American Indians & Jesus
ARZARETH
ar'-za-reth, ar'-sareth (the King James Version, Arsareth):
This is the land to which the ten tribes were deported (2 Esdras 13:45). It is described as "another land" lying a year and a half's journey beyond the river, i.e. the Euphrates. It probably answers to the Hebrew 'erets 'achereth (Deuteronomy 29:28). In Josephus' time the people were still believed to be there in countless numbers (Ant., XI, v, 2).
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It’s still taught in most American schools that Columbus “discovered” America, but you can’t discover something that already existed and was heavily populated. By saying that Columbus was the first to discover America we've ignored the fact that millions of humans already inhabited this land, having discovered it many thousands of years before.
Plus we've ignored that whole Leif Ericson voyage to Greenland and modern-day Canada around 1000 C.M.E. The Vikings, the legendary Norse warriors and explorers who were raiding and settling many parts of the world from the late 8th to mid 11th century (and possibly many centuries before), and they called this part of the world "Vinland". Vinland got its name from a prisoner of Leif Erikson’s who went missing when a Viking party landed and explored modern day Boston Harbor. Fearing his prisoner (whom he favored) Tyrker had been slain by the Natives, whom the Vikings had learned to respect and in some cases fear, they sent out a search party for him. Instead of finding him dead, they found him in a state of agitated glee. A German, Tyyker was not far from camp, holding an arm full of wild grapes (much as they grew in his home country), thus, Erikson and the Vikings called this “new” world Vinland.
Perhaps the most provocative of all the theories regarding the origins of Native American tribes is the belief that they could be somehow linked to the 10 lost tribes of Israel. Even the earliest settlers and explorers of the New World were intrigued by the possibility of encountering a lost remnant of the House of Israel in the New World. Christopher Columbus, the man credited with "discovering" the New World, proclaimed that these newly discovered "Indians" were, in fact, of Jewish origins. He did not say they were like the people of India as history has so misinterpreted. Columbus even suggested that Spain could, "recruit their bodies and their wealth to assist Europeans in a final crusade to crush Islam and reclaim Jerusalem" (Alan Taylor, American Colonies: The Settlement of North America, 33).
Some sources suggest that DNA evidence, linguistic research, and other research indicates links between the Cherokee Nation and the Jewish people, and that this link goes back several thousand years. (http://www.torah-voice.org/CherokeDNA.htm) (http://www.examiner.com/article/dna-scientists-claim-that-cherokees-are-from-the-middle-east)
The Jesuit, José de Acosta’s careful study of the New World began with De natura Novi Orbis libro duo, published in Salamanca in 1588, which he expanded with further chapters in 1590 as The Natural and Moral History of the Indies. Acosta made extensive observations of the Native Americans he sought to convert to catholicism and noted, as others had, the numerous traits and customs they seemed to hold in common with the Jews.
The Portuguese traveller Antonio de Montezinos brought back reports that some of the Lost Tribes were living among the Native Americans in America. He based his announcement on a trip he made to South America during 1641–42 in which Montezinos discovered a group of natives in Ecuador who could recite the Shema and were acquainted with other Jewish rituals. Going to Holland in 1644 he told this story to Manasseh ben Israel; the latter repeated it to Thomas Thorowgood, by whom it was printed in his "Jews in America," pp. 1-9. It was also published by Manasseh ben Israel in his "Hope of Israel," pp. 1-7.
Menasseh ben Israel, a noted rabbi of Amsterdam, wrote on 23 December 1649:... I think that the Ten Tribes live not only there ... but also in other lands scattered everywhere; these never did come back to the Second Temple and they keep till this day still the Jewish Religion..Menasseh actually published in Spanish and in Latin in 1649 in Amsterdam a book about Montezinos' narrative. An English translation of it with the title The Hope of Israel was also published in London in 1650. In it Menasseh argued, and for the first time tried to give scholarly support in European thought and printing, to the theory that the native inhabitants of America at the time of the European discovery were actually descendants of the [lost] Ten Tribes of Israel. In 1655, Menasseh ben Israel petitioned Oliver Cromwell to allow the Jews to return to England. (Since the Edict of Expulsion in 1290, Jews had been prohibited by law from living in England.)
Diego Andrés Rocha, Tratado vnico, y singular del origen de los indios occidentales del Piru 1681, provides extensive evidence that the rites, fashions, and ceremonies of the Indians of South America are in many ways akin to those of the Jews in both secular and sacred aspects of their life. He even cites Jewish names in use among the indigenous Peruvians.
After the American Revolution, the fascination with Native American origins was carried to new heights. Despite the fact that no obvious proof could be found to substantiate the claim that Native Americans were the lost tribes of Israel, scores of religious zealots hoped to uncover this claim's validity. Just before embarking on their continental trek, President Thomas Jefferson wrote a brief letter to Meriwether Lewis and William Clark in which he instructed them to "acuire what knolege you can of the state of morality, religion & information among them [the Indians] as it may better enable those who endeavor to civilize & instruct them." In addition, Jefferson shared a personal correspondence with his friend, Meriwether Lewis, in which he expressed his hope that the trek west might provide evidence as to the whereabouts of the lost tribes of Israel (Stephen Ambrose, Undaunted Courage, 154).
James Adair (1709-1783) lived among and studied various southeastern tribes of American Indians for over forty years. During that time he covered the territory from the Appalachian Mountains to the Mississippi River. In his book, History of the Indians (published in 1775), he said: "When we consider the various revolutions these unlettered savages are likely to have undergone, among themselves, through a long-forgotten measure of time; without the use of letters to convey down their traditions, it cannot be reasonably expected they should still retain the identical names of their primo-genial tribes. Their main customs corresponding with those of the Israelites, sufficiently clears the subject. Besides, as hath been hinted, they call some of their tribes by the names of the cherubimical figures that were carried on the four principal standards of Israel. ." The Talmud saw in these four creatures the four primary forms of life in God’s creation. It also noted that the twelve tribes of Israel camped under these four banners; some with Reuben (symbolized by a man), others with Dan (symbolized by an eagle), others with Ephraim (symbolized by the calf, or ox), and the rest with Judah (symbolized by a lion). Years later, the Israelites were instructed to decorate the tabernacle, and later the temple, with various images, including lions, oxen, and cherubim (Ex. 26:1; 36:8, 35; 1K. 6:32; 1K. 7:29; 2K. 16:17; 2Chr. 4:3-4, 15).
In talking about the information in his book, he said: "The following history, and observations, are the production of one who hath been chiefly engaged in an Indian life ever since the year 1735. One great advantage my readers will here have; I sat down to draw the Indians on the spot -- had them many years standing before me, -- and lived with them as a friend and brother. My intentions were pure when I wrote, truth hath been my standard, and I have no sinister or mercenary views in publishing. With inexpressible concern I read the several imperfect and fabulous accounts of the Indians, already given to the world -- Fiction and conjecture have no place in the following pages. The public may depend on the fidelity of the author, and that his descriptions are genuine, though perhaps not so polished and romantic as other Indian histories and accounts, they may have seen."
He goes on to say: "When a warrior dies a natural death, (which seldom happens) the wardrums, musical instruments, and all other kinds of diversion, are laid aside for the space of three days and nights. " "By a strict, permanent, divine precept, the Hebrew nation were ordered to worship at Jerusalem, Jehovah the true and living God, and who by the Indians is stiled Yohewah; which the seventy-two interpreters, either from ignorance or superstition, have translated Adonai; and is the very same as the Greek Kurios, signifying Sir, Lord, or Master." "But these Indian Americans pay their religious devoir to Loak-Ishtōhoollo-Aba, "the great, beneficent, supreme, holy spirit of fire," who resides (as they think) above the clouds, and on earth also with unpolluted people. He is with them the sole author of warmth, light, and of all animal and vegetable life."
