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British Israelism
by Wikipedia
Accessed: 7/9/18
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An 1890 book advocating British Israelism. According to the doctrine, the Lost Ten tribes of Israel found their way to Western Europe and Britain, becoming the ancestors of the British and related peoples.
British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a movement which holds the view that the people of England (or more broadly, the people of United Kingdom) are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel.[1] With roots in the 16th century, [British Israelism was inspired by several 19th-century English writings, notably John Wilson's 1840 Our Israelitish Origin.[2] The movement never had a head organisation or a centralized structure. Various British Israelite organisations were set up throughout the British Empire as well as in America from the 1870s; a number of these organisations are still active today. In America, its ideas gave rise to the Christian Identity movement.
The central tenets of British Israelism have been refuted by evidence from modern archaeological,[3] ethnological,[4] genetic, and linguistic research.[5]
Earliest recorded expressions
According to Brackney (2012) and Fine (2015), the French Hugenot magistrate M. le Loyer's The Ten Lost Tribes, published in 1590, provided the first expression that "Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, Germanic, and associated cultures"[6] were direct descendants of the ancient Israelites.[1] Anglo-Israelism has also been attributed to Francis Drake and James VI and I,[6] who believed he was the King of Israel.[1] Adriaan van Schrieck (1560-1621), who influenced Henry Spelman (1562-1641) and John Sadler (1615-1674), wrote in the early 17th century about his ideas on the origins of the Celtic and Saxon peoples. In 1649, Sadler published The Rights of the Kingdom, "which argues for an 'Israelite genealogy for the British people'".[6]
Aspects of British Israelism and its influences have also been traced to Richard Brothers' A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times in 1794, John Wilson's Our Israelitish Origin (1840s), and John Pym Yeatman's The Shemetic Origin of the Nations of Western Europe (1879).
Foundation
British Israelism arose in England, then spread to the United States.[7]:52–65 British-Israelists cite various medieval manuscripts to claim an older origin, but British Israelism as a distinct movement appeared in the early 1880s:
Heyday, end of the 19th and early 20th centuries
William Pascoe Goard
The extent to which the clergy in Britain became aware of the movement may be gauged from the comment made by Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890) when asked why he had left the Church of England in 1845 to join the Roman Catholic Church. He said that there was a very real danger that the movement "would take over the Church of England."[9]:86
In the later 19th century, Edward Hine, Edward Wheeler Bird, and Herbert Aldersmith developed the British Israelite movement. Hine and Bird would achieve a degree of "doctrinal coherence" by seeing off competing forms of the ideology: In 1878 the Anglo-Ephraim Association of London, which followed Wilson in embracing the broader community of western European Germanic peoples among those they believed were favored by God, would be absorbed into Bird's Metropolitan Anglo-Israel Association, espousing the Anglo-exclusive view promoted by Hine.[10]:209
By the 1890s, the "Anglo-Israel Association" had 300 members; it was based in Britain and founded in 1879 by physician George Moore. Hine later departed for the United States where he promoted the idea.[7]:56
The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia stated that British Israelism's adherents "are said to number 2,000,000 in England and the United States",[11] an unreliable figure if association membership and journal subscription numbers are any guide, though there would have been a broader, unmeasurable sympathy towards the views of the movement among Protestants globally.[10]:209
Between 1899 and 1902, adherents of British Israelism dug up parts of the Hill of Tara in the belief that the Ark of the Covenant was buried there, doing much damage to one of Ireland's most ancient royal and archaeological sites.[12] At the same time, British Israelism became associated with various pseudo-archaeological pyramidology theories, such as the notion that the Pyramid of Khufu contained a prophetic numerology of the British peoples.[13]
In 1914, the thirty-fourth year of its publication, the Anglo-Israel Almanac listed details of a large number of Kingdom Identity Groups operating independently throughout the British Isles and in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the United States of America.
In 1919, the British-Israel-World Federation (BIWF) was founded in London, and Covenant Publishing was founded in 1922. William Pascoe Goard was the first director of the publishing house. During this time, several prominent figures patronized the BIWF organization and its publisher; Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone was Patron-in-chief in pre-World War II days. One of the most notable members was William Massey, then Prime Minister of New Zealand. Due to the expansive nature of the British Empire, believers in British Israelism spread worldwide and the BIWF expanded its organization to the commonwealth. Howard Rand promoted the teaching and became National Commissioner of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America in 1928. He published The Bulletin, later renamed The Messenger of the Covenant. More recently, it has been renamed Destiny.[7]:57
During its heyday in the early 20th century, British Israelism was also supported by John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher. A prolific author on British Israelism during the later 1930s and 40s was Alexander James Ferris.
Contemporary movement
The BIWF continues to exist, with its main headquarters located in Bishop Auckland in County Durham.[14] It also has chapters in Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa.[15]
In 1968, one source estimated that there were between 3,000 and 5,000 British Israelites in Britain.[16] There, the theology of British Israelism has been taught by a few small Pentecostal churches. The espousal of British Israelism by George Jeffreys, founder of the Elim Pentecostal Church, led to a schism, precipitating his 1939 resignation and the formation of the Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship,[17] which continues to teach the doctrine.[18]
Herbert Armstrong
The teaching of British Israelism was vigorously promoted beginning in the 1960s by Herbert W. Armstrong,[7]:57 founder and former Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God. Armstrong believed that the teaching was a key to understanding biblical prophecy: "One might ask, were not biblical prophecies closed and sealed? Indeed they were—until now! And even now they can be understood only by those who possess the master key to unlock them."[19] Armstrong believed that he was called by God to proclaim the prophecies to the Lost Tribes of Israel before the "end-times".[20] Armstrong's belief caused his separation from the Church of God Seventh Day because of its refusal to adopt the teaching.
Armstrong created his own church, first called the "Radio Church of God" and later renamed the "Worldwide Church of God".[20] He described British Israelism as a "central plank" of his theology.[21]
After Armstrong's death, his former church abandoned its belief in British Israelism and changed its name to Grace Communion International (GCI) in 2009. It offers an explanation for the doctrine's origin and its abandonment by the church at its official website.[20] Church members who disagreed with such doctrinal changes left the Worldwide Church of God/GCI to form offshoot churches. Many of these organizations still teach British Israelism, including the Philadelphia Church of God, the Living Church of God, and the United Church of God. Armstrong promoted other genealogical history theories, such as teaching the belief that modern-day Germany represents ancient Assyria, writing "The Assyrians settled in central Europe, and the Germans, undoubtedly, are, in part, the descendants of the ancient Assyrians.".[22]
Tenets
All Israelites Are Not Jews
Adherents believe the Twelve Tribes of Israel are the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob (who was later named Israel). Jacob elevated the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph) to the status of full tribes in their own right, replacing the tribe of Joseph. A division occurred among the twelve tribes in the days of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, with the three tribes of Judah, Benjamin and partially Levi, forming the Kingdom of Judah, and the remaining ten tribes forming the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria).[23] Thus, they argue, "the great bulk of Israelites are not the Jews".[24]:71 [25][26] W. E. Filmer, writing in 1964, suggested that the fact that some Jews continue to search for the ten lost tribes implies that their representatives are not found among modern, historically multi-ethnic, Jews.[27] A number of British-Israelites quote Josephus to support their claim that the lost tribes of Israel are not the Jews: "the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country; wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude."[28][24]:247[29][30]
British descend from the Lost Tribes
Jehu kneeling at the feet of Shalmaneser III on the Black Obelisk.
