Historical lineage of Israel

OK...as they say about fools rushing in, here I go again despite the rather nasty exchange in the other thread....a mixed history/theology question...

In AD70 during the Roman destruction of Jerusalem, all the temple records were burned - which included the birth records used to prove one's lineage from Abraham. Without those pedigrees, how can anyone claim that lineage?

Was it not God's way of reminding the world that it is not about a physical pedigree that God is concerned but about the "true" children of Israel - i.e., believers? If God were truly trying to preserve the children of Abraham as the apple of his eye then would he not have protected the reocrds that could prove that lineage? That's not a anti-semitic question by the way, its a legal question. How can you prove your ancestry short of DNA testing without some sort of birth records to back up your claims? Legally, one cannot be considered of a particular pedigree without the papers to back it up.

 

No "evil" intent was meant in my post, just honest questions, so I appreciate your honest attempts to respond. I'm not sure what Hitler has to do with the answer to any of the questions other than that law of discussion boards that every discussion has to progress to an innevitable Hitler analogy. I just didn't expect this one to get to that analogy so quickly

 

Sorry for the multiple posts, I just remembered the name of that discussion board law to which I alluded in my previous post and it was too late to edit:

Godwin's Law prov. [Usenet] "As a Usenet discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches one." There is a tradition in many groups that, once this occurs, that thread is over, and whoever mentioned the Nazis has automatically lost whatever argument was in progress. Godwin's Law thus practically guarantees the existence of an upper bound on thread length in those groups. However there is also a widely- recognized codicil that any intentional triggering of Godwin's Law in order to invoke its thread-ending effects will be unsuccessful.

 

Dr. Bob, I will concede that you are probably more knowledgable on this subject than I but I am just speaking from history I've read over the years that brought me to this conclusion. I haven't seen anything that would indicate any of the records survived. Even the Judaism did not survive in its previous form and had to adapt to the loss of the temple. But, I would be interested to hear where you have found evidence that any records survived the war.

I've always been curious too that if the church did not gain all the promises of Israel then why would we bother regarding any of the OT? What purpose could it possibly have for us? I know, it isn't an historical question but related some to the other.

I'm trying avoid responding to the Hitler analogies but I simply have to point out that Hitler may have thought he knew who the Jews were - but nobody knows who the true Jews are except God (which is, by the way, my point). Hitler may have thought he was omniscient but I can assure you he was not - therefore, I'm still at a loss for what he has to do with this thread

 

I'm not saying there are no more Jews. I'm saying there is going to be some difficulty in identifying who they are without the pedigrees. There are a lot of golden retrievers who don't have pedigrees either and that does not make them less golden retrievers, it just makes it impossible to prove they are golden retrievers. The pedigree is the *legal* proof, not the thing that makes it so.

 

Dr. Bob - where have you heard that some records survived AD70?

Here's the problem -

Let's say George Washington left a piece of land to his direct descendants to be owned with instructions that all indirect descendants (cousins, etc) will have the right to hunt on the land for eternity (or, more specifically, until Jesus returns). Now, I want to hunt on that land but to do so I have to have some evidence that I am truly a descendant of the father of our country. Without that proof, I cannot legally make any claims on the use of the land. I may look just like all the rest of the family and it may even be common knowledge that I am descended but I have no *legal* proof of that pedigree so for all legal purposes, I cannot make the claim. You might respond that God does not care about legality - but you would be mistaken - the purpose of the cross was just that...an act that allowed us who were not the physical descendants of Abraham to be grafted into the his family tree. Our pedigree is thru our older brother who purchased our legal adoption as sons. If we had to go with our physical lineage then we would need documentation to prove that lineage. To say legality does not matter is to dismiss the need for the cross.