What happened to the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel? (Part-1)

Below is how you’ll likely hear this common question answered by mainstream “scholars” within Christianity and some Messianic Jewish circles:

Answer: There are many mysteries, legends, and traditions as to what happened to the 10 lost tribes of the Northern Kingdom. The truth is that the tribes were never lost. Most of the people of the Northern Kingdom were deported to ancient Assyria (2 Kings 17:6). Many of those who remained in the land re-united with Judah in the south (2 Chronicles 34:6-9). Assyria was then conquered by Babylon, who then went on to conquer and deport the two remaining tribes of the Southern Kingdom, Judah and Benjamin (2 Kings 25:21). When King Cyrus allows the Israelites to return to Israel (Ezra chapter 1), many from the northern ten tribes and southern two tribes returned to Israel. In the New Testament, the prophetess Anna (Luke 2:36) was from the tribe of Asher (one of the 10 supposed lost tribes). In Jesus’ day, Israel was a mix of those from the former Northern and Southern Kingdoms. In the end times, God will call out witnesses from each of the 12 tribes (Revelation 7:4-8).

The answer above is actually taken directly from GotQuestions.org. It isn’t terribly unique in its attempt to diminish the prophetic promise of Israelite (Ephraimite) multitudes.

The answer says King Cyrus of Persia allowed Israelites from all 12 tribes to return to the Land of Israel, yet the books of Ezra and Nehemiah only account for Judah, Benjamin, and Levi. Isn’t that interesting? The answer says, “many from the northern ten tribes and southern two tribes returned to Israel”. Really? And what proof are we given of this? The presence of “many” is proved by the presence of “one” Asherite (Luke 2:36). Now that is compelling!

So what are the biggest problems with the above answer?

First of all, why would Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer be arguing about the return of the ten tribes of the House of Isarel as though it hadn’t happened yet (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 110b), if those tribes had already returned 500 years earlier as the answer above suggests?

Secondly, the Jewish Historian, Flavius Josephus, outright says the ten tribes were still east of the Euphrates River in the first century CE. See his discourse regarding the ten tribe by clicking here.

Thirdly, the Prophets of the Hebrew Scripture foretell the descendants of Ephraim would become a “multitude of nations” or “the fullness of the nations” (Genesis 49:18). If Ephraim already rejoined Jewdah, where are the “multitude of nations”? Can the “Jews” claim such? Arabs can claim numerous nations, but why not the “Jews”? The reality is: no tribe within the Kingdom of Judah was ever promised “nations”, but Ephraim was. To see the many promises from Scriptures, click here.

Fourthly, there are prophecies from the Hebrew Scriptures, which clearly indicate a “Latter Day” context, where the House of Israel and the House of Judah are reunited then, in the Last Days, NOT in antiquity. The two sticks of Ezekiel 37 is probably the best known and the most clear prophecy with an End Times context. If the two Kingdoms rejoined during the reign of King Cyrus, as the answer above suggests, then how does one make sense of Ezekiel?

The ten tribes may not be “lost”, but they certainly are indiscernible to many, which was probably the ultimate plan of YHVH. To become “not a people” as Hosea prophesied, the Israelite people would need to become unknown (forgotten) to themselves and unknown (forgotten) to surrounding peoples.

Related Content:

10 Reasons the Jews are from Judah

Brief History:
Judah was one of the twelve sons of Jacob (Israel). His tribe became one of the more important tribes of the twelve, the tribe of Kings (Genesis 49:10; Psalm 60:7; 108:8). After King Solomon died, the united Kingdom of Israel was divided into two kingdoms, sometimes called Israel (Joseph) and Judah respectively. The Southern Israelite Kingdom of Judah did not consist of only the tribe of Judah, but also Benjamin and a portion of Levi (Levi was also scattered in the midst of the northern ten tribes).

See History and Timeline of Israel and Judah.

Now the ten points:
1. The 1st Century Historian Josephus records the ten tribes of Israel as an “immense multitude” remaining “beyond the Euphrates River” (Antiquities of the Jews - Book XI Ch. 5), which would indicate “the Jews”, the two tribes in the Land of Israel controlled by the Romans at that time, were of the Kingdom or House of Judah, the House that historically returned from Babylonia, from their Babylonian Captivity.

