"And I will establish My covenant between Me and you and your descendants after you in their generations, for an everlasting covenant, to be God to you and your descendants after you." (Genesis 17:7)
The covenant to their descendants was to Jesus, which was to the rest of Mankind.
Also this:
7 All this took place because the Israelites had sinned against the Lord their God, who had brought them up out of Egypt from under the power of Pharaoh king of Egypt. They worshiped other gods 8 and followed the practices of the nations the Lord had driven out before them, as well as the practices that the kings of Israel had introduced. 9 The Israelites secretly did things against the Lord their God that were not right. From watchtower to fortified city they built themselves high places in all their towns. 10 They set up sacred stones and Asherah poles on every high hill and under every spreading tree. 11 At every high place they burned incense, as the nations whom the Lord had driven out before them had done. They did wicked things that aroused the Lord’s anger. 12 They worshiped idols, though the Lord had said, “You shall not do this.”[a] 13 The Lord warned Israel and Judah through all his prophets and seers: “Turn from your evil ways. Observe my commands and decrees, in accordance with the entire Law that I commanded your ancestors to obey and that I delivered to you through my servants the prophets.”
14 But they would not listen and were as stiff-necked as their ancestors, who did not trust in the Lord their God. 15 They rejected his decrees and the covenant he had made with their ancestors and the statutes he had warned them to keep. They followed worthless idols and themselves became worthless. They imitated the nations around them although the Lord had ordered them, “Do not do as they do.”
16 They forsook all the commands of the Lord their God and made for themselves two idols cast in the shape of calves, and an Asherah pole. They bowed down to all the starry hosts, and they worshiped Baal. 17 They sacrificed their sons and daughters in the fire. They practiced divination and sought omens and sold themselves to do evil in the eyes of the Lord, arousing his anger.
18 So the Lord was very angry with Israel and removed them from his presence. Only the tribe of Judah was left, 19 and even Judah did not keep the commands of the Lord their God. They followed the practices Israel had introduced. 20 Therefore the Lord rejected all the people of Israel; he afflicted them and gave them into the hands of plunderers, until he thrust them from his presence.
21 When he tore Israel away from the house of David, they made Jeroboam son of Nebat their king. Jeroboam enticed Israel away from following the Lord and caused them to commit a great sin. 22 The Israelites persisted in all the sins of Jeroboam and did not turn away from them 23 until the Lord removed them from his presence, as he had warned through all his servants the prophets. So the people of Israel were taken from their homeland into exile in Assyria, and they are still there.
[–] 16937794? ago
Read the shima…
"Hear, O Israel: The Lord our God, the Lord is one. You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your might. And these words that I command you today shall be on your heart.
You shall teach them diligently to your children, and shall talk of them when you sit in your house, and when you walk by the way, and when you lie down, and when you rise. You shall bind them as a sign on your hand, and they shall be as frontlets between your eyes. You shall write them on the doorposts of your house and on your gates.
"And when the Lord your God brings you into the land that he swore to your fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob, to give you—with great and good cities that you did not build, and houses full of all good things that you did not fill, and cisterns that you did not dig, and vineyards and olive trees that you did not plant—and when you eat and are full, then take care lest you forget the Lord , who brought you out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of slavery.
It is the Lord your God you shall fear. Him you shall serve and by his name you shall swear. You shall not go after other gods, the gods of the peoples who are around you— for the Lord your God in your midst is a jealous God—lest the anger of the Lord your God be kindled against you, and he destroy you from off the face of the earth."
Deuteronomy 6:4-15 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/deu.6.4-15.ESV
God did choose the Israelites to be His holy people but their covenant with God was conditional upon their faithfulness and obedience to Him (read above). Unfortounatly, they repeatedly rebelled against God and followed foreign gods. They stopped obeying His ways frequently and faced many punishments. The Jews were worse than the gentiles in that they had the commandments, miracles, covenant, and promises but still rebelled! Paul wrote about them…
"But if you call yourself a Jew and rely on the law and boast in God and know his will and approve what is excellent, because you are instructed from the law; and if you are sure that you yourself are a guide to the blind, a light to those who are in darkness, an instructor of the foolish, a teacher of children, having in the law the embodiment of knowledge and truth— you then who teach others, do you not teach yourself? While you preach against stealing, do you steal? You who say that one must not commit adultery, do you commit adultery? You who abhor idols, do you rob temples? You who boast in the law dishonor God by breaking the law. For, as it is written, "The name of God is blasphemed among the Gentiles because of you." For circumcision indeed is of value if you obey the law, but if you break the law, your circumcision becomes uncircumcision.
Romans 2:17-25 ESV
https://bible.com/bible/59/rom.2.17-25.ESV
The Jews are so bad that men blaspheme God because of them… sound familiar?
[–] 16937801? ago
In case you missed it, this passage is Jesus berating them for not living up to the standards of Jews.
Jesus did not hate Jews, he hated certain Jews, particularly the Pharisees.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woes_of_the_Pharisees
He was a Jewish religious reformer.
[–] 16938568? ago
What we know of today as the Jews are the direct philsophical descendants on the Pharisees. Judaism the religion is actually younger than Christianity. Judaism IS Pharisaism.
When the Bible says 'Jew' it means 'Judean', a person belonging either to the tribe of Judah or the more general region of Judea. The 'Jewish' religion did not exist, not as we understand it today. The closest thing were the Pharisees who uniquely followed the Oral Torah, whereas all the other sects did not.
The Oral Torah is what would later be codified as the Talmud. Whilst there are a few verses that might rankle with you from the Old Testament, the driving force behind Judaism and their usury, deceit and manipulation comes from the Talmud. Again, only the Pharisees followed the Talmud (which back then was the Oral Torah).
Hebrew religion required the Temple to be practiced. Jesus prophesied that the Temple would be destroyed, and in 70AD it was destroyed by the Romans. It is symbolically destroyed with the tearing of the veil upon Jesus' death.
With the Temple destroyed the Hebrews could no longer practice their faith. They were left with three options; they could become Romanised, they could become Christians (who has Jesus as their Temple), or they could become a Pharisee (whose Oral Torah said that they do not need a Temple; this is why the Jews and Pharisees had Rabbis as their most important figures in contrast to Priests. The Priests were Levites, they were supposed to have a relationship with God. The Rabbis just studied the Scriptures and came up with their own theories, which they believed to be as important if not more so than the Scriptures themselves).
So after a few years pretty much every Hebrew had become one of these three things. 'Judaism' was born. It was Pharisaism.
Thus everything Jesus criticised the Pharisees for, He is criticising the Jews for.
… And yes, everything would be much simpler if the Bible had called them Judeans or Judahites instead of Jews; but then if it had, the Pharisees would just have named themselves after that instead to confuse us.
[–] 16937797? ago
>>12834501
I'm not picking on your or anything, I know you mean well, but you want to argue your side of a contradictory book, and think that you have the argument that wipes out the other side. The reality is that you don't. And there are things you can find in the New Testament as well about how very special the Jews are. There was for example the Greek woman who sought help from Jesus and he likened her to a dog because she wasn't a Jew.
https://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Mark+7%3A24-30&version=CEV
I'm sure you'll argue this with some crazy interpretation or whatever, but to anyone who doesn't believe this religion, the meaning is pretty clear.
[–] 16937805? ago
Regarding the woman being called a dog, scroll up… this was already talked about along with a few other points.