The key component of British Israelism is its representation of the migrations of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Adherents suggested that the Scythians, Cimmerians and Goths were representatives of these lost tribes, and progenitors of the later invaders of Britain.[31][32]:26–27 John Wilson would argue for the inclusion of all Western European Gothic peoples among the descendants of the Israelites, but under the later influence of Edward Hine the movement would come to view only the peoples of the British Isles as having this ancestry.[10]:209
Herodotus reported that the ancient Persians called all the Scythians Sacae, but that they called themselves Scoloti. However, a modern comparison among the forms given in other ancient languages suggests Skuda was their name.[33] Ancient writers, such as Josephus and Jerome would associate the Scythians with the peoples of Gog and Magog,[34] but British Israelist etymologists would see in Sacae a name derived from the biblical "Isaac",[24]:294–295 claiming that the appearance of the Scythians where they claimed the Lost Tribes were last documented also supported a connection.[11] Further, British Israelists find support in the superficial resemblance between King Jehu's pointed headdress and that of the captive Saka king seen to the far right on the Behistun Rock.[35] The chain of etymological identification leading from Isaac to the Sacae was continued to the Saxons (interpreted as Sac's sons - the sons of Isaac),[24]:294–295[32]:21[36]:121 who are portrayed as invading England from Denmark, the 'land of the Tribe of Dan'.[11] They saw the same tribal name, left by the wanderers, in the Dardanelles, the Danube, Macedonia, Dunkirk, Dunglow in Ireland, Dundee in Scotland, and London,[37][38][39] and ascribed to this lost tribe the mythical Irish Tuatha Dé Danann.[11]
The 'Tyninghame' copy of the Declaration from 1320 AD
Bede (died 735) had linked the Picts to the Scythians, but British Israelists suggested that he had confused the two tribes of Scotland, and that it was the Scotti (Scots) who were one with the Scoloti (Scyths) of Herodotus.[40] They drew particular support from the derivation of the Scots from the Scythians found in the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath,[24]:262 reflecting a tradition related in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum that the Scots descended from the union of a Scythian exile with Scota, daughter of a Pharaoh, a tale found in some form in several other early-14th-century historical and poetic sources.[41] The Declaration begins:
British-Israel Associations cite the Declaration as evidence for the link between the Scots and the Scythians, and hence the Lost Tribes,[43] as had been proposed by the early British Israelist etymologists.[24]:285–296
Other Celtic invaders would be given an analogous descent. In the Welsh (Cymry) the British Israelists would see a direct connection through the Cimbri to the Cimmerians, the Gimirri of Assyrian annals,[44]:57 a name sometimes also given by the ancient Babylonians to the Scythians and Saka.[45] Perceived similarity between this and the name by which the Assyrian annals referred to Israel, Beth Khumbree, would lead the British Israelists to claim that the Welsh too were members of the Lost Tribes.[44]:57
According to the Anglo-Israelists, these claimed connections would make the British the literal descendants of the Lost Tribes, and thus inheritors of the promises made to the Israelites in the Old Testament.[46]
Some adherents further claim that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David. Citing the Book of Jeremiah, they claim that the daughters of Zedekiah fled to Egypt, then 'the isles' in the sea, which they interpret as Ireland. The descendants of these princesses are said to have crossed to England where they became ancestors of the monarchs.[47] The Stone of Scone, used in coronations of Scottish, English and British monarchs for centuries, is claimed to be none other than the pillow stone used by biblical patriarch, Jacob.[1]
Britain and the United States are the inheritors of Jacob’s birthright
A commonly found British-Israel doctrine is that the Tribe of Ephraim and the Tribe of Manasseh can be identified as modern day Britain and the United States of America.[48][49][50] British-Israel adherents cite numerous theological, semiotics, archaeological, and ethnological resources as proofs.
Part of the foundation of the British-Israel doctrine is the theological claim that particular blessings were bestowed upon three of the tribes of Israel,[51][52][50][24]:317 in that the tribe of Judah was to be the 'chief ruler' e.g. King David, and that Ephraim was to receive the birthright (See Jacob and Esau). Adherents believe that these blessings have continued down through the ages to modern times, with the British Monarchy identified as the continued blessing upon Judah, and both Britain (Ephraim) and the USA (Manasseh) as recipients of the national birthright blessing. They cite passages such as 1 Chron 5:1-2 and Gen 48:19-20 as supporting this.
Relation to Christian Identity
Early British Israelites such as Edward Hine and John Wilson were philo-semites.[53][32]:33 British Israelism itself had several Jewish members and it received support from rabbis throughout the 19th century. Within British politics, the movement supported Benjamin Disraeli, who was descended from Sephardi Jews,[32]:13–19[54] while they also favoured Theodor Herzl in his advocacy of Zionism.[53]
Still, below the surface there had existed an anti-semitic strain such as in the scientific racialism that led Wilson to deny the 'racial purity' of modern Jews, leading to the view more broadly within the movement that modern Jews were 'un-Semitic impostors'.[10]:206–210 Some American adherents of British Israelism would adopt a racialized, strongly anti-Semitic theology that became known as Christian Identity,[55]:xii which has at its core the belief that non-Caucasian people have no souls and therefore cannot be saved.[32]:68 Emerging in the 1920s, Christian Identity began teaching that the Jews are not descended from the tribe of Judah (as British Israelites maintain) at all, but are instead descended from Satan & Lilith or from Edomite-Khazars.[55]:62–97
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as an 'ugly turn':
Another source describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as a paradoxical "remarkable transition" from their philo-semitic origins to antisemitism and racism.[32]:13 Their adoption of the British Israelist belief that the Israelite-derived Anglo-Saxons had been favored by God over the 'impure' modern Jews meant that a reluctantly anti-Semitic Klansman "could now maintain his anti-Semitism and at the same time revere a Bible cleansed of its Jewish taint."[57]
Claims and criticism
British Israelism has been criticized for poor research and scholarship. The Encyclopedia Britannica summarises in 1910 that: "The theory [of British-Israelism] rests on premises which are deemed by scholars - both theological and anthropological - to be utterly unsound".[58] Current scholarship is not consistent with the claims of British Israelism, with scholars drawing attention to its "historical and linguistic inaccuracies" in addition to its links to antisemitism.[1] Hale (2015) refers to "the overwhelming cultural, historical and genetic evidence against it."[59]:181
Research standards
Critics of British Israelism note that the arguments presented by promoters of the teaching are based on unsubstantiated and highly speculative amateur research. Tudor Parfitt, author of The Lost Tribes: The History of a Myth, states that the proof cited by adherents of British Israelism is "of a feeble composition even by the low standards of the genre."[7]:61
Historical linguistics
Some proponents of British Israelism have claimed numerous links in historical linguistics between ancient Hebrew and various European place names and languages.[7]:62 This can be traced to the works of John Wilson in the 19th century. Wilson, who was self-trained, looked for similarities in the sounds of words and argued that many Scottish, British and Irish words stemmed from ancient Hebrew. Wilson's publications inspired the development of British Israel language associations in Europe.[32]:33
Modern scholarly linguistic analysis shows conclusively that the languages of the British Isles (English, Welsh, and Gaelic) belong to the Indo-European language family, while Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family.[60] In 1906, T. R. Lounsbury stated that “no trace of the slightest real connection can be discovered” between English and ancient Hebrew,[61] while Michael Friedman in 1993 wrote of the claims that Hebrew was closely related to Celtic and Anglo-Saxon that "the actual evidence could hardly be any weaker".[32]:33
Others have addressed the specific word relationships proposed. Russell Spittler (1973) says of the "disputable" etymological claims made by the British Israelists that they "have no ample basis in linguistic scholarship and are based on coincidences only."[38] William Ingram (1995) would present arguments made by British Israelism as examples of "tortured etymology".[36]:121
Scriptural interpretation
Adherents of British Israelism cite various scriptures in support of the argument that the "lost" Northern Israelite Tribes migrated through Europe to end up in Britain. Dimont (1933) argues that British Israelists misunderstand and misinterpret the meaning of these scriptures.[62]:5–7
One such case is the distinction that British Israelists make between the “Jews” of the Southern Kingdom and the “Israelites” of the Northern Kingdom. They believe that the Bible consistently distinguishes the two groups. Dimont says that many of these scriptures are misinterpreted because the distinction between “Jews” and “Israelites” was lost over time after the captivities.
British Israelists believe that the Northern Tribes of Israel lost their identity after the captivity in Assyria and that this is reflected in the Bible. Dimont disagrees with this assertion and argues that only higher ranking Israelites were deported from Israel and many Israelites remained.[62]:5 He cites examples after the Assyrian captivity, such as Josiah, King of Judah, who received money from the tribes of “Manasseh, and Ephraim and all the remnant of Israel” (2 Chronicles 34:9), and Hezekiah, who sent invitations not only to Judah, but also to northern Israel for the attendance of a Passover in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30);[62]:6 British Israelites interpret 2 Chronicles 34:9 as referring to "Scythians".
Dimont is also critical of the interpretations of biblical prophecy embraced by the movement, saying, "Texts are torn from their context, and misapplied without the slightest regard to their original meaning."[62]:18
Historical speculation
British Israelism rests on linking different ancient populations. This includes linking the "lost" tribes of Israel with the Scythians, Cimmerians, Celts, and modern Western Europeans such as the British. To support these links, some adherents believe that similarities exist between various cultural aspects of these population groups, and they argue that these links demonstrate the migration of the "lost" Israelites in a westerly direction. Examples given include burial customs, metalwork, clothing, dietary customs, and more.[63] Dimont argues that the customs of the Scythians and the Cimmerians are in contrast with those of the Ancient Israelites,[62]:7–10 and he further dismisses the connection between these populations and the Saxons and Celts, particularly criticing then-current formulations of British Israelism that would interject Semites between the closely related English and Germans.[62]:10–11
The Scythian origin of the Scots has been referred to as mythical.[64][65] Algernon Herbert, writing in 1848, characterized the linguistic derivation of Scots from Scoloti as "strictly impossible",[64] and Merrill (2005) referred to it as false etymology.[40]
Addressing their view on the fate of the exiled tribes, Frank Boys would refer to their volumous output, "All the effort to write these volumes might well have been saved on the premise that 'they were never lost,' which we believe to be the correct one."[38]
Ideology
Parfitt suggests that the idea of British Israelism was inspired by numerous ideological factors, such as the desire for ordinary people to have a glorious ancestral past, pride in the British Empire, and the belief in the "racial superiority of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants",[7]:62 and Aikau characterized the movement as "fundamentally about providing a rationale for Anglo-Saxon superiority."[66] To Kidd, its theology represents a "quasi-heresy", serving to "blunt the universalist message apparent in the New Testament".[10]:204 Its role in fostering anti-semitism in conservative Protestant Christianity has been highlighted,[44]:57 as has a "racial chauvinism" that is "not always covert".[36]:121–122
Separately, the mythology of British Israelism has been cited as fostering "nationalistic bellicosity".[67] To some adherents, British Israelism served as a justification for British colonialism and imperialism, and perhaps even genocide, while also feeding American Manifest Destiny.[10]:212–213
Notable adherents
Poole, WH, Anglo-Israel
• Richard Brothers (1757–1824), early believer and teacher/promoter of this teaching
• John Wilson (1799–1870) published a series of his lectures in a book, Our Israelitish Origin (1840)
• Archbishop William Bennett Bond (1815–1906), Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
• Charles Piazzi Smyth(1819–1900), pyramidologist and Astronomer Royal for Scotland
• William H. Poole (1820–1896), Methodist minister, known for his book Anglo-Israel, or the British Nation the Lost Tribes of Israel (1889)
• Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), founder of Christian Science[68][69]
• Edward Wheeler Bird (1823–1903), Anglo-Indian judge and British-Israel author
• Edward Hine (1825–1891), artist, historian, author of Forty-Seven Identifications of the British Nation with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel
• John Cox Gawler (1830–1882) was a Keeper of the Jewel House and a British Israelite author.
