Are the Irish Israelites?
by Yair Davidiy
Adapted from:
Are the Irish 1 of the lost tribes of Israel?
https://www.quora.com/Are-the-Irish-1-of-the-lost-tribes-of-Israel/answer/Yair-Davidiy
Is Ireland Jewish?
The Irish often vehemently express themselves in favor of the Palestinians and against Israel. They are not however unduly concerned about other Arabs, such as Syrians, who suffer much more. Nor do they really care if Palestinians are oppressed in other places. Only Palestinians who have complaints against Jews really interest them. Openly antagonistic enemies of the Jewish People are also to be found among Irish People. See: Eire the Eerie and Why is Ireland so anti-Semitic?
This however is not the whole story. There are and were Irishmen who helped the Jews and were in favor of the Zionist cause. Evidently they are mixed both in sentiment towards the Jews and in their own origins.
The Question may not be so much:
Are the Irish one of the Lost Tribes of Israel?
But rather:
Did descendants of Israelite Tribes settle in Ancient Ireland?
All over Ireland one finds megalithic monuments known as dolmens. There are four main types of them each kind dominating its own region. The same kinds of structure are found in what was once the Land of Israel which included present-day Israel, Jordan, Syria, and Lebanon, and other areas. Superstitions practiced in Ireland in association with the dolmens are the same as those found in Jordan and Syria. Dates conventionally given for these structures begin from thousands of years before the Lost Ten Tribes were exiled. Nevertheless, before the introduction of dating methods presently in use the dolmens were associated with Celtic Civilization dating from ca. 500 BCE at the earliest and continuing into Roman times. This would seem to have been the more correct estimation.
Wedge Dolmen, Ireland. Source: carrowkeel.com
Wedge Dolmen, Golan, Israel. Source: biblewalks.com
The Language of Ireland is classified as Indo-European and as distantly related to Latin. Nevertheless, it is considered to have a substratum consistent with that of Hebrew. The same applies to the language of Brittany in France and of Wales. See: The Welsh Langauge, and Welsh and Hebrew.
Irish Legend speaks not only of their ancestors having come from Scythia but also of having been in Egypt alongside the Israelites and having gone out of Egypt with them. They also mention the people of the goddess Dana as having come from the region of Israel and evidently being identical with the Israelite Tribe of Dan.
Jewish-Arab sources said that the Sons of Moses (who were associated with the Ten Tribes) were in the Happy Isles of the Blessed (Ireland and Britain) and in Gaul, i.e. present-day France, Belgium, and Holland.
The Pagan Greeks and Romans had a legend of Saturn (Cronus), whom they identified with Israel, being expelled from the Middle East and going to Britain. This symbolized the Ten Tribes of Northern Israel being exiled and reaching the British Isles.
Ireland is an island to the North and West of the Land of Israel. It is at a geographic extremity of the Continental Land Mass.
It is in the Atlantic Ocean.
It is part of the British Isles.
These locations according to the Bible are areas the Lost Ten Tribes were destined to settle in.
Prophecies showing the Ten Tribes to be in the Islands include:
Isaiah 49:
1 Listen 0 ISLES unto me. Thou art my servant, O Israel, in whom I will be glorified
6 AND HE SAID, IT IS A LIGHT THING THAT THOU SHOULDEST BE MY
SERVANT TO RAISE UP THE TRIBES OF JACOB, AND TO RESTORE THE PRESERVED OF ISRAEL:
I WILL ALSO GIVE THEE FOR A LIGHT TO THE GENTILES,
THAT THOU MAYEST BE MY SALVATION UNTO THE END OF THE EARTH.Isaiah 60:
9 SURELY THE ISLES SHALL WAIT FOR ME, AND THE SHIPS OF TARSHISH FIRST, TO BRING THY SONS FROM FAR, THEIR SILVER AND THEIR GOLD WITH THEM, UNTO THE NAME OF THE LORD THY GOD, AND TO THE HOLY ONE OF ISRAEL, BECAUSE HE HATH GLORIFIED THEE.Deuteronomy 33:
17 His glory is like a firstborn bull,
And his horns like the horns of the wild ox [Raem -Unicorn, cf. KJV];
Together with them
He shall push the peoples
To the ends of the earth;
They are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
And they are the thousands of Manasseh.Isaiah 49:
8 .... I have kept you and given you
as a Covenant of the People [in Hebrew: Brit-Am]
to establish the land,
to apportion the desolate heritages...12 Lo, these shall come from far away,
and lo, these from the north and from the west,
and these from the land of Sinim.