"The ceremonies of the Indians in their religious worship, are more after the Mosaic institution, than of pagan imitation: which could not be, if the majority of the old natives were of heathenish descent ... There yet remain so many marks, as to enable us to trace the Hebrew extraction and rites, through all the various nations of Indians; and we may with a great deal of probability conclude, that, if any heathens accompanied them to the American world, or were settled in it before them, they became proselytes of justice, and their pagan rites and customs were swallowed up in the Jewish."
"The Indians think the Deity to be the immediate head of their state. All the nations of Indians are exceedingly intoxicated with religious pride, and have an inexpressible contempt of the white people. Nothings is the most favourable name they give us, in their set speeches: even the Indians who were formerly bred in amity with us, and in enmity to the French, used to call us, in their war orations, hottūk ookproose, "The accursed people" But they flatter themselves with the name hottuk oretoopah, "The beloved people," because their supposed ancestors, as they affirm, were under the immediate government of the Deity, who was present with them, in a very particular manner, and directed them by prophets."
"When the Archie-magus, or any one of their magi, is persuading the people, at their religious solemnities to a strict observance of the old beloved, or divine speech, he always calls them, "The beloved," or holy people, agreeable to the Hebrew epithet, Ammi, during the theocracy of Israel." "Then, he flourishes on their beloved land that flowed with milk and honey, telling them they had good, and the best things in the greatest plenty: and speaks largely of their present martial customs, and religious rites, which they derived from their illustrious predecessors, -- strictly charging them not to deviate, in the least, out of that old, beloved, beaten path, and they will surely meet with all the success that attended their beloved forefathers."
"The American Indians are so far from being Atheists, as some godless Europeans have flattered themselves, to excuse their own infidelity, that they have the great sacred name of God, that describes his divine essence, and by which he manifested himself to Moses -- and are firmly persuaded they now live under the immediate government of the Deity. The ascension of the smoke as a sweet favour to Yohewah, (of which hereafter) is a full proof to the contrary, as also that they worship God, in a smoke and cloud, believing him to reside above the clouds, and in the element of the, supposed, holy annual fire. "
"We have abundant evidence of the Jews believing in the ministration of angels, during the Old-Testament dispensation; their frequent appearances, and their services, on earth, are recorded in the oracles, which the Jews themselves receive as given by divine inspiration. And St. Paul in his epistle epistle addressed to the Hebrews, speaks of it as their general opinion, that "Angels are ministring spirits to the good and righteous on earth" And that it was the sentiment of those Jews who embraced christianity, is evident from Acts xii. where an angel is said to deliver Peter from his imprisonment, and when the maid reported that Peter stood at the gate knocking, his friends doubting, said, "It is his angel" Women also are ordered to have their heads covered in religious assemblies, because of the presence of the angels, and to observe silence, the modest custom of the eastern countries. The Indian sentiments and traditions are the same. -- They believe the higher regions to be inhabited by good spirits, whom they call Hottuk Ishtohoollo, and Nana Ishtohoollo, "holy people," and "relations to the great, holy One" The Hottuk ookproose, or Nana ookproose, "accursed people," or "accursed beings," they say, possess the dark regions of the west."
"When two nations of Indians are making, or renewing peace with each other, the ceremonies and solemnities they use, carry the face of great antiquity, and are very striking to a curious spectator, which I shall here relate, so far as it suits the present subject. When strangers of note arrive near the place, where they design to contract new friendship, or confirm their old amity, they send a messenger a head, to inform the people of their amicable intention. He carries a swan's wing in his hand, painted all over with streaks of white clay, as an expressive emblem of their embassy. The next day, when they have made their friendly parade, with firing off their guns and whooping, and have entered the beloved square, their chieftain, who is a-head of the rest, is met by one of the old beloved men, or magi, of the place. He and the visitant approach one another, in a bowing posture. The former says Yò, Ish la chu Anggòna ? "Are you come a friend in the name of God?" Or, "Is God with you, friend?" for, Yo is a religious contraction of Yohewah, -- Ish "the man," La a note of joy, Chu a query, and Anggona "a friend" The other replies, Yah -- Arahre-O, Anggona, "God is with me, I am come, a friend, in God's name" The reply confirms the meaning of the questionary salute, in the manner before explained. The magus then grasps the stranger with both his hands, around the wrist of his right hand, which holds some green branches -- again, about the elbow -- then around the arm, close to his shoulder, as a near approach to the heart. Then his immediately waving the eagles tails over the head of the stranger, is the strongest pledge of good faith. Similar to the Hebrew word, Phále with the Indians, signifies "to wave," and likewise to shake; for they say, Skooba -- Phále, "shaking one's head" How far the Indian oath, or manner of covenanting, agrees with that of the Hebrews, on the like solemn occasion, I refer to the intelligent reader. Their method of embracing each other, seems to resemble also that custom of the Hebrews, when a stranger became surety for another, by giving him his wrist; to which Solomon alludes, "If thou hast stricken hand with the stranger, &c" -- Their common method of greeting each other, is analogous with the above; the host only says, Ish-la Chu ? and the guest replies, Arahre-O, "I am come in the name Yo He Wah."
"They count Time after the manner of the Hebrews. They divide the year into spring -- summer -- autumn, or the fall of the leaf -- and winter: which the Cheerake Indians call Kogeh, Akooèa, Oolekóhstè, Kóra; and the Chikkasah and Choktah nation, Otoolpha, Tóme palle, Ashtòramóona, Ashtòra. They number their years by any of those four periods, for they have no name for a year; and they subdivide these, and count the year by lunar months, like the Israelites, who counted by moons, as their name sufficiently testifies; for they called them the plural of the moon."
"The method of counting time by weeks, or sevenths, was a very ancient custom, practised by the Syrians, Egyptians, and most of the oriental nations; and it evidently is a remain of the tradition of the creation. The Creator, indeed, renewed to the Hebrews the old precept of sanctifying the seventh day, on a particular occasion. And christianity promoted that religious observance in the western world, in remembrance of the work of redemption. The Greeks counted time by decads, or tens; and the Romans by nones, or ninths. The number, and regular periods of the Indians public religious feasts, of which presently, is a good historical proof, that they counted time by, and observed a weekly sabbath, long after their arrival on the American continent. They count the day also by the three sensible differences of the sun, like the Hebrews -- sun-rise, they term, Hassé kootcha meente, "the sun's coming out;" -- noon, or mid-day, Tabookòre; -- and sun-set, Hassé Oobèa. They begin the year, at the first appearance of the first new moon of the vernal aequinox, according to the ecclesiastical year of Moses: and those synodical months, each consist of twenty-nine days, twelve hours, and forty odd minutes; which make the moons, alternately, to consist of twenty-nine and of thirty days. They pay a great regard to the first appearance of every new moon, and, on the occasion, always repeat some joyful sounds, and stretch out their hands towards her."
"In conformity to, or after the manner of the Jews, the Indian Americans have their Prophets, High-Priests, and others of a religious order. As the Jews had a sanctum sanctorum, or most holy place, so have all the Indian nations. They never have more than one Archi-magus at a time. This holy office descended by right of inheritance. However, they were to be free of bodily defects, and were by degrees initiated to their holy office, before they were allowed to serve in it. They were consecrated, by having the water of purifying sprinkled upon them, washing all their body, and their clothes clean, anointing them with oil, and offering a sacrifice."
