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Zionism for Supersessionists | Who is Israel?

Distinguo inter Carnem et Spiritum

Much of the debate comes down to how we answer this question. To answer precisely we must distinguish different senses of the term Israel. I’ve already used these distinctions in the introduction, but it’s necessary to draw attention to them.

There is Israel according to the flesh (Israel secundum carnem) and Israel according to the spirit (Israel secundum spiritum). Israel according to the flesh are all those who are natural descendants from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, while Israel according to the spirit are all those who are supernaturally descended from Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. There exists more distinctions than these, but we will focus on these two as the broadest and most helpful for answering the titular question of this chapter.

Israel secundum carnem

Israel according to the flesh is a distinction used by St. Paul. “Consider Israel after the flesh…”1 or “Israel according to the flesh,” Ἰσραὴλ κατὰ σάρκα. He refers to Old Covenant Israelites who would eat the sacrifices offered at the tabernacle/temple altar. He is making a larger point about the spiritual signicance of sacrificial meals and fellowship with God or demons, and drawing a principle of participation and applying it to those who participate in the new covenant Passover meal, the Eucharist.

For our purposes, it is enough to gather that he is referring to the covenanted natural descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob as Israel according to the flesh. Zionists will often argue that Israel never refers to the New Covenant Church. If this is the case why does St. Paul describe Old Covenant Israel with the qualifier “according to the flesh”? Why doesn’t he simply say, “Observe Israel”? The inference we can reasonably make is that there are multiple senses of the word Israel.

A Brief History of Israel According to the Flesh

Within Israel according to the flesh there are also more specific senses. Israel can most properly refer to Jacob, the patriarch, whose name was changed to Israel.2 Israel can refer to his descendants who went down to Egypt and then returned to the Promised Land.3 Israel can refer to the political entity of the United Kingdom under Saul, David, and Solomon.4 Israel frequently refers to the political entity of the Northern Kingdom of the divided kingdom.5 Israel can also, though less frequently, refer to both the Northern and the Southern Kingdom6, and it can refer very rarely to only the Southern Kingdom.7

The Northern Kingdom of Israel is often referred to by other names such as Jacob, Joseph, Ephraim, or Samaria.8 Jacob, of course, is Israel the patriarch. Ephraim, a Northern Tribe, is Joseph’s son, and along with his brother and fellow tribe Manasseh represent Joseph together among the tribes. Ephraim is the tribe that comes from Ephraim, the son of Joseph, but also the term for the portion of the land allotted to that tribe. Ephraim, being a portion of the Northern land, and one of the northern tribes, and Samaria, also being a portion of the Northern Kingdom, serve as a synecdoche of the Northern Kingdom. They are a part of the Northern Kingdom that represent the whole Northern Kingdom of Israel.

The exilic ten Northern Tribes retain the name Israel.9 The remnant and/or Northern Territory after the exile are still referred to as Israel.10 There are numerous prophecies of the Northern Tribes, referred to as Israel, returning out of captivity.11 These prophecies are often accompanied by the return of Judah as well, and the restoration of these two groups into a unified Israel once again. The returning exiles are largely composed of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi, with some remnants of the Northern Tribes, and this returning community is referred to as Israel.12 The prophecies of return are debated. Some seem to point to the return from the Babylonian exile. Some seem to point to Christ’s first advent. Some seem to suggest something in our future. There is the possibility that these prophecies are multifaceted, and apply in more than one fulfillment or in more than one sense. Our purpose is not to parse and resolve these issues here.

What is important to understand is that there are multiple senses of the name Israel. Israel is a person, multiple people, multiple political entities, multiple geographical areas, multiple tribes considered together, or all the tribes considered together. Also, it’s important to understand that these different entities of Israel themselves can also go by different names. The way Israel is a fluid term applying in various ways then is not unique when the New Covenant arrives.

And when the New Covenant arrives, we see that Israel according to the flesh is not abolished, but persists under various names.

St. Paul refers to himself as an Israelite, a Benjamite, a seed of Abraham, a Hebrew, and a Jew:

“For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin.”13

“If anyone else thinks he may have confidence in the flesh, I more so: circumcised the eighth day, of the stock of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of the Hebrews; concerning the law, a Pharisee…”14

“I am indeed a Jew…”15

In his letter to the Romans, he refers to his “countrymen according to the flesh, who are Israelites…”16 And “that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved…”17 and that “Concerning the gospel they are enemies for your sake, but concerning the election they are beloved for the sake of the fathers. For the gifts and the calling of God are irrevocable.”18

These are all post-resurrection/ascension/Pentecost descriptions of Israel. The New Covenant has been brought in and the New Covenant Church is growing, and yet St. Paul continues to acknowledge unbelieving Jews as a continuing, valid, covenanted, elect category of Israelites – what he elsewhere calls Israel according to the flesh.

