Does Baptism Erase Jewish Identity? Not Automatically

Assorted retorts from yahoo boards and elsewhere: "Our Divine Lord in His Human Nature Is a Jew" (Mgr Williamson is Right) · Φιλολoγικά/Philologica: Does Baptism Erase Jewish Identity? Not Automatically

The case for my friend E. Michael Jones is:

There is neither Jew nor Greek: there is neither bond nor free: there is neither male nor female. For you are all one in Christ Jesus.
[Galatians 3:28]

Where there is neither Gentile nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian nor Scythian, bond nor free. But Christ is all, and in all.
[Colossians 3:11]

For there is no distinction of the Jew and the Greek: for the same is Lord over all, rich unto all that call upon him.
[Romans 10:12]

Retaining a distinct Jewish identity would on this argument be, not being one with all who are one with Christ, not having Christ being all in you, not having Christ as Lord.

The case for a man* I value also, Gideon Lazar, is:

And I heard the number of them that were signed, an hundred forty-four thousand were signed, of every tribe of the children of Israel
[Apocalypse (Revelation) 7:4]

The signing means the baptismal and confirmational character. I take 144 000 and Israelite literally here, so, in the end times, four angels will be standing or are already standing, on the four corners of land** while people are being baptised and God is counting their identity as Israelite.

I would say, it depends on the circumstances. Mass conversions of Jews and Samarians in Acts 2 and 8 didn't erase the Hebrew identity, but equalise its components somewhat, though Judah still has priority over Samaria.

Individual conversions later in the same region would have had Jews speaking Palestinian Aramaic becoming Christians speaking Palestinian Aramaic. The identity is not identically preserved but very closely related, as between Bosniaks who become Croats or Serbs when converting to Christianity.

Individual conversions in the same centuries but other regions would typically have involved becoming a Frenchman, Italian, and so on.

In Spain, more specifically in the Baleares, there is a community that's nearly as closely related to Sephardi Jews as Christian Palestinians are to Mitsrahim, namely the Marranos.

In Northern Europe, including Sweden, what one could call Nordic Marranos have typically since at least the 19th C held a sense of solidarity to both nations, for instance Swedish and North German and Jewish. Lutheranism has tended to favour this arrangement.

But, in the end times, most Catholics over history tend to concur, there will be a mass conversion of Jews again, and so presumably, they will retain their Jewish identity.

They will probably not exchange latkes for cepelynai with pork content between baptism and getting martyred, since it seems the same 144 000 will also be martyred:

And I beheld, and lo a lamb stood upon mount Sion, and with him an hundred forty-four thousand, having his name, and the name of his Father, written on their foreheads
[Apocalypse (Revelation) 14:1]

These are they who were not defiled with women: for they are virgins. These follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth. These were purchased from among men, the firstfruits to God and to the Lamb And in their mouth there was found no lie; for they are without spot before the throne of God
[Apocalypse (Revelation) 14:4-5]

So, there will definitely before the end of time have been a new batch of people who convert en masse en keep Jewish identity, as Christians, and what God through St. John says of them is partly words that are applicable to all saints in Heaven.

These follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.

St. Jerome's proof text that like their and our Lord, Jesus, the saints also can hear our prayers. Catholicism doesn't ignore Nisan, though First Day of the Week is added as criterium for Easter, Catholicism just has a calculation for Nisan independently of the Jewish one. One of the books I've read and then*** lost, about Anno Domini and its relation to Easter Calculus, made this pretty clear. So, not just Heaven, but also Catholic clergy and monasticism are more Jewish than Catholic laymen are on average.

Hans Georg Lundahl
Paris
St. Rufus of Metz
7.XI.2026

Metis, in Gallia, sancti Rufi, Episcopi et Confessoris.

* He just repeated a point by Mgr Williamson:

Jesus is THE Faithful Jew
Gideon Lazar | August 21, 2025
https://crisismagazine.com/opinion/jesus-is-the-faithful-jew

At least the title is something Williamson said.

** Translated terra in the Vulgate and earth in Douay Rheims, I'm sure St. John used ge in a sense corresponding to Hebrew eretz which, like terra, means both earth under heaven and dry land above the seas. The latter has four main corners.

*** I was forced to displace myself for most of a week, brought the book in one of the sacks I then had to leave and hope some good Catholic found it.