• Elieser Bassin (1840–1898), a Russian-Jewish convert to Christianity
• John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920), Admiral of the Fleet
• Richard Reader Harris (KC) (1847–1909), founder of the Pentecostal League of Prayer movement in London
• John Harden Allen (1847–1930), an American Holiness minister, wrote Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright
• C. A. L. Totten (1851–1908), Professor of Military Tactics at Yale University, wrote countless articles and books advocating British Israelism, including a 26-volume series entitled Our Race
• Charles Fox Parham (1873–1929), American preacher, instrumental in the formation of Pentecostalism
• William Comyns Beaumont (1873–1956), British journalist, author, and lecturer
• William Aberhart (1878–1943), a Social Credit premier of Albertafrom 1935 to 1943
• Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (1883–1981), a patron of the British-Israel-World Federation
• David Davidson (1884–1956), Scottish structural engineer and pyramidologist
• George Jeffreys (1889–1962), Welsh minister and evangelist who founded the Elim Pentecostal Church[17]
• Herbert W. Armstrong (1892–1986), American founder of the Worldwide Church of God
• Boake Carter (1903–1944), British-educated American radio news commentator
• Patience Strong (1907–1990), poet[9]
• Alexander James Ferris, a prolific author on British Israelism.
• Garner Ted Armstrong (1930–2003), Church of God International (United States)
• Robert Bradford (1941–1981), Methodist minister and Ulster Unionist politician
• Alan Campbell (1949-2017), former Pentecostal pastor from Northern Ireland
• Nelson McCausland (born 1951), Democratic Unionist politician[70]
See also
• And did those feet in ancient time, the poem written by William Blake which is popularly known as "Jerusalem"
• Armstrongism
• Destiny Publishers
• Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites
• House of Joseph (LDS Church) [Mormons]
• Supersessionism
• Two House theology
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1. Brackney, William H. Historical Dictionary of Radical Christianity. Scarecrow Press. pp. 61–62. ISBN 9780810873650. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
2. Eller, Jack David (2007). Introducing Anthropology of Religion: Culture to the Ultimate. p. 291. ISBN 1138024910.
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4. Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192802903.
5. Shapiro, Faydra L. (2015). Christian Zionism: Navigating the Jewish-Christian Border. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books. p. 151.
6. Fine, Jonathan (2015). Political Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: From Holy War to Modern Terror. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442247567. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
7. Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The lost tribes of Israel : the history of a myth (1st pbk. ed., 2nd impression. ed.). London: Phoenix. ISBN 978-1842126653.
8. Wilson, J. (March 1968). "British Israelism". The Sociological Review. 16 (1): 41–57. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.1968.tb01291.x.
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23. Encyclopedia Britannica (11th ed.). p. vol. 15, p. 373.
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50. Armstrong, Herbert W. (2007). The United States and Britain in Prophecy. Philadelphia Church of God. ASIN B002ILY91A.
51. Wild, Joseph (1888). The Future of Israel and Judah: Being the Discourses on the Lost Tribes from How and when the World Will End. Nabu Press. p. 108. ISBN 9781287712565.
52. The Standard of Israel and journal of the Anglo-Israel association. 1875. p. 8.
53. Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 372.
54. Life From The Dead, 1875, Vol. III, p. 154.
55. Barkun, Michael (2003). Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9781469611112.
56. "Christian Identity". Anti-Defamation League.
57. Phillips, Michael (2006). White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 95.
58. The Encyclopedia Britannica. 11th edn. 1910. Vol.II, page 31.
59. Hale, Amy (2016). "Reigning with Swords of Meteoric Iron: Archangel Michael and the British New Jerusalem". In Parker, Joanne. The Harp and the Constitution: Myths of Celtic and Gothic Origin. Brill Academic Pub. ISBN 9789004306370.
60. Warf, Barney (2006). "Language, Geography of". Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Thousand Oaks CA: SAGE Publications. pp. 270–275.
61. Lounsbury, T (1906). History of the English Language. pp. 1, 12–13.
62. Dimont, Charles T. (1933). The legend of British-Israel. London: Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge.
63. "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy". UCG. Retrieved 2009-01-14.
64. Todd, James Henthorn (1848). "Editor's Preface". The Irish Version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius. Dublin: Irish Archæological Society. p. xcvii.
65. Klieforth, Alexander Leslie; Munro, Robert John (2004). The Scottish invention of America, Democracy and Human Rights: A History of Liberty and Freedom from the Ancient Celts to the New Millennium. Dallas: University Press of America, Inc. p. 5. ISBN 978-0761827917.
66. Aikau, Hokulani K. (2012). A Chosen People, a Promised Land: Mormonism and Race in Hawai'i. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-8166-7462-6.
67. Pearse, Meic (2007). The Gods of War: Is Religion the Primary cause of Violent Conflict?. InterVarsity Press. pp. 104–105. ISBN 978-0830834907.
68. Eddy, Mary Baker, The United States and Great Britain as Anglo Israel (poem), Read book online, archived from the original on 2011-05-13.
69. Gottschalk, Stephen (1978). Christian Science. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520037182.
70. McDonald, Henry (26 May 2010). "Northern Ireland minister calls on Ulster Museum to promote creationism". The Guardian.
Further reading
• Baron, David (1915), The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes: Anglo-Israelism Examined.
• Darms, Anton (1945). The Delusion of British Israelism: A comprehensive Treatise. Loiseaux Brothers, Bible Truth Depot. ASIN B01NBNXA8N.
• Jowett, George F (1980) [1961]. The Drama of the Lost Disciples. London: Covenant Publishing Company Ltd.ASIN B003VP662W.. A work of theoretical history which covers many relevant themes of Biblical and British connections.
• Kellogg, Howard, British-Israel Identity, Los Angeles: American Prophetic League.
• Kossy, Donna (2001) [1994], "The Anglo-Israelites", Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief (2nd exp. ed.), Los Angeles: Feral House, ISBN 978-0-922915-67-5.
• May, HG (16 September 1943), "The Ten Lost Tribes", Biblical Archaeologist, 16: 55–60.
• McQuaid, Elwood (Dec./Jan. 1977–78), "Who Is a Jew? British-Israelism versus the Bible", Israel My Glory: 35.
• Michell, John (1999). "Jews, Britons and the Lost Tribes of Israel". Eccentric lives and peculiar notions : with 56 illustrations(Paperback/electronic ed.). Kempton, Ill.: Adventures Unlimited Press. ISBN 978-0932813671.
• Reisenauer, Eric Michael (September 2008). "Anti-Jewish Philosemitism: British and Hebrew Affinity and Nineteenth Century British Antisemitism". British Scholar. 1 (1): 79–104. doi:10.3366/brs.2008.0006.
• Wilson, John (1 January 1968). "The Relation between Ideology and Organization in a Small Religious Group: The British Israelites". Review of Religious Research. 10 (1): 51–60. doi:10.2307/3510673.
External links
• Brit Am Israel
• British-Israel basics
• Christian, Messianic, and Jewish research on the Ten Lost Tribes
• Literature on the Lost Tribes of Israel from Destiny Publishers
• Menassah ben Israel, The Hope of Israel (London, 1650, English translation), scanned text online at Oliver's Bookshelf
• Robinson, BA, Anglo-Israelism and British Israelism, Religious Tolerance.
• "Anglo-Israelism", Jewish Encyclopedia.
by Wikipedia
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An 1890 book advocating British Israelism. According to the doctrine, the Lost Ten tribes of Israel found their way to Western Europe and Britain, becoming the ancestors of the British and related peoples.
British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a movement which holds the view that the people of England (or more broadly, the people of United Kingdom) are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel.[1] With roots in the 16th century, [British Israelism was inspired by several 19th-century English writings, notably John Wilson's 1840 Our Israelitish Origin.[2] The movement never had a head organisation or a centralized structure. Various British Israelite organisations were set up throughout the British Empire as well as in America from the 1870s; a number of these organisations are still active today. In America, its ideas gave rise to the Christian Identity movement.
The central tenets of British Israelism have been refuted by evidence from modern archaeological,[3] ethnological,[4] genetic, and linguistic research.[5]
Earliest recorded expressions
At the beginning of 1534, the tolerant German town of Munster in Westphalia embarked on an unusual type of Reformation. Radical Anabaptists and Evangelicals (Lutherans) united against the Catholic Bishop Francis Waldeck, and forced him to leave the city. The latter immediately called in troops and began a siege, but was not able to stop all traffic in and out of the city for a long time. Jan Matthijs, the leader of Munster’s Anabaptists, influenced by Melchior Hoffman’s eschatological views, announced on February 25, 1534 that all adult citizens who refused to be baptized “by faith” would be killed as “godless” and “wicked.”