The Jews were once again exiled from the Holy Land starting in AD 70 with the Seige of Jerusalem by the Roman army under the command of General Titus and culminating in The Barkobah Revolt under Emperor Hadrian in 132-136 AD, which saw the final a signicant exile of most of the Jewish population from Judea, and its new name Syria Palestine. But the recognition of the Jews as Israel according to the flesh persisted with the early and medieval fathers.

In his Dialgue with Trypho the Jew, St. Justin Martyr, considering prophecies concerning the redemption of the Gentiles, says, “Since then God blesses this people, and calls them Israel, and declares them to be His inheritance, how is it that you repent not of the deception you practise on yourselves, as if you alone were the Israel, and of execrating the people whom God has blessed?…As therefore from the one man Jacob, who was surnamed Israel, all your nation has been called Jacob and Israel; so we from Christ, who begat us unto God, like Jacob, and Israel, and Judah, and Joseph, and David, are called and are the true sons of God, and keep the commandments of Christ.”19

St. Justin sees the Christian Church as true spiritual Israel, but continues to recognize and call the unbelieving Jews Israel as well. This is indicated when he says “as if you alone were Israel.”

In his On First Principles, St. Origen grants the spirit/flesh distinction of Israel.

“[T]he holy apostle desiring to elevate in some degree, and to raise our understanding above the earth, says in a certain place, Behold Israel after the flesh; by which he certainly means that there is another Israel which is not according to the flesh, but accord­ing to the Spirit.”20

St. Augustine affirms this distinction as well.

“We must, of course, consider and distinguish the one Israel that received its name on account of the flesh from the other that obtained the reality signified by that name on account of the Spirit.”21

In the City of God, St. Augustine says, “although the Israelites are expelled from Jerusalem, they still remain in other cities in the land of Canaan, and shall remain even to the end; and when that whole land is inhabited by Christians, they also are the very seed of Abraham.”22

Later he says, “Again, the same prophet [Hosea] testifies that the Israelites by physical descent who now refuse to believe in Christ will afterwards believe;”23

St. Augustine acknowledges the continuing validity of Israel according to the flesh in his own day and that they will persist until they eventually believe in Christ.

Pope Gregory the Great says, “For now the Church has lost the Israelites, which she was unable to convert by preaching, but when, at that time, on the preaching of Elias, she gathers together as many as she shall have found, she receives as it were in fuller measure that which she has lost.”24

St. Bede the Venerable says, “When Israel obtains its promised salvation, it is hoped, perhaps not rashly, that it will also return to its native soil and rejoice in the possession and habitation of its former chief city.”25

St. Thomas Aquinas, in his commentary on Romans, says, “It can also designate the termination, i.e., that the blindness of the Jews will last up to the time when the full number of the gentiles will come to the faith. With this agrees his next statement, namely, and then, i.e., when the full number of the gentiles has come in, all Israel should be saved, not some, as now, but universally all: I will save them by the Lord their God (Hos 1:7); he will again have compassion upon us (Mic 7:19).”26

More examples could be given, but what is important for our purposes is to demonstrate that the Church has always recognized unbelieving Jews as Israel according to the flesh. This recognition can be traced through the Protestant Reformers down to the present, especially among Evangelicals and Charismatics, and also with Roman Catholics. Nor is there any indication that they believed the unbelieving Jews of their time were imposters, or actually Khazars. It is likely that some elite Khazars converted in the 9th or 10th century. But Khazar theory, which posits that Ashkenazi Jews are entirely or largely descended from Khazars, first began in the 19th century, and as far as I can tell there is no one in the Church, or even Muslim or Jewish sources, who thought this to be the case in the time between the 9th century and the 19th century.

This group of unbelievers that the Church recognized as Jews and Israel in diaspora for almost 2,000 years began to return to the Holy Land in greater and greater numbers starting in the late 19th century and continuing into the 20th century. In 1947, the United Nations General Assembly adopted Resolution 181, which recommended British occupied Mandatory Palestine be partitioned into a Jewish state, an Arab state, and an international zone in Jerusalem. In 1948, when the British Mandate ended, David Ben-Gurion, the leader of the de facto government of the Jewish people in Palestine issued the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel in Tel Aviv. This, in turn, caused the Arab states in the area to attack them and ultimately lose. Thus, the state of Israel composed of the unbelieving Jews once in diaspora emerges again in our own time.

As we saw earlier in history, various Jewish political arrangements in the Holy Land went by the name of Israel, like the kingdom of Israel under David and Solomon, or the Northern Kingdom during the kings. The modern state of Israel is occupied largely by the same recognizable people group who Christians have always recognized as Israel according to the flesh. So when supersessionists mock the idea that the modern, secular, state of Israel isn’t really the Israel of the bible they have failed to trace the very real history of Israel according the flesh.

