The Name. The Hebrew word for “Israel” means “one who wrestles with God” or “May God join in the struggle!” The second meaning implies “May God defeat the forces that oppose God and the people of God.” The name “Israel” was given to Jacob, the son of Isaac and Rebekah and grandson of Abraham and Sarah, after Jacob wrestled with someone who seemed to be a human but later turned out to be God (Gen 32.22-32). Later, Israel's twelve tribes were named for the sons of Jacob (Israel) and for two of his grandsons (see Gen 48,49).

The People. After the time of Jacob, it likely took many years before those who belonged to the separate tribes became known as “the people of Israel.” Exactly when that happened is not easy to say. The earliest historical evidence of the people known as Israel comes from an Egyptian stone carving known as the Merneptah Stele, which dates from about 1230 B.C. There “Israel” is the name of a foreign people. Not long before this time Moses had led God's people, the descendants of Jacob, out of Egypt to the land God promised to give them (Canaan; see Exod 3.7,8; 16,17). When the twelve tribes were settling in the land of Canaan (to be known later as Israel), they were only loosely linked together (Judg 5).

The Nation (Land). About 1000 B.C.  the people from the separate tribes began to come together under their first king, Saul (1 Sam 9, 10). But it was King David who brought all the tribes together in one unified nation under one ruler (2 Sam 5.1-5). Jerusalem became the nation's capital and the central place for the people to worship God. David's son, King Solomon, built a temple in Jerusalem where all Israel could come together to worship the Lord (2 Sam 7; 1 Kgs 6; 8.2). Under Solomon, the territory known as Israel stretched from the Gulf of Aqaba and the northern boundaries of Egypt in the south to Kadesh and the Euphrates River in northern Syria.

After Solomon died (924 B.C.), the ten northern tribes broke away from the two southern tribes known as Judah. These northern tribes built their own temple in the north at Samaria, and called themselves “Israel” (2 Sam 19.41; 1 Kgs 12). In 722 B.C.  the Assyrians invaded from the north and deported the people of the northern kingdom (Israel), sending them into various regions in the Assyrian Kingdom. The people in the southern kingdom (Judah) were not captured by the Assyrians, but in 586 B.C.  Judah was defeated by the Babylonians and many of its people were sent to live throughout Babylonia. This period in the history of Israel is known as “the exile.” For more, see the mini-article called Exile. During the time before and after the exile, “Israel” was often used by the prophets as the name for all God's people (Isa 43; Ezek 36; Hos 4,5).

God's Holy People. After the time of the Babylonian exile, the Israelites who returned to Judah were governed by the Persians, and later by the Greeks. At this time the people of Israel, regardless of where they lived, came to be known as “Jews,” a term derived from the Greco-Latin term “Judea,” meaning Judah. Because they lived in so many different places, the Jewish people did not base their identity so much on the geographic area they controlled or on political power, but on their commitment to following God's Law. This desire to obey God is what set them apart from other nations. At the time of Jesus, the people of Israel were ruled by the Romans but continued to follow the traditions, ceremonies, and festivals that made them God's holy people.