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Sigh...

The word "jew" in the Bible is often the Greek word corresponding with "Judean" which meant, literally, a resident of the Roman province of Judea. If you were a Roman centurion living in Judea, you would be considered Judean and thus in modern English a "jew".

The word "Judahite" would describe someone descended from Judah, which, at the time of Christ, were vanishingly small. Even Paul, a "jew", in fact, a renowned leader of the jews was not from the tribe of Judah but Benjamin. You don't see this word at all (IIRC) because no one claims to be descended from Judah except Jesus.

Two of the gospels go to great lengths to document Jesus' heritage as a descendant of Judah because the promise in Genesis that Judah would reign "until Shiloh comes". Since Jesus is Shiloh, that prophecy is fulfilled and descendants of Judah are no longer entitled to reign in Israel--which they have not since.

Furthermore, the people living in the province of Judea were mostly descended from Esau and thus technically Edomites. However, because of the Maccabees they were force-converted to the religion of Israel a few hundred years before Jesus' time. Thus, many of the scribes and pharisees were not even from the tribe of Israel at all. (The sadducees, on the other hand, had documented evidence that they were descended from Aaron or Levi and thus entitled to serve in the temple, the only people who Jesus recognized as having any authority of any kind.)

These people were all chased out of Jerusalem and ended up in Babylon, where they codified Judaism around 400 AD. Thus, Jesus could NOT have been a "jew" in religious identification since no such distinction existed in his age, and would not exist for 400 years afterwards. Jesus was definitely a Christian, not a jew, in terms of religion. In fact, Judaism goes to great lengths to explain why Jesus was not part of their religion.

All this to say, it's not entirely accurate to say Jesus was not a jew. Specifically:

* Jesus was a jew, if by jew you mean someone living in Judea.
* Jesus was a jew, if by jew you mean a descendant of Judah.
* Jesus was NOT a jew, if by jew you mean someone who follows Judaism, the religion invented in 400 AD in Babylon.

> He was white

It's likely that Abram / Abraham was a prince among princes among the white race at the time. The way Pharaoh treated him, along with the local Canaanites, suggested he was at least nobility, if not royalty. The fact that the Pharaoh tried to steal his wife further suggests that she was highly desirable likely for her bloodline, which Abram / Abraham shared (she was his half-sister).

Isaac married within his family, Jacob married within his family, but Judah did not. He married canaanites, who may have been black. This is why Judah does not receive a birthright while Joseph receives more than Jacob received. Thus, unlike the tribe(s) of Joseph which are descended from an Egyptian woman and Jacob's son, Judah might have been half-black.

So it is possibly true that Jesus was half-white half-black -- if you assume that the canaanites were black. As for me, I believe the Phoenicians were the Canaanites, and they Phoenicians were definitely white, so Judah's descendants would be 100% white.

> Israelite Hebrew

This is so annoying...

Eber was an ancestor of Abraham. We don't know why Abraham is identified as a member of Eber's family (literally, a Hebrew) but it is possible that Eber was some kind of great person.

Israel was Abraham's grandson and was also identified with Eber for some reason. It wasn't until much, much later that the descendants of Israel were considered noteworthy at all.

Saying "Israelite Hebrew" is like saying "Texan American". "Hebrew" is a very large group, which "Israelite" is only one small branch of. It just sound silly. For reference, "Hebrews" are literally everywhere, and Israel / jews have NO claim to that title.