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Check this out! This is a very interesting article I found in the New Dawn Magazine. Its a long read, but lots of neat little tidbits to think about.
White Masters in the deserts of China?
The discovery of Caucasoid mummies in China shows that East and West might have been meeting since the Bronze Age. Do they validate some of the ancient legends?
Philip Coppens
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Cherchen Man mummy
Christopher Columbus is said to have been the first who broke down the barrier that was the Atlantic Ocean, that body of water that separated two continents. But no such barriers – whether natural or ideological – existed between Europe and the East – one could travel over land. Nevertheless, the discovery of Caucasoid mummies has provided not only indisputable evidence that Europeans travelled very far East, it has also created controversy. For in the end, it seems that everything in archaeology is also political.
At the beginning of the 20th century, the likes of Sven Hedin, Albert von Le Coq and Sir Aurel Stein travelled to the East in search of ancient civilisations, hoping to reach the then forbidden city of Lhasa, the capital of Tibet, and its ruler, the Dalai Lama. On their travels to this almost mythical region, they stumbled upon many ancient ruins and on occasion spoke about the discoveries of desiccated bodies.
In 1907, the Russian explorer Pyotr Kuzmich Koslov (1863-1935) actually reached Lhasa and met the Dalai Lama. Afterwards, he organised further expeditions and excavated Khara Khoto. Khara Khoto was a Tangut city founded in 1032 that had been ruined by the Ming Chinese in 1372. Koslov unearthed a tomb fifty feet below the ruins and found the body of a woman, apparently a queen, accompanied by various sceptres, wrought in gold and other metals. Though Koslov took numerous photographs that were published in “American Weekly”, he was not allowed to disturb or remove anything from the tomb, which was sealed again. His last expedition to Mongolia and Tibet occurred from 1923 to 1926 and resulted in the discovery of Xiongnu royal burials at Noin-Ula.
With news of such discoveries being reported back in the West, it was clear that there was a wide interest in the mysteries of the East, which even today remains largely beyond the reach of most tourists. And it were in these remote regions that James Churchward (1851-1936) felt he had found evidence of a lost civilisation: Mu. For Churchward, Mu was a lost civilisation and continent in the East, which he claimed was 50,000 years old and was the home of 64 million inhabitants. He claimed to have found evidence of this civilisation while speaking to a number of Indian men. Though Mu stretched from Micronesia in the West to Easter Island and Hawaii in the East in the Pacific Ocean, knowledge – if not descendents – of Mankind’s original homeland was also meant to be found in India and surrounding regions. He believed that the primary colony of Mu was the Great Uighur Empire and that Khara Khoto was its ancient capital and that the civilisation was at its height about 15,000 BC. Check any encyclopaedia, and you will find that Churchward “borrowed” that name from the historical Uighur, who today live primarily in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region of China.
Churchward’s Mu was of course not too different from Blavatsky’s Lemuria and it was the American Theosophist Gottfried de Purucker (1874-1942) who published his thoughts upon Blavatsky’s doctrine in 1937. He argued that this region, this “enormous tract of country, most of it desert waste”, was once fertile and lush with cities and that it was here where one would “find the seat from which we came as a racial stock”, which was of course the Fifth Root Race. Blavatsky described the fifth root race with the following words: “The Aryan races, for instance, now varying from dark brown, almost black, red-brown-yellow, down to the whitest creamy colour, are yet all of one and the same stock – the Fifth Root-Race – and spring from one single progenitor, [...] who is said to have lived over 18,000,000 years ago, and also 850,000 years ago – at the time of the sinking of the last remnants of the great continent of Atlantis.”
Later, the French author Robert Charroux (1909-1978) wrote about his theory that the Gobi Desert had Magi that surpassed even those that were resident in Tibet. Stories go that these cities had ocean ports, and Edgar Cayce even argued that elevators would one day be discovered in a lost city here. Others have seen this region as the homeland of those ancient UFOs, the vimanas.
But whereas it is the Gobi Desert that might still hold some secrets, it is the Taklamakan Desert that has provided us with revelations. The Taklamakan Desert is a large sandy desert, part of the Tarim Basin, a region roughly between Tibet and Mongolia, in Western China, and crossed at its northern and southern edge by the Silk Road. Conditions are so harsh that travellers avoided the desert as much as possible, but in millennia gone by, the region was populated and habitable – very much like de Purucker argued.
