In his classic Facts are Facts, Jewish historian, researcher and scholar Benjamin Freedman writes: 

Jesus is referred to as a so-called “Jew” for the first time in the New Testament in the 18th century. Jesus is first referred to as a so-called “Jew” in the revised 18th century editions in the English language of the 14th century, first translations of the New Testament into English. The history of the origin of the word “Jew” in the English language leaves no doubt that the 18th century “Jew” is the 18th century contracted and corrupted English word for the 4th century Latin “Iudaeus” found in St. Jerome’s Vulgate Edition. Of that there is no longer doubt.

The available original manuscripts from the 4th century to the 18th century accurately trace the origin and give the complete history of the word “Jew” in the English language. In these manuscripts are to be found all the many earlier English equivalents extending through the 14 centuries from the 4th to the 18th century. From the Latin “Iudaeus” to the English “Jew” these English forms included successively: “Gyu,” “Giu,” “Iu,” “Iuu,” “Iuw,” “Ieuu,” “Ieuy,” “Iwe,” “Iow,” “Iewe,” “Ieue,” “Iue,” “Ive,” “Iew,” and then finally the 18th century, “Jew.” The many earlier English equivalents for “Jews” through the 14 centuries are “Giwis,” “Giws,” “Gyues,” “Gywes,” “Giwes,” “Geus,” “Iuys,” “Iows,” “Iouis,” “Iews,” and then also finally in the 18th century, “Jews.”

With the rapidly expanding use in England in the 18th century for the first time in history of the greatly improved printing presses, unlimited quantities of the New Testament were printed. These revised 18th century editions of the earlier 14th century first translations into the English language were then widely distributed throughout England and the English speaking world among families who had never possessed a copy of the New Testament in any language. In these 18th century editions with revisions the word “Jew” appeared for the first time in any English translations. The word “Jew” as it was used in the 18th century editions has since continued in use in all the editions of the New Testament in the English language. The use of the word “Jew” was thus stabilized. . .

The best known 18th century editions of the New Testament in English are the Rheims (Douai) Edition and the King James Authorized Edition. The Rheims (Douai) translation of the New Testament into English was first printed in 1582 but the word “Jew” did not appear in it.

The King James Authorized translation of the New Testament into English was begun in 1604 and first published in 1611. The word “Jew” did not appear in it either. The word “Jew” appeared in both these well known editions in their 18th century revised versions for the first time.

Countless copies of the revised 18th century editions of the Rheims (Douai) and the King James translations of the New Testament into English were distributed to the clergy and the laity throughout the English speaking world. They did not know the history of the origin of the English word “Jew” nor did they care. They accepted the English word “Jew” as the only and as the accepted form of the Latin “Iudaeus” and the Greek “Ioudaios.” How could they be expected to have known otherwise? The answer is they could not and they did not. It was a new English word to them.

When one studies Latin he is taught that the letter “I” in Latin when used as the first letter in a word is pronounced like the letter “Y” in English when it is the first letter in the words like “yes,” “youth” and “yacht.” The “I” in “Iudaeus” is pronounced like the “Y” in “yes,” “youth,” and “yacht” in English. In all the 4th century to 18th century forms for the 18th century “Jew” the letter “I” was pronounced like the English “Y” in “yes,” “youth,” and “yacht.” The same is true of the “Gi” or the “Gy” where it was used in the place of the letter “I.”

The present pronunciation of the word “Jew” in modern English is a development of recent times. In the English language today the “J” in Jew” is pronounced like the “J” in the English “justice,” “jolly,” and “jump.” This is the case only since the 18th century. Prior to the 18th century the “J” in “Jew” was pronounced exactly like the “Y” in the English “yes,” “youth,” and “yacht.” Until the 18th century and perhaps even later than the 18th century the word “Jew” in English was pronounced like the English “you” or “hew,” and the word “Jews” like “youse” or “hews.” The present pronunciation of “Jew” in English is a new pronunciation acquired after the 18th century.

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The translation into English of the Gospel by John, XIX.19, from the Greek in which it was originally written reads “Do not inscribe ‘the monarch of the Judeans’ but that He Himself said ‘I am monarch.’” In the original Greek manuscript the Greek “basileus” appears for “monarch” in the English and the Greek “Ioudaios” appears for “Judeans” in the English. “Ioudaia” in Greek is “Judea” in English. “Ioudaios” in Greek is “Judeans” in English. There is no reason for any confusion. 

If the generally accepted understanding today of the English “Jew” and “Judean” conveyed the identical implications, inferences and innuendoes as both rightly should, it would make no difference which of these two words was used when referring to Jesus in the New Testament or elsewhere. But the implications, inferences, and innuendoes today conveyed by these two words are as different as black is from white. The word “Jew” today is never regarded as a synonym for “Judean” nor is “Judean” regarded as a synonym for “Jew.” 

When the word “Jew” was first introduced into the English language in the 18th century its one and only implication, inference and innuendo was “Judean.” However during the 18th, 19th and 20th centuries a well-organized and well-financed international “pressure group” created a so-called “secondary meaning” for the word “Jew” among the English speaking peoples of the world. This so-called “secondary meaning” for the word “Jew” bears no relation whatsoever to the 18th century original connotation of the word “Jew.” It is a misrepresentation. . .

