About Racial Israelite Theories
Titus 3:9-11
9 But avoid foolish disputes, genealogies, contentions, and strivings about the Instructions (Torah); for they are unprofitable and useless.
10 Reject a divisive man (a man making artificial divisions) after the first and second admonition,
11 knowing that such a person is warped and sinning, being self-condemned.
British Israel Theory tells us that only those of British extraction are truly Israelites; and Hebrew Israelite Theory tell us that only black people are the ‘true’ or ‘original’ Israelites (although some variations try to assign tribal lineage to other nationalities of color). While there is no question that many will come from east and west and sit down in the kingdom with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, these racially-oriented theories are not accurate, in that they violate several basic principles and tenets of Scripture.
As we explain in the Nazarene Israel study, YHWH made a number of prophetic promises to the Patriarchs. For example, Avraham was told that all the families of the earth would be blessed in him (meaning, in his descendants). The promises given are fundamentally incompatible with the idea that there is only just one group of people that descends physically from Abraham:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 12:1-3
1 Now YHWH had said to Avram:
"Go 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 “And I will bless those who bless you, and curse the one despising you; and in you (meaning, in your descendants), all the families of the earth shall be blessed.”
YHWH told Avraham that he would father not just one nation; but that he would father many nations:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 17:4-8
4 "As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations.
5 No longer shall your name be called Avram, but your name shall be Avraham; for I have made you a father of many nations.
6 I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations (plural) of you, and kings (plural) shall come from you.
7 And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be Elohim to you and your descendants after you.
8 Also I give to you and your descendants after you the land in which you are a stranger, all the land of Canaan, as an everlasting possession; and I will be their Elohim."
Who are these many nations? We will answer that in a moment, but as we explain in the Nazarene Israel study and elsewhere, Scripture defines a nation not so much as a genetic race of people, but as a people who hold to a certain set of beliefs. That is, Scripture defines a nation as a faith. That is, your faith determines your ‘nationality’ in Scripture. This is why the word ‘Greeks’ or ‘Hellenists’ in the Renewed Covenant refers not to genetic Greeks, but to those Jews who kept Hellenistic ways.
Ma’asei (Acts) 6:1
1 Now in those days, when the number of the disciples was multiplying, there arose a complaint against the Hebrews by the Hellenists, because their widows were neglected in the daily distribution.
As we explain in the Nazarene Israel study and elsewhere, these Hellenists could not have been ‘Greeks’ as we think of them in the West, because the first non-Jew was brought into the Covenant was Cornelius, four chapters later.
Interestingly, some argue that the Muslims are the heirs to the covenant; and yet while the Muslim people also descend from Avraham, those who practice Islam are not the people of the Covenant that was given to Avraham, because the Promise was specifically to come through Yitzhak (Isaac) and his son Ya’akov, whereas the Muslim faith descends through Ishmael:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 17:19-21
19 Then Elohim said: "No! Sarah your wife shall bear you a son, and you shall call his name Yitzhak (Isaac). I will establish My covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his descendants after him.
20 And as for Ishmael, I have heard you. Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly. He shall beget twelve princes, and I will make him a great nation.
21 But My covenant I will establish with Yitzhak (Isaac), whom Sarah shall bear to you at this set time next year.”
Uncle Ishmael also has an inheritance, in that Ishmael was to become twelve princes: and indeed, there are twelve predominantly Islamic nations. However, Yeshua does not tell us that Salvation is of Ishmael, but of the Jews (who descended from Israel).
Yochanan (John) 4:22
22 “You worship what you do not know; we know what we worship, for salvation is of the Jews.”
In the Post-Millennial Return study and elsewhere, we talk about how many Muslim peoples who survive the coming war in the Middle East will convert to the faith in Yeshua. This is because Yeshua does not say that salvation pertains only to the Jews, but that salvation (literally, “Yeshua”) is ‘of’ the Jews (who come from Israel, not Ishmael).
Ya’akov (or Israel) was to father a nation (the Jews), and a company of nations. As we show in the Nazarene Israel study, these are basically the ‘Judeo-Christian nations’ (or the Ephraimites).
