Ten Tribes Studies (26 August, 2013, Elul 20, 5773)
Contents:
1. From Yair, More Points in Reply to an Irate Irishman. The Bottom Line, Is it True or Not?
2. Getting Closer to the End Times? Will Ephraim (the USA and UK) invade Syria/Gilead-Bashan?
3. Proverbs 17:1-7
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1. From Yair, More Points in Reply to an Irate Irishman. The Bottom Line, Is it True or Not?
The bottom line in discussions concerning the Ancestry of certain peoples from the Ten Tribes should be, Is it true or not?
It may however be true for only part of the population. In such a case it would be understandable that some might take offense at the proposal of Israelite Ancestry.
Historically in Britain, British Israel gave expression to already existing beliefs. It did not originate them. The fact that certain groups adapted British Israel beliefs to their own agendas should not detract from appreciation of the basic truths underlying it.
Claiming Irish traditions as the spiritual property of the Irish in Ireland or of native speakers of Gaelic has only limited validity. There are people of Irish descent all over the world. Who is to say that descendants of the soldiers of Cromwell in Ireland, most of whom became Catholics, have more claim than those who descend from the original stock but changed their religion?
The parents of Ronald Reagan were from Ireland. According to Yehonatan David White President Ronald Reagan, in an audience with Jews, expressed his belief that his Irish ancestors were from Israel. In the book, "Exodus 48", it tells of an Irishman who fought on the Jewish side in 1948 because he thought the Jews were a branch of the Irish. Numerous other examples and similar anecdotes no doubt exist.
The idea that the Irish may be descended from Israelites existed amongst people of Irish descent, just as it does amongst the British. Also quite a few Jews and others have remarked on the possibility.
Again the question should not be some abstract philosophical equivocation but rather is it true or not?
Accounts concerning the Tribe of Dana fit quite well with what we know about Scandinavia in the Bronze Age. which did interact with Ireland.
If the Dana had not been recorded we might have been obliged to hypothesize their existence.
If we are to be nitpicking what right do academic European Continental atheists to nullify the existence of the Dana without any evidence? Against the evidence? They are the ones who are abusing the Irish cultural heritage.
How do we know that the Dana did not exist whereas the worship of Anna did? Perhaps Anna and the Paps of Anna (a hill in Ireland) derive from the imagery of St. Anne? In the same way as pagan deities were turned into Christian saints why could Christian saints not have become the equivalent of pagan deities in local lore?
We also have works such as those of, "The Atlantean Irish. Ireland's Oriental and Maritime Heritage" by Bob Quinn, London/NY, 1986.
Quinn claims there were continuous ongoing contacts, both ethnic and cultural, between the British "Celts", especially those of Western Ireland and North Africa, Egypt, and the Middle East.
Quote from page 14:
# The ideas in Atlantean were originally greeted with good humor?
'Are you the fellow that says we're all Arabs? Commented a judge in Kinvara, Co. Galway, before dismissing a minor charge against me. He added, glancing wearily around the miscreants in his court:
'I'm sure you have found plenty of confirmation for your theory today.'Â #
Quinn apparently received some assistance from the Libya of Gaddaffi in writing his two works on the subject. Should he be condemned for misuse of spiritual heritage or rather should the question not be, How much truth is there in it?Â
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2. Getting Closer to the End Times? Will Ephraim (the USA and UK) invade Syria/Gilead-Bashan?
No-body wants to see US or British or any other soldiers placed in danger. In light however of the chemical attacks of President Assad against his own people various reactions are being considered. These include a contingency plan for military intervention.
In Biblical Terms Syria and Jordan together comprise the Israelite areas of Gilead and Bashan. It is to these areas together with Lebanon that Ephraim is destined to return.
Zechariah 10:
7 Then the people of Ephraim shall become like warriors,
  and their hearts shall be glad as with wine.
Their children shall see it and rejoice,
  their hearts shall exult in the Lord.
8 I will signal for them and gather them in,
  for I have redeemed them,
  and they shall be as numerous as they were before.
9 Though I scattered them among the nations,
  yet in far countries they shall remember me,
  and they shall rear their children and return.
10 I will bring them home from the land of Egypt,
  and gather them from Assyria;
I will bring them to the land of Gilead and to Lebanon,
  until there is no room for them.
Micah 7:
12 In that day they will come to you
  from Assyria to Egypt [Mutsri i.e. maybe Kurdistan],
and from Egypt to the River,
  from sea to sea and from mountain to mountain.
13 But the earth will be desolate
  because of its inhabitants,
  for the fruit of their doings.
14 Shepherd your people with your staff,
  the flock that belongs to you,
which lives alone in a forest
  in the midst of a garden land;
let them feed in Bashan and Gilead
  as in the days of old.
Note: Bashan in Aramaiac was pronounced as Bathan. Ptolemy places Bathan and Bathanei over wide regions in east Syria and west Iraq. Gilead include both Jordan and Syria. Lebanon is what we know today as Lebanon.
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3. Proverbs 17:1-7
1 Better is dried-up bread if contentment is with it,
  than a house full of feasting with strife.
Try not to quarrel. it is not worth it. Many couples argue over money. We are being warned not to.
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2 A slave who acts well will rule over a child who causes shame,
  and will share the inheritance amongst the family members.
3 The crucible is for silver, and the furnace is for gold,
  but the LORD will be testing the heart.
We are sometimes put tot he test for our own good.
4 An evildoer hearkens to wicked lips;
Falsehood feeds on a pernicious tongue.
In general avoid Conspiracy Theories and the like. This does not mean letting oneself be mislead by the mainstream media. It is all a question of emphasis and agenda.
5 Those who mock the poor revile their Maker;
  those who are glad at calamity will not go unpunished.
6 A crown for the aged are grandchildren,
  and the glory of children are their forebears.
7 Fine speech is not becoming to an ingrate;
  still less is false speech to a benefactor.
Someone who has money, power, or influence should stand by their word.