In recent decades, however, the desert has once again become an oasis… for archaeologists and anomalists, as it is here that hundreds of Caucasoid mummies have been found. The most notable mummies are the tall, red-haired “Cherchen man” (dated to ca. 1000 BC), the “Hami Mummy” (c. 1400800 BC) and the “Witches of Subeshi” (4th or 3rd century BC), who received their name because of the tall pointed hats they wore. However, the oldest mummy of all, is the “Loulan Beauty” (1800 BC).
The Tarim Basin
Though not the oldest, one of the most famous mummies of the Taklamakan Desert is that of “Cherchen Man”. This European’s body was placed in a poplar-wood box, lowered into narrow shaft grave and left for eternity. It were the climatic circumstances that make this region so inhospitable today that preserved these corpses over the millennia, turning them into mummies.
Cherchen Man is six feet 6 feet tall, was around fifty years old at the time of his death, has reddish brown hair, a long nose, full lips and a ginger beard. He was buried in a red twill tunic and tartan leggings and his body is far better preserved than the notorious Egyptian mummies everyone stumbles across everywhere. Most interestingly, Cherchen Man too was buried with no less than ten hats, one which looks Roman, another looking like a beret, a cap, and even a conical “witch” hat – which is therefore something of a common feature of several of these mummies. His body dates back to 1000 BC and DNA analysis has shown that he was a Celt.
Next to him were found the mummies of three women and a baby. One of the women is dressed in a red gown, wearing tall boots, her hair brushed and braided. She has a red yarn through her ear lobes and – like the man – has several tattoos on her face. All mummies were painted with a yellow substance, believed to help in the preservation of the body. The baby, probably 3-4 months old, is wrapped in brown blankets, tied with blue and red cord, with a blue stone placed on each eye.
The oldest of the mummies is the 4000 year old “Loulan Beauty”, a mummy that was discovered in 1980, in the ancient Chinese garrison town that was discovered by Hedin on March 28, 1900. The town was located near the Lop Nor marshes, on the north-eastern edge of the Lop Desert. Hedin was able to recover many manuscripts, which stated that the culture was wiped out by a large seismic occurrence, which drastically changed the climate of the area and turned it into a desert it remains today. But that was several millennia after the Loulan Beauty lived. This female mummy has long, fair hair. She was 45 when she died and was buried with a basket of food, containing domesticated wheat, combs and a feather. No doubt, these nourishments were for the afterlife.
At 1800 BC, the Beauty is the oldest mummy found in the Tarim Basin. But she is not a lone European to have lived here in those days: the cemetery at Yanbulaq contained no less than 29 mummies, which date from 1800-500 BC, 21 of which are Caucasoid. Best preserved of all the corpses is “Yingpan Man”, who is also known as “the Handsome Man”, a two metres tall, 2,000 year old Caucasian mummy that was discovered in 1995. His face was blond and bearded and was covered with a gold foil death mask, which is a Greek tradition; he also wore an elaborate golden embroidered red and maroon wool garments with images of fighting Greeks or Romans. His head rests on a pillow in the shape of a crowing cockerel.
Elsewhere in the Tarim Basin, hundreds of other mummies have been found, all of which are known to have been of European origin. Some of the mummies are thought to have possibly been sacrificial victims. A young woman was found partially dismembered, her eyes gouged out. A baby boy had apparently been buried alive. But the question is whether the latter was sacrificial, or whether he was “merely” buried with his dead mother.
However intriguing the local setting might be, the interest in these mummies exists largely because they are out of place remains. Not only is there the DNA evidence that shows that these people were from Europe, analyses such as the weave of the cloth have also shown that it was identical to those found on the bodies of salt miners in Austria, dating from 1300 BC. The wooden combs buried in Asia are also identical to those found in Celtic countries. So are the stone structures on top of their burial sites – similar to the dolmens of Western Europe.
But despite such certainties, archaeologists and historians have been unable to fill in the “soft evidence” – which are nevertheless the most important questions: how did they go to China, why did they go to China?
Yingpan mummy
That we know about these European visitors to China at all is largely thanks to the work of Dr. Victor Mair, a professor of Chinese Studies at the University of Pennsylvania. His fascination began when he toured the Urumchi Museum, where some of these mummies are on display. He then invited Dr. Elizabeth W. Barber of Occidental College (California) to visit the mummies and give her expert opinion on the weaving that was on display.