Israel according to the flesh is an Apostolic category applied to Old Covenant Israel, and to the Jews who rejected Christ during the Apostolic era, and to the Jews in Diaspora in the Christian era, and to the Jews now who continue to live in Diaspora or in the state of the same name to this day.

This section is for Supersessionists, who often desire to dismiss Israel according to the flesh as even existing or diminish their significance in various ways. On the other hand, Zionists do not struggle in recognizing Israel according to the flesh, but they do struggle in admitting that the Church is True Israel, or Israel according to the spirit. In many cases, they will vehemently reject this term and theological concept entirely. Often, they will point out that the term doesn’t exist in Scripture. We acknowledge this, just as we acknowledge the term Trinity doesn’t exist in Scripture. But the reality, both of the Trinity and of Israel according to the spirit does exist. And it is to this reality which we now turn.

Israel secundum spiritum

St. Paul on Israel According to the Spirit

The Christ, The Apostles, and especially St. Paul are constantly teaching us about Israel according to the spirit.

To the Romans, St. Paul says:

“For he is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God.”27

The term Jew comes from the Hebrew Yehudi, of Judah, Yehudah, which means He will be praised. Jew means praise. St. Paul is making a pun when he says a true Jew is one whose praise comes from God, not men. The true praiser of God is the one whom God praises.

Judah is a son of Israel. Israel is a son of Isaac who is a son of Abraham, who comes from Eber, who comes from Shem. The covenant people, the elect people of God have always had different names as time goes on. They are called Semites because they are sons of Shem. They are called Hebrews because they are sons of Eber, or perhaps as a reference to “one who has crossed over” the Euphrates or the Jordan River, or both. They are called Israelites because they are sons of Jacob. They are called Jews because they are sons of Judah, and because they lived in the southern territory of Judah. But as time goes on we see the term Jew applied not only to men of the tribe of Judah, but to the entire nation of Israel. In Esther, Jew/Jews becomes the national designator for all of the exiled people.28 St. Paul is a son of Benjamin, but also refers to himself as a Jew. St. Barnabas is from the tribe of Levi. St. Anna is from the tribe of Asher. These are properly understood to be first century Jews. All the tribes are now under the name of the those who were once exclusively of Judah.

In like manner, this anticipates the Gentile inclusion into Judah, who are from different tribes, but will also be counted as Jews. The term Jew expands from the tribe of Judah to all the tribes of Israel. The term Israel expands from the nation of Jacob to all the nations of Adam who are grafted in by the Second Adam.

In the Romans passage, St. Paul says a true Jew is one inwardly, who is circumcised in the heart, in the spirit. Inner transformation of the heart which seeks praise from God and not from men, only comes by the Holy Spirit who is sent by the Father through the Son Jesus Christ. Circumcision is like an old covenant sacrament. A sign which points to the thing signified. And the thing signified is the circumcision of the heart. This is not a new concept. We see Moses teach this as well as the prophets.29

Perhaps you’re unpersuaded. Perhaps St. Paul is only talking exclusively about Jewish believers in the Messiah, not necessarily all Christians, Jew and Gentile. Consider then St. Paul’s words to the Philippians:

“For we are the circumcision, who worship by the Spirit of God and glory in Christ Jesus.”30

By “we” St. Paul means Christians, Jew and Gentile. The letter is addressed “To all the saints in Christ Jesus who are in Philippi…” Philippi was a Roman colony in the province of Macedonia settled mostly by Roman veterans and their families, indicating a heavy Gentile population. There does not appear to be a synagogue in the city, which means the Jewish population would have been negligible. St. Paul would often preach in the synagogues of the cities he would visit, but in Philippi, on the Sabbath, he goes to a place of prayer by the river outside the city gate.31 The converts in Philippi are all Gentile. Lydia is referred to as a worshiper of God, which, like God-fearer, was a standard term used in the New Testament and contemporary sources for Gentiles who worshiped the God of Israel. The Philippian jailor and his family were Gentiles, seeing he was a Roman civic officer in a Roman colony. And the names of saints mentioned elsewhere in St. Paul’s letter are all Greek or Latin names like Clement, Epaphroditus, Euodia, and Syntyche.32 Archaelogical and epigraphical evidence from the first century indicates virtually no Jewish presence. And yet, St. Paul is telling these Gentile Christians we are the circumcision. The circumcision is a reference to Jews, or Israel.33 But St. Paul is redefining it to mean all Christians, Jew and Greek. Christians are the true circumcision, the true Israel.

Furthermore, the context of this statement is in contrast to the false circumcision, or the mutilation. He warns them of Jews who are enemies of the cross. These would be Jews who would seek to turn the Philippians away from Christ through persecution or through wanting to impose Mosaic law on them. St. Paul lists all of his Jewish bona fides and says he considers all these things rubbish that he may gain Christ, and reminds them of their ultimate citizenship in heaven. Not in earthly Rome or in earthly Israel, but in Heaven, the heavenly Jerusalem.

