The Term: "The Jews"

Meaning of Term in New Testament

Philip G. Roets STL, SSL

There is much concern about the term "Jews" in the New Testament. Some Christians are clearly using the New Testament writings as evidence for the basis of their anti-Semitism. Others are going to the opposite extreme and saying that no distinction was made between Christians and Jews in the writings of the New Testament.

The first Christians were almost all converts from among the Jews. They clearly kept all their practices and customs and adapted these to the teachings and ideas of Jesus. They went to the synagogue and Temple regularly.

The first problem arose in the Pauline communities. Paul was making converts in the Greek cities from among the Jews and Gentiles. He always went to the Jewish community first. Often he was given a cool or cold treatment and was asked to leave or escorted out. Then he went to the Gentiles and was received well by some of them.

These Gentiles were converted to the ideas and ideals of Jesus and Paul did not in any way impose the Old Law and its practices on them. When the Christians in Jerusalem heard of this practice, they were incensed and Paul was called to an accounting. The Council of Jerusalem, 50 A.D., settled the matter officially. Converts to the Christian Faith did not have to observe the Old Law in any detail. However, for the sake of peace and harmony, the Gentile converts were not to gloat over their freedom and, if they were eating with Jewish-Christians who observed the Old Testament dietetic rules, the guests should observe the practices of the hosts and respect their consciences.

The Synoptic Gospels (Matt, Mark, Luke) tell us that the enemies of Jesus and the people who demanded his death were the leaders of the Jews: Pharisees, Scribes and Sadducees. John lumps all these groups under the one term "Jews." This term, in the Gospels according to John and Matthew, very clearly is hostile and refers to the leaders of the Jews who were hostile to Jesus from the start.

My advice is this: when you read the New Testament and come across the word "Jews," pause and determine exactly what the writer means by the title in that context. You will see immediately that it is never a racial slur or source of modern anti-Semitism. Rather it is a distinction of those who accepted or rejected the teachings of Jesus.