Ancient Jewish texts on the Lost 10 Tribes of Israel
by Mikkel S. Kragh
Among modern Jews there are many who believe that the 10 Tribes are not part of the Jewish
people, while there are also many Jews who believe they are. One notable Jew who holds the former
view is the orthodox Rabbi Shmuley Boteach (born 1966), whom Newsweek magazine called “the
most famous rabbi in America”. In his best-selling book Judaism for Everyone (2002), he wrote:
“An Israelite is someone who is a descendant of Jacob... Aer the dispersion of the ten tribes, the
Israelites were referred to as Jews because the remainder of the Jewish naon, those who today
form the bulk of the Jewish people - all stem from the tribe of Judah.” (Shmuley Boteach: Judaism for
Everyone (2002), p. 387)
The Jews of the 3rd century BC to 2nd century AD believed the 10 Tribes were far away
Many modern Jews believe that the 10 Tribes are not part of the Jewish people. Furthermore, among
the Jews in the 1st and 2nd centuries AD, it was taken for granted that the 10 northern tribes of
Israel were not part of the Jewish people, and they were far away and separated for such a long me
that they had become “lost”. Jews who lived 500-800 years aer the Assyrian invasion and
deportaon of the 10 Tribes are obviously more reliable sources for what happened to the 10 Tribes
than Jews who live 2,700 years later.
The authoritave Encyclopedia Judaica writes: “The belief in the connued existence of the ten
tribes was regarded as an incontroverble fact during the whole period of the Second Temple and of
the Talmud. Tobit, the hero of the apocryphal book of his name, was depicted as a member of the
tribe of Naphtali; the Testament of the 12 Patriarchs takes their existence as a fact; and in his h
vision, IV Ezra (13:34–45) saw a 'peaceable multude… these are the ten tribes which were carried
away prisoners out of their own land.' Josephus (Ant., 11:133) states as a fact 'the ten tribes are
beyond the Euphrates ll now, and are an immense multude and not to be esmated in numbers.'
Paul (Acts 26:6) protests to Agrippa that he is accused 'for the hope of the promise made unto our
fathers, unto which promise our twelve tribes, instantly serving God, hope to come,' while James
addresses his epistle to 'the twelve tribes which are scaered about' (1:1). The only opposing voice
to this otherwise universal view is found in the Mishnah. [Rabbi] Eliezer expresses his view that they
will eventually return and 'aer darkness is fallen upon the ten tribes light shall thereaer dwell
upon them,' but [Rabbi] Akiva expresses his emphac view that 'the ten tribes shall not return again'
(Sanh. 10:3).” (Encyclopaedia Judaica, 2nd ed., Vol. 19 (2007), p. 639)
The reason that Rabbi Akiva believed the 10 Tribes would not return was not because he did not
believe they existed outside the Jewish people, but because he supported the false messiah Bar
Kokhba and his disastrous revolt against Rome in AD 132-135. Rabbi Akiva believed that Bar Kokhba
and Judah (the Jews) would succeed in gaining control of the land of Israel without the 10 Tribes
joining them. He was proven wrong.
Book of Tobit
The Book of Tobit is a part of the Apocrypha. The Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox churches
view the Book of Tobit as canonical, while Protestants view it as non-canonical, but useful for
edicaon and liturgy. It is believed to have been wrien down in the 3rd or 2nd centuries BC,
although it takes place in the 8th century BC. Tobit was a God-fearing Israelite of the tribe of Naphtali
who along with the rest of the 10 Tribes was taken capve by the Assyrians and placed in northern
Assyria. Tobit and his family were placed in Nineveh. Tobit's relave Sarah was placed in Ectabana in
Media and she married Tobit's son Tobias:
“The book of the words of Tobit, son of Tobiel, the son of Ananiel, the son of Aduel, the son of
Gabael, of the seed of Asael, of the tribe of Nephtali; Who in the me of Enemessar [Shalmaneser]
king of the Assyrians was led capve out of Thisbe, which is at the right hand of that city, which is
called properly Nephtali in Galilee above Aser. I Tobit have walked all the days of my life in the way of
truth and jusce, and I did many almsdeeds to my brethren, and my naon, who came with me to
Nineve, into the land of the Assyrians. And when I was in mine own country, in the land of Israel,
being but young, all the tribe of Nephtali my father fell from the house of Jerusalem, which was
chosen out of all the tribes of Israel, that all the tribes should sacrice there, where the temple of
the habitaon of the most High was consecrated and built for all ages. Now all the tribes which
together revolted, and the house of my father Nephtali, sacriced unto the heifer Baal. But I alone
went oen to Jerusalem to the feasts...” (Tobit 1:1-6)
“And I went into Media, and le in trust with Gabael, the brother of Gabrias, at Rages a city of Media
ten talents of silver.” (Tobit 2:14)
“And it came to pass the same day that in Ectabane a city of Media Sara the daughter of Raguel was
also reproached by her father's maids;” (Tobit 3:7)
Whether the Book of Tobit is based on older informaon and only wrien down in the 3rd or 2nd
cen. BC, or if it is a conal story wrien down in the 3rd or 2nd cen. BC, it does show that the Jews
of the 3rd and 2nd cen. BC took it for granted that the 10 Tribes of Israel were far away and that the