The theme of spiritual circumcision continues in St. Paul’s letter to the Colossians:

“In Him you were also circumcised, in the putting off of your sinful nature, with the circumcision performed by Christ and not by human hands.” (Colossians 2:11)

Again, circumcision, as an old covenant sign, signified repenting of our sinful nature. Circumcision literally puts away flesh. It cuts off flesh. This signified putting away our fleshly nature. It signified repentance in Christ. Christ is the one who puts off our fleshly nature, who grants us repentance, and a new spiritual life in Him. And St. Paul is applying this reality to the Christians in Colossae who were a mixture of Gentiles and Jews, though likely predominantly Gentile.

The founding minister, and native, of the church in Colossae is Epaphras, a Gentile.34 St. Paul describes pre-conversion Colossians as alienated, idolators, and dead in their trespasses and the uncircumcision of their flesh.35 These are Gentile descriptors. St. Paul describes the revealing of a mystery to the saints among the Gentiles, which St. Paul applies to the Colossians when he says, “which is Christ in you, the hope of glory.”36 All of this indicates a Gentile audience, yet there are indications of a mixed audience as well when he exhorts them to put off the old man, and to put on the new man “where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcised nor uncircumcised, barbarian, Scythian, slave nor free, but Christ is all and in all.”37 This new man is the body of Christ, the Christian church who receive from Christ a spiritual circumcision of the sinful nature.

St. Paul continues these themes in his letter to the Ephesians:

“Therefore remember that you, once Gentiles in the flesh—who are called Uncircumcision by what is called the Circumcision made in the flesh by hands— that at that time you were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus you who once were far off have been brought near by the blood of Christ.”38

St. Paul explicitly addresses the Gentile Ephesians, and says that they have now been brought near to the commonwealth of Israel by the blood of Christ. He constrasts this with their previous state of Uncircumcision in the flesh. They haven’t been brought near to the commonwealth of Israel by being circumcised in the flesh. The inference we are supposed to make is they have been brought near because they have been spiritually circumcised by Christ and united with other Israelites who also have been spiritually circumcised in Christ.

He goes on to say that both Jews and Gentiles are now one new man in Christ. That the middle wall of partition has been brought down, having abolished all the Mosaic commandments separating the two. In addition to the old covenant markers distinguishing Jew from Gentile acting as a spiritual wall of separation, this reference to a middle wall of partition is also likely a reference to a low wall in Herod’s Temple separating the outer court of the Gentiles from the inner court of the Jews. St. Paul says this is now gone, and a new man, a new body, that reconciles Gentiles and Jews to each other and to God is being formed through the cross of Christ.

St. Paul continues by saying, “Now, therefore, you are no longer strangers and foreigners, but fellow citizens with the saints and members of the household of God…”39 After just saying the Gentiles in Christ have been brought near to the Israelite commonwealth, and now saying they are no longer strangers and foreigners, is it unreasonable to describe these fellow citizens of saints in the household of God as Israel according to the spirit? I believe it is entirely reasonable. In fact this is the inference St. Paul is wanting us to make. The entire flow and reasoning shouts Jew and Gentiles are now brought together in this new covenant Israel, a spiritual Israel.

St. Paul culminates by describing this new covenant household of God as “a holy temple.” This holy temple, the new covenant Church, which is the dwelling place of God in the Spirit, is the temple seen by the prophet Ezekiel and by St. John in his Apocalypse. I will address this further in a future post. For now, notice St. Paul is once again taking old covenant Israelite imagery, the temple, and mapping it on to the new covenant Church. The very heart of the commonwealth of Israel is the Temple where God dwells and Israel worships. The new covenant temple, the Church, is now the dwelling place of God, the heart of this expanded new Israel.

The expansion of Israel to include Gentiles is seen perhaps most clearly in St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians,

“Now to Abraham and his Seed were the promises made. He does not say, ‘And to seeds,’ as of many, but as of one, ‘And to your Seed,’ who is Christ…And if you are Christ’s, then you are Abraham’s seed, and heirs according to the promise.”40

St. Paul is returning all the way back to the Abrahamic promises. Two thousand years prior to St. Paul’s letter to the Galatians, God’s promises of blessing were made to Abraham and his Seed. St. Paul points out that the Seed is one person, Jesus the Christ. The singular nature of the Seed is even seen two thousand years prior to Abraham in the Garden of Eden when God says to the serpent,

“I will put enmity
Between you and the woman,
And between your seed and her Seed;
He shall bruise your head,
And you shall bruise His heel.”41

The Seed of the woman is one. He, Christ, shall bruise your, Satan’s, head. This is a prophecy of Christ’s triumph over Satan, sin, and death on the cross, resurrection, and ascension. And you, Satan, shall bruise His, Christ’s, heel. This is Satan’s momentary attack on Christ at Calvary. That Christ would suffer and die at the hands of sinners, the seed of the serpent. But Christ’s resurrection would inflict bruising to Satan’s head, his eventual and ultimate defeat.

