What Is Anti-Semitism?

“And Noah was five hundred years old; and Noah begat Shem, Ham, and Japheth.”  Genesis 5:32

Surely most people have heard the account of Noah and the flood (Genesis 7-8).  He was the only righteous man on earth when God decided to wipe out the earth’s population with a flood.  God told Noah to build an ark, a huge boat, in order to save himself, his wife, sons, daughters-in-law and pairs of animals in order to replenish the earth.  After 150 days of nothing but water on the earth, and then an additional 54 days of waiting for the earth to dry, Noah and his family came out of the ark to an empty, but cleansed world.  Noah’s three sons, Shem, Japheth, and Ham began to re-populate the earth.

We’ve heard in the news for many years, but particularly more in recent days about anti-Semitism.  The focus is on hatred for the people of Israel, the Jews, whom God brought under His dominion as His chosen people beginning with Abraham (Genesis 12).  Israel as always had enemies all down through their history from the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, the latter being renamed Israel by God.  Jacob was the father of twelve men who became heads of the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 29-30).  I began to wonder why this hatred of Jews is not referred to as what it actually is–anti-Jew.  Why is it known as anti-Semitism?  Who are the Semites?

Upon research, I found that the Semites are the descendants of Shem, Noah’s oldest son.  Sometimes, Semites are referred to as Shemites.  The term “Semites” didn’t come into use until the late 1700’s.  Today, it refers to people who speak a Semitic language, that of Hebrew (Israel) and Arabic (throughout Arabia, north Africa, Egypt, Lebanon, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq).  The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, and the Koran was written in Arabic.  Further study revealed that Shem’s descendants populated chiefly Israel and Syria.  Japheth, Noah’s middle son’s descendants spread out across Iran, Russia, France, Afghanistan, India, Germany and Great Britain.  Ham, the youngest son, was the father of the Canaanites whose descendants became the inhabitants of Iraq, Egypt, Ethiopia, and Libya.

At face value, the term “anti-Semitism” should apply as hatred of anyone who speaks a Semitic language which would not only include the Jews, but Arabs, Egyptians, Iraqis, and many of the middle east, but that doesn’t seem to be the case.  In fact, most of the Arab people are enemies of Israel.  How could they be against themselves?  Thus when we hear the term “anti-Semitic” or “anti-Semitism”, it literally means hatred of Israel, God’s chosen people.  I believe it boils down to hatred of Jesus Christ, God’s Son, who died for the sins of man, because Jesus was born into the Jewish family, a direct descendant of Shem.  Christians are hated by many because they are followers of Christ.  Jesus said in John 15:18 to not be surprised if the world hates us because it hated Him first.

Our duty as followers of Christ is to continue to walk in the integrity and love of our Savior and not be dismayed at the hatred of the world.  We are not to retaliate, but instead to pray for them because the cure for their hatred is the love of God, and where else will they find it if they don’t find it from us?