"When the Hebrew's high-priest entered into the holiest, on the day of expiration, he clothed himself in white; and, when he finished that day's service, he laid aside those clothes and left them in the tabernacle. Lev. XVI. 23. Before the Indian Archimagus officiates in making the supposed holy fire, for the yearly atonement of sin, the Sagan clothes him with a white ephod, which is a waistcoat without sleeves. When he enters on that solemn duty, a beloved attendant spreads a white-drest buck-skin on the white seat, which stands close to the supposed holiest, and then puts some white beads on it, that are given him by the people. Then the Archi-magus wraps around his shoulders a consecrated skin of the same sort, which reaching across under his arms, he ties behind his back, with two knots on the legs, in the form of a figure of eight. Another custom he observes on this solemn occasion, is, instead of going barefoot, he wears a new pair of buck-skin white maccasenes made by himself, and stitched with the sinews of the same animal ID="n0093 * . The upper leather across the toes, he paints, for the space of three inches, with a few streaks of red -- not with vermilion, for that is their continual war-emblem, but with a certain red root, its leaves and stalk resembling the ipecacuanha, which is their fixed red symbol of holy things. These shoes he never wears, but in the time of the supposed passover; for at the end of it, they are laid up in the beloved place, or holiest place."
"By the Levitical law, the priests were obliged to observe a stricter sanctity of life than the laity; all the time they were performing the sacerdotal offices, both women and wine were strictly forbidden to them. Thus the Indian religious are retentive of their sacred mysteries to death, and the Archi-magus is visibly thin and meagre at the end of the solemnity. That rigid self-denial, seems to have been designed to initiate the Levite, and give the rest an example of leading an innocent simple life, that thereby they might be able to subdue their unruly passions; and that by mortifying and purifying himself so excessively, the sacrifice by passing through his pure hands, may be accepted, and the holy Spirit of fire atoned, according to the divine law."
"The Hebrews offered DAILY SACRIFICE, which the prophet Daniel calls Tamid, "the daily" It was an offering of a lamb every morning and evening, at the charges of the common treasury of the temple, and except the skin and intrails, it was burnt to ashes -- upon which account they called it, Oolah Kalile, to ascend and consume. The Indians have a similar religious service. The Indian women always throw a small piece of the fattest of the meat into the fire when they are eating, and frequently before they begin to eat. They firmly believe such a method to be a great means of producing temporal good things, and of averting those that are evil: and they are so far from making this fat-offering through pride or hypocrisy, that they perform it when they think they are not seen by those of contrary principles, who might ridicule them without teaching them better. They do not offer any fruits of the field, except at the first-fruit-offering: so that their neglect of sacrifice, at certain times, seems to be a strong circumstantial evidence of their Israelitish extraction. This was the emblematical token of the divine presence; and the smoke of the victim ascending toward heaven, is represented as a sweet savour to God."
"The Indians have among them the resemblance of the Jewish Sin-Offering, and Trespass-Offering, for they commonly pull their new-killed venison (before they dress it) several times through the smoke and flame of the fire, both by the way of a sacrifice, and to consume the blood, life, or animal spirits of the beast, which with them would be a most horrid abomination to eat. And they sacrifice in the woods, the milt, or a large fat piece of the first buck they kill, both in their summer and winter hunt."
"The Indians observe another religious custom of the Hebrews, in making a Peace-Offering, or sacrifice of gratitude, if the Deity in the supposed holy ark is propitious to their campaign against the enemy, and brings them all safe home. If they have lost any in war, they always decline it, because they imagine by some neglect of duty, they are impure: then they only mourn their vicious conduct which defiled the ark, and thereby occasioned the loss. Like the Israelites, they believe their sins are the true cause of all their evils, and that the divinity in their ark, will always bless the more religious party with the best success."
"The Hebrews had various Ablutions and Anointings, according to the Mosaic ritual -- and all the Indian nations constantly observe similar customs from religious motives. Their frequent bathing, or dipping themselves and their children in rivers, even in the severest weather, seems to be as truly Jewish, as the other rites and ceremonies which have been mentioned. Frequent washing of the body was highly necessary to the health of the Hebrews in their warm climate, and populous state -- but it is useless in this point of view to the red Americans, as their towns are widely distant from each other, thin peopled, and situated in cold regions. In the coldest weather, and when the ground is covered with snow, against their bodily ease and pleasure, men and children turn out of their warm houses or stoves, reeking with sweat, singing their usual sacred notes, Yo Yo, &c. at the dawn of day, adoring YO He Wah, at the gladsome sight of the morn; and thus they skip along, echoing praises, till they get to the river, when they instantaneously plunge into it. If the water is frozen, they break the ice with a religious impatience: After bathing, they return home, rejoicing as they run for having so well performed their religious duty, and thus purged away the impurities of the preceding day by ablution."
"In imitation of the Hebrew women being kept apart from the men at their worship, the Indians intirely exclude their females from their temples by ancient custom, except six old beloved women, who are admitted to sing, dance, and rejoice, in the time of their annual expiation of sins, and then retire."
"The Indians have customs consonant to the Mosaic Laws of Uncleanness. They oblige their women in their lunar retreats, to build small huts, at as considerable a distance from their dwelling-houses, as they imagine may be out of the enemies reach; where, during the space of that period, they are obliged to stay at the risque of their lives. Notwithstanding they reckon it conveys a most horrid and dangerous pollution to those who touch, or go near them, or walk any where within the circle of their retreats; and are in fear of thereby spoiling the supposed purity and power of their holy ark. The non-observance of this separation, a breach of the marriage-law, and murder, they esteem the most capital crimes. When the time of the women's separation is ended, they always purify themselves in deep running water, return home, dress, and anoint themselves. They ascribe these monthly periods, to the female structure, not to the anger of Ishtohoollo Aba."
"The Israelites became unclean only by touching their dead, for the space of seven days; and the high-priest was prohibited to come near the dead. 'Tis much the same with the Indians to this day. To prevent pollution, when the sick person is past hope of recovery, they dig a grave, prepare the tomb, anoint his hair, and paint his face; and when his breath ceases, they hasten the remaining funeral preparations, and soon bury the corpse. One of a different family will never, or very rarely pollute himself for a stranger; though when living, he would cheerfully hazard his life for his safety: the relations, who become unclean by performing the funeral duties, must live apart from the clean for several days, and be cleansed by some of their religious order, who chiefly apply the button-snake-root for their purification, as formerly described: then they purify themselves by ablution. After three days, the funeral assistants may convene at the town-house, and follow their usual diversions."
"The Indians through a strong principle of religion, abstain in the strictest manner, from eating the Blood of any animal; as it contains the life, and spirit of the beast, and was the very essence of the sacrifices that were to be offered up for sinners. And this was the Jewish opinion and law of sacrifice, Lev. xvii. II. "for the life of the flesh is in the blood, and I have given it to you upon the altar, to make an atonement for your souls; for it is the blood, which maketh an atonement for the soul". "The more religious, or the least corrupted, of the various remote Indian nations, will not eat of any young beast when it is newly yeaned; and their old men think they would suffer damage, even by the bare contact: which seems to be derived from the Mosaic law, that prohibited such animals to be offered up, or eaten, till they were eight days old; because, till then, they were in an imperfect and polluted state!"
"The Indian Marriages, Divorces, and Punishments of adultery, still retain a strong likeness to the Jewish laws and customs in these points. The Hebrews had sponsalia de presenti, and sponsalia de futuro: a considerable time generally intervened between their contract and marriage: and their nuptial ceremonies were celebrated in the night. The Indians observe the same customs to this day; insomuch, that it is usual for an elderly man to take a girl, or sometimes a child to be his wife, because she is capable of receiving good impressions in that tender state: frequently, a moon elapses after the contract is made, and the value received, before
the bridegroom sleeps with the bride, and on the marriage day, he does not appear before her till night introduces him, and then without tapers."
