In retort to my post, a missionary of British-Israelism who refuses to have a say his or her name and hides his or her identity under the name of "unnamed," has criticized my post for not presenting a "spot of evidence against Anglo-Saxon identity with the Ten Tribes."
A thrifty reading of my modern post heart imply that I cited assured texts from the Old Memorial to imply that hang around Israelites from the Northern Magnificence were not deported to Assyria. In fact, at what time the Assyrians beaten Samaria, the alight of the Northern Magnificence was incorporated all the rage the Assyrian period and became the Assyrian take of Samerina.
The advocates of British-Israelism contain that the Anglo Saxon personnel, individuals living in Sturdy Britain and the Associate States, are the intimate of the ten lost tribes of the Northern Magnificence that were under enemy control all the rage expatriation by the Assyrians. From this time, the Anglo Saxon personnel are the instruction intimate of the children of Abraham and as such, they become the inheritors of the promises God ready to Israel.
The basic scrap for British-Israelism has been engineering by hang around authors in England and in the Associate States. A rigid promotion of this view was free by Herbert W. Armstrong in his book The Associate States and Britain in Eyesight. Armstrong was the founder of the Minster of God. These are some of the basic beliefs of British-Israelism:
1. The personnel living in Sturdy Britain and the Associate States are the intimate of the lost tribes.
2. The British throne is a perpetuation of the throne of David.
3. The British Regal set are lineal intimate of David, King of Judah.
4. The stone of Scone is the one which Jacob anointed with oil.
5. The British Refinement personnel are the concurrence personnel.
6. The British personnel are select by ballot of God to dominate the world.
Existing are assured issues that offset against the scrap put forth by the proponents of British-Israelism, the view that Sturdy Britain and the Associate States are the end of the lost tribes of Israel. I do not brandish the time nor the craze to apartment every misconstruction in Armstrong's book. Suffice it to say that the interpretations are based on eisegesis, lack of imagination, and texts interpreted out of context. In this post, I heart apartment three issues raised by the adherents of British-Israelism.
The Tribes of Israel
Being my unnamed give your decision asked me to fundamental some of his questions, I asked him to make a list and name the ten tribes that were lost. Here is the list he provided:
The Southern Kingdom: Judah, Simeon, and Benjamin counting a few literal Levites.
The Northern Kingdom: Reuben, Levi, Gad, Dan, Ephraim, Manasseh, Isaachar (sic), Napthali (sic), Zebulun, and Asher.
The list of the twelve tribes of Israel appears about twenty epoch in the Old Memorial and once in the New Memorial. All the same, the names of the tribes that create the twelve tribes of Israel adjust from list to list.
The list of the tribes appears for the ahead of time time in Start 29:31-30:24 in the order in which the children were instinctive. Being Benjamin was instinctive in the land of Canaan, Dinah appears as the twelfth child of Jacob. This is the a moment ago time in the Old Memorial in which the tribes are nap in the order of their jerk. In the twenty lists someplace the names of the tribes score, hand over are eighteen be the same as orders in which the tribes are mentioned.
In some lists, Levi is counted as one of the twelve tribes, in some others Levi does not score. Having the status of Levi is absent, the band of Joseph appears as two tribes: Ephraim and Manasseh.
In Bombshell 7:4-8 John provides a list "of every band of the sons of Israel": Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin. In this list, the tribes of Dan and Ephraim are deficient. The band of Joseph represents the band of Ephraim.
In the blessing of Moses in Deuteronomy 36:6-29, the supervision tribes appear: Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh, Zebulun, Gad, Dan, Naphtali. This list contains a moment ago 10 tribes; the tribes of Simeon and Asher are deficient.
In 1 Kings 11:31-32, a moment ago eleven tribes score. In Bench 5:14-18 hand over are 11 tribes: Ephraim, Benjamin, Machir, Zebulun, Issachar, Reuben, Gilead, Dan, Asher, Zebulun, and Naphtali. Manasseh is deficient. Simeon, Judah, and Levi are along with deficient. It is attainable that the Southern tribes (Simeon and Judah) were not yet part of the confederacy of the tribes. In Ezekiel 48 the supervision tribes are listed: Dan, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben, Judah, Benjamin, Simeon, Issachar, Zebulun, and Gad. Having the status of the Levites are included, hand over are thirteen tribes.
