The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel

Part 2

by Åsmund Kaspersen

Exodus

It is a historical, indisputable fact that the bulk of ten of the twelve tribes of Israel, along with a number of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, were taken away to northern Assyria in the years 740 to 715 BC. This deportation of Israelites is described both in the Bible and written and depicted on Assyrian cuneiform tablets and reliefs from that time. What creates problems for many, if not most, is: What happened to these tribes and their descendants? What happened to the millions of Hebrews who were descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob? Were they assimilated into the Assyrian Empire, as some claim, and somehow disappeared? Or were they scattered around the earth, diluted by intermarriage and in other ways, and disappeared in that way, as others claim? These two theories are in direct conflict with the eternal covenants God established with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Israel). A third theory is that the Hebrews migrated from northern Assyria into Europe, thus forming the origin of the white, European race (the Caucasians) — the Christian nations of northern Europe. We must never forget that God’s promise to Abraham was that his descendants would become exceedingly numerous. So where are they found today? It is quite clear that this is not about today’s Jews, who cannot be said to be particularly numerous. They are currently a small minority (about 16 million) of the world’s population.

Archaeology has, through a number of interesting discoveries, solved two major problems:

1) What happened to the hundreds of thousands of Israelites who “disappeared” south of the Caucasus?

2) What was the ethnic origin of the Cimmerians and the mysterious, nomadic tribes that went by the name of Scythians, a people which suddenly appeared north of the Caucasus, and at the same time in history? As we will discover, both of these peoples were Israelites. It was just an ethnic regrouping. Where one disappeared, the other appeared.

This article defends the theory that the Hebrews migrated further into the then largely unpopulated European continent and gave rise to a number of European nations and royal houses. There is much evidence from both history and archaeology, folklore, traditions and legends, which supports this theory. As we will eventually discover, it is both logical and reasonable, and is in harmony with the Bible.

As we will also discover, a number of Hebrews emigrated westward from the time Israel was in Egypt and later, as the urge to travel became too great and the land of Canaan too narrow. This applies especially to the tribe of Dan, but also to Judah.

Unconditional promises

We have seen that the great heroes of faith in the Bible, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, on repeated occasions received unconditional promises from God that their descendants would become a multitude of nations. These promises were later repeated for both Isaac and Jacob.

There are several things in these promises that we should note:

1. The descendants of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob would become immensely numerous.

2. They would become a multitude of nations.

3. Kings would come out of them, that is, they would establish monarchies.

4. They would spread to the north, south, east and west, i.e. in all directions.

5. In them all the families of the earth would be blessed.

6. These promises were given without conditions to the three patriarchs Abraham, Isaac and Jacob (Israel).

Furthermore, we should note that the promise was first given to Abraham. Abraham, however, had several children: his son Ishmael by his slave woman Hagar, as well as six sons by Keturah. Both the descendants of Ishmael and the other six sons were, of course, also Abraham’s children, who come under the promise that Abraham’s seed would become exceedingly numerous. However, it was Isaac, Abraham’s only son by Sarah, who was blessed in a special way, and who served as a type of the coming Savior. It was to Isaac that God repeated the promises his father had received. Isaac was the son of the promise. These promises were finally transferred to Jacob, Isaac’s son. It was the twelve sons of Jacob (Israel), as well as Joseph’s two sons, Manasseh and Ephraim, from whom the seed of promise would come. These twelve (fourteen, if we count Ephraim and Manasseh) individuals were the forefathers of the twelve tribes of Israel, and their descendants were to become as numerous as “the dust of the earth”; they were to become “a multitude of peoples” (nations), and “all the families of the earth should be blessed” in them. Here is a very important point that many Bible scholars have overlooked: From the tenth chapter of Genesis, the Old Testament is essentially the story of one man and his descendants - Abraham and his seed, the twelve tribes of Israel. These were later divided into “the house of Israel” and “the house of Judah.” This runs like a common thread from Genesis to Malachi. It is the story of Abraham’s seed from A to Z. This thread is also spun further in the New Testament. Genesis tells of the origin of the seed, and then we can read about their selection, division, apostasy, and deportation. The prophets tell of their restoration in the latter days. If we do not understand this correctly, most of the Old Testament will be irrelevant to us living today. Do not forget that the Old Testament prophets did not write so much for their own time as they wrote for the latter days. This is where true Israel comes into the picture, both the “spiritual” Israel and the literal true Israel! And true Israel of the flesh is not the Jews of today, as we have discussed earlier.

