If it were not
that inexact terminology leads to false concepts, I would laugh and pass by your
references to me as a Jew, and then as a Gentile, when, as a Christian, I am neither.
It is all too common a practice to call Christians Gentiles, just as the
Mormons classsify all non-Mormons. It caused Simon Bamberger (Jewish), the Governor of
Utah (1917-1921), jokingly to say, "in my State I am both a Jew and a Gentile."
I also find it all too common for editors, and Christian speakers (when addressing Jewish
groups) to write and talk of "Jews and Gentiles." To me it is hiding, if not
denying their Christian faith. Gentile is a term of Latin origin that has no equivalent in
the Hebrew language. The expression nearest to it is "Goy" (pl. Goyim), a
national designation that means a "stranger," a person belonging to a non-Jewish
nation, a "heathen." Hence the term "Goyim," generally used
contemptuously, means heathens. The Pharisee drew back the hem of his garment when he
passed a "Goy," as the Pharisee's concept of God was a "respecter of
persons." No doubt it was this contempt for the "Goyim" that caused
Shakespeare to make Shylock say,
"I will buy with you, sell with you, walk with you, talk with
you; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray with you."
This contempt for the Gentiles did not die out
immediately in apostolic time with the conversion of the Jews to the Catholic Church,
which was made up in the first years entirely of converts from Israel, hence they demanded
that the Gentiles be made Jews by circumcision before being baptised. This question had to
be settled at the Council of Jerusalem, sixteen years after Christ ascended into heaven.
In pre-Christian times, it was both proper and comprehensive to speak of
society being divided between Jews and Gentiles, as Jews were then God's chosen children,
the keepers of God's Law, worshippers of the one true God, in contrast to the Gentiles,
who were idolators, who worshipped many gods. But with the coming of Christ, with the
beginning of the Messianic Age, a new religious division of society took place, henceforth
only those who were neither Jews nor Christians could be properly designated as Gentiles.
St. Paul referred to the Gentiles as Greeks (Rom. 1:16; 2:9, 10; 10:12), perhaps
because they spoke the Greek language, or perhaps because he did not want to refer to them
in a term that had an odious significance, as "with God there is no respect of
person."
When it comes to the term Jew, the mind halts, as such a thing as a clear-cut
meaning of it is not in the lexicon of Jewry today, the place where it ought to be found.
As Jews, so-called, do not agree on this point of beginning an evaluation of themselves,
Judaism has logically become what is intellectually, religious confusion.
This is very much of a surprise to prospective converts from the Synagogue to
the Church. They seriously study from the old Testament to find out if the Catholic claim
is true, that its principles and prophesies are fulfilled and perfected in the New
Testament. They find Old Testament Judaism to be organic, it being more of a text book of
Judaism than the New Testament is of Christianity, though the teachings of Christ are
therein set forth. They conclude that Judaism is the religion of the children of Israel as
set forth in the Old Testament, especially in the Torah, the five Books of Moses. That is
as our Fathers of old in Israel define a Jew, for
"Curseth is he that abideth not in the words of this Law, and
fulfilleth them not in work," said Moses (Deut. 27:26).
Even since the destruction of the Temple, up to about a
couple of hundred years ago, a Jew who repudiated belief in the God of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob (even for lesser offenses) was "cut off" from Israel. That is why Spinoza
was excommunicated, cursed and driven out of Amsterdam by the Synagogue of that city
(1656), for expressing belief in a pantheistic concept of God. But not so today, leading
"Jews" have publicly repudiated belief in a personal God, yet they are
classified as Jews in Jewish encyclopedias and the Jewish Who's Who. One leader said,
"We Jews need not believe in our religion -, the Jew needs believe nothing" to
be a Jew (Ludwig Lewisohn, quoted from in "From Pharaoh to Hilter," p.42).
I do not mean to infer that Israelites are of the non-believing type. There
are a multitude of them. Orthodox Jews, though they are a dwindling group, who cry out to
God in their suffering, as did Job, "Behold though He slay me, yet will I trust in
Him" (13:15).
Jews are not a distinctive race, as they rightly say; and only a minority
(World War II has greatly increased their number) look upon themselves as belonging
to a Jewish nation, something that they were unitedly at one time in the history of
Israel. Their desire for a Jewish State in Palestine is largely as a place of refuge for
persecuted Jews.
Of course, as a whole, persons called Jews may be called Israelites
irrespective of their beliefs, as they are descendants of Jacob (Israel). But that does
not tell us what the distinguishing characteristic is that determines a Jew. When
religion, the raison d'etre for being a Jew is eliminated, what remains? The answer, is
made by some Rabbis, the "Zionist Jew," the "B'nai B'rith Jew," the
"philanthropic Jew," the "social-climbing Jew," the
"Christian-Jewish good will Jew," who is usually ignorant of what Old Testament
Judaism is, never utters a prayer, and generally sticks to association with Jewry because
he has a kinship of suffering or defense with it, as well as family association, to state
it at its best. Some one has said, I do not recall his name, that "a Jew is a person
who calls himself a Jew." On the other hand, there are Christians who call everybody
a Jew who is born of Jewish parents be he an Atheist or a Catholic.
What is a Jew? The answer of the Israelites of today is like the answer of
the Yankee farmer, who was asked the price of land in his community. "Good high land
is worth considerable; low boggy land ain't worth quite so much." While it is not
within my right to define the term Jew for "Jews," to me the only correct
definition is, one who believes in the Mosaic religion. I cannot let this opportunity go
by without calling your attention to the fact that the convert from the Synagogue to the
Church is more of an Old Testament Jew, in the sense of believing and worshipping the God
of Israel than are three quarters of the nearly five million "Jews" in our
country. It was perfectly proper to speak of "Jews and Gentiles" in
pre-Christian but not in Christian times. Hence it is an offense (though not so intended)
for Jews and others to designate an analysis of the Jewish question, "Jews In a
Gentile World" (1942). |