The "Lost" Ten Tribes

Things To Come -- A Journal of Biblical Literature | July, 1894 | Editors

[John Leland 1789]

THE "LOST" TEN TRIBES

In a recent discussion of the subject, by P. Asmussim, in a German periodical, the writer shows that the ten tribes never were "lost." Both in the Books of Kings and in the Assyrian inscriptions we have records of the deportations of the inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom, and in leading particulars the accounts agree.

In 734 Tiglath-Pileser led into captivity the people of Gilead and of Galilee, and the districts of Issachar, Zebulon, Asher, Naphtali, Northern Dan, Eastern Manasseh and Gad were incorporated into the Assyrian monarchy. The last king of Israel accordingly ruled over nothing but what was afterwards called Samaria, i.e. the territory of Ephraim, West Manasseh, and the remnants of Benjamin. (Benjamin had not been joined to Judah, as is generally supposed; but Judah had extended her boundaries in the north at the expense of Benjamin as early as the reigns of David and Solomon. The district of Reuben had disappeared during the time of the Kings.)

From this limited territory, Sargon, in 722, according to his own report, led into captivity 27,280 persons, and later on until 711 some few more. In both deportations from all ten tribes the entire number of captives could not have numbered more than 50,000, including women and children.

The system of deportation then practiced by the despots never sent the entire population of a land into exile, and only those influential families who might stir up rebellion against the conqueror, and the artisans who made weapons. These captives formed a small minority in the communities where they settled, and being not very zealous Jews, religiously, they underwent a religious and social amalgamation with the foreign people. (It was different with Babylonian exiles of a century and a half later; they were zealous Jehovists, and were promised a return, so that they adhered to Judaism, lived together in Babylon, the prophetic activity continued, and some of them later returned to Jerusalem as a congregation.)

Those who were deported from the Northern kingdom were an insignificant number compared with the masses that remained, perhaps one-tenth. They were not tribes or large parts of tribes, but only individuals, or at most families. These persons were "lost" to be sure, but the tribes as such remained in Canaan, and absorbed the heathen settlers that were sent in. In later times the division into tribes signified little or nothing, the division into tribal territory was not regarded. In general, the Jew of the New Testament era knew as little from what tribe he came as does the modern Jew. Among modern Jews all these tribes, without any doubt, are their descendents. In other words, the "lost" tribes never have been and are not now "lost."

[Note: All Twelve Tribes were represented in Jerusalem at Pentecost in Acts chapter 2.]

[Diego1618]

Most likely they would be peoples of the Middle East -- part of the Assyrian Empire. So, the House of Israel would be across Syria, Lebanon, Iraq, Armenia, Eastern Turkey, Azerbaijan and fringes of western Iran and northern SAudi Arabia -- all people who after enforced arabization but who earlier were Assyrians, Arameans, Hattians, etc.

So.....when Amos makes his prophecy regarding the eventual location of the chosen folks of Israel.....you consider this so much balderdash?

[Amos 9:9] For, lo, I will command, and I will sift the House of Israel among all nations, like as corn is sifted in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth.

Not really -- all the genetic studies indicate that Celts are part of the Indo-European/Aryan stock, not Semitic.

It is your considered opinion that Indo-Europeans are not Semitic? Would they then be Hamitic.....or Japhetic?

before the Assyrian conquest, the Judeans would also include the tribe of Simeon which was absorbed by then.

Chapter and Verse....please?

And possibly part of Reuben (or Reuben was absorbed by Moab/Edom).

Rueben was not absorbed by Moab/Edom. Rueben, Gad and Manasseh were given the land east of the Jordan by Moses because it was good for raising and grazing cattle.....in which they were proficient. [Joshua 1:12-15][Joshua 13:8-13]

[Numbers 32:1-5] Now the children of Reuben and the children of Gad had a very great multitude of cattle: and when they saw the land of Jazer, and the land of Gilead, that, behold, the place was a place for cattle; The children of Gad and the children of Reuben came and spake unto Moses, and to Eleazar the priest, and unto the princes of the congregation, saying, Ataroth, and Dibon, and Jazer, and Nimrah, and Heshbon, and Elealeh, and Shebam, and Nebo, and Beon, Even the country which the LORD smote before the congregation of Israel, is a land for cattle, and thy servants have cattle: Wherefore, said they, if we have found grace in thy sight, let this land be given unto thy servants for a possession, and bring us not over Jordan.

