Pagan Sources Linked with Ten Tribes Studies
Contents:
1. Introduction. Fear God, Beware of Idols.
2. Previous Articles on this Subject.
3. Israelite Idolatry
4. Baal Tsefon
5. The Ten Tribes of Israel Worshipped Saturn
6. The Scythians as Manda and Manasseh
7. Saturn in Britain and the West, Saetre.
8. The Hidden God in the Bible. Is there a Connection?
9. SAMBATION
10. Hidden in Plain View?
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1. Introduction. Fear God, Beware of Idols.
The following article finds support from pagan sources for the Lost Ten Tribes beign found in Ancient Britain. It comes to supplement information already supplied on this issue from the Bible, Rabbinical Traditions, and Secular Studies.
Torah Opinion is against mixing the studies concerning the God of Israel with pagan concepts. It is firmly against it. Rabbi Avraham HaKohen Kook also spoke of this.
The discussion below alludes to pagan concepts and idols from an historical point of view. This is how the pagans thought and expressed themselves. It helps us BUT it is NOT a major proof of ours. It is not something we would rely on overduly. The ideas and information below border on speculation but there may be something to them.
This type of study may help round out the general picture but not necessarily much more than that.
Exodus 22:
20 He who sacrifices to any god, other than to the LORD alone, shall be utterly destroyed.
(cf. Talmud Sucah 45;b)
Deuteronomy 4:
35 You were shown these things so that you might know that the LORD, He is God; there is no other besides Him.
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2. Previous Articles on this Subject.
A Hidden God?
How Pagan Mythology located the Israelites in the British Isles
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/myth/hidden.html
Cronus
The Lost Tribes of Israel and the Mythology of Cronos, Saturn, Baal Tsaphon, Typhon, and Cernunnos
https://hebrewnations.com/articles/myth/cronus.html
The Identification of Israel with Saturn
by John R. Salverda
https://britam.org/salverda.html
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3. Israelite Idolatry
2-Kings chapter 17 describes the Exile of the northern Ten Tribes of Israel.
2-Kings 17:
6 In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria and led the people of Israel into exile to Assyria, and settled them in Halah and Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.
The passage continues and explains that they were being exiled for practising idolatry:
2-Kings 17:
7 Now this came about because the sons of Israel had sinned against the LORD their God, who had brought them up from the land of Egypt, from under the hand of Pharaoh, king of Egypt; and they had feared other gods. 8 They also followed the customs of the nations whom the LORD had driven out from the sons of Israel, and in the customs of the kings of Israel which they had introduced. 9 And the sons of Israel did things secretly against the LORD their God which were not right.
The Hebrew text along with tradition indicates that not only did they worship idols and follow pagan practices but they also introduced ideas of their own and created a kind of synthesis of paganism and Hebrew practice.
The passage continues and describes some of the things they did:
2-Kings 17:
9 And the sons of Israel did things secretly against the LORD their God which were not right. Moreover, they built for themselves high places in all their towns, from watchtower to fortified city. 10 And they set up for themselves memorial stones and Asherim on every high hill and under every green tree, 11 and there they burned incense on all the high places as the nations did that the LORD had taken into exile before them; and they did evil things, provoking the LORD. 12 They served idols, concerning which the LORD had said to them, 'You shall not do this thing.'...15 ...And they followed idols and became empty, and followed the nations that surrounded them, about which the LORD had commanded them not to do as they did. 16 And they abandoned all the commandments of the LORD their God and made for themselves cast metal images: two calves. And they made an Asherah, and worshiped all the heavenlylights, and served Baal. 17 Then they made their sons and their daughters pass through the fire, and they practiced divination and interpreting omens, and gave themselves over to do evil in the sight of the LORD, provoking Him. 18 So the LORD was very angry with Israel, and He removed them from His sight; no one was left except the Tribe of Judah.
The pagan practices described above such as worship of baal, sacred groves (Asherah), worshipping metal bull calves, passing their children over the fire, and sometimes into it, divination, omens, and so on were all to be found among the Druids in "Celtic" Ireland and Britain and the islands around them.
The exiled Israelites reached the West of Europe both by ship and overland. They came by boat being taken by Phoenician, Philistine, and Idumaean (Edomite) proxies acting on behalf of Assyrian and Babylonian-Edomite overseers. Others were taken overland and from there they moved in waves of migration to Western Europe.
