Brit-Am Research Sources (22 February, 2013, Adar 12, 5773)
Contents:
1. Interesting Sources on Scotland and the British Empire from Craig White
2. Awakening in the Christian world in support of a Jewish Restoration 1830-1930
3. Isaiah "each Tribe in its own right is called a people"
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1. Interesting Source on Scotland from Craig White
THE TRUE ROOTS AND ORIGIN OF THE SCOTS
A RESEARCH SUMMARY AND POINTERS TOWARD FURTHER RESEARCH
C. White 2003
'Wherever the pilgrim turns his feet, he finds Scotsmen in the forefront of civilization and letters. They are the
premiers in every colony, professors in every university, teachers, editors, lawyers, engineers and merchants
- everything, and always at the front.' - English writer Sir Walter Besant
C. White 2003
Version 2.1
This is the first in a series of discussion papers and notes
on the identity of each of the tribes of Israel today
'How an archipelago of rainy islands off the north-west coast of Europe
came to rule the world is one of the fundamental questions not just of British
but of world history - It was not conceived by self-conscious imperialists,
aiming to establish English rule over foreign lands, or colonists hoping to
build a new life overseas'.55 Ferguson 2003: xii, 4
'What is less clear is why this expansion [of the Empire] occurred. There
never was a plan for imperial expansion - there seemed little need actually
to conquer more territory, 66 Cunliffe et al 2001: 186 (The Penguin Atlas of British and Irish History)
(back to table of contents)
The Scots were also known as Scithae, Scitae, Scuitae and Scotae to the old writers... the Greeks called the Scythians Skuthes,
According to 'The Descent of the Gaels' by James Grant, and Edinburgh Advocate, and published in 1814, the early Scots
were known as Scyths. That, according to Grant, was the confirmed opinion of such old Roman writers as Radulphus,Claudian, Isidore and others. This particular Gaelic branch of the Celtic incomers is supposed to have come direct to Scotland through Scandinavia, and acquired the designation of Scyths because they were nomads, wanderers, without a settled home.
(McCormick, J . 'The Origin of the Scots'. The Covenant People, Vancouver c1960: 2-3)
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2. Awakening in the Christian world in support of a Jewish Restoration 1830-1930
Extracts:
...A distinguished gallery of writers, clerics, journalists, artists, and statesmen accompanied the awakening of the idea of Jewish restoration in Palestine. Lord Lindsay, Lord Shaftesbury (the social reformer who learned Hebrew), Lord Palmerston, Disraeli, Lord Manchester, George Eliot, Holman Hunt, Sir Charles Warren, Hall Caine -- all appear among the many who spoke, wrote, organised support, or put forward practical projects by which Britain might help the return of the Jewish people to Palestine. There were some who even urged the British government to buy Palestine from the Turks to give it to the Jews to rebuild.
In 1845, Sir George Gawler urged, as the remedy for the desolation of the country: "Replenish the deserted towns and fields of Palestine with the energetic people whose warmest affections are rooted in the soil."2
There were times when this concern took on the proportions of a propaganda campaign. In 1839, the Church of Scotland sent two missionaries, Andrew Bonar and Robert Murray M'Cheyne, to report on "the conditions of the Jews in their land." Their report was widely publicised in Britain, and it was followed by a Memorandum to the Protestant Monarchs of Europe for the restoration of the Jews to Palestine. This memorandum, printed verbatim by the London Times, was the prelude to many months of newspaper projection of the theme that Britain should take action to secure Palestine for the Jews. The Times, in that age the voice of enlightened thought in Britain, urged the Jews simply to take possession of the land. If a Moses became necessary, wrote the paper, one would be found.
Again and again groups and societies were projected or formed to promote the restoration. The proposals and activities of Moses Montefiore found a wide echo throughout Britain. Many Christians associated themselves practically with his plans; others brought forward plans and projects of their own and even took steps to bring them to fruition. What was probably the first forerunner in modem times of the Jewish agricultural revolution in Palestine was the settlement established in 1848 in the Vale of Rephaim by Warder Cresson, the United States Consul in Jerusalem; he was helped by a Jewish-Christian committee formed in Britain for the Jewish settlement of Galilee.
The ideas of Sir George Gawler, a former governor of South Australia, before and after the Crimean War, when he formed the Palestine Colonisation Fund; of Claude Reignier Conder who, with Lieutenant Kitchener, carried out a survey of Palestine and brought to public notice the fact that Palestine could be restored by the Jews to its ancient prosperity; of Laurence Oliphant, the novelist and politician, who worked out a comprehensive plan of restoration and a detailed project for Jewish settlement of Gilead east of the Jordan; of Edward Cazalet, who proposed equally detailed projects -- all were broached and propagated against a background of widespread Christian support.
... In August 1840, the Times reported that the British government was feeling its way in the direction of Jewish restoration. It added that "a nobleman of the Opposition" (believed to be Lord Ashley, later Lord Shaftesbury) was making his own inquiries ...
Lord Shaftesbury pursued the idea with Prime Minister Palmerston and his successors in the government and was incidentally instrumental in the considerable assistance and protection against oppression that Britain henceforth extended to the Jews already living in Palestine.
The Crimean War and its aftermath pushed the ideas and projects into the background, but they soon came to life again. In 1878, the Eastern Question reached its crises in the Prusso-Turkish War, and the Congress of Berlin gathered to find a peaceful solution. At once reports spread throughout Europe that Britain's representatives, Lord Beaconsfield (Benjamin Disraeli) and Lord Salisbury, were proposing as part of the peace plan to declare a protectorate over Syria and Palestine and that Palestine would be restored to the Jews.
Though these reports were unfounded, the idea again caught the imagination of political thinkers in Britain. It was widely supported in the newspapers, which saw it as both a solution to the Jewish problem and a means of eliminating one of the perennial causes of friction between the powers. So popular was the idea with the British public that the weekly Spectator on May 10, 1879, in criticising Beaconsfield for not having adopted it, wrote: "If he had freed the Holy Land and restored the Jews, as he might have done instead of pottering about Roumelia and Afghanistan, he would have died Dictator."
...Laurence Oliphant, who demonstrated to the Turks that it was in their own interest, as well as in Britain's, to help fulfil a Jewish restoration in Palestine. His detailed plan for the settlement of Gilead was supported and recommended to the Turkish government by the leading personalities in Britain: The Prime Minister Lord Beaconsfield, the Foreign Secretary Lord Salisbury, and even the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VII). The French government, through its Foreign Minister Waddington, also added its encouragement.
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3. Isaiah "each Tribe in its own right is called a people"
In Hebrew "am" means people and "amim" is the plural of "am"; amim means peoples.
The English Translation for some reason often translate "amim" as people in the singular and not as peoples in the plural. This is misleading.
cf.
Isaiah 3:
13 The Lord stands up to plead,
And stands to judge the people [Hebrew: amim i.e. peoples].
The expression "to judge the people" should be "to judge the peoples".
The peoples being judged may mean either Israelites or the enemies of Israelites.
The Commentary "Metzudat David" says,
# Therefore the Almighty stands to content with the peoples and to judge them. And since each Tribe in its own right is called a people so too the whole of Israel in its generality is referred to as peoples.# [My edition has this second sentence in parentheses so it may be the addition of a later editor.]