British Israelism

6:41 PM | BY ZeroDivide EDIT


An 1890 book advocating British Israelism. According to the doctrine, the Lost Ten tribes of Israel found their way to Western Europe and Britain, becoming ancestors of the British and related peoples.
British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a doctrine based on the hypothesis that people of Western European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The doctrine often includes the tenet that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David.
The central tenets of British Israelism have been refuted by evidence from modern genetic, linguistic, archaeological and philological research. The doctrine continues, however, to have a significant number of adherents.
The movement has never had a head organisation or a centralized structure. Various British Israelite organisations were set up across the British Empire and in America from the 1870s; a small number of such organisations are still active today.

History of the movement[edit]

The theory of British Israelism arose in England, from where it spread to the United States.[1] Although British-Israelists will cite various ancient manuscripts to claim an ancient origin for British Israelism, the belief appears to have gained momentum since the English Revolution of the 17th century. It increased during the "Christian Restorationism" movement of the late 19th and early 20th centuries.

Title page of Richard Brothers's book A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophesies and Times, from 1795.

Elaboration late 17th to mid 19th centuries[edit]

One of the first published accounts of the theory of an Israelite genealogy of the British was The Rights of the Kingdom by John Sadler, published in 1649.[2] But, it was only in the late 18th century, during a religious climate of Millenarianism, that British Israelism became a distinct ideology, based on the preaching and writings of two men, Richard Brothers and John Wilson.[3] Brothers was the first to expound upon his version of British Israelism, but he lacked credibility due to alleged mental illness. Having prophesied the end of the British monarchy, he was imprisoned in an asylum as criminally insane.[4][5] Wilson adopted and promoted the idea that the "European 'race', in particular the Anglo-Saxons, were descended from certainScythian tribes, and that these Scythian tribes (as many had previously stated from the Middle Ages onward) were in turn descended from the ten Lost Tribes of Israel." (Parfitt, 2003. p. 54)[6] Wilson's ideas were to be refined, and new ideas were developed, well into the second half of the 19th century. Wilson gave public lectures to spread his message but did not form any organisation or movement.
Other books from this period detailing the theory were Ezra Stiles' The United States elevated to Glory and Honor (1783), and Richard Brothers' A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times (1794). Also cited as an original work is Rev. John Wilson's Our Israelitish Origins (1840s).

Heyday late 19th and early 20th centuries[edit]

In the latter half of the 19th century, Edward Hine and Edward Wheeler Bird developed the ideas further. Hine was related to George Rawlinson, "who attacked his work mercilessly: the attendant publicity was sufficient enough to launch a full-scale controversy." (Parfitt, 2003. p. 54)[7] Hine departed England for the United States in 1884, where he promoted the idea that Americans were the lost tribe of Manasseh, whereas England was the lost tribe of Ephraim.[8]
Between 1899 and 1902, adherents of British Israelism dug up parts of the Hill of Tara in the belief that the Ark of the Covenant was buried there, doing much damage to one of Ireland's most ancient royal and archaeological sites.[9]
George Jeffreys founded the Elim Pentecostal Church in Ireland in 1915. Differences of opinion over Jeffrey's open aspousal of British Israelism and disputes on church governance led Jeffreys to withdraw from the Elim Pentecostal Church in 1939 and to form the Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship in Nottingham, which founded other churches throughout England until the 1960s, but that now only continues as a small fellowship. The presidency of Elim then passed to George Kingston, a wealthy businessman who had founded many of the Elim congregations in Essex.
In 1919 the British-Israel-World Federation was founded in London. During this time, several prominent figures patronized the organisation: Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, was Patron-in-chief in pre-World War II days. One of the most notable members was William Massey, then Prime Minister of New Zealand.
Due to the expansive nature of the British Empire, believers in British Israelism spread worldwide. It became most prevalent in the United States, England, and various Commonwealth nations. The theory was widely promoted in the United States during the 20th century.
Howard Rand promoted the theory and became National Commissioner of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America in 1928. He published The Bulletin, later renamed The Messenger of the Covenant. More recently, it has been renamed Destiny. It is issued by Destiny Publishers.[10]
The theory of British Israelism was also vigorously promoted by Herbert W. Armstrong,[11] founder and former Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God. Armstrong believed that the theory was a key to understandingbiblical prophecy: "One might ask, were not biblical prophecies closed and sealed? Indeed they were—until now! And even now they can be understood only by those who possess the master key to unlock them." (Armstrong, 1967, p. 5)[12] Armstrong believed that he was called by God to proclaim the prophecies to the Lost Tribes of Israel before the "end-times".[13] Armstrong's belief caused his separation from the Church of God Seventh Daybecause of its refusal to adopt the theory.
Armstrong created his own church, first called the "Radio Church of God" and later renamed the "Worldwide Church of God".[13] He described British Israelism as a "central plank" of his theology.[14] (See 'Armstrongism'.)
After Armstrong's death, his former church, which changed its name to Grace Communion International (GCI) in 2009, abandoned its belief in British Israelism. It offers an explanation of the doctrine's origin and its abandonment by the church at its official website.[15] Church members who disagreed with such doctrinal changes left the Worldwide Church of God/GCI to form offshoot churches. Many of these organizations, including thePhiladelphia Church of God, the Living Church of God and the United Church of God, still teach British Israelism. Armstrong promoted other genealogical history theories, such as teaching that modern-day Germany now represents ancient Assyria. He wrote in chapter 5 of his Mystery of the Ages (1985), "The Assyrians settled in central Europe, and the Germans, undoubtedly, are, in part, the descendants of the ancient Assyrians." (p. 183).
The late Professor Roger Rusk (1906–1994), brother of former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, was a prominent teacher of British Israelism. He worked for 13 years as a public school teacher. After completing his doctorate in physics, he worked for 28 years as a professor at the University of Tennessee, where he became Emeritus Professor of Physics. He was also a member of the American Physical Society and the Tennessee Academy of Science.
The organisation continues to exist, with its main headquarters located in Bishop Auckland in County Durham. It maintains local chapters throughout the British Isles. The most recently established chapter is in BIWF-USA, based in Heber Springs, Arkansas.

Christian Science and British Israelism[edit]

A well known British Israelite advocate named A. A. Beauchamp converted to Christian Science in 1924. A. A. Beauchamp was the owner and publisher of a popular British Israelite magazine called The Watchman of Israel. Beauchamp’s conversion to Christian Science was due to the complex interaction between Christian Science and British Israelism, which was initiated during Mary Baker Eddy's lifetime by a number of well known Christian Scientists. Julia Field King, an American Christian Scientist from Iowa who was a friend and student of Mrs Eddy, sailed to England under Mary Baker Eddy's orders to study British Israelism in 1896. She had already read the works of the Anglo Israelite C. A. L. Totten and was impressed by the works of Totten. Totten engaged in a genealogical exercise, attempting to prove the Davidic ancestry of the British royal family. Julia Field King put extensive research into trying to prove this; she went even further into trying to prove that Mary Baker Eddy herself was a descendant of King David. Mrs Eddy came to be a believer in British Israelism; Eddy was also attracted to this notion because she believed that it could boost the Christian Science movement in England.[16] In 1898, Mary Baker Eddy wrote a poem titled “The United States To Great Britain” In this poem, Mrs. Eddy refers to the United States and Great Britain as "Anglo-Israel," and our "brother," Great Britain, as "Judah's sceptred race".[17]
In a letter in 1902 to Julia Field titled "King of a work tracing the lineage of Queen Victoria back to King David," Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "Your work, 'The Royal House of Britain an Enduring Dynasty,' is indeed masterful: one of the most remarkable Biblical researches in that direction ever accomplished. Its data and the logic of its events sustain its authenticity, and its grandeur sparkles in the words, 'King Jesus.'" In the words of Jeremiah, quoted in the book: "David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the House of Israel." (Jer. 33:17) Mrs. Eddy states: "Christian Science ... restores the lost Israel." In many of Mary Baker Eddy's writings, she addressed the Israelites as Christian Scientists. Until her death Mary Baker Eddy continued to keep an interest in British Israelism, early members of the Christian Science Mother Church accepted the Anglo Israel message of Mrs Eddy however after Mrs Eddy’s death in 1910 The Mother Church denied anything to do with British Israelism and any Christian Scientists supporting British Israelism in The Mother Church were excommunicated. The attractions of British Israelism in the Christian Science movement still remained after Mary Baker Eddy’s death. Because The Mother Church no longer wanted to teach British Israelism, a number of offshoot Christian Science Churches and groups were set up to continue teaching British Israelism. One notable example was the British Israelite Christian Science Church called the “The Christian Science Parent Church”. It was organised by an English Christian Scientist named Annie Cecilia Bill. Annie Bill became convinced that she was the true successor of Mary Baker Eddy and in 1912 organized what became known as the Christian Science Parent Church. After World War I, she moved to the United States and in 1924 established the church in America.[18][19] As soon as Annie Bill set up The Christian Science Parent Church many Christian Scientists left The Mother Church to join it. Annie Bill believed that The Mother Church was no longer teaching Christian Science the way it should be taught. Annie Bill wrote The Universal Design of Life (1924) that acknowledged Eddy's authority. The Church was a mixture of Mary Baker Eddy’s Christian Science and Annie Bill’s teachings on British Israelism and spirituality. The Christian Science Parent Church had high respect for Mrs Eddy. Its members would read her textbook Science and Health with Keys to the Scriptures as well as Annie Bill's textbook. The members of the church believed that the English speaking peoples were the lost tribes of Israel and that they were mentioned in bible prophecy.[18]
Another Christian Scientist who was a firm believer in British Israelism was John V Dittmore he joined Annie Bill's Christian Science Parent Church, he was a well known contributor to A. A. Beauchamp's British Israel magazine called The Watchman of Israel, he communicated with A. A. Beauchamp and told her that Annie Bill's doctrines were correct, later A. A. Beauchamp joined the Christian Science Parent Church.[18]
A. A. Beauchamp’s magazine, published on behalf of British Israelism, became the magazine of the Parent Church and the central perspective adopted by Bill. The Christian Science Parent Church had a messianic view of history. Its members believed that the English speaking peoples were the lost Israel and that they were mentioned in bible prophecy as the people who would bring about spiritual perfection on earth, Annie Bill believed that the northern and western European and North American peoples were the descendants of the ten ancient tribes of Israel and that they were destined to lead the world, spiritually, to the millennial dispensation. A number of members also came to believe in pyramidology, the idea that the measurements and geometric design of the Great Pyramid in Egypt had religious and prophetic significance.[20]
The British Israelism of Beauchamp and Dittmore brought many new members into the church [many of whom were already Anglo Israelites]. Many of the contributors to The Watchman of Israel magazine became full-time Christian Scientists. In 1924 Beauchamp left the church and pursued other interests but rejoined it in the 1940s. The census of religious bodies reported that in 1926 the church had 29 congregations and 582 members in the United States. There were over 44 churches in Great Britain, Australia and Canada by 1928, by 1930 there were 88 churches and over 1200 members. In the late 1920s Annie Bill denounced Mary Baker Eddy’s writings, she wrote a new textbook called “The Science of Reality” which replaced her other textbook which acknowledged Eddy’s authority. The Christian Science Parent Church was renamed The Church of Universal Design.[18]
Annie Bill led the church until her death in 1937. After her death a new leader named Francis J Mott took over, he continued the Anglo Israel message and the work of Annie Bill and renamed the Church The Society of Life in 1937. The Church later changed its name to the Church of Integration. A. A. Beauchamp’s British Israel magazine The Watchman became The Universal Design, A Journal of Applied Metaphysics. Mott initially published his views in several books published by A. A. Beauchamp. The British branch of the church was destroyed in the chaos of World War II. In America the church survived and was briefly revived after the war. A new magazine, Integration, was issued from the church's headquarters in Washington, D.C., beginning in 1946. Eventually, however, the church, which was never numerically strong, dissolved.
At least one follower of Bill who opposed Mott's leadership, Mary Sayles Atkins, continued to write, under her pen name, Mary Sayles Moore, about Bill and during the 1950s she published several volumes with A. A. Beauchamp, who had left the Church of Integration in the 1940s. Her most important volume was Conquest of Chaos, which reviewed Bill's career and the rise of Mott.
Mary Beecher Longyear (1851–1931), the founder of the Longyear Museum was a British Israel proponent. Mrs. Longyear and her husband John were very helpful to Eddy and the early Christian Science church in providing the funds to purchase land for the church and for the Christian Science Benevolent Association in Chestnut Hill. Mrs. Longyear was a pioneer in the field of historic preservation. She searched the back roads of Massachusetts and New Hampshire to locate and purchase four houses in which Eddy once lived. She had portraits painted of Mrs. Eddy and Mrs. Eddy's early students and had reminiscences written by many of those who knew her. For over three-quarters of a century, the Longyear Museum has provided exhibits and resources about the life and achievements of Mary Baker Eddy. The Museum moved into its new building in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.[21]
The Christian Science Endtime Center founded in 1996 by Stanley C. Larkin is the only active Christian Science organisation which supports Mary Baker Eddy's Anglo Israel studies.[22]

Contemporary movement[edit]

In Britain, the theology of British Israelism has been taught by a few small Pentecostal churches including the Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship, an early offshoot of the Elim Pentecostal Church. The latter church does not hold to the British-Israel doctrine.
In London the Orange Street Congregational Church[23] teaches a form of British Israelism, and the Ensign Trust publishes The Ensign Message in its furtherance. In Australia the Christian Revival Crusade, founded by Leo Harris, once taught this theology but abandoned it. The Revival Centres International, a prominent group that separated from the Crusade, and other splinter groups, continue to teach the doctrine. The "Churches of God" in Ireland are also known for their teaching on this subject.
A variant of British Israelism formed the basis for a racialized theology and became known as Christian Identity, which has at its core the belief that non-Caucasian people have no souls and therefore cannot be saved.[24]
Brit-Am is an organization (founded ca.1993) based in Israel, which also identifies the Lost Ten Tribes with the British and related peoples. Brit-Am uses biblical and rabbinical exegesis to justify its beliefs, supplemented by secular studies.

Tenets[edit]

Biblical passages[edit]

Connecting the deported Israelites with the Saka[edit]


Jehu kneeling at the feet of Shalmaneser III on theBlack Obelisk.
The key component of British Israelism is its representation of the migrations of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Adherents believe that the Behistun Inscription connects the people known in Old Persian and Elamite as Saka, Sacae or Scythian with the people known in Babylonian as Gimirri or Cimmerian.
“It should be made clear from the start that the terms 'Cimmerian' and 'Scythian' were interchangeable: in Akkadian the name Iskuzai (Asguzai) occurs only exceptionally. Gimirrai (Gamir) was the normal designation for 'Cimmerians' as well as 'Scythians' in Akkadian.[25]”
The theory further suggests that the "Cimmerians / Scythians" are synonymous with the deported Israelites. George Rawlinson wrote:
“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.[26]”
The archeologist and British Israelite, E. Raymond Capt, claimed that there were similarities between King Jehu's pointed headdress and that of the captive Saka king seen to the far right on the Behistun Inscription.[27] He also posited that the Assyrian word for the House of Israel, Khumri, after Israel's King Omri of the 8th century B.C., is phonetically similar to Gimirri.[27] (Cimmerian)

Connecting the Saka-Scythians to the Celts.[edit]

Adherents say that Saka-Scythians (whom they believe to be the Lost Tribes of Israel) migrated north and west after Cyrus the Great conquered the city of Babylon, and were forced yet further north and west by migrating / invading Sarmatians. The Sarmatians were also called “Scythians” by the Greeks but Herodotus suggests that the former “Scythians” were called "Germain Scythians" (meaning "True Scythian") whereas the Sarmatians were simply called “Scythians.” It is suggested that the term "Germain Scythian" is synonymous with "Germanii" or, in modern times, "Germanic" or "German."
Late 19th-century Celtic language scholar John Rhys stated that
...the (Celtic) Kymry were for some time indifferently called Cambria or Cumbria, the Welsh word on which they are based being, as now written, Cymru ... and is there pronounced nearly as an Englishman would treat it if spelled Kumry or KUMRI.[28]
Rhys argued that both Celts and the Scythians came from an area south-east of the Black Sea, and migrated westward to the coast of Europe. He compared the Welsh autonym, Cymru, with the name of the Cimmerians,Kumri. He believed that the names Iberia for Spain, and Hibernia for Ireland were connected to a variation of "Hebrew" and that this was evidenced in philology.[29]
The Brit-Am Organization believes that Jewish sources concerning the Lost Ten Tribes parallel what is known concerning the early Scythians. Amongst other points, the Scythians are believed to have settled in the Land of Israel during the reign of King Josiah ben Amon of Judah, as the Lost Tribes were said to have done.

