The "first of all the commandments"

zeroKnots · Tadpole Joined: 18 Apr 2007 Posts: 22 Location: Oregon

Thanks, apocatastasis, and I thoroughly appreciate Rocket's views and help.

I've heard that all 12 tribes of Jacob were known as 'Israel' and each tribe was a son of Jacob including Judah, so I'm confused about what Israel is today. It would still represent all 12 if Jews wrent the only remaining known tribe of Israel?

I'm with you that the old-testimant shouldn't be de-valued at all, just because in my opinion truth's may be more or less pertinent, theyre always applicable.
Certainly my fav Isaiah can never be overshadowed by a new covenant.

{2:4} And he shall judge among the nations, and shall rebuke many people: and they shall beat their swords into plowshares, and their spears into pruninghooks: nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.
{2:5} O house of Jacob, come ye, and let us walk in the light of the LORD.

I hope this isn't too idiotic, but this sounds a lot like applicable to the west especially America:

{2:6} Therefore thou hast forsaken thy people the house of Jacob, because they be replenished from the east, and [are] soothsayers like the Philistines, and they please themselves in the children of strangers. {2:7} Their land also is full of silver and gold, neither [is there any] end of their treasures; their land is also full of horses, neither [is there any] end of their chariots: {2:8} Their land also is full of idols; they worship the work of their own hands, that which their own fingers have made: {2:9} And the mean man boweth down, and the great man humbleth himself: therefore forgive them not.

Am I way off base in context?

Man, I envy you searching your roots. There must be evidence that can bypass Hitler's destruction.
Some day that's top priority because I can almost HEAR my nordic DNA sometimes. Smile

I'm descended from 'Rice' or 'Riise' of Norway. BTW you said I was like you 20 years ago and you got my age exactly somehow.

Rocket · House Cat Joined: 10 Dec 2006 Posts: 160

The people of Israel (also called the "Jewish People") trace their origin to Abraham, who established the belief that there is only one God, the creator of the universe (see Old Testament). Abraham, his son Yitshak (Isaac), and grandson Jacob (Israel), are referred to as the patriarchs of the Israelites. All three patriarchs lived in the Land of Canaan, that later came to be known as the Land of Israel. They and their wives are buried in the Ma'arat HaMachpela, the Tomb of the Patriarchs, in Hebron.

The name Israel derives from the name given to Jacob (see Old Testament). His 12 sons were the kernels of 12 tribes that later developed into the Jewish nation. The name Jew derives from Yehuda (Judah) one of the 12 sons of Jacob (Reuben, Shimon, Levi, Yehuda, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Yisachar, Zevulun, Yosef, Binyamin). So, the names Israel, Israeli or Jewish refer to people of the same origin.

I don't have any idea how I could find anything more of my mother's family. Born in Poland, all vital statistic destroyed, I searched in vain by trying to trace the history of Israel and it's people. All I know is the peoples of Israel were scattered so how can I find the tribe to which my mother and her family belonged.