During the next week, the majority of the Catholics and Lutherans left the city; the “Munsterite kingdom” episode had begun. During this first period, the Catholic churches of the city were sacked; their altars and images were broken, the relics of the saints were desecrated, and the wonderful town library was burned. Thousands of fervent Anabaptists from different places moved to the “holy city, New Jerusalem” (Munster) and occupied the houses of the citizens who had escaped. Some of them were stopped by troops, and others reached the town. On April 4, Jan Matthijs was killed in a fight with the besieging army of Bishop Waldeck. After that, Jan van Leiden, a young and still more radical leader, became the head of Munster. He immediately abolished the city council and proclaimed himself “the new King David” of the Messianic “Israelite” kingdom. In obedience to “the voice of the Lord” that he heard, Jan van Leiden chose “twelve elders of the twelve tribes of Israel,” and renamed the citizens “Israelites.”
In practice, this meant a period of terror and horror in Munster. To resist the “king” was to resist God’s will and divine revelations. Not a few citizens were executed, especially because of their criticism of the new regime. The official list of capital crimes, based on the Old Testament, included blasphemy, disobedience to the ruling powers, seditious orations, disrespect to parents, adultery, gossip, and complaining. In addition to this revolutionary order, Jan van Leiden instituted by his unchallenged power, the principle of common property and polygamy in Munster. According to contemporary accounts, the king himself had a harem with perhaps fifteen wives (including the Queen Divara of Haarlem, Jan Matthijs’ widow), while the chief ideologist of Munster’s kingdom, Bernard Rothmann, probably had nine wives....
But why did the extremism of the Anabaptists take a special form, namely the seizure of a town? Some of the key ideas of Anabaptist eschatology answer to that question. The designation of Munster as the “Holy City New Jerusalem” goes back to Melchior Hoffman’s teaching on the Last Days, when, according to this Anabaptist prophet, spiritual revelations would multiply. Before the second coming of Christ, there would be a new outpouring of the Holy Spirit on the earth, and then the righteous would have many great visions and revelations as in the time of the Old Testament prophets (Snyder, 1995, 205). The idea of the “holy city” was a favorite in the Melchiorite eschatological tradition. The New Jerusalem described in the Book of Revelation would be the only place of refuge for the chosen when the day of God’s wrath and vengeance against the godless came. The New Jerusalem would come down to earth, and believers would hear the message from God’s prophets concerning where to seek the holy city to which they should hurry in order to be saved. Melchior Hoffman himself named Strasbourg as the place of gathering; other prophets mentioned Groningen, Amsterdam, Munster and London (Klaassen, 1986, 29-30). Finally, the opinion of the “Enoch of the End Times” (Jan Matthijs) won out: Munster (where the Anabaptists had political weight at that time), not Strasbourg, was seen as the true New Jerusalem.
-- The Munsterite Tragedy, by Constantine Prokhorov
Identity asserts that disease, addiction, cancer, and sexually transmitted infections (herpes and HIV/AIDS) are spread by human "rodents" via contact with "unclean" persons, such as "race-mixers".[45]:85 The apocrypha, the first book of Enoch, is used to justify these social theories ...[45]:86
-- Christian Identity, by Wikipedia
By now he was calling himself "Joseph Smith The Prophet." In Kirtland, the Saints began practicing primitive communism, according to that passage of the Acts of the Apostles which specifies that the early Christians "had all things in common; and sold their possessions and goods, and parted them to all men as every man had need." The vehicle for this collectivism was called the United Order of Enoch, with center of gravity in Kirtland....
After ousting an opposition faction, he attempted to revivify the United Order of Enoch, his primitive communist administration. On July 8, 1838 in Far West, Smith announced a new revelation urging the Saints to transfer the title of all of their property to the Mormon Church. In return, each man would receive a tract of land for his "everlasting inheritance," with the number of acres increasing with the size of his family. (Brodie, p. 220)
Since many had already been skinned in Kirtland, Joseph asked the Saints to lease their property to the Mormon Church "without consideration or interest" for terms varying between 10 and 99 years. What he had in mind was a kind of theocratic corporate state: "The whole church was then to be divided into four huge 'corporations' -- farmers, mechanics, shopkeepers, and laborers -- which would utilize the land, machinery, and skills of the church members for the common good." (Brodie, p. 221)...
Bennett compared the Saints to the Anabaptists in Germany during the Peasant War of the 1520s. Under the prophet Thomas Muntzer, the Anabaptists tried to destroy all earthly authority and create the kingdom of God on earth. Like the Mormons, they practiced primitive communism. Bennett wrote that the Anabaptists "appeared in the year 1525, in Germany, during the religious excitement and confusion produced by the attempts of Luther and his coadjutors to reform the papacy. They so remarkably resemble the Mormons, that it is quite evident the latter have taken them for models, and have copied their doings with as much accuracy as the spirit of the age would permit. The first leader of the Anabaptists was a low, ignorant fellow, named Thomas Muntzer, who, like Joe Smith, was at the same time their Prophet and military commander. They, precisely again like the Mormons, gave themselves out for 'Latter-day Saints,' and profess to be chosen by the Almighty as instruments to produce the promised millennium reign of Christ on earth. They believed, likewise, that they were especial favorites of heaven in every respect, and that they were, when they wished it, favored with familiar personal intercourse with the deity, and from him constantly received revelations and instructions." (Bennett, p. 304)...
He claimed in 1867 that he had been called by God "to dictate affairs in the building up of his Zion," and that this gave him the totalitarian power to determine everything, "even to the ribbons the women wear." [144] One is reminded of the Soviet planners who wanted to control economic activity "down to the last bolt."
-- Just Too Weird: Bishop Romney and the Mormon Takeover of America: Polygamy, Theocracy, and Subversion, by Webster Griffin Tarpley, Ph.D.
According to Brackney (2012) and Fine (2015), the French Hugenot magistrate M. le Loyer's The Ten Lost Tribes, published in 1590, provided the first expression that "Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, Germanic, and associated cultures"[6] were direct descendants of the ancient Israelites.[1] Anglo-Israelism has also been attributed to Francis Drake and James VI and I,[6] who believed he was the King of Israel.[1] Adriaan van Schrieck (1560-1621), who influenced Henry Spelman (1562-1641) and John Sadler (1615-1674), wrote in the early 17th century about his ideas on the origins of the Celtic and Saxon peoples. In 1649, Sadler published The Rights of the Kingdom, "which argues for an 'Israelite genealogy for the British people'".[6]
Aspects of British Israelism and its influences have also been traced to Richard Brothers' A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times in 1794, John Wilson's Our Israelitish Origin (1840s), and John Pym Yeatman's The Shemetic Origin of the Nations of Western Europe (1879).
Foundation
British Israelism arose in England, then spread to the United States.[7]:52–65 British-Israelists cite various medieval manuscripts to claim an older origin, but British Israelism as a distinct movement appeared in the early 1880s:
Although scattered British Israel societies are known to have existed as early as 1872, there was at first no real move to develop an organization beyond the small groups of believers which had arisen spontaneously. The beginnings of the movement as an identifiable religious force can, therefore, be more accurately placed in the 1880's when the circumstances of the time were particularly propitious for the appearance of a movement so imperialistically-orientated.[8]
In the 1870s George Reynolds published a series of articles in the Millennial Star that promoted British Israelism using arguments and quotes from the prominent B-I writers of the day, including John Wilson, A. B. Grimaldi, and Charles Smyth. In 1883 George Reynolds published his Israelism writings in a book, Are We of Israel? Reynolds became one of the 7 presidents of the 70 in 1890, and the book went through at least 7 editions; the 1916 edition was published as a class text by the Church’s Deseret Sunday School Union; the last edition was published in 1952 by the church-owned Deseret News Press.
-- British Israelism, by Stirling, Common Consent
Heyday, end of the 19th and early 20th centuries
William Pascoe Goard
The extent to which the clergy in Britain became aware of the movement may be gauged from the comment made by Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890) when asked why he had left the Church of England in 1845 to join the Roman Catholic Church. He said that there was a very real danger that the movement "would take over the Church of England."[9]:86
In the later 19th century, Edward Hine, Edward Wheeler Bird, and Herbert Aldersmith developed the British Israelite movement. Hine and Bird would achieve a degree of "doctrinal coherence" by seeing off competing forms of the ideology: In 1878 the Anglo-Ephraim Association of London, which followed Wilson in embracing the broader community of western European Germanic peoples among those they believed were favored by God, would be absorbed into Bird's Metropolitan Anglo-Israel Association, espousing the Anglo-exclusive view promoted by Hine.[10]:209
By the 1890s, the "Anglo-Israel Association" had 300 members; it was based in Britain and founded in 1879 by physician George Moore. Hine later departed for the United States where he promoted the idea.[7]:56
The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia stated that British Israelism's adherents "are said to number 2,000,000 in England and the United States",[11] an unreliable figure if association membership and journal subscription numbers are any guide, though there would have been a broader, unmeasurable sympathy towards the views of the movement among Protestants globally.[10]:209
Between 1899 and 1902, adherents of British Israelism dug up parts of the Hill of Tara in the belief that the Ark of the Covenant was buried there, doing much damage to one of Ireland's most ancient royal and archaeological sites.[12] At the same time, British Israelism became associated with various pseudo-archaeological pyramidology theories, such as the notion that the Pyramid of Khufu contained a prophetic numerology of the British peoples.[13]
In 1914, the thirty-fourth year of its publication, the Anglo-Israel Almanac listed details of a large number of Kingdom Identity Groups operating independently throughout the British Isles and in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the United States of America.