Theological claims that assert a racial lineage[edit]

As with Judaism, British Israelism asserts theologically related claims of a genetic link to the early Israelites. As such, it is based on a genealogical construct. This belief is typically confined to the geo-political status or the prophetical identity of the nation, not to the individual's superiority or salvation status with God.
Due to the diverse structure of the movement, other elements of its belief and its key doctrines may be embraced by individual adherents. British Israel theology varies from the conventionally Protestant Christian. More extreme forms include the Christian Identity Movement, which has some historic roots in British-Israelism[30] The core belief of British Israelism is that the Anglo-Saxon peoples of Britain and Northern Europe have a direct genetic connection to the Ancient Israelites mentioned in the Bible. Most British Israel movements believe that personal, individual salvation is open to all people.

Compatibility with present-day research findings[edit]

Lack of consistency with modern genetic findings[edit]

Human genetics does not support British Israelism's notion of a close lineal link between Jews and Western Europeans. Genetic research on the Y-chromosomes of Jews has found that Jews are closely related to other populations originating in the Middle East, such as Kurds, Turks, Armenians and Arabs, and concluded that:
Middle Eastern populations...are closely related and...their Y chromosome pool is distinct from that of Europeans. (Nebel, 2001.)[31]
Y-DNA Haplogroups J2 and, to a lesser extent, J1 are most commonly identified in Jewish people, which is in contrast to Western Europeans. The more distant Haplogroup R1b is the most commonly identified in Europeans.[32][33][34][35]

Research standards[edit]

Critics of British Israelism note that the arguments presented by promoters of the theory are based on unsubstantiated and highly speculative amateur research. Tudor Parfitt, author of The Lost Tribes: The History of a Myth, states that the proof cited by adherents of British Israelism is "of a feeble composition even by the low standards of the genre." (Parfitt,2003. p. 61.)[36]
Other critics cite similar problems:
“When reading Anglo-Israelite literature, one notices that it generally depends on folklore, legends, quasi-historical genealogies and dubious etymologies. None of these sources prove an Israelite origin for the peoples of northwestern Europe. Rarely, if ever, are the disciplines of archeology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics or historiography applied to Anglo-Israelism. Anglo-Israelism operates outside the sciences. Even the principles of sound biblical exegesis are seldom used, for...whole passages of Scripture that undermine the entire system are generally ignored...Why this unscientific approach? This approach must be taken because to do otherwise is to destroy Anglo-Israelism's foundation.” (Orr, 1995)[37]

Historical linguistics[edit]

Proponents of British Israelism claim numerous links in historical linguistics between ancient Hebrew and various European place names and languages.[38][39] As an example; proponents claim that “British” is derived from the Hebrew words “Berit” and “Ish”, and should therefore be understood as “Covenant Man”. These words have other roots and this interpretation of the Hebrew is incorrect.[40] Another example is Rhys' assertion of equivalence between Cymry and Cimmerian, which is at odds with the generally accepted derivation of Cymry from an earlier Celtic form *kom-broges, meaning "people of the same country"; only the modern form of the word looks similar.[41][42] Yet another example is the alleged connection between the 'Tuatha Dé Danann' and the Tribe of Dan. Secular sources indicate that the true root of this phrase is the 'People of the Goddess Danu'.[43] Other links are claimed, but cannot be substantiated and contradict the findings of academic linguistic research. This shows conclusively that English belongs to the Indo-European language family and is unrelated to Hebrew, which is aSemitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. “No trace of the slightest real connection can be discovered” between English and ancient Hebrew. (Greer, 2004. p74.)[44][45]

Scriptural interpretation[edit]

Adherents of British Israelism cite various scriptures in support of the argument that the Northern Israelite Tribes were lost. Critics argue that British Israelists misunderstand and misinterpret the meaning of these scriptures.[37][46][47]
  • One such case is the distinction that British Israelists make between the “Jews” of the Southern Kingdom and the “Israelites” of the Northern Kingdom. They believe that the Bible consistently distinguishes between the two groups. Critics counter that many of these scriptures are misinterpreted because the distinction between “Jews” and “Israelites” was lost over time after the captivities.[46][48] They give examples such as the Apostle Paul, who is referred to as both a Jew (Acts 21:39) and an Israelite (2 Corinthians 11:22) and who addressed the Hebrews as both “Men of Judea” and “Fellow Israelites”. (Acts 2:14,22.) (Greer, 2004. p22)[46] Many more examples are cited by critics.
  • British Israelists believe that the Northern Tribes of Israel were “lost” after the captivity in Assyria and that this is reflected in the Bible. Critics disagree with this assertion and argue that only higher ranking Israelites were deported from Israel and many Israelites remained.(Dimont, 1933. p5)[47][48] They cite examples after the Assyrian captivity, such as Josiah, King of Judah, who received money from the tribes of “Manasseh, and Ephraim and all the remnant of Israel”, (2 Chronicles 34:9) and Hezekiah, who sent invitations not only to Judah, but also to northern Israel for the attendance of a Passover in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30) (Dimont, 1933.)[47] (Note that British Israelites interpret 2 Chronicles 34:9 as referring to "Scythians" in order to fit with their theory.)
  • British Israelism states that the Bible refers to the Lost Tribes of Israel as dwelling in “isles”, (Isaiah 49:1,3) which they interpret to mean the British Isles. Critics assert that the word “isles” used in English-language bibles should more accurately be interpreted to mean “coasts” or “distant lands” “without any implication of their being surrounded by the sea.” (The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901. Vol.1, page 600.) For example, some English translations refer to Tyre as an ‘isle’, whereas a more accurate description is that of a ‘coastal town.’ (Greer, 2004. p25)[46]
  • Another is the issue of identity of the Samaritans (an ethno-religious group of the Levant), mentioned in the Gospels, who believe their descent is from a group of Israelite inhabitants who have connections to ancientSamaria from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the time of Christ.

Historical speculation[edit]

British Israelism rests on linking different ancient populations. This includes links between the "lost" tribes of Israel, the Scythians, Cimmerians, Celts, and modern Western Europeans such as the British. To support these links, adherents claim that similarities exist between various cultural aspects of these population groups, and they argue that these links demonstrate the migration of the "lost" Israelites in a westerly direction. Examples given includeburial customs, metalwork, clothing, dietary customs, and more.[49] Critics argue that the customs of the Scythians and the Cimmerians are in contrast with those of the Ancient Israelites.[47][50] Further, the so-called similarities and theories proposed by adherents are contradicted by the weight of evidence and research on the history of ancient populations. It does not provide support for the purported links.[51]

Ideology[edit]

Parfitt suggests that the idea of British Israelism was inspired by numerous ideological factors, such as the desire for ordinary people to have a glorious ancestral past, pride in the British Empire, and the belief in the "racial superiority of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants".[38]

Notable adherents[edit]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up^ Parfitt, T: The Lost Tribes of Israel: The history of a myth., page 52-65. Phoenix, 2003.
  2. Jump up^ Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. Phoenix. p. 42.
  3. Jump up^ Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. Phoenix. pp. 53–57.
  4. Jump up^ Banner of Israel (5 April 1899).
  5. Jump up^ Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. Phoenix. p. 53.
  6. Jump up^ Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. Phoenix. p. 54.
  7. Jump up^ Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. Phoenix. p. 55.
  8. Jump up^ Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. Phoenix. p. 56.
  9. Jump up^ [1]
  10. Jump up^ Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. p. 57.
  11. Jump up^ Parfitt, T: "The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth.", p. 57. Phoenix, 2003.
  12. Jump up^ Armstrong, Herbert (1967). The United States and Britain in Prophecy. p. 5.
  13. ^ Jump up to:a b [2] Orr, R: "How Anglo-Israelism Entered Seventh-day Churches of God: A history of the doctrine from John Wilson to Joseph W.Tkach."
  14. Jump up^ Tkach, Joseph. "Transformed by Truth: The Worldwide Church of God Rejects the Teachings of Founder Herbert W.Armstrong and Embraces Historic Christianity. This is the Inside Story.". pp. Chapter 10. Retrieved 2009-01-04.
  15. Jump up^ "How Anglo-Israelism Entered Seventh-day Churches of God", 1999, Accessed July 19, 2007.
  16. Jump up^ Religion and the racist right: the origins of the Christian Identity movement By Michael Barkun Page 26 - 28
  17. ^ Jump up to:a b Mary Baker Eddy's poem addressing the United States and Great Britain as Anglo Israel http://www.readbookonline.net/readOnLine/49020/
  18. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Religion and the racist right: the origins of the Christian Identity movement By Michael Barkun Page 26 – 28
  19. Jump up^ When prophets die: the postcharismatic fate of new religious movements By Timothy Miller Page 118 - 122
  20. Jump up^ When prophets die: the postcharismatic fate of new religious movements By Timothy Miller Page 118 - 122
  21. Jump up^ http://www.longyear.org/about/the_longyear_story
  22. Jump up^ http://www.endtime.org/standard/vol1no1.html
  23. Jump up^ Orange Street Congregational Church, retrieved 19 May 2007
  24. Jump up^ Quarles, Chester L. (2004). Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion. McFarland & Company. p. 68. ISBN 978-0786418923.
  25. Jump up^ Maurits Nanning Van Loon. Urartian Art. Its Distinctive Traits in the Light of New Excavations, Istanbul, 1966. p. 16
  26. Jump up^ George Rawlinson, noted in his translation of History of Herodotus, Book VII, p. 378
  27. ^ Jump up to:a b E. Raymond Capt, Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets, Artisan Pub, 1985 ISBN 0-934666-15-6
  28. Jump up^ Sir John Rhys, Early Celtic Britain, p. 142
  29. Jump up^ Early Celtic Britain, pp. 150 & 162–3
  30. Jump up^ Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. Phoenix. p. 63.
  31. Jump up^ [3] Nebel, A. et al.: "The Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East" p.1106
  32. Jump up^ [4] Shen, P. et al.: "Reconstruction of Patrilineages and Matrilineages of Samaritans and Other Israeli Populations From Y-Chromosome and Mitochondrial DNA Sequence Variation"
  33. Jump up^ [5] Nebel, A. et al.: "The Y Chromosome Pool of Jews as Part of the Genetic Landscape of the Middle East"
  34. Jump up^ [6] Hammer, M. et al.: "Jewish and Middle Eastern non-Jewish populations share a common pool of Y-chromosome biallelic haplotypes."
  35. Jump up^ Wade, Nicholas (May 9, 2000). "Y Chromosome Bears Witness to Story of the Jewish Diaspora". The New York Times. Retrieved 2010-04-27.
  36. Jump up^ Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. Phoenix. p. 61.
  37. ^ Jump up to:a b Orr, Ralph. "The United States and Britain in Prophecy: An Analysis of the Biblical Evidence". Retrieved 2009-01-13.
  38. ^ Jump up to:a b Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth. Phoenix. p. 62.
  39. Jump up^ "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy". Retrieved 2009-01-14.
  40. Jump up^ Greer, Nick (2004). The British-Israel Myth. pp. 83–84.
  41. Jump up^ Davies, John A History of Wales Penguin (1990) ISBN 0-14-014581-8
  42. Jump up^ Morris-Jones, John A Welsh Grammar – Historical and Comparative(1913)
  43. Jump up^ Greer, Nick (2004). The British-Israel Myth. p. 50.
  44. Jump up^ Lounsbury, T (1906). History of the English Language. pp. 1, 12–13.
  45. Jump up^ Greer, Nick (2004). The British-Israel Myth. p. 74.
  46. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Greer, Nick (2004). The British-Israel Myth. p. 22.
  47. ^ Jump up to:a b c d Dimont, C (1933). The Legend of British-Israel.
  48. ^ Jump up to:a b Baron, David. "The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes: Anglo-Israelism Examined". pp. Part 2. Retrieved 2009-01-14.
  49. Jump up^ "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy". Retrieved 2009-01-14.
  50. Jump up^ (Greer, 2004. p57-60)Greer, Nick (2004). The British-Israel Myth. p. 55.
  51. Jump up^ (Greer, 2004. p57-60)Greer, Nick (2004). The British-Israel Myth. p. 62.
  52. Jump up^ http://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/may/26/northern-ireland-ulster-museum-creationism


In Anglo-Israelism and some currents of U.S. Christian fundamentalism, the idea has been advanced that modern Germans are partly descended from the ancient Assyrians, or, more metaphorically draw parallels between themilitarism of the Nazi Germany and the Assyrian one. Proposed German-Assyrian connections are not current among mainstream historians, anthropologists, archaeologists or historical linguists.

British Israelism[edit]

The idea can be traced to Edward Hine, an early proponent of British Israelism, deriving the Anglo-Saxons from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.[1][2] John Wilson, the intellectual founder of British Israelism, had considered that not only the people of Great Britain, but all the Germanic peoples were descended from the Ten Lost Tribes. Hine took a more particularist view, deciding that only the British nation fulfilled the prophecy for Israel — he acknowledged an ethnic affiliation between Britons and Germans, but thought this reflected what he considered was a close relationship between the ancient Israelites and their neighbors the Assyrians (who had taken the Ten Lost Tribes into captivity in Assyria). Likewise, Britain and Germany's status as two great powers of the modern age he considered reflective of the ancient glories of the Kingdom of Israel and of Assyria. So there were two original competing views as to the relationship between the Germans and British-Israel; either the British people, alone, were identified with the Tribes of Israel (Edward Hine) or they included the Germans (John Wilson) and other European peoples (including the Dutch and Scandinavians).[3] Hine maintained that only the Ten Tribes of Israel were included within the British race and excluded the Continental Teutonic or German peoples, who he instead believed descended from Assyrians not Israelites.[4] Hine believed all the tribes of Israel settled in Britain only, with Manasseh who became the Americans (who mostly descended from British stock). Hine had identified the Ten Tribes as being together in Britain in that Ephraim were the drunkards and ritualists, Reuben the farmers, Dan the mariners, Zebulan the lawyers and writers, Asher the soldiers etc., or that these tribes were regional or local people in Britain.[5] Hine's particularist view was received with some hostility by other British Israelites, who maintained that other Europeans descended from the lost tribes of Israel, not solely Britain.[6]
Hine believed that all of the ancient peoples mentioned in the Bible must also be present in the modern world, in order for the prophecies concerning them to be fulfilled. If a people was "lost" to the ages, it meant simply that the people must have migrated to a new region, changed their ethnonym, and forgotten their history. Hine considered the Assyrians as such a "lost" people (unlike for example, the Egyptians), and he made no mention in his writings of the modern Assyrian community in the Middle East — a community that was largely unknown to Europe in his time. Although Assyria is portrayed as one of the great enemies of Israel in the Bible, Hine took pains to explain that he did not consider Germany to be an enemy of Britain, and his writings do not betray any anti-German feelings. In his Forty Seven Identifications, he did admit ‘The Germans are not our enemies, and there is evidence to show that they could not become our enemies’.[7] Later writers in his tradition, however, have often set Germany in the Biblical role of Assyria as an enemy to Britain.
British Israelism often compares the militarism of the German Empire with that of the Neo-Assyrian Empire as narrated in the Bible, by analogy establishing Britain, as the threatened party, with the Kingdom of Israel. After World War II, the comparison was also extended to the brutality towards the Jewish population.[8]

Precedents and early sources[edit]

The Assyria-Germany connection has an early precedent in Jerome, who compared the Germanic invaders of his day to the threats to the Kingdom of Israel described in the Bible, quoting Psalms 83:8, "Assur also is joined with them":[9]
The whole country between the Alps and the Pyrenees, between the Rhine and the Ocean, has been laid waste by hordes of Quadi, Vandals, Sarmatians, Alans, Gepids, Herules, Saxons, Burgundians, Allemanni and—alas! for the commonweal!—even Pannonians. For "Assur also is joined with them."
The idea has also some backing in German legend, for example the Gesta Treverorum (a 12th-century German medieval chronicle) makes Trebeta son of Ninus the founder of Trier.[10] This legend of Trebeta as having founded Trier is also found in Godfrey of Viterbo's Pantheon (1185) and several other German chronicles of the 12th or 13th century, including the works of Sigebert of Gembloux.[11] The legend is also found cited in compendiums of historical sources from later periods, for example Gottfried Leibniz's Scriptures rerum Brunsvicensium (1710) and the Anthologia veterum latinorum epigrammatum et poematum (1835).[12]
Also of medieval date is the inscription at the facade of the Red House of Trier market,
ANTE ROMAM TREVIRIS STETIT ANNIS MILLE TRECENTIS.
PERSTET ET ÆTERNA PACE FRVATVR. AMEN.
("1,300 years before Rome, Trier stood / may it stand on and enjoy eternal peace, amen.") being mentioned in the Codex Udalrici of 1125. A 1559 painting of Trebeta as the founder of Trier was destroyed in a 1944 bombing raid.[2] Leonardy (1877)[13] provides an epitaph dedicated to Trebeta by his son Hero in German hexameters.