For our purposes, what’s important to note is the singular nature of the Seed in the promises God makes to Abraham’s Seed who is Christ. But also that these promises are apprehended by all those who are in Christ. So the Seed is singular in reference to Christ, but also plural in reference to all those who are in Christ. If you are in Christ, then you are Abraham’s seed according to the promises. Being a son of Abraham is a synonym for being an Israelite. So, being in Christ means you are now part of Israel, or part of the true Israel, or Israel according to the spirit, or as St. Paul says at the end of his letter, the Israel of God.42

The Jews of Israel loved to boast about being Abraham’s seed. In The Gospel of John, the Jews seeking to kill Christ confidently tell Jesus “We are Abraham’s seed” and “Abraham is our father.”43 Jesus effectively says, yes, “you are Abraham’s seed,” but “if you were Abraham’s children, you would do the works of Abraham.”44 The distinction of fleshly and spiritual is implied. Jesus is saying in one sense they are Abraham’s seed merely according to the flesh, but sons look like their fathers, and they do not look like Abraham because they were seeking to kill Jesus. Jesus says they look more like the devil, since they desire to lie and kill, and so the devil is their true father. This warning to the Jews who boast in being Abraham’s seed is taken up and applied by St. Paul in warning the Gentiles to not boast against the removed branches of the unbelieving Jews in his letter to the Romans.45

St. John the Baptizer effectively says the same thing to the Pharisees and Saducees. He calls them a brood of vipers,46 which is to say offspring of Satan, the seed of the serpent. He goes on to warn them, “do not think to say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ For I say to you that God is able to raise up children to Abraham from these stones.”47 Again, the fleshly and spiritual distinctions of Abraham’s seed are implied here. And this is precisely what happens in Jesus. In Christ, the Gentile stones are raised up as children of Abraham. Those in Christ become the true heirs according to the promises, the true Israel.

St. Paul intensely rebukes the Judaizers of the Galatian church. He believes it is a denial of the gospel to impose Mosaic law onto Gentiles. He tells them that Christians do not need any of that because they are in Christ, and to be in Christ is to be a son of Abraham, to be part of the Israel of God. The Judaizers are trying to make the Gentile believers into real Israelites, but St. Paul says they already are.

In his first epistle to the Corinthians, St. Paul grafts the Gentile believers into the history of Israel when he says, “Moreover, brethren, I do not want you to be unaware that all our fathers were under the cloud, all passed through the sea, all were baptized into Moses in the cloud and in the sea, all ate the same spiritual food, and all drank the same spiritual drink. For they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ.”48

Notice he says “our fathers” as if to say “our fathers are now your fathers.” As Christians you now drink from the spiritual Rock who is Christ just as our forefathers did. He then issues a warning not to fall away like the many of the Israelites did in the wilderness. Israel is expanding to include the nations and the history of Israel is now their history because they are part of Israel.

This also isn’t new to the New Covenant. Israel had always been grafting men and women in from other nations. Abraham’s entire household was circumcised, and this included men like Eliezer of Damascus.49 A mixed multitude comes out of Egypt.50 Moses has a Cushite wife.51 Caleb is a Kenizzite.52 Rahab is a Canaanite.53 Ruth is a Moabite.54 Uriah is a Hittite.55 In the book of Esther we’re told, “many people of other nationalities became Jews because fear of the Jews had seized them.”56 God’s plan is to bring all the nations of the earth into Israel. And this accelerates with the New Covenant without the nations having to become Jews in a fleshly or earthly sense.

St. Peter on Israel According to the Spirit

In his catholic epistle, St. Peter tells Christians,

“[Y]ou are a chosen race, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people for his own possession, that you may proclaim the excellencies of him who called you out of darkness into his marvelous light. Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.”57

St. Peter is using terms and language about old covenant Israel and applying them to those who believe in Christ, what we might reasonably call a new covenant Israel. He is drawing heavily from Exodus and Isaiah, with allusions to Deuteronomy and Hosea.58

Chosen race, royal priesthood, holy nation, a people for his own possession, are terms lifted from the LXX in an identical or similar manner by St. Peter and applied to Christians. The context of the Exodus passage is God making the old covenant with Israel at Sinai, but St. Peter is applying these covenantal identifiers of God’s people to the new covenant people in Christ. The Isaiah passage is about a new kind of exodus for a new exodus people, and St. Peter’s use of these terms suggests the fulfillment of this Isaianic prophecy. Israel according to the spirit is not merely called out of Egypt, or even called out of exile among the nations, but called out of spiritual darkness to spiritual light.