Sihon was the King of the Amorites who had taken this land from the King of the Moabites [Numbers 21:26]. The Israelites had camped in this land on their way to the promised land after this part of the land of Moab had transferred to the Amorites [Numbers 21:10-14]. Israel took this land from the Amorites because Sihon, King of the Amorites, would not agree to the Israelites passing through his land (Northern part of Moab) [Numbers 21:23-26].

Thus.....the land of Moab (Northern part) was settled by Rueben, Gad and the half tribe of Mannaseh [Numbers 21:29-31][Deuteronomy 2:32-37] Then Sihon came out against us, he and all his people, to fight at Jahaz. And the LORD our God delivered him before us; and we smote him, and his sons, and all his people. And we took all his cities at that time, and utterly destroyed the men, and the women, and the little ones, of every city, we left none to remain: Only the cattle we took for a prey unto ourselves, and the spoil of the cities which we took. From Aroer, which is by the brink of the river of Arnon, and from the city that is by the river, even unto Gilead, there was not one city too strong for us: the LORD our God delivered all unto us: Only unto the land of the children of Ammon thou camest not, nor unto any place of the river Jabbok, nor unto the cities in the mountains, nor unto whatsoever the LORD our God forbade us.

So.....when you read of Israel living in Moab it's like people living in California (now part of the U.S.A.) even though it's been called California for 400 years while under Spanish and Mexican rule also. The Israelites never lived in the Country of Moab.....they lived in the land of Moab.... their's by conquest from the Amorites who had previously taken it from the Moabites.

[Cronos]

Not really balderdash -- logical. Fact -- the northern tribes (at least some of their people, as per the Assyrians own testimony only a few thousand), were take to Assyria, viz. Iraq. These people if they did not go back to Israel would remain in Iraq -- why? Because the Israelies spoke Hebrew, a Semitic language and they would have understood the Aramaic and Akkadian languages -- both related to Hebrew and they would have been culturally very similar to these other Semitic people. ergo, present-day Iraqis would have Israeli blood. Ditto for the other nations I spoke about

Indo-Europeans/Aryans are not Semitic people. Semites are a separate sub-"race" of the Caucasian "race" -- related to the Aryans and Dravidians, but not the same people. In the Noahic line, you could say they are Japhetic.

Semites are purely those from what in 700 BC was Israel, Moab, Ammon, Edom, Midian, Arabia, Sheba, Aram, Phoenicia, Assyria and Babylonia with some relationship with the Ethiopians through what is now modern-day Yemen.


re: the absorption of Simeon by Judah -- look into the Biblical description of the layout of the tribes (below). It would be inevitable that a larger, more powerful tribe would absorb a smaller one. That is why after the first few kings, you hear no more of Benjamin or Simeon or Reuben. All of these woudl have been absorved by more powerful neighbors -- whether those neighbors be Israeli tribes or other related Semitic peoples

you say Rueben was not absorbed by Moab/Edom. Rueben, Gad and Manasseh were given the land east of the Jordan by Moses because it was good for raising and grazing cattle.....in which they were proficient. [Joshua 1:12-15][Joshua 13:8-13] but you quote from the time WHEN THESE TRIBES WERE GIVEN THE LAND and not centuries after, when I refer. Reuben is barely mentioned during the time of the Judges and disappears during the Kings time. All of the other quotes you give talk about the original time when the Reubenites took the land. The tribe of Reuben would have been like the Manchus of more modern times, completely subsumed into a neighboring group.

[Partisan Gunslinger]

Your posts are very good on this thread.

It’s my belief that the Phoenicians taught members of the tribe of Dan to sail the open seas and that Dan then colonized the British isles and the other Northern lands in the vicinity with members of the other tribes at around 1000BC to mine for tin and whatnot. It’s interesting looking at the old names: Danemark (Dan), Juteland (Judah), etc. Of course when the promised land upheavals took place at around 700BC and 600BC these people that migrated out to these isles hundreds of years earlier would have avoided those troubles with the Assyrians and Babylonians...and later the Romans in 70AD. They would have been intact until the Anglo Saxon invasions hundreds of years later...and even then the Anglo Saxons were probably their long lost brothers...when one reads the Assyrian cylinders and puts two and two together.

[Diego1618]

The northern tribes (at least some of their people, as per the Assyrians own testimony only a few thousand), were take to Assyria, viz. Iraq.