Revision of Assyrian extent of territory[edit]

Adherents of the Assyria-Germany connection often revise the extent of land the Assyrians controlled (see Neo-Assyrian Empire). British Israelites for example who equate Assyria to Germany claim that the Neo-Assyrian Empire extended to the Black Sea region and further north.[14] Mainstream historians, by contrast, believe land controlled by the Assyrians during the Neo-Assyrian Empire did not stretch that far, but only reached into southern, south western and north eastern Anatolia, bordering Armenia. There is no historical evidence that the Assyrians crossed the Caucasus into Europe in Assyrian records of the time, and the furthest extent of their conquests would have been the southern borders of the Caucasus and the south eastern edge of the Black sea.[15] However, the Persian Achaemenid Empire which took control over the Assyrians and Babylonians in the 6th century BC did extend its territory to the Black Sea and north-west into Thrace. British Israelites, however, maintain that this extended territory already existed before the Persians, often quoting as evidence the Periplus of Pseudo-Scylax, which lists Assyria as having already extended to the Black Sea region.[16] British Israelites also cite Pliny the Elder, who mentioned a tribe dwelling around the north-western regions of the Black Sea (Romania or Ukraine) in the 1st century AD called the Assyriani, who they believe were Assyrians.[17]
Taking the legends of Trebeta as having founded Trier in Germany in 2053 BC (1300 years before the establishment of Rome in 753 BC) as literal fact, and revising the extent of the Neo-Assyrian Empire into south-western parts of Europe, British Israelites believe that the ancient Assyrians had a vast territory.[18] To further corroborate this belief, British Israelites often quote from the Austrian Chronicle of 95 Seigneurs (see below).

Jews deported by Assyrians to Germany[edit]

British Israelites who adhere to the Assyria-German identification believe that a small portion of Jews were deported to Germany by the Assyrians.[19] They cite II Kings 18: 13 which notes that the Assyrian king Sennacheribsacked several cities of Judah and captured several Jewish inhabitants. This deportation has been verified by archeology, since an ancient Assyrian prism records Sennacherib deported a population of Judah (see Taylor and Sennacherib Prisms). This population of Judah was deported (with the House of Israel) to the Medes but British Israelites believe that the Jews and Israelites who were deported by the Assyrians to the Medes, did not stay there, but migrated over time into parts of Europe.[20]
The 14th-century Austrian Chronicle of 95 Seigneurs is usually cited by British Israelites, as it purports to trace an early Jewish settlement in Germany or Austria. The Chronicle connects the Dukes of Austria with the Jews rather than the Assyrians but states that Central Europe became to accept the Jewish faith or Jewish customs from 708-704 BC. British Israelites provide an answer for this: they believe since the Assyrians had long controlled parts of Europe (especially Germany) that the Germans or Austrians became to accept Jewish customs and faith in the 8th century BC because Sennacherib (who captured several cities in Judah) had deported its Jewish inhabitants into Eastern Europe along the Danube River, eventually reaching Austria and Germany.[21] The Chronicle lists 'Jewish Kings' who began from 708-704 BC during which a duke called Gennan converted to Judaism. Consequently, this Jewish population intermarried with the local rulers in the regions of Austria and Hungary, the pagans were subdued and the whole country was Jewish until c. 227 CE.[22]
Often cited to support these theories, is the legend of Judaesaptan.[23] According to the Jewish Virtual Library, this was a legendary Jewish kingdom, which several thousands of years ago sat in Austria or central Europe; it first appeared in writing in Gottfried Hagen's chronicle Reimchronik (1270).[24]
Wolfgang Lazius in the 16th century attempted to find the remains of the kingdom but was unsuccessful.[25]

Anglo-Saxons not Germanic[edit]

British Israelites who are proponents of Hine's German-Assyria connection do not believe that the Anglo-Saxons were Germanic, but instead of Scythian heritage, who ultimately descended from the ancient Israelites.[26] Hine pointed out that the Anglo-Saxons only spoke a Germanic language, and that the term 'German' was an exonym and that the Saxons were distinct to the other continental Germanic tribes.[27][28] Hine believed that the Anglo-Saxons were only in Germany for a short time as part of their migration to the appointed 'Islands' (which he identified as Britain) as their final resting place, as told where the Israelites would be resettled in Isaiah 24: 15; 42: 4; 49: 1; 51: 5 and Jeremiah 31: 10.[29][30]
British Israelites often quote from Sharon Turner, William Camden and John Milton who all earlier connected the Anglo-Saxons to the Scythians.[31][32]

Worldwide Church of God[edit]

Further information: Worldwide Church of God, Armstrongism, and Ambassador College
Herbert W. Armstrong in Chapter 5 of his Mystery of Ages (1985), "The Assyrians settled in central Europe, and the Germans, undoubtedly, are, in part, the descendents of the ancient Assyrians." (p. 183). In this, Armstrong draws upon the opinions of Herman L. Hoeh, published in his 1963 Compendium of World History.[33]
Such suggestions are informed by Jerome's simile with Psalms 83:8.[34]
Hoeh (1963) draws on Verstegan (1605) and Johannes Turmair (1526) to conclude that Deutsch really derives from Tuisto whom he in turn identifies with Shem:
Tuitsch or Tuisto: Chief of thirty-two dukes. Noah gave him all the land between the Don River and the Rhine or what was called Grossgermania. This is the beginning of the 'neolithic' settlement of Europe. Tuitsch is, according to all ancient German commentaries and chronicles, a son of Noah. But which son? Noah adopted Tuitsch's children as his own. The ancient Germans understood the name Tuitsch to be the title 'Teacher.' He was therefore the great patriarch of his family who taught the divine will to his children. Tuitsch is the father of Mannus (who is the Assyrian Ninus). The son of Mannus, Trebeta, is the same man who is called the son of Ninus in classical writers. The son of Mannus or Ninus — Trebeta — built Trier, the first town of Germany. Since the Bible calls this Ninus (who built Nineveh), Asshur, Tuitsch is therefore Shem! (Hoeh 1963 vol. 2 ch. 2)

Controversy[edit]

As with Anglo-Israelism itself, proposed German-Assyrian connections enjoy no empirical support and are not current among mainstream historians, anthropologists, archaeologists or historical linguists.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up^ Edward Hine. "The British Nation Identified with Lost Israel". "The last account we have of Israel was when they were in the land of Assyria; but they were not alone there, the Assyrian people were with them, who were purely Gentiles. Now both Israel and this Gentile people are lost, and yet both have to be found"
  2. Jump up^ Mattias Gardell (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Duke University Press. pp. 371f. ISBN 0-8223-3071-7.
  3. Jump up^ The Standard of Israel, 1876, Vol II, p. 100.
  4. Jump up^ Life From The Dead, 1874, Vol. I, pp. 327-328
  5. Jump up^ Edward Hine, The English Nation Identified with the Lost House of Israel by Twenty-Seven Identifications, (Manchester: Heywood, 1870), p. v.
  6. Jump up^ The Standard of Israel, 1876, Vol.II, p. 101.
  7. Jump up^ Banner of Israel, 1917, p. 296
  8. Jump up^ Julia M. O'Brien, Nahum and Atrocity, Continuum International Publishing Group (2002), ISBN 1-84127-300-7, p. 115, quoting Craigie (1958).
  9. Jump up^ Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, letter 123, section 16
  10. Jump up^ http://www.medievalcoinage.com/gallery/germany-trier.htm
  11. Jump up^ Hammer, William, The Concept of the New or Second Rome in the Middle Ages, Speculum, Vol. 19, No. 1 (Jan., 1944)
  12. Jump up^ Hammer, p. 58
  13. Jump up^ Johann Leonardy, Geschichte des Trierischen Landes und Volkes, 2nd ed. 1877, p 21.
  14. Jump up^ http://www.earth-history.com/Various/Compendium/hhc2ch01.htm
  15. Jump up^ World History, Volume 1, William J. Duiker, Cengage Learning, 2009, p. 31
  16. Jump up^ http://www.earth-history.com/Various/Compendium/hhc2ch01.htm
  17. Jump up^ http://www.earth-history.com/Various/Compendium/hhc2toc.htm
  18. Jump up^ http://www.earth-history.com/Various/Compendium/hhc2ch03.htm
  19. Jump up^ http://www.earth-history.com/Various/Compendium/hhc2ch04.htm
  20. Jump up^ http://www.animalfarm.org/lostisrael/index.shtml
  21. Jump up^ http://www.earth-history.com/Various/Compendium/hhc2ch04.htm
  22. Jump up^ Yair Davidiy, "Lost Israelite Identity" (1996)
  23. Jump up^ http://britam.org/now/now21.html
  24. Jump up^ http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0011_0_10396.html
  25. Jump up^ H. Gold, Geschichte der Juden in Wien (1966).
  26. Jump up^ Hine, Forty-seven Identifications, (1878), pp. 16-29.
  27. Jump up^ Hine, pp. 20-22.
  28. Jump up^ The term German, is an exonym of Deutsch and Deutschland (Germany).
  29. Jump up^ Hine, pp. 20
  30. Jump up^ The first-mentioned "Germans" were actually a Celtic tribe, which had formerly lived east of the Rhine River. The Encyclopædia Britannica says: "Of the Gaulish [Celtic] tribes west of the Rhine... the Treveri claimed to be of German origin, and the same claim was made by a number of tribes in Belgium.... The meaning of this claim is not quite clear, as there is some obscurity concerning the origin of the name Germani. It appears to be a Gaulish term, and there is no evidence that it was ever used by the Germans themselves. According to Tacitus it was first applied to the Tungri, whereas Caesar records that four Belgic tribes... were collectively known as Germani.
  31. Jump up^ According to historian William Camden, the Saxons and the Getae (Goths) were related Scythian peoples. He writes, "But that [opinion] of the most learned German seems most probable and worthy to be embraced, which makes the Saxons descend from the Sacae, the most considerable people of Asia, and to be so called quasi Sacasones, or Sons of the Sacae, and to have gradually overspread Europe from Scythia or Sarmatia Asiatica, with the Getae, Suevi, Daci, and others. Nor is their opinion ill-founded, which brings the Saxons out of Asia" (Encyclopædia Britannica, vol. 1, p. 151).
  32. Jump up^ The famous English poet and historian, John Milton--author of the classic work, Paradise Lost--wrote, "They [the Saxons] were a people thought by good writers to be descendants of the Sacae, a kind of Scythians in the north of Asia, who with a flood of other northern nations came into Europe, toward the declining of the Roman Empire [c. 400s A.D.]" (History of England, 1835, bk. 3, pp. 406-407).
  33. Jump up^ vol. 2, ch. 1: "If the Germans admitted to themselves and the world who they really are, all the world would recognize in Imperial Germany the reconstituted Assyrian Empire — once the terror of all the civilized world!" [1]
  34. Jump up^ Hoeh, "Germany in Prophecy!" (1962). Also in Hoeh (1963) vol.2 ch.1.: "Jerome, who lived at the time when the Indo-Germanic tribes were invading Europe, provides this startling answer ... Yes! Jerome said so! But how did he know? He saw them! He was an eyewitness to their migrations from Mesopotamia and the shores of the Black and Caspian seas!"

External links[edit]

British Israelism
US Christian fundamentalism
Herbert W. Armstrong Invented the Prophecy of an Assyrian Beast Power.


Christian Zionism is a belief among some Christians that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land, and the establishment of the State of Israel in 1948, is in accordance with Biblicalprophecy. The term Christian Zionism was popularized in the mid-twentieth century, following the coining of the term "Zionism" in 1890. Prior to that time the common term wasRestorationism.[1][2]
Traditional Catholic thought did not consider Zionism in any form;[3] Christian advocacy of the restoration of the Jews arose following the Protestant Reformation.
Some Christian Zionists believe that the "ingathering" of Jews in Israel is a prerequisite for the Second Coming of Jesus. This belief is primarily, though not exclusively, associated with Christian Dispensationalism. The idea that Christians should actively support a Jewish return to the Land of Israel, along with the parallel idea that the Jews ought to be encouraged to become Christian, as a means fulfilling a Biblical prophecy has been common in Protestant circles since the Reformation.[4][5][6] Many Christian Zionists believe that the people of Israel remain part of the chosen people of God, along with the "ingrafted" Gentile Christians[Romans 11:17-24] (dual-covenant theology).

History prior to the First Zionist Conference[edit]

Protestant Reformation[edit]

See also: End times and Dispensationalism
Traditional Catholic thought did not consider Zionism in any form;[7] christian advocacy of the restoration of the Jews arose following the protestant reformation, particularly in the English-speaking world among the Puritans.
Christian support for the restoration of the Jews was brought to America by the Puritans who fled England. In colonial times, Increase Mather and John Cotton,among others, favored restoration of the Jews, but it was not until the early 19th century that the idea gathered impetus.
Ezra Stiles at Yale was a prominent supporter of restoration of the Jews. In 1808, Asa McFarland, a Presbyterian, voiced the opinion of many that the fall of the Ottoman Empire was imminent and would bring about the restoration of the Jews. One David Austin of New Haven spent his fortune building docks and inns from which the Jews could embark to the Holy Land. In 1825 Mordecai Manuel Noah, a Jew who wanted to found a national home for the Jews on Grand Island in New York as a way station on the way to the holy land, won widespread Christian backing for his project. Likewise, restorationist theology was among the inspirations for the first American missionary activity in the Middle East.[citation needed]
Many Christians believed that the return of the Jews to Judea, as prophesied in the Bible, was a necessary preliminary step towards the Second Coming, an attitude now known as Christian Zionism. In this particular interpretation, after the Jews returned they would both accept Jesus as their savior and rebuild the Temple, which would usher in the Second Coming of Christ.[8]

Dispensationalism[edit]

As the demise of the Ottoman Empire appeared to be approaching, the advocacy of restorationism increased. At the same time, the visit of John Nelson Darby, the founder of dispensationalism, to the United States, catalyzed a dispensationalist movement and an evangelical revival. This was expressed at the Niagara Bible Conference in 1878, which issued a 14 point proclamation, including the following text:
...that the Lord Jesus will come in person to introduce the millennial age, when Israel shall be restored to their own land, and the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the Lord; and that this personal and premillennial advent is the blessed hope set before us in the Gospel for which we should be constantly looking. (Luke 12:35-40; 17:26-30; 18:8 Acts 15:14-17; 2 Thess. 2:3-8; 2 Tim. 3:1-5; Titus 1:11-15)
The dispensationalist theology of John Nelson Darby which motivates one stream of American Christian Zionism is often claimed to be the foundation of American Christian Zionism. He first distinguished the hopes of the Jews and that of the church and gentiles in his ground-breaking series of 11 evening lectures in Geneva in 1840. His lectures were immediately published in French (L'Attente Actuelle de l'Eglise), English (1841), German and Dutch (1847) and so his teachings began their global journey. While there is no doubt that it had a great influence through the Scofield Bible, Christian support of the restoration of the Jews preceded the publication of the Scofield Reference Bible (first published by OUP, 1917) for nearly a century, and many prominent Christian Zionists and Christian Zionist organizations such as the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem do not subscribe todispensationalism.
In the United States, dispensationalist Christian Zionism was popularized by the evangelical Cyrus Scofield (1843–1921), who promoted the doctrine that Jesus could not return to reign on Earth until certain events occurred. In the interim, prior to these last days events, Scofield's system taught that the Christian church was primarily for the salvation of the Gentiles, and that according to God's plan the Jewish people are under a different dispensation of God's grace, which has been put out of gear so to speak, until the last days (the common name of this view is, dispensationalism), when the Christian Church will be removed from the earth by a miracle (called the Rapture).
Scofield writing in the 1900s said that, in those last days, the Bible predicts the return of the Jews to the Holy Land and particularly to Jerusalem. Scofield further predicted that, Islamic holy places would be destroyed, and theTemple in Jerusalem would be rebuilt - signalling the very end of the Church Age when the Antichrist would arise, and all who seek to keep the covenant with God will acknowledge Jesus as their Messiah in defiance of the Antichrist.
Charles Taze Russell was another early Christian advocate of Zionism - but with an altogether different prophetic programme to orthodox Trinitarian dispensationalists.