2. Rabbi Akiva and Rabbi Eliezer (c.117-138 C.E.) argued about the return of the ten lost tribes as though it hadn’t happened yet (Babylonian Talmud, Sanhedrin 110b), indicating “the Jews” of the 2nd Century C.E. were not representative of all twelve tribes, but instead, they represented the Kingdom of Judah alone.

3. The people commonly known as “the Jews” never became a “multitude of nations”, but Ephraim of the Northern Kingdom of Israel was promised to become so (See Genesis 48:19). Judah simply wasn’t promised “multitudes” or “nations”, but he was promised the scepter or “Kings” (See Genesis 49:10).

4. Many contemporary rabbis and talmudic scholars have clearly indicated that the Jews predominantly represent only the Ancient Kingdom of Judah.

“The captives of Israel exiled beyond the Euphrates did not return as a whole to Palestine along with their brethren the captives of Judah; at least there is no mention made of this event in the documents at our disposal… In fact, the return of the ten tribes was one of the great promises of the Prophets, and the advent of the Messiah is therefore necessarily identified with the epoch of their redemption.” -D.A. Neubauer [Ref. Jewish Quarterly Review, Vol. I -1888, p. 15,17]

Rabbi Rafael Eisenberg believed the majority opinion of the ancient Sages was this:

…the Ten Tribes which disappeared in Assyria shall return. Their decision is quoted in the Tosefta, … “As it is this day” is explained as meaning that “if their deeds remain as they were this day, they will not return. On the other hand, if they are not—that is, if they have repented for and corrected their actions—they will return.” [Ref. Will the Lost Tribes Return? An Analysis of the Lost Tribes in Rabbinic Literature]

5. From Jews I’ve personally spoken with or read about, they predominantly trace their lineage back to Benjamin, Judah, or Levi (the tribes of the Southern Kingdom of Judah), not to the House of Joseph (10-Israel). If you know of others who traditionally trace their “Jewish” family lineage back to a tribe of 10-Israel, please leave a comment below.

6. The modern Jewish nation of Israel trace their history back to the Babylonian Captivity. They call it their “First Exile”. But wait, the First Israelite Exile happened more than a hundred years earlier with the Assyrian Captivity, did it not? Jewish scholars simply know the Assyrian Captivity was NOT a Jewish captivity, but it was the captivity of the Ancient Northern Kingdom, who were Hebrew, but they weren’t “Jewish”. Check out Israel Ministry of Foreign Affair’s history timeline here. Also, check out another official Israeli government “Jewish History” timeline here: Jewish Agency for Israel (Aliyah.org). They aren’t hiding the two house reality folks. It is primarily Messianic Jewish and Christian scholars who can’t swallow it for whatever reason.

7. It is traditionally believed the ancient tribe of Judah would always go into battle first, before the other tribes (See Judges 1:2 and 20:18). And interestingly, the Jews of Judah returned to the land of Israel first (early last century) and everyone knows it has been nothing but a battle for them ever since, even before 1948. The Israeli Jews are a Lion the whole Middle East is fearful to go to war with… at least until PM Olmert’s recent Hezbollah debacle last summer. Yet inspite of suicidal liberals like Olmert, the Lions of Judah will roar again.

8. Ancient Jewish tradition forbids all Jews from speaking the Divine Name of the Creator. Interestingly, the Prophet Jeremiah (sent to the Kingdom of Judah before her captivity) foretold the Divine Name would be removed from Judah’s mouth. See: Jeremiah 44:26 “Therefore hear the word of יהוה, all Judah who are dwelling in the land of Mitsrayim, ‘See, I have sworn by My great Name,’ declares יהוה, ‘My Name shall no longer be called upon by the mouth of any man of Judah in all the land of Mitsrayim, saying, “As the Master יהוה lives…”

9. The Prophets Ezra and Nehemiah succinctly numbered the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Levi as those who returned from the Babylonian Captivity. The other tribes were not mentioned (Read Ezra and Nehemiah). Even so, some Israelites likely returned later from the Assyrian Captivity, such as the Asherite prophetess of Luke 2:26, but many other factors indicate NO LARGE representation ever returned.

10. And finally, if the people known today as “the Jews” are representative of all twelve tribes of Israel, if both Israelite Kingdoms reunited in antiquity, then how does one explain the “Last Days” Two Sticks prophecy of Ezekiel 37? The whole book of Ezekiel would simply be confused and discombobulated if the above “if” statements were a reality (a reality One-Housers would like you and I to believe).