It is the testimony of Holy Scripture that "All of Israel" was taken [II Kings 17:18]. I'll go with scripture.

These people if they did not go back to Israel would remain in Iraq.

The Assyrian Empire imploded about 600 B.C. and the Israelites who had been living there in exile for 125 years were not being kept there....although some indeed did remain in the vicinity. Many migrated and this is why you find Peter evangelizing some on the southern shores of the Black Sea during the first century [1 Peter 1:1-2]. This is also why you read Josephus telling the first century world that there are an uncountable number of Israelites living beyond the Euphrates (Iraq and Iran) [Antiquities XI, Chapter 5, Paragraph 2]. The two tribes yet subject to the Romans (according to Josephus) would be Benjamin and Judah.....Levi not being counted as they were priests, and as such were counted among the other tribes.

The mere fact that scripture tells us that Israel will be an uncountable people....not knowing who they really are would lead me to believe they have long since left the Middle East in great numbers. [Hosea 1:10] Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as 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.

Indo-Europeans/Aryans are not Semitic people. Semites are a separate sub-"race" of the Caucasian "race" -- related to the Aryans and Dravidians, but not the same people. In the Noahic line, you could say they are Japhetic.

I would say Europeans and Hebrews were somewhat similar. According to your statement you think that descendants of both Japhet and Shem are Caucasians?

re: the absorption of Simeon by Judah -- look into the Biblical description of the layout of the tribes (below). It would be inevitable that a larger, more powerful tribe would absorb a smaller one. That is why after the first few kings, you hear no more of Benjamin or Simeon or Reuben. All of these would have been absorbed by more powerful neighbors -- whether those neighbors be Israeli tribes or other related Semitic peoples.

The reason Benjamin became part of Judah was the result of Solomon's sins. The Lord had told Solomon: [I Kings 6:11-13] And the word of the LORD came to Solomon, saying, Concerning this house which thou art in building, if thou wilt walk in my statutes, and execute my judgments, and keep all my commandments to walk in them; then will I perform my word with thee, which I spake unto David thy father: And I will dwell among the children of Israel, and will not forsake my people Israel. But......this was not to be: [I Kings 11:1-2] But king Solomon loved many strange women, together with the daughter of Pharaoh, women of the Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Zidonians, and Hittites: Of the nations concerning which the LORD said unto the children of Israel, Ye shall not go in to them, neither shall they come in unto you: for surely they will turn away your heart after their gods: Solomon clave unto these in love. So.....The Lord did this: [I Kings 11:11-13] Wherefore the LORD said unto Solomon, Forasmuch as this is done of thee, and thou hast not kept my covenant and my statutes, which I have commanded thee, I will surely rend the kingdom from thee, and will give it to thy servant. Notwithstanding in thy days I will not do it for David thy father's sake: but I will rend it out of the hand of thy son. Howbeit I will not rend away all the kingdom; but will give one tribe (in addition to Judah) to thy son for David my servant's sake, and for Jerusalem's sake which I have chosen. That tribe was: [I Kings 12:21-24] And when Rehoboam was come to Jerusalem, he assembled all the house of Judah, with the tribe of Benjamin, an hundred and fourscore thousand chosen men, which were warriors, to fight against the house of Israel, to bring the kingdom again to Rehoboam the son of Solomon. But the word of God came unto Shemaiah the man of God, saying, Speak unto Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, king of Judah, and unto all the house of Judah and Benjamin, and to the remnant of the people, saying, Thus saith the LORD, Ye shall not go up, nor fight against your brethren the children of Israel: return every man to his house; for this thing is from me. They hearkened therefore to the word of the LORD, and returned to depart, according to the word of the LORD.

That is why after the first few kings, you hear no more of Benjamin or Simeon or Reuben. All of these would have been absorbed by more powerful neighbors -- whether those neighbors be Israeli tribes or other related Semitic peoples You quote from the time WHEN THESE TRIBES WERE GIVEN THE LAND and not centuries after, when I refer. Reuben is barely mentioned during the time of the Judges and disappears during the Kings time. All of the other quotes you give talk about the original time when the Reubenites took the land. The tribe of Reuben would have been like the Manchus of more modern times, completely subsumed into a neighboring group.

