1 Ki. 14:15, God “shall scatter” Israel “beyond the river,” not
all in one place.
2 Ki. 10:32, “In those days the Lord began to cut off parts of Israel...” –before
their final complete exile.
2 Ki. 17:6, The Assyrian king “captured Samaria and exiled Israel”
Deut. 29:28, “cast them into another land, as it is this day”
Isa. 5:26 “the end of the earth”
Isa. 11:11-12, “the four corners of the earth”
Isa. 27:13 (Vulgate), “those lost from the land of Assyria”
Isa. 49:9, “say to the prisoners, Go forth; to them that are in darkness, Show
yourselves.” An address to the lost ten tribes according to Jewish midrash “Pesikta
Rabbati 31:10”
Isa.
49:21, (Ten Tribes:) “where had they been?”
Jer. 15:4, “I will cause them to be removed into
all kingdoms of the earth”
Hos. 2:14, “I will allure her, and bring her into the wilderness,”
not a return to Canaan.
Hos. 8:8, “Israel is swallowed up now among the nations”
Hos. 9:17, “wanderers among the nations”
Ezra 1:15, ONLY “Judah and Benjamin” returned; remaining ten tribes did not return
“Israel and Judah... developed more or less independent of the other, Israel
in the north and Judah in the south; and only gradually did circumstances bring
them together, and then came the inevitable clash of interests, religious as
well as political.” –"Hebrew Origins," Theophile
James Meek, 1936, p.76
“Israel as a kingdom was never restored from Assyria, as Judah was from Babylon
after 70 years.” –Jamieson, Faucett, Brown Commentary, p.650
“There never was a real return from the exile, although some individuals doubtless
returned...the captivity of Israel did not actually terminate at 538 [B.C.], nor,
in fact, ever.” –Geo. Ricker Berry, Colgate-Rochester Divinity School, “Was Ezekiel
in the Exile?” pp.89, 92 (Journal of Biblical Literature 49 (1930)
“Many of the towns in southern Judah and Simeon were not reoccupied after the
exile. This process was quite as disastrous as it is portrayed in the Old Testament...”
–Thos. Davis, “Shifting Sands,” Oxford Univ. Press, 2004
“That the Redeemer comes ‘from Zion’ [Isa. 59:20] for Israel implies that Israel
is in exile...” –G.K. Beale and D.A. Carson, “Commentary on the New Testament
Use of the Old Testament,” Baker Academic, 2007, p.674
“The exile, into all lands, among all nations, was as irrevocably decreed as was
the destruction of the city.” –Charles C. Torrey, Yale University, Journal of
Biblical Literature 56 (1937), p.206
“...the returnees came only from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin —the exiles
in Babylon. The ten tribes did not return...the loss of the [ten] tribes marked
the greatest demographic defeat inscribed in Jewish memory since Biblical times.”
–Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, “The Ten Lost Tribes: A World History,” Oxford Univ. Press,
2009, pp.17, 117
“Evidently it was a token return...” –Frank Moore Cross, Harvard University, “A
Reconstruction Of The Judean Restoration,” Journal of Biblical Literature 94 (1975),
p.15
“The tree of Israel, grown from one root with various branches, was cut into pieces.”
–John Calvin, cited in Boer, “John Calvin,” pp. 190-191
“The ten [tribes] which had previously been carried away being scattered among
the Parthians, Medes, Indians, and Ethiopians never returned to their native country,
and are to this day held under the sway of barbarous nations.” –Sulpitius Severus
(circa. 360-420 A.D.), Severus, Sacred History, bk ii, ch. Ii, in Schaff, et al.,
transl. Sulpitius Severus
“Jewish people often thought that ten of the twelve tribes were lost and would
be restored only in the end time.” –Craig Keener, “A Commentary on the Gospel
of Matthew,” Eerdmans, 1999, p.315
The ten tribes’ not returning opened “a huge wound that does not heal.” –Talmudic
Haga, Sefer Ha-Berit Ha-Hadash
"The prophecy of a restored and reunited Israel and Judah...was never actually
to be fulfilled... Intransigence on the part of both...produced separate and
irreconcilable societies that were never able to reunite." -Bruce Vawter, "Amos,
Hosea, Micah, With An Introduction To Classical Prophecy," p.81
Reprinted from The Journal: News of the Churches of God, Aug. 31, 2005. Subscribe
for $22 for one year or $39 for two years by writing P.O. Box 1020, Big Sandy,
Texas 75755. (Outside the United States, the price is $24 per year or $43 for
two years in U.S. funds.)
Book review:
Steve Collins' wrap-up is worth the read
By Mac Overton. The writer is a longtime Church of God member, a frequent contributor
and editor of The Gilmer Mirror.
GILMER, Texas--The long-awaited fourth and final volume in Steven Collins' research into the locations
of the so-called lost 10 tribes of Israel came off the press in August. (Israel's
Tribes Today, the fourth book of a series on the lost tribes, by Mr.. Collins,
of Sioux Falls, S.D., 296 pages, is published by Bible Blessings, PO Box 1778,
Royal Oak, Mich. 48068)
Mr. Collins'
book ties up loose ends from his first three volumes (The Origins and Empire of
Ancient Israel, Israel's Lost Empires and Parthia: The Forgotten Ancient Superpower
and Its Role in Biblical History), as well as presenting new evidence of the present
identities of the 10 tribes and their locations today.
The four volumes
are expansions of Mr. Collins' original book, The "Lost" Ten Tribes
of Israel..Found! He writes in a highly readable and entertaining style, rare
for a history book and even rarer for a book dealing with a complicated biblical
subject.
Mr. Collins
provides elaborate footnotes and a bibliography to bolster his contentions. In
general, his identities of the tribes today match those of the old Worldwide Church
of God. However, he identifies Gad as western Germany (rather than Switzerland)
and Asher as the white peoples of the old Republic of South Africa, rather than
Belgium. He also joins Yair Davidy in placing a great part of the tribe of Simeon,
which was to be dispersed in Israel, among the "British Celts" (Scots).
Mr. Collins
also maintains that some of the "Germanic" tribes that disappeared from
the world scene, especially the Vandals (who he maintains were Israelites), made
their way to North America.Since I am partly of Cherokee descent, I was fascinated by Cherokee legends recounted by
Mr. Collins of how in antiquity Cherokee Indians had fought a series of wars with
white people whom the Cherokee folklore called Welsh but reached a peaceful settlement
under which the "Welsh" left disputed territories and eventually made
their way up the Missouri River.
Anyone with
any interest in the subject of "British Israelism" or "Anglo-Israelism" will
find this book intriguing. As do the other volumes, this one can stand alone.
It is subdivided into three chapters:"Israelite
Migrations from Asia after Parthia's Fall."
"Caucasian
Tribes Conquer the Roman Empire."
"The
Tribes of Israel in the Modern World."
Each is further
subdivided. A plus is that it is well indexed.
All Mr. Collins'
books are fascinating and are worth inclusion in the library of anyone interested
in the migrations of Israel and the present location of the tribes. Mr. Collins
himself says he considers this the "most relevant of my books, because it
applies to the world today."If you own only one of
his books, this should be the one.
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