Disappeared?

We have also discussed how the “house of Israel,” i.e. the Northern Kingdom, where ten of Israel’s twelve tribes had settled with Samaria as its capital, was taken away to northern Assyria in the years 740–721 BC. Since then, no one has heard anything from them. In any case, it is clear that the majority of the ten tribes of Israel never returned to their homeland. It was more than one million people. What became of them?

Before we go into more detail about Israel’s migrations from northern Assyria and into Europe, there is another important point we should note.

Early Exodus

The exodus from Egypt took place around 1437 BC. Forty years later, their descendants crossed the Jordan and set foot in the Promised Land (approximately 1397 BC). From that time until the captivity in Assyria, over 700 years passed. Here a major problem arises.

1. Did God say that the children of Israel would become exceedingly fruitful and spread out to all the four corners of the earth?

2. The land of Canaan, where the twelve tribes of Israel settled, was not large in area, approximately 20,000 square kilometers.

3. 700 years is a long time.

Between one and two million people went into the land of Canaan. Since they were supposed to be exceedingly fruitful, one must ask: How large was the population in 721 BC, 700 years later? Obviously not very large. Either fertility had been rather poor in the past, or other factors came into play.

Would there have been room for all these people in such a small area after 700 years, even with a conservative population growth rate? During the 215 years that Israel was in Egypt, they had increased from 70 people to somewhere between 1 and 2 million people. This is equivalent to a doubling of the population every 14 years! “And the children of Israel were fruitful, and increased abundantly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty; and the land was filled with them.” (Exodus 1:7 and 9). In 1 Chronicles 21:5 we read that in the time of King David there were 1.1 million men of war in all Israel, as well as 470,000 men of war in Judah. This means that in the time of King David/King Solomon there were somewhere between 5 and 6 million Hebrews in the land of Israel. This was about 500 years after the children of Israel took possession of the land. This is only a slight tripling of the population in 500 years! Normally — and conservatively — it should have doubled in 100 years. It seems strange, to say the least, that a people that had an explosive growth from 70 people to about two million in 215 years (doubling every 14 years) only tripled its population in 500 years.

It is reasonable that a number of Hebrews emigrated during the Egyptian period, and especially westward. An exodus also occurred during the 700 years that Israel stayed in the land of Canaan. A number of historical finds indicate this. Gradually, the Israelites expanded westward and northward. This applies in particular to the tribe of Dan, who were seafarers and distinguished themselves by their adventurous spirit and thirst for adventure. There is also evidence that suggests that the Hellenes, the Phoenicians, the Minoan culture of Crete, the Trojans, settlements in Ireland, Scotland and England, as well as settlements along the Spanish coast and elsewhere — even in America — had their origin to a greater or lesser extent in emigrant Hebrews long before the captivity in Assyria. The evidence points in the direction that the seed of Shem, who was blessed above all other peoples (Genesis 9:26), was to a large extent the origin of the great cultures of the Western world, from the Hellenes to the Europeans. It is they who have been to the greatest extent the bearers of culture and have been responsible for the great discoveries and inventions with which the world has been enriched. It is also their descendants, white, Christian Europe (and the American people, who are largely descended from Europeans) who have brought the Gospel to all peoples. Do not forget that they were to be a light to the "nations" and that all the families of the earth were to be blessed through them (Isaiah 49:6; Genesis 12:3; 18:18; 26:4; 28:14). This has no racist connotation, but is simply an undeniable historical fact that must be pointed out. New archaeological discoveries are constantly being made, not least in the United States, which confirm this. That the Hebrews, who were eventually so numerous and fertile, emigrated to other parts of the Western world is no stranger than the fact that Europeans and others emigrated to the United States in recent times.

Exodus from Assyria

In the apocryphal book of 4th Ezra (2nd Ezra), written in the first to third centuries AD, we can read the following:

“And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable multitude unto him; Those are the ten tribes, which were carried away prisoners out of their own land in the time of Osea the king, whom Salmanasar the king of Assyria led away captive, 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 multitude 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 Euphrates by the narrow places of the river. For the most High then shewed signs for them, and held still the flood, till 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. Then dwelt they there until the latter time; and now when they shall begin to come, The Highest shall stay the springs of the stream again, that they may go through: therefore sawest thou the multitude with peace.” (4th Esdras 13:39-47)

Here we find confirmation that Israel was taken captive, as well as an interesting historical clue. The term Arsareth comes from a Hebrew word meaning “another land.” About 600 BC, the Lydians drove the Gimerians (Cimmerians, more on these later) out of Asia Minor, and they settled in the Carpathian regions west of the Black Sea. This is where Ezra locates them as the Arsareth people. Traces of the name Arsareth can be found today in northern Crimea. One of the rivers that flows from the Carpathians into the Danube is called Sereth.

