The Exiled Israelites and their Movement to the West in History. An Outline (10 December, 2013, 7 Tevet, 5774
The majority of the Israelite Tribes were exiled and lost consciousness of their ancestry. The Bible and History shows them to now be found amongst Western Peoples. To read article PLease Scroll Down!
There were two different sections of the ancient Hebrew people. One section was lost. The other remained. Those who remained are know as the Jews. Those who were lost became known as the Lost Tribes. They are now to be found amongst Western Peoples.
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob were the ancestors of the Hebrew nations.
Jacob was re-named Israel.
Israel had 12 sons who became the 12 Tribes of Israel.
At one stage they ruled over a good portion of the Middle East and settled in much of it.
The Tribes split into 2 separate sections.
The Kingdom of Israel was in the north. It comprised 10 tribes.
The Kingdom of Judah was in the south. It had 2 Tribes at first. Later a minority of refugees from the other Tribes also moved to Judah. From the Kingdom of Judah descend the present-day Jews.
On the other hand, all the inhabitants of the northern Kingdom of Israel was taken into exile by the Assyrians.
It was taken away altogether as the Bible says (2-Kings 17). Archaeology finds no trace of any Israelite settlements in the north dating from after the Assyrian conquest.
The Ten Tribes in their places of exile lost consciousness of their ancestry.
Nevertheless they remained together. Also even when the Tribes had been split up various sections of the one tribe had a tendency to re-coalesce.
A portion of the Northern Israelites had been taken overseas in Phoenician and Philistine (Minoan and Mycenean) ships. The Phoenician city of Tyre and the cities of Philistia worked on behalf of Assyria in deporting the Israelites. The Prophet Amos (ch.1) condemns them for this.
Those taken overseas were resettled in Spain and apparently also in France, the British Isles and Scandinavia. The israelites in Spain later rebelled against their Phoenician overseers and eventually moved to Ireland and Britain.
This is proven by archaeological findings, mythology, and ancient records.
Apart from those taken overseas, most of the Exiles had been driven overland to different parts of the Assyrian Empire.
They became attached to, or identified with, the group of peoples known as Cimmerians, Scythians, and Guti (Goths).
These peoples moved out of the Middle East into Scythia (Russia, etc) and from there moved to Western Europe.
This process is indicated by the first chapter of the Book of Hosea that describes the exiled Ten Tribes as losing their identity and becoming mixed up with an entity known as Gomer daughter of Diblayim (Intermixing).
The name Gomer is also found with Gomer son of Japhet. He was the father of Ashkenaz, Riphah, and Togarmah. These were otherwise equated with the Cimmerians and Scythians and later with Celtic, Germanic, and Turkic peoples. The exiled Israelites had intermixed with them. The passages in Hosea concenring Israel and Gomer refer to the partial merging of Israelite with descendants of Gomer son of Japhet.
The Khazars were also from the Ten Tribes. When the other groups moved westward the Khazars remained behind. Later, they converted to Judaism.
We can trace Israelite groups in the west by Tribal Names, legends, and customs, etc.
Western Peoples in which Israelites were to become predominant include Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, France, Wales, England, Scotland, Ireland, Ulster.
This includes overseas offshoots of these peoples such as Canada, the USA, South Africa (in part), Australia, and New Zealand.
We can also identify the descendants of specific Tribes amongst those who came to the west. Individual Nations often approximate to Israelite Tribes.
We find a predominance from Issachar in Finland, Gad in Sweden, Naphtali in Norway, Dan in Denmark, Zebulon in the Netherlands, Benjamin in Belgium, Reuben in France, Issachar in Switzerland, Ephraim in England, Joseph and Asher in Scotland, Asher, and Manasseh in Wales, Dan, Simeon, and others in Ireland, Manasseh in Ulster. The USA contains representatives of all the tribes but Manasseh has had the determinative influence. Canada, Australia, South Africa, New Zealand, have members of all the Tribes but in general belong to Joseph especially Ephraim.
These conclusions and identifications are confirmed by additional historical evidence along with proofs from Scripture, Rabbinical sources, Mythology, Archaeology, Historical Records, National Characteristics, and so on.