In 1919, the British-Israel-World Federation (BIWF) was founded in London, and Covenant Publishing was founded in 1922. William Pascoe Goard was the first director of the publishing house. During this time, several prominent figures patronized the BIWF organization and its publisher; Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone was Patron-in-chief in pre-World War II days. One of the most notable members was William Massey, then Prime Minister of New Zealand. Due to the expansive nature of the British Empire, believers in British Israelism spread worldwide and the BIWF expanded its organization to the commonwealth. Howard Rand promoted the teaching and became National Commissioner of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America in 1928. He published The Bulletin, later renamed The Messenger of the Covenant. More recently, it has been renamed Destiny.[7]:57
In the 20th century, the main church leaders and authors who preached Israelism and British Israelism were Church Historian and Apostle Joseph Fielding Smith, apostle and First Presidency member Anthony Ivins, Asst. Church Historian Andrew Jenson, and officers of the Utah Genealogical Society such as Archibald Bennett and James Anderson.
In dozens of articles, books, and general conference talks, these men played a significant role in teaching a couple of generations of Saints that they were literal descendants of Israel, with detailed proofs that the not-so-lost ten tribes had settled either Northern Europe or Great Britain taken directly from the prominent British-Israel works. Anderson, in God’s Covenant Race, From Patriarchal Times to the Present, a 1937 book published by the Deseret News Press, even claimed (incorrectly) Mormon credit for starting the British-Israel Movement through the church’s 1830s missionary work in England (154-155). The 1938 and later editions of the book included an appendix with 127 pages of articles copied verbatim from the “Anglo-Israel Federation” magazine Destiny.
-- British Israelism, by Stirling, Common Consent
During its heyday in the early 20th century, British Israelism was also supported by John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher. A prolific author on British Israelism during the later 1930s and 40s was Alexander James Ferris.
Contemporary movement
The BIWF continues to exist, with its main headquarters located in Bishop Auckland in County Durham.[14] It also has chapters in Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa.[15]
In 1968, one source estimated that there were between 3,000 and 5,000 British Israelites in Britain.[16] There, the theology of British Israelism has been taught by a few small Pentecostal churches. The espousal of British Israelism by George Jeffreys, founder of the Elim Pentecostal Church, led to a schism, precipitating his 1939 resignation and the formation of the Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship,[17] which continues to teach the doctrine.[18]
Herbert Armstrong
The teaching of British Israelism was vigorously promoted beginning in the 1960s by Herbert W. Armstrong,[7]:57 founder and former Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God. Armstrong believed that the teaching was a key to understanding biblical prophecy: "One might ask, were not biblical prophecies closed and sealed? Indeed they were—until now! And even now they can be understood only by those who possess the master key to unlock them."[19] Armstrong believed that he was called by God to proclaim the prophecies to the Lost Tribes of Israel before the "end-times".[20] Armstrong's belief caused his separation from the Church of God Seventh Day because of its refusal to adopt the teaching.
Armstrong created his own church, first called the "Radio Church of God" and later renamed the "Worldwide Church of God".[20] He described British Israelism as a "central plank" of his theology.[21]
After Armstrong's death, his former church abandoned its belief in British Israelism and changed its name to Grace Communion International (GCI) in 2009. It offers an explanation for the doctrine's origin and its abandonment by the church at its official website.[20] Church members who disagreed with such doctrinal changes left the Worldwide Church of God/GCI to form offshoot churches. Many of these organizations still teach British Israelism, including the Philadelphia Church of God, the Living Church of God, and the United Church of God. Armstrong promoted other genealogical history theories, such as teaching the belief that modern-day Germany represents ancient Assyria, writing "The Assyrians settled in central Europe, and the Germans, undoubtedly, are, in part, the descendants of the ancient Assyrians.".[22]
Tenets
All Israelites Are Not Jews
Adherents believe the Twelve Tribes of Israel are the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob (who was later named Israel). Jacob elevated the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph) to the status of full tribes in their own right, replacing the tribe of Joseph. A division occurred among the twelve tribes in the days of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, with the three tribes of Judah, Benjamin and partially Levi, forming the Kingdom of Judah, and the remaining ten tribes forming the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria).[23] Thus, they argue, "the great bulk of Israelites are not the Jews".[24]:71 [25][26] W. E. Filmer, writing in 1964, suggested that the fact that some Jews continue to search for the ten lost tribes implies that their representatives are not found among modern, historically multi-ethnic, Jews.[27] A number of British-Israelites quote Josephus to support their claim that the lost tribes of Israel are not the Jews: "the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country; wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude."[28][24]:247[29][30]
British descend from the Lost Tribes
Jehu kneeling at the feet of Shalmaneser III on the Black Obelisk.
The key component of British Israelism is its representation of the migrations of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Adherents suggested that the Scythians, Cimmerians and Goths were representatives of these lost tribes, and progenitors of the later invaders of Britain.[31][32]:26–27 John Wilson would argue for the inclusion of all Western European Gothic peoples among the descendants of the Israelites, but under the later influence of Edward Hine the movement would come to view only the peoples of the British Isles as having this ancestry.[10]:209
Herodotus reported that the ancient Persians called all the Scythians Sacae, but that they called themselves Scoloti. However, a modern comparison among the forms given in other ancient languages suggests Skuda was their name.[33] Ancient writers, such as Josephus and Jerome would associate the Scythians with the peoples of Gog and Magog,[34] but British Israelist etymologists would see in Sacae a name derived from the biblical "Isaac",[24]:294–295 claiming that the appearance of the Scythians where they claimed the Lost Tribes were last documented also supported a connection.[11] Further, British Israelists find support in the superficial resemblance between King Jehu's pointed headdress and that of the captive Saka king seen to the far right on the Behistun Rock.[35] The chain of etymological identification leading from Isaac to the Sacae was continued to the Saxons (interpreted as Sac's sons - the sons of Isaac),[24]:294–295[32]:21[36]:121 who are portrayed as invading England from Denmark, the 'land of the Tribe of Dan'.[11] They saw the same tribal name, left by the wanderers, in the Dardanelles, the Danube, Macedonia, Dunkirk, Dunglow in Ireland, Dundee in Scotland, and London,[37][38][39] and ascribed to this lost tribe the mythical Irish Tuatha Dé Danann.[11]
The 'Tyninghame' copy of the Declaration from 1320 AD
Bede (died 735) had linked the Picts to the Scythians, but British Israelists suggested that he had confused the two tribes of Scotland, and that it was the Scotti (Scots) who were one with the Scoloti (Scyths) of Herodotus.[40] They drew particular support from the derivation of the Scots from the Scythians found in the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath,[24]:262 reflecting a tradition related in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum that the Scots descended from the union of a Scythian exile with Scota, daughter of a Pharaoh, a tale found in some form in several other early-14th-century historical and poetic sources.[41] The Declaration begins:
"Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today."[42]
British-Israel Associations cite the Declaration as evidence for the link between the Scots and the Scythians, and hence the Lost Tribes,[43] as had been proposed by the early British Israelist etymologists.[24]:285–296
Other Celtic invaders would be given an analogous descent. In the Welsh (Cymry) the British Israelists would see a direct connection through the Cimbri to the Cimmerians, the Gimirri of Assyrian annals,[44]:57 a name sometimes also given by the ancient Babylonians to the Scythians and Saka.[45] Perceived similarity between this and the name by which the Assyrian annals referred to Israel, Beth Khumbree, would lead the British Israelists to claim that the Welsh too were members of the Lost Tribes.[44]:57
According to the Anglo-Israelists, these claimed connections would make the British the literal descendants of the Lost Tribes, and thus inheritors of the promises made to the Israelites in the Old Testament.[46]
Some adherents further claim that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David. Citing the Book of Jeremiah, they claim that the daughters of Zedekiah fled to Egypt, then 'the isles' in the sea, which they interpret as Ireland. The descendants of these princesses are said to have crossed to England where they became ancestors of the monarchs.[47] The Stone of Scone, used in coronations of Scottish, English and British monarchs for centuries, is claimed to be none other than the pillow stone used by biblical patriarch, Jacob.[1]
Britain and the United States are the inheritors of Jacob’s birthright
A commonly found British-Israel doctrine is that the Tribe of Ephraim and the Tribe of Manasseh can be identified as modern day Britain and the United States of America.[48][49][50] British-Israel adherents cite numerous theological, semiotics, archaeological, and ethnological resources as proofs.
