The word ‘Hebrew’ occurs first in the book of Genesis (14:13). It occurs several other times in that book. It’s also found in Exodus, Deuteronomy, I Samuel, II Kings, II Chronicles, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Jonah.
After they left Egypt, they became known as the “Israelites,” which was a nationalistic identification. The word ‘Israelite’ occurs more frequently than either ‘Hebrew’ or ‘Jew’ and is found more than 700 times in the Hebrew text.
The covenant made at Sinai is understood as being made with the Israelites, not with the Hebrews and not with the Jews.
After the Israelites were taken captive and later released from Babylon, they became known as “Jews,” which identified them with a spiritual re-awakening which was the result of their captivity. The word ‘Jew’ is relatively rare in the Hebrew text (II Kings 25:25, Daniel 3:8 and 3:12, Zechariah 8:32, and multiple references in Nehemiah, Ezra, Esther, and Jeremiah).
The words ‘Israeli’ and ‘Israelis’ refer only to the twentieth and twenty-first century. Do not confuse ‘Israelite’ with ‘Israeli’!
To speak of Jews any time prior to the Babylonian captivity, i.e., anytime prior to approximately 586 B.C., is a retrojection and historically incorrect.
Discerning a cutoff date for the use of ‘Israelite’ is somewhat less clear. In some instances, the translation either into ‘Israelite’ or into simply ‘Israel’ is ambiguous, inasmuch as ‘Israel’ is sometimes simply a name for the man called ‘Jacob,’ but other times is a collective singular for his descendants.
The cutoff date for ‘Israelite’ could be as early as Jacob’s arrival in Egypt, around 1800 B.C., or as late as the writing of the covenant at Sinai, around 1,400 B.C.
Because of this ambiguity, some English translations have over 700 occurrences of ‘Israelite’ in the Tanakh, while others have only several dozen.