You might want to reconsider your position about Reuben. [I Chronicles 5:25-26] And they transgressed against the God of their fathers, and went a whoring after the gods of the people of the land, whom God destroyed before them. And the God of Israel stirred up the spirit of Pul king of Assyria, and the spirit of Tilgathpilneser king of Assyria, and he carried them away, even the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh, and brought them unto Halah, and Habor, and Hara, and to the river Gozan, unto this day.

The Books of the Kings and the Chronicles were written after the return of the Jews from Babylon (525 B.C.) and the King of Assyria had taken Reuben.....and the other nine tribes of the north captive 200 years earlier. This would indicate to me that these folks had not been absorbed by Moab and Edom as you had stated and were indeed still around (live and Kicking) during the time of the Judges and the Kings.

[Quix]

I wonder what some of the authors do with the 144,000 Israelite evangelists in the end times . . . 12,000 from each tribe?

God was quite clear and specific about that.

He will fulfill it quite clearly, specifically and literally just as He said He would.

HE has NO trouble knowing where each individual is.

[Quix]

I personally believe that the

ULTIMATE

fulfillment of

“as the sands of the seashore

will occur in the 1,000 year Millenium reign of Christ and possibly after . . .

and out across the galaxies. This would would not contain well that many Chiefs . . . nor all their Indians.

IIRC, God intends for Blood Israel to be part of those ruling and reigning with Christ. That’s a lot of Chiefs.

[ladyL]

Yes!!! You are starting to get the picture which is a large jump for most people :) If you purpose to go into this study of our faith from the Hebrew perspective you will discover that Yahweh has only one chosen people and that's the Israelites. There are only two kinds of people in the world, Gentiles (heathen and pagans) and Israelites. “If you are in Jesus Christ you are Abraham's seed” Gal.3:29. The scriptures are all over the place, 100’s of them that show that the covenant people are the Jews and Christians today. These Christians do not know they are the lost Israelite that Yahshua came to redeem. More and more of us are finding our identity both by scripture and by the Spirit. Anyone who has a love for Israel and can't explain that love, I guarantee that person is an Israelite. Others are being drawn back to their Hebrew roots and don't understand why.

Well if you go to Ezk 4:4 you will see that Yah told Ezekiel to lay on his left side 390 days, a day for a year for each year Yah was going to punish the House of Israel. Then he told Ezkiel to lay 40 days on his right side as the years He would punish the House of Judah. See, 2 different nations, 2 different peoples, 2 different judgements. Jacob was told his decendents would become a nation and a company of nations. NOT JUST ONE JEWISH NATION !!!

Anyhow the 390 years of punishment (dispersion) were multiplied by 7 according to Lev. 28 that if punishment is applied but there is no repentance then the punishment would be multiplied seven times. 390 years X 7 = 2730 years. The House of Israel's punishment began in 721 BC when they were carried off by the Assyrians. Do the math.
The punishment is up THIS YEAR. That's why so many of us are finding out our true identity. We are Abraham's seed. We are Israelites. In Hosea Yahweh said at the end of our punishment he would give us back our identity, he would have mercy and compassion on us and He would bring us back to our land. These are exciting times and Yah is calling us all back to the Scriptures where He will meet us and help us shed man's traditions and doctrines and come back to His truths. I pray you continue in these studies.

[Cronos]

That's pretty funny on so many levels. The Phoenicians were already trading with Briton for tin before 1000 BC. Jumping to assumptions based on names is rather unscientific -- Danemark to Dan; what about the fact that the GReeks were called Danoi during Mycenean times and that the tribe of Dan was originally next to Philistia, would you then guess that the tribe of Dan was not of Hebrew origin but of Danoi/Greek/Sea Peoples origin?

Secondly, the Phoenicians would not want to help them. And why would the phoenicians not want to help the Israelites? Well, if you start calling the phoenicians by the name they call themselves, not the name the GReeks/Roman gave them (Punic). The Phoenicians called themselve CANAANITES. How could they forget the genocide of their relatives that had occured barely a couple of centuries earlier?

Thirdly, there is no proof for Israelite settlements by sea, on the other hand there is so much proof for Canaanite settlements like Sicily (Syracuse), southern Italy, CArthage, Cadiz (Spain) and for Greek settlements around the Black sea and into Sicily. Both the histories for this date back to the second millenium BC -- why is there no evidence for Israelites?