"The friendliest kind of marriage among the Hebrew, was eating bread together. The bridegroom put a ring on the fourth finger of the bride's left hand before two witnesses, and said. "Be thou my wife, according to the law of Moses" Her acceptance and silence implying consent, confirmed her part of the marriage contract, because of the rigid modesty of the eastern women. When the short marriage contract was read over, he took a cake of bread and broke it in two, for himself and her; or otherwise, he put some corn between their hands: which customs were used as strong emblems of the necessity of mutual industry and concord, to obtain present and future happiness. When an Indian makes his first address to the young woman he intends to marry, she is obliged by ancient custom to sit by him till he hath done eating and drinking, whether she likes or dislikes him; but afterward, she is at her own choice whether to stay or retire ID="n0149 * . When the bridegroom marries the bride, after the usual prelude, he takes a choice ear of corn, and divides it in two before witnesses, gives her one half in her hand, and keeps the other half to himself; or otherwise, he gives her a deer's foot, as an emblem of the readiness with which she ought to serve him: in return, she presents him with some cakes of bread, thereby declaring her domestic care and gratitude in return for the offals; for the men feast by themselves, and the women eat the remains. When this short ceremony is ended, they go to bed."
"The Hebrews had another sort of marriage -- by purchase: the bridegroom gave the father of the bride as much as he thought she was worth: and according to the different valuation, so sooner or later she went off at market. The only way to know the merit of a Hebrew lady, was to enquire the value for which her father would sell her, and the less rapacious he was, the sooner she might get an husband. Divine writ abounds with instances of the like kind; as Gen. xxxiv. 12. "Ask me never so much dowry and I will give it" David bought Michal, and Jacob dearly purchased Rachel. When the Indians would express a proper marriage, they have a word adapted according to their various dialects, to give them a suitable idea of it; but when they are speaking of their sensual marriage bargains, they always term it, "buying a woman;" for example -- they say with regard to the former, Che-Awalas, "I shall marry you," the last syllable denotes the first person of the future tense. But the name of their market marriages, is Otoolpha, Eho Achumbàras, Saookcháa, "In the spring, I shall buy a woman, if I am alive" Or Eho Achumbàra Awa, "I shall not buy a woman," Sàlbasa toogat, "for indeed I am poor:" the former usage, and method of language is exactly calculated to express that singular custom of the Hebrews, per coemptionem."
"They sometimes marry by deputation or proxy, as do the Hebrews. The intended bridegroom sends so much in value to the nearest relations of the intended bride, as he thinks she is worth: if they are accepted, it is a good sign that her relations approve of the match, but she is not bound by their contract alone; her consent must likewise be obtained, but persuasions most commonly prevail with them. However, if the price is reckoned too small, or the goods too few, the law obliges them to return the whole, either to himself, or some of his nearest kindred."
"Many of the Indian Punishments, resemble those of the Jews. Whosoever attentively views the features of the Indian, and his eye, and reflects on his fickle, obstinate, and cruel disposition, will naturally think on the Jews. The Israelites cut off the hands and feet of murderers, 2 Sam. iv. 12. -- strangled false prophets -- and sometimes burned, stoned, or beheaded those malefactors who were condemned by the two courts of judgment. The Indians either by the defect of tradition, or through a greedy desire of revenge, torture their prisoners and devoted captives, with a mixture of all those Jewish capital punishments. The Indians jeer, taunt, laugh, whoop, and rejoice at the inexpressible agonies of those unfortunate persons, who are under their butchering hands; which would excite pity and horror in any heart, but that of a Jew. Not being able formerly to cut off the heads of those they killed in war, for want of proper weapons; nor able to carry them three or four hundred miles without putrefaction, they cut off the skin of their heads with their flintstone knives, as speaking trophies of honour. The Indians strictly adhere more than the rest of mankind to that positive, unrepealed law of Moses, "He who sheddeth man's blood, by man shall his blood be shed:" like the Israelites, their hearts burn violently day and night without intermission, till they shed blood for blood."
"The Indians will not cohabit with women while they are out at war; they religiously abstain from every kind of intercourse even with their own wives, for the space of three days and nights before they go to war, and so after they return home, because they are to sanctify themselves. This religious war custom, especially in so savage a generation, seems to be derived from the Hebrews, who thus sanctified themselves, to gain the divine protection, and victory over their common enemies. The French Indians are said not to have deflowered any of our young women they captivated, while at war with us; and they would think such actions defiling, and what must bring fatal consequences on their own heads."
"When they return home victorious over the enemy, they sing the triumphal song to Yo-He-Wah, ascribing the victory to him, according to a religious custom of the Israelites, who were commanded always to attribute their success in war to Jehovah, and not to their swords and arrows."
The Indian origin and descent may also be in some measure discerned by their taste for, and kind of Ornaments. The Israelites were fond of wearing beads and other ornaments, even as early as the patriarchal age, and the taste increased to such a degree that is became criminal, and was sharply reprehended by the prophets, particularly Isaiah. The Israelitish women wore rich garters about their legs, and against the rules of modesty, they shortened their under garments, in order to shew how their legs and feet were decorated; Isaiah, chap. iii. 18. "The Lord will take away the bravery of their tinkling ornaments about their feet," which loaded them so heavy that they could scarcely walk; and ver. 19, 20, 21. "The chains and the bracelets -- The ornaments of the legs -- and the ear-rings -- The rings and nose jewels" In resemblance to these customs, the Indian females continually wear a beaded string round their legs, made of buffalo-hair, which is a species of coarse wool; and they reckon it a great ornament, as well as a preservative against miscarriages, hard labour, and other evils. They wear also a heap of land tortoise-shells with pebbles or beads in them, fastened to pieces of deer-skins, which they tie to the outside of their legs, when they mix with the men in their religious dances. The Indian nations are agreed in the custom of thus adorning themselves with beads of various sizes and colours; sometimes wrought in garters, sashes, necklaces, and in strings round their wrists; and so from the crown of their heads sometimes to the cartilage of the nose. And they doat on them so much, as to make them their current money in all payments to this day. Their conch-shell beads bear a very near resemblance to ivory, which was highly esteemed by the Hebrews. "
"The Hebrews have at all times been very careful in the Burial of their dead -- to be deprived of it was considered as one of the greatest of evils. They made it a point of duty to perform the funeral obsequies of their friends -- often embalmed the dead bodies of those who were rich, and even buried treasure in the tombs with their dead. Josephus tells us, that in king David's sepulchre, was buried such a prodigious quantity of treasures, that Hyrcanus the Maccabean, took three thousand talents out of it. American Indians inter the whole riches of the deceased with him, and so make his corpse and the grave heirs of all, they never give them the least disturbance; even a blood-thirsty enemy will not despoil nor disturb the dead. The grave proves an asylum, and a sure place of rest to the sleeping person, till at some certain time, according to their opinion, he rises again to inherit his favourite place. When any of them die at a distance, if the company be not driven and pursued by the enemy, they place the corpse on a scaffold, covered with notched logs to secure it from being torn by wild beasts, or fowls of prey: when they imagine the flesh is consumed, and the bones are thoroughly dried, they return to the place, bring them home, and inter them in a very solemn manner. "
"The Egyptians either embalmed, or buried, their dead: other heathen nations imagined that fire purified the body; they burned therefore the bodies of their dead, and put their ashes into small urns, which they religiously kept by them, as sacred relicks. The Tartars called Kyrgessi, near the frozen sea, formerly used to hang their dead relations and friends upon trees, to be eaten by ravenous birds to purify them. But the Americans seem evidently to have derived their copy from the Israelites, as to the place where they bury their dead, and the method of their funeral ceremonies, as well as the persons with whom they are buried, and the great expences they are at in their burials. The Hebrews buried near the city of Jerusalem, by the brook Kedron; and they frequently hewed their tombs out of rocks, or buried their dead opposite to their doors, implying a silent lesson of friendship, and a pointing caution to live well. They buried all of one family together; to which custom David alludes, when he says, "gather me not with the wicket:" and Sophronius said with regard to the like form, "noli me tangere, haeretice, neque vivum nec mortuum" But they buried strangers apart by themselves, and named the place, Kebhare Galeya, "the burying place of strangers" And the Americans are so strongly partial to the same custom, that they imagine if any of us were buried in the domestic tombs of their kindred, without being adopted, it would be very criminal of them to allow it; and that our spirits would haunt the eaves of their houses at night, and cause several misfortunes to their family. "
"The Jewish records tell us, that their women Mourned for the loss of their deceased husbands, and were reckoned vile, by the civil law, if they married in the space, at least, of ten months after their death. In resemblance to that custom, all the Indian widows, by an established strict penal law, mourn for the loss of their deceased husbands; and among some tribes for the space of three or four years. They formerly dress their heads with black moss on those solemn occasions; and the ground adjacent to the place of interment, they now beat with laurel-bushes, the women having their hair disheveled: the first of which customs seems to be derived from the Hebrew custom of wearing sack-cloth at their funeral solemnities, and on other occasions, when they afflicted their souls before God -- to which divine writ often alludes, in describing the blackness of the skies: and the laurel being an ever-green, is a lively emblem of the eternity of the human soul, and the pleasant state it enters into after death, according to antiquity. They beat it on the ground, to express their sharp pungent grief; and, perhaps, to imitate the Hebrew trumpeters for the dead, in order to make as striking a sound as they possibly can on so doleful an occasion."
