April 26, 2025

The book “Facts Are Facts” by Ben­jamin H. Freed­man presents an argu­ment cen­tered on the his­tor­i­cal and lin­guis­tic evo­lu­tion of the term “Jew,” the iden­ti­ty of Jesus, and the con­cept of the lost tribes of Israel. Below is a break­down of the key argu­ments and con­clu­sions drawn:

Arguments

  1. The Term “Jew”:

    • Freed­man argues that the word “Jew” did not exist in any lan­guage before the 18th cen­tu­ry. The term emerged as a cor­rupt­ed and con­tract­ed form of the Latin “Iudaeus” and the Greek “Ioudaios,” which referred to Judeans, the inhab­i­tants of Judea, a geo­graph­i­cal region.
    • The mod­ern under­stand­ing of “Jew” as refer­ring to a reli­gious, racial, or cul­tur­al iden­ti­ty is a “sec­ondary mean­ing” cre­at­ed through cen­turies of mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion and delib­er­ate rein­ter­pre­ta­tion.
  2. Jesus’ Iden­ti­ty:

    • Freed­man claims that Jesus was not a “Jew” in the mod­ern sense. Dur­ing His life­time, He was referred to as a “Judean,” which iden­ti­fied Him geo­graph­i­cal­ly rather than reli­gious­ly.
    • He asserts that Jesus opposed the reli­gious prac­tices of the Phar­isees, which lat­er evolved into what is known today as “Judaism.” Freed­man argues that label­ing Jesus as a “Jew” con­flates His teach­ings with prac­tices He active­ly crit­i­cized.
  3. The Lost Tribes of Israel:

    • The book explores the idea of the ten “lost tribes” of Israel, sug­gest­ing they were dis­persed and assim­i­lat­ed into oth­er cul­tures. Freed­man argues that the mod­ern Jew­ish pop­u­la­tion, pre­dom­i­nant­ly descend­ed from the Khaz­ars (a Tur­kic peo­ple who con­vert­ed to Judaism in the 8th cen­tu­ry), is not direct­ly relat­ed to the ancient Israelites.
    • He chal­lenges the belief that mod­ern Jews are the lin­eal descen­dants of the Israelites, con­tend­ing that this mis­con­cep­tion has been per­pet­u­at­ed for polit­i­cal and the­o­log­i­cal rea­sons.

Conclusions

  1. His­tor­i­cal Mis­rep­re­sen­ta­tion:

    • The term “Jew” has been his­tor­i­cal­ly mis­un­der­stood and mis­rep­re­sent­ed, lead­ing to wide­spread the­o­log­i­cal and cul­tur­al con­fu­sion. Freed­man empha­sizes the need to dif­fer­en­ti­ate between Judeans of Jesus’ time and the mod­ern Jew­ish iden­ti­ty.
  2. Jesus as a Judean, Not a Jew:

    • Jesus should be iden­ti­fied as a Judean rather than a Jew in the con­tem­po­rary sense. His teach­ings were in oppo­si­tion to the Phar­i­sa­ic tra­di­tions that became the foun­da­tion of mod­ern Judaism.
  3. The Khaz­ar The­o­ry:

    • Mod­ern Jews, par­tic­u­lar­ly Ashke­nazi Jews, are argued to be pri­mar­i­ly descend­ed from the Khaz­ars rather than the Israelites. Freed­man presents this as evi­dence that the Jew­ish iden­ti­ty has more recent and geo­graph­i­cal­ly diverse ori­gins than is often believed.
  4. Call for Clar­i­ty and Truth:

    • Freed­man urges schol­ars, cler­gy, and the pub­lic to reassess their under­stand­ing of reli­gious and his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tives. He advo­cates for a return to “truth” in dis­cus­sions about the ori­gins of reli­gious tra­di­tions, Jesus’ iden­ti­ty, and the lin­eage of mod­ern Jews.

Key Implications

  • The book chal­lenges main­stream the­o­log­i­cal and his­tor­i­cal nar­ra­tives about Jew­ish iden­ti­ty and the roots of Chris­tian­i­ty.
  • It posits that mis­con­cep­tions about the term “Jew” and the iden­ti­ty of Jesus have sig­nif­i­cant impli­ca­tions for inter­faith rela­tions, his­tor­i­cal schol­ar­ship, and cul­tur­al under­stand­ing.

These argu­ments and con­clu­sions reflect Freedman’s per­spec­tive, and they have been the sub­ject of debate and crit­i­cism, par­tic­u­lar­ly regard­ing the Khaz­ar the­o­ry and its impli­ca­tions.

John Deacon

John is a researcher and digitally independent practitioner working on aligned cognitive extension technology. Creative and technical writings are rooted in industry experience spanning instrumentation, automation and workflow engineering, systems dynamics, and strategic communications design.

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