Why Was Jesus Born a Jew?

Why did Jesus Christ choose to be born and accomplish the work of our salvation in the land of Israel? One might say: because there the prophets spoke and prophesied of Him. But why there, and not in Persia, Egypt, or Greece?

The answer is found in the divine calling of Abraham, the father of the faithful, and in the providential history of salvation.

Adam and Eve lived in Paradise and knew the true God, for He was their Creator (Genesis 2:7). After their fall into sin, they were cast out of Paradise (Genesis 3:23). Yet they did not forget God, and they passed down this knowledge of the true God to their descendants. In this way, the memory of the Creator was preserved in the early generations of humanity.

Over time, however, this knowledge was darkened, and idolatry spread among men. In this spiritual context, Abraham remained faithful to the one true God, and he was called by God to leave his land and walk before Him in obedience (Genesis 12:1–4).

Abraham became the father of Isaac (Genesis 21:3), Isaac became the father of Jacob (Genesis 25:26), and Jacob became the father of the twelve patriarchs (Genesis 37:1; Acts 7:8). These descendants went down to Egypt, where their people sojourned for about four hundred years (Acts 7:6).

In due time, God delivered them from slavery and led them back toward the land of Canaan (Acts 7:7). When God called Moses, He revealed Himself, saying: “I am the God of your father, the God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob” (Exodus 3:6).

Thus, the land of Israel was prepared through divine providence as the place where the Savior would be born. As the Gospel says: “He came to His own, and His own did not receive Him” (John 1:11).

The history of Israel begins with Abraham, and so does the human lineage of Christ according to the flesh. Therefore, Matthew calls Jesus the “Son of Abraham” (Matthew 1:1).

If Abraham had been Greek, Chinese, or Persian, Christ would likewise have had no difficulty being born in Greece, China, or Persia, for “the earth is the Lord’s” (Psalm 24:1)).