The Jewish historian Flavius Josephus (Joseph Ben Matthias, 37 to about 100 AD) also has something to say about the ten tribes of Israel who were taken captive to Assyria 800 years earlier:

“There are only two tribes in Asia and Europe that are subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are to this day on the other side of the Euphrates, and are a great multitude that cannot be numbered.” (Antiquities of the Jews, book 20, chapter 5, section 2.) Between the Black Sea and the Caspian Sea are the Caucasus Mountains. The Assyrian empire extended all the way to the sources of the Euphrates and the Caucasus. It was to these regions that ten of the tribes of Israel were taken captive by the Assyrian kings. It is the regions south of the Caspian Sea that are the cradle of the white, European race - otherwise called the Caucasian race or the Nordic race, “the white man.” Why is this race of people called the “Caucasian race?” That is because scientists trace them back to the Caucasus region. And why can't they trace it further than that? Because they would then have to enter biblical territory, which with their evolutionary philosophy they avoid at all costs. This attitude among today's scientists is more than regrettable.

In these areas, ancient Israel disappears from history and the Anglo-Saxons, the Goths and a number of other tribes appear. The ten tribes of Israel were never "lost". They only lost their identity during their centuries-long migration westward from Assyria. They moved into Europe and became the origin of the white, European race, and I write these things from a factual angle, without "racist" overtones. It must be permissible to shed light on a number of irrefutable, historical/anthropogeographical/ethnological/ethnographic facts without being accused of being "racist", which is, by the way, one of the most worn-out platitudes of the time.

The vast majority of migrations have taken the easiest route, along the river valleys. Israel's wanderings through the Caucasus have left their mark. To this day, there are many landmarks that tell of their wanderings. Through the study of inscriptions on tombstones and otherwise, we can conclude that the people who settled in northern France, southern Spain, the British Isles, and the Nordic countries, including Norway, were the "lost" sheep of the house of Israel. Many of these later emigrated to Canada, America, Australia, and other places. "You shall become a multitude of nations" was God's promise to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.

Scythians

"Scythians. A people originally from Central Asia. In the areas north of the Black Sea, the Scythians founded a kingdom that lasted from the 8th to 7th centuries BC to about the 2nd century BC." (Encyclopædia Britannica, 1974 edition Micropædia, volume 9, article ‘Scythians’.)

Have you ever wondered where the various peoples came from? In the above-mentioned encyclopedia we read that the Scythians originally came from Central Asia, but how did they get there? Did they arise spontaneously in this area, or did they come from somewhere else? The answer is simple and straightforward: They must have come there from somewhere else. Who were the Scythians, and where did they come from?

The Scythians also went by other names. Among other things, they were known as the Sakai. The Greek historian Herodotus (circa 484 to 424 BC) says that the Persians called the Scythians the Sakai.

The famous Assyriologist Sir Henry Rawlinson (1810-95) interpreted a number of Assyrian cuneiform tablets where this name occurs, and the Rev. B.W. Savile traced these Sakai back to the ten tribes of Israel, that is, the population of Samaria, who were taken away by the Assyrian kings Tiglath-Pileser and Sargon about 721 BC.

In Hebrew, Scyth means "wanderer". Henry Rawlinson stated that the name Sakai, as it appears in the Acomenion Tablets, is an Aryan term, and is replaced by Gimiri in the Babylonian translations of the Persian and Scythian inscriptions. Rawlinson further states that Gimiri means "tribes", and is the Semitic equivalent of the Aryan term Saka. The name Saka or Sakai (Scythians) first occurs in cuneiform inscriptions from about 648 BC. The name Saka, says Rawlinson, probably refers to the worship of God under this name, or to one of their own names. It is probably derived from tsaki, Sakites, Isakites or Beth-Isaak - House of Isaac. See, for example, Amos 7:9 and 16.