B’reisheet (Genesis) 35:9-12
10 And Elohim said to him, "Your name is Ya’akov (Jacob): Your name shall not be called Ya’akov anymore, but Israel shall be your name.” So He called his name Israel.
11 Also Elohim said to him: "I am El Shaddai. Be fruitful and multiply: A nation and a company of nations shall proceed from you, and kings shall come from your body.
12 The land which I gave Abraham and Isaac I give to you; and to your descendants after you I give this land.”
The Judeo-Christian nations are the only reasonable candidate for being the company of nations that descend from Israel’s loins. Not coincidentally, this is where the Ephraimite Movement is emerging. This also makes sense, as the Christians are the only other people on the planet who worship the same Elohim, and who read the same book.
In the Dream of Jacob’s Ladder we start to see how YHWH planned to bless every family on earth with Avraham’s and Ya’akov’s genetics. The northern ten tribes (called the House of Israel or the House of Ephraim in Scripture) would be dispersed.
B’reisheet (Genesis) 28:10-15
10 And Ya’akov (Jacob) went out from Be’er Sheva and went toward Haran. And he came on a place and stayed the night there, for the sun had gone. And he took stones of the place and placed them at his head; and he lay down in that place.
12 And he dreamed; and behold! A ladder was set up on the earth, its top reaching toward the heavens. And behold! The angels of Elohim were going up and down on it!
13 And behold! YHWH stood above it and said, “I am YHWH, the Elohim of your father Avraham, and the Elohim of Isaac. The Land on which you are lying, I give it to you, and to your Seed.
14 And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you (meaning Israel’s descendants) shall spread to the west, and to the east, and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you (meaning genetically); and (in) your Seed (meaning Yeshua).
15 And behold! I will be with you and will guard you in every place in which you may go, and will bring you back to this Land. For I will not forsake you until I have surely done all that I have spoken to you.”
Verse 14 tells us something very special, and there is a manifold promise contained within it. In Galatians 3:16, the Apostle Shaul tells us that this word ‘seed’ is singular; and that it refers to Yeshua:
Galatim (Galatians) 3:15
16 Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, "And to seeds", as of many, but as of one, "And to your Seed", who is the Messiah.
In context, what the Dream of Jacob’s Ladder tells us is that everyone in the world would be blessed with Ya’akov’s genetics, so that everyone in the world would be able to receive Salvation, if they chose. The promise of Salvation only ever pertained to Israel, and to his descendants; and yet since everyone would ultimately have Israelite genes, this would no longer be a limiting factor.
As we explain in Nazarene Israel, because Ya’akov’s children would be dispersed to all the four corners of the earth, no matter whether we are living in North America, South America, Africa, Asia, India, the Middle East or Europe (or even in Antarctica), we have received Ya’akov’s genetics. Just like one can pour a bottle of chlorine in one end of a pool, the chlorine slowly makes its way throughout the whole pool, over time.
There is a genetic component to the faith, but not in any sort of sense of superiority. The only genetic component of the faith is a historical one, or one of transmission, for it was a certain genetic group that was used to transmit the faith and its blessings to the rest of the world; but that in itself does not give the individuals concerned any inherent superiority, or moral privilege, for YHWH is not concerned with the flesh: YHWH looks at the heart.
Shemuel Aleph (1st Samuel) 16:7
7 But YHWH said to Samuel, "Do not look at his appearance or at his physical stature, because I have refused him. For YHWH does not see as man sees; for man looks at the outward appearance, but YHWH looks at the heart."
YHWH does not see as a man sees: for man looks at the outward appearance, while YHWH looks at the heart.
All nations have benefited from the tremendous technological and industrial achievements that have been traditionally wrought by the Judeo-Christian peoples, and the closer any given people adheres to Judeo-Christian morals and ethics, the better their society functions, and hence the more advanced it becomes. Many nations have also benefited from the numerous societal freedoms that were originally initiated in Protestant Judeo-Christian society (and which some say can only survive in a believing society). So while YHWH did historically use the Northern European peoples, and while He is in many ways using the North American peoples in order to fulfill prophecy, there is no inherent moral or ethical superiority to one’s race, nationality, or genetics. This is the point that those who teach ‘British’ or ‘Hebrew’ (Black) Israelite theories miss.
