Research Sources from Brit-Am Now nos. 976-1000
Contents:
1. Medieval Jews of Thessalonka (most of whose descendants were later killed in the Holocaust) searched for the Ten Tribes
2. "SHEVET" (i.e. Tribal Identification) SHALL NOT DEPART FROM JUDAH" [Genesis 49:10].
3. Dr. Richard Griffith: water drinking vessels, steamboats, and Joseph.
4. Phoenician Cadiz in Southwest Spain
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1. Medieval Jews of Thessalonka (most of whose descendants were later killed in the Holocaust) searched for the Ten Tribes
"Brit-Am Now"-977
3. Medieval Jews Anticipated Ten Lost Tribes
 Reply to Jonathan from New Zealand
Subject: Re: "Brit-Am Now"-976
#1. Question on the attitude of "Jewish Religious circles" to the Lost Tribes
Hi Yair
In response to Jonathan Tillotson:
There is a book called The Far-Farers by Victoria Clark and though it is mostly about the wanderings of Vikings there is an interesting little piece on page 297 relating to the year 1096 CE which I quote:
"Fervently expecting the Messiah and everlasting joy, the Thessaloniki Jews mourned the fate of their brothers in the north but managed to extract a grain of comfort from the news that the Western Christians had embarked on a Crusade to liberate Jerusalem. They trusted that as soon as Christians and Muslims had exhausted themselves fighting a mightily impious battle in the holy city, it would revert to them, its rightful owners. In much the same way as the Christians had made ready to set off on the First Crusade, Thessaloniki Jews began winding up their businesses, selling off their assets and setting off on a search for the ten tribes of Israel who had to be found before their Messiah could appear. Thessaloniki's Byzantine Greeks, as eager for Christ's second coming as the Jews were for their Messiah's first appearance and their return to Jerusalem, flocked to join their Jewish neighbours in the search."
Apparently this was a Jewish Messianic movement which flourished because of some astronomical calculations purporting to project the Messiah coming in the year1104 CE. However the movement subsided when doubt was cast on the calculations. It does at least show though that some Jews were aware of the existence of the ten tribes (independent of Jews) who needed to be in place for the Messiah to return. And it also shows that Jews and Christians have at least once in antiquity worked together in a common cause!
Blessings - Tessa
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2. "SHEVET" (i.e. Tribal Identification) SHALL NOT DEPART FROM JUDAH" [Genesis 49:10].
"Brit-Am Now"-979
1. Meaning of the word "Shevet", Sebet, Sept?
Extracts:
This article attacks Brit-Am and claims that Brit-Am
has mistranslated the verse:
"THE SCEPTRE (Hebrew: "SHEVET" , i.e. Tribal Identification)
SHALL NOT DEPART FROM JUDAH" [Genesis 49:10].
The word for Scepter in Hebrew is "SHEVET".
It uses the letters SBT where the "B" letter takes the sound of "V"
in this case.
Certain letters in Hebrew change their sounds according to set euphonic rules.
The very same phenomenon occurred in Ancient English and other so-called
"Germanic" languages.
This is discussed in:
"The Hebrew Sources of Northern Tongues"
by Terry Marvin Blodgett
http://britam.org/tongues.html
Throughout Scripture only two words are used in Hebrew that mean "Tribe", they are
SheVeT (SBT) and MaTeH. Both words as well as meaning "Tribe" also mean "staff".
The KJ in Genesis 49:10 translates SBT (Shevet) in this instance as meaning "scepter".
A "sceptor" in English is a staff of authority.
We are not saying the KJ is wrong only that the Hebrew Bible intimates an additional meaning.
Incidentally, also mentioned in our magazine,
Brit-Am TRUTH no.10 the Irish word "sept" meaning tribe also probably derives from
the Hebrew "shevet".
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3. Dr. Richard Griffith: water drinking vessels, steamboats, and Joseph.
"Brit-Am Now"-981
5. Dr. Richard Griffith: The Steam Ship and Early USA
Subject: Isaiah 18:2 --
 Water drinking Vessels and America in Prophecy!
Yair,
I enjoyed your latest work ["Role to Rule. The Task of Joseph"] on the tribe of Joseph which contained a possible prophetic reference to water drinking vessels and Joseph. I recently came across a book on Robert Fulton titled "The Fire of His Genius" by Kirkpatrick Sale. The author notes that steamships became emblematic of America and American technological prowess in the nineteenth century.  Perhaps Isaiah 18 which is addressed to a powerful people who send forth representatives on the high seas in water drinking vessels is indeed addressed to America.
Dr. Richard Griffith
Page 1
"Although the idea of a boat propelled by steam was suggested in Europe as early as the seventeenth century and experimental steamboats had been tried at various times in Britain, France, Italy and Germany in the eighteenth century, it was almost inevitable that the first successful and protracted steamboat operation should take place in America. Not that the United States in the early nineteenth century was particularly well endowed with workshops of mechanical sophistication or trained artisans to run them, certainly by comparison with Britain. But unlike Europe, it had the greatest need for, and clearest benefits from, a system of transportation that would take advantage of the numerous long rivers of the continent and overcome the difficulties of too few roads, too many mountains, and great distances to travel--and though necessity is not always the mother of invention, it is without doubt a forceful midwife. America was special, too, in having a long tradition also stemming from necessity, of practical problem-solving and technical ingenuity, substituting local and native methods and materials for foreign ones unavailable or prohibitive.
...
for more than twenty years, a good many American inventors and entrepreneurs worked steadily to surmount the considerable obstacles posed by putting a large and heavy steam engine onto a floating wooden frame and figuring out some method of propulsion to allow it to defy the winds and tides. And why eventually, in the summer of 1807, one quintessential American finally assembled a machine that solved these problems and began the first successful commercial steamboat operation in history, establishing a system of transportation that permitted humankind to surmount forces of nature that had impeded it since the dawn of time.
Fittingly, the steamboat became the emblematic image of the American industrial culture that it was launching, as the steam factory was of Britain's. Not only did it show off the characteristics of what was even then the American stereotype--large, noisy, showy, fast, brash, exciting, powerful, and audacious--and with an impact that made it an icon of American society soon recognizable anywhere in the world. More than that: in its creation as in its operation, first on the Hudson and then throughout most American waterways, it revealed in a remarkable way the American dream itself, as the dream had taken shape in the early settlement and colonization of the vast new continent and as it had burst forth, just eighteen years before, with a new and energetic republic proclaiming its unique status and mission to the world."
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4. Phoenician Cadiz in Southwest Spain
Brit-Am Now"-988
1. Phoenician Cadiz,
'Europe's oldest city' is found
By Elizabeth Nash in Madrid
http://news.independent.co.uk/europe/article3041063.ece
Published: 09 October 2007
Extracts:
Archaeologists in Spain's southern port of Cadiz believe they have found remains which prove that it is Europe's oldest inhabited city, Phoenician Gadir, or Gades in Roman times.
Remnants of walls have emerged seven metres deep in a dig beneath Cadiz's old town centre which have been dated to the 8th century BC. Scientists found shards of Phoenician pottery, and pieces of jars, bowls and plates once used in everyday life which all point towards the existence of a town. A well-preserved bronze brooch has also appeared, suggesting a high level of civilisation. Previous finds, including funeral relics, did not provide conclusive evidence of urban settlement.
Historians have long known that Cadiz was founded by Phoenician traders more than 3,000 years ago as their first settlement in Europe.
Mariners from Tyre in today's Lebanon established Gadir as a transit point for minerals brought from the Rio Tinto mines further north. The Romans later developed Gades as a naval base, and the poet Martial praised the city's dancing girls.