The
Mystery of the Missing
Bible Tribes!
THE
REAL DIASPORA
A cryptic introduction is given
by the apostle James in his epistle, which begins with the words,
"James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the
twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting." Who were these
‘twelve tribes’ scattered abroad? Biblical commentaries often plead
ignorance as to who these mysterious people were. For example, the new
"Serendipity Bible For Study Groups" (Zondervan, Inc.) makes
this statement: "It is not clear to whom James is writing."1
Adding to the mystery, we find
that a similar expression was also used by the Apostle Peter in the
introduction to his own first epistle: "Peter, an apostle of Jesus
Christ, to the strangers (margin, ‘sojourners of the dispersion’)
scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Capadocia, Asia, and Bithynia..."
Thus, both James and Peter address their epistles to these mysterious
"strangers" who were "scattered abroad" from
Palestine. Were these just a handful of Jewish traders who had settled
along trade routes, as some commentators suggest? Why then would a few
lone individuals be referred to as "the twelve tribes?"
THE
JEWISH DIASPORA
The word, "diaspora"
(from the Greek, meaning scattered or dispersed) has often been used by
historians to describe the migration of Palestinian Jews which occurred
after the destruction of Jerusalem in AD. 70. The Roman general, Titus,
and his army invaded Palestine, laying siege to all of the cities and
towns there. After Jerusalem was overrun, the Jewish fortress at Masada
held out an additional four more years, until it, too, fell in AD. 74.
An estimated 1,100,000 Jews died in that conquest according to the early
historian, Flavius Josephus.2 Thousands of additional Jews
either fled from Palestine, or were carried away as slaves. This Jewish
"exodus" or "diaspora," however, occurred about ten
to twenty-five years after the Epistles of James and Peter were written.
Many scholars give a date of about A.D. 45 for James’ epistle, and
Peter’s first epistle was written most probably prior to A.D. 64 when
Nero began his persecution. Therefore, based on these dates, it is clear
that the Jewish diaspora of A.D. 70 is not the "scattering
abroad" to which both James and Peter refer. Of what scattering,
then, do they relate?
ANCIENT
DISPERSIONS OF ISRAEL
Centuries before, upon the death
of Solomon about 926 B.C., God’s chosen nation had become divided into
two kingdoms: the northern ten-tribe kingdom of the house of Israel, and
the southern two-tribe kingdom of Judah. (1Ki. 12) Then, in four
invasions between 762 and 676 B.C., the Assyrians conquered and deported
the ten tribes and most of the cities of the southern kingdom.3
(Jerusalem itself was spared due to the prayers and repentance of King
Hezekiah, as related in II Kings chapter 19.) These captive Israelites
were transported hundreds of miles away northeast to the land of Media
on the shores of the Caspian Sea, in northern Mesopotamia. They never
returned, becoming lost to history, as the International Standard
Bible Encyclopedia relates, "The northern ten tribes had
been taken into captivity by the Assyrians and have become known as the
lost tribes of Israel. The sole surviving identifiable tribe was Judah,
and when this was conquered [a century later in 587 B.C.] by
Nebuchadrezzar, the captives became known as Jews - a word that
developed from ‘Judeans.’ The returning exiles were henceforth known
as Jews, and the name Judah was loosely used to refer to the region they
occupied."4 Thus the word "Jew" was
derived from the name of the tribe and kingdom of Judah which suffered
in the seventy year Babylonian captivity. But historians relate that the
Ten-tribe House of Israel did not return to Palestine from their earlier
Assyrian dispersion, but became lost to history.
These lost tribes are referred to
in the apocryphal Second Book of Maccabees, written
between 50-100 B.C., long before the New Testament fall of Jerusalem and
modern Jewish "diaspora." In chapter one, verse 27, we read, "Gather
together our scattered people..." The word
‘scattered’ is rendered in the Septuagint version by the Greek word,
"diaspora." In the New Testament, John 7:35 also
recognizes Israel as being "dispersed," (again from the Greek
word, diaspora) long before the Roman conquest of A.D. 70.
Thus the dispersion of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel is the real
diaspora spoken of in both the Old and New Scriptures.