Part of the foundation of the British-Israel doctrine is the theological claim that particular blessings were bestowed upon three of the tribes of Israel,[51][52][50][24]:317 in that the tribe of Judah was to be the 'chief ruler' e.g. King David, and that Ephraim was to receive the birthright (See Jacob and Esau). Adherents believe that these blessings have continued down through the ages to modern times, with the British Monarchy identified as the continued blessing upon Judah, and both Britain (Ephraim) and the USA (Manasseh) as recipients of the national birthright blessing. They cite passages such as 1 Chron 5:1-2 and Gen 48:19-20 as supporting this.
Relation to Christian Identity
Early British Israelites such as Edward Hine and John Wilson were philo-semites.[53][32]:33 British Israelism itself had several Jewish members and it received support from rabbis throughout the 19th century. Within British politics, the movement supported Benjamin Disraeli, who was descended from Sephardi Jews,[32]:13–19[54] while they also favoured Theodor Herzl in his advocacy of Zionism.[53]
That Chamberlain is a strong Anti-Semite adds to the value of the testimony which he bears to the nobility of the Sephardim, the intensely aristocratic Jews of Spain and Portugal, the descendants of the men whom the Romans, dreading their influence, deported westward. "That is nobility in the fullest sense of the word, genuine nobility of race! Beautiful forms, noble heads, dignity in speech and in deportment."
-- The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, by Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Still, below the surface there had existed an anti-semitic strain such as in the scientific racialism that led Wilson to deny the 'racial purity' of modern Jews, leading to the view more broadly within the movement that modern Jews were 'un-Semitic impostors'.[10]:206–210 Some American adherents of British Israelism would adopt a racialized, strongly anti-Semitic theology that became known as Christian Identity,[55]:xii which has at its core the belief that non-Caucasian people have no souls and therefore cannot be saved.[32]:68 Emerging in the 1920s, Christian Identity began teaching that the Jews are not descended from the tribe of Judah (as British Israelites maintain) at all, but are instead descended from Satan & Lilith or from Edomite-Khazars.[55]:62–97
The Original Semites were the fifth and most important of the seven Atlantean Races, because in them we find the first germ of the corrective quality of Thought. Therefore the Original Semitic Race become the "seed race" for the seven races of the present Aryan Epoch....
Under the guidance of a great Entity, the Original Semitic Race was led eastward from the continent of Atlantis, over Europe, to the great waste in Central Asia which is known as the Gobi Desert. There it prepared them to be the seed of the seven Races of the Aryan Epoch, imbuing them potentially with the qualities to be evolved by their descendants....now his thoughts were to be turned from the visible Leaders, the Lords from Venus, whom he worshiped as messengers from the gods -- to the idea of the true God, the invisible Creator of the System. Man was to learn to worship and obey the commands of a God he could not see....
The Original Semites ... were taught to worship an invisible God and to expect to be rewarded by material benefits, or punished by painful afflictions....
To transmute Cunning into Reason proved no easy task. The earlier changes in man's nature had been easily brought about. He could then be led without difficulty because he had no conscious desire, nor mind to guide him, but by the time of the Original Semites he had become cunning enough to resent limitations of his liberty and to circumvent repeatedly the measures taken to hold him in line. The task of guiding him was all the more difficult because it was necessary he should have some liberty of choice, that he might in time learn self-government. Therefore a law was enacted which decreed immediate rewards for obedience and instant punishment for disregard of its provisions. Thus was man taught, coaxed and coerced into reasoning in a limited manner that "the way of the transgressor is hard," and that he must "fear God," or the Leader who guided him.
Out of all who were chosen as "seed" for the new Race, few remained faithful. Most of them were rebellious and, so far as they were concerned, entirely frustrated the purpose of the Leader by intermarrying with the other Atlantean Races, thus bringing inferior blood into their descendants. That is what is meant in the Bible where the fact is recorded that the sons of God married the daughters of men. For that act of disobedience were they abandoned and "lost." ...
The rebellious ones who were abandoned are the Jews, of whom the great majority are still governed more by the Atlantean faculty of Cunning than by Reason. In them the race-feeling is so strong that they distinguish only two classes of people: Jews and Gentiles. They despise the other nations and are in turn despised by them for their cunning, selfishness and avarice....
Races are but an evanescent feature of evolution. Before the end of the Lemurian Epoch there was a "chosen people," different from the ordinary humanity of that time, who became the ancestors of the Atlantean Races. From the fifth race of those, another "chosen people" was drawn, from which the Aryan Races descended, of which there have been five and will be two more....
[E]xtra care must be taken that as few of the spirits as possible become enmeshed in the fetters of Race. This is exactly what happened to the spirits reborn in the Jewish Race-bodies. They attached themselves so firmly to the Race that they are drawn back into it in successive births. "Once a Jew, always a Jew" is their slogan. They have entirely forgotten their spiritual nature and glory in the material fact of being "Abraham's seed." Therefore they are neither "fish nor flesh." They have no part in the advancing Aryan Race and yet they are beyond those remnants of the Lemurian and Atlantean peoples which are still with us. They have become a people without a country, an anomaly among mankind. ...
The Original Semites were set apart and forbidden to marry into other tribes or peoples, but they were a stiff-necked and hard people, being yet led almost exclusively by desire and cunning, therefore they disobeyed the command. Their Bible records that the sons of God married the daughters of man -- the lower grades of their Atlantean compatriots. They thus frustrated the designs of Jehovah and were cast off, the fruit of such cross-breeding being useless as seed for the coming Race.
These cross-breeds were the progenitors of the present Jews, who now speak of "lost tribes." They know that some of the original number left them and went another way, but they do not know that those were the few who remained true. The story of the ten tribes being lost is a fable. Most of them perished, but the faithful ones survived, and from that faithful remnant have descended the present Aryan Races.
-- The Rosicrucian Cosmo-Conception: An Elementary Treatise Upon Man's Past Evolution, Present Constitution and Future Development, by Max Heindel
In contrast to the new, growing, Anglo-Saxon race, look, for instance, at the Sephardim, the so-called "Spanish Jews"; here we find how a genuine race can by purity keep itself noble for centuries and tens of centuries, but at the same time how very necessary it is to distinguish between the nobly reared portions of a nation and the rest. In England, Holland and Italy there are still genuine Sephardim but very few, since they can scarcely any longer avoid crossing with the Ashkenazim (the so-called "German Jews"). Thus, for example, the Montefiores of the present generation have all without exception married German Jewesses. But every one who has travelled in the East of Europe, where the genuine Sephardim still as far as possible avoid all intercourse with German Jews, for whom they have an almost comical repugnance, will agree with me when I say that it is only when one sees these men and has intercourse with them that one begins to comprehend the significance of Judaism in the history of the word. This is nobility in the fullest sense of the word, genuine nobility of race! Beautiful figures, noble heads, dignity in speech and bearing.
-- The Foundations of the Nineteenth Century, by Houston Stewart Chamberlain
Gobineau's [unlike Chamberlain's] was an honest Antisemitism, it was, like Nietzsche's, an historical Antisemitism: it had nothing whatever to do with modern Antisemitism, that movement born from fear, envy, and impotence ... [ I]t is an upright, a genuine, a gentlemanly Antisemitism, it is the Antisemitism of the aristocrat, who sees his very blood threatened by revolutionary religions.
-- Oscar Levy, from "Breeding Superman: Nietzsche, Race and Eugenics in Edwardian and Interwar Britain", by Dan Stone
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as an 'ugly turn':
Once on American shores, British-Israelism began to evolve. Originally, believers viewed contemporary Jews as descendants of those ancient Israelites who had never been "lost." They might be seen critically but, given their significant role in the British-Israel genealogical scheme, not usually with animosity. By the 1930s, however, in the U.S., a strain of antisemitism started to permeate the movement (though some maintained traditional beliefs—and a small number of traditionalists still exist in the U.S.)[56]
Another source describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as a paradoxical "remarkable transition" from their philo-semitic origins to antisemitism and racism.[32]:13 Their adoption of the British Israelist belief that the Israelite-derived Anglo-Saxons had been favored by God over the 'impure' modern Jews meant that a reluctantly anti-Semitic Klansman "could now maintain his anti-Semitism and at the same time revere a Bible cleansed of its Jewish taint."[57]
Claims and criticism
British Israelism has been criticized for poor research and scholarship. The Encyclopedia Britannica summarises in 1910 that: "The theory [of British-Israelism] rests on premises which are deemed by scholars - both theological and anthropological - to be utterly unsound".[58] Current scholarship is not consistent with the claims of British Israelism, with scholars drawing attention to its "historical and linguistic inaccuracies" in addition to its links to antisemitism.[1] Hale (2015) refers to "the overwhelming cultural, historical and genetic evidence against it."[59]:181
Research standards
Critics of British Israelism note that the arguments presented by promoters of the teaching are based on unsubstantiated and highly speculative amateur research. Tudor Parfitt, author of The Lost Tribes: The History of a Myth, states that the proof cited by adherents of British Israelism is "of a feeble composition even by the low standards of the genre."[7]:61
Historical linguistics
Some proponents of British Israelism have claimed numerous links in historical linguistics between ancient Hebrew and various European place names and languages.[7]:62 This can be traced to the works of John Wilson in the 19th century. Wilson, who was self-trained, looked for similarities in the sounds of words and argued that many Scottish, British and Irish words stemmed from ancient Hebrew. Wilson's publications inspired the development of British Israel language associations in Europe.[32]:33
Modern scholarly linguistic analysis shows conclusively that the languages of the British Isles (English, Welsh, and Gaelic) belong to the Indo-European language family, while Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family.[60] In 1906, T. R. Lounsbury stated that “no trace of the slightest real connection can be discovered” between English and ancient Hebrew,[61] while Michael Friedman in 1993 wrote of the claims that Hebrew was closely related to Celtic and Anglo-Saxon that "the actual evidence could hardly be any weaker".[32]:33
Others have addressed the specific word relationships proposed. Russell Spittler (1973) says of the "disputable" etymological claims made by the British Israelists that they "have no ample basis in linguistic scholarship and are based on coincidences only."[38] William Ingram (1995) would present arguments made by British Israelism as examples of "tortured etymology".[36]:121
Scriptural interpretation
Adherents of British Israelism cite various scriptures in support of the argument that the "lost" Northern Israelite Tribes migrated through Europe to end up in Britain. Dimont (1933) argues that British Israelists misunderstand and misinterpret the meaning of these scriptures.[62]:5–7
One such case is the distinction that British Israelists make between the “Jews” of the Southern Kingdom and the “Israelites” of the Northern Kingdom. They believe that the Bible consistently distinguishes the two groups. Dimont says that many of these scriptures are misinterpreted because the distinction between “Jews” and “Israelites” was lost over time after the captivities.