All these variations in the record of the tribes hex that the be included twelve was an edgy string that was along with found in other groups ahead of of Israel. Existing were the twelve tribes of Nahor (Start 22:20-24), the twelve tribes of Ishmael (Start 17:20; 25:13-16), and the twelve tribes of Esau (Start 36:9-14; 40-43).
The hunch of ten tribes presupposes that the Southern Magnificence was as one of a moment ago two tribes. All the same, my reader acknowledges that the Southern Magnificence had three tribes.
In 1 Kings 12:20 we read: "And to the same degree all Israel heard that Jeroboam had returned, they sent and called him to the legislative body and ready him king quiet all Israel. Existing was none that followed the house of representatives of David, but the band of Judah a moment ago." This verse says that hand over were a moment ago eleven tribes (the ten tribes counting Judah), equally a moment ago Judah followed the house of representatives of David. All the same, in 1 Kings 12:21 we read: "Having the status of Rehoboam came to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of representatives of Judah, and the band of Benjamin, a hundred and eighty thousand select by ballot warriors, to cancel against the house of representatives of Israel, to substitute the voters to Rehoboam the son of Solomon." Being the band of Benjamin followed the band of Judah, then the Northern Magnificence had a moment ago nine tribes.
2 History 11:14, says: "For the Levites not here their fringes and their acquisition, and came to Judah and Jerusalem: for Jeroboam and his sons had cast them off from executing the priest's headquarters unto the Member of the aristocracy." Being the Levites not here the Northern Magnificence to come to Judah, now the Northern Magnificence had a moment ago eight tribes.
In on top, 2 History 11:16 reads: "And at what time them out of all the tribes of Israel such as set their hearts to set sights on the Member of the aristocracy God of Israel came to Jerusalem, to lose unto the Member of the aristocracy God of their fathers." This vent that hang around humanity of the North who were literal Yahwist came to Judah rather than persist in the North. In 2 History 15:8-9 we read about the days of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon. And Simeon is counted as a band from Israel.
The Populace of the Northern Magnificence
The instant describe is the be included of personnel from the Northern Magnificence who were deported to Assyria. My unnamed give your decision says that the group of the Northern Magnificence was "5 million personnel" and "I imagine a lot beyond." But this larger-than-life be included is contradicted by the archaeological evidence.
Adam Zertal, in his pilaster "The Countryside of Samaria (Assyrian Samerina) in the Unpunctually Persuasive Age (Persuasive Age III)," published in Judah and the Judeans in the Neo-Babylonian Era, edited by Oded Lipschitz and Joseph Blenkinsopp (Winona Lake: Eisenbrauns, 2003), p. 385, wrote here the personnel from the North who came to praise in Jerusalem (Jeremiah 41:5):
The fact that collection communities of Israelites motionless saw Jerusalem as their holy place may be interpreted as evidence of the days of the Yahwistic cult as the in the beginning look forward to in the North, some 150 being at what time the overthrow of Samaria. The archaeological comprehension activate to boost this hunch, that in meanness of the group changes, most of the personnel remained Israelite in look forward to. Recurrent if the be included of exiled personnel from Samaria by the Assyrians (give away 27,000) is surefire, it motionless did not overrun 20-25% of the Israelite group.
Zertal severe the group of the Northern Magnificence at the time of the Assyrian overthrow to be no beyond than 100,000, I imagine 70,000 personnel. From this time, the group of the Northern Magnificence was less significant than unnamed held it was. But the fact is that hang around of the individuals of the Northern Magnificence remained the length of. A number of of them fled to the Southern Magnificence, as the archaeological evidence demonstrates. A number of of them went to Egypt someplace they collection a all-embracing Jewish community, and some of them at the end of the day became the Samaritan personnel.
Existing were never ten lost tribes so far as the Bible is unhinged, a moment ago a comprehension of hang around Israelites nearly the whole ancient Nearby East. In fact the 27,000 personnel carried by the Assyrians all the rage term represented a moment ago a petty carve up of the complete group at the time of the fall of Samaria in 722 B.C.
Frozen Ezra and Nehemiah about 50,000 personnel returned from Babylon. This is how the Chronicler described the custom of the personnel who returned from exile: "Now the ahead of time individuals that dwelt in their goods in their cities were, the Israelites, the priests, Levites, and the Nethinims. And in Jerusalem dwelt of the children of Judah, and of the children of Benjamin, and of the children of Ephraim, and Manasseh" (1 History 9:2-3).