Let us look at verse fourteen again:
B’reisheet (Genesis) 28:10-15
10 And Ya’akov (Jacob) went out from Be’er Sheva and went toward Haran. And he came on a place and stayed the night there, for the sun had gone. And he took stones of the place and placed them at his head; and he lay down in that place.
12 And he dreamed; and behold! A ladder was set up on the earth, its top reaching toward the heavens. And behold! The angels of Elohim were going up and down on it!
13 And behold! YHWH stood above it and said, “I am YHWH, the Elohim of your father Avraham, and the Elohim of Isaac. The Land on which you are lying, I give it to you, and to your Seed.
14 And your seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and you (meaning Israel’s descendants) shall spread to the west, and to the east, and to the north and to the south; and all the families of the earth shall be blessed in you (meaning genetically); and (in) your Seed (meaning Yeshua).
15 And behold! I will be with you and will guard you in every place in which you may go, and will bring you back to this Land. For I will not forsake you until I have surely done all that I have spoken to you.”
Verse Fourteen shows us that in addition to being blessed in Yeshua, all the families of the earth were to be blessed in Ya’akov (Israel). Taken at its strictest, most literal meaning, this means that all of the families of the earth would be blessed, in that they would intermarry with Israel’s descendants (and would thus have Israelite genetics). This blessing cannot refer to Yeshua, because Yeshua never had children.
What the passage tells us is that all the families of the earth would be hybridized with the literal seed of Jacob/Israel; and that once all the families of the earth had literally become of hybrid Israelite stock, they would then become subject to the Promise of Salvation. Once they were subject to the Promise of Salvation they would have the option to receive Salvation by Favor (Grace) through faith, even if it was not of their own doing (i.e., even if it was predestined/predetermined).
Many Christians find the idea of a genetic component to be shocking, in that Christianity has always focused exclusively upon the gift of Salvation by Favor (Grace) through faith:
Galatim (Galatians) 3:26-29
26 For you are all sons of Elohim through faith in Messiah Yeshua.
27 For as many of you as were baptized into Messiah have put on Messiah.
28 There is neither Jew nor Greek (meaning Hellenized Jewry), there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Messiah Yeshua.
29 And if you are Messiah’s, then you are Abraham's seed, and heirs according to the promise.
Not understanding the role of a Messiah, the Christian misreads Galatians 3:26-29 as saying that when one believes in Yeshua, the historic-genetic role ceases to exist. However, that is not what this passage says. What this passage actually says is that the Messiah came to bring all of the Israelites back to the Promises (the Covenant). In other words, He came to bring Avraham and Israel’s descendants back to the Covenant, and to the Land of Israel.
Mattithyahu (Matthew) 8:11
11 “And I say to you that many will come from east and west, and sit down with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob in the kingdom of heaven.”
Yeshua tells us that many will come from east and west, and will sit down with Abraham, Isaac and Jacob in the kingdom. Therefore, isn’t it ironic that those who focus on ‘racial’ Israelite theories would seek to exclude others, as if they are somehow genetically superior?
In many places, Scripture tells us that every family, every nation, and every clan would be blessed in Avraham’s seed (through Ya’akov). There are many indications that the Israelites were on both the North and South American continents since before the Babylonian Exile, circa 586 BCE. Modern archaeologists have also replicated ancient Phoenician trans-Atlantic voyages (re: Thor Hyerdahl and the Ra I and II expeditions); and since the Israelites were also seafaring merchants, there is no reason to believe that they did not also number among those who crossed the Atlantic.
Further, there were three major (and many minor) exiles in the Nation of Israel’s long history. The vast majority of the Israelites never returned from these exiles; and given the many thousands of years that these exiles had to merge, migrate, drift and assimilate, it only seems reasonable that they had ample time to fulfill the letter of YHWH’s Word, ‘mixing into the genetic pool’ like the allegorical bottle of chlorine that we alluded to earlier. When we remember that the ancient Israelites were also seafarers, three thousand years is plenty of time for the dispersed of Jacob to have spread to the four corners of the earth.