The Talmud and Midrash (Midrash Numbers Rabah 1;6, Midrash Eichah Rabah 2;9, Talmud Yerushalmi Sanhedrin ch.17, L.6, 29) apply Isaiah 49 (cited above) to the Three Separate Places of Exile concerning the Lost Ten Tribes : beyond the Sambation River; to Daphneh of Antiochia; and to where the Clouds came down and covered them. These placements referred to areas in the Middle East whence the Lost Ten Tribes moved to the west from.
Daphneh of Antiochia was otherwise known as Hamath. The Irish "Chronicle of Eri" says that their ancestors were taken prisoner by the Assyrians and delivered to the Phoenicians of Sidon who took them overseas to Spain where they later rebelled and moved to the north and to Ireland. Coming from Israel and going to Spain and from there to Ireland is confirmed by archaeological finds. Having been first taken into exile by Phoenicians is also referred to in the Book of Amos ch.1 concerning the Phoenicians of Tyre.
The Clouds Coming Down (also called "Clouds of Darkness") are recalled in Classical Literature in connection with the "Cimmerian Darkness." A portion of Israelites had been taken to the neighborhood of Armenia where they joined the Cimmerians and moved with them to Western Europe creating “Celtic” Civilization. Other Israelites went to the Sambatian River area meaning the region of the Don and Danaper Rivers. This was after they had previously, while still in the Middle East, federated with the Scythians whom they latter accompanied in moving westward.
"The Land of Sinim" (Isaiah 49:12) refers to Australia and New Zealand. About one in five of the white Australian population descend from Irishmen.
Tarshish (saiah 60:9) historically was another name for Tartessos in southwest Spain facing the Atlantic Ocean. The Aramaic Paraphrase "Targum" explains that the "Isles" mentioned are those in the "Oceanic Sea" meaning those of The Atlantic Ocean. The Talmud (Hullin 91b) explains the term "Tarshish" as representative of the Atlantic Ocean in general [see "ARUCH HASHALEM" entry "Okyanus"].
There are more proofs like these and others from additional fields.
They all indicate that Island of Ireland was one of the places members of the Lost Ten Tribes settled in and from which they shall return.
The inhabitants of Britain and Ireland referred to themselves not as Celts but rather as “Iberi” or “Hiberi” which is a Western Form of the term "Hebrew."
So too, the names of their ancestors are often similar to Hebrew ones.
Examples include:
The Iari which is how the Clan of Yair of Manasseh was referred to.
The Gabair from Geber of Manasseh.
The Dana from Dan.
The Province of Oriel linked to Manasseh.
Emain Macha in Niorthern Ireland from Even Maachah of Naphtali in Israel.
This is in addition to other names of Hebrew origin among the "Celtic" Peoples of Britain and Gaul.
The Irish therefore have some Hebraic antecedents. The Lost Ten Tribes in the future are destined to re-unite with Judah (i.e. the Jews) but until then they will remain separate. Both Scripture and Midrashim indicate that until the final re-union a certain degree of friction may be evident at times between them.
Isaiah (ESV) 11:
13 The jealousy of Ephraim shall depart,
and those who harass Judah shall be cut off;
Ephraim shall not be jealous of Judah,
and Judah shall not harass Ephraim.
The status of the Ten Tribes at present is the same as that of Gentiles (Hosea 1:6-10, 5:7, Jeremiah 3:8, Talmud) though in the future this will change. See:
Jeremiah 3:
8 And I saw that for all the adulteries of faithless Israel, I had sent her away and given her a writ of divorce, yet her treacherous sister Judah did not fear; but she went and was a harlot also.
Here Jeremiah is speaking about both the Ten Tribes (referred to as "Israel" in this case) as juxtaposed to Judah. The Ten Tribes had been "divorced" i.e. they were no longer obligated by the commandments and were to loose awareness of their ancestry (cf. Hosea 1:6-10, 5:7, Talmud, Yebamot 17). Nevertheless int he future the two halves of Israe will come together and be one people once more.
Ezekiel 37:
21 Say to them, Thus says the LORD God, Behold, I will take the sons of Israel from among the nations where they have gone, and I will gather them from every side and bring them into their own land; 22 and I will make them one nation in the land, on the mountains of Israel; and one king will be king for all of them; and they will no longer be two nations and no longer be divided into two kingdoms. 23 They will no longer defile themselves with their idols, or with their detestable things, or with any of their transgressions; but I will deliver them from all their dwelling places in which they have sinned, and will cleanse them. And they will be My people, and I will be their God.