Featured Who was the first Jew?

I'll argue that acceptance is NOT universal, and is also INCORRECT.

Why?

Because Scripture defines "Jew" for us as a handle for 'Judean', that is, a member of one of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, or Levi. And in Scripture we see Judah marching to its own drummer before God broke it off from Israel in the days of Rehoboam.

And Scripture NEVER says such as "a Jew from the tribe of Dan" or similar. In Luke 2:36-38 we see the prophetess Anna, referred to as "of the tribe of Asher". She is NEVER called a Jew in Scripture.

Also, Scripture refers to "Israel and Judah" up to the coming day when God will re-unite Israel and Judah.

For now, I'm assuming the OP asked who was the first person who could be correctly called a Jew by definition of "Jew".

 

I always held it was Eber whose father was Shem:

Genesis 10:21 (KJV)
21 Unto Shem also, the father of all the children of Eber, the brother of Japheth the elder, even to him were children born.

I believe the name is from which we get the word/term "Hebrew."

EDIT: adding...

"Jew: comes from Judah, one of the twelve tribes of the children of Israel and the tribe from which Jesus, son of Joseph hails from.

Following the line back is where we get to Eber, and "Hebrew" which comes from his name.

 

The word "Jew" has a greater scope than those of the tribe of Judah.

To this very day all Jews are known as "Jews" not just the descendants of the tribe of Judah.

e.g. Today those "Jews" with the family name Levine (and variants) or Cohen (and certain variations) are "Jews" descendant of Levi or "priest (Kohen)" and are recognized as such in the synagogues.

So how is a "Jew" discerned : Without a bevy of scripture - In my view: One who is circumcised in the flesh and keeps Torah (as a covenant with YHWH).

This then - in my evaluation (scripturally speaking) - would make Abraham the first "Jew".

Torah?
Genesis 26:5 Because that Abraham obeyed my voice, and kept my charge, my commandments (mitzvah), my statutes, and my laws (torah).

Commandments - mitzvah - works of HaTorah - Every Jew knows what a mitzvah is.
Laws - Torah - The codified Law of God.

Personally I believe Abraham possessed a written copy of the Torah - not yet codified to include those mitzvouth of the Nation of Israel but he knew about the circumcision of the flesh, animal sacrifice, tithe, etc....

As others have said - Not a hill to die on

 

The name derives from the largest of the two tribes left after the Northern 10 tribes were conquered and assimilated into Assyria

JU DAH,

 

So what?

 

The names was not used before , They were Israelite

 

Like I said the scope of the word always included those of other tribes to this very day.

 

Judah by population was all there was left, Benjamin was small so if one was of the 10 tribes they were probably of Judah, therefore later Jews.

 

Forget it.

 

No matter who says otherwise, the Jews consist only of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, & Levi. Nowhere does Scripture say "a Jew from the tribe of Dan", etc.

Luke 2;36 does not call the prophetess Anna a Jew; it mentions she was of the tribe of Asher. The modern reference of all Israelis as Jews is simply incorrect. Scripture does not call any member of any other tribe a Jew.

The separation of judah from the rest of israel began in 1 Samuel 11:8 when Saul took a census of his soldiers. it was completely accomplished when God caused all the tribes but judah to reject Rehoboam as their king. then, Jeroboam, king of those other tribes, kicked out the levites as priests, so the Levites migrated to the land of Judah & joined them. And the tribe of Benjamin remained loyal to Rehoboam as well, and, while they retained their tribal identity, they became counted as Jews. (While Jesus was humanly descended from Judah, Paul was a Benjaminite.)

Thus, the first Jew was...JUDAH!

 

What about the Gospel of John which calls anyone including Scribes Pharisees and Sadducees "Jews"?

 

Or the synagogues of the dispersion, always referred to as Jews.

 

Duhh-h...They WERE Jews! Jewish officials, that is!

 

Well, their members WERE Jews.

 

When watching a small part of a program on TV, I saw some pictures of graffiti on homes of Jews during WWII spelling out "Ju".

Guess they couldn't spell?
Or were they spelling it the way they knew it WAS spelled?

I don't remember where the pictures were from. Obviously somewhere where English was spoken.

I do know the scriptures point out obviously that the term 'Jew' did not arrive on the scene until after the divided kingdom.

Jews in the southern kingdom, and Samaritans in the northern kingdom.

It matters not today, for the northerners were scattered and 'lost', while a few of the southerners ran back to Jerusalem to people the area alongside the 'replaced' northerners.

It gets discouraging from there, until Christ came and dissolved the ol' partition wall.

 

Yes. Now it does. But biblically it doesn't.
There is a ''teaching" now, that wasn't a teaching in Bible history. There was a difference - you could be an Israelite, and NOT be a Jew, but you couldn't be a Jew, and NOT be an Israelite.

Up until a bit later anyhow...

Later on, ANYONE could be a Jew...

But Israelites, of the 10 other tribes, are no longer.

But hey! Jesus made us all ONE people through his cross!!

Praise God!

 

You have stated exactly what I said, in your NT references.
Thanks for confirming.