Secular motivations[edit]

The crumbling of the Ottoman Empire threatened the British route to India via Suez as well as sundry French, German and American economic interests. The idea of a Jewish state east of Suez therefore held some appeal.
In 1831 the Ottomans were driven from Greater Syria (including Palestine) by an expansionist Egypt, in the First Turko-Egyptian War. Although Britain forced Muhammad Ali to withdraw to Egypt, the Levant was left for a brief time without a government. The ongoing weakness of the Ottoman Empire made some in the west consider the potential of a Jewish State in the Holy Land. A number of important figures within the British government advocated such a plan.[9][10] Again during the lead-up to the Crimean War (1854), there was an opportunity for political rearrangements in the Near East. In July 1853, Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury, who was President of the London Society for Promoting Christianity Amongst the Jews, wrote to Prime Minister Aberdeen urging Jewish restoration as a means of stabilizing the region.[11][12]
Late nineteenth century, non-Messianic Restorationism was largely driven by concern over the fate of the Jews of the Russian Empire, beset by poverty and by deadly, government-inspired pogroms. It was widely accepted that western nations did not wish to receive Jewish immigrants. Restorationism was a way for charitable individuals to assist oppressed Jews without actually accepting them as neighbors and fellow-citizens.[13][14][15] In this, Restorationism was not unlike the efforts of the American Colonization Society to send blacks to Liberia and the efforts of British abolitionists to create Sierra Leone. Winston Churchill endorsed Restoration because he recognized that Jews fleeing Russian pogroms required a refuge, and preferred Palestine for sentimental reasons.[16]

Early Religious views in Protestant America[edit]

In 1818, President John Adams wrote, "I really wish the Jews again in Judea an independent nation", and believed that they would gradually become Unitarian Christians.[17]
In 1844, George Bush, a professor of Hebrew at New York University and the cousin of an ancestor of the Presidents Bush, published a book titled The Valley of Vision; or, The Dry Bones of Israel Revived. In it he denounced “the thralldom and oppression which has so long ground them (the Jews) to the dust,” and called for “elevating” the Jews “to a rank of honorable repute among the nations of the earth” by allowing restoring the Jews to the land of Israel where the bulk would be converted to Christianity.[18] This, according to Bush, would benefit not only the Jews, but all of mankind, forming a “link of communication” between humanity and God. “It will blaze in notoriety...". “It will flash a splendid demonstration upon all kindreds and tongues of the truth.”[4]
Herman Melville expressed the idea in a poem, Clarel; A Poem and Pilgrimage in the Holy Land
"...the Hebrew seers announce in time
the return of Judah to her prime;
Some Christians deemed it then at hand
Here was an object. Up and On.
With seed and tillage help renew -
Help reinstate the Holy Land...
The tycoon William Eugene Blackstone was inspired by the conference to publish the book Jesus is Coming, which took up the restorationist cause, and also absolved the Jews of the need to convert to Christianity either before or after the return of the Messiah. His book was translated and published in Yiddish. On November 24–25, 1890, Blackstone organized the Conference on the Past, Present and Future of Israel at the First Methodist Episcopal Church in Chicago where participants included leaders of many Christian communities. Resolutions of sympathy for the oppressed Jews living in Russia were passed, but Blackstone was convinced that such resolutions - even though passed by prominent men - were insufficient. He advocated strongly for the resettlement of Jewish people in Palestine. In 1891 he lobbied President Benjamin Harrison for the restoration of the Jews, in a petition signed by over 400 prominent Americans, that became known as the Blackstone Memorial. It read, in part: “Why shall not the powers which under the treaty of Berlin, in 1878, gave Bulgaria to the Bulgarians and Servia to the Servians now give Palestine back to the Jews?…These provinces, as well as Romania, Montenegro, and Greece, were wrested from the Turks and given to their natural owners. Does not Palestine as rightfully belong to the Jews?”[19]

Views in the British Empire[edit]

Main article: Zionism#British influence
Main article: Christian Zionism in the United Kingdom
Ideas favoring the restoration of the Jews in the Palestine or Land of Israel entered the British public discourse in the 1830s, though British reformationists had written about the restoration of the Jews as early as the 16th century, and the idea had strong support among Puritans.[20] Not all such attitudes were favorable towards the Jews; they were shaped in part by a variety of Protestant beliefs,[21] or by a streak of philo-Semitism among the classically educated British elite,[22] or by hopes to extend the Empire. (See The Great Game)
At the urging of Lord Shaftesbury, Britain established a consulate in Jerusalem in 1838, the first diplomatic appointment to Palestine.
In 1839, the Church of Scotland sent Andrew Bonar, Robert Murray M'Cheyne, Alexander Black and Alexander Keith on a mission to report on the condition of the Jews in Palestine. Their report was widely published.[23] They traveled through France, Greece, and Egypt and, from Egypt, overland to Gaza. On the way home they visited Syria, the Austrian Empire and some of the German principalities. They sought out Jewish communities and inquired about their readiness to accept Christ and, separately, their preparedness to return to Israel as prophesied in the Bible. Alexander Keith recounted the journey in his 1844 book The Land of Israel According to the Covenant with Abraham, with Isaac, and with Jacob. It was also in that book that Keith used the slogan that became popular with other Christian Restorationists, a land without a people for a people without a land. In 1844 he revisited Palestine with his son, Dr George Skene Keith (1819–1910), who was the first person to photograph the land.[24]
In August 1840, The Times reported that the British government was considering Jewish restoration.[20] An important, though often neglected, figure in British support of the restoration of the Jews was William Hechler (1845–1931), an English clergyman of German descent who was Chaplain of the British Embassy in Vienna and became a close friend of Theodor Herzl. Hechler was instrumental in aiding Herzl through his diplomatic activities, and may, in that sense, be called the founder of modern Christian Zionism.

Recent political analysis and developments[edit]


A demonstration in the square Narinkkatori in central Helsinki in support of the State of Israel.
With the Jewish settlement of Palestine thereafter, and the establishment of a modern Jewish state on May 14, 1948, dispensationalism (already popular among American Christian fundamentalists) enjoyed an immediate boost of credibility. It seemed to many that biblical prophecy was being explained by the headlines of the newspaper, sparking an intense interest in events in the Middle East, which has continued unabated. Modern Christian Zionism is a politically potent consequence of this religious interest in the modern state of Israel, as contemporary events are interpreted in light of their relationship to biblical prophecy.
The role of certain Christians in supporting the establishment of Israel following World War II is well known; and it is regarded by some critics as, in part, a kind of self-willed fulfillment of prophecy. Given this, some are alarmed by what else Christian Zionists envision being done to bring about the conversion of the Jews and the end of the world. As an example, Hal Lindsey, one of the most popular American promoters of dispensationalism, has written in The Late Great Planet Earth that per Ezekiel 39:6-8, after Jews fight off a "Russian" invasion, Jews will see this as a miracle and convert to Christianity. Their lives will be spared the great fire that God will put upon Russia and people of the "coastlands." And, perZechariah 13:8-9, one third of Jews alive who have converted will be spared.[25]
In United States politics, Christian Zionism is important because it mobilises an important Republican constituency: fundamentalist and evangelical Protestants who support Israel. TheDemocratic Party, which has the support of most American Jews, is also generally pro-Israel, but with less intensity and fewer theological underpinnings.
Sociologically, Christian Zionism can be seen as a product of the peculiar circumstances of the United States, in which the world's largest community of Jews lives side by side with the world's largest community of evangelical Christians. There has historically been a somewhat antagonistic relationship between these two communities, largely based on the generally liberal/progressive social policy tendencies of the Jewish community with the more 'rugged individualist' leanings of the American Protestant communities, more so than any theological dispute. Their mutual reverence for the texts of the Hebrew Bible has brought them together, however, as has their common ground against generally leftist pro-Palestinian and/or anti-Israeli factions in American politics.
The mobilisation of evangelicals has tended to bolster the so-called neo-conservative policies of the Republicans, because Christian Zionists tend to favor a hawkish foreign policy and have less sympathy for Palestinian claims than do the Democrats.
Examples of Christian leaders combining political conservatism with Christian Zionism are Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson, leading figures of the Christian Right in the 1980s and 1990s. Falwell said in 1981: "To stand against Israel is to stand against God. We believe that history and scripture prove that God deals with nations in relation to how they deal with Israel." They cite part of the blessing of Isaac at Genesis 27:29, "Those who curse you will be cursed, and those who bless you will be blessed."
The government of Israel has given official encouragement to Christian Zionism, allowing the establishment in 1980 of the International Christian Embassy Jerusalem. The main function of the embassy is to enlist worldwide Christian support for Israel. The embassy has raised funds to help finance Jewish immigration to Israel from the former Soviet Union, and has assisted Zionist groups in establishing Jewish settlements in the West Bank.
The Third International Christian Zionist Congress, held in Jerusalem in February 1996, issued a proclamation which said:
God the Father, Almighty, chose the ancient nation and people of Israel, the descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to reveal His plan of redemption for the world. They remain elect of God, and without the Jewish nation His redemptive purposes for the world will not be completed.
Jesus of Nazareth is the Messiah and has promised to return to Jerusalem, to Israel and to the world.
It is reprehensible that generations of Jewish peoples have been killed and persecuted in the name of our Lord, and we challenge the Church to repent of any sins of commission or omission against them.
The modern Ingathering of the Jewish People to Eretz Israel and the rebirth of the nation of Israel are in fulfilment of biblical prophecies, as written in both Old and New Testaments.
Christian believers are instructed by Scripture to acknowledge the Hebraic roots of their faith and to actively assist and participate in the plan of God for the Ingathering of the Jewish People and the Restoration of the nation of Israel in our day.[26]
Popular interest in Christian Zionism was given a boost around the year 2000 in the form of the Left Behind series of novels by Tim LaHaye and Jerry B. Jenkins.[27] The novels are built around the prophetic role of Israel in theapocalyptic End Times.

Disapproval by other Churches[edit]

Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism[edit]

Main article: Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism
The Latin Patriarchate of Jerusalem (Catholic), the Syrian Orthodox Patriarchate of Jerusalem, the Episcopal Church in Jerusalem and the Middle East and the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Jordan and the Holy Land, have recently joined together in order to proclaim and to publish the Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism (August 22, 2006). This Declaration rejects Christian Zionism for substituting a political-military program in place of the teachings of Jesus Christ.[28] The statement is very critical of Christian Zionism because it views it as providing a worldview where the Gospel is identified with the ideology of empire, colonialism and militarism. Palestinian Christian leaders have also been very vocal in supporting the "Kairos Palestine" document calling for a boycott against Israel until it stops its discriminatory policies in the Palestinian territories.[29]

United States[edit]

The General Assembly of the National Council of Churches in November 2007 approved a resolution for further study which stated that the "theological stance of Christian Zionism adversely affects:
  • justice and peace in the Middle East, delaying the day when Israelis and Palestinians can live within secure borders
  • relationships with Middle Eastern Christians {prior reference to the Jerusalem Declaration on Christian Zionism}
  • relationships with Jews, since Jews are seen as mere pawns in an eschatological scheme
  • relationships with Muslims, since it treats the rights of Muslims as subordinate to the rights of Jews
  • interfaith dialogue, since it views the world in starkly dichotomous terms"[30]
The Reformed Church in America at its 2004 General Synod found "the ideology of Christian Zionism and the extreme form of dispensationalism that undergirds it to be a distortion of the biblical message noting the impediment it represents to achieving a just peace in Israel/Palestine."[31] The Mennonite Church published an article that referenced what is called the ongoing illegal seizure of additional Palestinian lands by Israeli militants,[32][33] noting that in some churches under the influence of Christian Zionism the "congregations 'adopt' illegal Israeli settlements, sending funds to bolster the defense of these armed colonies." As of September 2007, churches in the USA that have criticized Christian Zionism include the United Methodist Church, the Presbyterian Church (USA), and the United Church of Christ.[34] And Zionism dispels any possibility of the Preterist understanding that Christ came to Earth, to end the Old Covenent that God made with Man, and begin a new Covenent with Man. In doing so, it ended the old Jewish ways and instilled a new path for the forgiveness for sin, and that through a perfect human sacrifice Jesus Christ.
The film With God On Our Side, by Porter Speakman Jr. and Kevin Miller (the latter of whom also co-created the film Expelled: No Intelligence Allowed), criticizes both the underlying theology behind Christian Zionism as well as its negative influence on the church.[35]

Biblical interpretations[edit]

The New Testament, in some proponents' opinions, is interpreted as evidence that God still has a special relationship with Israel. The Biblical foundations of Christian doctrines regarding the theological status of Jews include prophetic and didactic texts. Some supporters of the restoration of the Jews interpret the prophetic texts as describing inevitable future events, and these events primarily involve Israel (taken to mean the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob) or Judah (taken to mean the remaining faithful adherents of Judaism). People who take them at face value see these prophecies as requiring the presence of a Jewish state in The Holy Land, the central part of the lands promised to the Biblical patriarch Abraham in his covenant with God. This requirement is sometimes interpreted as being fulfilled by the contemporary state of Israel. The didactic texts of the Epistlesalso include explanations of the events described in prophecy, and so complement and expand upon their significance.

Didactic texts[edit]

Among the principal didactic references are the New Testament books of Romans (especially chapter 15; q.v. "if the Gentiles have shared in their spiritual benefits, then they are obligated to minister to Jews in material needs.", and chapter 11; "a hardening in part has come to Israel until the full number of the Gentiles has come in, and thus will all Israel be saved"), and especially Hebrews, which elaborates the history of Judaism, relating the events of the Torah and Ketuvim as a "foreshadowing" of the Christian era, and describes the relationship of the Jewish people to God in a continuing context. In Romans 11, Paul wrote: I say then, Hath God cast away his people? God forbid. For I also am an Israelite, of the seed of Abraham, of the tribe of Benjamin. It continues with a parable of a grafted olive tree, the point of which is disputed. Some say that it is the restoration of Israel to promised land, while others say that it is gentiles being grafted into the covenant of God with Israel's faithful remnant.

Prophetic and Messianic texts[edit]

Among the principal relevant prophetic texts are those found in the Jewish Bible or Old Testament in the Book of Daniel, the book of Isaiah and the Book of Ezekiel, and those found in the New Testament in the Book of Revelation. These Old Testament books describe the Apocalypse, meaning literally the "unveiling", a vision of an eschatological event or end times. The Book of Revelation, or "Αποκάλυψις Ιωάννου" in the original Greek, puts forth an early Christian eschatological view which has been interpreted in many ways. The Roman Catholic study Bible as well as the doctrines of most mainline Protestant denominations caution that Revelation is an allegory. However, some Christians, including many evangelicals and fundamentalists, read Revelation as a prophetic script containing a timetable to the future End Times. The contents of these books are discussed in the relevant articles, particularly in the article Book of Revelation.
Though many Christian Zionists believe that conversion of the Jews to Christianity is a necessary adjunct of the Second Coming or the End of Days, conversion of the Jews is not part of the theology of prominent Christian Zionists such as John Hagee and was not thought to be required by the nineteenth century restoration advocate William Eugene Blackstone.
Both pro-Zionist and anti-Zionist schools of Christian thought may be influenced and motivated by the description found in Revelation, in the message to the Church at Philadelphia: "Behold, I give of the synagogue of Satan, of those who say they are Jews, and they are not, but lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before your feet, and to know that I have loved you." This description is often offensive to Zionist Jews who otherwise find some common ground with Christian Zionism in their support of an ethnic Jewish state in the Holy Land. Nonetheless, it forms one of the foundational ideas underlying some support for Christian Zionism and plays a definitive role in its eschatological script of prospective events.