The assembly of people called out by God from Egypt, or exile, or darkness, are the called out ones, the ἐκκλησία which is translated as Church. There is an old covenant church and a new covenant church. The old covenant church is mentioned by St. Stephen in his sermon before his martyrdom when he references Moses in “the church in the wilderness” at Sinai.59 The term for assembly or congregation in the LXX is most often translated as ekklesia. And of course this term is then taken up and applied to the new covenant people who have been called out of darkness, and exodused from the world, the flesh, and the devil. Israel is the Church and the Church is Israel.

St. Peter continues with an allusion to Hosea. Hosea’s children are named No Mercy and Not My People as a sign of God’s judgment on Israel.60 But God promises restoration later when He says, “I will have mercy on No Mercy, and I will say to Not My People, ‘You are my people’; and he shall say, ‘You are my God.’”61 St. Peter is saying this is being fullilled in the new covenant Church. “Once you were not a people, but now you are God’s people; once you had not received mercy, but now you have received mercy.” St. Paul also references this prophecy in his epistle to the Romans and he explicitly applies to it to both Jews and Gentiles who are called to salvation in Christ.62

It’s a fascinating application of this prophecy, because the prophecy as understood in Hosea is exclusively about the judgment and restoration of Northern Israel. But St. Peter and clearly with St. Paul apply the fullfillment of this prophetic restoration of Northern Israel to the New Covenant Church which is the restoration of all mankind, Jew and Gentile.

Dr. Jason Staples has suggested a resolution to this and for now I’m persuaded he’s correct. Holy Scripture never gives us a dramatic return of Northern Israel like we see with Judah’s return from Babylon. We do see remnants of the ten northern tribes after the Assyrian captivity, but nothing like Judah’s return. So, what might be happening here is that the northern tribes have truly been lost in the sense that they were absorbed into the nations. Their children truly became Not My People. And so God’s bringing in of the Gentiles is a regathering of the Ten Northern Tribes as well. And this is why the Apostles are applying the Hosean prophecy directed at Northern Israel to the ingathering of Jews and Gentiles called in Christ. Northern Israel was lost to the world, so God is now going to save the world.

There exists considerable debate over the intended receipients of 1 Peter. Most modern Biblical scholars believe it’s directed toward Gentiles. If it’s meant for a Gentile audience and St. Peter is applying all these old covenant Israelite identifiers to them, it makes my argument easier. But in God’s providence He doesn’t want this to be easy, because I believe St. Peter is addressing a mostly Jewish audience. The reasons for and against would be too tedious and long to draw out here. I would recommend Dr. Peter Leithart’s fantastic book on these letters called The Promise of His Appearing where he makes the argument for a Jewish audience. Many of the early fathers viewed the intended audience to be Jewish as well. St. Peter is known as the Apostle to the Jews.63 The letter is addressed “to the sojourners of the Dispersion.”64 There’s plenty to suggest a Jewish audience. And the arguments for a Gentile audience aren’t weak arguments either. It’s understandably a contested point. And perhaps providentially so because ultimately it doesn’t matter.

In light of the totality of Scripture, we see that the new society being created fundamentally breaks down the distinction between Jew and Gentile, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” (Galatians 3:28) The letter, even if meant for Jews in the Diaspora, was to be read in all the churches for all time. The Gentiles in Christ, as we have seen above, have been made fellow citizens of the commonwealth of Israel, are called the Circumcision, and sons of Abraham, recepients of the promises made to Abraham’s seed who is Christ, and so these titles that St. Peter is applying to Jewish believers in Christ are for all believers in Christ. Are the truths of the Gospel of Matthew which is generally understood to be for a Jewish audience not relevant to Gentiles? When the letter to the Hebrews says, “you have come to Mount Zion and to the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem,” can we not apply this to Gentiles in Christ? While the distinctions continue to exist in an earthly sense, the ultimate spiritual sense abolishes the difference, and the spiritual realities strongly describe what has appropriately been understood as Israel according to the spirit. The pertinent factor that we know with respect to intended recipients are all those who are in Christ, whether Jew or Gentile.