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4. Baal Tsafon
Isidore of Seville (c. 560 - 636 CE) understood Saturn to be a form of the Babylonian "Bel" meaning the Canaanite Baal.
One of the major gods of the Canaanites (whom the Israelites were influenced by) was Baal one of whose manifestation was Baal Tsefon. The word "Tsefon" means "Hidden" and in Hebrew so does the word "Saturn" from the Hebrew word root "SaTeR."
The Greek god Cronus was identified by the Romans as Saturn and was identifiable with the Canaanite deity Baal Tsaphon. The Romans apparently took the name Saturn for Cronus from a Phoenician or related source. The city of Ancient Rome was founded by descendants of Edom and the Latin Language of Rome contains many words similar to Hebrew ones. The Edomites had spoken a dialect of Hebrew.
Cronos-Saturn-Baal Zephon-Typhon- were all one and equated with the God of Israel in the eyes of Classical Roman writers.
The name "Baal" in Hebrew connotes "lord, master husband, male sexual partner." It also meant a specific idol named "baal" as well as in the plural being applied to a host of smaller deities
Hosea testifies that the Israelites had began to equate the God of Israel with Baal.
Hosea 2:
And it will come about on that day, declares the LORD,
That you will call Me "my husband "
And no longer call Me "My Baal."
17 For I will remove the names of the Baals from her mouth,
So that they will no longer be mentioned by their names.
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5. The Ten Tribes of Israel Worshipped Saturn
We saw how the god Baal Tsaphon was equated with both Cronos (Saturn) and a form of baal.
Saturn was represented by the planet of that name. It had astrological significance. Another name for this planet was Chiun [Kiven]. The prophet Amos describes the Ten Tibes carrying an image of Saturn-Chjiun with them when they went into Exile.
Amos 5:
26 You also carried Sikkuth your king
And Chiun, your idols,
The star of your gods [Hebrew: Kokav Elohaicem, i.e. Your god, the star]
Which you made for yourselves.
27 Therefore I will send you into captivity beyond Damascus,
Says the LORD, whose name is the God of Hosts.
[Damascus here probably refers to a location by the Chabor River in Northern Syria and not the present city of Damascus in southern Syria].
The Lost Ten Tribes are here being addressed. One of the idols mentioned is Chiun (Kivun). This has been identified with Saturn. Another name for Saturn was Cronos (Kronos). The name "Kronos" derives from the Hebrew "Keren" meaning "horn."
The god baal was frequently depicted as a two horned deity. Similarly a horned god of the British Celts was known as "Cernunnos," whose name is also derived from the same word-root.
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6. The Scythians as Manda and Manasseh
John R. Salverda shows that Saturn was also known as "Manda" which name is also a form of the name Manasseh and after the Israelites were exiled was applied to the Scythians. The name Manda meaning both "Manasseh" and "Saturn" may be a coincidence yet the pagans may have attached significance to it. The Exiled Israelties and the Scythians to some degree were the same people.
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7. Saturn in Britain and the West, Saetre.
The Israelites fromt he Ten Tribes worshipped Baal one of whose permutations was Saturn. The Prophet Amost (4:25) describes the Israelites from the 10 Tribes when they went into exile as carrying a statue of their idol Kieven [Chiun] meaning Saturn. Saturn in Roman thought, probably due to Phoenician influence, came to represent Israel. Plutarch wrote that Saturn had been banished far to the west to one of the British Isles. This may have been the "Isle of the Blessed" near Britain. The Isle of the Blessed is usually understood to refer to Ireland. In other words the Ten Tribes had been exiled and were believed to be somewhere in the British Isles.
One of the sons of Saturn was a giant named BRIAREUS. Saturn was considered to be in a permanent state of sleep and Briareus on one of the Isles of Britain watched over him. BRIAREUS may have been equated with Britain.
Isaiah 24:
14 These shall lift up their voice, they shall shout; for the majesty of the LORD they cry aloud from the sea [west].
15 Wherefore glorify ye the LORD in the Biurim, even the name of the LORD, the God of Israel, in the isles of the sea.
The word Hebrew given here as Biurim is soemtimes translated as "in the east" is "biurim" [באורים]. it more correctly means "in the fires" or in the lights" or it may be another name for Britain. The suggestion that Birum is another name fro Britain may be related to the Giant "Briareus" son of Saturn who was in an island of Britain watching over his father.