Other[edit]

Christian schools of doctrine which consider other teachings to counterbalance these doctrines, or which interpret them in terms of distinct eschatological theories, are less conducive to Christian Zionism. Among the many texts which address this subject in counterbalance are the words of Jesus, as for example in Matthew, "the kingdom of God will be taken away from you and given to a nation producing the fruits of it", and the writer of Hebrews's discussion (echoed in 1 Peter) of the Christian church as fulfilling the role previously fulfilled by the faithful Jews and the Temple, and the doctrine of Paul, expressed in Galatians, that "in Christ there is neither Jew nor Greek".
In Defending Christian Zionism, David Pawson, a prominent Christian Zionist in the United Kingdom, puts forward the case that the return of the Jews to the Holy Land is a fulfilment of scriptural prophecy, and that Christians should support the existence of the Jewish State (although not unconditionally its actions) on theological grounds. He also argues that prophecies spoken about Israel relate specifically to Israel (not to the church, as in "replacement theology"). However, he criticises Dispensationalism, which he says is a largely American movement holding similar views. Pawson was spurred to write this book by the work of Stephen Sizer, an evangelical Christian who rejects Christian Zionism.

Notable proponents[edit]

See also[edit]

Portal iconChristianity portal

References[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up^ Christian Perspectives on the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict, p. 131, Wesley Haddon Brown, Peter F. Penner, 2008, 11, "Western Restorationism and Christian Zionism: Germany as a Case Study", WILRENS L. HORNSTRA: "Two things, not one: Restorationism and Christian Zionism are two terms, and we are indeed speaking of two things here, not just one."
  2. Jump up^ Proceedings of the ... World Congress of Jewish Studies: World Union of Jewish Studies, 1993: "Once aroused, American enthusiasm for the Restoration of the Jews to Israel would prove more powerful, because more vital and more broadly based in popular Evangelical Christianity, than English Restorationism."
  3. Jump up^ Regina Sharif, Non-Jewish Zionism, Its Roots in Western History, Zed, 1983, page 10 "Prior to the Reformation, traditional Catholic thought had no place for the possibility of a Jewish return to Palestine nor any such concept as the existence of a Jewish nation."
  4. ^ Jump up to:a b Hillel Halkin. "Power, Faith, and Fantasy by Michael B. Oren".Commentary magazine. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  5. Jump up^ Boyer, Paul S., When Time Shall Be No More: Prophecy Belief in Modern American Culture, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1992.
  6. Jump up^ Berlet, Chip, and Nikhil Aziz. "Culture, Religion, Apocalypse, and Middle East Foreign Policy," IRC Right Web, Silver City, NM: Interhemispheric Resource Center, 2003, online
  7. Jump up^ Regina Sharif, Non-Jewish Zionism, Its Roots in Western History, Zed, 1983, page 10 "Prior to the Reformation, traditional Catholic thought had no place for the possibility of a Jewish return to Palestine nor any such concept as the existence of a Jewish nation."
  8. Jump up^ American Consuls in the Holy Land, 1832-1914, By Ruth Kark, Wayne State University Press, 1994, p. 23
  9. Jump up^ The question of Palestine: British-Jewish-Arab relations, 1914-1918, Isaiah. Friedman, Transaction Publishers, 1992, see Chapter 1 with a summary in the Introduction
  10. Jump up^ The foreign policy of Palmerston, 1830-1841: Britain, the liberal movement and the Eastern question, Charles Kingsley Webster, Pub. G. Bell, 1951
  11. Jump up^ Shaftsbury as cited in Hyamson, Albert, “British Projects for the Restoration of Jews to Palestine,” American Jewish Historical Society, Publications 26, 1918 p. 140
  12. Jump up^ Mel Scult (1978). Millennial Expectations and Jewish Liberties: A Study of the Efforts to Convert the Jews in Britain, Up to the Mid Nineteenth Century. Brill Archive. p. 91.
  13. Jump up^ WEDGWOOD FAVORS JEWISH HOME LAND; Sees in Palestine Restoration Plan the Final Solution of the Eastern Problem. COMES HERE TO ADVOCATE IT Hopes Ambassadors from the New State Will Be in Every National Capital of the World; New York Times, Feb 4, 1918
  14. Jump up^ Persecution of the Jews, The Living Age, Littell, Son & Company, 1883, p. 604 ff.
  15. Jump up^ Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism, Victoria Clark, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 111
  16. Jump up^ Churchill's Promised Land: Zionism and Statecraft, By Michael Makovsky, Yale University Press, 2007, p. 68
  17. Jump up^ Kark, Ruth (1994). American Consuls in the Holy Land, 1832-1914. Wayne State University Press. p. 23.
  18. Jump up^ Valley of vision: or, The dry bones of Israel revived : an attempted proof, from Ezekiel, chap. xxxvii, 1-14, of the restoration and conversion of the Jews, George Bush, 1844 "When the Most High accordingly declares that he will bring the house of Israel into their own land, it does not follow that this will be effected by any miraculous interposition which will be recognized as such....The great work of Christians, in the mean time, is to labor for their conversion. In this they are undoubtedly authorized to look for a considerable measure of success, though it be admitted that the bulk of the nation is not to be converted till after their restoration ; for it is only upon the coming together of bone to his bone that the Spirit of life comes into them, and they stand up an exceeding great army."
  19. Jump up^ Yaakov Ariel, On Behalf of Israel; American Fundamentalist Attitudes toward Jews, Judaism, and Zionism, 1865-1945 (New York: Carlson Publishing, 1991), pp. 70-2.
  20. ^ Jump up to:a b British Zionism - Support for Jewish Restoration (mideastweb.org)
  21. Jump up^ The Untold Story. The Role of Christian Zionists in the Establishment of Modern-day Israel by Jamie Cowen (Leadership U), July 13, 2002
  22. Jump up^ Rethinking Sir Moses Montefiore: Religion, Nationhood, and International Philanthropy in the Nineteenth Century by Abigail Green. (The American Historical Review. Vol. 110 No.3.) June 2005
  23. Jump up^ A Narrative of a Mission of Inquiry to the Jews from the Church of Scotland in 1839 (Edinburgh, 1842) ISBN 1-85792-258-1
  24. Jump up^ M'Cheyne's friends
  25. Jump up^ Hal Lindsey, Carole C. Carlson, The late great planet earth, Zondervan, 1970, p. 167-168, ISBN 0-310-27771-X, 9780310277712
  26. Jump up^ PROCLAMATION of the 3rd INTERNATIONAL CHRISTIAN ZIONIST CONGRESS
  27. Jump up^ [Rammy Haija. The Armageddon Lobby: Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine. Holy Land Studies 5(1):75-95. 2006.]
  28. Jump up^ [1].
  29. Jump up^ "Kairos Palestine - main page". Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  30. Jump up^ "ncccusa.org". Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  31. Jump up^ "Position on Christian Zionism". Rabbinical College of America. Retrieved 1 November 2013.
  32. Jump up^ Lebor, Adam (October 14, 2007). "Over the Line". The New York Times.
  33. Jump up^ "The building of settlements in the occupied territories has always been illegal under international law and an obstacle to peace." Avi Shlaim, "A Betrayal of History" in The Guardian (February 22, 2002, London), reprinted in The Other Israel (New York: The New Press 2002) at 45-50, 48. The author is professor of international relations at Oxford University.
  34. Jump up^ *. Cf. [2].
  35. Jump up^ "With God On Our Side".
  36. ^ Jump up to:a b "Herbert W. Armstrong’s interpretation of the 3 ½ years".
  37. Jump up^ The London Quarterly Review, Volume 64. pp. 104–108. "Provided the first proposal by a major politician to resettle Jews in Palestine: In this paper Cooper wrote the first proposal by a major politician to resettle Jews in Palestine:"
  38. ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f Brog, David, Standing with Israel, FrontLine, 2006.
  39. Jump up^ Jordana Horn (2011-05-18). "Glenn Beck heading to Israel again – for summer rally". Jerusalem Post. Retrieved 2011-06-21.
  40. Jump up^ Has God Really Finished with Israel?New Wine Press 2013.
  41. Jump up^ 'Dr. Michael D Evans on LinkedIn'
  42. Jump up^ Haynes, Stephen R., Reluctant Witnesses: Jews and the Christian Imagination, Macmillan, 1995. pp.162-163.
  43. Jump up^ Lindsey, Hal, The Late Great Planet Earth. Zondervan, 1970. pp. 42-58.
  44. Jump up^ Audio: Reverend Manning Talks About American Black-Jewish Relations
  45. Jump up^ Clark, Victoria, Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism, Yale University Press, 2007.
  46. Jump up^ [3]
  47. Jump up^ Defending Christian Zionism, 2008, David Pawson, Terra Nova Publications, 2008, ISBN 9781901949629
  48. Jump up^ Walvoord, John F. Armageddon, Oil and the Middle East Crisis.Zondervan, 1970, rev. ed. 1990. pp. 65-108.

Further reading[edit]

  • Mikael Knighton, Christians Standing with Israel, Copyright 2007 - The Theological Background of Christian Zionism
  • Mark Dunman. Has God Really Finished with Israel? New Wine Press 2013. ISBN 978-1-905991-87-7
  • Paul Richard Wilkinson. For Zion's Sake: Christian Zionism and the Role of John Nelson Darby ISBN 978-1-84227-569-6, Paternoster Press, Authentic, Carlisle 2008.
  • Zev Chafets. A Match Made in Heaven: American Jews, Christian Zionists, and One Man's Exploration of the Weird and Wonderful Judeo-Evangelical Alliance. HarperCollins, 2007.
  • Victoria Clark. Allies for Armageddon: The Rise of Christian Zionism. Yale University Press, 2007.
  • Grace Halsell. Prophecy and Politics: Militant Evangelists on the Road to Nuclear War. Lawrence Hill & Co., 1986. ISBN 0-88208-210-8.
  • Donald M. Lewis. "The Origins of Christian Zionism: Lord Shaftesbury and Evangelical Support for a Jewish Homeland" Cambridge University Press. 2009. ISBN 978-0-521-51518-4
  • Rammy Haija. The Armageddon Lobby: Dispensationalist Christian Zionism and the Shaping of US Policy Towards Israel-Palestine. Holy Land Studies 5(1):75-95. 2006. The Armageddon Lobby
  • Irvine Anderson. Biblical interpretation and Middle East policy: the promised land, America, and Israel, 1917-2002. University Press of Florida. 2005. ISBN 0-8130-2798-5.
  • Tony Campolo. The Ideological Roots of Christian Zionism. Tikkun. January–February 2005.
  • Stephen Sizer. Christian Zionism: Road map to Armageddon? InterVarsity Press. 2004. ISBN 0-8308-5368-5. Review
  • Gershom Gorenberg. The End of Days: Fundamentalism and the Struggle for the Temple Mount. Oxford University Press. 2002. ISBN 0-19-515205-0
  • Paul Charles Merkley. The Politics of Christian Zionism 1891–1948. Frank Cass. 1998. ISBN 0-7146-4850-7
  • Lawrence Jeffrey Epstein. Zion’s call: Christian contributions to the origins and development of Israel. University Press of America. 1984.
  • Michael Oren. Power, Faith and Fantasy. New York, 2007.
  • Barbara W. Tuchman. Bible and Sword.New York, 1956.
  • David Pawson. "Defending Christian Zionism" Terra Nova Publications, 2008. ISBN 978-1-901949-62-9

External links[edit]


The Cimbri were a Germanic tribe,[1] who together with the Teutones and the Ambrones fought the Roman Republic between 113 and 101 BC. The Cimbri were initially successful, particularly at the Battle of Arausio, in which up to 120,000 Roman soldiers were killed, after which they raided large areas in Gauland Hispania. In 101 BC, during an attempted invasion of Italy, the Cimbri were decisively defeated by Gaius Marius, and their king, Boiorix, was killed. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling Gladiators in the Third Servile War.[2] A contemporary Germanic community in Northern Italy who speak the Cimbrian language is also known as the Cimbri.

History[edit]

Origins[edit]

Archaeologists have not found any clear indications of a mass migration from Jutland in the early Iron Age. The Gundestrup Cauldron, which was deposited in a bog in Himmerland in the 2nd or 1st century BC, shows that there was some sort of contact with southeastern Europe, but it is uncertain if this contact can be associated with the Cimbrian expedition.[3]
Advocates for a northern homeland point to Greek and Roman sources that associate the Cimbri with the peninsula of Jutland, Denmark. According to the Res gestae (ch. 26) of Augustus, the Cimbri were still found in the area around the turn of the 1st century AD:
My fleet sailed from the mouth of the Rhine eastward as far as the lands of the Cimbri, to which, up to that time, no Roman had ever penetrated either by land or by sea, and the Cimbri and Charydesand Semnones and other peoples of the Germans of that same region through their envoys sought my friendship and that of the Roman people.
The contemporary Greek geographer Strabo testifies that the Cimbri still existed as a Germanic tribe, presumably in the "Cimbric peninsula" (since they are said to live by the North Sea and to have paid tribute to Augustus):
As for the Cimbri, some things that are told about them are incorrect and others are extremely improbable. For instance, one could not accept such a reason for their having become a wandering and piratical folk as this that while they were dwelling on a Peninsula they were driven out of their habitations by a great flood-tide; for in fact they still hold the country which they held in earlier times; and they sent as a present to Augustus the most sacred kettle in their country, with a plea for his friendship and for an amnesty of their earlier offences, and when their petition was granted they set sail for home; and it is ridiculous to suppose that they departed from their homes because they were incensed on account of a phenomenon that is natural and eternal, occurring twice every day. And the assertion that an excessive flood-tide once occurred looks like a fabrication, for when the ocean is affected in this way it is subject to increases and diminutions, but these are regulated and periodical.
—[4]
On the map of Ptolemy, the "Kimbroi" are placed on the northernmost part of the peninsula of Jutland.,[5] i.e. in the modern landscape of Himmerland south of Limfjorden (since Vendsyssel-Thy north of the fjord was at that time a group of islands). Himmerland (Old Danish Himbersysel) is generally thought to preserve their name,[6] in an older form without Grimm's law (PIE k > Germ. h). Alternatively, Latin C- represents an attempt to render the unfamiliar Proto-Germanic h = [χ], perhaps due to Celtic-speaking interpreters (a Celtic intermediary would also explain why Germanic *Þeuðanōz became Latin Teutones).
The origin of the name Cimbri is unknown. One etymology[7] is PIE *tḱim-ro- "inhabitant", from tḱoi-m- "home" (> Eng. home), itself a derivation from tḱei- "live" (> Greek κτίζω, Latin sinō); then, the Germanic *χimbra- finds an exact cognate in Slavic sębrъ "farmer" (> Croatian, Serbian sebar, Russ. sjabër).
Because of the similarity of the names, the Cimbri were at times associated with Cymry, the Welsh name for themselves.[8] However, this word is regularly derived from Celtic *Kombrogi, meaning “compatriots”.[9]Cumry is an evoluted form of the Old Welsh, with an assimilation of [b] to first [m], the second element brogi changed into bro “country” in Modern Welsh. It is hardly conceivable that the Romans would have recorded such a form as Cimbri[10][11] The name has also been related to the word kimme meaning “rim”, i.e. the people of the coast.[12] Finally, since Antiquity, the name has been related to that of theCimmerians.[13]

Migration[edit]


Journey of Cimbri and Teutones
Battle icon gladii red.svg Cimbri and Teuton defeats
Battle icon gladii green.svg Cimbri and Teuton victories
Some time before 100 BC many of the Cimbri, as well as the Teutons and Ambrones migrated south-east. After several unsuccessful battles with the Boiiand other Celtic tribes, they appeared ca 113 BC in Noricum, where they invaded the lands of one of Rome's allies, the Taurisci.
On the request of the Roman consul Gnaeus Papirius Carbo, sent to defend the Taurisci, they retreated, only to find themselves deceived and attacked at the Battle of Noreia, where they defeated the Romans. Only a storm, which separated the combatants, saved the Roman forces from complete annihilation.

