It can be argued, and has been for a while, that Jesus was an Israelite (Hebrew) and not a Jew. While I'm no Biblical scholar, it sounds like a legitimate argument; especially given that Jesus was Galilean and not Judean. *snip* `First, was Jesus a Jew as far as his religion was concerned? No, his religion was Hebrewism; or, as we now call it, the Religion of the Old Testament. That religion was the religion of the Hebrews and the Israelites, and was based on the Law of Moses and the teachings of the prophets.` ... `Jesus criticized the Jews, or Pharisees, for establishing Judaism which is based on the Talmud, and which at the time of Jesus was still called the Tradition of the Elders. When the people returned from Babylon, about 538 B.C., after the Babylonian Captivity, they brought back a different religion than the one practiced just fifty years earlier. The new religion was the Tradition of the Elders (or Judaism), and that religion was based on the teachings of the rabbis rather than the laws of God. ` ... `Second, was Jesus a Jew by ancestry? Jews were not Israelites as they were not descended from Jacob. They were descended from Esau, the brother of Jacob. While both were grandsons of Abraham and sons of Isaac, Jacob was favored by God. Esau’s descendants were called Edomites, and later they were called Jews since many of them were then living in Judea because the Edomites had been captured by John Hyrcanus and forced to convert to the religion then in place in Judea. ` [Source](https://revelation114.com/jesus-was-not-a-jew-either-by-religion-or-by-ancestry/)