After the deportation, the house of Israel can be traced by their two names: “Beth-Omri” (“House of Omri”). Omri was the founder of Samaria (1 Kings 16:23-24), and “Isaac,” by the derivations Saka, Sakai, Sakasuna, and other variants, all derived from Isaac. Professor Sharon Turner (1768-1847) says in his book History of the Anglo-Saxons that the Sakai, who in Latin were called Sacae, were a Scythian nation, and were called Saca, Sacki, and Sach-sen.

In the Crimean Peninsula, the Scythians were known as Scolotoi, while the Greeks called them Skuthe or Skuthae. All variants of Sakai are translated as Scythian.

The Babylonians called the Scythians Gimirra or Gimiri, while the Romans also called them Kimirri, and the Greeks Kimmeroi. In English, all these variants of Gimiri are translated as Cimmerian. Henry Rawlinson, who deciphered the Behistun Rock in western Iran, says that the ethnic name Gimri appears in cuneiform in the time of Darius. It is equivalent to the Greek Cimmeroi, and the Welsh Khumri. Rawlinson also believed that there were reasonable grounds for regarding the Cimri or Cimmerians, who first appeared in Media and Assyria in the 7th century BC, and the Sacae on the Behistun Rock nearly two hundred years later, as identical with the House of Israel.

From the regions north of the Black Sea, the Scythians migrated further west and reached the Baltic Sea, which was formerly called Pelagus Scythium, the Sea of the Scythians. Professor Sharon Turner has the following interesting observation: "The wandering Scythians crossed the Araxes River, came out of Asia, and suddenly appeared in Europe in the 6th century BC." (History of the Anglo-Saxons) From the regions of northern Assyria and the Black Sea, where 2nd Ezra and Josephus place Israel, emerged the Cimmerians, Gimri, Sacae, Getae, Massagetae, and Scythians. They later became known as Goths, Danes, Normans, Angles, and Saxons. The Sacai also migrated north to the Jaxartes River, where they founded the city of Samarkand, which means “New Samaria.” Ancient Samaria was, as we know, the capital of northern Israel. The city of Samarkand, one of the oldest cities in Central Asia, is located in Uzbekistan and is about 2,700 years old. Alexander the Great, who destroyed the city, knew it by the name of Maracanda.

Herodotus (Book 4), however, makes it clear that not all Scythians were of the same race. Some were civilized cultivators, while others were wild, Slavic, Turanian nomads.

Herodotus refers to the Sakai as civilized. He also mentions the Getae, and that the land they lived in along the banks of the Danube was called Moesia - the land of Moses’ people.

The ancient historians Diodorus, Strabo, Herodotus, and others mention that the Scythians, like the Israelites, considered pigs an abomination. They never sacrificed such animals, and would not even raise them. It is striking that the Scythians, who had all the characteristics of the Israelites, came from the very same areas to which Israel was deported.

Archaeologists have unearthed many stone tablets with inscriptions that tell of the Assyrians who abducted the Israelites. These tablets were found in Nineveh in 1909, and the translations were published in 1930. The tablets, which date to about 707 B.C., have provided important clues to follow, describing the activities of a people called the Gimira, who lived in the land of Gamir. The descriptions of this land agree with the area to which the Israelites were deported, namely northern Assyria.

In 679 B.C., the Israelites, or Gimira, sought freedom by migrating north under the leadership of a man named Teuspa. However, the Assyrians overtook them in the upper Euphrates district and defeated them. However, a larger number of Israelites made their way across the Caucasus to the Black Sea region. Those who did not escape the Assyrians entered into an alliance with the Assyrian king Esarhaddon, and were allowed to settle in the Sacasas in the north and Bactria in the east. After the fall of Assyria in 612 BC, those who had settled in the Sacaces migrated over the Dariel Pass in the Caucasus Mountains into the steppes of southern Russia. There they became known as Scythians. Those who had settled in Bactria were forced north-eastward, and were known by the Persians as the Massageta and Sacae.

Dr. George Moore states: “The Sacaces and Getae, who formerly invaded India, sprang from the same source as the Saxons and Goths in the west, and were directly related to the Israelites or a people who spoke their language.” (Quoted in E. Raymond Capt: Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets, p. 226.)

