The Israel of the Bible Is Not the Israel of Today

I was raised to believe that the children of Israel, which in my mind equated to the Jews, were God’s chosen people. And I thought that the promised land spoken of in the Bible, which came to be known as the land of Israel, rightfully belonged to the Jews. And since there’s a country today in the Middle East called Israel, I assumed that was the same land of Israel.

That was me melding what I understood about the Bible with what I understood about the world we live in today. And that was due to my religious upbringing in a broader religious culture that primarily included both Christians and Jews.

I didn’t know much about geopolitics or world events for most of my life because I didn’t really care to know since they had no bearing on me personally. And I never paid that much attention to the Jews, because they weren’t really a part of my personal world. I was a Christian, living in a Christian bubble.

But when I started looking into the dietary laws and Sabbath Day commandment found in the Old Testament, I started to pay more attention to the Israel of the Bible. That’s when I began to really explore the entire Bible (not just the New Testament, Psalms & Proverbs).

For several years, I read through & studied the Torah portions (chunks of chapters from Genesis – Deuteronomy). I also went through all of the historical books, learning more about the Israel of the Bible than I had ever known before. And, while I didn’t spend as much time in the books of the prophets, I spent more time there than ever before in my life.

Learning Who & What Israel Was and Wasn’t

First, I came to realize that the Israel of the Bible does not equate to “the Jews”.

“Israel” was the name given to Jacob, who was the grandson of Abraham (through Isaac).

And the “children of Israel” consisted of 12 noted biological sons of Jacob and their physical offspring.

When the children of Israel entered the land promised to their fathers, following their time spent in the wilderness after their exodus from Egypt, that land was apportioned & ascribed to twelve tribes. These tribes were the offspring of eleven of Jacob’s sons.

Levi‘s offspring were not included in the land allotments because they were designated to serve as a priesthood. Joseph was given two allotments, one for each of his two sons: Manasseh and Ephraim.

The “house of Israel” included all of the offspring of Jacob.

And when David became king over the whole house of Israel, Israel was known as a kingdom.

But then when Solomon (David’s son) succeeded David as king, he turned away from the ways of his father (and of his god, YHVH), and this led to the kingdom being rent in two.

The northern kingdom was the bulk of “the kingdom of Israel”, and it was put under the charge of Solomon’s servant.

The southern kingdom, which came to be called “the kingdom of Judah”, because that is the tribe to which David & Solomon belonged, remained under the charge of David’s offspring, starting with Solomon’s son.

The city of Jerusalem was located in the land of Judah.

Eventually both kingdoms were seized and overtaken by their enemies: the northern kingdom first, by the Assyrians, and later, the southern kingdom by the Babylonians.

During the days of Ezra and Nehemiah, the city of Jerusalem began to be rebuilt, the building of a second temple was on the horizon, and the children of Israel/Jacob began to return to the land. This return took place in several waves.

While there was no king from the house of Jacob that ever ruled in that land thereafter, and there was no formal restoration of the tribal allotments that I’m aware of, the Levites did serve as priests again, in the second temple.

In the first century of the common era, that land was largely known as Judea in the south (where Jerusalem was located) and Samaria in the north. And Rome was the ultimate ruler of it all.

In the Old Testament, the Hebrew word translated as the “Jews” is “yehudi” (H3064), and it referred to either being from the Kingdom of Judah or being descendants of Judah. This meant that “the Jews” of the Bible was just one portion of the children of Israel. (They were not the entirety of the house of Israel/Jacob.)

Therefore, the people group of the Bible known as Israel does not equate to “the Jews”, either from back then in the Bible times or today. That Israel is a much larger group of people.

And as for the land of Israel in the Bible, this naturally referred to the land of which the children of Israel took possession in the book of Joshua. As I’ve already pointed out, this land was divided amongst the twelve tribes, with Judah only being one tribe.

By the time of the Babylonian captivity, all of the land “of Israel” was in the possession and rulership of their enemies. Why? Because the children of Israel repeatedly broke their covenant with the God of their fathers.

The children of Israel lost their possession of that land. It no longer belonged to them.

Even though many years later some of the children of Israel returned to that land, I believe the conditions concerning the possession (ownership & rulership) of that land had changed.

The descendants of Jacob were permitted to be there, but they weren’t in charge.

And from what I have been able to gather from the Bible, I don’t believe the children of Israel (or simply the tribe of Judah) spoken of in the Bible were ever intended to be in charge of that land ever again.

To be clear, I’m particularly speaking in terms of what the Bible says.

When it comes to the land that is called Israel today, and who might the rightful possessors of it be, I tap out of that conversation.

I simply believe the Israel of the Bible is not the Israel of today.

I no longer meld the two together like I once did. The Bible is a book of books, and I now recognize that its contents were not written about me or anyone else living in the modern age.

[This page was written on 12/01/25.]