The Hebrew story begins where the story of Adam and Eve leaves off. According to The Book of Light, Adam and Eve were the progenitors of a distinct genealogical family whose descendants became known as the Hebrews (Exodus 2:11; Jonah 1:9; Philippians 3:5). Unlike the Sabeans, who began as a global population distributed throughout the Earth, the Hebrews originated from a single ancestral pair and expanded one generation at a time through a carefully preserved bloodline (Genesis 5:1-32; Luke 3:23-38).
The Book of Light associates the term Hebrew with the concept of “crossing over” or “coming from beyond.” Within the book’s reconstructed chronology, this designation traces back to Adam and Eve themselves. After their expulsion from the Paradise of Eden, they crossed over from the protected realm they had inhabited into the broader world beyond the Garden (Genesis 3:23-24), becoming strangers and sojourners among populations that preceded them. The identity of the Hebrews as sojourners would become a recurring theme throughout the history of their descendants (Genesis 23:4; 1 Chronicles 29:15; Hebrews 11:13).
For generations, however, the Hebrews remained a family rather than a nation. Their genealogy continued through Adam, Seth, and Noah, whose sons, Japheth, Ham, and Shem, established diverging branches of the Hebrew family. Through Shem, the covenantal lineage outlined in the biblical narrative continued through Abraham, Isaac, and eventually the twin brothers Jacob and Esau. It was with Jacob that a major partition occurred within the Hebrew family. The Lord renamed Jacob Israel, and his twelve sons became the progenitors of the twelve tribes of Israel (Genesis 32:28; Genesis 35:10-12). From that point forward, one branch of the larger Hebrew family possessed a new covenantal and national identity: Israel.
While not every Hebrew was an Israelite, every Israelite belonged to the larger Hebrew family. The Quran likewise recognizes this distinct branch by its ancestral designation, the “Children of Israel”:
“O Children of Israel! Remember all the favors I granted you and how I honored you above all others.” (The Quran 2:47)
According to The Book of Light, the Hebrew family was ultimately partitioned into two broad groups: Israelites and Gentiles. Israel originated with Jacob and developed through the twelve tribal families descending through his sons, while the designation Gentile applied to the rest of the Hebrews who existed outside the Israelite covenant and national body (Ephesians 2:11-16). Within this framework, “Gentile” does not automatically mean non-Hebrew; it principally identifies the non-Israelite branches of the larger Hebrew family.
Esau provides one of the clearest examples. Esau and Jacob were twin brothers—both sons of Isaac and Rebekah and both grandsons of Abraham (Genesis 25:21-26). Genealogically, therefore, both belonged to the same Hebrew family. Yet Jacob became Israel, while Esau became Edom. Esau and the Edomite nation descending from him consequently remained Hebrew by ancestry while existing outside the Israelite covenantal identity (Genesis 36:1-9). Within the terminology employed by The Book of Light, Esau was therefore a Gentile—not because he was non-Hebrew, but because he was a Hebrew who was not an Israelite.
This distinction also becomes important when encountering the familiar biblical terminology of “Jews and Gentiles.” Within The Book of Light’s framework, these designations should not be interpreted as a simple division between Israelites and everyone else upon the Earth. The designation Jew is primarily religious, identifying adherents of Judaism, whereas Gentile refers to the non-Israelite branches of the broader Hebrew family. The Sabeans, by contrast, constitute a separate order of humanity altogether and should not automatically be classified as Gentiles merely because they are neither Israelites nor Jews.
The Book of Light therefore cautions against treating the designations Hebrew, Israelite, Gentile, and Jew as interchangeable. Hebrew identifies the larger ancestral family descending from Adam and Eve, while Israelite identifies the covenantal branch established through Jacob—renamed Israel. Gentile identifies those Hebrews existing outside that Israelite branch, whereas Jew principally identifies an adherent of Judaism—a religious designation rather than an ancestral synonym for Israelite or Judahite (Galatians 1:13-14). These distinctions become essential when navigating Scripture because genealogy, nationality, covenantal affiliation, and religious faith do not necessarily describe the same thing.
The implications become particularly significant in the New Testament, where the relationship between Israel and the Gentiles occupies a central place in the ministries of Jesus, His disciples, and the Apostle Paul. Within The Book of Light’s framework, the eventual inclusion and recovery of the Gentiles is therefore understood not as the sudden incorporation of unrelated Sabeanic nations into Israel’s covenantal history, but as the recovery of estranged branches of the broader Hebrew family.
The Hebrew story consequently develops from something remarkably small into something enormously consequential: one ancestral pair became a family; that family eventually partitioned into Israelite and non-Israelite branches; those outside Israel became the Gentiles within the book’s framework; and from Israel ultimately emerged the Messiah. According to The Book of Light, recognizing these distinctions is essential to understanding whom the Hebrew Bible is principally about—and why its history cannot be assumed to represent the history of every human population upon the Earth.
