Exactly How America Is a Judeo-Christian Country When No Jews Were Founding Fathers
- Edward D. Andrews
- 6 days ago
- 7 min read
The claim that America is a Judeo-Christian nation is frequently challenged on the grounds that no openly Jewish individuals were among the core group traditionally recognized as the Founding Fathers, particularly the signers of the Declaration of Independence or the Constitution. This objection assumes that the phrase Judeo-Christian refers primarily to the personal religious identities of the Founders rather than to the intellectual, moral, and legal foundations that shaped the nation’s formation. That assumption is historically inaccurate. Judeo-Christian describes the moral and legal worldview drawn from the Hebrew Scriptures and the Christian Scriptures, not a demographic tally of Jewish officeholders. America’s foundations are Judeo-Christian because its political philosophy, legal reasoning, and moral assumptions are rooted in the Old Testament and the New Testament as interpreted through Protestant Christianity, even while Jewish participation in leadership positions remained limited in the eighteenth century.
The absence of Jewish signers among the Founding Fathers does not diminish the Jewish foundations of American political thought. The overwhelming majority of the Founders were Protestant Christians, particularly Anglicans, Presbyterians, and Congregationalists, with a small number of Roman Catholics. None were practicing Jews in public life. Yet the Hebrew Scriptures shaped their understanding of law, government, liberty, covenant, accountability, and moral obligation in ways that no other ancient source did. The Old Testament was not treated as a foreign religious text but as the foundational revelation of Jehovah’s dealings with humanity and nations, preserved and transmitted through Israel and fulfilled in Christianity. In that sense, Jewish Scripture was already embedded within Christian thought, education, and political reasoning.
The term Judeo-Christian is therefore descriptive of a shared scriptural inheritance. Christianity did not discard the Hebrew Scriptures; it affirmed them as inspired, authoritative, and indispensable. The Founders read Moses, the prophets, and the historical narratives of Israel as divinely inspired instruction on justice, governance, and human accountability. When they turned to the New Testament, they found ethical teaching for personal conduct, conscience, and civic responsibility. Together, these formed a coherent worldview that shaped the American experiment.
The Historical Reality of the Founding Fathers’ Religious Composition
Among the fifty-six signers of the Declaration of Independence, fifty-five were professing Christians. The remaining signer did not identify as Jewish in belief or practice. The signers of the Constitution likewise reflected Christian affiliation. This reality is not disputed by serious historians. What is often ignored is that these same men were immersed in the Hebrew Scriptures to a degree that far exceeds modern familiarity. Their education, sermons they heard, political pamphlets they read, and legal training they received were saturated with Old Testament language and concepts.
The absence of Jewish Founders is best explained by demographics and civil limitations rather than by hostility to Jewish Scripture. The Jewish population in the colonies was small, numbering only a few thousand scattered primarily in port cities. Political leadership in the colonies was drawn from entrenched Protestant elites, and full civic inclusion for Jews was still developing. Nevertheless, Jewish individuals were present, active, and influential in the revolutionary cause, even if they were not among the signers of the founding documents.
The claim that America cannot be Judeo-Christian because Jews were not Founding Fathers confuses representation with influence. Ideas shape nations more profoundly than headcounts. The ideas that shaped America came overwhelmingly from the Bible, and especially from the Old Testament.
The Case of Alexander Hamilton and Jewish Origins
One frequently cited complication is the background of Alexander Hamilton. Modern scholarship has presented credible evidence that Hamilton was born and raised Jewish in the Caribbean, attended a Jewish school in Nevis, and possessed knowledge of Hebrew uncommon among Christians of his era. If this assessment is correct, it would mean that at least one central figure in the founding generation had Jewish origins. Yet even here, the point remains unchanged. Hamilton did not publicly identify as Jewish in the American political context, nor did he advocate Jewish theology as distinct from Christianity. His political reasoning was thoroughly integrated into the Protestant framework of the time.
Hamilton’s case is important not because it proves Jewish representation among the Founders, but because it highlights how Jewish Scripture and learning were already compatible with the political vision of the founding era. His familiarity with Hebrew and the Old Testament placed him in continuity with the broader biblical worldview shared by his peers.
Jewish Patriots and the American Revolution
Although not Founding Fathers in the constitutional sense, several Jewish individuals played critical roles in securing American independence. Haym Salomon was instrumental in financing the Continental Army, providing enormous sums through loans and fundraising that sustained the revolutionary cause during its most desperate periods. His actions demonstrated a commitment to liberty rooted in biblical ethics of justice and covenantal responsibility.
Francis Salvador, the first Jew elected to a colonial legislative body, died in defense of American independence, becoming the first Jewish casualty of the Revolution. Jonas Phillips advocated explicitly for religious liberty for Jews in the new nation, appealing to biblical principles of justice and freedom of conscience.
These individuals were not political architects of the Constitution, but their presence confirms that Jewish participation in the American experiment was real and meaningful. Their contributions occurred within a cultural framework already shaped by reverence for the Hebrew Scriptures.
