This is a topic that many readers will be familiar with. It circulates widely on the web. In a nutshell, it’s the notion that the ten tribes of Israel (the northern kingdom of the divided monarchy in ancient Israelite history) that were deported and scattered by the Assyrians eventually migrated in some fashion to the British Isles. The British colonists who came to America are their descendants, and so Britain / America was / is the new Israel. In case some of you have not heard of this idea, here is a summary (see the Wikipedia entry as well).
Criticisms and debunkings of the idea have been around since its genesis. I’d like to direct your attention to a recent lengthy expose on the subject. I know the author (Greg Doudna). Greg is a published expert on the Dead Sea scrolls. His religious background was in circles that promote the lost ten tribes mythology. Hence his interest and this book (the book’s title is awful, leaving the reader no clue as to the subject matter).
Here is a (sort of) summary of the book. Readers can access the book through Google Books here (I have it open to chapter 6).
Hello Sir,
I would like to bring to your attention this book : The Dying God by Daving Livingstone. Located here http://www.thedyinggod.com. It deals a bit with the kind of literature that you are dealing with. I don’t know if you would debunk it or support the thesis provided therein. I really liked the book, so I would like to see if you do comment on it. I understand that it will take time, yet, it is an important matter. Since, I am not much of a scholar, it is very difficult for me to verify everything provided as info.
Besides, I’m trying to actually trace Lost tribes of Israel. There is a theory regarding Pathans of Afghanistan belong to that tribe. So I would really like to know what do you think about this theory.
Thanks and regards,
Arshad
PS: Been following your blog for some time now and I find it really helpful for my studies. Also, facade’s a great book. 🙂
thanks!
Ah! Good, now that we mentioned the Lost ten tribes of Israel over at MEMRA recently, this would be a good read – coming from a DSS researcher
the American Indian Cherokee ,Some of us have the same DNA (y) chromazone as the Isreal tribe of Levi Also A note of the Feasts that are simular to the Isreal
can you direct me to the study on this (the DNA part). After centuries of interbreeding with European settlers, this would be no surprise, frankly, and would not speak to an Israelite migration. But I’d still like to read the study.
A few of comments/questions.
First, given the mathematics and probabilities of ancestry (due to intermixing of peoples and some bloodlines dying out etc) the further back you go, the more likely it is that a large number of people today share common ancestors. Obviously in the biblical view, we all have Noah as a common ancestor. However the commonality begins a lot sooner than that.
For example, it is probable that every person of european descent in the world can trace a link to Charlemagne.
It has been born up by genetic studies that almost everyone in the United States, including most Native Americans can trace some link to English Royalty.
This effect is magnified the further back in history you go, and also the more offspring a person had. As a result it is not unthinkable that virtually everyone in the world could have some genetic link to Jacob/Israel.
I’ve looked at some studies on the Ashkenazi Jewish populations originating from Europe. Many do show clear genetic links to Middle Eastern Semitic peoples. This is especially true through the genetic line of the Father. However, I’ve heard theories and it does seem to have some credability genetically that many Ashkenazi Jews are actually descended from the Khazars, who at one point converted en mass to Judaism. Have you run across this, do you know if there is any validity to it?
In one of the deutero-canonical books of the Macabees (I think it was 1st Macabees, but its been a while since I read it)
I was surprised to find that when trying to establish themselves the Macabees sent letters to Sparta and Rome. In both cases they explicitly claimed a blood kinship between the people of Sparta and the Israelites, and the people of Rome and the Israelites.
Do you know of any other precedent for this idea?
well, considering that most of the population came from European colonists, no surprise. Native Americans would not have British ancestry, but they interbred with colonists eventually. Where’s the shock?
I wasn’t suggesting that it was shocking…. I was suggesting that its not shocking.
Also, as a correction to my previous comment, in the book of Maccabees, there was no kinship claimed with Rome (just a treaty there) but in the correspondence with Sparta the Jews recognized them as brothers, and the Spartans claimed to be children of Abraham. Anything to this?
give us the passages.
