israel a maritime nation—tyre and sidon—the lacedemonians claim relationship with israel—the ionians, etrurians, danes, jutes, etc.—the various captivities of israel and judah—media.
the idea, though not until lately widely diffused, that many of the races inhabiting europe are impregnated with the blood of israel, is by no means a new one. many writers, in their researches into the early history of that continent, have been forcibly struck with the similarity that existed between the laws, manners, customs, etc., of the ancient inhabitants of its northern and northwestern portions and those of ancient israel. these writers have endeavored to account for this peculiarity in two ways. first by the supposition that israelitish colonies for various causes, left the land of their inheritance and gradually worked themselves north and northwestward over europe; and second, by the argument that remnants or branches of the lost ten tribes had emigrated from media into europe, and through the ignorance of historians, disguised under other names, they had remained unknown until the present, their habits, customs, traditions, etc., having in the meanwhile become so greatly changed by time and circumstance, as to render them unrecognizable at this late day.
we will take up the first of these ideas, and present a few of the arguments advanced by those who support it. it is asserted by them that israel early became a maritime nation, that its location on the mediterranean sea admirably adapted its people for such pursuit. by means of the red sea in its rear, it also had undisturbed access to africa, india, and the isles beyond. as early as the days of the judges (say b. c. 1,300) we find that deborah and barak, in their song of triumph, complain that dan came not up to the aid of israel in the hour of need, but remained in his ships while his fellows were contending with sisera and his hosts. "why did dan remain in ship?" (judges v: 17) is the exact question asked. this shows that thus early in israel's history it had commenced to hold commercial relations with its neighbors.[a] the tribes whose inheritances bordered on the mediterranean, commencing at the north, were asher, manasseh, ephraim, dan and simeon. asher's inheritance lay contiguous to the great ports of tyre and sidon, while simeon's bordered on egypt, and contained within its confines other seaports of the philistines or phoenicians, to whom, we think, profane writers have given credit for many of the commercial ventures undertaken by the israelites.
[footnote a: we have seen a translation of an ancient danish history, in which it is asserted that angul of issacher, a brother of tola, who judged israel about 1,225 years b.c., invaded england, and was assisted by tola in so doing. in the name of angul we find another derivation of the word angleland (england).]
it must not be supposed that these maritime tribes were the only ones that would be found spreading abroad. the members of the various tribes did not strictly confine themselves to the boundaries assigned their tribe by joshua, but they intermingled for trade, etc., and many men of other tribes resided within the borders of judah's inheritance, and vice versa. we have a notable example of this (b. c. 600) in the case of lehi and laban, who were of the seed of joseph, yet were residents of jerusalem, and nephi incidentally remarks that his father, lehi, had dwelt in that city "all his days." the children of ephraim, from their great enterprise and force of character, seem to have early spread, not only among other tribes, but also into foreign nations, notably to egypt, and the anger of the lord is repeatedly expressed through his prophets at his people's disregard of his law in mixing with the heathen. in isaiah's time, ephraim had, like a "silly dove," mingled himself among the people to the displeasure of his god.
but it was not only for trade and commerce that israel spread abroad; her children were sometimes forced to foreign lands against their will. two hundred years before lehi left jerusalem, the lord upbraided tyre and sidon through joel his servant (joel iii: 6), telling them, among other things, "the children also of judah, and the children of jerusalem have ye sold unto the grecians" [or gentiles], "that ye might remove them far from their border." here we obtain a glimpse of the policy of these two cities; they sought to weaken israel by deporting her children as captives to other nations afar off, and with true commercial instincts endeavored to make the transaction a profitable one. and if judah and jerusalem, at the other end of the land, thus suffered at the hands of tyre and her sister city, is it not a certainty that other tribes, living nearer, would suffer from this same cause, and probably more severely?
