Ten Lost Tribes of Israel

“ This is the key that unravels and makes plain the marvellous and sublime history of the English nation and throne. We know many scout the idea of the Lost Tribes ever being found, although over thirty times God declares by the prophets that they must return; surely before they return they must be found. God has not cast away His people for ever. No, no. He declares Israel to be His inheritance, and that this people He had formed for Himself.
The Two Tribes forming the Jews of to-day are said by the best calculation to number about nine millions. ”

“ Next to the authorship of the Junius Letters, and the identity of the Man in the Iron Mask the subject that most excites the curiosity of those who delight in ransacking the waste-paper basket of history is the discovery of the Lost Tribes of Israel. There is quite a school of Englishmen - the "Anglo-Israelites" - whose happiness in life depends upon the conviction that they are the direct descendants of the ten tribes. ”

“ For lo, I will command and I will sift (or 'toss') the house of Israel among all the nations, like as corn is sifted (or 'tossed' about) in a sieve, yet shall not the least grain fall upon the earth. All the sinners of thy people shall die by the sword, which say: The evil shall not overtake or prevent us."
Here, then, we have the whole subject as to what was to become of the Ten Tribes in a nutshell.
(a) First, as a kingdom, they were to be destroyed from off the face of the earth, never to be restored ”

“ The "Israel" which "was evidently in the minds of the apostles," and to whom Peter spoke, and of whom Paul wrote in that great prophetic section in his Epistle to the Romans (chaps. ix.-xi.) , were the "Jews," whether of Palestine or in the "Dispersion," who are the only representatives of all the Twelve Tribes of "Israel" with whom Scripture or prophecy has any concern, and not any supposed "lost" tribes to be identified after many centuries by Anglo-Israel writers as the British and the United States. ”

“ Some Christian writers cling to the view that while some of the "Ten Tribes" amalgamated with the "Jews," there is nevertheless a distinct people somewhere, who are descendants of the Israel of the ancient northern kingdom, which is to be brought to light in the future, and, together with "Judah," will be restored to Palestine, and enter into the enjoyment of the promises. Thus the Nestorians, who inhabit the inaccessible mountains of Kurdistan (which is part of ancient Assyria) , the Afghans, the North American Indians, and even the Japanese have been variously identified as that people ”

“ But note, part of the furious cry of the Gentiles in their onslaught against Jerusalem is broken away from its connection and used by Anglo-Israel writers to prove that the Ten Tribes would lose their identity and that the very name "Israel" would be "lost."
Passing on to the next two references, Isa. xl. 27 and Isa. liv. 8, I would ask the intelligent Bible-reader what relevancy or connection these precious Scriptures have with the subject of the identification of any "lost" tribes? ”

“ It is a delusion too long entertained by the Church to think that David’s throne and seed have not now, nor for centuries had, an existence. It is a delusion that we should not entertain for a moment to think that the Ten Tribes of Israel are lost for ever, or that their work or mission is fulfilled. As surely as the Two Tribes, Judah and Levi, now exist, fulfilling and filling in the outlines of prophetic history, so surely are Reuben, Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh in existence, answering the purpose of an all-seeing Providence. ”

“ That the inhabitants of Great Britain are Israelites is a modern theory which has been widely spread. Its defenders have invented a large number of resemblances or "identifications," on which, in the absence of authentic history or national tradition, they rest their proof.
The languages of our country—Saxon, English, Welsh, and Celtic—have no affinity with the Hebrew; but that is made of no account. The history of the many tribes of which our nation is composed—whether Teutonic, or Saxon, or Caledonian, or Latin, or Scandinavian—is totally distinct from that of any of the tribes of Israel ”

“ When the dispensation of the wild olive, or Gentile, shall end, then, but not till then, shall the blessing and the glory return to the good olive—that is, to "all Israel."
Let us take the Word of God simply as we find it. Let us beware of fanciful identifications, which, even were they true, are not worth the stress laid upon them. Suppose I could prove, not by conjecture, but by registered genealogies, that I belong to the tribe of Ephraim or Issachar, what does it profit me? ”

“ The knowledge of the glory of the Lord is to be the privilege of [Pg 86] these tribes, and by that knowledge they are to be exalted. But their theory gives us another standard of the nation's greatness—a standard which no part of Scripture recognises, least of all the sure word of prophecy, the light in the dark place. This theory darkens the whole prophetic Word, perverting events and inverting times and seasons. It denies Israel's present guilt, and lowers our ideas of Israel's coming glory. ”

“ The Jews, long after, were dispersed among the nations; but have ever been known as Jews. But not so with Israel. They have seemed strangely to disappear from the world; and for 2500 years to have been utterly lost.
What are we to believe concerning the ten tribes! Are they ever again to be restored and known as the natural seed of Abraham? Are they now in existence as a distinct people? If so, where are they to be found? All parts of the world are now so well known; that one would conceive the commonwealth of Israel cannot now be found among the civilized nations. ”

“ May it not with some confidence be asked, among what other people on earth can such evidence be found of their being the ten tribes of Israel? Where are those ancient people of God, who have long been lost from the knowledge of the world; but who must soon come to light, and be recovered? Whence came the natives of our continent? They certainly found their way hither, and no doubt over Beering's Straits from the north east of Asia. And the tribes of Israel might have found their way hither in that direction, as well as any other people. ”

“ Shem, Ham and Japheth are the roots of the nations, and God has kept them distinct: let us beware of confounding them. History tells us that our pedigree is to be traced to Japheth. The modern discoveries in ethnology confirm this beyond a doubt; Eastern monuments, whether of Assyria or Egypt, tell the same story.
The above theory rests on a misreading of prophetic truth: such a misreading robs it of all its Divine spirituality. Outward national prosperity and greatness, not righteousness nor truth, are made the characteristics of the Israel of prophecy. ”