10 Tribes were not a part of the Jewish people.
Flavius Josephus
Flavius Josephus was a leader in the Jewish rebellion against Rome AD 66-73, but surrendered and
became a historian. Next to the Bible his books are some of the most quoted sources concerning
ancient Israel and the Jews in the 1st century AD. Josephus writes that the Assyrians deported ALL
the Israelites of the northern kingdom of the 10 Tribes out of the land of Israel and seled them in
Media and Persia:
“WHEN Shalmaneser, the king of Assyria, had told him, that [Hoshea] the king of Israel had sent
privately to So, the king of Egypt, desiring his assistance against him, he was very angry, and made an
expedion against Samaria, in the seventh year of the reign of Hoshea; but when he was not
admied [into the city] by the king, he besieged Samaria three years, and took it by force in the ninth
year of the reign of Hoshea, and in the seventh year of Hezekiah, king of Jerusalem, and quite
demolished the government of the Israelites, and transplanted all the people into Media and Persia,
among whom he took king Hoshea alive; and when he had removed these people out of their land,
he transplanted other naons out of Cuthah, a place so called, (for there is [sll] a river of that name
in Persia,) into Samaria, and into the country of the Israelites. So the ten tribes of the Israelites were
removed out of Judea, nine hundred and forty-seven years aer their forefathers were come out of
the land of Egypt, and possessed themselves of this country...” (Flavius Josephus: Anquies of the
Jews, IX, XIV, 1, p. 211)
Apocalypse of Baruch
The Apocalypse of Baruch is a book ascribed to Baruch, the scribe who wrote down the Book of
Jeremiah and Lamentaons. Protestants and Judaism regard it as pseudepigraphic ('falsely ascribed
to an author') while Catholics and Orthodox churches view it as Deuterocanonical ('belonging to the
second canon'). Scholars believe it was wrien down someme between AD 70 and 130.
According to the author of the Apocalypse of Baruch, the 10 Tribes of Israel were separated from the
Jewish people and lived beyond the Euphrates:
“And it came to pass in the twenty-h year of Jeconiah king of Judah, that the word of the Lord
came to Baruch the son of Neriah, and said to him, 'Hast thou seen all that this people are doing to
Me, that the evil which these two tribes which remained have done are greater than (those of) the
ten tribes which were carried away capve? For the former tribes were forced by their kings to
commit sin, but these two of themselves have been forcing and compelling their kings to commit
sin.” (Apocalypse of Baruch 1:1-3)
“These are the words of that epistle which Baruch the son of Neriah send to the nine and a half
tribes, which were across the river Euphrates in which these things were wrien. Thus saith Baruch
the son of Neriah to the brethren carried into capvity: 'Mercy and peace...'” (Apocalypse of Baruch
78:1-2)
No maer who wrote the Apocalypse of Baruch (it was not Baruch), it does reect a mainstream
Jewish view of the 10 Tribes shortly aer the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.
2nd Esdras
The Apocryphal book of 2nd Esdras is a pseudepigraphic book ('falsely ascribed to' Ezra (Esdras) of
the Old Testament). Most scholars believe 2nd Esdras is wrien around AD 100. But some believe
that Jesus quoted numerous mes from 2nd Esdras in the Olivet Discourse (Ma chap. 24-25), which
would make 2nd Esdras considerably older. In any case, 2nd Esdras was wrien by Jews who stuck to
Pharisaical Judaism, and it was viewed by the Jews as an important book because it was copied and
we sll have it today. Regardless of when 2nd Esdras was wrien we know that it reects a
mainstream view of Jews living in the 1st cen. AD. In 2nd Esdras there is a passage about the 10
Tribes of Israel, which, the author writes, had been carried away by the Assyrians and were now
living in a distant land:
“And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable multude unto him; Those are the
ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the me of Osea the king,
whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away capve, and he carried them over the waters, and so
came they into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves, that they would leave
the multude of the heathen, and go forth into a further country, where never mankind dwelt, that
they might there keep their statutes, which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into
the Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river. For the most High then shewed signs for them,
and held sll the ood, ll they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to
go, namely, of a year and a half: and the same region is called Arsareth.” (2nd Esdras 13:39-45)
We therefore see that Jewish authories from the 3rd cen. BC to approx. 100 AD took it for granted
that the 10 Tribes of Israel were not a part of the Jewish people, but that the 10 Tribes were
somewhere out in the world, even though they did not know exactly where they were and which
names they called themselves by.
Jewish authories who lived less than 1000 years aer the deportaon of the 10 Tribes of Israel by
the Assyrian Empire around 721 BC are, of course, more reliable witnesses than modern Jewish
authories. But, as we shall see in the following studies, the Talmud and a multude of later Jewish
authories also took it for granted that the 10 Tribes of Israel were not a part of the Jewish people.
