If a person born of Jewish Parents becomes a Christian are they then a Gentile?

Gentiles is the english translation of goyim, meaning as you note, nations.

There are also other places in Tanakh where Israel itself is refered to as one of the nations (goyim)..although at the moment my mind draws a blank where it is located.

If one who is born a Jew becomes a Christian they become an apostate Jew. Their religion is no longer Judaism, but Christianity. They left the Jewish covenant to become a part of the Christian covenant.

They are no longer considered a part of the eternal covenant nation, Israel.

ANYone born to a Jewish mother (a Jew) who abandons the religion of Judaism for Christianity, is no longer following Judaism, hence, they're a Christian.. They make themselves apostate and outside the "tribe", however, ***if they repent and return to God through teshuvah, they're accepted as full members once again.*** This question is asked nearly every other day about Jewish identity.

Belief in any deity or entity other than God would create this state of apostacy. It has always been my understanding that Yahoo Answers is about inquiring for factual information and giving factual answers, not about pleasing or appeasing. The Messianic Christian evangelics use many deceptive techniques in trying to convert Jews to Christianity, so of course, honest answers about Judaism are often hijacked in Y/A. You will find every branch of Judaism is in agreement that Jewish law alone determines Jewish belief and that anything other than true monotheism (no devil demi-god, no man/god or human sacrifice or deicide, or trinity) is not Jewish belief.

Within Judaism there isn't nearly so much debate as some would hope you believe. Usually it is because they're trying hard to blur the lines and introduce foreign or pagan beliefs AS Judaism or they’re a member of a group that wishes to impose identity theft on a national scale.

Jews are a nation people, Israel (tribal origin) bound by an eternal covenant of the faith (religion) of Judaism. We are like a huge family and only the family can determine who is a member of it.

The Jewish people are considered both a nation and a religion. Our connection is primarily one of faith (religion) through the covenant of Israel, yet membership is also conferred by birth, through matrilineal descent .One may also become a part of the nation Israel by adoption of the faith of Judaism and formal procedures of conversion.

One who converts to Judaism is considered as FULLY Jewish as one born Jewish and their children are Jews. This has been the case since the times of the Torah.

However one can be a Jew and not belong to both. One may technically be a Jew if their mother is a Jew, but apostate to the covenant of Israel but not considered a member of the nation.

Many different and distinctly Jewish cultures and ethnicities have developed over the millennia in Diaspora lands. There are the Mizrahi (from the Middle East and North Africa).The Sephardi (Spanish) and the Ashkenazi, (German, Polish, Russian and other Eastern European)that are all slightly different, even within those three designations as to cultural practices and foods, but it is the faith and covenant that binds them all together as Klal Yisrael.

We are Klal Yisrael, the community of Israel, and have a shared " destiny" and history, while still having developed throughout history, many DIFFERENT Jewish cultures in the Diaspora. The Diaspora refers to the Jewish presence outside of Israel after the destruction of the First and Second Temple periods and the Bar Kochba revolt.

The Jewish nation began as a group of tribes and our connection to one another is still from the perspective of a tribal nation. One may join through adoption of the covenant or one may be born into it.

One born a member of the tribal covenant nation Israel ( ewish) may not be observant or even believe in God and they’re still a full member, a Jew. They may not be a good member or an active member but they’ve not renounced membership. That is how one may be an "atheist Jew", they still may live Jewish ethics and identify with their people, but they did not take on foreign beliefs contradictory to monotheism or Torah. Now if one born into the covenant becomes apostate to it through rejection of the covenant by adoption of another belief contradictory to the covenant, they are still be considered a Jew, but for all intents and purposes, they're not given the status of a member. According to Jewish law they're not counted in a minyan, can't be buried in a Jewish cemetery, cannot be given honors to go up to read Torah at a synagogue, cannot be counted as a Jew under Israel’s law of return and may not speak for the Jewish people. They CAN however, return ( teshuvah) without formal conversion should they so desire

Jews are in NO way a RACE..other than as members of the human race. For those of you who want to claim Judaism doesn't accept converts as fully Jewish, how about Ruth in the Bible? She was a member of a nation that was condemned to be separate from God for their evil. However, she was a righteous woman who converted and adopted the faith of Israel and was the ancestor of King David. The New Testament depicts her as being an ancestor of Jesus, too. I like to bring this up when some Christians want to declare that converts aren't "real Jews" or that Jews are a race. (something that isn't up to them to decide one way or another anyway)

It is Jewish law alone, not Christianity or any other entity that determines the status of who and what is Jewish.*** When a Jew adopts a belief that is in conflict with the Jewish religion, the belief does NOT become a " Jewish belief" just because a Jew chooses to believe in it.***THAT is the conflict Jews have with the Christians who call themselves Jews if deceptively try to present their Christian belief AS Judaism.

One cannot be Jewish and Christian at the same time. One may be an apostate Jew who is Christian. A Jew who converts to Islam is a Muslim. A Jew who converts to Christianity is a Christian. A Christian who converts to Islam isn’t a Christian for Mohammed. A Baptist who converts to Catholicism isn’t a Baptist for the Pope and a Jew who converts to Christianity isn’t a Jew for Jesus.

You can become a member of a tribe or nation if you meet the criteria of citizenship. And the covenant people, Klal Yisrael, remain as in the earliest days of the covenant..a nation. It hasn't changed.

