Restless Pilgrim

I recently read an article by Taylor Marshall, the author of the excellent book, The Crucified Rabbi. In this article, he shares with his readers that he has recently discovered that he has Jewish ancestry. Towards the end of his post, he addressed a concept which I’ve heard throughout my life, but to which I have never really given much thought. This is the idea that Judaism is matrilinial, that you’re considered a Jew if either you are a convert or your mother is Jewish.

This belief seems to be first officially found in the Mishnah, the Second Century codification of Jewish Oral Tradition. I did a little bit of research and found out that matrilinialism is still officially upheld by Orthodox Jews. In contrast, Karaite Judaism holds a patrilinial belief, saying that Judaism comes through the father, and Reformed Jewish groups favour a bilinial stance, saying that you’re Jewish if either parent is Jewish.

In his article, Dr. Marshall presents a number of very compelling Biblical examples to show that Judaism can’t be matrilinial:

1. The tribes of Ephraim and Manesseh
These were the sons of the patriarch Joseph and the heads of two tribes of Israel. Their mother was an Egyptian, the daughter of an Egyptian priest. If Judaism is matrilinial, that would exclude a sizable portion of the Twelve Tribes of Israel!

2. Moses
He married and had children with a Cushite (non-Israelite) woman.

3. David
We read in the genealogy of David of his grandfather Obed. He was the child of Boaz and Ruth who was a Moabite. If Judaism is matrilinial, Obed was not Jewish and, by extension, neither was King David!

I’ve seen some writers respond to these arguments by saying that the Jewish people (“a kingdom of priests, a holy nation”) only begin at Sinai with the giving of the Law. Other explanations say that the conversion of the foreign wife to Judaism is assumed even if the biblical text sees no need to explicitly narrate it.

However, as a Catholic, it doesn’t really matter whether Judaism is matrilinial or not, since every Catholic has a Jewish mother, Mary the Theotokos! As Pope Pius XII said in 1938 to a group of Belgian pilgrims, “Spiritually, we are Semites”.