Invading Gaul[edit]

Now the road to Italy was open, but they turned west towards Gaul. They came into frequent conflict with the Romans, who usually came out the losers. InCommentarii de Bello Gallico the Aduaticii—Belgians of Cimbrian origin—repeatedly sided with Rome's enemies. In 109 BC, they defeated a Roman army under the consul Marcus Junius Silanus, who was the commander of Gallia Narbonensis. In 107 BC they defeated another Roman army under the consulGaius Cassius Longinus, who was killed at the Battle of Burdigala (modern day Bordeaux) against the Tigurini, who were allies of the Cimbri.

Attacking the Roman Republic[edit]

It was not until 105 BC that they planned an attack on the Roman Republic itself. At the Rhône, the Cimbri clashed with the Roman armies. Discord between the Roman commanders, the proconsul Quintus Servilius Caepio and the consul Gnaeus Mallius Maximus, hindered Roman coordination and so the Cimbri succeeded in first defeating the legate Marcus Aurelius Scaurus and later inflicted a devastating defeat on Caepio and Maximus at the Battle of Arausio. The Romans lost as many as 80,000 men, excluding auxiliary cavalry and non-combatants who brought the total loss closer to 112,000.
Rome was in panic, and the terror cimbricus became proverbial. Everyone expected to soon see the new Gauls outside of the gates of Rome. Desperate measures were taken: contrary to the Roman constitution, Gaius Marius, who had defeated Jugurtha, was elected consul and supreme commander for five years in a row (104-100 BC).

Defeat[edit]


The Defeat of the Cimbri by Alexandre-Gabriel Décamps
In 103 BC, the Cimbri and their proto-Germanic allies, the Teutons, had turned to the Iberian Peninsula where they pillaged far and wide. During this time C. Marius had the time to prepare and, in 102 BC, he was ready to meet the Teutons and the Ambrones at the Rhône. These two tribes intended to pass into Italy through the western passes, while the Cimbri and the Tigurines were to take the northern route across the Rhine and later across the Tirolian Alps.
At the estuary of the Isère River, the Teutons and the Ambrones met Marius, whose well-defended camp they did not manage to overrun. Instead, they pursued their route, and Marius followed them. At Aquae Sextiae, the Romans won two battles and took the Teuton king Teutobod prisoner.
The Cimbri had penetrated through the Alps into northern Italy. The consul Quintus Lutatius Catulus had not dared to fortify the passes, but instead he had retreated behind the River Po, and so the land was open to the invaders. The Cimbri did not hurry, and the victors of Aquae Sextiae had the time to arrive with reinforcements. At the Battle of Vercellae, at the confluence of the Sesia River with the Po River, in 101 BC, the long voyage of the Cimbri also came to an end.
It was a devastating defeat, two chieftains, Lugius and Boiorix, died on the field, while the other chieftains Caesorix and Claodicus were captured.[14] The women killed both themselves and their children in order to avoid slavery. The Cimbri were annihilated, although some may have survived to return to the homeland where a population with this name was residing in northern Jutland in the 1st century AD, according to the sources quoted above. Some of the surviving captives are reported to have been among the rebelling Gladiators in the Third Servile War.[2]
However, Justin's epitome of Trogus, 38.4, has Mithridates the Great state that the Cimbri are ravaging Italy while the Social War is going on, i.e. at some time in 90 - 88 BCE, thus more than a decade later,[15]after having sent ambassadors to the Cimbri to request military aid;[16] judging from the context they must then have been living in North Eastern Europe at the time.

Descendants[edit]

According to Julius Caesar, the Belgian tribe of the Atuatuci "was descended from the Cimbri and Teutoni, who, upon their march into our province and Italy, set down such of their stock and stuff as they could not drive or carry with them on the near (i.e. west) side of the Rhine, and left six thousand men of their company there with as guard and garrison" (Gall. 2.29, trans. Edwards). They founded the city of Atuatuca in the land of the Belgic Eburones, whom they dominated. Thus Ambiorix king of the Eburones paid tribute and gave his son and nephew as hostages to the Atuatuci (Gall. 6.27). In the first century AD, the Eburones were replaced or absorbed by the Germanic Tungri, and the city was known as Atuatuca Tungrorum, i.e. the modern city of Tongeren.
The population of modern-day Himmerland claims to be the heirs of the ancient Cimbri. The adventures of the Cimbri are described by the Danish nobel-prize-winning author Johannes V. Jensen, himself born in Himmerland, in the novel Cimbrernes Tog (1922), included in the epic cycle Den lange Rejse (English The Long Journey, 1923). The so-called Cimbrian bull ("Cimbrertyren"), a sculpture by Anders Bundgaard, was erected 14 April 1937 on a central town square in Aalborg, the capital of the region of North Jutland.
A German ethnic minority speaking the Cimbrian language have settled in the mountains between Vicenza, Verona and Trento in Italy (also known as Seven Communities) is also called the (Cimbri). For hundreds of years this isolated population consisting now of 4.400 inhabitants, has claimed to be the direct descendant of the Cimbri retreating in this area after the Roman aftermath. However it was more probably settlers from Bavaria in the Middle Ages. Most linguists remains committed to the hypothesis of medieval (11th to 12th century) immigration, to explain the presence of small German-speaking communities in the north of Italy.[17] Some genetic studies seem to prove a Celtic descendence of most inhabitants in the region, but not Germanic in fact,[18] that is reinforced by the Gaulish toponyms such as those ending with the suffix -ago < Celtic -*ako(n) (f.e. Asiago is clearly the same place-name as the numerous Azay, Aisy, Azé, Ezy in France, all from *Asiacum < Gaulish *Asiāko(n)). The Cimbrian origin is a myth that was popularized by the humanists in the 14th century.
On one occasion in 1709, for instance, Frederick IV of Denmark, also paid them a visit and he was greeted as their king. The population, which kept its independence during the Venice Republic, was later severely devastated by World War I. As a result, many Cimbri have left the mountain region and are dispersed around the world, in places such as the Rio Grande do Sul state in Southern Brazil.

Culture[edit]

Religion[edit]


Gundestrup cauldron, Plate E
Strabo gives this vivid description of the Cimbric folklore (Geogr. 7.2.3, trans. H.L. Jones):
Their wives, who would accompany them on their expeditions, were attended by priestesses who were seers; these were grey-haired, clad in white, with flaxen cloaks fastened on with clasps, girt with girdles of bronze, and bare-footed; now sword in hand these priestesses would meet with the prisoners of war throughout the camp, and having first crowned them with wreaths would lead them to a brazen vessel of about twenty amphorae; and they had a raised platform which the priestess would mount, and then, bending over the kettle, would cut the throat of each prisoner after he had been lifted up; and from the blood that poured forth into the vessel some of the priestesses would draw a prophecy, while still others would split open the body and from an inspection of the entrails would utter a prophecy of victory for their own people; and during the battles they would beat on the hides that were stretched over the wicker-bodies of the wagons and in this way produce an unearthly noise.
The Cimbri are depicted as ferocious warriors who did not fear death. The host was followed by women and children on carts. Aged women, priestesses, dressed in white sacrificed the prisoners of war and sprinkled their blood, the nature of which allowed them to see what was to come.
If the Cimbri did in fact come from Jutland, evidence that they practised ritualistic sacrifice may be found in the Haraldskær Woman discovered in Jutland in the year 1835. Noosemarks and skin piercing were evident and she had been thrown into a bog rather than buried or cremated. Furthermore, the Gundestrup cauldron, found in Himmerland, may be a sacrificial vessel like the one described in Strabo's text. The work itself was of Thracian origin.

Language[edit]

A major problem in determining whether the Cimbri were speaking a Celtic or a Germanic language is that at this time the Greeks and Romans tended to refer to all groups to the north of their sphere of influence as Gauls, Celts, or Germani rather indiscriminately. Caesar seems to be one of the first authors to distinguish the two groups, and he has a political motive for doing so (it is an argument in favour of the Rhine border).[19] Yet, one cannot always trust Caesar and Tacitus when they ascribe individuals and tribes to one or the other category, although Caesar made clear distinctions between the two cultures. Most ancient sources categorize the Cimbri as a Germanic tribe,[20] but some ancient authors include the Cimbri among the Celts.[21]
There are few direct testimonies to the language of the Cimbri: Referring to the Northern Ocean (the Baltic or the North Sea), Pliny the Elder states:[22] "Philemon says that it is called Morimarusa, i.e. the Dead Sea, by the Cimbri, until the promontory of Rubea, and after that Cronium." The contemporary Gaulish terms for “sea” and “dead” appear to have been mori and *maruo-; compare their well-attested modernInsular Celtic cognates muir and marbh (Irish), môr and marw (Welsh), and mor and marv (Breton).[23] The same word for “sea” is also known from Germanic, but with an a (*mari-), whereas a cognate of marbh is unknown in all dialects of Germanic.[24] Yet, given that Pliny had not heard the word directly from a Cimbric informant, it cannot be ruled out that the word is in fact Gaulish instead.[25]
The known Cimbri chiefs have names that look Celtic, including Boiorix (which may mean "King of the Boii" or, more literally, "King of Strikers"), Gaesorix (which means "Spear King"), and Lugius (which may be named after the Celtic god Lugus), although this may not mean that they are Celtic as the elements could work in Germanic (compare the name of the Vandalic king Gaiseric, which is likely identical to Gaesorix).[26] Also, although the kings of the Cimbri and Teutones carry what look like Celtic names, the origin of a name need not say anything about the ethnicity or language of the individual carrying the name. Other evidence to the language of the Cimbri is circumstantial: thus, we are told that the Romans enlisted Gaulish Celts to act as spies in the Cimbri camp prior to the final showdown with the Roman army in 101 BC. Some take this as evidence in support of "the Celtic rather than the German theory".[27]
Jean Markale[28] wrote that the Cimbri were associated with the Helvetii, and more especially with the indisputably Celtic Tigurini. These associations may link to a common ancestry, recalled from two hundred years previous, though they may not. Henri Hubert[29] states "All these names are Celtic, and they cannot be anything else". Some authors take a different perspective.[30]
Countering the argument of a Celtic origin is the literary evidence that the Cimbri originally came from northern Jutland,[30] an area with no Celtic placenames, instead only Germanic ones.[31][32] This does not rule out Cimbric Gallicization during the period when they lived in Gaul[30] . Boiorix, who may have a Celtic name if not a Celticized Germanic name, was king of the Cimbri after they moved away for their ancestral home of northern Jutland; Boiorix and his tribe lived around Celtic peoples during his era as J. B. Rives points out in his introduction to Tacitus's Germania (book) and moreover that the name Boiorix can work in Proto-Germanic as well as Celtic.[26]

Physical appearance[edit]

Plutarch wrote that the Cimbri were tall and light-blue eyed:
‘‘The most prevalent conjecture was that they were some of the German peoples which extended as far as the northern ocean,
a conjecture based on their great stature, their light-blue eyes, and the fact that the Germans call robbers Cimbri.’’[33]

See also[edit]

Portal iconAncient Germanic culture portal

Notes[edit]

  1. Jump up^ "Cimbri (people)". Encyclopædia Britannica Online. Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. Retrieved 29 November 2012.
  2. ^ Jump up to:a b Strauss, Barry (2009). The Spartacus War. Simon and Schuster. pp. 21–22. ISBN 1-4165-3205-6.
  3. Jump up^ Kaul, F. & Martens, J. "Southeast European Influences in the Early Iron Age of Southern Scandinavia. Gundestrup and the Cimbri", Acta Archaeologica 66 (1995) 111-161.
  4. Jump up^ Strabo, Geogr. 7.2.1, trans. H.L. Jones; as a geologist, Strabo reveals himself as a gradualist; in 1998, however, the archaeologist B.J. Coles identified as "Doggerland" the now-drowned habitable and huntable lands in the coastal plain that had formed in the North Sea when sea level dropped, and that was re-flooded following the withdrawal of the ice sheets.
  5. Jump up^ Ptolemy, Geography 2.11.7: πάντων δ᾽ ἀρκτικώτεροι Κίμβροι "the Cimbri are more northern than all (of these tribes)"
  6. Jump up^ Jan Katlev, Politikens etymologisk ordbog, Copenhagen 2000:294; Kenneth W. Harl, Rome and the Barbarians, The Teaching Company, 2004
  7. Jump up^ Vasmer, Russisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 1958, vol. 3, p. 62; Z. Gołąb, "About the connection between kinship terms and some ethnica in Slavic", International Journal of Slavic Linguistics and Poetics25-26 (1982) 166-7.
  8. Jump up^ C. Rawlinson, "On the Ethnography of the Cimbri", Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 6 (1877) 150-158.
  9. Jump up^ C.T. Onions and R.W. Burchfield, eds. The Oxford Dictionary of English Etymology, 1966, s.v. Cymry;Webster's Third New International Dictionary. Springfield, MA: Merriam-Webster, 2002: 321
  10. Jump up^ They recorded the Gaulish ethnonyms in -brogi as Allobroges and Nitiobroges, that is the regular way to do it.
  11. Jump up^ The form Cambria is Neo-Latin.
  12. Jump up^ Nordisk familjebok, Projekt Runeborg
  13. Jump up^ Posidonius in Strabo, Geography 7.2.2; Diodorus Siculus, Bibl. 5.32.4; Plutarch, Vit.Mar. 11.11.
  14. Jump up^ Sampson, Gareth S. (2010). The crisis of Rome: the Jugurthine and Northern Wars and the rise of Marius. Pen & Sword Military. p. 175. Retrieved 1 December 2012.
  15. Jump up^ Marcus Junianus Justinus, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, 38.4, 'all Italy, at the present time, was in arms in the Marsian war,... At the same time, too, the Cimbri from Germany, many thousands of wild and savage people, had rushed upon Italy like a tempest', The Latin text has not like this translation an imperfect and a pluperfect, but two perfect infinitives (consurrexisse... inundasse...)
  16. Jump up^ Marcus Junianus Justinus, Epitome of the Philippic History of Pompeius Trogus, 38.3, 'In the next place, well understanding what a war he was provoking, he sent ambassadors to the Cimbri, the Gallograecians, the Sarmatians, and the Bastarnians, to request aid'
  17. Jump up^ James R. Dow: Bruno Schweizer's commitment to the Langobardian thesis. In: Thomas Stolz (Hrsg):Kolloquium über Alte Sprachen und Sprachstufen. Beiträge zum Bremer Kolloquium über „Alte Sprachen und Sprachstufen“. (= Diversitas Linguarum, Volume 8). Verlag Brockmeyer, Bochum 2004, ISBN 3-8196-0664-5, S. 43–54.
  18. Jump up^ National Center for Biotechnology Information, Haemochromatosis gene mutations in a clustered Italian population: evidence of high prevalence in people of Celtic ancestry
  19. Jump up^ A.A. Lund, Die ersten Germanen: Ethnizität und Ethnogenese, Heidelberg 1998.
  20. Jump up^ Julius Caesar, Gallic Wars 1.33.3-4; Strabo, Geographica 4.4.3, 7.1.3; Pliny, Natural History 4.100;Tacitus, Germania 37, History 4.73.
  21. Jump up^ Appian, Civil Wars 1.4.29, Illyrica 8.3.
  22. Jump up^ Naturalis Historia, 4.95: Philemon Morimarusam a Cimbris vocari, hoc est mortuum mare, inde usque ad promunturium Rusbeas, ultra deinde Cronium.
  23. Jump up^ F. M. Ahl, "Amber, Avallon, and Apollo's Singing Swan", American Journal of Philology 103 (1982) 399.
  24. Jump up^ Germanic has *murþ(r)a "murder" (with the verb *murþ(r)jan), but uses *daujan and *dauða- for "die" and "dead".
  25. Jump up^ Accordingly, Pokorny, Indogermanisches etymologisches Wörterbuch, 1959, p. 735, describes the word as "Gaulish?".
  26. ^ Jump up to:a b {{cite book Rives, J.B. (Trans.) (1999). Germania: Germania. Oxford University Press ISBN 0-19-815050-4}}
  27. Jump up^ Rawlinson, in Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland 6 (1877) 156.
  28. Jump up^ Markale, Celtic Civilization 1976:40.
  29. Jump up^ Hubert, The Greatness and Decline of the Celts1934 Ch. IV, I.
  30. ^ Jump up to:a b c Ó hÓgáin, Dáithí (2003). The Celts: A History. Boydell Press. p. 131. ISBN 0-85115-923-0.
  31. Jump up^ Bell-Fialkoll (Editor), Andrew (2000). The Role of Migration in the History of the Eurasian Steppe: Sedentary Civilization v. "Barbarian" and Nomad. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 117. ISBN 0-312-21207-0.
  32. Jump up^ "Languages of the World: Germanic languages". The New Encyclopædia Britannica. Chicago, IL, United States: Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc. 1993. ISBN 0-85229-571-5. This long-standing, well-known article on the languages can be found in almost any edition of Britannica.
  33. Jump up^ Life of Marius, XI. 3.