The earliest evidence starts from the Judean era when the Jews use the great Persian Empire as a roadway for them to travel

The Anglo-Saxons (Saxon from the Germanic word saxe for curved knife) are Aryans, just like the Celts, just like the Romans, Greeks, Indians, Persians, Armenians, Slavs -- and there were documented Aryans dating from the 2nd millenium BC (Hittites in Anatolia, Tocharians in Central Asia and Xinjiang, Indo-Iranis in Iran, northern India, the southern Russia steppes etc.

[Diego1618]

Anyhow the 390 years of punishment (dispersion) were multiplied by 7 according to Lev. 28 that if punishment is applied but there is no repentance then the punishment would be multiplied seven times. 390 years X 7 = 2730 years.

[Leviticus 26:18-28] And if ye will not yet for all this hearken unto me, then I will punish you seven times more for your sins. And I will break the pride of your power; and I will make your heaven as iron, and your earth as brass: And your strength shall be spent in vain: for your land shall not yield her increase, neither shall the trees of the land yield their fruits. And if ye walk contrary unto me, and will not hearken unto me; I will bring seven times more plagues upon you according to your sins. I will also send wild beasts among you, which shall rob you of your children, and destroy your cattle, and make you few in number; and your high ways shall be desolate. And if ye will not be reformed by me by these things, but will walk contrary unto me; Then will I also walk contrary unto you, and will punish you yet seven times for your sins. And I will bring a sword upon you, that shall avenge the quarrel of my covenant: and when ye are gathered together within your cities, I will send the pestilence among you; and ye shall be delivered into the hand of the enemy. And when I have broken the staff of your bread, ten women shall bake your bread in one oven, and they shall deliver you your bread again by weight: and ye shall eat, and not be satisfied. And if ye will not for all this hearken unto me, but walk contrary unto me; Then I will walk contrary unto you also in fury; and I, even I, will chastise you seven times for your sins.

[Cronos]

The scriptures only mention a number in thousands leaving Israel. do you think it would be so easy for bronze age peoples to forcibly migrate all people from a hilly, mountainous land like Israel?

The Assyrian Empire didn't "implode" - it was tken over by another, related Semitic people: the Babylonians.

The Israelites were related to both Assyrians and Babylonians; they spoke mutually intelligeble languages and their cultures were similar. They would have been assimilated. The reason the later Judeans did not assimilate into the Persian empire is because the PErsians are aryans like the Celts, Germanics, Indians, Slavs, etc.with quite a different language and culture compared to the Semitics

Peter went evangelizing to later Jewish communities who travelled via the Persian, Alexandrian and Roman Empires (Empires that emphasised trade rather than tribute as the Assyrians did). There were Jewish (as opposed to earlier Israelite) communities.

I would say Europeans and Hebrews were somewhat similar.

Arabs are more closely related to Hebrews than Hebrews are related to any Indo-Europeans.

The mere fact that scripture tells us that Israel will be an uncountable people....not knowing who they really are would lead me to believe they have long since left the Middle East in great numbers.
Any northern tribes would have been majorly retained in the blood-lines of Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, etc and through inter-marriage to the Iranis, Armenians, Turks, Greeks etc. The "purest" lines would remain in the Middle East.

Benjamin, Simeon were assimilated into Judah due to natural pressures for smaller similar groups to merge into larger, more powerful relatives. Ditto for Reuben merging into the similar culture of the Moabites

[Cronos]

I wonder what some of the authors do with the 144,000 Israelite evangelists in the end times . . . 12,000 from each tribe?

well, by that, the 144,000 seats have been taken by the Jewish people

[Cronos]

There are only two kinds of people in the world, Gentiles (heathen and pagans) and Israelites

So, what would you consider Muslim Arabs, who have descent from Jews?

[tang-soo]

From Luke Chapter 2
33 And His father and mother were amazed at the things which were being said about Him.

34 And Simeon blessed them and said to Mary His mother, "Behold, this Child is appointed for the fall and rise of many in Israel, and for a sign to be opposed--

35 and a sword will pierce even your own soul--to the end that thoughts from many hearts may be revealed."

36 And there was a prophetess, Anna the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Asher She was advanced in years (AI)and had lived with her husband seven years after her marriage,

37 and then as a widow to the age of eighty-four. She never left the temple, serving night and day with fastings and prayers.

38 At that very moment she came up and began giving thanks to God, and continued to speak of Him to all those who were looking for the redemption of Jerusalem.