"The surviving brother, by the Mosaic law, was to Raise Seed to a deceased brother who left a widow childless, to perpetuate his name and family, and inherit his goods and estate, or be degraded: and, if the issue he begat was a male child, it assumed the name of the deceased. The Indian custom looks the very same way; yet it is in this as in their law of blood -- the eldest brother can redeem. Although a widow is bound, by a strict penal law, to mourn the death of her husband for the space of three or four years; yet, if she be known to lament her loss with a sincere heart, for the space of a year, and her circumstances of living are so strait as to need a change of her station -- and the elder brother of her deceased husband lies with her, she is thereby exempted from the law of mourning, has a liberty to tie up her hair, anoint and paint herself in the same manner as the Hebrew widow, who was refused by the surviving brother of her deceased husband, became free to marry whom she pleased. The warm-constitutioned young widows keep their eye so intent on this mild beneficent law, that they frequently treat their elder brothers-in-law with spirituous liquors till they intoxicate them, and thereby decoy them to make free, and so put themselves out of the reach of that mortifying law. "
Ethan Smith, who was not only a pastor to a small church in Vermont but was also a self-proclaimed expert on Jewish history, hoped to prove the Jewish roots of Native Americans by appealing to the Bible. In his 1823 book, View of the Hebrews, Smith endeavors to point out what he saw as similarities between Native American religious custom and that of ancient Judaism. As Smith states:"In all their rites which I have learned of them, there is certainly a most striking similitude to the Mosaic rituals. Their feasts of first fruits; feasts of in gathering; day of atonement; peace offerings; sacrifices. They build an altar of stone before a tent covered with blankets; within the tent they burn tobacco for incense, with fire taken from the altar of burnt offering. All who have seen a dead human body are considered unclean eight days; which time they are excluded from the congregation." (http://olivercowdery.com/texts/ethn1823.htm)
In her book, The Ten Tribes of Israel - Historically Identified with the Aborigines of the Western Hemisphere (published in 1836), Barbara A. Simon said, "In the year 660 under the reign of Ixlalalcuechahuatli, in Tula, a celebrated astronomer, called Huematzin, assembled by the king's consent, all the wise men of the nation; and with them painted that celebrated book called Tuomoxtli, or "Divine Book" in which were represented in very plain figures, the origin of the Indians [Adam & Eve], their dispersion after the confusion of tongues [Tower of Babel], their subsequent journeying in Central Asia (Russia), their first settlements upon the Continent of America, the founding of the kingdom of Tula, and their progress till that time." (http://olivercowdery.com/texts/1836Simn.htm#pg027a)
The fervor over the possibility of American Indians being of Jewish descent was only furthered when Barbara Simon published her book, The Ten Tribes of Israel Historically Identified with the Aborigines of the Western Hemisphere in 1836. Aside from quoting a plethora of biblical sources to defend her thesis, Simon also claims that early Mexican paintings found by Spanish conquistadors contain "allusions to the restoration of the dispersed tribes of Israel."
Perhaps the most popular -- and most controversial -- interpretation on the origins of Native Americans comes from Mormon founder and prophet Joseph Smith. During his youth, Smith claimed to have received a revelation from a heavenly messenger, who related to Smith the location of a hidden record of an ancient people. As the Book of Mormon's introduction puts it: "The Book of Mormon is a volume of holy scripture comparable to the Bible. It is a record of God’s dealings with the ancient inhabitants of the Americas and contains, as does the Bible, the fullness of the everlasting gospel. The book was written by many ancient prophets by the spirit of prophecy and revelation. Their words, written on gold plates, were quoted and abridged by a prophet-historian named Mormon. The record gives an account of two great civilizations. One came from Jerusalem in 600 B.C., and afterward separated into two nations, known as the Nephites and the Lamanites. The other came much earlier when the Lord confounded the tongues at the Tower of Babel. This group is known as the Jaredites. After thousands of years, all were destroyed except the Lamanites, and they are the principal ancestors of the American Indians."
"As for Me, behold, My covenant is with you, and you shall be a father of many nations. No longer shall your name be called Abram, but your name shall be Abraham; for I have made you a father of many nations. I will make you exceedingly fruitful; and I will make nations of you, and kings shall come from you" (Genesis 17:4-6). Notice that the promise was for Abraham’s descendants to be “many nations”—this simply is not fulfilled by the split into the two nations of Judah and Israel (1 Kings12:17-20) in the Old Testament.
Furthermore, notice what God promised to Sarah’s (Abraham's wife) grandson Jacob: "Also your descendants shall be as the dust of the earth; you shall spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south; and in you and in your seed all the families of the earth shall be blessed." (Genesis 28:14).
These two leading tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, were to become the heads of the two great sections into which Israel was to be divided. In GENESIS 48:19, Manasseh was told that he was to become a great people, or nation. Ephraim, on the other hand, was told that he would become a multitude of nations.
The late John Ogwyn correctly noted: There is no record of Ephraim and Manasseh ever becoming a great nation and company of nations prior to Israel’s captivity. They never became a blessing to all the nations of the world before they went into Assyrian captivity in the eighth century before Christ. Clearly, the fulfillment of the promises that God made to Abraham and reconfirmed to his descendants did not occur before ten-tribed Israel disappeared from the pages of your Bible and then from the pages of secular history (Ogwyn J. The United States and Great Britain in Prophecy. Living Church of God, Charlotte, 2006, p. 17).
"My sheep wandered over all the mountains and on every high hill. They were scattered over the whole earth, and no one searched or looked for them." (Ezekiel 34:6) "As a shepherd looks after his scattered flock when he is with them, so will I look after my sheep. I will rescue them from all the places where they were scattered on a day of clouds and darkness. I will bring them out from the nations and gather them from the countries..." (Ezekiel 34:12-13)
When the Babylonian captivity of the House of Judah ended in 538 B.C., there was a return of God’s people known today as “the Restoration.” Religious writers looking back upon this event 2,500 years later invariably assume that virtually every one of the Israelites, all twelve tribes, were soon reestablished in Canaan. But surprisingly, there are two very creditable and inspired witnesses to the events of that period—Ezra and Nehemiah—who sharply disagree with most modern historians.
