Whats the difference betweens Hebrews and Jews?

Question

Are they the same, or are they historically different? Is there a certain time when they stopped being Hebrews and were Jews?

What are your sources?

Answer 1

A Jew (Hebrew: יְהוּדִי, Yehudi (sl.); יְהוּדִים, Yehudim (pl.); Ladino: ג׳ודיו, Djudio (sl.); ג׳ודיוס, Djudios (pl.); Yiddish: ייִד, Yid (sl.); ייִדן, Yidn (pl.) is a member of the Jewish people, an ethnic group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the ancient Middle East. The ethnicity and the religion of Judaism, the traditional faith of the Jewish nation, are strongly interrelated, and converts to Judaism are both included and have been absorbed within the Jewish people throughout the millennia.

Hebrew, a Semitic language used by the Jewish people, is one of the world's oldest living languages.

HISTORY:

In the 12th century BCE, Hebrew, which earlier may have been almost identical with Phoenician, developed into an independent language. Hebrew was spoken by the Patriarchs during the Biblical period. In the last century BCE, the alphabet of Hebrew, which is still used today, was developed. The Bible was written in Hebrew. In the post-Biblical period, Aramaic gradually replaced Hebrew as the spoken language, but Hebrew was still used as the language of ritual, prayer, literature, and written communication for centuries. Rabbinical Hebrew, used in the Mishnah, developed around 200 CE. By the 9th century, the use of Hebrew declined, and the language was being used only for religious purposes.

In the late 19th century, modern Hebrew was developed along with the rise of Zionism. In 1913, Hebrew became the language of instruction in Jewish schools in Palestine. In 1948, Hebrew became the official language of the newly established State of Israel. Eliezer ben Yehudah devoted his life to and deserves the credit for the successful rivival of Hebrew in the 19th century.

LANGUAGE:

Hebrew is written from right to left. The Hebrew alphabet of twenty-two letters (five of which have a different form when they appear at the end of a word) consists entirely of consonants. Thus the word shabbat (sabbath) appears as the Hebrew equivalents of "sh", "b", and "t" - written from right to left. The lack of vowels meant it was hard to know how to pronounce a word by seeing how it was written. About the 8th century a system developed for indicating vowels through the use of small dots and dashes placed above and below the consonants. Vowels are used today in school books and prayer books, but they are not used in newspapers, magazines, or general books. Tropes are symbols that indicate the notes to be used when the Torah portions are chanted in the synagogue. English words of Hebrew origin include amen, hallelujah, sabbath, rabbi, cherub, seraph, Satan, kosher, manna, shibboleth, behemoth, kibbutz and sabra.

Answer 2

It has been explained to me as this: Jews are people of many different racial and cultural backgrounds who embrace the religion of Judaism. Hebrews are people descended from the original tribes of the bible.

Answer 3

Not 100% the same people, but they are used interchangibly.

Hebrews refer to a language that they speak.

Jews are members of the Jewish faith.

They tend to be the same though; and anytime you read a historic document that uses one, its safe to assume its the other as well.

Answer 4

The Hebrews are the ancestors of the Jews. You see the Jews are descendants of the ancient Israelites of Judaea and are from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin. The Hebrews are the people who escaped Egypt's Pharaoh according to the Bible

Answer 5

I believe one is the ethnic group (sometimes referred to as race or religion) and the other is a language.