Is Sweden the Tribe of Gad or the Tribe of Asher? Steven Phillips versus Yair Davidiy
Contents:
A. Message from Steven Phllips. Is Sweden from the Israelite Tribe of Asher?
B. Yair Davidiy Replies: Sweden, Asher, and Gad.
1. Previous Mentions of the Brigantes from the Tribe of Asher:
2. Beriah and the Brigantes and Other Tribal Possibilities.
3. The Tribe of Asher in Scandinavia. Vikings.
4. Sweden as Dominated by the Tribe of Gad.
5. Some Archaeological Finds from Sweden.
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A. Message from Steven Phllips. Is Sweden from the Israeliter Tribe of Asher?
Steve Phillips:RE: Video: Hebrew Kings of Sweden
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kjjBpHff308
Shalom Yair.
According to my research, the Brigantes who settled in Waterford in southern Ireland are descended from the tribe of Berigah (var. Beriah) son of Asher. The flag of Waterford is the same colour blue as the Swedish flag. According to the Targumim, Asher's flag is "of the colour of the sea", obviously meaning blue. By contrast, Gad's flag (according to the Midrash) was grey.
Sweden is the Anglicised form of the name, which in Swedish is written Sverige and pronounced Sveriah. It is understood to mean Svea-rige, the kingdom of the people of Svea. (This does not actually ring true as it does not explain how the g is silent. This silent pronunciation of the g suggests that the form of the word is more likely of Celtic origin.) The Swedish people themselves are referred to as Svear, the addition of the final r being a Dorian-Israelite practice. The addition of an n is likewise a Celtic as well as a Greek practice, which would explain why Tacitus called them Suiones. Note that he is the only person to refer to this people by this name. To my knowledge, the addition of the n is otherwise unattested in the records of the Swedish people themselves. The reading of a v as a u is also well-attested.
Bear in mind that the initial syllable in ancient languages was often dropped or added. In the Assyrian records, for example, Israel is written Sraalu or Sraali. In the book of Jeremiah Coniah son of Yehoiakim is also called Yeconiah, both names being used interchangeably. (cf. Jer. 22:28 & 28:4.) Yehoshua bin Nun is also twice called Hoshea. Conversely, Hiram king of Tyre, who is called Huram in the second book of Chronicles, is called Ahiram in extrabiblical sources. Josephus likewise called Ramath-Gilead, the Geladene city of Arametha. He called Duke Zibeon Esebeon and Dumah son of Ishmael Idumas etc. etc.
I therefore see Sverige as a variant spelling of Ishvi - not of Shuni son of Gad. Their flag would seem to support this identification.
Kind regards,
Steve Phillips.
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B. Yair Davidiy Replies: Sweden, Asher, and Gad.
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1. Previous Mentions of the Brigantes from the Tribe of Asher:
We spoke of the Brigantes of Ireland and elsewhere several times in "The Tribes."
For instance:
# The Varins or "WARINGS" who came with the Angles and Saxons to Britain were to conquer the Celtic Brigantes. The Brigantes were also descended from Beriah. They were located in the northern areas of Roman Britain (i.e. North England), in Gaul, in east Switzerland and in southeast Ireland.
# When the Vikings invaded England the kingdom of Northumberland was "moved" somewhat northward into Lowland Scotland and renamed "Bernicia" after its original Brigante inhabitants. Beriah, from whom the Brigantes and Burgundians descend, had two sons, Heber (Cheber) and Malchiel (Numbers 26:45). The name Heber is also ponounceable as "Cheber" and can mean friend or companion.
# The Tribe of Asher was predominant in the north of England and in Scotland: Asher was found amongst the Brigantes, Vandals, Warrings, and Lyges.
# We found the Brigantes from Beriah of Asher in North England, in Gaul, in east Switzerland, and in southeast Ireland.
# Historically the southeast of Ireland had its own independent identity. The east of Ireland was settled by Vikings and later also by Englishmen. The Scandinavian settlers in Ireland may also have derived from the Aseir of Asher. Or they were from Naphtali as explained earlier.
cf.
# Brigantia was the Roman name for a vast pre-Roman kingdom, occupying modern Yorkshire and Lancashire - possibly even extending north across the Wall - and critical for the security of Roman Britain.# Fabio P. Barbieri
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2. Beriah and the Brigantes and Other Tribal Possibilities.
Even though we (like Steve Phillips) trend to identify the Brigantes as descendants of Beriah [pronounceable as "Beria(g()h"] from Asher it should be noted that the name may also be associated with other Tribes: [In fact it may be that only the Brigantes of Ireland were from the tribe of Asher but those of Britain from Ephraim].
1-Chronicles 7:
22 And Ephraim their father mourned many days, and his brethren came to comfort him.
23 And he went in to his wife, and she conceived, and bore a son, and he called his name Beriah, because it went evil with his house.
1-Chronicles 8: [from Benjamin]
13 and Beriah, and Shema, who were heads of fathers' houses of the inhabitants of Aijalon, who put to flight the inhabitants of Gath.
1-Chronicles 23: [from Levi]
10 And the sons of Shimei: Jahath, Zina, and Jeush, and Beriah. These four were the sons of Shimei.
11 And Jahath was the chief, and Zizah the second; but Jeush and Beriah had not many sons; therefore they became a fathers' house in one reckoning.
