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
The fifty daughters of Danaus, known as "the Danaides," were punished in
Hades for their crime by being compelled everlastingly to pour water
into a sieve. Note also that the fable propagated by Manetho that the
Jews were _expelled_ from Egypt as lepers, and the legend of Hecatæus,
quoted by Diodorus Siculus that, "the most distinguished of these
expelled followed Danaus and Cadmus into Greece, but the greater number
were led by Moses into Judea," is also accepted as history. Some of
these same pagan writers believed that the object of worship in the Holy
of Holies was the head of an ass, and other absurdities of the same
nature. I wonder if Anglo-Israel "theologians" accept this also as
"history."
I may here add that the identification by Anglo-Israel writers of Tea,
or Tephi, the heroine of some Irish ballads, with a princess of the
royal house of Judah, whom Jeremiah brought to Ireland in one of the
ships of Dan, and who married Esincaid, King of Ulster, and so became
the ancestress of the royal houses of Ireland and Scotland, and
subsequently of England--has just as much "history" for its basis as the
identification of Danaus with Dan, or of Ægyptus with Joseph.
The value of Irish legends and ballads (upon which the romances of
Anglo-Israel writers are largely based), as sources of "history," may be
judged from the following introductory statement taken from a standard
compendium of the history of Ireland:
"The history of Ireland, like that of almost all ancient countries,
'tracks its parent lake' back into the enchanted realms of legend and
romance and fable. It has been said, not untruly, of Ireland that she
'can boast of ancient legends rivalling in beauty and dignity the tales
of Attica and Argolis; she has an early history whose web of blended
myth and reality is as richly coloured as the record of the rulers of
Alba Longa and the story of the Seven Kings.' We cannot now make any
effort to get at history in the beautiful myths and stories. We should
puzzle our brains in vain to find out whether the Lady Cesair, who came
to Ireland before the Deluge with fifty women and three men, has any
warrant from genuine tradition, or is a child of fable altogether. We
cannot get any hint of the actual truth about Conn of the Hundred
Fights, and Fin MacCoul and Oisin. But the impression which does seem to
be conveyed clearly enough from all these romances and fables and
ballads is that the island was occupied in dim far-off ages by
successive invaders who came from the south.
"The Phœnicians are said to have represented one wave of invasion and
the Greeks another....
"What may be called the authentic history of Ireland begins with the
life and career of St. Patrick (5th century)."
Note V.
"THE GATE OF HIS ENEMIES."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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