“From around 1800BC, the earliest mummies in the Tarim Basin were exclusively Caucausoid, or Europoid,” says Mair. East Asian migrants arrived in the eastern portions of the Tarim Basin about 3,000 years ago, while the Uighur peoples arrived after the collapse of the Orkon Uighur Kingdom, based in modern-day Mongolia, around the year 842. In short, Mair leaves little doubt that we are confronted with a “lost civilisation”, existing of a group of European settlers in a region millennia before the history of this region started to be written.
The important question is whether we are in the same bailiwick as Churchward, who saw this region as being of central importance. That answer, it seems, is negative. Mair believes that early Europeans headed in all directions, some travelling west, into Western Europe, but others heading east, eventually ending up in Xinjiang.
His opinions tally with those of textile expert Barber, who in her book “The Mummies of Urumchi” examined the tartan-style cloth and concluded that the garments can be traced back to Anatolia and the Caucasus, the steppe area north of the Black Sea. She argues this group of people divided, starting in the Caucasus and then splitting, one group going west and another east – conform to Mair’s opinion.
So, what do we know about these people? We know that they were horsemen and herders, using chariots and may have invented the stirrup. We know that they had arrived in this region by 1800 BC. That around 1200 BC, the Indo-Europeans were joined by another wave of immigrants, from what is now Iran (the so-called Saka branch).
In fact, the Saka nomads had high-pointed hats – like the ones found next to Cherchen Man – as displayed on the Persepolis reliefs in southern Iran. A bronze statue found in the Altai Mountains from the 5th century BC wore a similar hat. Most important is the fact that the statue had Caucasoid features, and showed similarities in dress to Cherchen Man. It is therefore clear that apart from “hard” DNA evidence, there is much other incontrovertible evidence that makes this European presence in China a hard fact. The discovery of these mummies indeed rewrote history – whether some like that or not.
The current conclusion drawn about these mummies and the waves of settlements is therefore that it was only until several centuries BC that the eastward movement of the Western race to Xinjiang was more rapid than the western movement of Mongoloid people and that the region became “Chinese”.
When T.D. Forsyth reported on his 1875 mission to the region, he stated that these people were still tall, fair-faced, with light eyes and sandy whiskers and hair. He added that they “only require to be put into coat and trousers to pass, so far as outward appearance goes, for the fairest Englishman.” Two millennia before, Pliny the Elder in “Taprobane” wrote about the Seres, which were described to the Roman Emperor Claudius by an embassy from Taprobane (Ceylon). He said that they “exceeded the ordinary human height, had flaxen hair, and blue eyes”, a description which comes close to those people living in the Tarim Basin. Pliny the Elder also said they had an “uncouth sort of noise by way of talking, having no language of their own for the purpose of communicating their thoughts”.
Though no Tocharian texts were found in relation to the Tarim Mummies, it is now largely accepted that these European emigrants spoke a language known as Tocharian (the Chinese called them Yuezhi), which has proven to be close to the languages of western Europe. Today’s Uighur are therefore known to be more than half Caucasian and travellers through the region remain often stunned as to how European the locals look.
Loulan Beauty
If one were to find a Bronze Age seafarer in America, it would obviously create worldwide controversy. The discovery of Europeans on Chinese soil has also had major political implications. The region is rife with separatist movements and the government fears that promoting a truly unique archaeological find might result in serious social and political unrest. And that is one of the main raisons why the Terracotta Warriors are far more famous than the Tarim mummies!
Social unrest is the greatest between the Uighur and the Han Chinese. In their drive to lay claim to the region, the “Loulan Beauty” was even raised to the status of racial icon by the Uighur, who call her “mother of the nation” – without little supporting evidence.
The Chinese historian Ji Xianlin, writing a preface to “Ancient Corpses of Xinjiang” by Wang Binghua, says that China “supported and admired” research by foreign experts into the mummies – i.e. Mair and Barber. “However, within China a small group of ethnic separatists have taken advantage of this opportunity to stir up trouble and are acting like buffoons. Some of them have even styled themselves the descendants of these ancient ‘white people’ with the aim of dividing the motherland. But these perverse acts will not succeed,” Ji wrote.
