Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

     A Concise Explanation of the Creation
of the Jewish People

by William Finck

The Old Testament accounts found in the Book of Genesis demonstrate that there was a rivalry between Jacob and Esau. Esau, it is also clear, was a race-mixer who had taken wives of the Canaanites and the Ishmaelites (Genesis 36). The rivalry between the brothers later turned into a national enmity among their descendants, and the Edomites were eventually enslaved by the Israelites (1 Chronicles 18), and later revolted (2 Chronicles 21). When the Babylonians finally took Jerusalem and destroyed the city, we find that the Edomites were in league with them, and are blamed for the Temple’s destruction (Psalm 137:7-9; 1 Esdras 4:45 in the Septuagint).

When the Israelites moved into the land of Canaan, they were instructed to destroy all of the Canaanite peoples. They failed to do this, and were warned that harm would later come to them because of this failure (Numbers 33:55; Joshua 23:13; Judges. 2:3). It is evident that both in Jerusalem and elsewhere, the later Israelites did indeed have a problem with infiltration and race-mixing by the Canaanite tribes (Jeremiah 2:13, 21-22; Ezekiel 16:3, 45 et al.). This was one of the chief reasons for their chastisement and removal by YEHOVAH God.

The prophecy found in Ezekiel chapters 35 and 36 discusses the fact that the Edomites had moved into the lands of Israel and Judah after the removal of the Israelites by the Assyrians and Babylonians (cf. Ezekiel 35:10). The theme of the prophecy found in Malachi chapters 1 and 2 is that Jacob is distinguished from Esau, and that the sacrifices of the priests are not acceptable, because the covenant is with Levi. With this Malachi fully infers that there were (or that there would be) priests who should not have held the office.

In the Biblical records after the Assyrian and Babylonian deportations of the Israelites, concerning the return of merely 42,000 or so Israelites to Jerusalem we have only the books of Ezra and Nehemiah and a few of the Minor Prophets. These books are focused upon the activities in Jerusalem over a short period of time, and concerning the rest of the country, or concerning the time from approximately 455 to 3 BC, in the Bible we have nothing.

It is evident, in Ezra and Nehemiah, that these returning Judaeans did struggle to maintain their race and keep themselves separate from the Canaanites and Edomites in the neighboring districts. Yet this attitude did not prevail, and with the works of the first-century Judaean historian Flavius Josephus and the apocryphal 1 Maccabees along with secular sources we can fill in some of the historical gaps between the testaments.

From Greek and Roman records, we can see that from the Hellenistic period all of the southern portions of the land once known as Judah and Israel were called Idumaea, after the Edomites. Strabo, the early first century Greek geographer, attests that the Idumaeans were “mixed up” with the Judaeans, and that they “shared in the same customs with them” (Book 16).

From Josephus it can be determined that shortly before 130 BC, the reigning Maccabean high priest (who had all the authority of a king), John Hyrcanus, decided to conquer all of the surrounding cities of ancient Israel inhabited at that time by Edomites and Canaanites, and to either convert them to the religion of Judaea (first called “Judaism” by the Greeks) or to let them leave the land, or to be slain.

Maccabee was a name given to the Asamonean dynasty of high priests who ruled Jerusalem from about 150 BC down to about 36 BC, when the last of them was slain by Herod. Josephus states that from this point these Edomites became “none other than Judaeans” (Antiquities, 13:257-258, 13:395-397 et al.). Therefore we see with certainty the fulfillment of Ezekiel 35.

Judaea from 130 BC forward was a multiracial polyglot of a nation. The first Herod, an Idumaean by race who usurped power from the Maccabees, bribed the Romans for the kingship and from that time the Temple priesthood at Jerusalem was used as a political tool. Both Josephus and the ecclesiastical historian Eusebius admit that many of the priests were not worthy of the distinction under the former Levitical traditions, and the veracity of Malachi’s prophecy becomes quite clear with their testimony.

The usurpation of political control in Jerusalem is the primary reason for all of the division recorded in the New Testament. In Romans 16:20 and 2 Thessalonians, Paul alludes to the Temple priesthood as “satan” (which means “the adversary”), and this is also attested to in Revelation 2:9 and 3:9.