we are of the opinion that this wholesale slave trade of the phoenicians is greatly under-estimated as a factor in the diffusion of israelitish blood throughout the world. so great was the number of slaves held by these people, that at one time in their chief city, the slaves exceeded the freemen in number, and their maritime enterprise was such that they established colonies or depots on all the islands of the mediterranean sea, in france, spain, italy, britain, and probably in germany. the whole coast of northern africa was studded with their colonies, which they carried south as far as timbuctoo and the niger, while by way of the red sea they reached eastern africa, persia, india, and some suppose china; in fact, they traded with, and established colonies all over the then known world.[b]
[footnote b: "although the ancient jews were mainly an agricultural nation the geographical position of palestine and the contiguity of some of the tribes of israel to the mediterranean sea, induced the jewish people to make common cause of their friendly neighbors, the sea faring phoenicians. there were two causes which conduced to render the jews well acquainted with navigation on high seas. many of them were carried away as captives in their frequent, and often unsuccessful, warfare with more powerful nations. the prisoners of war were forced to serve on land and sea. allusions to redeemed prisoners, returning from the islands of the sea and from the "four corners of the earth," occur in many parts of the hebrew scripture and the experiences of the jews in sea voyages are graphically depicted in the bible (psalm 107). then there were missionary voyages of the jews for the inculcation of monotheistic teachings. the jewish missionaries visited many lands across the sea, as is attested in many parts of the prophetic writings. allusions to a life on the ocean and to the unpleasant experiences of sea-sickness occur in several places in the scriptures together with magnificent representations of the wondrous sights of mid-ocean. such descriptions were not borrowed from alien and pagan nations for the simple reason that the admirers of god's marvelous work on the sea are mentioned as coming home from their perilous expeditions and praising god's glory in the midst of their own people. the distribution of the jews in many sea-girt places of the gentiles is often mentioned in the hebrew bible and bears evidence to the sea-faring habits of many jewish families; david's conquest of ezeon-gaber; the greatest sea-port in southern arabia, was followed by other kings, jewish and non-jewish, who coveted the possession of that harbor. the history of king solomon's alliance with the phoenician king hiram is given in the book of kings. the building of merchant-men in ezeon-gaber and the voyages undertaken by the jewish mariners could not be merely legendary seeing that even in the latter days when the romans attacked the jews the latter had numerous ships and seamen on the inland seas. on this subject we find many notices in the works of josephus and in parts of the new testament."—dr. lowry.]
it is also a remarkable fact that a few hundred years after joel had delivered his message of condemnation to tyre and sidon, that the people of one of these grecian states, the lacedemonians or spartans, claimed relationship with israel as children of abraham, and had their claim allowed, and still more remarkable in the light of poetical justice, that these lacedemonians were the ones used by alexander the great in the destruction of tyre, and in the fulfillment of the words of the lord through joel: "behold i will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head" (joel iii:7). it would appear that the sons destroyed the cities that had sold their fathers into captivity. the fact that these lacedemonians did claim kindred with israel, is narrated both by josephus and the author of the first book of maccabees. the writers of both histories give a synopsis of the letter sent by oreus, king of the lacedemonians, to onias, the high priest of israel. the two accounts agree very closely. josephus gives the opening clause of the king's letter in these terms: "we have met with a certain writing whereby we have discovered that both jews and lacedemonians are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of abraham." in the book of maccabees it runs as follows: "it is found in writing that the spartans and jews are brethren, and come out of the generation of abraham." (i mac. xii.) the jews admitted the relationship in a letter full of sentiments of friendship and brotherhood, sent by a special embassy to the spartan court. this letter is given in full in i. maccabees, chap. xii. in neither history is any hint given as to which branch of abraham's family the records showed that the lacedemonians belonged, but from their rigid virtue and honesty, and their near approach to the united order in their daily lives, it is presumable that they had not been long separate from a people in whose midst the law of the true god was known and observed.
it being thus admitted that the people of one grecian state were of the family of abraham, students of history have endeavored to trace israel to other parts. the inhabitants of the ionian commonwealth, one of the most enterprising communities of ancient greece, are claimed to have been of israelitish stock, the most weighty argument used in the advocacy of this idea is the great similarity that existed between their laws and customs and those of the jews. attention is especially drawn to the fact that the ionians were divided from choice, and not from the force of circumstances or geographical position, into twelve communities, corresponding with the twelve tribes of israel. the same argument is advanced regarding the etrurians who were among the earliest settlers in italy, and who, tradition states, emigrated from tyre or its neighborhood. they also were divided into twelve communities or states, but all under one king. admitting that these two nationalities were of the outcasts of israel, there is no difficulty in understanding how the children of jacob spread abroad over all the coasts of europe and northern africa, as they were (especially the ionians) renowned for enterprise at sea, the last named being the first people among the greeks to undertake long voyages.