British Israelists believe that the Northern Tribes of Israel lost their identity after the captivity in Assyria and that this is reflected in the Bible. Dimont disagrees with this assertion and argues that only higher ranking Israelites were deported from Israel and many Israelites remained.[62]:5 He cites examples after the Assyrian captivity, such as Josiah, King of Judah, who received money from the tribes of “Manasseh, and Ephraim and all the remnant of Israel” (2 Chronicles 34:9), and Hezekiah, who sent invitations not only to Judah, but also to northern Israel for the attendance of a Passover in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30);[62]:6 British Israelites interpret 2 Chronicles 34:9 as referring to "Scythians".
Dimont is also critical of the interpretations of biblical prophecy embraced by the movement, saying, "Texts are torn from their context, and misapplied without the slightest regard to their original meaning."[62]:18
Historical speculation
British Israelism rests on linking different ancient populations. This includes linking the "lost" tribes of Israel with the Scythians, Cimmerians, Celts, and modern Western Europeans such as the British. To support these links, some adherents believe that similarities exist between various cultural aspects of these population groups, and they argue that these links demonstrate the migration of the "lost" Israelites in a westerly direction. Examples given include burial customs, metalwork, clothing, dietary customs, and more.[63] Dimont argues that the customs of the Scythians and the Cimmerians are in contrast with those of the Ancient Israelites,[62]:7–10 and he further dismisses the connection between these populations and the Saxons and Celts, particularly criticing then-current formulations of British Israelism that would interject Semites between the closely related English and Germans.[62]:10–11
The Scythian origin of the Scots has been referred to as mythical.[64][65] Algernon Herbert, writing in 1848, characterized the linguistic derivation of Scots from Scoloti as "strictly impossible",[64] and Merrill (2005) referred to it as false etymology.[40]
Addressing their view on the fate of the exiled tribes, Frank Boys would refer to their volumous output, "All the effort to write these volumes might well have been saved on the premise that 'they were never lost,' which we believe to be the correct one."[38]
Ideology
Parfitt suggests that the idea of British Israelism was inspired by numerous ideological factors, such as the desire for ordinary people to have a glorious ancestral past, pride in the British Empire, and the belief in the "racial superiority of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants",[7]:62 and Aikau characterized the movement as "fundamentally about providing a rationale for Anglo-Saxon superiority."[66] To Kidd, its theology represents a "quasi-heresy", serving to "blunt the universalist message apparent in the New Testament".[10]:204 Its role in fostering anti-semitism in conservative Protestant Christianity has been highlighted,[44]:57 as has a "racial chauvinism" that is "not always covert".[36]:121–122
Separately, the mythology of British Israelism has been cited as fostering "nationalistic bellicosity".[67] To some adherents, British Israelism served as a justification for British colonialism and imperialism, and perhaps even genocide, while also feeding American Manifest Destiny.[10]:212–213
Notable adherents
Poole, WH, Anglo-Israel
• Richard Brothers (1757–1824), early believer and teacher/promoter of this teaching
• John Wilson (1799–1870) published a series of his lectures in a book, Our Israelitish Origin (1840)
• Archbishop William Bennett Bond (1815–1906), Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
• Charles Piazzi Smyth(1819–1900), pyramidologist and Astronomer Royal for Scotland
• William H. Poole (1820–1896), Methodist minister, known for his book Anglo-Israel, or the British Nation the Lost Tribes of Israel (1889)
• Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910), founder of Christian Science[68][69]
• Edward Wheeler Bird (1823–1903), Anglo-Indian judge and British-Israel author
• Edward Hine (1825–1891), artist, historian, author of Forty-Seven Identifications of the British Nation with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel
• John Cox Gawler (1830–1882) was a Keeper of the Jewel House and a British Israelite author.
• Elieser Bassin (1840–1898), a Russian-Jewish convert to Christianity
• John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920), Admiral of the Fleet
• Richard Reader Harris (KC) (1847–1909), founder of the Pentecostal League of Prayer movement in London
• John Harden Allen (1847–1930), an American Holiness minister, wrote Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright
• C. A. L. Totten (1851–1908), Professor of Military Tactics at Yale University, wrote countless articles and books advocating British Israelism, including a 26-volume series entitled Our Race
• Charles Fox Parham (1873–1929), American preacher, instrumental in the formation of Pentecostalism
• William Comyns Beaumont (1873–1956), British journalist, author, and lecturer
• William Aberhart (1878–1943), a Social Credit premier of Albertafrom 1935 to 1943
• Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (1883–1981), a patron of the British-Israel-World Federation
• David Davidson (1884–1956), Scottish structural engineer and pyramidologist
• George Jeffreys (1889–1962), Welsh minister and evangelist who founded the Elim Pentecostal Church[17]
• Herbert W. Armstrong (1892–1986), American founder of the Worldwide Church of God
• Boake Carter (1903–1944), British-educated American radio news commentator
• Patience Strong (1907–1990), poet[9]
• Alexander James Ferris, a prolific author on British Israelism.
• Garner Ted Armstrong (1930–2003), Church of God International (United States)
• Robert Bradford (1941–1981), Methodist minister and Ulster Unionist politician
• Alan Campbell (1949-2017), former Pentecostal pastor from Northern Ireland
• Nelson McCausland (born 1951), Democratic Unionist politician[70]
See also
• And did those feet in ancient time, the poem written by William Blake which is popularly known as "Jerusalem"
• Armstrongism
• Destiny Publishers
• Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites
• House of Joseph (LDS Church) [Mormons]
• Supersessionism
• Two House theology
References
1. Brackney, William H. Historical Dictionary of Radical Christianity. Scarecrow Press. pp. 61–62. ISBN 9780810873650. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
2. Eller, Jack David (2007). Introducing Anthropology of Religion: Culture to the Ultimate. p. 291. ISBN 1138024910.
3. Melton, J. Gordon (2005). Encyclopedia of Protestantism. New York: Facts on File, Inc. p. 107. ISBN 0-8160-5456-8.
4. Cross, Frank Leslie; Livingstone, Elizabeth A. The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780192802903.
5. Shapiro, Faydra L. (2015). Christian Zionism: Navigating the Jewish-Christian Border. Eugene, OR: Cascade Books. p. 151.
6. Fine, Jonathan (2015). Political Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: From Holy War to Modern Terror. Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN 9781442247567. Retrieved 9 April 2017.
7. Parfitt, Tudor (2003). The lost tribes of Israel : the history of a myth (1st pbk. ed., 2nd impression. ed.). London: Phoenix. ISBN 978-1842126653.
8. Wilson, J. (March 1968). "British Israelism". The Sociological Review. 16 (1): 41–57. doi:10.1111/j.1467-954X.1968.tb01291.x.
9. Strong, Patience (1986). Someone had to say it. Bachman & Turner, London. ISBN 978-0859741323.
10. Kidd, Colin (2006). The forging of races : race and scripture in the Protestant Atlantic world, 1600-2000 (1. publ. ed.). Cambridge [etc.]: Cambridge university press. ISBN 978-0521797290.
11. Jacobs, Joseph (1901). "Anglo-Israelism". In Singer, Isidore. Jewish Encyclopedia: Anglo-Israelism. New York: Funk and Wagnalls. p. 600. ASIN B01K2CBAKE. ISBN 978-1117918952.
12. Indy media, IE.
13. Moshenska, G. (2008). 'The Bible in Stone': Pyramids, Lost Tribes and Alternative Archaeologies". Public Archaeology. 7(1): 5–16.
14. "Contact Us". The British-Israel-World Federation. The British-Israel-World Federation. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
15. "Other British-Israel Organisations". The British-Israel-World Federation. The British-Israel-World Federation. Retrieved 24 August2015.
16. Wilson, J. (1 January 1968). "British Israelism: A Revitalization Movement in Contemporary Culture" (PDF). Archives de sociologie des religions. 13 (26): 73–80.
17. Anderson, Allan Heaton (2014). An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity (2nd ed.). Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 101–102.
