Ioudaios

According to Shaye J. D. Cohen, the meaning of the term "Ioudaios" evolved throughout the Second Temple period, with 2 Maccabees representing a greater emphasis on the cultural and religious aspects of Jewish identity.

For instance, Josephus recounts that Antigonus II Mattathias, the last Hasmonean king of Judea, labeled Herod a "half Judean," (ἡμιιουδαιος, or hemi-Ioudaios), referencing his Idumean ancestry, rather than his behavior.

For example, Morton Smith, writing in the 1999 Cambridge History of Judaism,[13] states that from c.100 BCE under the Hasmoneans the meaning of the word Ioudaioi expanded further: In 2001, the third edition of the Bauer lexicon, one of the most highly respected dictionaries of Biblical Greek,[14] supported translation of the term as "Judean", writing: Incalculable harm has been caused by simply glossing Ioudaios with 'Jew,' for many readers or auditors of Bible translations do not practice the historical judgment necessary to distinguish between circumstances and events of an ancient time and contemporary ethnic-religious-social realities, with the result that anti-Judaism in the modern sense of the term is needlessly fostered through biblical texts.

[15]In 2006, Amy-Jill Levine took the opposite view in her Misunderstood Jew, writing: "The translation 'Jew', however, signals a number of aspects of Jesus' behavior and that of other 'Jews', whether Judean, Galilean, or from the Diaspora: circumcision, wearing tzitzit, keeping kosher, calling God 'father', attending synagogue gatherings, reading the Torah and Prophets, knowing that they are neither Gentiles nor Samaritans, honoring the Sabbath, and celebrating the Passover.

[18] In 2014, Daniel R. Schwartz distinguishes "Judean" and "Jew", where the former means "Of or pertaining to Judea or southern Palestine", while the latter refers "A person belonging to the worldwide group constituting a continuation through descent or conversion of the ancient Jewish people and characterized by a sense of community".

[19] According to Jodi Magness, the term Ioudaioi refers to a "people of Judahite/Judean ancestry who worshipped the God of Israel as their national deity and (at least nominally) lived according to his laws.

[4] However, most other European languages retained the letter "d" in the word for Jew; e.g. Danish and Norwegian jøde, Dutch jood, German Jude, Italian giudeo, Spanish judío etc.