For the history of the Jews in the United Kingdom, as well as prior to the formation of the United Kingdom in 1707, see:



Supersessionism, fulfillment theology, and replacement theology are terms used in biblical interpretation for the belief that the Christian Churchsupersedes or replaces the children of Israel in God's plan, and that the New Covenant nullifies the biblical promises made to the children of Israel, including the Abrahamic Covenant, the Land Covenant, and the Davidic Covenant. However, it has no bearing[clarification needed] on the Mosaic Covenant(or Mosaic Law), which most Christian groups agree was always intended to be superseded by the New Covenant. The terms do not appear in the Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church; however, the view they cover is considered part of most traditional Christian views of the Old Covenant, viewing the Christian Church as the inheritor of the biblical promises made with the Israelites.[1][2] This view contrasts with the minority views of dual-covenant theologyon the one side and abrogation of Old Covenant laws on the other.
More recently, supersessionism and replacement theology are also applied to the parallel case of Islam and its attitude towards Christianity and Judaism.

Etymology[edit]

The word supersessionism comes from the English verb to supersede, from the Latin verb sedeo, sedere, sedi, sessum, "to sit",[3] plus super, "upon". It thus signifies one thing being replaced or supplanted by another.[4]
The word supersession is used by Sydney Thelwall in the title of chapter three of his 1870 translation of Tertullian's Adversus Iudaeos (written between 198 and 208). The title is provided by Thelwall; it is not in the original Latin.[5] The term "Supersessionism" was developed around the 1980s in western academia to portray traditional Christian views on the subject.[6]

Types of supersessionism[edit]

Both Christian and Jewish theologians have identified different types of supersessionism in Christian reading of the Bible.

Punitive, economic and structural[edit]

See also: Biblical law in Christianity, Antinomianism, Progressive revelation (Christian), and Marcionism
R. Kendall Soulen notes three categories of supersessionism identified by Christian theologians: punitive, economic, and structural.[7]
  • Punitive supersessionism is represented by such Christian thinkers as Hippolytus, Origen, and Luther. It is the view that Jews who reject Jesus as the Jewish Messiah are consequently condemned by God, forfeiting the promises otherwise due to them under the covenants.
  • Economic supersessionism is used in the technical theological sense of function (see economic Trinity). It is the view that the practical purpose of the nation of Israel in God's plan is replaced by the role of the Church. It is represented by writers such as Justin Martyr, Augustine, and Barth.
  • Structural supersessionism is Soulen's term for the de facto marginalization of the Old Testament as normative for Christian thought. In his words, "Structural supersessionism refers to the narrative logic of the standard model whereby it renders the Hebrew Scriptures largely indecisive for shaping Christian convictions about how God’s works as Consummator and Redeemer engage humankind in universal and enduring ways."[8] Soulen's terminology is used by Craig A. Blaising, in 'The Future of Israel as a Theological Question.'[9]
These three views are neither mutually exclusive, nor logically dependent, and it is possible to hold all of them or any one with or without the others.

Soft and hard supersessionism[edit]

Jewish theologian and rabbinic scholar David Novak suggests that there are three options:[10]
  1. The new covenant is an extension of the old covenant.
  2. The new covenant is an addition to the old covenant.
  3. The new covenant is a replacement for the old covenant.
He observes, "In the early Church, it seems, the new covenant presented by the Apostolic Writings (better known as diatheke ekaine or novum testamentum) was either taken to be an addition to the old covenant (the religion of the Torah and Jewish Pharisaic tradition), or it was taken to be a replacement for the old covenant.”[11]
Novak considers both understandings to be supersessionist. He designates the first as "soft supersessionism" and the second as "hard supersessionism." The former "does not assert that God terminated the covenant of Exodus-Sinai with the Jewish people. Rather, it asserts that Jesus came to fulfill the promise of the old covenant, first for those Jews already initiated into the covenant, who then accepted his messiahhood as that covenant's fulfillment. And, it asserts that Jesus came to both initiate and fulfill the promise of the covenant for those Gentiles whose sole connection to the covenant is through him. Hence, in this kind of supersessionism, those Jews who do not accept Jesus' messiahhood are still part of the covenant in the sense of 'what God has put together let no man put asunder' [emphasis original]."[10] See alsoDual-covenant theology.
Hard supersessionism, on the other hand, asserts that "[t]he old covenant is dead. The Jews by their sins, most prominently their sin of rejecting Jesus as the Messiah, have forfeited any covenantal status."[10]The hard supersessionists base their views on the bible passages found in Matthew 21:42-46 and Romans 9:1-7. See also Antinomianism.
This classification provides mutually exclusive options. Hard supersessionism implies both punitive and economic supersessionism; soft supersessionism does not fall into any of the three classes recognized as supersessionist by Christian theologians; instead it is associated with Jewish Christianity.

Christian views[edit]

The early Christian theologians saw the New Covenant in Christ as a replacement for the Mosaic Covenant (see "Roman Catholicism", below). Historically, statements on behalf of the Roman Catholic Church have claimed her ecclesiastical structures to be a fulfillment and replacement of Jewish ecclesiastical structures (see also Jerusalem as an allegory for the Church). As recently as 1965 Vatican Council II affirmed, "the Church is the new people of God," without intending to make "Israel according to the flesh", the Jewish people, irrelevant in terms of eschatology (see "Roman Catholicism, below). Modern Catholicism affirms these spokesmen as authoritative for doctrine, alongside the New Testament. Modern Protestants hold to a range of positions, some with more emphasis on continuity (covenant theology) and others with more emphasis on discontinuity (dispensationalism and New Covenant Theology).
The Jewish–Christian dialog has changed dramatically since the early centuries. In the first century Gentile (non-Jewish) inclusion was the significant issue, see Circumcision controversy in early Christianity, while two millennia later Jewish exclusion is the issue (though Jewish exclusion may have begun as early as the exclusion of Jews from Aelia Capitolina c.135,[citation needed] see also Jewish Bishops of Jerusalem andAnti-Judaism).
The New Testament repeatedly gives Jews priority, as in Jesus' expression of his central mission as being to the Jews rather than Gentiles[12] and in Paul's formula "first for the Jew, then for the Gentile."[13] Yet after the death of Jesus, the inclusion of the Gentiles as equals in this burgeoning sect of Judaism also caused problems, particularly when it came to Gentiles keeping the Mosaic Law,[14] which was both a major issue at the Council of Jerusalem and a theme of Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, though the relationship of Paul of Tarsus and Judaism is still disputed today.

Church fathers[edit]

Many Early Christian commentators taught that the Old Covenant was fulfilled and replaced (superseded) by the New Covenant in Christ, for instance:
  • Justin Martyr (about 100 to 165): "For the true spiritual Israel ... are we who have been led to God through this crucified Christ."[15]
  • Hippolytus of Rome (martyred 13 August 235): "[The Jews] have been darkened in the eyes of your soul with a darkness utter and everlasting."[16]
  • Tertullian (ca.160 – ca.220 AD): “Who else, therefore, are understood but we, who, fully taught by the new law, observe these practices,—the old law being obliterated, the coming of whose abolition the action itself demonstrates. . . . Therefore, as we have shown above that the coming cessation of the old law and of the carnal circumcision was declared, so, too, the observance of the new law and the spiritual circumcision has shone out into the voluntary observances of peace.”[17]
Augustine (354–430) follows these views of the earlier Church Fathers, but he emphasizes the importance to Christianity of the continued existence of the Jewish people: "The Jews ... are thus by their own Scriptures a testimony to us that we have not forged the prophecies about Christ."[18] Jeremy Cohen,[19] followed by John Y. B. Hood and James Carroll,[20] sees this as having had decisive social consequences, with Carroll saying, "It is not too much to say that, at this juncture, Christianity 'permitted' Judaism to endure because of Augustine."[21]
Various forms of supersessionism have been the mainstream Christian interpretation of the New Testament since the inception of all three main historical traditions within Christianity — Orthodox, Catholic and Protestant.

Roman Catholicism[edit]

“In this Torah, which is Jesus himself, the abiding essence of what was inscribed on the stone tablets at Sinai is now written in living flesh, namely, the twofold commandment of love. . . . To imitate him, to follow him in discipleship, is therefore to keep Torah, which has been fulfilled in him once and for all. Thus the Sinai covenant is indeed superseded. But once what was provisional in it has been swept away, we see what is truly definitive in it.”
—Joseph Ratzinger, Many Religions, One Covenant[22]
Supersessionism is not the name of any official Roman Catholic doctrine and the word appears in no Church documents; however, the Catholic Church does officially teach that the Mosaic covenant was fulfilled and replaced by the New Covenant in Christ. Nevertheless, the Catholic Church does not teach that the Jewish people themselves are effectively irrelevant in terms of eschatology and Biblical prophecy.[23] For the Catholic Church, the Jewish people are a reminder that the “gifts and calling of God are irrevocable” (Rom 11:29).[24]The Church recognizes an ongoing and unique relationship between the Jewish people, God and the Church.[25] Additionally, the Church teaches that there is an integral continuity between the covenants rather than a rupture.[26]
The Church’s teaching regarding the fulfillment and replacement of the Mosaic Covenant by the New Covenant in Christ can be found in the Scriptures, the Fathers and various Magisterial documents:
Pope Pius XII, in the encyclical Mystici corporis (1943) states: By the death of our Redeemer, the New Testament took the place of the Old Law which had been abolished; then the Law of Christ together with its mysteries, enactments, institutions, and sacred rites was ratified for the whole world in the blood of Jesus Christ. For, while our Divine Savior was preaching in a restricted area - He was not sent but to the sheep that were lost of the House of Israel - the Law and the Gospel were together in force; but on the gibbet of His death Jesus made void the Law with its decrees fastened the handwriting of the Old Testament to the Cross, establishing the New Testament in His blood shed for the whole human race. “To such an extent, then,” says St. Leo the Great, speaking of the Cross of our Lord, “was there effected a transfer from the Law to the Gospel, from the Synagogue to the Church, from the many sacrifices to one Victim, that, as Our Lord expired, that mystical veil which shut off the innermost part of the temple and its sacred secret was rent violently from top to bottom.” (paragraph 29)
In Lumen Gentium (1964), the Church stated that God “chose the race of Israel as a people” and “set up a covenant” with them, instructing them and making them holy. However, “all these things . . . were done by way of preparation and as a figure of that new and perfect covenant” instituted by and ratified in Christ (no. 9). In Notes on the Correct Way to Present the Jews and Judaism (1985), the Church stated that the “Church and Judaism cannot then be seen as two parallel ways of salvation and the Church must witness to Christ as the Redeemer of all.”
While acting as prefect for the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Pope Benedict XVI wrote: “God, according to the Prophet, will replace the broken Sinai covenant with a New Covenant that cannot be broken . . . . The conditional covenant, which depended on man’s faithful observance of the Law, is replaced by the unconditional covenant in which God binds himself irrevocably.”[27]

Protestant[edit]

Protestant views on supersessionism revolve around their understanding of the relationship between the various covenants of the Bible, particularly the relationship between the covenants of the Old Testament and the New Covenant. The most prominent Protestant views on this relationship are called Law and Gospel, Covenant theology, New Covenant Theology, and Dispensationalism. These views are not restricted to a single denomination.

Mormonism[edit]

The Latter Day Saint movement rejects supersessionism. According to the Book of Mormon, during his post-resurrection visit to the Americas, Christ tells his audience "[F]or behold, the Lord remembereth his covenant unto [the Jews], and he will do unto them according to that which he hath sworn."[28]

Jewish view[edit]

See also: Christianity and Judaism
From a Jewish perspective, however, the Torah was given to the Jewish people as an eternal covenant (for example Exo 31:16-17, Exo 12:14-15) and will never be replaced or added to (for example Deut 4:2, 13:1), and hence supersessionism can be regarded as contrary to the Hebrew Bible or antisemitic. For religious Jews and other critics, supersessionism is a theology of replacement, which substitutes the Christian church, consisting of Christians, for the Jewish and B'nei Noah people. Some modern Jews are offended by the traditional Christian belief in supersessionism.[29] Rabbi David Novak has stated that "Christian supersessionism need not denigrate Judaism. Christian supersessionism can still affirm that God has not annulled his everlasting covenant with the Jewish people, neither past nor present nor future."[30]

See also[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. Jump up^ catholicculture.org article by Rev. Brian W. Harrison, O.S., M.A., S.T.D.
  2. Jump up^ Christians and Jews: Starting Over - Why the Real Dialogue Has Just Begun by Dr. Luke Timothy Johnson
  3. Jump up^ Cassell's Latin Dictionary
  4. Jump up^ Collins Dictionary of the English Language
  5. Jump up^ Tertullian, Adversus Iudaeos (Latin) = An Answer to the Jews trans. S. Thelwall, (Edinburgh: T&T Clark, 1870).
  6. Jump up^ See Google's NGram listing of all articles in its databases with the word "Supersessionism."
  7. Jump up^ R. Kendall Soulen, The God of Israel and Christian Theology, (Minneapolis: Fortress, 1996).
  8. Jump up^ Soulen, 181, n6.
  9. Jump up^ Journal of the Evangelical Theological Society 44 (2001): 442.
  10. ^ Jump up to:a b c David Novak, 'The Covenant in Rabbinic Thought', in Eugene B. Korn (ed.), Two Faiths, One Covenant?: Jewish and Christian Identity in the Presence of the Other, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), pp. 65-80.
  11. Jump up^ David Novak, 'The Covenant in Rabbinic Thought', in Eugene B. Korn (ed.), Two Faiths, One Covenant?: Jewish and Christian Identity in the Presence of the Other, (Rowman & Littlefield, 2004), pp. 66.
  12. Jump up^ Matthew 15:21-28; Mark 7:23-30; cf. Matthew 10:5-6; Acts 3:26
  13. Jump up^ Romans 1:16; 2:9-10
  14. Jump up^ Acts 10:28; 11:1-2; 21:17-28; Galatians 2
  15. Jump up^ Justin Martyr, Dialogue With Trypho 11, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 1:200.
  16. Jump up^ Hippolytus, Treatise Against the Jews 6, in Ante-Nicene Fathers 5.220.
  17. Jump up^ An Answer to the Jews, Chapter 3
  18. Jump up^ Augustine, The City of God 18.46, in Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers 2:389.
  19. Jump up^ Jeremy Cohen, 'Introduction', in Jeremy Cohen (ed.), Essential Papers on Judaism and Christianity in Conflict: From Late Antiquity to the Reformation, (New York: New York University Press, 1991), 13–14.
  20. Jump up^ John Y. B. Hood, Aquinas and the Jews, (Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 1995), 12f.
  21. Jump up^ James Carroll, Constantine’s Sword: The Church and the Jews, (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2001).
  22. Jump up^ Joseph Ratzinger, Many Religions, One Covenant, (Ignatius Press, 1999), p. 70.
  23. Jump up^ see: Avery Cardinal Dulles, “The Covenant With Israel,” First Things (November 2005).
  24. Jump up^ Taylor Marshall, The Crucified Rabbi: Judaism and the Origins of Catholic Christianity, (Saint John Press, 2009), p. 54
  25. Jump up^ http://www.cuf.org/Laywitness/LWonline/ja09forrest.asp[dead link]
  26. Jump up^ Commission for religious relations with the Jews, "Guidelines And Suggestions For Implementing The Conciliar Declaration "Nostra Aetate" (n. 4)" www.vatican.va (Rome, 1 December 1974).
  27. Jump up^ Ratzinger, Many Religions, One Covenant, p. 63
  28. Jump up^ Kessler, Orin (2012-07-30). "People of the Book". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2013-04-18.
  29. Jump up^ Rabbi Dow Marmur, Lecture at Regis College, Toronto, January 21, 1998, see at [1] June 28, 2008
  30. Jump up^ http://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/01/edith-stein-apostate-saint

Further reading[edit]





The concept of Two House Theology is found in the Hebrew Scriptures and primarily focuses on the division of the ancient Kingdom of Israel into two kingdoms, Israel and Judah (See History of ancient Israel and Judah). The history of Two House Theology raises questions when applied to modern peoples who are thought to be descendants of the two ancient kingdoms, both Jews and the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, the latter of which are thought to have migrated to Europe. Genesis 48:19 references "the fullness of the nations" Genesis 48:19.

