The Two Houses Of Israel
AN IMPORTANT Key To Bible History and Prophecy
Bible prophecies given to Israel are divided between the two houses of Ephraim and Judah.
Since they are to be fulfilled in the "Latter Days" (the time in which we are
now living) these two covenant peoples must still be separate in our world today. Who
are they? Here is the answer!
An
important key to understanding Israel
in prophecy is that after the time of Solomon God’s people were split into two nations,
the house of Israel (ten tribes), and the house of Judah (two tribes), as related in
First Kings, chapter 12. This division continued, for God speaks of “the two
families” whom He had chosen Israel
and Judah and
declares, “Thus says the Lord: If I have not established my covenant with day
and night and the ordinances of heaven and earth, then I will reject the descendants
of Jacob [Israel] and David my servant [Judah]…” (Jer. 33:24-26) These
two families are called the “two wives” (Jer. 3:6-14), “two
sisters” (Ezek. 23:2), “two nations” (Ezek. 37:22),
and “two kingdoms.” (Ezek. 37:22) They were the “two
sons” of Christ’s parables, indicating their continuing separateness in His
day. (Matthew 21:28-32; Lk. 15:11-32)
In
fact, the first Scriptural mention of the Jews is in 2 Kings 16:6 where they were
at war with Israel. Letters were written by the chief rabbis of the British Empire
in 1918 and 1950, explaining that this division has continued to the present day,
and that the Jewish people are descended only from the house of Judah. The house
of Israel, sometimes called ‘Ephraim’ after its leading tribe, instead was conquered
by Assyria in the 8th century, B.C., and scattered through the nations of the world.
“In
the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away
into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in
the cities of the Medes... So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria
unto this day. (2 Kings 17:6, 23)
The
parable of the two sticks
in Ezekiel 37:15-30 reveals that the coming reunion of the two houses will occur
only at the end of the present age, just before the last great battle described in
chapter 38. Similarly, it is when “the earth shall be full of the knowledge
of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea,” that “the outcasts of
Israel” and “the
dispersed of Judah”< are
gathered together “from the four corners of the earth.” (Isa.
11: 9, 11, 13) Some
say that they were reunited in the land of Assyria
shortly after their captivity began. If so, how can the separate sets of latter day
promises be fulfilled to Judah and Israel if they were reunited 2700 years ago? Instead,
we are told that they would be rejoined when they had “One Shepherd,” David’s
Greater Son, the Messiah (Ezek. 37:24; John 11:51-52), which awaits the
full conversion of Judah to Jesus Christ. Given this future time frame, the reunion
could not yet have fully occurred. The Bible presents much additional evidence that
the houses of Israel and Judah are still separate nations and peoples in our world
today, and clearly identifies the “lost sheep of the house of Israel.” (Matthew
10:5; 15:24) Indeed,
there are many clues to the identity of lost Israel from both the Bible and history.
The Apocrypha tells us that they were conquered by Assyria and dispersed to an uninhabited
land, “where never mankind dwelt” (2 Esdras 13:40-48), a
good description of uninhabited Europe of that day. Isaiah 62:2 says that they would
have “a new name.” They would become “a company of nations” (Gen.
17:5), “many nations” (Gen. 35:11), and would take
the gospel “to the ends of the earth” (Isaiah 49:6). In
fact, Ezekiel tells us that the dispersion of the house of Israel was God’s way of
purifying this people: “I will scatter you among the nations and disperse
you through the countries, and I will consume your uncleanness out of you.” (Ezek.
22:15) They would have a new land, a new heart, a new Spirit, and a
New Covenant. (2 Sam. 7:10, Ezek. 36:24-26, Jer. 31:31) The result
would be that God would use them to set right the earth. (Isa. 42:3-7) Who
could this people be in our modern world? The Bible gives us many clues, including
the heraldic emblems associated with each of the tribes of Israel in 
Genesis
48 and Deuteronomy 33. The
details in our painting nearby help to tell the story of these “lost sheep” in our
world today. The soldier in the foreground wears brightly colored clothing, which
was favored by the people popularly called Scythian, the Greek form of the
Medo-Persian word, Saka. A later form of the word is “Saxon,” from
the Medo-Persian, “Saca-Suni,” or ‘Sons of the Saca.’ In his book, The
Story Of Celto-Saxon Israel, Mr. W.H. Bennett provides scholarly evidence of
the origin of the words, Scythian, Saka, or Saxon in the word, Isaac.