more than one author has advanced the idea that the welsh are of the tribe of manasseh, some vague traditions of that people being thought to point in that direction; it has also been asserted that the irish are of that tribe. from this idea we differ. with greater show of reason it has been claimed that denmark was colonized by the tribe of dan (in danish it is danmark, or dan's land, to this day), so, according to this, a dane is simply a danite. jutland, adjoining, is regarded as judah's land, jute being considered merely another form of the word jew; while a little further north we find gottland, gothland, or gad's land, as these writers believe, thus tracing in immediate proximity the homes of three prominent tribes of israel through the names given to the regions they settled in.
some who, of late years, have made the subject of israel's "identification" their study, have gone almost to the verge of the ridiculous in the minuteness with which they have endeavored to fix the boundaries of the lands which, they assert, were occupied by descendants of the different tribes. our position is the biblical or prophetical one, that ephraim has mixed himself with the nations; theirs, that remnants of all the tribes can be localized and their descendants determined with the same certainty as the posterity of those races who have never in god's providences, and for the accomplishment of his purposes, been "lost." one set of these enquirers claim to have made the following discoveries. they have traced the tribe of dan to the north of ireland and of scotland; simeon to wales; naphtali, as jutes, to kent; gad and asher, as angles and south angles, to mercia and east anglia in england; ephraim to northumberland and as far north as edinburgh; manasseh to the north of england; reuben as east saxons, to essex; zebulon, as west saxons, to wessex; issacher, as south saxons, to sussex; all these last named places being in england.
there is another cause that many believe led to the migration of certain families of israel and judah. before the final captivity of either kingdom was brought about there were several partial deportations of the people to assyria and babylon, or local captivities. assyria commenced by carrying off the inhabitants nearest her dominions and gradually extended her incursions. the captivity of judah was still later. in the interval, it is argued, that many israelites, believing in the words of the prophets and seeing the evils that were coming upon them, migrated to egypt, greece, or other convenient lands; some, doubtless, led, as were lehi and the son of zedekiah, by the revelation and commandment of god, others simply following the inclinations of their own feelings.
as abundant proof that many were led by god from the land of promise before the days of the captivity we have the words of nephi:
"for it appears that the house of israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth, and also among all nations, and behold there are many who are already lost from the knowledge of those who are at jerusalem. yea, the more part of all the tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea; and whither they are, none of us knoweth, save that we know that they have been led away. and since they have been led away, these things have been prophesied concerning them, and also concerning all those who shall hereafter be scattered and be confounded."
also the testimony of his brother jacob:
"and now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful god has given us so great knowledge, concerning these things, let us remember him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea. but great are the promises of the lord unto they who are upon the isles of the sea; wherefore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, and they are inhabited also by our brethren. for behold, the lord god has led away from time to time from the house of israel, according to his will and pleasure. and now behold, the lord remembereth all they who have been broken off, wherefore he remembereth us also."
that we may better understand the various partial and subsequent general captivities of israel and judah, the following short statement thereof is here inserted. the dates given are those of the commonly accepted chronology:
pul, or sardanapalus, imposed a tribute on menahen, king of israel, about 770 b. c.
tiglath pileser carried away the tribes living east of the jordan and in galilee, b. c. 740.
shalamaneser twice invaded the kingdom of israel, took samaria, after three years' siege, and carried the people captive to assyria b. c. 721.
sennacherib (b. c. 713) is stated to have carried 200,000 captives into assyria from the jewish cities that he captured.
nebuchadnezzar, in the first half of his reign (b. c. 605-562), repeatedly invaded judea, besieged jerusalem and carried its inhabitants to babylon.
the next question that presents itself is, to what portion of the land of assyria were the israelitish captives taken. scripture has not left us in the dark on this point. both the book of chronicles (i chron. v: 26) and the book of kings (ii kings xxvii: 6) give us the needed information. in the latter book it is stated (and the statement in the book of chronicles is almost identical therewith), that the king of assyria "carried israel away captive into assyria, and placed them in halah, and in harbor, by the river of gozan, and in the cities of the medes."
media, the land of the medes, lay to the north of assyria proper, embracing the country lying on the southern border of the caspian sea, as far west as the river araxes. the exact location of halah and harbor has long since been lost sight of and the only river that to-day, in name, bears any affinity to the gozan is the kuzal ozan, which empties into the caspian sea to the south-east of the araxes.
