The Lost Ten Tribes, and 1882 by Joseph Wild. An early source of interest.
BY REV. JOSEPH WILD, D.D., PASTOR OF UNION CONGREGATIONAL CHURCH, BROOKLYN, N.Y.
[Source forwarded by Lorraine Harvey, of Australia]
The Extracts below are presented for the sake of Research Interest. They DO NOT reflect our own views!
In the original version (not reproduced here) Wild quoted sources identifying the Irish with Canaanites. We recognize these sources as having originally been said in connection to the Berber peoples of North Africa who indeed identified themselves and so were equated by others as Canaanites. How Wild came to confuse, or be mislead into applying, these points with the Irish we do not know. Nevertheless, it should be admitted that quite a few Irish scholars and authors did (not so long ago) identify the Irish with Phoenicians. The Phoenicians were seafarers who dwelt on the coast of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria. They could have been either Israelites, or Canaanites, or some other nation of the area. Israelites were intermixed with them.
Extracts:
On the death of Solomon the country and Tribes finally separated into two Houses, kingdoms, and governments. Nine Tribes went with Jeroboam, and three with Rehoboam--namely, Judah, Levi, and Benjamin. The nine-tribed House was called Israel, the three-tribed House Judah. This separation was about 975 B.C. (1 Kings xii.). From that day to this these two Houses have never been united; but they are to be, as scores of statements to that effect are in the good Book (Hosea i. 11). About 580 B.C. the House of Judah was taken captive into Babylon, remaining 70 years, then they returned to their own land and remained till the year of our Lord 70, when Jerusalem was destroyed and they were scattered.
ISRAEL.
1. A name given to Jacob after wrestling with the Angel. 2. A term applied sometimes to all the descendants of Jacob. 3. In a spiritual sense, those who believe in Christ. 4. A name that covered and included the nine Tribes which went with Jeroboam and formed the kingdom of Israel. They remained a distinct kingdom, and till now a nationality. From 975 to 725 B.C. they had some 19 kings. They were finally carried captive into Assyria by Shalmanezer (2 Kings xvii.). From that captivity they have never returned; as a body they never can, only representatives, as stated in Jer. iii. 14, "One of a city, and two of a family."
Now prophecy points out that it was Israel that was to be lost for a while, and come to light in the latter day. They are known in the Scriptures in contradistinction from others by such terms as the following: "_All Israel_," "_All the House of Israel wholly_," "_The House of Israel_," "_Men of Israel_," and God calls them His "_Servants_, _Witnesses_, _Chosen People_, _Inheritance_, and _Seed_." The lot, course, and providential portion of this people are very marked from any other, especially from the Jew, with whom they are so often confounded. The history of the two peoples have been wide apart and as different as they well could be.
1. They were to be _lost_. 2. They were to be _divorced_ from the Mosaic law. 3. They were to lose their _name_. 4. They were to lose their _language_. 5. They were to _possess_ the isles of the sea, coasts of the earth, waste and desolate places, to inherit the portion of the Gentiles, their seed, land, and cities. 6. They are to be great and successful _colonisers_. 7. Before them other people are to _die out_. 8. They are to be a _head_ nation. 9. To be a _company_ of nations. 10. To be _great_ in war on land or sea. 11. To be _lenders_ of money. 12. To have a _monarchy_. 13. To be _keepers_ of the Sabbath. 14. To have David's _throne_ and seed ruling over them. 15. They are to _possess_ Palestine, and invite their brethren of Judah to return. And thus I might repeat some sixty positive marks and distinctions setting forth Israel; and yet men wilfully persist in confounding them with the Jews, or looking for this great and favoured people of the Lord among the lowest of human kind, Indians, Africans, and so on.
Ireland and the Tribe of Dan have a peculiar history, which history only can be made plain by reference to the Bible. Ireland has had much to undergo, yet of it God says, "To the islands He will repay recompense: so shall they fear the name of the Lord from the West."
