Orthodox Jewish readers have written in to defend the proposition that since Sinai, descent in Judaism has always been matrilineal. For the Orthodox take on the issue, as well as a good example of how traditional rabbinic scholars analyze an issue (essentially reasoning backwards to find plausible language in the Torah supporting the idea that a custom or law has always existed in Judaism, but ignoring contrary historical evidence), see here. I don’t have any links handy (UPDATE: Here is a Conservative rabbi’s take, including his acknowledgement of the historical changeover, based on the research of Prof. Shaye Cohen), but my understanding of the actual history of the issue is that, as another correspondent put it, matrilineal descent came in Roman times (or approximately 1,000 years after Sinai), and was consistent with, and perhaps influenced by, Roman practice.
UPDATE: Eric Rasmusen raises an issue that I thought of, but was too lazy to write up: if one chooses to solely rely on biblical sources, and descent was matrilineal in prophetic times, why were Ruth the Moabite’s descendants considered to be Jews? I’m sure the rabbis would say that Ruth “converted,” but that’s pretty clearly a post-hoc rationalization.
Eric also points out that Barry Goldwater’s father was Jewish, and therefore “a Jew” patrilineally, but Goldwater was raised Christian, and never identified himself as a Jew, so I know of no modern Jewish movement that would consider Goldwater to be a Jew.
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