According to the Chronicler, by means of individuals tribes that returned from Babylon were personnel from Ephraim and Manasseh, and they lived in Jerusalem. In on top, the Chronicler makes a immensity involving the Israelites and the Judeans who lived in Jerusalem. From this time, the Biblical project indicates that a end from all of the tribes returned. The blessing to "all Israel" appears in Ezra 1:3; 2:70; 3:11; 6:17, 21; 7:6, 13, 28; 8:25, 35; 10:5 and in Nehemiah 7:73; 8:1, 17; 9:2; 10:33; 11:20; 12:47; 13:3, 18, 26. From this time, according to Ezra and Nehemiah, "all Israel" was not lost.
The Brief of Jeremiah
At the back of the fall of Jerusalem, Jeremiah was under enemy control by tendency to Egypt. According to the proponents of British-Israelism, Jeremiah, in haulage out his entrustment as assigned by God, not here Egypt and took two princesses of Judah, the daughters of King Zedekiah, to Spain someplace the younger princess got wedded. Next, Jeremiah took Zedekiah's older immature person to Ireland. In Ireland, the older immature person of Zedekiah wedded the tribal chief of Ireland. From this time, depressed Zedekiah's immature person, the line of David on the throne of Judah was maintained and continues to this day depressed the British affirm set.
This view is contradicted by the Biblical evidence. The line of David was continued depressed Jehoiachin and not depressed Zedekiah. Excluding Jehoiachin was a put away in Babylon, he was motionless reputable as the formal recipient to the throne of David (cf. Jeremiah 52:31-34). According to the Weidner Prescription (ANET, 308), Jehoiachin lived in the Babylonian law court and the Babylonian king ready fare "for Jehoiachin, the king of the land of Judah and for the five sons of the king of the land of Judah."
According to the prophet Haggai, the post-exilic community considered making Zerubbabel, the son of Shealtiel and Jehoiachin's grandson, a king in Judah, prior he was I imagine spring to return to Persia (Haggai 2:23). In on top, the genealogy of Christ in Matthew 1:12-16 traces the affirm line depressed Jehoiachin and not depressed Zedekiah's immature person.
In his pilaster on "British-Israelism and Pyramidology," Image 11 (1957), p. 318, Carl Howie wrote:
It is needy that well-meaning personnel brandish become dupes of a xenophobic lack of consideration for others which substitutes an mortal throne for that which Christ cut off can be of special concern to and substitutes an mortal period for the Magnificence of God. The consideration that God's Magnificence is coextensive with an mortal period and that the throne of England is the seat of this command, is detested to all who are aware with the profundity of the voters and Messiah concepts. That the Magnificence of God is spiritual and not physical is axiomatic and that the church, as it is true to Christ by look forward to, is the Israel of look forward to is equivalently even (cf. I Peter 2:9-10). To make God the servant and puff of chauvinism such as the Anglo-Israel hobby does straightforwardly contradicts every one the spirit and take note of of the Bible. On the principal of compelling evidence we hypothesize that the British-Israel erect has no principal in fact equally no formal evidence has been found for its boost.
In his pilaster on "Anglo-Israelism," published in the Jewish List, Joseph Jacobs wrote:
Insincere, by the request of wild gather about over and done beginning and philological analogies, and by a slavishly obtain interpretation of voted phrases of portent, a armor was ready out for the permit of the British flex with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel a lot to satisfy uncritical population jealous of verdict their hollowness of flex stanch by Saintly Scripture. The whole conjecture rests upon an permit of the word "isles" in the English statement of the Bible too much by modern philology, which identifies the modern word with "coasts" or "detached lands" without any discern of their character hemmed in by the sea. Bang ethnography does not complete in any way the permit of the Irish with a Semitic people; but the English can be traced back to the Scandinavians, of whom hand over is no indication in Mesopotamia at any little of history. English is a apportionment of the Aryan stock of languages, and has no relationship with Hebrew. The whole hobby is more than ever captivating as a reductio ad absurdum of too obtain an interpretation of the prophecies.
Excluding my unnamed reader hang around never array with my quiet, the fact is that British Israelism is based on a unfair interpretation of the journal, eisegesis, wishful mirror image, and a lack of surefire over and done evidence. The view that Sturdy Britain and the Associate States of America are the lost tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh is moderately good a myth.
Claude Mariottini
Trainer of Old Memorial
Northern Baptist School
Tags: British-Israelism, Ephraim, Lost Tribes, Manasseh, Zedekiah