The soldier’s colorful clothing reminds us of the Patriarch Joseph’s famous “coat
of many colours” referred to in Genesis 37:3, 23, and 32.
The origin and inspiration of the famous Scottish Tartan patterns may also date back
to Joseph. Indeed, the word, ‘tartan,’ itself was a Semitic term for a military official
or captain of a host. (2 Ki. 18:17; Isa. 20:1)
In
the soldier’s belt is a battle-axe, an identifying mark of Israel,
the nation called in Scripture, “God’s battle-axe.”
Jeremiah
51:20 says:
“Thou art my battle axe and weapons of war: for with thee will
I break in pieces the nations, and with thee will I destroy kingdoms.”
Other Biblical prophets echo this:
“Thus
shall they be taking captive their captors, and shall tread down their oppressors.” (Isa.
14:2)
“Behold,
I will make thee a new sharp threshing instrument, having teeth: thou shalt thresh
the mountains [large nations], and beat them small, and shalt make the hills [small
nations] as chaff.”
(Isa.
41:15)
“Arise
and thresh, O daughter of Zion, for I will make your horns of iron, and your hoofs
of brass, and you shall beat in pieces many peoples…” (Micah
4:13)
The
battle-axe — a symbol of Israel
— also symbolized their descendants, the ‘Saka,’ or ‘Saxons,’ exactly as the prophets
foretold. Remarkably, it was only during the time of Israel’s defeat and dispersion
by the Assyrians and Babylonians, when the future looked darkest, that these prophecies
of victorious military conquests were given by Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Micah! Clearly,
the story of Ephraim-Israel did not end with the 8th century, B.C. destruction of
the Northern Kingdom and its capital, Samaria, but prophecy was fulfilled in succeeding
centuries in the form of ‘Scythian’ tribal victories in Asia and Europe.
Mountains
in prophecy signify large nations, and hills are small nations. Is there evidence
that these Hebrew Saka-Scythians overthrew large kingdoms? The
Universal Jewish
Encyclopedia tells of Assyria’s last days:
“In 1923 the British Museum
published a newly discovered Babylonian chronicle giving a detailed description of
the events which transpired… [in] Assyria’s last days. We learn from it that… the
Chaldeans were combined with the Medes and with the Scythians, [who were] an important
factor in the weakening of Assyria; that…in 612… proud Nineveh fell before an assault
of the Medes, who were aided by Nabopolassar and a contingent of Scythians…” (I:566-567) Yes,
the SAKA-Scythians, or house of Isaac, played a prominent part in the overthrow of
the Assyrian Empire, and other kingdoms as well.
Despite
such conquests, they found themselves moving ever westward through the centuries,
for God foretold that He would
, “let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph…
his horns are like the horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together
to the ends of the earth.” (Deut.
33:16-17) Joseph
is an important tribe of the house of Israel whose heraldry is now found in Britain,
and the ‘ends of the earth’ is a fitting symbol for Western Europe at the bounds
of the Atlantic Ocean.>
Famous
respected Bible scholar, Dr. James Augustus Strong, compiler of Strong’s
Concordance and other works, made this statement,
“The larger proportion
of the Ten Tribes… were, in a state more or less pure, propagated to distant regions
by the great national migrations proceeding from Central Asia.” (McClintock
and Strong’s Cyclopedia, X:545) These great national migrations were from Asia
westward, and included the Mongols, Huns, Slavs, and other tribes who pushed, or
were pushed by, the lost tribes of Israel into Europe. Dr. Strong’s comments indicate
that the house of Israel fled from Assyria northward through the Caucasus Mountains,
where they were caught up in the westward migration of peoples and settled in Europe.
