The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes: Anglo-Israelism ExaminedBaron, David
History
The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes: Anglo-Israelism Examined
Baron, David
Anglo-Israelism; Jews -- History; Lost tribes of Israel
III. The name of "Jew" and "Israelite" became synonymous terms from
about the time of the Captivity. It is one of the absurd fallacies of
Anglo-Israelism to presuppose that the term "Jew" stands for a bodily
descendant of "Judah." _It stands for all those from among the sons of
Jacob who acknowledged themselves, or were considered, subjects of the
theocratic kingdom of Judah_, which they expected to be established by
the promised "Son of David"--the Lion of the tribe of Judah--whose reign
is to extend not only over "_all the tribes of the land_," but also
"from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends of the earth."
"That the name 'Jew,'" writes a Continental Bible scholar, "became
general for all Israelites who were anxious to preserve their theocratic
nationality, was the more natural, since the political independence of
the Ten Tribes was destroyed." Yes, and without any hope of a
restoration to a separate national existence. What hopes and promises
they had were, as we have seen, linked with the Kingdom of Judah and the
House of David.
Anglo-Israelism teaches that members of the Ten Tribes are never called
"Jews," and that "Jews" are not "Israelites"; but both assertions are
false. Who were they that came back to the land after the "Babylonian"
exile? Anglo-Israelites say they were only the exiles from the southern
kingdom of Judah, and call them "Jews." I have already shown this to be
a fallacy, but I might add the significant fact that in the Book of Ezra
this remnant is only called eight times by the name "Jews," and no less
than _forty_ times by the name "Israel." In the Book of Nehemiah they
are called "Jews" _eleven_ times, and "Israel" twenty-two times. As to
those who remained behind in the one hundred and twenty-seven provinces
of the Persian Empire, which included all the territories of ancient
Assyria, Anglo-Israelites would say they were of the kingdom of
"Israel"; but in the Book of Esther, where we get a vivid glimpse of
them at a period subsequent to the partial restoration under Zerubbabel
and Joshua, they are called forty-five times by the name "Jews," and not
once by the name "Israel"!
In the New Testament the same people who are called "Jews" one hundred
and seventy-four times are also called "Israel" no fewer than
seventy-five times. Anglo-Israelism asserts that a "Jew" is only a
descendant of Judah, and is not an "Israelite"; but Paul says more than
once: "I am a man which am a _Jew_." Yet he says: "For I also am an
Israelite." "Are they _Israelites_? so am I" (Acts xxi. 39; xxii. 3;
Rom. xi. 1; 2 Cor. xi. 22; Phil. iii. 5).
Our Lord was of the House of David, and of the tribe of Judah after the
flesh--"a Jew"; yet it says that it is of "_Israel_" that He came, who
is "over all, God blessed for ever" (Rom. ix. 4, 5). Devout Anna was a
"Jewess" in Jerusalem, yet she was "of the tribe of Aser." But enough on
this point.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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