The Recapitulation of Israel

In the epistle to the Hebrews, we read,

“Behold, the days are coming, says the Lord, when I will make a new covenant with the house of Israel and with the house of Judah.”65

The Hebrews are reminded of the prophecy the Lord made through the prophet Jeremiah. Jeremiah 31:31-34 is quoted anticipating the new covenant which forgives sins and places God’s law in their minds and hearts. The author is telling his audience that this prophecy is fullfilled in their own time. For our purposes, what is worth noting is who the new covenant is made with: the house of Israel and the house of Judah. Jesus inaugurates this new covenant with a table full of Jews. Twelve of them. Twelve new patriarchs of a new covenant Israel. “This cup is the new covenant in My blood, which is shed for you.”66

If a Gentile wants to join the new covenant they need to join Israel because that’s who the covenant is made with. How does one do this? The epistle to the Hebrews tells us the old covenant, meaning the Mosaic covenant is passing away, it’s abolished in the new covenant. The Levitical priesthood, the temple, circumcision are all fullfilled in Christ. Just as Israel underwent a transformation of worship forms at Sinai, so too, Israel will undergo another transformation with this new covenant the Lord is making with them. The shadowy things will pass away and the substance will be attained. This means the law with all of its ordinance are no longer binding. This is why St. Paul is so emphatic about not requiring circumcision and adherance to the Mosaic old covenant. So how does one join Israel? One joins by being joined with Christ through faith and baptism who is the federal head of Israel, who is Israel in His person.

Jesus is Israel. God, speaking through the prophet Hosea, recounts the exodus of the Israelite people, “When Israel was a child, I loved him, And out of Egypt I called My son.”67 St. Matthew the Evangelist believed this was a prophecy of Jesus and applied it to His own going down and coming out of Egypt. An angel warns Joseph, the father of Jesus, about Herod’s infanticidal plans, and instructs him to flee to Egypt. “When he arose, he took the young Child and His mother by night and departed for Egypt, and was there until the death of Herod, that it might be fulfilled which was spoken by the Lord through the prophet, saying, “Out of Egypt I called My Son.”68

Like Israel according to the flesh, Jesus goes down and comes up out of Egypt. Israel according to the flesh passes through the Red Sea and were under a cloud which St. Paul says is a baptism.69 After their baptism in the sea and the cloud they wander the wilderness unfaithfully for 40 years. Similarly, Jesus receives a baptism from St. John and is under the Spirit descending like a dove. Jesus then goes into the wilderness for 40 days, and faithfully overcomes the flesh, the devil, and the world. After 40 years Israel enters the Land and begins conquering the Canaanites. After 40 days, Jesus enters the Land and starts casting out demons.

The entire history of Israel is recapitulated in the life of Jesus, but where Israel failed, Jesus succeeded. This, by the way, is then repeated with the Church in the book of Acts, which is essentially the New Covenant counterpart to the book of Joshua. Perhaps I will dive into this more thoroughly in the typology entries. For now, I wanted to end with identifying Jesus as Israel, just as St. Matthew the Evangelist does. In Christ, we are made Israelites, we are made Jews. We, as Gentiles, say with Ruth, “Your people shall be my people, And your God, my God.”70

Conclusion

Who is Israel? Israel is the Church. It always has been and always will be. This is Israel in its fullest, truest, and highest spiritual sense. All those in Christ have been grafted into Israel according to the spirit by the Holy Spirit. But this hasn’t abolished Israel according to the flesh who have been identified by the Church for her entire history as unbelieving Jews. And these unbeleiving Jews will ultimately be grafted back into true Israel, which is the Christian Church, the body of Christ, the True Israelite, the True Israel.

