A Reply to Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D. (4 December, 2014, 12 Kislev, 5775)
A Refutation of the article:
The Not Lost Tribes of Israel
Who and Where Are the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel Today?
by Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D.
http://www.soundchristian.com/tribes/
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Contents:
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Part One. 12 Tribes Were Present in Both Judah and Joseph
1. Introduction
2. The article, The Not Lost Tribes of Israel . Who and Where Are the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel Today?
by Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D.
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Part Two: Martin Was Confused!!
3. Ezekiel Referred to Judah as the House of Israel!
4. Fulfillment of Prophecy and The Return from Babylon
Were prophecies concerning Ephraim Fulfilled in Biblical Times?
Did the two halves of Israel re-unite during the Babylonian Captivity of Judah?
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Part One
12 Tribes Were Present in Both Judah and Joseph
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1. Introduction
The article we are arguing with was written Ernest L. Martin (1932-2002). He was a well-known author and a Christian.
In one of his works, The People That History Forgot ,
http://www.amazon.com/People-History-Forgot-Second-Edition/dp/094565782X
http://www.askelm.com/people/index.asp
Martin claims that the early Christians were in effect Samaritans and Edomites etc. In his view they hijacked true Christianity but he, of course, had it.
We are not certain how accurate this book is but we found it interesting and quoted from it in our work, "Ephraim".
Martin was also well know for supporting a view that the site of the Temple was not exactly on the Temple Mount but a little bit to the south of it. It was this notion that made him famous, or notorious, as the case may be. Martin founded the Foundation for Biblical Research in Pasadena.
Martin wrote against belief in the Ten Tribes still existing let along being now amongst western peoples.
Yair Davidiy representing Brit-Am/Hebrew nations replies, in the article below, to claims made by Martin which have been quoted in full.
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2. The article, The Not Lost Tribes of Israel . Who and Where Are the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel Today?
by Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D.
Now, regarding the article in question.
The Not Lost Tribes of Israel . Who and Where Are the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel Today?
by Ernest L. Martin, Ph.D.
http://www.askelm.com/prophecy/p900703.htm
He says the Ten Tribes were not lost:
martin:
# One of the most erroneous teachings being disseminated today is that the Northern Ten Tribes of Israel left the region of Assyria where they were taken captive in the eighth and seventh centuries before Christ and that they wandered into northwestern Europe and into the British Isles (where they became "lost" to the people of Jerusalem) and they established their roots in Europe as Celts, Angles, Saxons, Danes, etc. #
martin:
# It is believed in some quarters that these Northern Ten Tribes divorced themselves from Palestine and gave up their observance of the Sabbath and Mosaic holydays and that they became virtual pagans in belief (as were the ancient Celts, Angles, Saxons, etc.). Only in the last 200 years, it is believed, have these people supposedly regained their real "Israel identity" through the political exaltation of Great Britain and the United States (along with other northwestern European powers). This belief, however, is sheer nonsense. #
Martin says that he used to believe in this himself. He was a member and later a pastor of the Worldwide Church of God. After being made Dean of Faculty at their college in England he studied the subject from an historical point of view and decided that it was not so.
Martin then quotes the New Testament.
martin:
# James wrote a letter to "the twelve tribes scattered abroad, greeting" (James 1:1). This letter was obviously written to Jews and therefore members of the Ten Tribes were included in the 12 addressed to.#
For about half the length of his article Martin belabors this point. James spoke to members of the 12 tribes, therefore the 10 tribes as a separate entity did not exist, or so he says.
We have dealt with this question elsewhere,
The Completeness of the Exile. Answers to Deniers of Brit-Am Biblical Truth
http://www.britam.org/CompleteExile.html
In short,
There were two entities:
(1) Inhabitants of the Northern Kingdom of Israel meaning the Ten Tribes and in the end a portion of Judah.
(2) Inhabitants of the Southern Kingdom of Judah meaning the Tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Levi, and minority representatives of all the other Tribes.
Despite there being members of ALL 12 tribes in both groups, the northern group is referred to in the Bible as Israel (when juxtaposed to Judah), or Joseph, or Ephraim. The southern section may be referred to as Israel (in certain contexts), or as Judah, or as Jerusalem, or Zion. In each case, we need to look at the context.
# A Midrash indicates that up to 20% of the people of Judah who returned with Ezra from Babylon were refugees from the Northern Kingdom. Nevertheless, as emphasized by Nachmanides, these were considered as nullified amongst Judah and counted as part of Judah just as those of Judah who had gone with Northern Israel are considered part of the Lost Ten Tribes. The Bible has its own terminology and the Bible considers the Northern "Israel" ("Joseph", "Ephraim") to be a separate entity apart from Judah. #
It follows that Jews from Judah could be addressed as from all the 12 tribes of Israel WITHOUT compromising the principle that most Israelites had been part of the Ten Tribes and had gotten lost.