In comparing the DNA of the mummies to that of modern day Uighur, Mair’s team found some genetic similarities with the mummies, but “no direct links”. The Han Chinese meanwhile consider themselves to be occupiers of the centre of the world. Everyone else were savages, so the discovery of Europeans on their territory, the remains furthermore older than anything the Han Chinese could point at in the archaeological record, meant that some mental gymnastics had to be performed to preserve their cherished self-opinion. But the fact of the matter is that neither the Uighur nor the Han Chinese seem to be directly related to these ancient settlers – and that both are but modern additions to a region that was populated millennia earlier. In short, the discoveries have made it hard on both groups to continue to ratify their claim to the region.
In fact, what the discoveries suggests is that both immigrants and modern local Chinese are a mixture of races. “While it is clear that the early inhabitants of the Tarim Basin were primarily Caucasoids,” Mair has written, “it is equally clear that they did not all belong to a single homogeneous group. Rather, they represent a variety of peoples who seem to have connections with many far-flung parts of the Eurasian land mass for more than two millennia.” He adds: “Modern DNA and ancient DNA show that Uighurs, Kazaks, Kyrgyzs, the peoples of central Asia are all mixed Caucasian and East Asian. The modern and ancient DNA tell the same story.” It underlines, once again, that so many cultures, whether ancient or modern, are genetically a mixture of so many races, contrary to so many political ideas of “pure genes”.
One of the Cherchen mummies
What brought these Europeans here? It is known that the southern Taklamakan Desert was an area where China’s Silk Road once flourished and prosperous cities were built. In Khotan, two large rivers were channelled, creating an oasis that grew wheat, rice, corn, cotton, grapes, peaches, and melons, while sheep were grazing. It is clear that life must have been good in those days, and that these Europeans had everything they cherished. However, because of gradual climate change, many such cities were abandoned and subsequently eaten by the dunes.
The Silk Road was an ancient caravan route that connected China to the West. The European mummies in this part of the world might suggest that this trade route is indeed older than previously thought – very much like transoceanic contact might be several millennia older than Columbus’ first voyage to America.
The Silk Road was not just a conduit for silk; many other products were transported and traded and the routes were not merely travelled by merchants, but anyone wanting to go East – or West. The routes should therefore be seen as the ancient “highways” between China and the Mediterranean Sea.
Trading between the East and West occurred from the dawn of civilisation – if not before. Between 6000 and 4000 BC, people in the Sahara were already importing domesticated animals from Asia. By 3000 BC, lapis lazuli – the only known source of which was Badakshan, in northeastern Afghanistan – was found in Egypt. Most specifically, the supply of Tarim Basin jade to China from ancient times is well established. Nephrite jade from mines in the region of Yarkand and Khotan – not too far from the lapis lazuli mines of Badakshan – was found in China. Xinru Liu writes: “It is well known that ancient Chinese rulers had a strong attachment to jade. All of the jade items excavated from the tomb of Fuhao of the Shang dynasty, more than 750 pieces, were from Khotan in modern Xinjiang. As early as the mid-first millennium [BC] the Yuezhi engaged in the jade trade, of which the major consumers were the rulers of agricultural China.”
The Tarim Mummies have destroyed the idea that the West and the East developed independently and that they only relatively recently made contact. The discovery of these mummies has driven the final nail in this coffin – almost literally. Science, it is clear, has shown a clear link between these mummies and Celtic inhabitants of Europe. The question, however, is whether Europeans went east – or a Caucasoid group of people, perhaps native to the Tarim Basin, went to Europe.
Turning the path of travel in the opposite direction would offer some confirmation for the speculation that this region was indeed a “homeland” to our early ancestors and that they spread to other regions – specifically Europe – from here out.
With so little known about Bronze Age Celts both in Europe and Asia, no firm conclusions can be drawn either way – and perhaps never will. However, the Book of Manu (also known as the Laws of Manu), one of the supplementary arms of the Vedas, states that the “Uighers had settlements on the northern and eastern shores of the Caspian Sea” and German anthropologist Max Muller (1823-1900) wrote that “the first Caucasians were a small company from the mountains of Central Asia”. These conclusions are obviously “old” – but should they therefore be erroneous? Written more than a century before the Tarim Mummies were discovered, they actually did speak of the presence of Caucasians in China. And if they got that right, is it possible they got other things right too?
