The Lost Tribes of Israel
Around 926 b.c., the kingdom of Israel split in
two. Up to that point, all twelve tribes of Israel (plus the priestly tribe
of Levi) had been united under the monarchies of Saul, David, and Solomon.
But when Solomon’s son Rehoboam ascended to the throne, the ten Northern
tribes rebelled and seceded from the union. This left only two tribes—Judah
and Benjamin (plus much of Levi)—under the control of the king in Jerusalem.
From that time on, the tribes were divided into two nations, which came
to be called the House of Israel (the Northern ten tribes) and the House
of Judah (the Southern two tribes).
This situation continued until around 723 B.C.,
when the Assyrians conquered the Northern kingdom. To keep conquered nations
in subjection, it was Assyrian policy to break them up by deporting their
native populations to other areas and resettling the land with newcomers.
When the House of Israel was conquered, most people belonging to the ten
Northern tribes were deported and settled elsewhere in the Assyrian kingdom,
including places near Nineveh, Haran, and on what is now the Iran-Iraq
border. They were replaced by settlers from locations in or near Babylon
and Syria.
These settlers intermarried, together with the
remaining Israelites, and became the Samaritans mentioned in the New Testament
(a few hundred of whom still survive today). The Israelites who had been
deported also intermarried with the peoples of the places where they had
been resettled. They eventually lost their distinct identity, disappeared,
and their culture was lost to history. Some refer to them as "the lost
tribes of Israel."
A movement called "British Israelism" claims to
have found the ten "lost tribes," however, and in some very unlikely places.
For many years, one of the leaders in the British
Israelism movement was Herbert W. Armstrong, founder of the self-proclaimed
"Worldwide Church of God." Especially for Americans, Armstrong was just
about the only person they ever heard advocating British Israelism. With
his own paid television program, Armstrong regularly advertised his book
The United States and Britain in Prophecy, which advocated the view.
British Israelism was not Armstrong’s only eccentric
view. Among other things, he believed in Saturday rather than Sunday worship
and, most seriously, he rejected the doctrine of the Trinity and claimed
that individual humans could be added to the Godhead.
After Armstrong’s death, the Worldwide Church of
God did a serious review of the doctrines it had taught up to that point
and moved to a more biblically and theologically orthodox position. Today,
the organization is basically another Evangelical Protestant church (they
have even been admitted to the National Association of Evangelicals), though
with a few distinctive practices. Many of their congregations still worship
on Saturdays, for example, but they no longer regard keeping the Jewish
Sabbath and feasts as points of doctrine. They have embraced the doctrine
of the Trinity, denied that created beings can become part of the Godhead,
and acknowledged that other churches contain true Christians. They have
also rejected the distinctive idea behind British Israelism—the claim that
the lost tribes of Israel are to be specially identified with the Anglo-Saxons.
Unfortunately, there are still advocates of British
Israelism out there (including some groups that split off from the Worldwide
Church of God when it underwent its doctrinal renewal), and, though the
book is out of print, Herbert W. Armstrong’s The United States and Britain
in Prophecy continues to circulate.
The United States and Britain in Prophecy
teaches the notion that the Lost Tribes of Israel are really the descendants
of Anglo-Saxons, which is to say the British and Americans of British extraction.
This exotic doctrine had been around for decades
before Herbert W. Armstrong founded his church in 1933, and it appeals,
naturally enough, to those of British heritage. After all, who wouldn’t
want to be a member of the "chosen race" (assuming there is one)? And according
to Armstrong, that’s precisely what the Anglo-Saxons are—God’s chosen race,
where can be found the direct descendants of King David and, even today,
the true "heirs" to King David’s throne.
The United States and Britain in Prophecy opens
with this epigraph: "The prophecies of the Bible have been grievously misunderstood.
And no wonder! For the vital key, needed to unlock prophetic doors to understanding,
had become lost. That key is a definite knowledge of the true identity
of the American and British peoples in biblical prophecy." Only the first
sentence of this epigraph is strictly correct, and a good share of the
"grievous misunderstanding" is by people who put faith in the writings
of Herbert W. Armstrong.
