[Avodah] The terms Jew and Hebrew

[Akiva Miller]

.
In the thread "Normal People Don't Care About Those Things", R' Micha
Berger wrote:

> Similarly, I have no problem using the word Jew for someone
> who is subject to the covenants of Sinai and Arvos Moav even
> before "Yehudi" was applied beyond sheivet Yehudah (Esther 2:5,
> Mordechai is described as a Yehudi and a Benjaminite), even to
> someone who lived in Malkhis Yisrael.
>
> The concept a word was coined to refer to can exist before
> the word.

I would like to offer an even better example, where a recognized authority
used the word "Jew" in reference to people who lived even *before* "the
covenants of Sinai and Arvos Moav".

Namely, Onkelos, who translated "Ivri" as "Yehudi" before Moshe Rabenu was
born in Shemos 1:15,16,19, when he was a baby in Shemos 2:6,7, when he was
a young adult in 2:11,13, and of course in all his dealings with Par'o in
3:18, 5:3, 7:16, and onwards.

When I first read RMB's post and began composing this response, I had
misremembered, and I thought that Onkelos *always* translated Ivri as
Yehudi, and that he made that choice simplify matters for his audience (as
he often does). But in my research, I found that "Ivri" appears six times
in Sefer Bereshis, and Onkelos left ALL of those as "Ivri", not switching
to "Yehudi" until Sefer Shemos.

This leads me to conclude that Onkelos did NOT choose a simple but
anachronistic term for Sefer Bereshis. In other words, if one's only source
would be Onkelos, one would not label Avraham Avinu as "the first Jew",
because Onkelos called him a Hebrew (Bereshis 14:13).

But Onkelos does use the term "Jew" for people who have long preceded
Mordechai. It seems to me that in Onkelos' view, the term "Jew" does NOT
derive from the dominance of Shevet Yehuda after the ten shevatim broke
off. Rather, Onkelos uses the term after we had already been in Mitzrayim
for a while: not yet when Yosef and his brothers arrived, but at some point
prior to Paro's decree to kill the babies. Apparently, to Onkelos, Shevet
Yehuda was already dominant at this point. I don't recall any stories or
midrashim which illustrate that dominance, but we do know that Shevet Levi
was not enslaved, so it seems reasonable that other shevatim might also
have been notable in some way or another - long before Sinai and Arvos Moav.

And yet, it is only Onkelos who uses the word "Yehudi" here. The Torah (and
all other translators that I'm aware of) uses "Ivri/Hebrew" throughout. All
comments welcome.

Akiva Miller
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