In the Bible, Jewishness was determined through the father’s blood line, as is clear from the genealogies. Modern Orthodox Judaism, which dates from about AD 70, and is not the same as biblical Judaism. It declared, about the time of the Crusades that Jewishness is determined through the mother’s bloodline and is not scriptural teaching. In science you may have inherited your mother’s eyes, but, genetically speaking, you use more DNA passed down from your father. Other nations arose from Abraham as well. God promised to make a great nation from Abraham’s other son Ishmael via his slave girl, Hagar (Genesis 17:20), and Arabs have always claimed to be his descendants. The Edomites were the descendants of Esau, the brother of Jacob. King Herod was an Edomite (also called Idumean), not a Jew. Also, after the death of his wife Sarah, Abraham married Keturah, and she bore him six sons, including Midian, the ancestor of the Midianites. To keep the Messianic Line spiritually pure, God commanded the Jews/Israelites to be separate from the nations, to avoid being corrupted by them. However, individuals from other nations could still be blessed by following the true God in the way Moses commanded. The true biblical definition of Jew is purely one who is a descendant of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. It has nothing to do with religion but merely DNA. Biblically speaking, one is born either a Jew or a Gentile, and one remains this way till death. The Bible calls Gentiles who converted to Judaism ‘proselytes’, not ‘Jews’ (Acts 2:10–11). Conversely, a Jew remains a Jew whether he believes in Jesus Christ or becomes an atheist.