The truth of this matter should be simple and easy to see, unless one has a biased and emotionally charged reason not to see or if he/she is being intellectually lazy and/or just doesn’t care. Or even, maybe the Elohim of Israel has blinded the world until His plan is fulfilled, until the “fullness of the peoples have come in”. I can’t be sure of the cause of one’s blindness, yet I must admit, it sure tests my patience from time to time. But how refreshing it is, when my brothers from both Houses finally do see.

Shalom Aleichem.

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Israelite Migrations, European Origins, and Exponential Population Growth

One of the more prominent supporters (Steve Olson: author of Mapping Human History, 2002) for the Out-of-Africa Theory (60,000+ years ago), has shown that the current Global Population size could have been reached within 2,000 to 7,000 years. See the Fox News story which broke in July of 2006. I know it might be difficult for some to understand just how monumental this is, but it truly is HUGE!!

I first read of the development from this Anthropology.net blog:
Could the ancestor of every living human lived only 2000 years ago? (It is now a dead link. I can’t imagine why.)

Olson, Chang, and Rohde corroborated as mathematicians before Mapping Human History was published in 2002. I may be wrong in this assumption because there isn’t any firm dates published in the article. Regardless, it astounds me that this revelation doesn’t profoundly impact the haplogroup origination estimations (the “official” estimates for most all Haplogroups date well beyond 20,000 years ago). Asking the Priests of Evolution to question one of their most basic dogmas is no different than asking a Christian to question the existence of Jesus Christ.

The algorithm Olson’s team used to determine the population group was undoubtedly very complex (read the news article). But here is a great webpage where you can actually play with the different variables in a much simpler Population Growth Equation: Principles of Population Growth. I like to put the starting population variable at “8″ since that is what I believe was the population of Noah’s family. I use 4400 years as the timeframe variable since that is the approximate date of Noah’s Flood according to Bible “literalists” (such as myself) when observing the literal chronologies in the Bible. The “birth rate” variable is the one that has been the most unstable and explosive throughout human history because of wars, famines, etc… But even after giving a very low averaged birthrate of “1%” or “.01″, or even lower, you’ll be surprised how hasty the human population explodes over time. It is the powerful result of exponential mathematics. Put 65,000 years as the timeframe variable and see what you get. The resultant is ridiculous and even absurd, even with many negative “birth rate” periods being considered!!!!!!!

As a frame of reference, when you consider the one hundred years of population growth in the American states between say 1750 to 1850, the “birth rate” variable far exceeded 2% for the general population, which is why European migrant populations to America had so much success populating the North American continent. To think this modern event is isolated, would be foolish considering our previous rapid success in populating the continent of Europe.

I’m currently reading Steve Olson’s book (Mapping Human History) and it is certainly evident that he and Spencer Wells (author of Deep Ancestry: Inside the Genographic Project) tow the same (religious) party line, regarding the evolutionary time frames of human migrations. It simply astounds me when they state their numbers in “tens of thousands” of years when the phenomenon of population growth and actual migration history counter those claims. Spencer Wells himself calls the land mass from eastern France to Korea a “super-highway” in his recent book. In my mind, it isn’t so “super” if it took many thousands of years to travel it. Traders traveled it in matter of months and years, not thousands of years. The “Silk Road” is a wonderful example. Of course, they were just traders, but large populations have been known to migrate rapidly. They generally don’t migrate at once, unless driven to do so for food (i.e. the relatively recent Irish potato famine) or driven by other hostile invaders (i.e. Goth and Hun migrations).

Furthermore, it is believed Europe was sparsely (thinly) populated before the Great Migration Period (200-800 AD/CE). Now when looking at the overwhelming frequency of Haplogroups R, I, and N in Europe, we know they either completely wiped out the previous male population in the last 2,000 years or there were no large population at all before that, because of the immense population migration into Europe AFTER that time. Personally, I believe Haplogroup R arrived in Europe in at least two major migrations, one by sea and one prolonged settlement migration by land), which seems to be confirmed by two separate mitochondrial (female) migration arrivals in Western Europe (one by sea / one by land).