One final question that therefore needs to be added to the long list of questions about these mummies is in which direction the Caucasians travelled. Could the Caucasian mummies of the Taklamakan Desert be native, rather than European visitors? Only the future, and future discoveries, is likely to tell. But it is at least an undeniable fact that there was contact between Bronze Age Europeans and China, along the Silk Road. The evidence is for all to see in the Urumchi Museum.
This article appeared in New Dawn, Volume 10, Number 12 (January - February 2009).
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
The Basis of Their Right to Reclaim?
The Basis of Their Right to Reclaim?
In a Hispanic Studies textbook, "The Mexican American Heritage" by East Los Angeles high school teacher Carlos Jimenez, Aztlan is depicted in a redrawn map of Mexico and the United States; with Mexico of course having one third more territory. In the book Jimenez states, "Latinos are now realizing that the powers to control Aztlan may once again be in their hands." The textbook teaches high school students that Mexico is going to regain the states of Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and parts of Washington - all formerly part of Aztlan. The idea of Aztlan is gaining swift momentum through the push of organizations such as MEChA. The logo of the MEChA also known as the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan is an eagle holding a stick of dynamite. The preamble to their National Constitution states:
"Chicana students of Aztlan must take upon themselves the responsibilities to promote Chicansmo within the community, politicizing our Raza with an emphasis on indigenous consciousness to the struggle for self-determination of the Chicano people for the purpose of liberating Aztlan." The New York University Press states: "Aztlan was the mythical place of origin in some Aztec traditions, a lake with an island in the middle that was replicated when the wandering Mexican settled at Tenochittlan."
Dan Kincaid with the Arizona Republic says of Aztlan. "Aztlan was the legendary original home of the Aztec Indians…Aztlan, which means literally ‘Place of the Herons’ in their Nahuatl language…The Aztecs believed their Ancestors migrated in stages from Aztlan, reaching central Mexico about A.D. 1200 An Aztec subgroup, the Tenochas founded their capital, Tenochtitlan, in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco after seeing an eagle perched on a cactus and devouring a rattlesnake."
Another Theory on Aztlan
There is, however, another theory on Aztlan that receives no press whatsoever because if true it would debunk the Chicano’s alleged right to retake what they believe is rightfully theirs. Despite academia’s modern claim that the white race are the collective descendents of European barbarians and cro-magnum cave dwellers nothing can be more further from the truth. Volumes have been written which trace the migrations of the white race. Archeologists who have not been led astray by a presupposed idea of the white races’ barbarian beginnings; linguists, anthropologists, and historians can attest to the ability of the white race to civilize each land upon which they set foot. From the cradle of civilization in Mesopotamia, to Egypt, the Orient, the Pacific Isles, and India the creative and stabilizing force of the white race can be found in the ancient writings, scientific discoveries, relics, and ruins.
The same can be said for North and South America. But as a non-white people are now claiming to have originated the once great South American empires and the pyramids, temples, and highways of Mexico and thus believe the white man must turn it over to them we will briefly digress to show the absurdity that these people created any great empire, but are rather the result of another integration nightmare and have no sacred right to land that the brave men at the Alamo fought and died for!
Note: The following discussion of the true builders of Aztlan must rest upon the historically accurate truth that the white race, the Hebrews, the Israelites and the descendents of Shem (modern Jews are not truly Semitic) are the same. For more info on this subject go to www.christianrevivalcenter.net
On the right bank of the Rio Puercos, some thirty miles southwest of Albuquerque, in Valencia County, New Mexico stands a volcanic mesa. The people in the area call it "Hidden Mountain" or "Mystery Mountain". The Indians of the region call it by its ancient title, "Cerro Los Moqujino" meaning Cliff of the Strange Writings.
Atop these natural volcanic fortifications is found the ancient ruins of a camp laid out in military fashion in the same manner of the ancient Israelites. Leading to the camp along a winding trail is a wall of native, igneous basalt. On its face is chiseled words from long ago - ancient Hebrew - which was translated by the late Dr. Robert Pfeiffer of Harvard in 1948. It is the Ten Commandments. Another inscription reads, "Yahweh is our Mighty One". The evidence shows our people to have been here thousands of years ago.