THE
NUMBER OF THOSE DISPERSED
How many Israelites went into
dispersion? McClintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia gives us the
number of Israelites at the time of the captivity: "With regard
to population.... in I Chron. 21:5-6, the numbers (of fighting
men) are stated at 1,100,000 (Israel) and 470,000 (Judah) respectively,
with the intimation that Levi and Benjamin were not included...
According to the general laws observable in such cases, these numbers
may be said to represent an aggregate population of from five and a
half to six millions...it may be safely reckoned that the population
subject to each king was about four times the number of the fighting men
in his dominions."5
Six million Israelites went out
of the land of Palestine into captivity! Out of this large number, how
many ever returned? The Bible itself provides us an answer to that
question. In the book of Ezra (2:1, 64, 65) we read, "Now
these are the children of the province who went up out of the
captivity... The whole congregation together was forty and two thousand,
three hundred and threescore. Besides their servants and their maids, of
whom there were seven thousand three hundred thirty and seven; and there
were among them two hundred singing men and singing women." The
returning captives constituted a combined total of only 49,897 persons,
or less than 8/10 of one percent of those dispersed! The remainder,
nearly six million in 762 BC, are still lost to recorded history.
Solid Biblical evidence therefore
reveals that over 99% of God’s chosen people were removed out of the
land of Palestine in ancient times and thereafter lost to history. How
could six million people become lost? That many people had to show up
again somewhere, if not as Israelites, then under other names. What
other large nations or peoples, new to history, suddenly appeared in
Meso-potamia as if out of nowhere, about this same time in the 7th
century, B.C.? And by what names were they known to neighboring Mideast
nations?
TRACING
THE LOST TRIBES
These Israelites in dispersion
have often been referred to as "lost tribes," but some
historical bits of information give indications of their existence
during this time. The Biblical Book of Esther, for
instance, tells the story of one group of Israelites of the House of
Judah during their captivity in the city of Susa, about 300 miles east
of the city of Babylon. (her crowning as Queen of Persia is depicted
here) This was about 480 B.C., a full century after the fall of
Jerusalem. (See Esther 2:6)
The Apocryphal book of Tobias,
or Tobit, took place even earlier, "when he was
made captive in the days of Salmanasar king of the Assyrians."
(1:2) This faithful man of the tribe of Naphtali lived in the city of
Nineveh in the seventh century, B.C., becoming a captive in 721 B.C. in
the third Assyrian conquest of the House of Israel. The Book of Tobit
closes with a prediction that "the destruction of Nineveh is at
hand," (14:6), which occurred in 612 B.C.
Another sighting of these lost
tribes occurred about 500 miles northwest of Susa in the region of Behistun,
where today may be seen a giant rock carving high up a 1,700 foot sheer
mountain face.
Deciphered in 1835 by famed
archaeologist, Sir Henry Rawlinson, it was commissioned by the ancient
Persian king, Darius Hystaspes, surnamed The Great. The
reproduction above shows the Behistun Rock carvings, in which Darius
recounts his battles with the Saka or Scythians. King
Darius places his left foot on the body of one rebel leader, while nine
other rebel princes are led to him with hands bound and a rope around
their necks. The text is repeated in three languages, Persian, Susian
(the language of the city of Susa where Queen Esther lived), and
Babylonian. By comparing the Persian and Babylonian versions of the
text, we know that these tribes were known to the Persians as Saka,
and to the Babylonians as Gimirri.6 The
Behistun inscription has been dated to about 516 B.C., over two
centuries after the northern kingdom of the House of Israel was
dispersed by Assyria. Scythian, a Greek form of the name Saka,
came to mean a wanderer or tent-dweller, and well described the
Israelites in dispersion far from their cities and homes in Palestine.
Israel was known by different
names to different neighboring peoples. One of the most popular
archaeology texts found in public libraries is "The March of
Archaeology," by C.W. Ceram. He points out
that the Assyrians referred to the Israelites by the name of Khumri.
Ceram says, "One of [Sir Austen Henry] Layard’s most
interesting finds...is undoubtedly the "Black Obelisk"
of Assyrian king Salmanasar III. (859-824 B.C.) This obelisk,
about six and one half feet high and covered on all four faces with
script and relief’s...gives us vignettes of the clothing and customs
of the peoples whom Salmanassar boasts of conquering...[In] the second
row of carvings, Kinsmen of Jehu, son of a man named Khumri, are
shown bringing tribute consisting of metal and vessels of silver and
gold.... Khumri was the Assyrian designation of the Jews..."7
This monument (shown at right) of the Assyrian king has
pictures of conquered princes paying tribute, including "Jehu,
the son of Khumri," a term designating him as an Israelite.