There is not a person in the whole English-speaking world today who regards a “Jew” as a “Judean” in the literal sense of the Word. That was the correct and only meaning of the word in the 18th century . . .(Facts Are Facts, by Benjamin H. Freedman, p. 15-21).

The meaning of the word “Jew” in our Bible is not the same as the colloquial idiom.

In the Bible the word “Jew” means a resident of the land of Judaea regardless of their tribe, race or religion just as an Australian or Englishman may in fact be a Chinese, Negro or an Eskimo, or perhaps a member of the tribe of Judah (Judahite). According to the Greek Lexicon in Strong’s Exhaustive Concordance:

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Genesis 49:10 prophesied, “The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto Him shall the gathering of the people be.”

Judah was the largest and the most influential of the twelve tribes with the governing right. Jacob prophesied it would maintain its pre-eminence until Shiloh, or Messiah, came. He would then take headship and receive the allegiance of true spiritual Israel as Isaiah 9:6-7 foretold. Matthew 1 and Luke 3 trace Jesus’ human lineage to David, Judah, Jacob and Abraham. Jesus took the sceptre from Judah and we who receive Him as Messiah give Him our allegiance. 

In the days of His flesh few of the citizens of Judea were Judahites. Some belonged to one of the other tribes of Israel, and many were descendants of Esau (Edomites) who had assimilated and become co-religionists with the Judahites and remnants of the other tribes in the hybrid religion of Pharisaism developed during the captivity in Babylon. This is the religion of the Talmud is called Judaism today; it was condemned by Jesus since it is the antithesis of the Mosaic Law and the prophets and makes the Word of God of no effect (Matthew 15:1-9). 

John 7:1, “After these things Jesus walked in Galilee: for He would not walk in Jewry, because the Jews sought to kill Him.” 

According to Strong’s Greek Lexicon, the English word “Jewry” in this verse was translated from the Greek word #2449 Ioudaia {ee-oo-dah’-yah} feminine for the land of Judea. Modern translations no longer use the word”Jewry” but the correct translation, “Judea,” as in the New American Standard Bible: “And after these things Jesus was walking in Galilee; for He was unwilling to walk in Judea, because the Jews were seeking to kill Him.”The New International Version uses the same word. However, these translations continue to improperly use the word “Jews” in the same verse. A consistent translation would read: “. . . He was unwilling to walk in Judea, because the Judeans were seeking to kill Him.” 

Today most people think of Jews as the people of Israel, but that is not correct. An Israelite was one who had descended from Jacob. In Jesus’ time individual Jews may or may not have descended from Jacob, but they all recognized Pharisaism and not the Law of Moses. A Jew is properly a Judean.

The point is that one who is called a “Jew” in the Bible is not necessarily a chosen man of God, a follower of Moses and the prophets, a member of the tribe of Judah, an Israelite, or even a Semite, but one who is a resident of Judea. A Judean. But a well-organized and well-financed international “pressure group” created a so-called “secondary meaning” for the new word “Jew” which is not the understanding intended by the Scripture of truth. Those who call themselves Jews today falsely imply they are somehow descendants of the tribes of Israel and chosen of God. Yet few of them are Jews as they are not “Judeans,” or residents of Judea. 

So if modern day so-called Jews are not the Jews of the Bible, who are they? When asked, “Who is Israel? – Who is a Jew?” the Israeli Government’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA) unhesitatingly answered: 

“The term Israelite is purely Biblical. An Israeli is a citizen of Israel, regardless of religion. A Jew is a person anywhere in the world born to a Jewish mother, or converted to Judaism, who is thus identified as a member of the Jewish people and religion” (Information Division, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Jerusalem; February, 1998).

The Jewish Almanac concurs: “Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a “Jew.” Or to call a contemporary Jew [an] “Israelite,” or a “Hebrew.” The first Hebrews were not have been Jews at all, and contemporary Palestinians, by their own definition of the term “Palestinian,” have to include Jews among their own people” (The Jewish Almanac, October, 1980, page 3, Bantam Books, Inc).

The Online Etymology Dictionary describes the etymology of the word ‘jew,’ but perhaps because its editor is not a Bible student it exhibits an ignorance of the meaning of the original Greek word Ioudaios derived from the Aramaic jehudhai which did not refer to members of the tribe of Judah but to Judeans, the residents of the Babylonian province of Judea. The spelling of our present-day English word Jew is a transliteration of an abbreviation or slang word coined by their Babylonian conquerors for Judeans without reference to the race or religion of the captives. The editor has inadvertently discriminated the Semitic tribesmen of the sons of Israel from the diverse mass of races and religions then resident in Judea by applying the incorrect colloquial idiom, not having recognized the true and Biblical meaning of the original words.

Comments by Truth Uncensored Afrika:  This article is only a fraction of the whole account.  Read the whole account go to  http://www.wicwiki.org.uk/mediawiki/index.php/The_Etymology_of_the_Word_%22Jew%22