First speculative migration: About 3,000 years ago (during and after the life of King David), Israel, Phoenicia, and Egypt were in a maritime alliance. They would go on sea-trade voyages together that would last three years in length and were then repeated after returning home (I Kings 10:21-24). Because Britannia (Britain) and Iberia (Spain) had numerous mineral resources needed back in the Levant and Nile regions, it is believed the Phoenician alliance likely settled those not so “far-off” lands in order to mine Tin, Silver, Copper, etc needed in their homeland building and war pursuits. According to the Bible, we know Israel, Phoenicia, and Egypt intermarried extensively (their respective royal families intermarried for the same reasons European royalty did so in the Middle Ages). In the case of Phoenicia and Israel, they even spoke a very similar, if not the exact same language during the time of David and Solomon. Tyre and Sidon (Phoenicia) neighbored Israeli territory in the north and reportedly inter-married (I Kings 7:13-14), probably more than what pleased the Elohim of Israel (Hosea 7:7-10).

Second speculative migration: About 2,700 years ago, the ten northern tribes of Israel were carried captive into the areas in or around the modern nation of Iran (the Assyrian Captivity). 700 years after the initial captivity (near the time of Jesus), the historian Josephus said the ten Israelite tribes had become an immense multitude in Asia (i.e. Parthian territory. See map below). Two hundred years after the life of Josephus, the Great Migration Period kicked off where enormous Asian populations migrated into Europe, eventually invading and settling Italiana, Britannia, and even Iberia.

Parthia's Greatest Extent

The large R Haplogroup population in India is also quite indicative of this second migration. The Parthian-Saka population that fled the Sassanids (Persians) into Europe must have fled to other friendly regions to the south and east as well (modern day Pakistan and India). Those peoples surrounding Parthia at the time of her collapse were friendly because they were of the same stock (Ephraimites) in many cases.

I’m drawing upon many different fields to build these connections. As I read the material that counters my ideas, I try to ingest it without having too much bias, but I readily admit I have some bias because I trust the Bible as an instrument of faith, prophecy, AND history. But you’ll rarely see the Macro-evolutionists admit where their atheistic bias is injected into their legitimately scientific findings.

For those who may be interested, here is a link to a list of many secular scientists who are skeptical of the Darwinian (Out of Africa) theory: A Scientific Dissent From Darwinism.

Israelites, Josephus, and the Parthian Empire

Flavius Josephus is one of the best 1st Century historians we have from the Middle East. He was employed by the Romans, but he was a Jew, giving him a very unique perspective having lived through the destruction of the Jewish Temple in 70CE. The main reason I bring him up now is because of what he implies in his writings about Central Asia and the possible connections with the Y-Chromosome Haplogroup K, but more specifically the child haplogroups, R and Q (See map). Below is one of his quotes not commonly known (especially amongst secular population geneticists) regarding the ten lost tribes of Israel, who were brought into Assyrian Captivity more than 800 years prior to the life of Josephus:

“…wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers.” Antiquities of the Jews - Book XI (Ch. 5)

When Josephus was writing the “Antiquities of the Jews”, the Euphrates River had been the armistice line for many many decades between the Roman Empire of the West and Parthian Empire of the East. He was treading on thin ice to even bring up this subject and if you read the whole passage you’ll see he never brings up “Parthia” by name and for good reason, most notably: self-preservation. Rome and Parthia were about to start up their wars again. In the next century, both sides lost so many men in their conflicts that Rome would soon be fighting civil wars and Parthia would completely collapse. The surrounding Saka/Scythians, many not formally a part of the Parthian Empire, were strong allies with Parthia and even fought together against Rome (many believe the Parthians were of Scythian stock themselves).

Parthia's Greatest Extent

Parthia’s disintegration in particular is what many historians believe was the catalyst for what became known as the “Great Migration Period” where a flood of humanity poured into Europe from Central Asia. You’re probably aware of these migrating peoples: the Huns, Vandals, Saxons, Angles, Goths, Ostrogoths, Visigoths, Franks, etc. They show up two hundred years after the Parthian demise… exploding out of Asia. What is noteworthy, many centuries later, is the fact that the Saxons called back to “Scythia” for re-enforcements when invading Britannia (British Isles).

Personally, I think population geneticists are exaggerating about how much time exists between us and the originators of various haplogroups, largely because of radio-carbon dating. This isn’t based on gut-feeling alone, for in much of my reading so far, I’m convinced the geneticists have under-estimated how rapidly the human genome is mutating and they overlook common historical migration facts. For example, Central Asians rapidly poured into Europe within a few hundred years to a couple thousand years, NOT tens of thousands of years.

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