This Assyrian name for Israel, Khumri, translates as "House
of Omri," after an Israel king who gained fame for a new
law-code he developed (Micah 6:16). Famed early 20th century
historian archaeologist, Archibald Henry Sayce, in his book, Higher
Critics and the Monuments, p. 396, adds: "It was, however,
in the time of Ahab the son of Omri that the Assyrians first became
acquainted with the northern kingdom of Israel, and consequently Samaria
continued ever afterwards to be known to them as Beth-Omri, the
‘house of Omri’."
Scholars confirm that the people
known to the Persians as Saka, to the Babylonians as Gimirri,
and to the Assyrians as Khumri, were but different names for the
Lost Ten Tribes in captivity. "Saka" or "Sacae"
meant "House of Isaac," while the terms "Khumri" and
"Gimirri" translate as "House of Omri." (The
Assyrians later also adopted the Babylonian variant of Khumri, Gimirri.)
From this word Khumri or Gimirri developed the tribal name, "Cimmerian,"
as well. The famed ancient writer, Herodotus, visited these tribes
about 450 B.C. In the footnotes to Rawlinson’s translation of the
"History Of Herodotus," we read, "We have
reasonable grounds for regarding the GimiRri, or Cimmerians, who first
appeared on the confines of Assyria and Media in the seventh century
B.C., and the Sacae of the Behistun Rock, nearly two centuries later, as
identical with the Beth-Khumree of Samaria, or the Ten Tribes of the
House of Israel... The Sacae or Scythians, who were termed
Gimirri by their Semitic neighbors, first appear in the cuneiform
inscriptions as a substantive people under Esar-Haddon in about B.C.
684."8 By this date the Ten Tribes, Israel-Gimirri,
were entirely resident in Assyria, for a great deportation of "the
whole seed of Ephraim" (Jer. 7:15) had removed them from Palestine.
We read, "..there was none left but the tribe of Judah only...so
was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this
day." (2Ki. 17:18, 23).
The famed Roman-Jewish historian,
Flavius Josephus, said in the first century, A.D., "Wherefore
there are but two [Israel] tribes in Europe and Asia
subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates
till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by
numbers."9 The "lost" ten tribes were
dwelling beyond the Euphrates Valley, traveling northward, so our next
step is to trace their migrations through the Caucasus.
BIRTH
OF THE CAUCASIAN TRIBES
The Jewish Encyclopedia says: "If
the Ten Tribes have disappeared, the literal fulfillment of the
prophecies would be impossible. If they have not disappeared, obviously
they must exist under a different name."10 This
is the only real choice! If the Bible’s prophecies are to be literally
fulfilled, the Lost Tribes must be known today by a name other than
"Israel". But what other name?
Historian Sharon Turner,
author of the scholarly three-volume "History of the
Anglo-Saxons," tells us this: "...Of the various
Scythian nations which have been recorded, the Sakai, or Sacae, are the
people from whom the descent of the Saxons may be inferred with the
least violation of probability. Sakai-suna, or the sons of the Sakai,
abbreviated into Saksun, which is the same sound as Saxon, seems a
reasonable etymology of the word, Saxon. Strabo places them east of the
Caspian... this important fact of a part of Armenia having been named
Saka-sina is mentioned by Strabo in another place (lib. xi. pp. 776,
778); and seems to give a geographical locality to our primeval
ancestors, and to account for the Persian words that occur in the
Saxon language, as they must have come into Armenia from the
northern regions of Persia. It is also important to remark that Ptolemy
[a celebrated scholar of about A.D. 150] mentions a Scythian
people, sprung from the Sakai, by the name of Saxones.
If the Sakai, who reached Armenia
"The identification of the
Sacae, or Scythians, with the Ten Tribes because they appear in history
at the same time, and very nearly in the same place, as the Israelites
removed by Shalmaneser, is one of the chief supports of the theory which
identifies the English people, and indeed the whole Teutonic race, with
the Ten Tribes."