The Etruscans also spoke of a People of Saturn to their Northwest.
Mark Williams: The Etruscan god, Satre and the Northwest Regions.
Subject: The Etruscan Deity Satre
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satre_(Etruscan_god)
Satre or Satres was an Etruscan god who appears on the Liver of
Piacenza, a bronze model used for haruspicy. He occupies the dark and
negative northwest region, and seems to be a "frightening and dangerous
god who hurls his lightning from his abode deep in the earth.
Satre is another form of Saturn.
Haruspicy is divination, especially by examining the entrails of animals.
The Etruscans were centered in Tuscany in northwest Italy. The areas to their northwest were France and Britian.
Saturn was also known as "Saetre"
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saturday
In the Westphalian dialects of Low Saxon, in East Frisian Low Saxon and in the Saterland Frisian language, Saturday is called Satertag, also akin to Dutch zaterdag, which has the same linguistic roots as the English word Saturday. It was formerly thought that the English name referred to a deity named Saetre who was venerated by the pre-Christian peoples of north-western Germany, some of whom were the ancestors of the Anglo-Saxons. Saetre was identified as either a god associated with the harvest of possible Slav origin, or another name for Loki, a complex deity associated with both good and evil; this latter suggestion may be due to Jacob Grimm. However, modern dictionaries derive the name from [the Roman god] Saturn.
Remark by TubalCain: Amos mentioned Sakkuth and Kaiwan [Saturn]. The ancient Saxons followed Krodo and Satar, apparently Saturn. Adam Zertal mentioned the Sardan Sea People at Megiddo and they were [in Ancient Israel] at Beth Shean and near Dor.
The Anglo-saxons before they invaded England may have worshipped a god name Sater and also as Krodo. This may ahve been a gform of Kronos and Saturn.
Wikipedia tells us:
Krodo according to the 1492 Saxon Chronicle incunable, probably written by the Brunswick goldsmith Conrad Bothe (c. 1475, c. 1501) and printed in the studio of Peter Schaeffer at Mainz, was a Germanic god of the Saxons. He is supposed to have been similar to the Roman god Saturn. Modern historians characterize the figure of Krodo as a fake (Janzen 2017).
From the book, "Divine Messengers: Roman Roots of Astrological Planet Symbols," By Hannelore Goos, 2019:
# Konrad Both (1492) describes a god, Krodo, in east Westphalian Saxony [Medieval Germany] who was also called Satar. His statue is said to have been destroyed during the great Saxon wars of Charlemagne. #
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8. The Hidden God in the Bible. Is there a Connection?
Cronos (Saturn) was identfiied with the Canaanite god Baal Tsaphon. In Greek tradition the name "Tsaphon" (in Baal Tsaphon) was prpnounced as "Typhon." Instead of being identified with Cronos he was registerede as one of his sons. "Typhon" became one of the Titans (ancient giants) and a son of Cronos. In some versions it is Typhon rather than Cronos who fights with Zeus and is exiled to Tartarus or the Underworld. This was believed to be in the region of Tartessus or the Atlantic Ocean and equated with Elysium which was the Blessed Isle off the coast of Britain.
At all events, the association of Cronus (Saturn) and Typhon with Ancient Israel is confirmed by Plutarch (Isolde and Osira 3:
A source used by Plutarch (Isolde and Osira 31, no.259) says that the Titan, Typhon, fathered "Hierosolymus" [i.e. Jerusalem] and "Iudaeus" meaning Judah: Typhon is a form of the name "Tsafon" when the Hebrew is transliterated into Greek. Typhon was a son of Cronus (Saturn) and sometimes identified with him. This confirms the identification of Saturn and his sons with the Ancient Israelites.
The Greek god Cronus was identified by the Romans as Saturn and was equatible with the Canaanite deity Baal Tsaphon. Cronos-Saturn-Baal Zephon-Typhon- were all one and equated with the God of Israel in the eyes of Classical Roman writers.
They were quoting Phoenician (e.g. Sanchuniathon) and other pagan accounts concerning Israel.