[Cronos]

What you're mouthing is a standard version of British Israelism (sometimes called Anglo-Israelism) is the belief that that many early Britons, Europeans and/or their royal families were direct lineal descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel but rarely the Tribe of Judah.

It's based on Victorian tables made to help justify England's rejection of Europe.

Genetics research on DNA shows that most modern Jews share origins with other people of the Middle East and are sharply divergent genetically from Britons and other Europeans. Read this

People on the earth at present are described in 1 Cor 10:32 as being Jew, Gentile or of the Church of God. If, as claimed, the term Jew does not refer to the Israelite then where is the Israelite?
Roms 1:16 — The Gospel is the power of God unto salvation, ‘to the JEW first and also to the Greek.’ Roms 2:9 — ‘The JEW first and also of the Gentile.’ See also Roms 2:10, 14, 17.
In Roms 3:9 — ‘We have before proved BOTH JEWS AND GENTILES that they are ALL under sin.’

In Galatians 3, Paul speaks of the two groups of mankind as being JEW and GENTILE and emphasises that when they believe, JEW and GENTILE are now one in Christ.
These and other verses prove that the term Jew did come to be used to describe members of all the tribes of Israel.



If you claim that the indo-Europeans are all Israelites, then do you claim that Iranis, Russians, Germans, Indians, Greeks, Italians, Brits, Scandanavians, French, Spaniards etc. are all Israelite?




Finally, lets go to the funny method of saying that two place names sound alike hence they are alike.

what about such names in England as Birmingham? Are the English then descended from Ham?

Are africans descended from Dan too? Dan-ikil is a tribe in northeast Africa. So Dan marked the Africans Danikil as well as Danes? Then Din-ka—actually Dan-ka—belongs to the Nile section; and Don-gola—Dan-gola?—is also in Egypt.


Similarly, since we're going about similar sounding names, would you say that JAPan is part of JAPeth? Or, Manasseh became Manchuria?


Finally, language

The ancient British language as well as Old English, Anglo-Saxon, etc. were all Indo-European. English is descended from French-Norman, Scandanavian, German and Latin


We are Abraham's seed. We are Israelites., do you mean everyone? African-Americans? Japanese-Americans too?

[Cronos]

Well if you go to Ezk 4:4 you will see that Yah told Ezekiel to lay on his left side 390 days, a day for a year for each year Yah was going to punish the House of Israel. Then he told Ezkiel to lay 40 days on his right side as the years He would punish the House of Judah. See, 2 different nations, 2 different peoples, 2 different judgements. Jacob was told his decendents would become a nation and a company of nations. NOT JUST ONE JEWISH NATION !!!

Anyhow the 390 years of punishment (dispersion) were multiplied by 7 according to Lev. 28 that if punishment is applied but there is no repentance then the punishment would be multiplied seven times. 390 years X 7 = 2730 years. The House of Israel's punishment began in 721 BC when they were carried off by the Assyrians. Do the math.

How can you take EZEKIAL'S punishment of 390 days and somehow make it
1. Israel's punishment
2. arbitrarily change 390 days to 390 years

[Diego1618]

The scriptures only mention a number in thousands leaving Israel.

Chapter and verse....please?

The Assyrian Empire didn't "implode" - it was taken over by another, related Semitic people: the Babylonians.

History of Assyria

From the link: "The First Dark Age" The Assyrian empire collapsed in 612 B.C. The Assyrian people survived the loss of their state, and they remained mostly inconspicuous for the next 600 years. The Persians mention employing Assyrians as troops, and there is the failed attempt at reestablishing an Assyrian Kingdom in 350 B.C.; the Persians squelched this attempt and castrated 400 Assyrian leaders as punishment.

When this happened the descendants of the Israelite captives begin to migrate. There was no one there to contain them. The Medes and the Babylonians divided up the empire and were evidently unconcerned about these folks. I'm sure that some Israelites were comfortable in remaining where they were. Because of Prophecy....I know others were not.... and left. To say that the Israelites, 125 years into their exile did not recall their identity is silly. They were in Egypt for over 400 years and did not assimilate. Or....do you think God just forgot them.....you know....out of sight, out of mind?

Peter went evangelizing to later Jewish communities who traveled via the Persian, Alexandrian and Roman Empires (Empires that emphasized trade rather than tribute as the Assyrians did). They were Jewish (as opposed to earlier Israelite) communities.