Goths

The Scythians later became known as Goths or Gothi, probably because the Getae, who formed an important part of the Scythians, were the ones who most frequently came into contact with the Romans, who called them Gothi. From the areas north of the Black Sea, the Scythians continued north-westward and reached the Baltic Sea, where they became known as Goths. The Goths occupied, among other things, the largest island in the Baltic Sea, Gotland, which is named after the Goths. The Swedish city Gothenburg (Swedish: Göteborg) and the Göta River are also named after the Goths.

Dr. George Moore says in his work British History Traced from Egypt and Palestine that — “The name Goths was, as we have already mentioned, probably transferred from Palestine to the areas around the Caspian Sea, where the Getae, Sacai, Goths and Saxons historically lived together” (page 13).

The Saxons

Two of the ancient historians, Albinus and Ptolemy, report that the Saxons were a Scythian race called the Sakai, who came from Media, where Israel was deported. Ptolemy mentions, among other things, a Scythian people who descended from the Sacai, who were called Saxons. The word Saxon is probably derived from "sons of Isaac". Many Eastern languages write Sunni for "sons of. . ." "Son of Isaac" then becomes Saac-sunnia. See, for example, F. Wallace Connon: Documents of Destiny, London 1958. Professor Sharon Turner, who is considered one of the foremost experts on Anglo-Saxon history, says in his book History of the Anglo-Saxons (1799 to 1805) that the Anglo-Saxons descended from the Scythians who came to Europe from the cities of the Medes on the Gozan River. Exactly where Israel was taken away! “And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:” (2 Kings 18:11). Professor Turner further says that the Danes and Jutes are Israelites of the tribe of Dan.

Historical and archaeological evidence indicates that the Saxons were largely descended from the Western Scythians (Israelites) who migrated through the Caucasus into Europe in the 6th century B.C. Professor Sharon Turner states:

"The Anglo-Saxons, Lowland Scots, Normans, and Danes have all sprung from this great source of the race we have called Scythians and Goths. . . . The first Scythian tribes first appeared in Europe in the seventh century B.C. . . 'The Scythians, formerly few and insignificant, dwelt within a narrow region of the Araxes, but gradually extended their borders on all sides until at last they raised their kingdom to great glory.' [Diodorus]. . . The wandering Scythians crossed the Araxes River, migrated out of Asia, and suddenly appeared in Europe in the sixth century B.C.." (Reprinted in The National Message, December 24, 1927).

The Germans

Eventually, the Sarmatians, a mixed, non-Israelite people, drove the Scythians northwest into Europe towards the Baltic Sea. At this time, the Romans introduced the name Germanic instead of Scythian, probably to avoid confusing them with the Sarmatians, who now occupied the former Scythia. The word Germanic is a Latin expression meaning "true", indicating that the Germans were the true Scythians. The Germanic tribes divided into other branches: Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Danes, Vikings, Burgundians, Lombards, Franks and others.

Celts and Gauls

The Scythians fought the Cimmerians and drove them west and north, where they became known as Celts, Gauls, and Cimbri. They fought their own people, as the ties of kinship had been lost over the centuries. At this time, in the 4th century BC, the Celts were expanding in all directions from Central Europe. Some of them invaded Italy and sacked Rome in 390 BC, while others migrated to Asia Minor, where the Greeks called them Galatians. It was to these descendants of the house of Israel that Paul wrote the Epistle to the Galatians. Some Celts migrated into Spain and became known there as Iberians—a Gaelic name for Hebrews. The Iberian Peninsula and the Ebro River in Spain are named after Eber, who was the ancestor of the Hebrews and Abraham (Genesis 10:24-25; 11:14-17). In the time of King Solomon (about 1000 BC) there was a flourishing Israelite colony at Tarshish in Spain, where the port city of Cadiz is now located. A stone inscription to Adoniram, who was Solomon’s overseer, has been found near Seville, Spain.

Other Celts migrated to the British Isles and formed the foundation of the English people.

It seems that the general term “Celts” was used to refer to the Cimmerians (Cymry), the Belgae, and several smaller tribes, all of whom were the first inhabitants of the British Isles and probably parts of Spain and Portugal. There is evidence to suggest that the first Celts who came by sea to Ireland, in addition to speaking Hebrew (they were Israelites after all), also had a written language - Ogham.

This article by Åsmund Kaspersen is translated from the article Israels ti tapte stammer Del 2 published in the Norwegian magazine innsyn (‘insight’), Vol. 1, 2002. It is translated from Norwegian by Mikkel S. Kragh.