The equation of Saturn with Israel may have been derived from memories of the Lost Ten Tribes.
[The Greeks adapted foreign gods and legends to their own terminology. Obviously we have been looking for parallelisms to Hebrew and Canaanite sources and finding them but ignoring the rest. This is not objective research but it is nevertheless pertinent and relevant to our reasearches.]
The pagan usage of the name "Saturn" (Hidden) for Cronus may have been borrowed from Israelite sources.
The same root "sater" (to hide) as found in the name Saturn was also employed by the Prophet Isaiah in connection with the God of Israel: The Prophet Isaiah in his prophecies uses expressions based on the root "SaTeR" meaning "hide" or "hidden" in connection with the God of Israel and the People of Israel.
Isaiah (NASB) 8:
16 Bind up the testimony, seal the Law among my disciples. 17 And I will wait for the LORD who is hiding [Hebrew "ha-ma-STiR"] His face from the House of Jacob; I will wait eagerly for Him. 18 Behold, I and the children whom the LORD has given me are for signs and wonders in Israel from the LORD of armies, who dwells on Mount Zion.
Isaiah continues and speaks of both Israel (the Ten Tribes) and of Judah describing both his own contemporary scene and the distant future.
Isaiah 45:
15 Truly You are God, who hide Yourself O God of Israel, the Savior!
[In Hebrew the expression translated as "who hide Yourself" is "miStaTeR" derived from the verb-root SaTeR which is also the root of Saturn.
Isaiah continues:
# They shall be ashamed And also disgraced, all of them; They shall go in confusion together, Who are makers of idols # (Isaiah 45:16).
The God of Israel had threatened the Israelites that if they departed from the Right Track HE would hide HIMSELF:
Deuteronomy (NASB) 31:
16 The LORD said to Moses, 'Behold, you are about to lie down with your fathers; and this people will arise and play the prostitute with the foreign gods of the land into the midst of which they are going, and they will abandon Me and break My covenant which I have made with them. 17 Then My anger will be kindled against them on that day, and I will abandon them and hide [Hebrew "HiSTaRti" from the root "STR"] My face from them, and they will be consumed, and many evils and troubles will find them; so they will say on that day, 'Is it not because our God is not among us that these evils have found us?' 18 But I will assuredly hide [Hebrew "HiSTaRti" from the root "STR"] My face on that day because of all the evil that they will have done, for they will have turned away to other gods.
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9. SAMBATION
In Muslim sources (probably derived from Jewish-Arabic folklore) the People of Ad the brother of Hud (i.e. the Jews) were expelled and went to live in the Isles of the Dead in the west meaning Britain. Other legends exist along the same lines, as we have shown.
Old Jewish tales traced the Children of Moses and the Rechabites (descendants of Jethro) to France and Britain. These groups were associated with the Lost Ten Tribes.
The Ten Tribes in Rabbinical Tradition were exiled to Daphne of Antiochea, the Clouds of Darkness, and to the Sambation River and/or Beyond it. These were known places whose location we have discussed in precious articles. The Sambation seems to have been a name that travelled as the Ten Tribes moved. At first it apparently meant the Little Zab River in present-day Iran near Armenia. Later the name was applied to either the Don or Donetz Rivers (or both) in southern Russia a major Scythian and Khazar area.
Could it also apply to Britain?
Britain was linked with Saturn.
Saturn, for astrological reasons, gave his name to Saturday. This is the Seventh Day otherwise known as Shabat i.e. Sabbath. The name SAMBATION means Sabbath!
According to the Bible Codes the Hebrew name Sambation is linked in such a way that it connects to the word "Daniah" meaning Denmark in Modern Hebrew which is juxtaposed between the word "TEN" on one side and "TEN" again (i.e. the Same Word!) on the other side. The word "Ten" suggests the Ten Lost Tribes who disappeared by, and beyond, the Sambation. We also found other associations of SAMBATION with TEN TRIBES, with JOSEPH, and with AMERIKA.
https://www.britam.org/Sambation.pdf
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10. Hidden in Plain View?
If some of the above indications and observations seem far-fetched this is how things work.
How else could the Lost Ten Tribes remain hidden in plain view?
See Also: "Ten Tribes and Saturn.
Pagan Sources," by Eric (TubalCain)