Yeshua the Messiah informs the priests and other leaders in many places that they are the children of the adversary, and that they are NOT his people, i.e. Luke 11:47-51, John 8:33-47 and John 10:26. In Romans chapter 9, Paul makes a clear distinction between Israelites of Judaea and the Edomites of Judaea, calling the one “vessels of mercy” and the other “vessels of destruction”.

It can be shown from the New Testament that many of the original Israelites of Judaea converted to Christianity during the ensuing years, losing their identity as Judaeans. The Edomites never converted, clinging to their traditions found in the Talmud -- which has absolutely no authentic connection to the ancient Hebrew religion. Today these people, and all of their many proselytes and those whom they have intermarried with, are known as Jews.

The binding force of the Judean religious leaders was the Babylonian Talmud. The name suggests that this started to develop when Judah was in captivity in Babylon. This passed on eventually to the religious leaders in Judea at the time of the Messiah. Their religion, the tradition of the elders, was condemned by the Messiah. The practice of this religion by peoples of various races has created a pseudo-race which has perpetuated isolation through religion. Marriage was mainly confined to be with people of the same religion and hence with the pseudo-race. This creates the appearance of being a race, but it is not.

Using the Old Testament, or their interpretation of it, as their religion, the Jews appear to worship the LORD God. It may be remarked that Roman Catholicism does likewise. But Yeshua says they worship YEHOVAH God IN VAIN. Some may think that they are worshipping YEHOVAH, but they are in the synagogue of Satan. The Messiah says this is so!

Copies of the Talmud are not easy to secure, there are many volumes, but there are hundreds of quotations that show that the Talmud is essentially at odds with the Christian Bible. For instance, the following are condoned:

Sodomy: Sanhedrin 54b,
Bestiality: Yebamoth 59b
Harlotry: Abodah Zarah 62b-63a
Not keeping vows: Nedarim 23a-b
Murder by multiple attackers: Sanhedrin 78a
Cursing parents: Sanhedrin 66a

Some of these items are what we see being promoted by those pushing for Human Rights and for Children’s rights. We can see the United Nations Covenants progressing towards the elimination of Christianity and the institution of Talmudic values. The Talmud seeks to convey some deviation or exception to every Biblical moral law. Christianity did not originate from Judaism, whose followers state, “The Talmud is to this day the circulating heart’s blood of the Jewish religion....It is our common law” (Herman Wouk, New York Herald-Tribune 17/11/59).

The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (Vol. 8, p. 474) states: “The Jewish religion, as it is today, traces its descent, without a break, through all centuries, from the Pharisees....The Talmud is the largest and most important single member of that literature.” The Messiah said that the Pharisees rejected the commandments of YEHOVAH God so that “the Jews” might keep their own traditions (of Babylon). The Talmud represents a defiance towards YEHOVAH God. “The Jews” therefore are still the enemy of YEHOVAH’s people. Any show of their using the Old Testament is a mechanism of deceit!

The Messiah is referred to in the Talmud as a sorcerer, a fool, an idolater and a blasphemer, and that Yeshua committed those things listed above. The Messiah said that their father is a liar and that they are the same. Many Jewish works, including the Talmud, show the hatred of “the Jews” towards Christianity. This is inherent in the nature of “the Jews” according to Ezekiel 35:5. This is a perpetual hatred.

The word, ”Jews,” cannot always be taken in the way that is commonly accepted. Modern international Jewry is primarily of Edomic or Japheth/Ashkenazim or Sephardim origin, and the Jewish Encyclopaedia agrees that “Edom is modern Jewry,” as quoted earlier. Edomites are not Israelites; it was Esau who sold his birthright. The descendants of Japheth cannot be Israelites. Neither are “Jews” of other races necessarily Israelites by race.

Modern Jewry relates to Edom, Zionism, World Government and the State of Israel, but not to Biblical Israel. At the end of the age it will be the Edomite-Jewish association with their Babylonic enmity that will be burned by fire (Obadiah 1:16-18; Revelation 18:6-8).

But there is a final twist declared in Encyclopedia Judaica (1971 Vol. 10, p. 23): “Jews began in the 19th century to call themselves Hebrews and Israelites in 1860.” This coincides with the cry, “anti-Semitism.” If Zionists began as late in history to pretend that they were Israelites or Hebrews, this confirms the hoax that suggests that “the Jews” as a general term are the Israel of the Bible.

-- Edited by John D. Keyser.