British Belief in Israelite Origin - 1.
7 February 2023; 16 Shevet, 5783.
Contents:
1. Introduction.
2. Gildas.
3. Scotland.
4. Danes, Jutes, and Angles.
5. Rashi and Rabbinical Commentaries.
6. The 1600s.
7. Netherlands.
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1. Introduction.
Our movement, Brit-Am/Hebrew Awareness, identifies the Lost Ten Tribes with non-Jewish ethnic groups that became prominent among (1) English-speaking Peoples, and (2) Nations of Western Europe.
(1) The English-speaking Peoples are largely identified with Joseph, i.e. Ephraim and Manasseh.
These encompass the British Isles (Ireland, North Ireland, Scotland, England, Wales), the USA, Canada Australia, New Zealand, South Africa.
Some immigrant groups, such as the Germans who migrated to the USA, were found to be ethnically distinct from the peoples they left behind and more like those they were going to.
(2) Other nations from Western Europe who also share similar origins include:
France
Switzerland
Netherlands
Belgium
Sweden
Denmark
Norway
Iceland (Maybe)
Finland.
These peoples have mainly R1b DNA on the male side whereas Jews have other haplogroups such as J (35 to 45 percent), E1b1b (15 to 20%), I (ca, 55), R1b (ca. 12%), R1a (8%).
Future studies however will probably reveal that in ca. 500 BCE all the DNA of Western Europe dramatically changed due to horizontal genetic transposon.
The people remained the same but their haplotype DNA changed in the same way as it now changes with bacteria, fish, and other living creatures. Such changes are associated with ecological developments.
This present article concentrates on traditions concerning the Hebrew origins of people in the British Isles, especially in England.
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2. Gildas.
Gildas (c. 450/500 - c. 570 CE) referred to the British People of Celtic Culture who were being invaded the Angles and Saxons, as "True Israel who came out of Egypt" and as the "Lion of Gad." These references are known about but apparently assumed to be figurative.
Irish and Scottish chronologies and legends imply and/or take it for granted that either in a symbolic manner on in actual fact they were descended from Hebrews.
These people were Christians and the Early Christians took it for granted that they were the new Israel who had replaced the Jews. This led them to refer to themselves as "Israel." It is doubtful whether Christians elsewhere did the same but they may have.
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3. Scotland.
Declaration of Arbroath
The Declaration of Arbroath was a letter dated 6 April 1320 at Arbroath, written by Scottish barons and addressed to Pope John XXII. The Scottish under Robert-1 (the brice) were fighting for their independence from England. They were fighting against Edward-I of England. The Church recognized the rights of England for suzerainity over Scotland and demanded that Scotland cease its war against England.' Robert had been excommunicated for disobeying the Pope. The letter asserted the antiquity of the independence of the Kingdom of Scotland, denouncing English attempts to subjugate it.
The Declaration of Arbroath (6th April, 1320): "The nation of the Scots having come from Scythia the greater, through the Tuscan Sea and the Hercules Pillars, and having for many ages taken its residence in Spain in the midst of a most fierce people, could never be brought in subjection by any people, how barbarous so ever; and having removed from these parts, above 1,200 years after the coming of the Israelites out of Egypt, did by many victories and much toil obtain there the parts in the West which they still possess."
This could imply that the Scots considered themselves descendants of Israel.
There are other references to this.
A good portion of the Scottish Population abided by the Food Taboos listed in the Bible.
See Also:
Hebrew Scotland
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/tribes/scot.html
William F. Skene [1868], "THE RACES OF BRITAIN AND THE PLACE OF THE PICTS AMONG THEM," p.99, quotes from
the Albanic Duan.... which contains the oldest record of the ethnological traditions of Scotland, the brothers Brittus and Albanus appear as the eponymi of the two Celtic races inhabiting respectively Britain and Alban, or Scotland. Thus--
p. 100:
"O, all ye learned of Alban,
Ye well-skilled host of yellow hair,
What was the first invasion? Is it known to you?
Which took the land of Alban?
Albanus possessed it; numerous his hosts.
He was the illustrious son of Isacon.
Alban is another name for Scotland.
Isacon connotes "Son of Isaac."
See;
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/biblical-proof/attributes/rolehebrew.html
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4. Danes, Jutes, and Angles.
Britain in Roman Times had been population by different peoples most of whom spoke a Celtic type language. These were conquered by the Angles, Saxons, Jutes, and other. After them came Viking invaders from Denmark and Norway.
Holstein in northern Germany was ruled over by Denmark. The Angles and Jutes who invaded what became England had once dwelt in Jutland which is part of Denmark. An early History of Holstein, "Chronicon Holsatiae Vetus," stated that the Danes were of the Tribe of Dan, while the Jutes came from Judah, and they were brothers to the Angles.[Source: Helmoldus, Chronicon Holsatie Vetus, sub nomine continuationis Chronicon Slavorum, Helmodi Autore Prsbytero Bremensi) usque ad annum 1448. G. G. Leibnitii Accessiones Historicre, 1698].
An English antiquary, Henry Spelman in 1620, also linked the Danes to the Israelite Tribe of Dan. SAXO GRAMMATICUS (1160-1220) in his history of the Danish people, "Gesta Danorum," says that their ancestor was Dan the Great brother of Angle, and son of Humble. In Biblical Hebrew, "Humble" is one of the connotations that may be associated with the name "Jacob."
According to the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle (created late in the 800s CE, probably in Wessex, during the reign of Alfred the Great r. 871-899), the Anglo-Saxons considered themselves descended from Shem son of Noah whereas every other European nation claimed descent from Japhet son of Noah.
The law code of Alfred the Great (849-899) said: "Vex thou not comers from afar, for remember, ye were once strangers in Egypt." - as if the Anglo-Saxons had once been Israelites!