The passage in question is 1st Maccabees 12:6-23
[6] “Jonathan the high priest, the senate of the nation, the priests, and the rest of the Jewish people to their brethren the Spartans, greeting.
[7] Already in time past a letter was sent to Onias the high priest from Arius, who was king among you, stating that you are our brethren, as the appended copy shows.
[8] Onias welcomed the envoy with honor, and received the letter, which contained a clear declaration of alliance and friendship.
[9] Therefore, though we have no need of these things, since we have as encouragement the holy books which are in our hands,
[10] we have undertaken to send to renew our brotherhood and friendship with you, so that we may not become estranged from you, for considerable time has passed since you sent your letter to us.
[11] We therefore remember you constantly on every occasion, both in our feasts and on other appropriate days, at the sacrifices which we offer and in our prayers, as it is right and proper to remember brethren.
[12] And we rejoice in your glory.
[13] But as for ourselves, many afflictions and many wars have encircled us; the kings round about us have waged war against us.
[14] We were unwilling to annoy you and our other allies and friends with these wars,
[15] for we have the help which comes from Heaven for our aid; and we were delivered from our enemies and our enemies were humbled.
[16] We therefore have chosen Numenius the son of Antiochus and Antipater the son of Jason, and have sent them to Rome to renew our former friendship and alliance with them.
[17] We have commanded them to go also to you and greet you and deliver to you this letter from us concerning the renewal of our brotherhood.
[18] And now please send us a reply to this.”
[19]
This is a copy of the letter which they sent to Onias:
[20] “Arius, king of the Spartans, to Onias the high priest, greeting.
[21] It has been found in writing concerning the Spartans and the Jews that they are brethren and are of the family of Abraham.
[22] And now that we have learned this, please write us concerning your welfare;
[23] we on our part write to you that your cattle and your property belong to us, and ours belong to you. We therefore command that our envoys report to you accordingly.”
ah – I understand the comment now. You’re taking verse 6 as Spartans being Jews. Spartans were not Jews. The term “brother” can simply refer to “colleague” or “associate.” It does not always refer to ethnic kin. Here is part of the entry [see #3] from the Liddell-Scott Greek-English lexicon on “adelphos” – “brother”; Liddell-Scott is the leading scholarly lexicon for Hellenistic Greek – hope the Greek is legible):
??????? [?], (?- copul.?, ??????, Arist.?HA?510b13; cf.? ???????) properly, son of the same mother:
I. as Subst.?, ???????, ?, voc.? ??????; Ep.?, Ion.?, and Lyr.? ???????? (gen.? -???? in Hom.? is for -???, -?‹?›??? Call.? in Suppl.Hell.?260 A.?5), nom.? pl.?, -???? A.R.?3.731, Locr.? ???????? SEG?23.358 (vi/v b.c.), Boeot.? ???????? SEG?22.416 (Thebes, iv/iii b.c.); ???????? Inscr.Cret.?4.72.2.21 (Gortyn, v b.c.); ???????? ib.? 4.208.A2 (ii b.c.):—brother, Hom.?, etc.?; ??????? brother and sister, E.?El.?536; so of the Ptolemies, ???? ??????? Herod.?1.30, OGI?50.2 (iii b.c.), etc.?; ??? ????????? ???????? Hdt.?7.97: prov.?, ??????? ??????? ??????? E.?Fr.?975: metaph.?, ?. ?????? ???????? Lxx?Jb.?30.29.
2. kinsman, ib.? Ge.?13.8, al.?; tribesman, Ex.?2.11, al.?
3. colleague, associate, PTeb.?1.12, IG?12(9).906.19 (Chalcis); member of a college, ib.? 14.956.
4. term of address, used by kings, OGI?138.3 (Philae), J.?AJ?13.2.2, etc.?; generally, Lxx?Ju.?7.30; esp.? in letters, PPar.?48 (ii b.c.), etc.?:—as a term of affection, applicable by wife to husband, Lxx?To.?10.12, PLond.?1.42.1 (ii. b.c.), etc.?
5. brother (as a fellow Christian), Ev.Matt.?12.50, Act.Ap.?9.30, al.?; of other religious communities, e.g.? Serapeum, PPar.?42.1 (ii b.c.), cf.? PTaur.?1.1.20.