In fact, these two prophets are the only reliable eyewitnesses existing today concerning the Restoration period of Biblical history. Both agree on an important point: They specifically refer to the returnees as being only of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin, corporately known as the House of Judah. There is no mention at all of any of the other missing ten tribes which comprised the kingdom of the House of Israel!
"I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also. They too will listen to my voice, and there shall be one flock and one shepherd." (John 10:16)
Although only two tribes are ever mentioned throughout the Book of Ezra, the common teaching today is that all twelve tribes of Israel, from both Houses of Israel and Judah, were reunited at the end of the Babylonian captivity. If so, why is there no mention of the rest of these tribes, either in the early portion of the book (see Ezra 1:5 and 4:1, “Judah and Benjamin”), or during events years later (Ezra 10:9, “Judah and Benjamin”)? The prophet Ezra knew nothing of any return to old Canaan of the exiled ten tribes of the House of Israel! Neither did his contemporary, the prophet Nehemiah, who spoke only of the existence of the “House of Judah” (Neh. 4:16) and the two tribes it comprised, Judah and Benjamin (Neh. 11:4, 36; 12:34).
Neither the Bible nor history support the idea of a mass return from Babylon of both Houses of Israel. Instead, the prophet Ezra stated, “...grace hath been showed from the LORD our God, to leave us a remnant to escape...” (9:8) Again he emphasized, “We are left this day as a remnant.” (9:15, NIV) There is no question that Ezra, an eye-witness, documented that the majority of Israel remained in exile in other lands!
A leading Jewish Israeli scholar, Sara Japhet, agrees and says, “the restoration [i.e. return from exile] and the subsequent renewal of Jewish community life involved only three tribes: the lay tribes of Judah and Benjamin, and the tribe of Levi.” (“From The Rivers Of Babylon,” p.82) Levi was the priestly tribe whose members were divided and spread among all of the other tribes. It therefore did not inherit land itself and the majority of its members would be proportionately found among the missing tribes of the House of Israel.
The book of Nehemiah tells us that the whole community of exiles who returned to Canaan was only 42,360. (Neh. 8:66) What happened to the rest of God’s people, the Israelite majority who continued in exile? They did not remain in Assyria and Babylon. As Dr. Lofthouse expressed it, “the prophet] Jeremiah...seems to imply a certain restlessness among the exiles.” The fulfillment of the numerous prophecies of Scripture required that these restless wanderers be later found in the coastlands and isles to the west, where they became a great multitude and company of nations. (Gen. 15:5; 35:11; Isa. 42:4)
It is further very significant that out of all of King David’s descendants, only one—Hattush—is listed (Ezra 8:2) among the returning exiles. Since the land of Canaan was virtually emptied of Hebrews during the Babylonian exile, apparently all of David’s other descendants remained in the diaspora in other lands. One of them, King Zedekiah’s daughter, accompanied by the prophet Jeremiah, escaped the defeated and plundered land of Judah (Jer. 43) to go first to Tahpahnes, Egypt, and then (according to legendary history) to the isles of the West.
An Ashkenazi Jewish tradition speaks of these tribes as Die Roite Yiddelech, "The little red Jews", cut off from the rest of Jewry by the legendary river Sambation "whose foaming waters raise high up into the sky a wall of fire and smoke that is impossible to pass through".
During the latter half of the 18th century, variations on this same theory were advocated by some who believed that the British Empire of nations was a manifestation of ancient prophecies recorded in the Book of Genesis predating both the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah. An attempt has been made to derive the English language from Hebrew. Thus, 'bairn' is derived from bar ('son'); 'berry' from peri ('fruit'); 'garden' from gedar; 'kid' from gedi; 'scale' from shekel; and 'kitten' from quiton (katon='little'). The termination 'ish' is identided with the Hebrew ish ('man'); 'Spanish' means 'Spain-man' ; while 'British' is identified with Berit-ish (' man of the covenant '). Perhaps the most curious of these philological identifications is that of 'jig' with chag (hag='festival').
Leading vowels were often dropped in Semitic languages. As an example, the city of Istanbul is also known as “ Stambole.” Historian Paul MacKendrick wrote in The Iberian Stones Speak (p.26), that the city of Lisbon on the Iberian (Spanish) Peninsula was originally known as “ Olisipo,” and the leading vowel was dropped over time. Conversely, at the end of words, Semitic speech “frequently added an aleph [letter “a”] to words which in Hebrew terminated with a consonant.” ( Sir William Drummond, Origines, p.52) As a result, the name, Isaac, became “Saca,” “Saka,” or “ Sacae.”
The name ”Saxon” means, “Sons of Isaac.” Such a name for Israel was prophesied in Genesis 21:12: “And God said unto Abraham, Let it not be grievous in thy sight because of the lad, and because of thy bondwoman; in all that Sarah hath said unto thee, hearken unto her voice; for in Isaac shall thy seed be called.” In Amos 7:18, written about the time of the captivity of Israel, Abraham’s descendants are called, “the house of Isaac.” (compare Rom. 9:7 and Heb. 11:18) The Israelites received that name because of their descent from Jacob- Israel, but they were later called by the name of Jacob’s father, Isaac; rather than being known as the Israel people, they were to be known as the Isaac or Saac people. This is what the word, Sacae, means – the Sac people. As the word Saxon is merely an English form of Sacae.
However, the Saxons, who came into Britain from Germany and Denmark, were not natives of those regions. The Saxons had previously migrated to Western Europe from their former home east of the Black Sea. Historians, both ancient and modern, state that they were descended from the Sacae, a people who came into Eastern Europe from Media shortly after 700 B.C. This is certainly important, for that date is during the same period in which the Israelites were taken captive to Media. We know that, within a few years of being taken there, they regained their freedom and migrated north-westward into Europe.
The Saxon historian, Sharon Turner, in History Of The Anglo- Saxons, (I:100-101) traced the word, ”Saxon” to the words, “ Sacae-Suna,” meaning the “Sons of the Sacae” saying, “[ Roman geographer] Ptolemy mentions a Scythian people, sprung from the SAKAI, by the name of Saxones… Sakai-Suna, or the Sons of the Sakai, abbreviated into Saksun, which is the same sound as Saxon, seems a reasonable etymology of the word, Saxon.” One of the greatest of literary scholars, John Milton, in his History of Britain, also tied the origins of the Anglo- Saxons with the SAKA and the Mid-East in these words: “They were a people thought by good writers to be descended from the SCYTHIANS or SAKA, AFTERWARDS CALLED SACASONS, who with a flood of other nations came into Europe about the time of the decline of the Roman Empire.”
And it is believed that part of the Israelite Tribes gave rise to elements within Finland, Switzerland, Sweden, Norway, Ireland, Wales, France, Holland, and Belgium" and that "The Tribe of Dan is to be found amongst part of the Danish, Irish, and Welsh. One theory posits that the lost Israelites can be defined by the Y-DNA haplogroup R, which consists of much of Europe and Russia.
Another very possible line of descent from King David provides an interesting link with the Norse-Gothic tribes and their early leader Odin. We read in 1 Chronicles 3:17-18 that Davidic descendant and king of Judah, Jehoiakin, had one son, Asir (KJV: Assir), translated as “captive.” This Asir was therefore among those exiled from Canaan, and neither he nor any of his descendants were included in Ezra’s list of those who returned from Babylon. Where did Asir, of the Davidic royal line of kings, and his descendants go? In Norse history, although encased in myth, Asir or Aesir was the name of the chief royal tribe living at Asgard, the early Mideast homeland of the Norse people.