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Part Two: Martin Was Confused!!
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3. Ezekiel Referred to Judah as the House of Israel!
Martin says:
# Those Ten Tribes of Israel on the other side of the Euphrates were mentioned by the prophet Ezekiel about 150 years after their captivity by the Assyrians. Much of the prophecies about Jerusalem and the Land of Palestine were directed to these Ten Tribes of the House of Israel. God told Ezekiel: "Get thee unto the House of Israel, and speak my words unto them. For thou art not sent to a people of a strange speech [they spoke perfectly good Hebrew] and of an hard language, but to the House of Israel; not to many people of a strange [foreign] speech and of an hard language, whose words thou can not understand" (Ezekiel 3:4-6). These people of the House of Israel were well acquainted with the Sabbath, the holydays and the judgments and statutes of Moses (Ezekiel 20) and throughout the Book of Ezekiel he shows these Ten Tribes were very much interested in Jerusalem and what was happening in Palestine. These tribes were not "lost" in a geographical sense. #
In Ezekiel ch.4 the Prophet speaks of the House of Judah (i.e. the Jews) and the House of Israel meaning the Ten Tribes.
Wherever Ezekiel speaks of the House of Israel without recalling the House of Judah then he means the Jews, at least at the primary literal level of his message.
Martin apparently was not aware of this peculiarity in the terminology of Ezekiel. Martin assumed that when Ezekiel mentioned the House of Israel he meant the Ten Tribes whereas Ezekiel was referring to the Jews amongst whom he dwelt. Martin was confused on this issue.
We repeat, Ezekiel (like Ezra in some places) in many passages addresses the Jews as Israel or House of Israel or Remnant of Israel. The Elders of Judah in Ezekiel are referred to as the Elders of Israel.
Remember the Jews are part of Israel but not all Israelites are Jews.
See:
Israel in Ezekiel
Separate Entities in Prophecy. The Name Israel and its Application
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/bible/ezekiel/nameisrael.html
Nevertheless, Ezekiel recognized the existence of the Ten Tribes as a SEPARATE entity.
cf.
Ezekiel 37:
15 The word of the Lord came to me: 16 Mortal, take a stick and write on it, 'For Judah, and the Israelites associated with it'; then take another stick and write on it, 'For Joseph (the stick of Ephraim) and all the house of Israel associated with it'; 17 and join them together into one stick, so that they may become one in your hand. 18 And when your people say to you, 'Will you not show us what you mean by these?' 19 say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I am about to take the stick of Joseph (which is in the hand of Ephraim) and the tribes of Israel associated with it; and I will put the stick of Judah upon it, and make them one stick, in order that they may be one in my hand. 20 When the sticks on which you write are in your hand before their eyes, 21 then say to them, Thus says the Lord God: I will take the people of Israel from the nations among which they have gone, and will gather them from every quarter, and bring them to their own land. 22I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king shall be king over them all. Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms.
Ezekiel was speaking about the End times. Ezekiel says that in the End Times after the final reunion of the Tribes,
"Never again shall they be two nations, and never again shall they be divided into two kingdoms" (Ezekiel 37:22).
It follows that UP UNTIL THE TIME OF REUNION IN THE END TIMES they will have been "two nations" divided into "two kingdoms".
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4. Fulfillment of Prophecy and The Return from Babylon
Were prophecies concerning Ephraim Fulfilled in Biblical Times?
Did the two halves of Israel re-unite during the Babylonian Captivity of Judah?
Martin says:
# Even from the period before their exodus from Egypt, there was a distinction made between the descendants of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh -and the tribes associated with them) and the descendants of Judah (and the tribes associated with them). Jacob had prophesied that Ephraim would become the leader of the Joseph tribes and become "a multitude of nations" (Genesis 48:19). This occurred when the land of Palestine was finally settled by the Israelites and Ephraim became the principal tribe of leadership among the other tribes in northern Israel.
martin:
# Each of the tribes of Israel during the chaotic period of the Judges had become a semi-independent "nation" on its own, with everyone doing what he considered right in his own eyes (Judges 17:6; 21:25). But even at this time when Israel was (for all practical purposes) twelve independent tribal nations, Ephraim claimed overall rule among them and demanded to be consulted on all decisions concerning political affairs for Israel (Judges 12).