Quoting from "Discovery of Ancient America" - "As the world slipped into the Dark Ages following the decline of the Roman Empire, which itself had no contact with the New World, the American continents were forgotten by all except a few living in the outlying regions of the inhabited Old World, such as Scandinavia. For the rest of the world it was not rediscovered until the Columbus’ famous journey centuries later…The evidence of well-established contacts between the Old and New Worlds prior to the 2nd century B.C. are numerous and extensive. For example, great numbers of sculptures depicting human figures have been found throughout the Americas, especially in Central and South America…’all kinds of white people,’ especially so- called Semitic types with and without beards (Wuthenau, The Art of Terra Cotta Pottery). Even at later periods, there were many of those commonly called white men. For instance, Charnay ("North American Review, Oct. 1881) writes, ‘Physically, Veytia describes the Toltec as a man of tall stature, white, and bearded.’.."
Inscriptions have been found on a rock at Mount Hope, Rhode Island, the Rio Grande Cliffs in Texas, Guenca Ecuador, Davenport Iowa, Batcreek Tennessee, Moundsville West Virginia, central West Virginia, and Newark Ohio.
In ancient times a mysterious, tall, white-skinned bearded people known as "Tolteca" migrated onto the central highlands of what is now called Mexico. They brought with them the arts of civilization including metalworking, agriculture, architecture, pyramid building, astrology, the complex arrangement of time adapted by the Aztecs; and in Professor Prescott’s words, "were the true fountains of the civilization which distinguished this part of the continent in later times. They established their capital at Tula as in Tulan." In addition, they brought the Hebrew language. They called the area to the north, from which they had migrated "Aztlan," and the central highland section of Mexico "Anuhuac," both appropriate Hebrew words. Again, I quote from "Discovery of Ancient America": "Their ancient homeland, on the other side of the sea was known as Tulan, or Tollan, Tulan in Hebrew means eminence. Az-Tulan means ‘mighty eminence’ or Oz-Tulan means ‘eminence of old.’ These epithets are indeed appropriate for a tribe who viewed themselves as the ‘Chosen People’ ….."
In fact, the very phrase "mound builders" should be more correctly phrased "mound people". In the Hebrew language, Tel is a mound or hill. Techa translates as a camp or people….thus Teltecha or Toltecha. The Israelites are known for their mound building and were instructed to build an alter to Yahweh upon reaching each new destination. As the migrations of the Israelites are followed throughout from the Middle East through the Caucsus Mountains and unto the farthest outposts of Europe - the mounds and remnants of their travels can be found. From the northern most reaches of Europe across to the far eastern areas of North America the evidence continues.
The Toltecas referred to the regions of the great north as Quichee. Quiche was used in the Celtic-Algonquian regions of the north in the form Quechee. It is derived from the Hebrew word QTsH meaning frontier, outmost coast, end, uttermost part, and shore. It is interesting to note the Indian name for Lake Superior is Quechee-Gumee.
The alphabet of the ancient Celts/Irish is Ogam, which is a series of vertical lines, in distinct groups somewhat resembling a fence. Ogam in Hebrew in fact means "reed fence." The Ogam alphabet has been found throughout South America.
Quichee is also used in the Mayan, "Titulos" to describe the Guatemalan Yucatan region to the extent that "Quichean civilization" is equivalent to "Mayan civilization"; meaning frontier civilization". The very name for Mexico, "Messi-koh" itself is derived from the Hebrew word for a "future King" and was named for a famous Tolteca chieftain.
Vikings and Aztlan
In William Prescott’s "History of the Conquest of Mexico and Peru" he says, "Quetzalquatl" - he was the white man, wearing a long beard, who came from the east; and who, after presiding over the golden age of Anahuac, disappeared as mysteriously as he had come, on the great Atlantic Ocean. As he promised to return at some future day, his reappearance was looked for with confidence by each succeeding generation."
The bearded, white-skinned Toteca "god" of the Maya, who was later passed down to the Aztecas, was according to legend a man-god who arrived in Quiche (Aztlan-Guatemala) in a magnificent boat. In the religious legend, he is said to be a benevolent god, and was symbolized in architecture by a feathered serpent and is called Quetzal-coatl. By the Maya he was called Votan, Ku-Kul-Kan, and Dan.
Votan, was the name of the 3rd century Scandinavian emperor. The sacred land of the Norseman was the land Thule. In Brewers Classical dictionary of Phrase and Fable under Votan it says, "Chief god of the Scandinavians, his real name was Sigge son of Frizdulph but he assumed the name (title) Odin (Votan) when he left the Tanais (Asia) because he had been a priest (Khan) of Odin - the supreme god of the Scandinavians." Odin is from the Hebrew word Adon which means Lord. Brewer continues, "Father of Odin was Bor, (Odin 1) and his brothers are Vile and Ve, his wife Frigga. Sons Thor and Balder."