Ireland's first name was Scuite's Land, or the Island of the Wanderers. Her second name was Scotia Major, and Scotland was Scotia Minor, and England was Tarshish, and Dannoii and Baratamac, or Land of Tin. Yar in Eirin means the land of the setting sun. Hibernia is an Hebrew word, and means from beyond the river of waters.
Two colonies settled in Ireland; the first, the Phoenicians, who were the Philistines or ancient Canaanites; the second settlers were the Tuath de Danan, meaning the Tribe of Dan. The words are Hebrew, yet in Irish. For further information let any one read "Pinnock's Catechism on Ireland." The Phoenicians were a sea-faring people; pressed by Israel, Egypt, and Assyria, they finally left Canaan, and settled in Ireland. ...The people who show tourists the seven churches of Glendenlough, say they are Hittites and Hivites. Again, ruins of Baal temples, Cromlechs, round towers, go to confirm the same. Customs--Baal fires, on May eve, in Irish Ninna-baal-tinne; funeral wakes, or cup of consolation, forbidden to Israel when they sought to copy after the Philistines. "Neither shall men give them the cup of consolation to drink for father or mother" (Jer. xvi. 7). The Irish language came from the Phoenician, the alphabet of both being composed of sixteen letters originally, the only alphabet in the world so agreeing. From the Irish came the Gaelic, Welsh, Cornwall, and the Manx from them all.
The second settlement of Ireland is what puzzles historians of to-day--not the old historians, for they, nine out of ten, admit that the Formorians, Firbolgs, and Tuath de Danans, were one and the same people. They were a divine folk. The Tribe of Dan was a sea-faring Tribe, trading from Tyre to Tarshish for tin, and so became acquainted with the British Isles, and during Ahab's persecution many of them fled; so of the Simeonites who settled in Wales. This shows us why the North and South of Ireland should be so distinct to this day in religion, enterprise, and general characteristics. When the Tribe of Dan finally left Palestine, they with the other Nine Tribes went North, settling in Denmark, as in the North of Ireland, leaving their names on rivers, hills, cities, and things.
It is this that accounts for so many words of an Hebrew origin being found in the Irish language. General Vallancy has compared thousands and finds them thus related to the Hebrew. Instance: Jobhan-Moran, Chief Justice; Rectaire, Judge; Mur-Ollam, School of the Prophets; Ollam-Folla, Divine Teacher; Mergech, a Depository; Tara, Law; Tephi, Prince of the East; Lia-Fail, Stone of Destiny; Eden Gedoulah, Precious Stone.
.... The real allophyllians of Ireland--that is, the first native settlers--are unknown. The present inhabitants are not autochthonal, no more than we are the first settlers of this country. On one point all old historians are agreed--namely, that Ireland has been settled by two distinct colonies of people; and from these two colonies came the present Irish race. These two colonies were distinct in features, manners, customs, enterprise, and religion, and after all these centuries have passed away, these differences are discernable in some degree, especially so in enterprise and religion. And though, of course, in these latter years, they have become considerably mixed, yet an appeal on either of these points will mark out the Danite from the Phoenician....
The Phoenicians, or Philistines, were the ancient Canaanites. They took early possession of Ireland. On this point the old as well as the new historians generally agree. But there was another early settlement in the North of Ireland whom the historians called _Tuath de Danan_, which simply means the folks of the Tribe of Dan. They introduced into the Irish language hundreds of Hebrew words, with many customs and legends of the Hebrews. They were very distinct in their enterprise and religion from the other settlers.
Â
Â
  PARNELL AND THE PROPHETIC DESTINY OF IRELAND.    DELIVERED BY THE    REV. JOSEPH WILD, D.D.,  On Sunday Evening, October ..., 1881, in the Bond Street Congregational Church, Toronto.  Â
Extracts:
 I state a fact when I say that Ireland was first settled by the Phoenicians, called in history sometimes Philistines and Canaanites. And about the seventh century, B.C., another people settled in that island called Tuath de Danan ; that is, men of the tribe of Dan. They finally settled in the North of Ireland, while the Philistines settled in the South. Tradition, history, prophecy and Providence all agree on this point of Ireland's double settlement. In this double settlement is to be found the real source of Ireland's internal trouble.Â
Â