that Yehovah gave to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob and then you look into the New Testament and see Him fulfilling those promises to natural Judah and Ephraim, it speaks of His faithfulness. He is faithful and trustworthy to perform His word. The ability to come into covenant was offered in the New Testament to the Jews/Judah first and then to the Gentiles/Greeks/Ephraim second.
We do have the phyiscal literal prophecy being fulfilled to the natural seed of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. So where is the spiritual lesson? It is a future event yet to happen.
When our King comes to fight His enemy we see the armies of heaven or His Bride by His side. Those that have taken on the name of the Lion of the Tribe of Judah by accepting Him as a Kinsman Redeemer, a remnant of all the tribes of Israel.
Rev 19: 7 Let us be glad and rejoice, and give honour to him: for the marriage of the Lamb is come, and his wife hath made herself ready. 8 And to her was granted that she should be arrayed in fine linen, clean and white: for the fine linen is the righteousness of saints. 14 And the armies in heaven, clothed in fine linen, white and clean, followed Him on white horses.
Along with the Bride is a great mixed multitude that are accepted into the covenant just like the exodus in Egypt! Those that will be the offspring of Messiah and His Bride. The Bride is like Daughters of Jacob who had married the offspring of Noah in Egypt, the Noah-Gentiles.
Revelation 7:9 After this I beheld, and, lo, a great multitude, which no man could number, of all nations, and kindreds, and people, and tongues, stood before the throne, and before the Lamb, clothed with white robes, and palms in their hands;
Elohim never broke or ended His covenant with Noah. Egypt was under the curse of breaking the covenant with Elohim. This is why we see Him taking the lives of the first born sons of Egypt. The Bible refers to Egypt as the “land of Ham” in Psalm 78:51; 105:23,27; 106:22; 1 Chronicles 4:40. The Egyptians were descendants of Noah who had walked away from the covenant that יהוה had made with their father.
Elohim calls Israel His firstborn son through the words of Moses when he stood before pharaoh because Abraham and Jacob descended from Shem who was Noah’s firstborn son. Egypt who descended from Ham was the youngest son.
In our phrase of the redemption of the world (John 3:16) we are seeing so many who are feeling called to the feast of the Bible and the calendar of the Bible. So many who say, I can’t prove it but I must be related to the Jews, I have such a heart for them, for Israel, to understand the Feasts. It because the covenant made with Noah was never set aside or forgotten.
Noah had a full covenant with Elohim, Noah had more than the seven Noahide laws that are being sold to the nations as what they are responsible to obey before יהוה. He had knowledge of the clean and the unclean animals. (Gen 7:2-5). He knew that there were firstfruit offerings from Cain and Abel (Gen 4:3-5). He knew that sin required a sacrifice. (Gen 3:21). Noah also knew the Levitical law of the step-mother, when Canaan saw ‘Noah’s nakedness’.
21 And he drank of the wine, and was drunken; and he was uncovered within his tent. 22 And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without.23 And Shem and Japheth took a garment, and laid it upon both their shoulders, and went backward, and covered the nakedness of their father; and their faces were backward, and they saw not their father’s nakedness. 24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son had done unto him. 25 And he said, Cursed be Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren. Genesis 9:23
Verse 21 in Hebrew says this: and drank from wine (Noah) and denude or uncovered in a tent 22 and took Ham father of Canaan the nudity of his father told to the two brohters outside.
Leviticus 18 is written about entering the Land of Canaan. We are told in verses about not seeing our relatives naked. Let’s just read it and we will see the curse of Canaan.
3 After the doings of the land of Egypt, wherein ye dwelt, shall ye not do: and after the doings of the land of Canaan, whither I bring you, shall ye not do: neither shall ye walk in their ordinances. 4 Ye shall do my judgments, and keep mine ordinances, to walk therein: I am the Lord your God. 5 Ye shall therefore keep my statutes, and my judgments: which if a man do, he shall live in them: I am the Lord. 6None of you shall approach to any that is near of kin to him, to uncover their nakedness: I am the Lord. 7 The nakedness of thy father, or the nakedness of thy mother, shalt thou not uncover: she is thy mother; thou shalt not uncover her nakedness. 8 The nakedness of thy father’s wife shalt thou not uncover: it is thy father’s nakedness. Leviticus 18:3-7
And the man that lieth with his father’s wife hath uncovered his father’s nakedness: both of them shall surely be put to death; their blood shall be upon them. Leviticus 20:11
Since Canaan received the curse from Noah, it was not Ham that slept with his step-mother, it was Canaan that slept with his grandmother. Canaan blood was upon him. This is why the nation of Israel as the firstborn son of Elohim was to take the land away from Canaan, the land vomited the inhabitants out as Israel had entered the land of Canaan.
That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nation that were before you. Leviticus 18:28
So this calling this drawing that some are feeling who cannot connect themselves to Jacob or the Jews is coming from Noah, who Elohim used to replenish the earth, who he made an eternal covenant with.
There were two set of Gentiles in the Old Testament. The first set came from Noah, the second set came from Abraham to Jacob. The fulfillment of the covenant with Abraham and Jacob has been kept and the one new man has been formed in Yeshua. The covenant with Noah will be met, and when it is fulfilled we end back up at the Tree of Life in the Garden of Elohim.
1 And he shewed me a pure river of water of life, clear as crystal, proceeding out of the throne of God and of the Lamb. 2 In the midst of the street ( place G4116) of it (the throne), and on either side of the river (one river), was there the tree of life, which bare twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month: and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations. 3 And there shall be no more curse: but the throne of God and of the Lamb shall be in it; and his servants shall serve him:
The tree of life and the throne of God and the Lamb are the same place. The water proceed from the throne, and the water proceed from a the tree of life that straddles the river. When the nations are come in, those that will be restored, the remnant of Noah, we will be back at the beginning with no curse and with the Tree of Life.
My dear children, I want so badly to leave you with confidence in Yehovah my Elohim. If you can see that He keeps His promises when He makes them to the natural seed of the twelve tribes then you will realize He will be faithful to you if you let Him make you His own. I pray from the bottom of my heart that we all be found worthy of Him and are not swept away by the cares of this world.