In about 330 B.C., Pytheas sailed northward to a land in the Artic circle generally considered to have been Iceland. He called the land Thule. Quetzalcoatl-Ku-Kul-Kan was a blond, bearded, white skinned diety of the Tolteca-Mayateca. His secondary names were Votan and Dan
Finally, I quote again from the "Discovery of Ancient America":
"This Norse Votan who lived in the third century aligns in time with the Tolteca Votan, who was considered ancient at the time of the Spanish conquest. This Tolteca Votan ruled for a time in the central highlands of the Guatemala, then returned "alive to his people" (in Mexico). Although he promised to return, there is no record of his reappearance in Meso-America. (South America)
"If Votan of the Tolteca is Votan of the Norse, it would explain why the Aztecs would refer to Hernando Cortez and his men as Tules (gods) since they thought the conqueror was Quetzal-coatl (Votan) with his followers returning as promised. The helmet worn by one of the Spaniards raised considerable interest among the Aztec caciques (chieftains), as it was remarkably similar to the helmet of Quetzal-Coatl that they kept in their temple of Huitziloptchli. On display in the National Museum is the carved head of a "noble Aztec". The face is that of a Norseman (Plate 40, George C. Vaillant, Aztecs of Mexico)
"Tulan is the fabled land on the other side of the sea that the Maya-Tolteca forefathers came from, the land of seven canyons. The land of Egypt (Delta) has been called the "land of seven rivers". Could this be a portion of the fabled land of Tulan? Tulan, the home of the ancestors on the other side of the sea: Consider that the Aztecas called the Spaniards, who were bearded, white men, Tules (gods). Hence, Tules are gods. Also note that in TULA was the great TOLTEC edifice dedicated to Quetzal-coatl by these mysterious people. "
Additional evidence could be offered to show that the civilizing force upon both the North and South American continents is of the white race. Wherever they have traveled, they have raised up civilization.
It is quite accurate for the non-white people of Mexico and South America to make the claim that they were here before the white man - after all the white man and woman (Adam and Eve) came from the Tarim Basin and Mesopotamia region. However, it is equally inaccurate for them to make any claim to our South Western states because it was once known as Aztlan. Aztlan it once was - but it was not of their creation. After the white man and woman left, the great cities, highways, temples, market places, scientific centers, and essentially all civilization eroded until the white Spaniards came to find a destitute, blood thirsty, cannibalistic people who had not advanced one bit since the founders of their cities had left them. The battle of the Alamo settled the reconquering of the South West or Aztlan. It was reconquered by the people who had made it great once before - the white race!
In a Hispanic Studies textbook, "The Mexican American Heritage" by East Los Angeles high school teacher Carlos Jimenez, Aztlan is depicted in a redrawn map of Mexico and the United States; with Mexico of course having one third more territory. In the book Jimenez states, "Latinos are now realizing that the powers to control Aztlan may once again be in their hands." The textbook teaches high school students that Mexico is going to regain the states of Colorado, California, Arizona, Texas, Utah, New Mexico, Oregon and parts of Washington - all formerly part of Aztlan. The idea of Aztlan is gaining swift momentum through the push of organizations such as MEChA. The logo of the MEChA also known as the Chicano Student Movement of Aztlan is an eagle holding a stick of dynamite. The preamble to their National Constitution states:
"Chicana students of Aztlan must take upon themselves the responsibilities to promote Chicansmo within the community, politicizing our Raza with an emphasis on indigenous consciousness to the struggle for self-determination of the Chicano people for the purpose of liberating Aztlan." The New York University Press states: "Aztlan was the mythical place of origin in some Aztec traditions, a lake with an island in the middle that was replicated when the wandering Mexican settled at Tenochittlan."
Dan Kincaid with the Arizona Republic says of Aztlan. "Aztlan was the legendary original home of the Aztec Indians…Aztlan, which means literally ‘Place of the Herons’ in their Nahuatl language…The Aztecs believed their Ancestors migrated in stages from Aztlan, reaching central Mexico about A.D. 1200 An Aztec subgroup, the Tenochas founded their capital, Tenochtitlan, in 1325 on an island in Lake Texcoco after seeing an eagle perched on a cactus and devouring a rattlesnake."