The Jews are also famed for their involvement in world commerce. Scripture also records that Jews had penetrated into the heart of Africa by or before the first century CE. For example, an Ethiopian Jew had come up for the pilgrimage:
Ma’asei (Acts) 8:27
27 And behold, a man of Ethiopia, a eunuch of great authority under Candace the Queen of the Ethiopians (who had charge of all her treasury) and had come to Jerusalem to worship, and was returning.
We should remember that Ethiopia is fully one-third of the way to South Africa; and that Nigeria is similarly distant. Remembering that the word ‘Niger’ means black, there was also apparently a Nigerian (probably Black) Jew numbering among the prophets and teachers:
Ma’asei (Acts) 13:1-2
1 Now in the assembly that was at Antioch there were certain prophets and teachers: Barnabas, Shimon who was called Niger, Lucius of Cyrene, Manaen who had been brought up with Herod the tetrarch, and Shaul.
However, although there probably were black Jews in ancient times (just as there are today) is no indication that the majority of Jewry was black in ancient times. In fact, it makes more sense to think that the majority of world Jewry was not black (and certainly not British) in those times, or else why would Simon be called ‘Niger’?
Scripture is not so much concerned with genetics as it is with matters of faith, it should also be apparent that the Jews of today’s time are essentially the direct spiritual descendants of the Pharisees of Yeshua’s time. In other words, the Jews of today are the Jews of the first century: they just changed their name from P’rushim (Pharisees) to ‘Orthodox’ in the Middle Ages. Therefore, when Scripture speaks of a single nation and a company of nations that descend from Ya’akov (Israel), we can assume that the singular nation that is spoken of is the Jewish nation that exists in the Middle East today; and the company of nations can only be the Ephraimite nations (i.e., the so-called ‘Judeo-Christian’ nations).
The majority of world Jewry today consists of the lighter-skinned Ashkenazim, who descend primarily from northern European and Russian stock. 'Hebrew Israelite' theorists tell us that these cannot have Jewish heritage, because they are predominantly white, and not predominantly black (or even olive skinned). Yet what the Hebrew Israelite theorists are not getting is what generation upon generation of intermarriage and mingling can do to a people. Yes, dark skin is a dominant trait, but after several generations of intermarriage those traits tend to become diluted and spread out throughout the entire population: just as the promise to Abraham and Israel.
We see this effect in America today, where blacks, Hispanics, Asians or others can go from being dark-skinned to being a light-skinned in only a few generations. Thus the fact that the Ashkenazim may no longer ‘look’ Jewish has no bearing on their ancestry.
Some variations of Hebrew Israelite theory tell us that all black-skinned people are Hebrews. Yet this clearly conflicts with their thesis that the ancient Hebrew people were just one black-skinned nation amongst many black-skinned nations in the world. Even according to their own theology, who is to say that many black people today don't descend from the numerous other black-skinned races that existed back in that time, who were not primarily Hebrews?
Yeshua tells us that “many” will come from east and west, and sit down with Avraham, Yitzhak and Ya’akov in the kingdom. Therefore, those who try to divide the Israelite people by virtue of their genetics would do much better to remember that YHWH can raise up children of Avraham even from stones.
Luqa (Luke) 3:8
8 “Therefore bear fruits worthy of repentance, and do not begin to say to yourselves, 'We have Avraham as our father.' For I say to you that Elohim is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.”
Hebrew Israelite theorists would do well to remember that America is clearly the location where the bulk of the coming Second Exodus will originate; and while there are a good number of ‘Hebrew Israelites’, the bulk of this movement is not predominantly black. Many have a lighter complexion.
Is YHWH pleased when we focus on our flesh, or when we take glory and pride in our flesh? I think not. YHWH has much more interest in a humble servant’s heart, than in our flesh, for all flesh is as grass.
What YHWH wants is for us to believe in Him, and in His Son, and to be filled with and led by His Spirit. Those are Israel, regardless of all other factors.
Norman B. Willis
Overseer, Nazarene Israel
The Faith Once Delivered to the Saints