spanner365

Is it true that all jews who can trace their lineage back that far trace it back to Abraham? If so, was Abraham the first Jew?

rostau

No one can trace their lineage back that far, so the question is meaningless.

gregor

Considering that Abraham is a mythical literary figure, no natural person could ever trace their lineage to him.

BrianJ

Jews are descended from Judah, one of Jacob's sons, so Abraham wasn't a Jew at all.

Brian.

Chili

Interesting, tell me more!

BrianJ

What more is there?

Jews descended from Judah, Abraham before Judah, therefore cannot be a Jew.

Brian.

Chaupoline

Abraham was the father of Ishmael and Isaac. Ishamael was the ancestor of Islam's Mohammed. Isaac's son was Jacob, who was renamed Israel. Israel had eleven sons. Israel's son Joseph was the one sold into slavery in Egypt. He ended up rising up to a powerful position in the pharaoh's court and he brought his parents and brothers to Egypt.

The twelve tribes of Israel were thus named based upon which son they were descended from (Joseph was blessed and his two sons each had their own tribe accredited to them). In Kings, there was a breakup between the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah (whom David was descended from). When the Persians freed the tribes of Israel, the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Dan (former kingdom of Judah) returned to the land of Canaan and the other tribes become lost to history. The Mormons believed that one of the tribes came to North America and settled amoung the Indians, and Jesus came to them after his resurrection and returned them to righeousness. It wouldn't matter though because the tribe would later be killed off.

Chili

Well that was easy, thanks Brian and Chaupoline. It's just that I never got that far when I started reading the bible.

BrianJ

Hi Chili.

I do need to apologise for the tone of my post, it looks a bit sharp, but that wasn't my intent. I could have explained better.

Bad day at the office.

Sorry again.

Brian.

judge

People have and still do convert toi Judaism as well. There is evidence that in the middle ages the khazars converted to Judaism. Some jews today are in fact descendents of the Khazars rather than descendents of ancient jews.

If you are really interested in this you can check out,

The Origins of East European Jews; in the
journal Russian History/Histoire Russe volume 30 numbers 1-2