  1. 1 Corinthians 10:18, NKJV ↩︎
  2. Genesis 35:10 ↩︎
  3. Exodus 3:16 ↩︎
  4. 1 Samuel 15:26, 2 Samuel 5:12, 1 Kings 1:34 ↩︎
  5. 1 Kings 12:18-21 ↩︎
  6. Isaiah 8:14 ↩︎
  7. 2 Chronicles 21:2 ↩︎
  8. Isaiah 9:8-9, Obadiah 1:18 ↩︎
  9. 2 Kings 17:22–23 ↩︎
  10. 2 Chronicles 30:1 ↩︎
  11. Jeremiah 3:12, Jeremiah 30:3, Ezekiel 37:16–22, Hosea 1:10–11, Isaiah 11:11–12 ↩︎
  12. Ezra 2, Nehemiah 7 ↩︎
  13. Romans 11:1 ↩︎
  14. Philippians 3:4-5 ↩︎
  15. Acts 22:3 ↩︎
  16. Romans 9:3b-4a ↩︎
  17. Romans 11:25d-26a ↩︎
  18. Romans 11:28-29 ↩︎
  19. Dialogue, Ch. 123 ↩︎
  20. On First Princples. 4.21. https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/04124.htm ↩︎
  21. Augustine, Letter 196, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century, Part II, Letters, vol. 3, Letters 156–210 (Hyde Park, NY: New City Press, 2004). Older translation available in Saint Augustine, Letters 156–210, Fathers of the Church, vol. 30 (Washington, DC: Catholic University of America Press), https://archive.org/details/fathersofthechur027567mbp/page/n5/mode/2up. I owe Gideon Lazar a debt of gratitude as I rely on his work for finding several of these quotes. You can find his Substack here: https://substack.com/@gideonlazar/ ↩︎
  22. City of God, 16.21 ↩︎
  23. City of God 18.28 ↩︎
  24. Gregory the Great, Morals on the Book of Job, Book XXXV, section 24, accessed August 20, 2026, https://www.lectionarycentral.com/GregoryMoralia/Book35.html. ↩︎
  25. Bede, Commentary on the Gospel of Luke, trans. Calvin B. Kendall and Faith Wallis (Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2023), 576 (VI.86.256). Cited on the Catholics for Israel webpage:https://www.catholicsforisrael.com/articles/israel-and-the-church/316-the-church-fathers-and-the-future-restoration-of-israel#st-irenaeus-c-125202 ↩︎
  26. Thomas Aquinas, Commentary on the Letter of Saint Paul to the Romans, aquinas.cc, chap. 11, lect. 4, n. 916, accessed August 20, 2026, https://aquinas.cc/la/en/~Rom.C11.L4.n916. ↩︎
  27. Romans 2:28-29 ↩︎
  28. Esther 3:13; 4:3; 9:2 ↩︎
  29. Deuteronomy 10:16; 30:6, Jeremiah 4:4, Ezekiel 11:19 ↩︎
  30. Philippians 3:3 ↩︎
  31. Acts 16:13 ↩︎
  32. Philippians 2:25;4:2-3 ↩︎
  33. Acts 10:45 ↩︎
  34. Colossians 1:7; 4:10-12 ↩︎
  35. Colossians 1:21; 2:13; 3:5-7 ↩︎
  36. Colossians 1:27 ↩︎
  37. Colossians 3:10 ↩︎
  38. Ephesians 2:11-14 ↩︎
  39. Ephesians 2:19 ↩︎
  40. Galatians 3:16, 29 ↩︎
  41. Genesis 3:15 ↩︎
  42. Galatians 6:16. There exists meaningful debate as to who St. Paul is referring to as the Israel of God, but given that he spends the entire letter collapsing the distinction between Jew and Gentile and arguing that the only thing that matters is being in Christ, and that those in Christ are the true sons of Abraham, are like persecuted Isaac, and unbelieving Jews are like persecuting Ishmael, I believe he is providing a name for this new group of Christian Jews and Gentiles, not suddenly giving benediction to Judaizers who deny the rule he has just strongly exhorted the Galatians to follow. Grammatically, an epexegetical reading of and (kai) is possible. Furthermore, it is the traditional, historical, interpretation to see Israel of God as the new covenant Church. ↩︎
  43. John 8:33, 39 ↩︎
  44. John 8:37, 39 ↩︎
  45. Romans 11:18 ↩︎
  46. Matthew 3:7, Luke 3:7 ↩︎
  47. Matthew 3:9 ↩︎
  48. 1 Corinthians 10:1-4 ↩︎
  49. Genesis 15:2 ↩︎
  50. Exodus 12:38 ↩︎
  51. Numbers 12 ↩︎
  52. Numbers 32:12 ↩︎
  53. Joshua 6:25 ↩︎
  54. Ruth 1:16-17 ↩︎
  55. 2 Samuel 11 ↩︎
  56. Esther 8:17 ↩︎
  57. 1 Peter 2:9-10 ↩︎
  58. In Isaiah 43:10, God promises to save his people in a new kind of exodus, and he refers to this new exodus people (τὸ γένος μου τὸ ἐκλεκτόν) using the same language (γένος ἐκλεκτόν) as St. Peter though it is translated slightly differently as “my chosen people” or something similar instead of “chosen race” or “chosen generation.”

    In Exodus 19:6, At Mount Sinai, God tells Moses to tell the Israelites, “And you shall be to Me a kingdom of priests and a holy nation.” St. Peter uses the the LXX phrasing (βασίλειον ἱεράτευμα) and is rendered “royal priesthood” in English translations of the LXX. And the term holy nation (ἔθνος ἅγιον) is identical as well.

    When St. Peter says the Christian church is “a people for his own possession” he is combining two related ideas from both the Exodus and the Isaiah passage. In Exodus 19:5 God is saying, “you shall be a special treasure to Me.” In Isaiah 43:21, God says, “This people I have formed for Myself.” Deuteronomy 7:6 uses the same “treasured possession / holy people” language. ↩︎
  59. Acts 7:38 ↩︎
  60. Hosea 1:6, 8-9 ↩︎
  61. Hosea 2:23 ↩︎
  62. Romans 9:22-26 ↩︎
  63. Galatians 2:8 ↩︎
  64. 1 Peter 1:1 ↩︎
  65. Hebrews 8:8 ↩︎
  66. Luke 22:20 ↩︎
  67. Hosea 11:1 ↩︎
  68. Matthew 2:14-15 ↩︎
  69. 1 Corinthians 10 ↩︎
  70. Ruth 1:16 ↩︎

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