martin:
# Indeed, when those in the Northern Ten Tribes broke away from Judah after the death of Solomon, the Ten Tribes (which formerly were recognized as separate national entities in the time of the Judges) then became officially known as Ephraim. There are 24 references to the Ten Tribes being called Ephraim in Hosea alone. .. was to fulfill the prophecy of Jacob that Ephraim would finally become the ruler of "a multitude of nations" (Genesis 48:19). This is when the Ten Tribes (who were once tribal nationalities) became a single commonwealth of nations under the control of Ephraim. Their national existence continued for about 250 years -until the time that they were carried captive beyond the Euphrates River by the Assyrians. In fact, a number of northern Israelites fled to the Kingdom of Judah when they saw the Assyrians beginning to invade their country (II Chronicles 34:9; 35:17,18) and they joined with the Jews of Judah -- even returning with them to Jerusalem after the Babylonian Captivity (I Chronicles 9:2,3; Luke 2:36). All these remnants of the Ten Tribes who joined with Judah in Jerusalem (including Benjamin and Levi) were known as "Jews" from this time onward (e.g. Acts 21:39).
BA
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Martin claims:
(a) that prophecies concerning Ephraim were fulfilled in Biblical Times.
(b) That all 12 tribes returned from the Exile of Judah to Babylon implying that the two halves had already re-united.
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In reply to (a)
Did You Know?
You Need to Know! Your ancestors may have been from the Ten Tribes of Israel!
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/ov1/know.html
'The two families which the Lord has chosen, has He cast them off?' (Jer. 33:24)
Though they will be regathered from all over the world, (Isa. 59:19, Zech, 8:7, Isa. 11:11-16, Jer. 49:36, Ez. 37:9), the majority of them were destined to be situated at the continental extremities of the earth such as North America, the British Isles (Isa. 41:1-9), Scandinavia, the Netherlands, Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa, (Deuteronomy 33:13, Isaiah 24:16, 26:15, 41:8-9, 49:1-26). They were to be very numerous, (Gen. 16:10, 22:17, Hos. 1:10), to be the richest (Genesis 27:28, 49:25, Deuteronomy
33:13-16, Hosea 2:8), and most powerful (Numbers 24:8-7, Micah 5:7-9) nations on earth and were to control the major international strategic bases of the world. (Genesis 22:16-17, 24:60).
See Also:
List of 122 Brit-Am Biblical Proofs
http://hebrewnations.com/articles/biblical-proof/list122.html
When were any of these Prophecies concerning the TEN LOST TRIBES fulfilled in Biblical Times?
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Concerning (b)
The Jews who returned from Babylon included Israelites from all the Tribes BUT in the lists of families of those who returned are to be found ONLY the Tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. This was commented upon by Nachmanides in The Book of Redemption.
http://www.britam.org/Nachmanides.html
See:
THE TEN TRIBES WILL RETURN!
The Bible Says So!
by
Nachmanides
http://britam.org/RETURN.htm
Extract:
When was the House of Joseph like a flame devouring the stubble of Esau?
Not in Biblical times!
The Ten Tribes had already been exiled and they are still in Exile, in the area of the Canaanites, even unto Zarephath:
'And this first exile of the children of Israel who are [now] from Canaan unto Zarephath' [Obadiah 1:20].
These places are at the extremes of the north. The verse continues, 'and the captivity of Jerusalem, which is in Sepharad, shall possess the cities of the south' [Obadiah 1:20]. Those who were exiled to 'Sepharad' [meaning Spain] were the Jews of Jerusalem who were taken away by Titus and Vespasian when the Second Temple was destroyed by the Romans and not before then. The others were the Ten Tribes who were exiled in the First Exile. These have not returned as has been claimed.
When did they [the Ten Tribes] come back and when were these enormous exiled groups ingathered to inherit the cities of Ephraim and Samaria?
When did saviours go up on Mount Zion to judge the Mount of Esau?
In the time of Ezra only a few returned as pigeons to their dovecotes.
It says, 'the kingdom shall be the LORD's [Obadiah 1:21]. At that time everyone will openly acknowledge the Kingdom of God.
'And the LORD shall be King over all the earth' (Zechariah 14:9).
This too will happen in the future.
The general principle concerning these and all similar verses concerning the Redemption of Israel and the fall of Edom and the like is that it is all for the future.
We see that the Lost Ten Tribes were STILL LOST when the Jews returned from Babylon. We also see that Biblical prophecies concerning Joseph, Ephraim, and the Ten Lost Tribes in general were not realized in Biblical Times but have only come to fruition in our own Era through the English-speaking peoples and their kinfolk amongst Western Nations.