The Argument Begins
"We know Bible prophecies definitely refer to Russia,
Italy, Ethiopia, Libya, and Egypt of today. Could they then ignore modern
nations like Britain and America? Is it reasonable?" This is how the argument
begins, and notice what kind of argument it is. If these "lesser" countries
are mentioned in Scripture, would it be fair for God to ignore us,
important as we are? (We won’t examine here the highly dubious premise
that Russia is mentioned in Scripture.) You might call this an "appeal
to pride."
Never fear, says Armstrong. "The fact is, [the
British and Americans] are mentioned more often than any other race [sic].
Yet their prophetic identity has remained hidden to the many." Why is that?
you ask. Because the Bible doesn’t refer to them by their modern names,
but by an ancient name. And what is that name? None other than Israel.
"Hold it!" you say. The people who came from Israel
are Jews. Britons and Americans, for the most part, aren’t Jewish. How
can one claim otherwise? Easily. Armstrong assures us that, "The house
of Israel is not Jewish! Those who constitute it are not Jews, and never
were! That fact we shall now see conclusively, beyond refute."
Actually, there is something of a point here. The
term "Jew" originated as a way of referring to the people of the southern
kingdom of Judah, whether their own tribe was Judah, Benjamin, or Levi.
The term appears late in Israel’s history—after the division into northern
and southern kingdoms—and it can be fairly claimed that the term does not
apply to the members of the ten northern tribes, who are properly known
as "Israelites" since they belonged to the House of Israel rather than
the House of Judah.
Armstrong asserted: "Certainly this proves that
the Jews are a different nation altogether from the House of Israel," claims
Armstrong. "The Jews of today are Judah! They call their nation ‘Israel’
today because they, too, descend from the patriarch Israel or Jacob. But
remember that the ‘House of Israel’—the ten tribes that separated from
Judah—does not mean Jew! Whoever the lost ten tribes of Israel are today,
they are not Jews!"
"By the year 721 B.C., the House of Israel was
conquered and its people were soon driven out of their own land—out of
their homes and cities—and carried captives to Assyria, near the southern
shores of the Caspian Sea!" So it was in 721 B.C. that the Lost Tribes
got "lost."
The Year Nothing Happened
Had the tribes remained faithful to God, all would
have been well, Armstrong explains. "But, if they refused and rebelled,
they were to be punished seven times—a duration of 2,520 years—in slavery,
servitude, and want." They did rebel, and Armstrong theorizes that their
punishment extended from 721 B.C. to A.D. 1800.
And what remarkable thing happened in 1800? Well,
if we don’t count the election of Thomas Jefferson to the presidency of
the United States, not a whole lot. In fact, 1800 was a pretty dull year
for history. But Armstrong disagrees, saying that from that date, Britain
and America became world powers; the former (at that time) politically,
and the latter economically (and later, also politically).
According to Armstrong’s scheme, the figure of
"2,520 years of punishment" is arrived at by multiplying the "seven years
of punishment" by 360—the number of days in the year as it was reckoned
by the ancients—on the principle that each "day" of punishment really stood
for a whole year of punishment. If you think this is convoluted reasoning,
just wait until you read the remainder of the argument in The United
States and Britain in Prophecy. It’s enough to note here that Armstrong
determines from Scripture that the Lost Tribes ended up on islands in the
sea, and these islands are northwest of Palestine.
We’re told, for example, that the forty-ninth chapter
of Isaiah begins with, "Listen, O isles, unto me." Do you see how this
suggests the British Isles? Armstrong says, "Take a map of Europe. Lay
a line due northwest of Jerusalem across the continent of Europe, until
you come to the sea, and then to the islands in the sea! This line takes
you direct to the British Isles!"
The skeptic might note that the line first comes
to the Aegean islands, which are also in the sea—the Mediterranean Sea—but
this would mean the Greeks are the Lost Tribes, therefore, the theory would
not play into the desires of some British or Americans to identify themselves
with the lost tribes.
Linguistic Legerdemain
You want more proof? Armstrong has it. "The House
of Israel," he explains, "is the ‘covenant people.’ The Hebrew word for
‘covenant’ is brit [b’rith]. And the word for ‘covenant man,’
or ‘covenant people,’ would therefore sound, in English word order, Brit-ish
(the word ish means ‘man’ in Hebrew, and it is also an English suffix
on nouns and adjectives). And so, is it mere coincidence that the true
covenant people today are called the ‘British’? And they reside in the
‘British Isles’!"