-The Jewish
Encyclopedia, vol. 12, p. 250
were called Sacassani, they
may have traversed Europe with the same appellation; which, being
pronounced by the Romans from them, and then reduced to writing from
their pronunciation, may have been spelt with the x instead of the ks,
and thus Saxones would not be a greater variation from Sacassani
or Saxsuna, than we find between French, Francois, Franci,
and their Greek name Phrange; or between Spain, Espagne, and
Hispania."11
Proofs abound as to the whereabouts of these "missing
tribes." In the apocryphal book of First Maccabees 12:21 is
a statement (of about 100 B.C.) that "It has been found in
writing concerning the Spartans [Greeks] and the Jews that they are
brethren, and that they are of the stock of Abraham." Similar
connections abound between ancient Israel and Italy, Spain, Ireland,
Britain, and other countries in Europe.
If this is true, then should the Anglo-Saxons have "Jewish
features?" On this, the "Westminster Historical Atlas To
The Bible" reproduces an ancient inscription (shown above) from
the Temple of Rameses III at Medinet Habu in Egypt, and states,
"Canaanite captives in Egypt being led before the Pharaoh. This
relief, which portrays the general appearance of Israelites as well as
Canaanites, is a good representation of the typical Semite of the
day. Note the noble, aristocratic features, particularly the finely
cut noses, and the long hair and beards. It is commonly thought
that Israelites had "hooked noses," but this was originally a
Hittite or Armenoid feature."12
FROM MIDDLE-EAST TO
EUROPE
The origin of the Caucasian Race is shrouded in antiquity, but
this much is certain: The name itself indicates that many of these
people streamed into Europe through the Caucasus Mountain region
of Eastern Europe, just north of Assyria and Palestine. Historians still
debate whether these tribes originated in northern Europe and later
traveled south to the Caucasus region, or conversely, originated down in
Mesopotamia and migrated north through the Caucasus into Europe. The
Encyclopedia Britannica, while professing no final opinion on this,
makes the revealing admission, "It has been observed with truth
that so many populous nations can hardly have sprung from the
Scandinavian penninsula."13 The same source also
points out that these tribes spoke a language akin to ancient
"Iranian" (i.e., an early Mesopotamian dialect. This was no
accident, for the Israelites descended from Abraham who originated in
Chaldea in Mesopotamia.) It would therefore seem obvious that these
newly discovered peoples originated in Mesopotamia, at the same time and
place that the Ten Tribes of Israel were "lost" and
disappeared from history. God’s people disappeared under the name of
Israel by the early 7th century B.C., and immediately reappeared in the
same region under other names by which they played an important part in
the early history of Asia Minor and eastern Europe.
Many history books show an area marked, "Iberia,"
or HEBREW’S LAND, in the Caucasus Mountain region between the Caspian
and Black Seas, north beyond the Euphrates.14 The
word, Hebrew, means a descendant of Eber, the great-grandson of Noah.
Even to this day, Spain is known as the Iberian Peninsula, and
Ireland by the slight variation, Hibernia, both indicating their
Hebrew origins in antiquity.
In the apocryphal book of 2 Esdras 13, verse 40 we read:
"These are the Ten Tribes, which were carried away prisoners
out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanesar, the
king of Assyria, led away captive, and he led them over the waters, and
so came they into another land. But they took this counsel among
themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and go
forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt...And they
entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river...For through
that country there was a great way to go, namely of a year and a half;
and the same region is called Arsareth." "Ar" is
the Chaldean word for river, and Biblical archaeologist, Dr. E. Raymond
Capt believes that this may refer to Eastern Europe, in the region of
modern Rumania, where a River Sareth exists to this day.