Reform Judaism ( of which I am a member) will consider as Jewish one whose father is a Jew , mother a non-Jew, IF the child was RAISED in Judaism actively and exclusively. Otherwise, even in Reform, simply having a Jewish father doesn't do it.

When Churches that claim they respect the Jewish people and Israel allow these Messianic Christians posing as Jews to speak in public forum as representatives of the Jewish people to teach about Judaism, they are disrespecting the Jewish community utterly and COMPLETELY. They are demonstrating to every Jewish person in their community that they do not honor the right of the Jewish people and Jewish law to determine Jewish identity and Jewish religion.

Personal opinion is not a factor in this issue of who or what is Judaism. Jewish law determines this, not popular opinion.

Has Jewish identity has left the arena of Jewish law and entered into “debate” with non-Jewish public opinion often being given more credibility for legitimacy than that of the Jewish community? Why should the right of the Jewish people to determine Jewish identity through Jewish law be up for debate at all?

The Christian community increasingly embraces the Hebrew Christian “Messianic” as Jews, and as Jews who are persecuted by their very own people. These Christians then come to view Jews intolerant or bigoted!

What kind of topsy-turvy world has it become when the whole world's Jewish population is being told by non-Jews that we don't have a right to determine Judaism and that we are persecuting when we try to teach what it is we truly believe?

EDIT: As a *Reform* (not reformed) Jew I think it shameful to see misrepresentations of my religion regarding Yom Kippur. In my entire life, and before, neither myself or any other Jew in my Reform famiy has ever either attended school or work but has used it to PRAY and atone (not complete rest) along with Klal Yisrael. It is false that Reform Judaism promotes anything different. Such an insult reads as an act to create divisiveness and to attempt to discredit information coming from a Reform Jew as capable of speaking to Jewish law.

My sources for this answer are largely Orthodox, with the exception of the whatjewsbelieve site, coming from a Rabbi of a Conservative congregation in Houston, Texas.

No. From a Jewish standpoint they would be apostate Jews. If you are born of Jewish parents you are considered Jewish usually. The exception would be children born from converted Jewish parents- in that case *some* groups may not recognize the conversion of the parents which may call into question the standing of the children (ex. Orthodox if the parents did not convert Orthodox) .

From a Christian standpoint, they would be Christian.

Actually, we didn't become Jews until much later -- just after the Exodus when all Jews witnessed Revelation at Sinai.

If you consider Sarah a Jew, then Ismail became an apostate Jew and could have returned to Judaism at any time. He didn't. He married a gentile and their children were no longer Jews.

WHY are all these Christians claiming to know Judaism better than Jews????? Does it have something to do with the anti-Semitism found in the NT?

Good one Robert S!!!

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A Jew who becomes a Christian is an Apostate, in the Jewish community. Simple as that.

And outside that, if they are practising Christianity, then obviously, they are a CHRISTIAN.

Crimmy, every Jew on this site has told you politely, over and over and over, that the Messianics were NEVER Jews to start with. 99% of them were NEVER JEWS.

They are evangelical Christians. Messianic groups are founded and funded by evangelical Christians. They try to convert Jews to Christianity - they lie and claim to be 'jews' but they are NOT.

As for the utterly insulting comment that a Christian is a 'completed jew' - how pathetic. By that 'logic', is a Mormon a 'completed Christian', then?

http://jew-with-a-view.blogspot.com/

Catholics leave = excommunicated

Jews Leave = apostate

An Apostate Messianic Jew? my head hurts

No, but when a gentile accepts Christ as Lord and savior they become jews( Ro 2:29 But he is a Jew, which is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the spirit, and not in the letter; whose praise is not of men, but of God.

No. As I understand the policies of Jewish identity, the child would still be a Jew.

No, not at all, they become the true "seed of Abraham", see Romans.

In Christ, technically, there is no racial divide, so says the Word.

BTW, Messianic Jews are those converted AFTER the rapture...and beyond. Any Hebrews that become believers today are, well, part of the body of Christ.

It is worth noting that God does speak about having a people from all nations....

Sorry, but "Once a Jew, always a Jew"

No, they can never be a gentile. Gentiles are of non Jewish decent. Jews are also a race of people so they are always a jew that was created differently and by different beings. That don't even have the same hardware as Gentiles. They don't have chakras or auras either.

Check out http://www.exposingchristianity.com/

No.

They do become an outcast of Rabbinical Judaism though as has been expressed by so many of our JPA friends on this forum as such are shunned abused and pretty much degraded.

Reformed Jews? You mean one of the JPA, your not Jewish unless we say you are, is a Reformed Jew? ROFL (Tzadiq holds his sides laughing so hard it hurts as tears of mirth roll down his cheek.) Yeah It all begins to make sense to me now. The only Jew that has ever been a pain in the rear to me face to face was a Reform Jew who was irritated that I would keep the Holy Days as a Gentile Christian. She worked on Atonement while I took the day off for complete rest. Oh this is just to rich! This was the same Jew who along with the rest of their congregation didn't throw the leaven out of their house but sold it to their Rabbi during the days of unleavened bread and they kept it in the basement of their synogogue and bought it all back after the days were fullfilled. (Tzadiq giggles madly unable to contain his mirth)

Oh please make it stop!

L'Chaim why is it that Jews Equate knowledge of Torah with Modern Rabbinical Judaism. I don't know more than you about Judaism. I'm thinking I could hold my own on Torah.

Your right I don't understand a religion that works on complete days of rest and and sells their leaven to the synogogue during unleavened bread.