Dear Fr. Michael,

I have read in some places that claim that Jesus was a Jew and in other places that Jesus was not a Jew.  Which is correct?

T.A.

ANSWER:

God Incarnate, the eternal Divine Logos - Word of God - Jesus Christ, of whom the Beloved Apostle writes:

“And the Word was made flesh, and dwelt amongst us, - and we saw His glory, the glory as it were of the Only Begotten of the Father, - full of Grace and Truth” (John 1:14),  was a descendant of Juda who was the fourth Son of Jacob as the Scripture testifies:

“The fourth time she [Lia] conceived and bore a son, and said: Now will I praise the Lord: and for this she called him Juda. And she left bearing” (Genesis 29:35).

“Who was of Aminadab, who was of Aram, who was of Esron, who was of Phares, who was of Juda who was of Jacob” (Luke 3:33-35; also, Matthew 1:2).

Saint Jerome’s Latin Iudæ is from the original Koine Greek where it is a noun in the genitive case, singular number, masculine gender - Iouda - as it is found in the Codex Sinaiticus which is the second oldest discovered text of the New Testament.

What does this genealogy mean?

Juda settled in the area of the land in Israel which was allotted to him and his tribe.  This land or region was known as the “land of Juda” and the people who lived in this land were called “Judæans”.

Therefore, because Christ was born in the lineage “of Juda who was of Jacob” (Luke 3:33-35), technically speaking, Jesus Christ can be called a “Judæan”.

“And Jesus stood before the governor, and the governor asked him, saying:  Art Thou the King of the Judæans?  Jesus saith to him:  Thou sayest it” (Matthew 27:11).

In the Bible, the word “Judæan” has had three different meanings.

1) It was originally applied to the Southern Kingdom of Israel which consisted of the tribe of Juda which was later joined by the tribe of Benjamin and Jerusalem, located in Judæa, became the capital city (2 Kings 5:5-7).

2)  As time went on, instead of calling the descendants of Abraham, “Abrahamites”, the term “Judæan” was used.

3)  In the early days of the Catholic Church, the term “Judæan” was used by the enemies of Christ and of the Church. Hence, the term began to be applied more and more frequently to only “Judæans” who hated Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church.

Moderns today use a very special term of which they are probably not aware of its real meaning?  The definition of this term means:

“false, i.e. apostate, Judæans who hate Jesus Christ and the Catholic Church”.

To the best of our knowledge, the English term, or if you prefer, “word” - “Jew”, was first utilized by heretic John Wycliffe who, based on the Greek and Latin use of the character “I” which is frequently used for the English character “J”,  spelled it “Iewe”.

“Iewe” received it current spelling of “Jew” in a play that was first performed at Covent Garden, which is a district in London, England, located on the Easternmost parts of the City of Westminster and the Southwest corner of the London Borough of Camden, on Tuesday, January 17, 1775.  Here is the text from the play in which the English word “Jew” was used for the first time:

 “Captain Absolute:  What, sir, promise to link myself to some mass of ugliness! to----

 Sir ANTHONY:  Zounds! sirrah! the lady shall be as ugly as I choose: she shall have a hump on each shoulder; she shall be as crooked as the crescent; her one eye shall roll like the bull's in Cox's Museum; she shall have a skin like a mummy, and the beard of a Jew--she shall be all this, sirrah!--yet I will make you ogle her all day, and sit up all night to write sonnets on her beauty”

 “Captain Absolute: This is reason and moderation indeed!”

 (The Rivals, A Comedy Play by Richard Brinsley Sheridan [b. at 12 Dorset Street, Dublin, Ireland, on Saturday October 30, 1751, Baptized on Thursday, November 4, 1751 - d. Sunday, July 7, 1816], an Irish playwright and a Whig statesman. ACT II, Scene I.--Captain Absolute’s Lodgings; Captain Absolute and FAG.  The line containing the word Jew is spoken by the character Sir Anthony Absolute to Captain Absolute.)

These false, i.e. apostate, Judæans, are actually members of the “synagogue of Satan” - which is the term Christ Himself used to describe them:

“I know thy tribulation and thy poverty, but thou art rich:  and thou art blasphemed by them that say they are Judæans [Latin: Iudæos; Greek: Ioudaious] and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan” (Apocalypse 2:9).

“Behold, I will bring of the synagogue of Satan, who say they are Judæans [Latin: Iudæos; Greek: Ioudaious], and are not, but do lie.  Behold, I will make them to come and adore before thy feet.  And they shall know that I have loved thee” (Apocalypse 3:9).