Memories
of their former homeland in the Mid-East were not entirely forgotten, for the famous
Roman geographer and historian, Pliny
(Natural History, book 4) recorded
the Saka-Scythian statement that they were
“descended from slaves.” The
Israelites, of course, were slaves in Egypt, and captives in the land of Assyria,
as well. If these SAKA were not Israelites, then to what ancestral captivity were
they referring? As these tribes migrated across Europe to the Baltic Sea, Pliny records
that in their language,
“the name for it is Morimarusa, that is, [the] ‘Dead
Sea.’”[ibid.] The Baltic Sea, being connected
with the Atlantic Ocean, is very salty like the Dead Sea of Palestine; but it is
teeming with life and far from dead. They obviously carried with them knowledge of
an ancestral dwelling near a salty body of water called the Dead Sea. They would
not have named the Baltic after the Dead Sea of ancient Israel unless they were Israelites.
In fact, early Greek historian, Herodotus, recorded in his
History (4:76) that
one of the Scythian kings was named
“Saulius,” evidently named after
the first Hebrew king, Saul.
(I Sam. 9)
On
the soldier’s head is a distinctive high-peaked
hat that
Harper’s Bible Dictionary (“dress” p.227) depicts as an
important part of the
“Hebrew royal attire.” It is called a
“miter,” and
was worn by the Israelite high priests.
(Ex.28:37) Herodotus recorded in
his
History (7:64) that,
“The Sacae, who are Scythians,
have high caps tapering to a point and stiffly upright...” This style hat
is found on the Behistun Rock, where Scythian king Skunka is depicted wearing it.
The
Cambridge History Of Iran,
[vol.3:2:913] states,
“We
furthermore have some stories about Jewish officials bearing Parthian names, Arda,
Arta, and Pyl-y Barish, who had a mounted retinue of troops and wore high hats.” In
Europe of later centuries, it became known as a “Wizard’s Cap,” often with the depiction
of a half-moon, the symbol of Mohammedanism. Far from being of Muslim origin, the
moon symbol apparently denotes the eastern origin of this ancestral clothing.
Other
distinctive dress of the early European Scythian
tribes included “polychrome” enameled jewelry, which is known to have originated
in Medo-Persia where the Israelite lost tribes were resettled by Assyria.
Russian
archaeologist, Michael Rostovtzeff said,
“The style as such develops in the
East, in Iranian lands, as we see from the Oxus and Susa treasures.” (Iranians
and Greeks in South Russia, pp. 173) A book on Persian art shows an ancient
Persian breastpin, displaying the intricate interloped pattern that has come to be
associated with the Celtic peoples.
The horses
depicted are of a strong, stocky short legged breed that is now extinct, except for
some mixed descendants that are found today in Spain. These horses were multi-use,
for although they had some oxen, they also used horses in a variety of capacities.
In fact, according to Hebrew scholar, Dr. Isaac E. Mozeson, our English
word, horse, itself comes from the Hebrew word, Horesh, meaning
to plow. [Radio interview on ‘Southwest Radio Church’ broadcast] These horses
were well adapted for the rough and mountainous terrain that was the scene of their
travels.
The
ancient Greek historian, Herodotus
(Bk.
4), tells us that the Scythians traveled with their wives, children, and belongings
in covered wagons, perhaps presenting a picture reminiscent of the early American
pioneers in their famous ‘Conestoga Wagons’ on the Western frontier. Viewing the
picture above, in the far distance a Scythian wagon train is dwarfed beneath the
towering Caucasus Mountains. These mountains soared thousands of feet above sea level,
causing some historians to suppose that they were impassible. To the contrary, these
peaks were traversed many times by both Scythian and Persian. A ‘Daryal Pass’ valley
route sometimes called, “the Pass of Israel,” is clearly marked out in red in the
Cambridge
History Of Iran, (vol. 3:I:522); it was a favorite passage-way to Europe from
the Mid-East.