The Old Testament as the Blueprint for Civil Government
The strongest evidence for America’s Judeo-Christian foundation lies in the Founders’ use of the Old Testament as a sourcebook for political theory and law. In political sermons, pamphlets, legislative debates, and educational curricula, the Hebrew Scriptures were cited more frequently than any other source. The book of Deuteronomy, in particular, was treated as a model for righteous governance, emphasizing the rule of law, limited authority, moral accountability, and equality before the law.
Deuteronomy presents a covenantal framework in which rulers are subject to the law of Jehovah, not above it. Kings are warned against accumulating excessive power, wealth, or military force. Judges are commanded to rule impartially. Laws are publicly accessible and binding on all. These principles resonated deeply with the Founders’ rejection of monarchy and tyranny.
The concept of covenant itself shaped American political thought. The idea that a nation is formed by mutual agreement under God, with defined obligations and consequences for violation, informed colonial charters and later constitutional reasoning. This covenantal worldview is uniquely Hebrew in origin and stands in sharp contrast to Greco-Roman political absolutism.
The Hebrew Commonwealth and Republicanism
The Founders frequently referred to ancient Israel as a Hebrew commonwealth rather than a theocracy in the modern sense. They observed that Israel functioned under distributed authority, with elders, judges, and leaders accountable to divine law. Power was decentralized, and no permanent human ruler was elevated above the law. This model influenced emerging ideas of republicanism and separation of powers.
The emphasis on written law, preserved and transmitted across generations, shaped the American insistence on a written Constitution. The belief that law restrains rulers rather than rulers defining law is a direct inheritance from the Old Testament. This is why appeals to Scripture in political discourse were not symbolic but substantive.
Exodus Imagery and Revolutionary Rhetoric
The Exodus narrative provided a powerful metaphor for the American struggle for independence. The deliverance of Israel from Egyptian oppression was repeatedly invoked as a parallel to colonial resistance against British tyranny. The image of a people delivered by Jehovah from an overreaching empire resonated deeply with a population steeped in biblical literacy.
This imagery was not decorative rhetoric. It shaped moral justification for resistance, framing liberty as a gift consistent with Jehovah’s will rather than a mere political convenience. The belief that tyranny violates divine justice undergirded arguments for independence and self-governance.
The Role of the New Testament in Moral Formation
While the Old Testament supplied the framework for national structure and law, the New Testament informed the Founders’ understanding of individual morality and civic duty. The teachings of Jesus were widely praised for their ethical clarity and emphasis on love of neighbor, humility, and integrity. These teachings were not seen as replacing Old Testament law but as reinforcing moral responsibility at the personal level.
Passages such as Romans 13 and 1 Peter 2 were frequently cited in discussions of civil authority, obedience, and the limits of governmental power. These texts emphasize that authority exists to punish wrongdoing and commend good conduct, not to dominate conscience or replace Jehovah’s moral law.
The writings of the Apostle Paul were cited with remarkable frequency, rivaling secular Enlightenment thinkers in influence. His emphasis on conscience, accountability, and orderly conduct provided a theological foundation for limited government and responsible citizenship.
Separation of Church and State as a Biblical Concept
The modern claim that separation of church and state implies secularism misunderstands the Founders’ intent. Separation was designed to prevent state control of the church and denominational coercion, not to exclude biblical morality from public life. This distinction is rooted in the biblical understanding that civil authority and religious authority serve different functions under Jehovah’s sovereignty.
The Old Testament distinguishes between priestly and kingly roles, while the New Testament affirms that God’s servants are to respect civil authority without surrendering obedience to God. This framework allowed for religious liberty without moral relativism.
Why Judeo-Christian Is the Correct Description
America is Judeo-Christian not because Jews held power in the founding generation, but because the nation was built upon the Hebrew Scriptures as interpreted through Christianity. The Old Testament provided the architecture of law and governance. The New Testament supplied the ethical compass for individual conduct. Together, they formed a unified worldview that shaped American institutions, assumptions, and aspirations.
Judaism preserved the Scriptures that Christianity embraced as inspired revelation. Christianity carried those Scriptures into political theory, law, and culture. The Founders did not view these as competing traditions but as a continuous revelation from Jehovah, culminating in Christ while retaining the moral and legal wisdom of the Hebrew Scriptures.
To deny the Judeo-Christian character of America because of the religious demographics of the Founders is to misunderstand both history and theology. The question is not who signed the documents, but what ideas shaped them. Those ideas were unmistakably drawn from the Bible, and especially from the Old Testament.
About the Author
EDWARD D. ANDREWS (AS in Criminal Justice, BS in Religion, MA in Biblical Studies, and MDiv in Theology) is CEO and President of Christian Publishing House. He has authored over 220+ books. In addition, Andrews is the Chief Translator of the Updated American Standard Version (UASV).