Who or what is a Yahudi?

[KnuNetzer]

Here I'm just posting my view on who or what Yahudi / Jew is.

I may be wrong and I accept that, yet I know some will agree the term is hard to define and there is much argumentation over it.  What follows is mostly in note form keeping things brief and seldom elaborated. (Unless I edit it one day)

Abraham begat Yitskhak who begat Ya'acob who became Yisra'el / Yashra'el ((((FIRST ISRAELITE))))

Yisra'el begat several Sons, one is Yahudah / Judah ((((THE FIRST JEW))))

When the nation of Israel split the northern 10 tribes went off into the nations and became paganised, collectively they are called the house of Ephraim or Yoseph.

The southern kingdom comprised of the tribes Yahudah, Benyamin and maybe a bit of Lewi.

Collectively the sothern group became known as Yahudah, as Yahudah is the cheif tribe of the 12 and seeing as the rest of the tribes were out of the picture for a while, the faith of Abraham, those who follow YHWH became known as Yadudim or Jews and the faith adopted the name of Judaism / Yahudaism. The word Israel has thus turned into a blanket statement meaning 'the Jews' but this is really inaccurate and dismisses all the above.

There is another definition to add to the confusion: A worshipper or thanker of Yah can be called a Yahudi / Jew in one sence as the word Yahudah means a 'thanker / praiser of Yah'

The scriptures speak of people who are not native born Israelites as needing to be 'grafted in' to the Israeli vine but not just of Yahudah but any of the 12 tribes.  I push this point slightly as I see it a bit of a popular misconception that ALL believers are Jews. I just don't see this taught in scripture unless you mean a Worshipper or Praiser of Yah.  In that case we all indeed are or should be.

Thoughts?

It seems important therefore to define terms and meanings between eachother before debating anything.

What you think?

[D'vorah]

Agreed, the term "Jew" has come to have the connotation of Orthodox Jew and the like, following man-made traditions, etc. for which Messiah criticized the Pharisees et al. Whereas "Christian" has come to mean something other than what I want tacked on as a description of what I believe, as well. I do not celebrate Christmas, I do not celebrate Easter, I do not worship (or sing) "God in three persons, blessed Trinity", rather I accept Yah's sacrifice for my sinful nature, and in response, try to live in love and obedience to His revealed instructions to the best of my ability and understanding.

That takes too long to explain all of that to someone who wants to know "what I am", and rather than waste my energy on someone who really doesn't care about the whys and wherefores of my faith, they are just looking for a label, Netzarim is a valid answer. And then, if it opens a discussion, fine. More often than not, they think it's some obscure denomination and move on because they where probably just asking out of trying to make small talk in the first place.

If someone is really interested in what I believe, it will come up long before they ask what my label is.

[KnuNetzer]

Same, I too prefer the term Netzari etc because there are 12 tribes of Israel and I consider myself an israelite by citizenship/adoption etc. I have no idea which tribe so it could be either but everyo e keeps on about Jew as if everything scriptural is Jewish and I just don't see it - it's Israeli. To me 1 / 12th is Jewish. So I may be Jewish I may not, depending what tribe I am either from or joined too.

The other reason is because of social memes and impressions. The term Jew these days paints pictures of all the traditions and halachah that I don't subscribe to.

[D'vorah]

The original word for Jew is Yehuda which means Praiser of YHWH (Yahweh).

YHWH chose Yehuda to carry the Scepter of Messiah's government. The physical and spiritual line of Yehuda brought Mashiyach (Messiah) through Jacob to Isaac to Abraham to Noah to Enoch to Adam; all these men were spiritual Praisers of YHWH. - Carmen Welker, taken from answers at http://www.therefinersfire.org/jesus_was_not_jewish.htm

By this logic, my conclusion would be that we who praise Yah are spiritually "Jews", even though we are not physically "Jews", which is why I prefer the term Hebrew or Netzarim.

[KnuNetzer]

Yes, I think your right. It all adds to the confusion I think as the term has several applications!
Thanks for the addition. :)

[Larry]

I agree with u