JEREMIAH 34:9

Q: The passage says no one was to hold their fellow Jew in bondage. To this point in the chronological reading I do not recall the use of the word “Jew” in referring to an Israelite or Hebrew. Do other translations use a different word/name? When and how did this name originate? Does the use of this description/designation help scholars date the writing of Jeremiah?

You have a very sharp eye! There is only one other occurrence of “Jew” prior to this passage and it is also found in Jeremiah (32:12). Comparing different translations of Jeremiah 34:9, it is rendered as “Jew” in the Living Bible, RSV, KJV, Jerusalem Bible and the older editions of the NIV. TEV and the latest NIV use the term “Hebrew” while NRSV and NEB say “Judean.” The more literal translation is Jew or Judean.

The origin of the term comes from the tribe of Judah. Thus, a descendant of Judah was called a Judean, or Jew for short. In 2 Kings 16:6, “Jew” was first applied to all the inhabitants of the Southern Kingdom, in contrast to the Israelites of the Northern Kingdom. During the exile (as in the books of Daniel and Esther) and after the exile (see the books of Ezra and Nehemiah), the term began to be used to designate all people of Jewish origin and was a synonym for Israelite.

Jeremiah's writings during and after the siege of Jerusalem fit perfectly into this transitional time frame. In Jeremiah 32:12 “Jew” refers to some men in Jerusalem who happened to be nearby. These were obviously members of the Southern Kingdom only. However, in Jeremiah 34:9 he specifically defines “Jew” as being a fellow Hebrew and refers back to the appropriate Mosaic regulations which applied to all descendants of Israel, not just the Judahites. Thus, this is probably the first usage of the term to refer to all God's chosen people.