There is also a theory that the Irish, or that Insular Celts as a whole, are descended from the Ten Lost Tribes. Proponents of this theory state that there is evidence that the prophet Jeremiah came to Ireland with Princess Tea Tephi, a member of the Israelite royal family. Proponents of this theory point to various parallels between Irish and ancient Hebrew culture. For example, they note that the harp, the symbol of Ireland, also plays a role in Jewish history, as the musical instrument of King David. Some maintain that the Tribe of Dan conducted sea voyages to Ireland and colonized it as early as the period of the Judges under the name Tuatha Dé Danann.
"Your descendants will be like the dust of the earth, and you will spread out to the west and to the east, to the north and to the south. All peoples on earth will be blessed through you and your offspring." (Genesis 28:14)
God had to get the "Isles afar off" ready for the House Israel, so He sent two Houses of Zarah-Judah; to Britain and the Milesians to Ireland. Brutus, the grandson of the Trojan King Aeneas, rounded up hundreds of defeated rebels after the seige of Troy, and made his way to Spain where some of his countrymen had previously migrated. Many of these compatriots sailed with Brutus as he went to Britain. He landed there in 1103 BC, moved inland somewhat until coming to a likely spot for a settlement. He gave this town the name of New Troy. This was later to become the final resting place of the Davidic Throne (London). God was also preparing this land for the influx of Israelites which started some 500 years later.
Some centuries later, God had replaced Spanish Zarahite Trojans with their cousins the Zarahite Milesians. After living for some time in Spain, some of the princes struck out to establish new kingdoms in Ireland. To do this they had to conquer their cousins of the tribe of Dan; the Tuatha de Dannan. After a family squabble that left only one of the original three brothers who came to Ireland, Eochaidh (Yo-kee) the Heremon (king) assumed the throne of Ard-Righ, High King. This all happened around 600 BC. Eochaidh was well in place to receive the bloodline of the Davidic line of Pharez-Judah.
Within three years of the final fall of Jerusalem, God's trustee of the Davidic Throne (Jeremiah), arrives in Ireland with his scribe Simon Brug, a curious collection of ancient relics, which include a harp, a large chest, a three hundred pound stone, and more. Beside one other in the party, the band of four was rounded out by the daughter of the blinded, imprisoned King of Judah, Zedekiah. "What a terrible spoiler war is! How it breaks up and destroys the home life of many caught in the holocaust of plunder and slaughter! The sons of King Zedekiah were slain before his eyes, then his own eyes were put out. Bound with fetters he was taken to Babylon, and his royal house was consumed by fire. Now Zedekiah’s daughters suffer the horrors of war. Fortunately their lives were spared, but they were consigned as captives to the protection of Gedaliah. Doubtless these princesses and survivors of Zedekiah’s harem were among the women who were liberated after the death of Gedaliah". (Jeremiah 41:10)
"And I will provide a place for my people Israel and will plant them so that they can have a home of their own and no longer be disturbed. Wicked people will not oppress them anymore, as they did at the beginning and have done ever since the time I appointed leader over my people Israel. I will also give you rest from all your enemies." (2 Samuel 7:10-11) Can this passage be hinting about the British Isles and Ireland?
Mystery Mountain, Los Lunas, New Mexico. That’s where a fascinating find was discovered with the Hebrew inscription of the Ten Commandments. What is amazing about this find, is that the ten commandments were written in a Hebrew script that is so ancient, it was last used around and up to the Babylonian expulsion. This means it was probably written between 2,500-3,000 years ago!
In December, 1989, it was reported that an American explorer in Peru's highland jungles had found evidence that indicated king Solomon's legendary gold mines may have been in that region. The explorer, Gene Savoy, declared that he had found three stone tablets containing the first writing found from the ancient civilizations of the Andes. The inscriptions, he reported, are similar to Hebrew hieroglyphs!
In 1968 Manfred Metcalf was looking for slabs to build a barbeque pit. Several strange-looking, flat rocks caught his eye; he picked up a large flat piece of sandstone about nine inches long, brushed it off, and noticed odd markings on it. Metcalf gave the stone to Dr. Joseph B. Mahan, Jr., Director of Education and Research at the nearby Columbus Museum of Arts and Crafts at Columbus, Georgia. Mahan sent a copy of the stone to Cyrus Gordon. Gordon reported: "After studying the inscription, it was apparent to me that the affinities of the script were with the Aegean syllabary, whose two best known forms are Minoan Linear A, and Mycenaean Linear B. The double-axe in the lower left corner is of course reminiscent of Minoan civilization. The single verticle lines remind us of the vertical lines standing each for the numeral '1' in the Aegean syllabary; while the little circles stand for '100.'" Concluded Gordon: "We therefore have American inscriptional contacts with the Aegean of the Bronze Age, near the south, west and north shores of the Gulf of Mexico. This can hardly be accidental; ancient Aegean writing near three different sectors of the Gulf reflects Bronze Age translatlantic communication between the Mediterranean and the New World around the middle of the second millennium B.C."
Further proof that transatlantic travel and communication existed in the Bronze Age, in the middle of the second millennium B.C., during the time of David and Solomon, and before, comes to us from South America. In 1872 a slave belonging of Joaquim Alves de Costa, found a broken stone tablet in the tropical rain forests of Brazil's Paraiba state. Baffled by the strange markings on the stone, Costa's son, who was a draftsman, made a copy of it and sent it to the Brazilian Emperor's Council of State. The stone came to the attention of Ladislau Netto, director of the national museum. He was convinced of the inscription's autthenticity and made a crude translation of it. Contemporary scholars scoffed. The very thought of Phoenicians reaching Brazil thousands of years before Columbus was viewed with disdain. Few scholars took the stone at all seriously. In 1966 Dr. Jules Piccus, professor of romance languages at the University of Massachusetts, bought an old scrapbook at a rummage sale containing a letter written by Netto in 1874, which contained his translations of the markings on the stone and a tracing of the original copy he had received from Costa's son. Intrigued, Dr. Piccus brought the material to the attention of Cyrus H. Gordon. Dr. Gordon, the head of the Department of Mediterranean Studies at Brandeis University and an expert in ancient Semitic languages, as well as author of some 13 books, was amazed. He compared the Paraiba inscription with the latest work on Phoenician writings. He discovered that it contained nuances and quirks of Phoenician style that could not have been known to a 19th century forger. The writings had to be genuine! Gordon translated the inscription as follows: "We are Sidonian Canaanites from the city of the Mercantile King. We were cast up on this distant shore, a land of mountains. We sacrificed a youth to the celestial gods and goddesses in the nineteenth year of our mighty King Hiram and embarked from Ezion-geber into the Red Sea. We voyaged with ten ships and were at sea together for two years around Africa. Then we were separated by the hand of Baal and were no longer with our companions. So we have come here, twelve men and three women, into New Shore. Am I, the Admiral, a man who would flee? Nay! May the celestial gods and goddesses favor us well!" Cyrus Gordon believes the king mentioned in the script can be identified as Hiram III who reigned 553-533 B.C.
How can this possibly be reconciled with known history?
It is seemingly apparent that the financial backing to launch a Hebrew-Phoenician voyage of world exploration could have readily occurred during the reign of King Solomon of Israel. Solomon worshiped the true God of Israel and had the means to fund exploratory voyages to other lands. With Solomon's main port being located on the Red Sea it would be difficult to explain how his fleet would have entered America through the Atlantic drainage. ( Reference note: Kings I 9:26-27) :And king Solomon made a navy of ships in Eziongeber, which is beside Eloth, on the shore of the Red sea, in the land of Edom. And Hiram sent in the navy his servants, shipmen that had knowledge of the sea, with the servants of Solomon.
