Do you read what I wrote to Sue? Paul opens the book by addressing the church in general. However, in chapter 2 verse 17 he turns his attention to the Jews. He continues this discourse until chapter 11 verse 13 where he turns his attention to the Gentiles. Between these chapters, Paul is talking about the Jews. That's evidenced by statements like, Abraham our father according to the flesh.
17 Behold, thou art called a Jew, and restest in the law, and makest thy boast of God, (Rom. 2:17 KJV)
13 For I speak to you Gentiles, inasmuch as I am the apostle of the Gentiles, I magnify mine office:
14 If by any means I may provoke to emulation them which are my flesh and might save some of them.
(Rom. 11:13-14 KJV)
Abraham was not a jew, he was a gentile which God had chosen to become the father of the circumcision (Jews), and the uncircumcised. (gentiles) The Jews did not exist until many years after Abraham. The word “Jew” is a shorted form of the word meaning “Judah”
So, the word "Jew" is short for the word "Judean," meaning a resident of Judea, the area also now called Palestine. The word "Jew" did not mean an ethnic background or race.
The word “Hebrew” is not associated with Jew's, it is a word that describes a person who goes from one place to another. Abraham was called a “Hebrew” not because he was Jewish, but because he crossed over the river “Euphrates” to get to the Promised Land God had given him.
Abraham, though often called the "father of the Jewish nation," was a Chaldean, from Ur of the Chaldees an area of Babylon as was his wife, Sarah. Abraham is referred to as a Hebrew:
"And there came one that had escaped and told Abram the
Hebrew ..." (Gen 14:13)
“Hebrew” means "one from beyond" and is derived from Eber (or Heber, Strong's no. 5676) meaning "the region beyond" (the Euphrates)
The term Hebrew also is taken to mean "to pass" or "to cross over." Abraham "crossed over" the River Euphrates to get to the land of Canaan, from Chaldea. Chaldean was Abraham's ethnic origin. He Abraham lived long before there was ever was a Jew.
Abraham is the father of anyone who walks after the same faith steps as Abraham did!
Rom 4:11 And he received the sign of circumcision, a seal of the righteousness of the faith which he had yet being uncircumcised: that
HE MIGHT BE THE FATHER OF ALL THEM THAT BELIEVE, though they are not circumcised; that righteousness might be imputed unto them also:
Rom 4:12 And the father of circumcision to them who are not of the circumcision only, but
WHO ALSO WALK IN THE STEPS OF THAT FAITH OF OUR FATHER ABRAHAM, which he had being yet uncircumcised.
The nation of Israel who was descendants of Issac who begat Jacob whose name was changed to “Israel” by God were “Hebrews” because they crossed the “Red Sea” on their way to get to the promised land from Egypt. When they left Egypt, Israel was made up of many ethnic groups who intermarried yet as a group they were still called Israel.
Exo 12:37 And the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand on foot that was men, beside children.
Exo 12:38 And
A MIXED MULTITUDE WENT UP ALSO WITH THEM; and flocks, and herds, even very much cattle.
As a Christian we have passed over from death to life, darkness to light, delivered from the power of darkness and translated into the Kingdom of God's dear Son.(1 John 3:14)(Col 1:13)(Eph 5:8)