“ These forecasts are fulfilling themselves, not in lost tribes, but in the Jews. The second reference, Isa. viii. 17: "The Lord hideth His face from the House of Jacob," is (as is often the case in Anglo-Israel quotations) a sentence broken away from the context, and has not the least shadow of connection with "lost" or found tribes. It is an exclamation of the prophet Isaiah with reference to the condition of things then prevailing in Judah. Because of the wickedness of the people and its king, God's face seemed to be hid from the people. ”

“ Jews " dwelling in it are regarded as the house of Israel, although many members of that "house" were also scattered in other lands.
In this charge of the Lord to the apostles, we see also by the way, in what sense Israel is regarded as "lost." Now Anglo-Israelites are very fond of this word, but they use it in an unbiblical and unspiritual sense. The ten tribes were in the time of Christ, even as they still are, " lost " ; but not because they have forgotten their national or tribal identity, but because they " all like sheep have gone astray, and have turned every one to his own way." ”

“ All the time that I was eating my breakfast I kept speculating as to what family of mankind they could belong to; and shortly there came an idea into my head, which brought the blood into my cheeks with excitement as I thought of it. Was it possible that they might be the lost ten tribes of Israel, of whom I had heard both my grandfather and my father make mention as existing in an unknown country, and awaiting a final return to Palestine? ”

“ Prophecy, moreover, intimates that Israel is to remain scattered and under the curse till the Redeemer comes out of Zion, and will turn away ungodliness from Jacob. The whole Twelve Tribes are under the curse till the great day of national deliverance comes for Judah and for Israel. ”

“ And however many difficult questions may attach themselves to the subject, they are all less difficult, than to account for the origin of these traditions on any other principle, than that they are of Israel.
Some have felt a difficulty arising against the Indians being the ten tribes, from their ignorance of the mechanic arts, of writing, and of navigation. Ancient Israel knew something of these; and some imagine, that these arts being once known, could never be lost. ”

“ They were already largely a dispersed people. All the Jews in Palestine at the time of Christ's birth constituted but a small remnant of the great Davidic nation. The Ten Tribes, distinctively the aforetime kingdom of Israel, had then long been lost to history, and the people of Judah had been widely scattered among the nations.
In their relations with other peoples the Jews generally endeavored to maintain a haughty exclusiveness, which brought upon them Gentile ridicule. Under Mosaic law Israel had been required to keep apart from other nations ”

“ If they are Christians, whether Jews or Gentiles, their destiny is not linked either with Palestine or with England, but with that inheritance which is incorruptible and undefiled and which fadeth not away; and if they are not Christians, then, instead of occupying their thoughts with vain speculations as to a supposed identity of the British race with the "lost" Ten Tribes, it is their duty to seek the one and only Saviour whom we must learn to know, not after the flesh, but in the Spirit, and without whom a man, whether an Israelite or not, is undone. ”

“ Now, however, she must permit emigration or perish by famine. Take the countries of Europe, and is it not strange that Israel’s fulness of land, people, and language is made the fuller by these nations contributing towards the same? The fulness of the Gentiles is made to flow into the fulness of Israel. These countries, outside of Israel-England, p. 74have no colonies to send their overflow to; hence, they are filling up the domain of Israel and so hastening on her fulness. The French, Germans, Italians, and Spaniards forsake their land and language, thus adding to Israel’s fulness ”

“ The "lost" Israelites when deported did not use orally the name given in the English version as "Jehovah," and the mode of its spelling and pronunciation is at this moment in dispute, though generally accepted as Jahveh; therefore, it would be most extraordinary if the tribes of Indians supposed to be descendants of the lost ten tribes of Israel should at this time know how to pronounce a name which their alleged ancestors practically did not possess. ”

“ But if these people were the lost ten tribes of Israel, the case would be widely different: the opening was too excellent to be lost, and I resolved that should I see indications which appeared to confirm my impression that I had indeed come upon the missing tribes, I would certainly convert them. ”

“ This, too, after a general allusion to "the gathering of Israel from the four parts of the earth." What need to particularize as to the Ten Tribes, if they were no longer a distinct people? And why do our Articles of Faith give those tribes a special mention? [19]
The "Highway."—Isaiah's reference to the "Highway" points directly to the lost tribes, respecting whose return from "The North Country," his fellow prophet, Jeremiah, promises an event that shall so far eclipse in scope and grandeur Israel's exodus from Egypt, that the latter will no more be mentioned. ”

“ There is not the least possibility of doubt that many of the settlements of the Diaspora in the time of our Lord—both north, south, and west, as well as east of Palestine—were made up of those who had never returned to the land of their fathers since the time of the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, and who were not only descendants of Judah, as Anglo-Israelism ignorantly presupposes, but of all the Twelve Tribes scattered abroad (James i. 1) . ”

“ At that moment a G. A. R. veteran was dying. He had come from the Civil War straight to a farm which, though it was officially within the city-limits of Zenith, was primitive as the backwoods. He had never ridden in a motor car, never seen a bath-tub, never read any book save the Bible, McGuffey's readers, and religious tracts; and he believed that the earth is flat, that the English are the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, and that the United States is a democracy. ”

“ Discourse on the Evidences of the American Indians being the Descendants of the Lost Tribes of Israel.
Those who study the Scriptures, either as a matter of duty or pleasure—who seek in them divine revelations, or search for the records of history, cannot be ignorant of the fact that the Jewish nation, at an early period, was divided into twelve tribes, and occupied their ancient heritage under geographical divisions, during the most splendid periods under the kingdoms of Judah and of Israel. ”