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3. The Tribe of Asher in Scandinavia. Vikings.
In the past we considered the possibility that Asher was to be found in Scandinavia, more specifically Sweden.
The ancestral gods of Scandinavia were known as the As (plural "Asier") and the Vanes. They came from the Black Sea shore area in Southern Russia. This was the area traditionally associated with the Sambation River. "As" in Phoenicians Hebrew is a form of the name "Asher" (Slouschz). In the Encampment around the Tabernacles the group headed by Dan included Dan, Naphtali, and Asher. We have identified Norway with Naphtali, and Dan with Denmark. Denmark has often dominated the other countries of Scandinavia. Identifying Sweden as Asher would fit in nicely with this. Gad on the other hand was the full brother of Asher both being the sons of Zilpah handmaiden of Leah. Gad was encamped in the south besides Reuben and Simeon. We find elements from Gad (part of the Goths) in southern France, neighboring those from Reuben (Galtaians and Franks) in northern France, and from Simeon in north and west of France.
Asher seems to have given rise to the Vikings.
In the early 1900s several English historians wrote that the Vikings were a people who dwelt on the coasts of Scandinavia and were pushed out by population pressure occasioned by an inlfux of new comers. Recent Scandinavian archaeology and research has helped substantiate this possibility. The very name "Viking" connotes "Dweller of the Inlets" (i.e. bays on the sea-coast) and this was a description given to Asher.
Judges (NIV) 5:
17 Gilead stayed beyond the Jordan.
And Dan, why did he linger by the ships?
Asher remained on the coast
and stayed in his coves.
The word translated here as "coast" in Hebrew means "coast of the seas" and the word "coves" [Hebrew: "Mipfrastov" literally "his coves] meaning "inlets, or fijords" is correct.
These are the Vikings.
It could be that elements from Asher were once prominent in Scandinavia but left with the Vikings and/or joined the Goths and Vandals in thier incursions into Western Europe.
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4. Sweden as Dominated by the Tribe of Gad.
Steven Phllips noted that the flag of Sweden has a Light-Blue background while according to the Midrash sea-blue was the color of the Tribe of Asher.
At all events, an identification of Sweden with Gad dovetails with other considerations and known facts and it is therefore considered correct by us.
Gad was compared to a lion:
Deuteronomy (NIV) 33:
20 About Gad he said:
'Blessed is he who enlarges Gad's domain!
Gad lives there like a lion,
tearing at arm or head.
The Coat of Arms of Sweden depicts two lions.
The Goths were an important element in the formation of the Swedish people. Place-names recalling the Goths are common in Sweden. The second largest city is Gothenburg. The names Goth and Gad are interchangeable in both Biblical Hebrew and historical usage of the Goths themselves.
Other sons of Gad had names similar to those of groups prominent in the History of Scandinavia (Ha-Areli - Heruli; Ha_Arodi - Harudi, Hread-Goth, etc).
The Svea who together with the Goths first created Sweden were according to Tacitus also known as Suiones. The Anglo-Saxons called them Sweons. This is virtually identical with Shuni the son of Gad. Similar names for the Swedes are found in Northern areas from ancient times: Jordanes mentions the Suehans. Widsuth has "Sweom." Beowulf has "Sweona." Alfred the Great quotes older sources using the term "Sweon."
See:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swedes_(Germanic_tribe)
The name "Gad" in Hebrew connotes group. Rabbinical Commentators opined that the Tribe of Gad had a group-dominant mentality and this is acknowledge to be the same as that of the Swedish People in our time.
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5. Some Archaeollgoical Finds from Sweden.
Quotations:
A separate study of 271 glass beads found in Danish Bronze Age graves found they dated to around 1400 BCE and that 23 of them originated in Egypt and Syria.
https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/3600-year-old-swedish-axes-made-with-cypriot-copper-1.5382210
Thousands of elaborate rock carvings dating to the Bronze Age have been found in Scandinavia, mostly in the region of Bohuslon, on the Swedish west coast. A recurring motif on the rock carvings is ships, and intriguingly, most of these ship carving sites also have images that resemble Mediterranean oxhide ingots.
Identical spiral ornaments appear on a piece of jewelry found in the tomb of 'the distant traveller' at Simrishamn, Sweden' and in the necropolis of Asine at Argolis in Greece. The "Kings Grave" in Kivik, southeast Sweden, dating to around 3000 years ago, has numerous images and religious symbolism also found in the Mycenaean world.
Another peculiar feature of these carvings in Scandinavia is large bulls by the ships, and scenes of bull-leaping, a common motif of Middle Bronze Age figurative, notably of Minoan Crete and also found in Hittite, Anatolia.
The ancient Scandinavian art also features horned figures also found in southern Turkey, usually attributes of the Hittite weather god Tarhun.
# Tarhun, also spelled Taru, Tarhu, Tarhunt, Tarhunna, orTarhuis, ancient Anatolian weather god. His name appears in Hittite and Assyrian records (c. 1400-612 bc) and later as an element in Hellenistic personal names, primarily from Cilicia. #
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Tarhun
See Also: Davidiy/Phillips. Round Two.