FULFILLED PROPHECY
The New Testament verifies that not only would Israel continue to
exist as a people, but they would be restored spiritually through belief
in their Savior, the Son of God. The Apostle Paul, quoting the prophet
Hosea says, "Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be
like the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered;
and it shall come to pass that, in the place where it was said unto
them, Ye are not my people, there it shall be said unto them, Ye
are the sons of the living God." (Hosea 1:10; Rom. 9:26)
Where has this prophecy seen fulfillment? Who are these millions who are
called numerous as the sand of the sea, are popularly told are "not
God’s people Israel," and yet are known as "Sons of the
living God," or Christians? That this is the proper interpretation
of the prophecy may be seen in the
evangelical publication, Pulpit
Commentary, which maintains, "The place, then, where they
should be called the sons of the living God is wheresoever they should
believe in Christ." (vol. 18, p. 270) Yes, Hoseh’s
prophecy has been fulfilled today in the nations of Christendom,
"Christ’s Kingdom," where we are told that we are not
God’s people, Israel, but that we are "the sons of the living
God," or Christians. It is therefore no coincidence that 95% of
Bibles, gospel tracts, and missionary work go out from
"Caucasian" Christian lands! We are the modern descendants of
God’s servant people, fulfilling prophecy even as "blindness
in part has happened to Israel." (Romans 11:25).
The prophet Isaiah stated, "And
the nations shall see thy righteousness, and all kings thy glory; and
thou shalt be called by a new name, which the mouth of the Lord shall
name." What new name was prophesied for Israel? Hosea said
it was "Sons of the Living God," or Christians!
Historians record the arrival of
millions of dispersed tribes, known to us today as Cimmerians, Angles,
Saxons, Scythians, and similar names, who flooded into Europe from Asia
Minor in the early pre-Christian centuries. They poured through the
Caucasus Mountain region (whence the name, "Caucasian")
into southeastern Europe at the very same time and place as six
million lost Israelites disappeared from history. Surely the
disciples of Christ also knew this fact, for they not only went straight
to Europe to spread the gospel, but James and Peter addressed their
epistles to this same people, "the twelve tribes scattered
abroad" to Europe. These are the prophesied Israel "company
of nations" (Gen. 35:11), now "thousands of
millions" strong, whose colonizing descendants long ago
began to "possess the gate of those which hate them."
(Gen. 24:60) The prophetic marks are certain: the lost and scattered
tribes of the diaspora have been found!
An effort has been made by some
to allegorize the twelve tribes to whom Peter and James wrote their
epistles, as if the reference corporately referred to all Christians.
But to the contrary, the Pulpit Commentary explains, "it
appears to have been written, mainly at least, to Israelites of the
dispersion." (vol. 18, p. 269)
In 1723, the French church
scholar and Huguenot refugee, Dr. Jacques Abbadie, wrote a book titled,
"The Triumph of Providence" in which he stated, "Unless
the ten tribes of Israel are flown into the air, or sunk into the earth,
they must be those ten Gothic tribes that entered Europe in the fifth
century, BC... and founded the ten nations of modern Europe."15
The Apostle Paul, in his letter
to the Galatians on the border of Europe stated, "They which
are of faith, the same are the children of Abraham." (Gal.
3:7) Yes, the nations of Christendom ARE the descendants of Abraham and
the Israelites of the Bible! As Peter said to these "sojourners of
the dispersion," so we say to you, "Wherefore the
rather, brethren, give diligence to make your calling and election
sure; for if ye do these
things, ye shall never fall."
(2Peter 1:10)
REFERENCES:
1 The Serendipity Bible For Study Groups, Zondervan
Inc., p. 1578
2 The Jewish War, Flavius Josephus, book vi, chapter ix,
par. 420
3 McClintock & Strong’s Bible Encyclopedia, 1981,
vol. ii, p. 108
4 Intn’l. Standard Bible Encyclopedia,. Bromiley,
1982,vol. 2, p. 1149-1150
5 McClintock & Strong’s Bible Encyclopedia, 1981,
vol. iv, pp. 695, 1052
6 Encyclopedia Britannica, 14th ed., 1957, vol. 17, p.
550, article, ‘Persia’
7 The March of Archaeology, by C.W. Ceram, 1958, page 216
8 History of Herodotus, translated by George Rawlinson,
book vii, p. 378
9 Antiquities of the Jews, Flavius Josephus, book xi,
chpt. v, par. 2
10The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1909, vol. 12, p. 249, article,
‘Tribes, Lost Ten’
11History of the Anglo-Saxons, Sharon Turner, 1836, vol.
1, pp. 100-101
12Westminster Historical Atlas To The Bible, 1945
edition, p. 24
13Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., vol. 12, p. 272, article,
"Goths"
14Holman Book of Biblical Charts, Maps, &
Reconstructions, 1993, p. 132
15National Message Magazine, 6/1957, p.
188-189
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