18. Wilson, B. R. (1973). "American Religion: Its Impact on Britain". In den Hollander, A. N. J. Contagious Conflict: The Impact of American Dissent on European Life. Leiden: E. J. Brill. p. 244.
19. Armstrong, Herbert (1967). The United States and Britain in Prophecy. p. 5.
20. Orr, R (1999), How Anglo-Israelism Entered Seventh-day Churches of God: A history of the doctrine from John Wilson to Joseph W. Tkach, retrieved July 19, 2007.
21. Joseph Tkach, "Transformed by Truth: The Worldwide Church of God Rejects the Teachings of Founder Herbert W Armstrong and Embraces Historic Christianity. This is the Inside Story"
22. Armstrong, Herbert (1985). Mystery of the Ages. p. 183.
23. Encyclopedia Britannica (11th ed.). p. vol. 15, p. 373.
24. Allen, J.H. (1917). Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (16 ed.). Haverhill, MA: Destiny Publishers.
25. Harmsworth’s History Volume 3. pp. 1781–1782, 1784–1785.
26. "The DNA of Western European Nations". British Israel Basics. Canadian British-Israel Association.
27. Filmer, W. E. (1964). A Synopsis of the Migrations of Israel. Covenant Books. p. 5. ISBN 0852050615.
28. Josephus, Flavius. Antiquities. p. 11:133.
29. "British-Israel Answers its Critics". The British-Israel Church of God.
30. Poole, William Henry (1879). Anglo-Israel; Or, The British Nation the Lost Tribes of Israel. Bengough Bros. p. 23. ISBN 1330950690.
31. Chryssides, George D. (2012). Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements. Lanham: The Scarecros Press, Inc. p. 65.
32. Quarles, Chester L (2004). Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion. McFarland & co. ISBN 978-0-78641892-3.
33. Strassler, Robert (2009). The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories. New York: Anchor Books. p. 759.
34. van Donzel, Emiri; Schmidt, Andrea (2009). Gog and Magog in Early Eastern Christian and Islamic Sources: Sallam's Quest for Alexander's Wall. Leiden: Brill. pp. 10–13.
35. Capt, E. Raymond (1985), Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets, Artisan, ISBN 0-934666-15-6.
36. Ingram, William L. (1995). "God and Race: British-Israelism and Christian Identity". In Miller, Thomas. America's Alternative Religions. Albany, NY: SUNY Press. pp. 119–126.
37. Kelly, Aidan A. (1990). The Evangelical Christian Anti-Cult Movement: Christian Counter-Cult Literature. New York: Garland Publishing. p. 86.
38. Spittler, Russell P. (1963). Cults and isms: twenty alternatives to evangelical Christianity. Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company. p. 101.
39. Friedman, O. Michael (1993). Origins of the British Israelites: The Lost Tribes. San Francisco: Mellen Research University Press. p. 62.
40. Merrill, A. H. (2005). History and Geography in Late Antiquity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. pp. 284–5.
41. Broun, Dauvit (1999). The Irish Identity of the Kingdom of the Scots in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries. Woodbridge, England: Boydell Press. pp. 78–79,119–122.
42. "Declaration of Arbroath - English Translation". Constitution Society.
43. For example, Davidy, Yair (1996). "Lost Israelite Identity": The Hebraic Ancestry of Celtic Races. Brit-Am. pp. 240–242., Ogwyn, John H. The United States and Britain in Prophecy. pp. 27–28.
44. Pierard, Richard V. (1996). "The Contribution of British-Israelism to anti-Semitism within conservative Protestantism". In Locke, Hubert G.; Littell, Marcia Sachs. Holocaust and church struggle: religion, power and the politics of resistance. University Press of America. pp. 44–68.
45. Gershevych, Ilya (1985). The Cambridge History of Iran, volume 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. p. 94.
46. Katz, David S. (2001). "Israel in America: The Wanderings of Lost Ten Tribes from Mikveigh Yisrael to Timothy McVeigh". In Bernardini, Paolo; Fiering, Norman. The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450 to 1800. New York: Berghahn Books. p. 112.
47. Hexham, Irving (2001). "British Israelism". In Elwell, Walter A. Evangelical Dictionary of Theology (2 ed.). Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Book House Company. p. 187.
48. Ferris, A. J. (1941). Great Britain & The U.S.A. Revealed as Israel The New Order.
49. Glover, Frederick Robert Augustus (1881). England, the Remnant of Judah and the Israel of Ephraim. Rivingtons.
50. Armstrong, Herbert W. (2007). The United States and Britain in Prophecy. Philadelphia Church of God. ASIN B002ILY91A.
51. Wild, Joseph (1888). The Future of Israel and Judah: Being the Discourses on the Lost Tribes from How and when the World Will End. Nabu Press. p. 108. ISBN 9781287712565.
52. The Standard of Israel and journal of the Anglo-Israel association. 1875. p. 8.
53. Gardell, Mattias (2003). Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism. Durham, NC: Duke University Press. p. 372.
54. Life From The Dead, 1875, Vol. III, p. 154.
55. Barkun, Michael (2003). Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. UNC Press Books. ISBN 9781469611112.
56. "Christian Identity". Anti-Defamation League.
57. Phillips, Michael (2006). White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841-2001. Austin: University of Texas Press. p. 95.
58. The Encyclopedia Britannica. 11th edn. 1910. Vol.II, page 31.
59. Hale, Amy (2016). "Reigning with Swords of Meteoric Iron: Archangel Michael and the British New Jerusalem". In Parker, Joanne. The Harp and the Constitution: Myths of Celtic and Gothic Origin. Brill Academic Pub. ISBN 9789004306370.
60. Warf, Barney (2006). "Language, Geography of". Encyclopedia of Human Geography. Thousand Oaks CA: SAGE Publications. pp. 270–275.
61. Lounsbury, T (1906). History of the English Language. pp. 1, 12–13.
62. Dimont, Charles T. (1933). The legend of British-Israel. London: Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge.
63. "The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy". UCG. Retrieved 2009-01-14.
64. Todd, James Henthorn (1848). "Editor's Preface". The Irish Version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius. Dublin: Irish Archæological Society. p. xcvii.
65. Klieforth, Alexander Leslie; Munro, Robert John (2004). The Scottish invention of America, Democracy and Human Rights: A History of Liberty and Freedom from the Ancient Celts to the New Millennium. Dallas: University Press of America, Inc. p. 5. ISBN 978-0761827917.
66. Aikau, Hokulani K. (2012). A Chosen People, a Promised Land: Mormonism and Race in Hawai'i. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 38. ISBN 978-0-8166-7462-6.
67. Pearse, Meic (2007). The Gods of War: Is Religion the Primary cause of Violent Conflict?. InterVarsity Press. pp. 104–105. ISBN 978-0830834907.
68. Eddy, Mary Baker, The United States and Great Britain as Anglo Israel (poem), Read book online, archived from the original on 2011-05-13.
69. Gottschalk, Stephen (1978). Christian Science. University of California Press. ISBN 9780520037182.
70. McDonald, Henry (26 May 2010). "Northern Ireland minister calls on Ulster Museum to promote creationism". The Guardian.
Further reading
• Baron, David (1915), The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes: Anglo-Israelism Examined.
• Darms, Anton (1945). The Delusion of British Israelism: A comprehensive Treatise. Loiseaux Brothers, Bible Truth Depot. ASIN B01NBNXA8N.
• Jowett, George F (1980) [1961]. The Drama of the Lost Disciples. London: Covenant Publishing Company Ltd.ASIN B003VP662W.. A work of theoretical history which covers many relevant themes of Biblical and British connections.
• Kellogg, Howard, British-Israel Identity, Los Angeles: American Prophetic League.
• Kossy, Donna (2001) [1994], "The Anglo-Israelites", Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief (2nd exp. ed.), Los Angeles: Feral House, ISBN 978-0-922915-67-5.
• May, HG (16 September 1943), "The Ten Lost Tribes", Biblical Archaeologist, 16: 55–60.
• McQuaid, Elwood (Dec./Jan. 1977–78), "Who Is a Jew? British-Israelism versus the Bible", Israel My Glory: 35.
• Michell, John (1999). "Jews, Britons and the Lost Tribes of Israel". Eccentric lives and peculiar notions : with 56 illustrations(Paperback/electronic ed.). Kempton, Ill.: Adventures Unlimited Press. ISBN 978-0932813671.
• Reisenauer, Eric Michael (September 2008). "Anti-Jewish Philosemitism: British and Hebrew Affinity and Nineteenth Century British Antisemitism". British Scholar. 1 (1): 79–104. doi:10.3366/brs.2008.0006.
• Wilson, John (1 January 1968). "The Relation between Ideology and Organization in a Small Religious Group: The British Israelites". Review of Religious Research. 10 (1): 51–60. doi:10.2307/3510673.
External links
• Brit Am Israel
• British-Israel basics
• Christian, Messianic, and Jewish research on the Ten Lost Tribes
• Literature on the Lost Tribes of Israel from Destiny Publishers
• Menassah ben Israel, The Hope of Israel (London, 1650, English translation), scanned text online at Oliver's Bookshelf
• Robinson, BA, Anglo-Israelism and British Israelism, Religious Tolerance.
• "Anglo-Israelism", Jewish Encyclopedia.