Brief history[edit]

The ancient empire of Israel, controlling lands from the Euphrates River to the Egyptian border,[citation needed] became divided after King Solomon's reign passed unto his son Rehoboam in about 931 BCE. Rehoboam refused to grant the northern ten tribes relief from Solomon's taxation and they subsequently formed their own autonomous nation in the north, making Jeroboam I their king.
The Kingdom of Israel, the northern ten tribes, were taken into Assyrian captivity starting in 740 BCE, culminating in 721 BCE with the seizure of Samaria. Even after invitations to return, many years later, no large representation of the tribes ever returned to their former boundaries.
The Kingdom of Judah was taken into Babylonian Captivity between 597 and 586 BCE. The kings of Persia granted Judah permission to return to their lands, which they did, but the Roman-Jewish Wars took a significant toll which included the Destruction of the Second Temple and exile from Jerusalem (except for the day of Tisha B'Av) and the renaming of Roman Judaea to Syria Palaestina.
For greater detail, see History of ancient Israel and Judah.

Advocates[edit]

The factions, in the Two House dispute, are not limited to any one religion or denomination. Advocates and opponents are found within the various sects and ranks of Judaism, Messianic Judaism, and Christianity. (See list of Various Authors) Advocates take the general position that the ten tribes of the Kingdom of Israel have become a multitude of nations since their exile by the Assyrian Empire (740–722 BCE) and lengthy migrations before and particularly after the decline of the Parthian Empire, 200–700 CE (also known as the Great Migration Period).
It is believed that the ten tribes are not yet re-joined to the Kingdom of Judah in any large representation, though some small reunifications with Judah are believed to have happened in antiquity and are well documented to be happening in recent history in the modern nation of Israel.

Opponents[edit]

Many opponents of the theology claim that the lost tribes re-united with the Kingdom of Judah in the years leading up to and following Judah's return from their Babylonian Captivity in 537 BCE, hence they do not exist in the nations today other than in the form of the "Jews," those scattered by the Roman diaspora (70 CE) and subsequent Christian and Muslim exiles in later periods.
Some opponents take an agnostic position claiming that the lost tribes have been completely assimilated by and are unidentifiable in the nations of the world and hence could never have returned from their deportation by and into Assyria. Hence, "why dispute what is unknowable?"
Opposition also arises simply when Israelites are identified with people more "commonly" associated with Japheth, one of Noah's three sons. Interestingly, some Two House advocates won't deny some aspect of this argument, taking into account a prophetic verse: Genesis 9:27a "God enlarge Japheth, and let him dwell in the tents of Shem" (RSV). (Shem was another son of Noah, but also the ancestor of the Hebrews, Arabs, and many other ethnic groups according to genealogies found in the Hebrew Scriptures.)
Three of the major international Messianic Jewish groups reject the Two House Theology as being misguided at best, or at worst a Gentile cult seeking to make themselves appear as Jews. The Union of Messianic Jewish Congregations, the Messianic Jewish Association of America (which is an affiliation of the International Messianic Jewish Alliance[1]) and the Messianic Bureau International all proclaim the Messianic movement as a movement for Jewish believers in Yeshua and forbid the teaching that Gentiles may be of the lost tribes of Israel, or any reference to the two houses of Israel. This kind of thinking is best seen by the "Ephraimite Error"[2] white paper, produced in 1999, which several Two House proponents have responded to. These attitudes may come as a reaction to the cult of British-Israelism and is best epitomized by the Worldwide Church of God founded by Herbert W. Armstrong, and its many offshoots.
Many in Messianic Judaism have difficulty considering some of the claims of the Two House teaching. To them it is irrelevant and meaningless. Some would view Messianic Judaism's total avoidance of the issue and its dismissal of the Scriptures as a manifestation of Messianic Judaism's wide-scale avoidance of more important theological issues pertaining to the nature of Messiah, the composition and historicity of Scripture, and Messianic Judaism's engagement with modern society.

Earliest dispute[edit]

The earliest documentation of the dispute can be found in discussions taking place sometime before the 2nd century CE. The Mishnah records Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezar disagreeing on various points in regard to the return of the lost tribes.
The Babylonian Talmud (Mishnah) Sanhedrin 110b:
"The Ten Tribes will not return [to the Land of Israel], for it is said, 'And cast them into another land, as is this day: just as the day goes and does not return, so they too went and will not return.' This is R. Akiba's view. R. Eliezer said: 'As this day—just as the day darkens and then becomes light again, so the ten tribes—even as it went dark for them, so will it become light for them."[3]
The quote from Rabbi Akiva, however, should probably be understood in light of his disappointed belief that Simon ben Kosiba (surnamed Simon bar Kokhba) was the Messiah who would liberate the Jews from Rome, return the lost tribes and usher in the long-awaited Olam Haba. The failure of the Bar Kochba rebellion convinced Akiva that the lost tribes would not return at that time. It is probably a mistake to take Akiva's statement as a categorical denial of a return at any time.

House of Judah[edit]

According to many rabbis and historians, the Jews are largely descended from the House of Judah, the Southern Kingdom of Judah, chiefly consisting of the tribe of Judah, the tribe of Benjamin, with some of thetribe of Levi.

House of Joseph[edit]

Some historians, and especially Two House advocates, believe the Hebrew Scriptures indicate that the Kingdom of Israel, sometimes referred to as the "House of Joseph", never returned from their Assyrian Captivity 1 Chr 5:26.
The 1st century Jewish priest and historian, Josephus, writing near the turn of the 2nd century AD, affirmed that the Jews knew where the House of Israel had been taken captive a thousand years earlier:
…the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country [Media]; wherefore there are but two tribes [Judah and Benjamin] in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers.[4]
While the multitudinous nature of the exiled ten tribes may be somewhat exaggerated in the opinion of many, it is highly unlikely that Josephus would pen an outright falsehood regarding the Median location of the ten tribes when such a statement could be vociferously denied by his fellow-countrymen if the ten tribes had at any time in the past reunited with the Jews following the Babylonian Captivity.
As shown previously, the Talmud has Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer discussing the eventual return of the ten tribes approximately 900 years after the deportation occurred. For the advocate of the two house ideology, this is weighty evidence which indicates that the Northern Kingdom tribes of Israel did not return and unite with the Southern Kingdom of Judah prior to the 1st century.

Multiplication and re-unification[edit]

Two House groups also believe that many prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures indicate that the descendant nations of the ancient Kingdom of Israel will be re-united with the descendants of the ancient Kingdom of Judah. They frequently reference Ezekiel 37 (as below) and similar prophecies:
"16 Moreover, thou son of man, take thee one stick, and write upon it, For Judah, and for the children of Israel his companions: then take another stick, and write upon it, For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim and for all the house of Israel his companions: 17 And join them one to another into one stick; and they shall become one in thine hand. 18 And when the children of thy people shall speak unto thee, saying, Wilt thou not shew us what thou meanest by these? 19 Say unto them, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph, which is in the hand of Ephraim, and the tribes of Israel his fellows, and will put them with him, even with the stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they shall be one in mine hand." (vs. 16–19, KJV).
They also frequently quote from the Book of Hosea (chapters 1–3). In the first chapter (verses 2–9) God instructed this prophet of the Northern Kingdom to marry a prostitute (symbolic of the unfaithfulness of the northern tribes) and then gave two of Hosea’s children from this union Hebrew names signifying his rejection of the northern tribes: Lo-Ruchamah (Unpitied) and Lo-Ammi (Not my people). In Hosea 2:3, the eventual reversal of this judgment was indicated by means of a change in these names; and an accompanying change in the meanings of the names: Ruchamah (Pitied) and Ammi (My people). Hosea was told (3:3–5) that the northern tribes would be scattered among the Gentiles, that they would be in seclusion for a long time and become too numerous to be counted; but that in the "latter days," they would return in repentance and come trembling to their God and his goodness.
Two House Theology probably becomes most controversial when the ramifications of the Hebrew prophets are taken literally. The prophecy most poignant in the controversy is Genesis 48:19 which indicates that the tribe of Ephraim, half-tribe of Joseph, would become a “multitude of nations” (peoples/goyim), sometimes translated as “fullness of the nations”:
"But his father refused, and said, "I know, my son, I know; he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great; nevertheless his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations" (RSV).
According to advocates of Two House Theology, the passages above present a problem to those who think that the Jews are representative of all which is left of the twelve tribes of Israel. They argue, "the Jewshave not become nor have they ever been a multitude of nations". For a Two House advocate, a common answer is: "no large contingents of Northern Kingdom tribes have been re-united with the Jews of the Southern Kingdom, thus they still exist as various nations/peoples in the world today". Also, someone sympathetic to the Two House ideals may say things like, "the problem is not: the Creator of the Universe lied about Ephraim becoming a multitude of nations/peoples, but simply: we have failed to unravel the mysteries of who is who in the nations today."
There are others, who are more moderate in their approach to the Two House controversy, who choose to see it as an overlooked element in the eschatological restoration of Israel. They disregard the speculation and "pseudohistory" from British-Israel and other Christian Identity groups, adhering to Paul's directive not to pay attention to "endless genealogies which promote speculations rather than the divine training that is in faith" (1 Timothy 1:4, RSV). They leave scattered Israel as a matter to be determined by God, and prefer instead to recognize all believers as participants in its restoration. This growing position has gained sympathy with some in Messianic Judaism among those holding to the "One Law" position, where individuals can "agree to disagree" because the Two House teaching is a matter of eschatology, and thus not of a core theological nature.
Still others will contend that seven-eighths of scripture is undiscernable without first understanding the two house reality, certainly making it into a core theology, and not simply a matter of eschatology. For example, Prof. C. A. L. Totten [1851–1908], of Yale University, was quoted:[5]
"I can never be too thankful to the Almighty that in my youth he used the late Professor Wilson to show me the difference between the two houses. The very understanding of this difference is the KEY by which almost the entire Bible becomes intelligible, and I cannot state too strongly that the man who has not yet seen that Israel of the Scripture is totally distinct from the Jewish people, is yet in the very infancy, the mere alphabet, of Biblical study, and that to this day the meaning of seven-eighths of the Bible is shut to his understanding."

Missing links[edit]

For students of the Lost Tribes of Israel, including some Two House advocates, the Behistun Rock Inscription has provided an invaluable missing link, which adds credibility to where and who the Northern Kingdom Israelites were in the 5th century BCE and where they subsequently went in the following periods of their history.
George Rawlinson, Sir Henry Rawlinson's younger brother (translator of the Behistun Inscription), connected the Saka/Gimiri of the inscription with deported Israelites:
“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.” – George Rawlinson, note in his translation of History of Herodotus, Book VII, p. 378

Jehu son of Omri kneeling at the feet of Shalmaneser IIIon the Black Obelisk.
The Behistun Inscription connects the people known in Old Persian and Elamite as Saka, Sacae or Scythian with the people known in Babylonian as Gimirri or Cimmerian. This is important because the Assyrian's referred to the Northern Kingdom of Israel in their records as the "House of Khumri", named after Israel's King Omri of the 8th century BCE. Phonetically "Khumri", "Omri", and "Gimiri" are similar.[6]
"It should be made clear from the start that the terms 'Cimmerian' and 'Scythian' were interchangeable: in Akkadian the name Iskuzai (Asguzai) occurs only exceptionally. Gimirrai (Gamir) was the normal designation for 'Cimmerians' as well as 'Scythians' in Akkadian."[7]
In the photo of the Black Obelisk to the right, compare King Jehu's pointed Saka/Scythian style headdress, which is similar to the captive Saka/Scythian king seen to the far right on the Behistun Inscription.

Details disputed[edit]

Two House advocates generally agree on the big picture, but disagree on numerous details, especially when view points converge amongst Judaism,Messianic Judaism, and Christianity. Identifying specific nations and/or people groups is full of varying opinions and speculations. A great number of Two House advocates think that specific ethnicities can be identified with a particular tribe, and many others choose to let this be decided in the eschaton. Because of the newness of this theological movement, many advocates point out that these issues will have to be worked out over time.

Replacement theology?[edit]

Advocates of Two House Theology wish not to be confused with Replacement Theology or Supersessionism. They refute this label with statements like: “there are two houses, two ancient kingdoms, being discussed and identified, without one replacing the other. The two are brothers who should not trouble each other as they did in their ancient past.” Replacement Theologians virtually make the claim that “the Jews have been replaced by the church”. Such persons may say things like, “We are Israel now.” Two House advocates make no such claims and respectively identify the Jews as Israelites from the Kingdom of Judah.

See also[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Jump up^ International Messianic Jewish Alliance: Affiliated National Alliances.
  2. Jump up^ Silberling, Kay, Ph.D. "The Ephraimite Error", A Position Paper Submitted to the International Messianic Jewish Alliance.
  3. Jump up^ Sanhedrin 110b.
  4. Jump up^ Antiquities of the Jews, 11.5.2, from The Works of Josephus, translated by Whiston, W., Hendrickson Publishers. 1987. 13th Printing. p 294
  5. Jump up^ Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, by Rev. J. H. Allen, Destiny Publishers. Seventeenth Edition, 1917, p. 79
  6. Jump up^ Capt, E. Raymond, Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets Artisan Pub, 1985 ISBN 0-934666-15-6
  7. Jump up^ Van Loon, Maurits Nanning. "Urartian Art. Its Distinctive Traits in the Light of New Excavations", Istanbul, 1966. p. 16

External links[edit]




French Israelism (also called Franco-Israelism) is the pseudohistorical belief that people of Frankish descent are also the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel, and it is often accompanied by the belief that the Merovingian dynasty is directly descended from the line of King David.
One of the earliest scholars to claim that he could trace the ten lost tribes of Israel to France was the French Huguenot writer, Jacques Abbadie, who fled French Roman Catholic persecution and later settled in London, England. In his important 1723 work, The Triumph Of Providence, he wrote:
God opened, as one might say, the tomb of the Ten Tribes by the conversion of the Northern Peoples... Certainly, unless the Ten Tribes have flown into the air, or been plunged into the center of the earth, we must look for them in the North, and in that part of the North, which at the time of Constantine was converted to the Christian faith...The Ten Tribes have since seen conversion into Christian nations, which they are, having thousands of God-fearing ministers in their midst, a people marked by physical possession of the Gospel as servants of God, and reunited with many of their brethren of Judah in the Christian church. This explanation allows us to see the historical fulfillment of the prophetic picture in the Gothic warriors, prepared for conquest, destined for empire, and ancestors of the tribes who inhabit this nation [France].(Translation from the French by M.F. Bennett, The Servant People, [1])
The claim became the foundation for the Priory of Sion hoax created by Pierre Plantard and Philippe de Chérisey in the 1960s, and it was further popularized in 1982 with the book The Holy Blood and the Holy Grail,[1] and in 2003 with the DaVinci Code.
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