We often hear people using the words Hebrews, Israelites, Jews, and Semites interchangeably, but they don’t always refer to the same people.
Hebrews
AbraHam and all his descendants were Hebrews, for they all descended from Abram’s (or AbraHam’s) great, great, great grandfather Heber. However, many other lines of descent also came from that man, so many, many other races could technically be called Hebrews if they wanted to do so.
The first mention of the word Hebrew is found at Genesis 14:13, where AbraHam was referred to as being one. And thereafter, IsaAc, IshMaEl, and AbraHam’s other sons were also called Hebrews, as were Jacob, Esau, and all their descendants.
IsraElites
The IsraElites (who were within the family of Hebrews) are only the descendants of the twelve sons of Jacob, whom God renamed IsraEl. So thereafter, their families were often referred to as both the ‘Sons of IsraEl’ and as ‘Hebrews.’
Jews
Later, during the time of King David, a split developed between the tribe of Judah (who were called the Jews) and the other tribes who, being the majority, just kept the name ‘IsraEl.’ During the first portion of David’s reign he only ruled over Judah, and then later, both he and Solomon ruled over all the tribes… a reunited IsraEl.
However, the tribes split again after the rule of Solomon, when ten northern tribes rebelled and created their own kingdom, which again, being in the majority, they just continued to called IsraEl. The two southern tribes (Judah and BenJamin) were thereafter just referred to as Judah (since it was the largest of the two).
Later, the Assyrian Empire destroyed the northern ten-tribe Kingdom, deported all the inhabitants, and scattered them across their Empire. The southern two-tribe Kingdom of Judeans (and the smaller BenJaminites) were later taken away to Babylon by NebuChadnezzar. Even after their restoration, the name Judeans or Jews stuck, especially since they were later restored mostly to the former land of the Judean tribe.
The word ‘Jew’ is actually just a shortened version of the word ‘Judean.’
Others
There were many other people that came to be called both Jews and IsraElites that weren’t really from either, because God’s Law allowed foreigners to become a part of their nation. Indeed, RaHab, the prostitute of JeriCho (who was a CanaAnite) became the ancestress of Kings David, Solomon, and eventually Jesus. This was also true of the Moabite woman, Ruth.
Many non-Jewish peoples of the modern Middle East are also Hebrews, as some are direct descendants of AbraHam, and some are even descendants of IsraEl/Jacob, such as the Kurdish people.
Galileans or Jews?
Although Jesus and many of his disciples were in fact Judeans, they were often referred to by people that lived in the Roman province of Judea as Galileans. This happened because they came from an area outside of Judea near the Sea of Galilee, which was geographically separated from Judea by settlements of Samaritans.
Therefore, when Jesus and his disciples spoke of ‘the Jews,’ they often meant the people that lived in and around the city of JeruSalem or in the province of Judea rather than themselves.
Semites
The term ‘Semite’ predates the term ‘Hebrew,’ because it refers to descendants of Noah’s son Shem. Therefore, the term likely covers at least a third of the peoples on the earth.
Nowadays, however, the term Semite is only used in linguistic to refers to any peoples who speak Semitic languages. These include Arabic, Amharic, Tigrinya/Tigre, Hebrew, Aramaic, and Maltese.