Peter had been sent, along with the other original Apostles.....by Our Lord to the Israelites [Matthew 10:5-6] These twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles, and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: But go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel. This is one of the reasons you will never find the Apostle Peter in Rome...much to the consternation of many folks. He had been told to evangelize the Israelites....not the Gentiles. It was his special mission. Paul was selected to be the Apostle to the Gentiles....but was also given authority to evangelize the House of Judah and the House of Israel [Acts 9:15]. In fact The Lord was so adamant about Peter's ministry that He would not allow even Paul to intercede in these areas of the dispersion: [Acts 16:6-7] Now when they had gone throughout Phrygia and the region of Galatia, and were forbidden of the Holy Ghost to preach the word in Asia, After they were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the Spirit suffered them not. If you recall from one of my previous posts.....this was a location of Israelites of the dispersion: [1 Peter 1:1-2] Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia, Elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience and sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ: Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied.

Arabs are more closely related to Hebrews than Hebrews are related to any Indo-Europeans.

Arabs are descendants of Ishmael....also a son of Abraham .....as was Isaac. They indeed are Hebrew also (descended from Eber) and they are Semitic as well (descended from Shem). The only difference is their heritage on the side of their mother, Hagar, who was Egyptian.

Any northern tribes would have been majorly retained in the blood-lines of Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, etc and through inter-marriage to the Iranis, Armenians, Turks, Greeks etc. The "purest" lines would remain in the Middle East.

Balderdash!

Benjamin, Simeon were assimilated into Judah due to natural pressures for smaller similar groups to merge into larger, more powerful relatives. Ditto for Reuben merging into the similar culture of the Moabites.

Since I have already defeated this argument in post #44 I won't bother to comment further.

[Cronos]

brilliant deduction -- you take a sentence "the Assyrian Empire collapsed in 612AD" and make it "the Assyrian empire imploded" -- have you READ history? Do you know that the assyrian Empire was overthrown by the Babylonians with the help of the Medians? That's in scriptures too..

Your question re: Israelites didn't assimilate while in Egypt, so why not in Assyria? Vikings assimilated and disappeard in a similar group, the English. The Egyptians were linguistically, culturally and genetically different from the Semitic Hebrews. However, the Akkadian speaking Assyrians and Babylonians were not, hence the assimilation.

Peter had been sent, along with the other original Apostles.....by Our Lord to the Israelites
The people Peter initially preached to were the Jewish diaspora in Rome, in Alexandria, in Ephesus, etc. That's why Peter and the Apostles went to those places

Iraqis, Syrians, Lebanese, Jordanians, etc. are all genetically similar to Jews. These are the primary descendents of the Israelies who would have been taken out of Israel.

Benjamin, Simeon were assimilated into Judah due to natural pressures for smaller similar groups to merge into larger, more powerful relatives. Ditto for Reuben merging into the similar culture of the Moabites.


You do realise that you are busy spouting Victorian theories brought forth by English in the late 1600s, fully thought up in the Victorian age to justify England's role in the world.

[John Leland 1789]

ASHER. One of the northern Ten Tribes, correct?

So, they were still represented in Israel during the earthly sojourn of the Saviour. Also in Acts 2.

Not “lost.” The tribes had been scattered, but not “lost.” which is really the point of the original post.

[Cronos]

Arabs are descendants of Ishmael....also a son of Abraham .....as was Isaac. They indeed are Hebrew also (descended from Eber) and they are Semitic as well (descended from Shem). The only difference is their heritage on the side of their mother, Hagar, who was Egyptian

by this you talk about true Arabs -- from the Arabian peninsula. Arabs from what is now the Najaf (Mecca and Medina) will have Jewish blood as there were prominent Jewish tribes in those cities even up until the time of Mohammed.

People in the rest of the "Arab" world aren't truly Arab, but have been Arabicized, just like how the Afroids in Sudan are being Arabicized. The people in Egypt are mostly descended from the Copts/Ancient Egyptians, the people in Libya, Algeria, Tunisia etc. are mostly descended from the Imazighen (you'd call them Berbers) with small traces of Vandal (Germanic), Roman (Italic), Semitic (through the "Phoenicians"), Greek, Jewish blood.
The peoples of Iraq are mostly descended from the ancient Chaldeans

[Quix]

That’s a preposterous statetment, to me.

What leads you to say such a thing?