6. metaph.?, of things, fellow, ???? ?? ?. ????????????????, of Leviathan’s scales, Lxx?Jb.?41.8.
Henry George Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (“With a revised supplement, 1996”). Rev. and augm. throughout; Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press, 1996), 20.
How do we know that “colleague” or “brotherhood in a cause” is the idea in the passage you cite? Because 1 Macc. 12:10 makes that clear (i.e., context). That verse speaks of “brotherhood and friendship.” In fact, Liddell-Scott sites 1 Maccabees 12:10 (“brotherhood”) in the entry on adelphotes:
?????????, ????, ?, brotherhood, Lxx?1?Ma.?12.10, Vett.Val.?2.28, D.Chr.?38.15: metaph.?, of men and animals, Iamb.?VP?24.108.
Henry George Liddell et al., A Greek-English Lexicon (“With a revised supplement, 1996.”;, Rev. and augm. throughout; Oxford; New York: Clarendon Press; Oxford University Press, 1996), 21.
Thats a reasonable explanation of the use of the term brother. What are your thoughts about Verse 21 in which the Spartans seem to call themselves children of Abraham?
Short version: It appears this was a Spartan belief for which there is no evidence — possibly mixing up the Jews with Phoenicians (close geographical proximity) or just aggrandizing propaganda. Here’s a note from the Anchor-Yale commentary on 1 Maccabees:
“… there were periods when Greeks were impressed by the antiquity of Egypt and when reputable Greek historians, such as Herodotus and Hecataeus of Abdera, would give Greek heroes and peoples an Egyptian origin (Bickerman, ibid., pp. 71–72, 74). Do our documents reflect the vogue of ideas like those of Hecataeus of Abdera? From the time of Homer, indeed, Greeks believed that their own genealogies were connected with those of the Phoenicians, a people with strong claims to antiquity; see Astour, Hellenosemitica, index, s.vv. “Phoenicia,” “Phoenician,” and “Phoenix,” and Supplementum Epigraphicum Graecum, II, 330. The connections of the Greeks with the Phoenicians are attested early and probably reflect historical fact, whereas no such early connections are attested for the Jews. Nevertheless, could not Greeks, when prompted by self-interest and by supposed evidence, claim common descent with the Jews, an ancient people neighbors to the Phoenicians?”
Jonathan A. Goldstein, I Maccabees: A New Translation With Introduction and Commentary (Includes indexes.;New Haven; London: Yale University Press, 2008), 449.
The issue apparently is based on the legendary (i.e., no historical evidence for his existence) Danaus, the ancestor of Spartan kings. The name obviously resembles “Dan” one of the tribes of Israel. The issue therefore is also related to the “Danite problem” (whether the tribe of Dan was really an Israelite tribe or a latecomer that joined Israel. This is a problem in biblical studies because of the way Dan is treated in some texts (for example, in the book of Revelation when the 144,000 are sealed — 12,000 from each Israelite tribe — the tribe of Dan is not in the list, having been replaced by “Joseph”).
I have some scholarly articles on this (Jews and Spartans) if you are interested. Contact me by email.
The Greeks and Anglo-Saxons had nothing to do with Israelite blood. Neither did any of the Indigenous peoples of America, Australia etc. The fact that some of their traditions or beliefs accord with Jewish beliefs simply goes back to their common ancestry from Noah. Even the Chinese have a tradition of hanging red papers in their windows at New Year to bring good luck, similar to a sort of Passover. Many nations practised and practise animal sacrifice. All this goes back to the first humans. The Spartans were a Doric tribe, the same as the ancient Macedonians (from whom many modern Greeks today are descended). I think if we would find the lost ten tribes of Israel we need to go into Scripture, ancient historical texts and the land of Mesopotamia where they were originally deported.
that a red item is hung in a window should not be construed as “Passover like” unless there is textual witness to that in Chinese material. Otherwise, it is a non-sequitur. Agreed with the need to cite Scripture and Mesopotamian material (!) for the lost tribes.