> There
are many evidences of Hebrews
in the Caucasus.
The Jewish Encyclopedia states,
“..the Caucasus
Jews claim to be descendents of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel… the Georgians are
equally certain of their descent from the Israelites who were taken from Palestine
by Shalmanesar [726-722 B.C.].” (III:628) Do we have any proof
that Hebrews were in the Caucasus and that they were in fact lost tribes of the house
of Israel? The
Universal Jewish Encyclopedia carries a fascinating article
documenting the early presence of Hebrews in the Caucasus Mountains. It states,
“The
first immigration of [Israelites] into the Trans-Caucasus (supposed… to have taken
place in the 7th century, B.C.E., during the reign of the Assyrian kings) is recounted
in ancient Armenian and Georgian chronicles. According to these chronicles,
[Israel] arrived in these regions as early as the beginning of the 6th century, B.C.E.
The first arrivals were probably free merchants, while the later partly came as
captives…” (VIII:26) What Israelites were in captivity in the
6th and 7th centuries, B.C.? These were the lost ten tribes of the house of Israel,
found in the Caucasus Mountains of Eastern Europe a few short years after their dispersion,
according to the ancient Armenian and Georgian Chronicles.
It is
also significant that the Caucasus Mountain nation we call, ‘Georgia,’ is known to
its inhabitants by its native name of ‘Sakartvelo,’ and another early town there
is called, ‘Sachkhere,’ perhaps revealing the presence of the ‘Saka’ in that region
in early times.
The
Universal
Jewish Encyclopedia continues, “
tombstones were
discovered, dating from the 4th to 5th centuries, one of them bearing an inscription
in Aramaic.” (VIII:26) Aramaic was the language of the region
of Halah and Habor, where Assyria settled many of the captive Israelites. Several
of these tombstones, from a Hebrew graveyard in the Crimea, north of the Caucasus,
were translated in the
Transactions of the Society of Biblical Archaeology in
1874. One read,
“This is the tombstone of BUKI, the son of Isaac the priest;
may his rest be in Eden, at the time of the salvation ofIsrael. In the year 702
of the years of our exile.” This tombstone dates to 6 A.D., during the
time of Christ.
Many
of the house of Judah were captured, along with the ten
tribes of the house of Israel, at the time of the Assyrian conquest. Second Kings
18:13 records:
“Now in the fourteenth year of king Hezekiah did Sennacherib
king of Assyria come up against all the fenced cities of Judah, and took them.” This
conquest included major cities of Judah such as Lachish.
(2 Chronicles 32:9) Only
Jerusalem was spared the Assyrian conquest, so members of both houses of Israel and
Judah were taken intocaptivity. Is it coincidence that the royal banner of England
shows two symbols, the lion and the stag (or unicorn), the emblems of both of these
houses? Yet a significant number of Judah were spared Assyrian conquest, to be used
of God as His Sanctuary
(Psa. 114:2) and be reunited completely with their
brethren of the ten tribes at the end of the age.
Until that
day arrives, we have God’s sure Promise, “For thus saith the LORD; David shall never want
a man to sit upon the throne of the house of Israel.” (Jer. 33:17) Somewhere
in the world, David’s descendants have reigned in an unbroken succession throughout
subsequent centuries. The land of Canaan in Palestine became a virtually uninhabited
wasteland after the Assyrian and Babylonian conquests, so it is certain that this prophecy
was not fulfilled there. Instead, we saw that many of the tribe of Judah were exiled
with the house of Israel, so David’s descendants may indeed have reigned with the ten
tribes in new homelands. The poor rocky soil of the Caucasus would have caused most
of them to continue north into lands beyond. Where could David’s descendants have reigned
over the house of Israel except in Europe? The real question therefore
is not whether Hebrew tribes migrated to early Europe (the evidence indicates that they
did), but instead, what percentage of Europeans are of Hebrew descent? The evidence
gathered shows it to be significant in many parts of Europe.