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5. Rashi and Rabbinical Commentaries.
Rabbi Shlomoh Yistchaki (1040 - 1105, Troyes, Northern France) in his commentary to the Biblical Book of Obadiah 1:18, said that the Lost Ten Tribes had come to Tseraphat ("Zeraphath") which he explains to refer to France.
Other Commentaries applied the term also to England (Abarbanel 1437-1508), or the ends of the far north (Nachmanides, 1194-1263).
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As mentioned above, British Monarchs, often referred to themselve as rulers over israel. Examples include Richard-1 (1157-1199), Elizabeth-1 (1588-1603), Oliver Cromwell (1599-1658) and others.
# The preeminent cartographer John Norden dedicated his Speculum Britannia to Queen Elizabeth, whom he refers to as "the most Comfortable Nursing Mother of the Israel of God in the British Isles." Francis Drake, in writing to the martyrologist John Foxe, ended his letter with a prayer that "God may be glorified, His church, our Queen and country preserved; the enemies of truth vanquished, and that we may have continual peace in Israel." #
James Stuart (1566-1625) became King james -vi of Scotaland and then King James-1 of England. He also referred to himself as King of Israel but in his case it is believed to have been (in his mind) more than a borrowed expression with only symbolic meaning.
M. le Loyer, a French Huguenot magistrate published (1590) "The Ten Lost Tribes," saying that Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, Germanic, and associated peoples were all descended from the Lost Ten Tribes.
See also Pierre Le Loyer, "Edom, ou les Colonies Idumeanes, Colonies d'Hercule Phenicien. el de Thyr, Extraictes du Cinquiesm Livre di Origines, Migrations et Colonies des Peuples", Paris: N. Buon, 1620).
Jakob Abbadie
Jakob Abbadie ( c. 1654 - 25 September 1727), was a French Protestant minister and well-known writer. He became Dean of Killaloe, in Ireland.
In 1723 he published "Le Triomphe de la Providence et de la Religion." He reported: The blessings given to Abraham and his descendants, Abbadie explained, were bestowed by God in perpetuum, meaning that they could never have been fully revoked. The Tribes to whom they were promised, therefore, must still exist in order to one day receive their fulfillment. Abbadie concluded that the Ten Tribes had most likely become the ten Gothic peoples (including the ancestors of the British) who invaded Europe at the waning of Rome's power. "Unless the Ten Tribes have flown into the air, or been plunged into the earth's centre," he writes, "they must be sought for in that part of the north which, in the time of Constantine, was converted to the Christian faith."
John Sadler
John Sadler (1615-1674) was the private secretary of Oliver Cromwell, and member of the Parliamentarian Council of State. He was also Master of Magdalene College, Cambridge from 1650 to 1660. He wrote "The Rights of the Kingdom" (1649), saying that the British governmental and legal systems were extremely similar to those of ancient Israel. "He suggested that the people of Britain might have come from Israel and brought their legal forms and systems with them, thus explaining the uncanny resemblance."
In a speech in Parliament he said the same placing even more emphasis on the probability of a physical ancestral connection between the Jews and British.
" Sadler's views have been credited with convincing Cromwell to hear Manasseh Ben Israel's appeal and readmit the Jews to Britain.""
In addition to John Sadler other adherents of the Puritan cause were also reported to hold similar views.
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7. Netherlands.
The Netherlanders are related both to the Anglo-Saxons, the Scandinavians, the Belgians, and French. What applies to the Netherlanders is also pertinent to them.
Several Historians in the Netherlands traced their ancestors to Israel, e.g.
Smallegange in "Chronijck van Zeelandt", 1696, traced Dutch peoples such as the Batavians, Frisians, Menapians, and others to ancient Hebrews.
Robertus Albertoma, Groningen, 1736 wrote in "Elia de profeet" that the Hebrews came to the Netherlands.
and
quotes Petrus Keuchenius (his granfather?) that Nederlanders came from Gilead.
The Dutch Jewish poet Isaac da Costa (1798-1860) as identified Nederlanders with Israelites.
"In the time of the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnessar (586 B.C.), 3 brothers - Friso, Bruno, and Saxo with [their] wives, children, and relatives fled out of the country, encouraged to do so by announcements of the Prophets concerning the fall of the town".
[Source: "Friesan Mythen en Sagen" by J. P. Wiesma, 1973. Extract translated and supplied to us by Fred Koeslag see also 'The Tribes" p.354 ]
Jerusalem is representative of Ancient Israel in general.
The people of Friso, Bruno, and Saxo came to the west. Friso in 313 BCE landed in Friesland i.e. in Frisia. Bruno and Saxo (brothers of Frisso) went eastward though Saxo (according to Le Petit) then returned to the west. Bruno founded the city of Brunswick in which area of Germany Ptolemy placed the Angloi thus identifying them with the people of Bruno. The Angloi (Angles) also moved northward to the regions bordering Denmark and from there they went to Britain some of them sojourning (like the Saxons) in Frisia on the way.
A similar account with more details in given in
LE PETIT, JEAN FRANCOISE. "Le Grande Chronicle. Ancienne et Moderne de Holland, Zeelande, Utrecht, Frise, Oversyseel, et de Groenungham", Dordrecht, 1601.
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See Also:
The Earliest West European Beliefs in their Israelite Origins
https://britam.org/countries/countriesindex.html
Additional Sources:
"BRITSH-ISRAEL:
RACIAL IDENTITY IN IMPERIAL BRITAIN, 1870-1920 ,"
PhD Thesis (Loyola University Chicago)
by
Eric Michael Reisenauer, 1997.
https://ecommons.luc.edu/luc_diss/3693/
Continued at:
Modern Era.
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