Jews

The word “Jew” is used in different ways. The name “Jew” is derived from Judah, one of the sons of the patriarch Jacob. It is used to:

According to the Bible, the descendants of Judah lived in the region of Judah, which is called Judea in the New Testament. The centre was Jerusalem, a city which was once conquered by the most famous descendant of Judah, David (2 Samuel 5).
After the exile of the “Judean” elite (2 Kings 25), they returned and started to rebuild under the Persian King Cyrus and his successors. The Judeans now formed a province of the Persian Kingdom. The Law of Moses was the foundation of their society and the Temple in Jerusalem was the centre.

There were also many Judeans in Egypt and other regions, and wherever they lived they stayed true to their faith, which only grew stronger during the Hellenistic and Roman occupation. This is how the religious aspect of the name “Judean” was born, although there is no difference in Hebrew, Greek or Latin (yehudi, ioudaios, judaeus). In English, the word “Jew” does not show this difference either. One could write “Jew” when referring to someone of the Jewish faith, as well as someone who belongs to the Jewish people.
Typical of Judaism are the customs that have been prescribed by the law. Jewish people must adhere to the rules concerning the Sabbath, festivals, food laws, circumcision and so on, and to use the appropriate prayers and perform the prescribed rituals. Theological ideas about God, creation and man do not seem to be fixed in Judaism. Israel and Jerusalem play an important part, but attitudes to the “fatherland” also vary.