Tarshish , however, had access to the Atlantic. The reign of Solomon was enveloping the entire world. Israel's close neighbor, Phonecia, and their expert navigators were working with the servants of Solomon from both countries ports. The ships of Tarshish sailed extremely long voyages to bring back all kinds of raw materials and items (copper & other ores, flora & fauna samples, "exotic" animals, etc.). ( Reference note: Chronicles 2 -Chapter 9): For the king's ships went to Tarshish with the servants of Huram: every three years once came the ships of Tarshish bringing gold, and silver, ivory, and apes, and peacocks.
Could it have been that some Jews left the ship, going on an expedition, got stuck or stranded, missing the boat back? Perhaps they were just late in getting back to meet the ship, and decided to leave a message for posterity’s sake, that Jews were here. Maybe they liked this new world, and joined, or were even kidnapped by Indians, and taught what they knew, and also left this message for us.
Geneticists at an Israeli hospital said they have found a unique Jewish genetic mutation among an American Indian tribe, indicating that they are descendants of Jews believed to have been expelled from Spain 600 years ago. The findings of the study, conducted at the Sheba Medical Center near Tel Aviv, show that a group of Indians from the State of Colorado bear the so-called "Ashkenazi mutation," on the BRCA1 gene - a marker unique to Jews. While such so-called "secret Jews," or "Anusim" in Hebrew, whose families assimilated into various north and south American cultures hundreds of years ago after journeying to the New World are more and more known, this is the first time an Indian tribe has shown the gene. (http://news.xinhuanet.com/english/sci/2012-05/30/c_131621021.htm)
After his death and resurrection, did Jesus also visit the Americas to establish a church among some of His "lost sheep".? These "lost sheep" are supposedly the descendants of Hebrews who had fled Jerusalem and journeyed to America by way of Europe at the time of Jeremiah.
"He was not seen by all the people, but by witnesses whom God had already chosen..." (Acts 10:41)
"After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that no one could count, from every nation, tribe, people and language, standing before the throne and before the Lamb." (Revelations 7:9)
"Have no fear, little flock, because your Father has approved of giving you the kingdom." (Luke 12:32)
Both the Incan god Viracocha and Bochica from the Muisca (Chibcha) culture were believed to be a white God who walked on water, raised the dead, healed the sick, blessed little children and taught a doctrine of forgiveness. Montezuma heralded the Spanish explorer Cortez as the returning bearded white God; and the same thing happened to Cook in the Hawaiian Islands. Then there is a extremely old Native American prophecy, shared by every tribe from Alaska to southern South America, that states there will come from the east a Great Teacher or Chief, he will teach twelve principles, his symbol will be a nine-pointed star, and he will come to teach peace to all the tribes of the world.
A curious incident that drew considerable attention and "proved," at least to some, that Native Americans had ancient Israelite origins unfolded when tefillin (phylacteries) were "discovered" in Pittsfield, Massachusetts in the early 19th century.
Another notable Jewish-Indian incident occurred in 1860, when stones hewn with Hebrew inscriptions were found near Newark, Ohio. The Occident, Isaac Leeser's newspaper, concluded, "The sons of Jacob were walking on the soil of Ohio many centuries before the birth of Columbus." The Newark Holy Stones refer to a set of artifacts discovered by David Wyrick in 1860 within a cluster of very ancient Indian burial mounds near Newark, Ohio. The set consists of the Keystone, a stone bowl, and the Decalogue with its sandstone box. They can be viewed at the Johnson-Humrickhouse Museum in Coshocton, Ohio. A condensed version of the Ten Commandments, the stone is written in a post-Exilic square Hebrew letters. The figure on the stone face is identified as Moses. The collection is from an ancient American Indian culture known as the Hopewell that only existed from approximately 100 BC to AD 500. The figure is of a bearded man who is wearing a turban, robe, and appears to be holding a tablet. Right above the figure of the man is a separate inscription which translates to "Moses".
American history tells us that the first Jews arrived in America with Columbus in 1492. On August 2, 1492, more than 300,000 Jews were expelled from Spain, (Seymour B. Liebman, The Jews In New Spain: Faith, Flame, and the Inquisition, p. 32). We also know that Jews newly-converted to Christianity were among the first Spaniards to arrive in Mexico with Conquistador Hernando Cortez in 1519. A good number of "Converso Jews" -- Jews and their descendants forcibly converted during the Spanish Inquisition -- came to the New World. Many of the Conversos who had made the trek over had become Catholics in name only. They were "Crypto Jews" who in traveling across the Atlantic were attempting to flee the Inquisition.
The first recorded Jewish history here begins in 1654 with the arrival in New Amsterdam (later to be known as New York) of 23 Jewish refugees from Recife, Brazil (where the Dutch had just lost their possessions to the Portuguese).
One need not travel far to the west to pick up the trails of pioneer Jewish fur traders. In New York State in the late 1600's, for example, Joseph Brown, "a trapper and trader of the Jewish persuasion," was pursuing his activities in the wilderness of what is now Orange County, New York, a mere 20 miles from the Big Apple! A few years later, a Sephardic Jew, Luis Gomez, purchased land along the Hudson River in that same region. His son built a house on the property, and the family spent the winters trading with and maintaining a friendly, mutually advantageous relationship with the Algonquin Indians of the northeastern United States. The house, along with an adjoining millhouse and dam, stands today as the earliest surviving Jewish residence in the United States and is being administered by the American Historical Society.
At that early time, the possibility that the Indians were descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel was seriously discussed and considered in the Sephardic community of New York. Gomez noted that the Indians worshiped a great spirit they called Yohovah. Indian holy days fell out In the spring and the fall, corresponding to the Jewish Passover and Succoth. The Indians underwent a two-day fast period, much as the Jews did on the Day of Atonement. The Indians had high priests, one of whose functions was the conduct of puberty rites. The Indians sense of purity, both in personal terms and in their diet, was emphasized, particularly because the Indians considered that the eating of certain animals was taboo. Finally, similarities between the Indian and the ancient Hebrew counting systems and the fact that the Indians employed a lunar calendar were noted.
First Sailing Ships
History records that there were ships upon the Red Sea long before the pyramids were built, and there were ships on the Mediterranean and Persian Gulf by 7000 B.C. Mostly these were the ships of fishermen, but some were already trading and pirate ships. They were essentially rowing ships which hugged the shore and went into harbor at the first sign of rough weather.
Basketwork boat covered with skin and caulked have been used in Egypt and Sumeria for at least five thousand years. Such boats are still used there. These same types of boats are used to this day in Ireland and Wales and in Alaska; sealskin boats still make the crossing of Behring Straits. The hollowed-out log followed as tools improved. The building of boats and then ships came in a natural succession.
A major expedition to the Land of Punt (probably in the Horn of Africa) down the Red Sea and into the Indian Ocean was undertaken under Queen Hatshepsut (1479-1457 BC). Bigger multiple sail ships of seventy to eighty tons suited to long sea voyages had become quite common under her reign (In size they might be compared to Columbus's Santa Maria with a displacement of 100 tons or his smaller ships with about fifty).
Herodotus' account (written c. 440 BC) says that: "The Phoenicians who had formerly dwelt on the shores of the Erythraean Sea (the eastern part of the Arabia peninsula), having migrated to the Mediterranean and settled in the parts which they now inhabit, began at once, they say, to adventure on long sea voyages, freighting their vessels with the wares of Egypt and Assyria." They set up a string of harbor towns along the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean, of which Type and Sidon were the chief; and by the time of Hammurabi in Babylon (1792-1750 BC), they had spread as traders, wanderers and colonizers over the whole Mediterranean basin. They also settled in Spain, pushing back the old Iberian Basque population and sending coasting expeditions through the straits of Gibraltar; and they set up colonies upon the north coast of Africa. The Phoenicians were the first to sail completely around Africa, from the Atlantic into the Indian ocean.