This reasoning may impress some, but no linguist
would take this seriously. The word "British" is not derived from Hebrew
but from the Celtic word Brettas. It’s significant that the Celtic
Brettas referred to the Britons, who were inhabitants of England
before the arrival of the Anglo-Saxons that Armstrong claims were Israelites.
One possible reason for Armstrong’s linguistic confusions may be that in
Webster’s Diction-ary (for example, in the 3,200-page unabridged
edition published in 1932—an edition Armstrong may have had access to)
the entry for b’rith (Hebrew: covenant) appears sandwiched between
the entries for "Britannic" and "Briticism." Perhaps he simply didn’t read
carefully enough and assumed, wrongly, that b’rith must somehow
be etymologically connected with the other the words before and after pertaining
to things British. Neither does the common English suffix -ish derive
from the Hebrew word for man. Instead, it derives from the Greek diminutive
suffix -iskos
It was bad enough to suggest that the word "British"
is Hebrew, but he also made another claim: If you take the name "Isaac,"
you see it’s easy for someone to drop the "I" when speaking quickly and
to end up with "Saac" as the name of the patriarch. He had descendants,
of course, and these may be called "Saac’s sons," from which we get the
word "Saxons."
"Is it only coincidence," asks Armstrong, "that
‘Saxons’ sounds the same as ‘Saac’s sons’—sons of Isaac?" This doesn’t
even qualify as a coincidence, since Armstrong had to make up the nickname
of "Saac" in order for the "coincidence" to exist. In reality, the term
"Saxon" is derived from the Anglo-Saxon word "seax," which means
knife or dagger, not the Hebrew word "Isaac" (Yitskhaq), which
means "laughter" (cf. Gen. 17:15–19, 18:9–15).
Another Remarkable Coincidence?
Armstrong found other coincidences. When the Lost
Tribes were scattered, he says, they "brought with them certain remarkable
things, including a harp and a wonderful stone called lia-fail,
or stone of destiny. A peculiar coincidence is that Hebrew reads from right
to left, while English reads from left to right. Read this name either
way—and it still is lia-fail. Another strange coincidence—or is
it just coincidence?—is that many kings in the history of Ireland, Scotland,
and England have been coronated sitting over a remarkable stone—including
the present queen [sic]. The stone rests today in Westminster Abbey
in London, and the coronation chair is built over and around it. A sign
once beside it labeled it ‘Jacob’s pillar-stone.’"
Here Armstrong’s argument becomes even weaker.
After all, one could note that Hebrew and English are not the only languages
which, when contrasted, are read in different directions. For example,
Arabic is read right to left, while Gaelic is read left to right. What
does that prove? Nothing! Just as Armstrong’s muddled reasoning proves
nothing at all about a connection between Hebrew and English. If it did,
one could just as easily "prove" that the Lost Tribes were also responsible
for bringing the Blarney Stone with them. And that’s just plain blarney.
Armstrongism’s Appeal
What makes Armstrong’s notion so attractive to
some folks? First, it appeals to their nationalistic vanity: "I’m of English
descent, and now I see that I’m right in the thick of things, biblically
speaking. Having English blood in my veins makes me special. It
puts me above the rest of the crowd." It also perpetuates ethnic prejudice:
"Thank God I’m not Italian! I never liked Italians anyway, and now I see
they aren’t descended from the Lost Tribes and so are only secondary players
in the divine drama—something I always suspected."
At first glance, Armstrong’s argument seems to
be based on a sophisticated understanding of Scripture: "Armstrong provides
lots of citations, and I can’t find fault with his argument. It’s so convoluted
and technical it must be right." But, still, it’s wrong, no matter
how satisfying it seems to some.
NIHIL OBSTAT:
I have concluded that the materials
presented in this work are free of doctrinal or moral errors.
Bernadeane Carr, STL, Censor Librorum, August 10, 2004
IMPRIMATUR:
In accord with 1983 CIC 827
permission to publish this work is hereby granted.
+Robert H. Brom, Bishop of San Diego, August 10, 2004
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