Another Theory on Aztlan
There is, however, another theory on Aztlan that receives no press whatsoever because if true it would debunk the Chicano’s alleged right to retake what they believe is rightfully theirs. Despite academia’s modern claim that the white race are the collective descendents of European barbarians and cro-magnum cave dwellers nothing can be more further from the truth. Volumes have been written which trace the migrations of the white race. Archeologists who have not been led astray by a presupposed idea of the white races’ barbarian beginnings; linguists, anthropologists, and historians can attest to the ability of the white race to civilize each land upon which they set foot. From the cradle of civilization in Mesopotamia, to Egypt, the Orient, the Pacific Isles, and India the creative and stabilizing force of the white race can be found in the ancient writings, scientific discoveries, relics, and ruins.
The same can be said for North and South America. But as a non-white people are now claiming to have originated the once great South American empires and the pyramids, temples, and highways of Mexico and thus believe the white man must turn it over to them we will briefly digress to show the absurdity that these people created any great empire, but are rather the result of another integration nightmare and have no sacred right to land that the brave men at the Alamo fought and died for!
Note: The following discussion of the true builders of Aztlan must rest upon the historically accurate truth that the white race, the Hebrews, the Israelites and the descendents of Shem (modern Jews are not truly Semitic) are the same. For more info on this subject go to www.christianrevivalcenter.net
On the right bank of the Rio Puercos, some thirty miles southwest of Albuquerque, in Valencia County, New Mexico stands a volcanic mesa. The people in the area call it "Hidden Mountain" or "Mystery Mountain". The Indians of the region call it by its ancient title, "Cerro Los Moqujino" meaning Cliff of the Strange Writings.
Atop these natural volcanic fortifications is found the ancient ruins of a camp laid out in military fashion in the same manner of the ancient Israelites. Leading to the camp along a winding trail is a wall of native, igneous basalt. On its face is chiseled words from long ago - ancient Hebrew - which was translated by the late Dr. Robert Pfeiffer of Harvard in 1948. It is the Ten Commandments. Another inscription reads, "Yahweh is our Mighty One". The evidence shows our people to have been here thousands of years ago.
Quoting from "Discovery of Ancient America" - "As the world slipped into the Dark Ages following the decline of the Roman Empire, which itself had no contact with the New World, the American continents were forgotten by all except a few living in the outlying regions of the inhabited Old World, such as Scandinavia. For the rest of the world it was not rediscovered until the Columbus’ famous journey centuries later…The evidence of well-established contacts between the Old and New Worlds prior to the 2nd century B.C. are numerous and extensive. For example, great numbers of sculptures depicting human figures have been found throughout the Americas, especially in Central and South America…’all kinds of white people,’ especially so- called Semitic types with and without beards (Wuthenau, The Art of Terra Cotta Pottery). Even at later periods, there were many of those commonly called white men. For instance, Charnay ("North American Review, Oct. 1881) writes, ‘Physically, Veytia describes the Toltec as a man of tall stature, white, and bearded.’.."
Inscriptions have been found on a rock at Mount Hope, Rhode Island, the Rio Grande Cliffs in Texas, Guenca Ecuador, Davenport Iowa, Batcreek Tennessee, Moundsville West Virginia, central West Virginia, and Newark Ohio.
In ancient times a mysterious, tall, white-skinned bearded people known as "Tolteca" migrated onto the central highlands of what is now called Mexico. They brought with them the arts of civilization including metalworking, agriculture, architecture, pyramid building, astrology, the complex arrangement of time adapted by the Aztecs; and in Professor Prescott’s words, "were the true fountains of the civilization which distinguished this part of the continent in later times. They established their capital at Tula as in Tulan." In addition, they brought the Hebrew language. They called the area to the north, from which they had migrated "Aztlan," and the central highland section of Mexico "Anuhuac," both appropriate Hebrew words. Again, I quote from "Discovery of Ancient America": "Their ancient homeland, on the other side of the sea was known as Tulan, or Tollan, Tulan in Hebrew means eminence. Az-Tulan means ‘mighty eminence’ or Oz-Tulan means ‘eminence of old.’ These epithets are indeed appropriate for a tribe who viewed themselves as the ‘Chosen People’ ….."
In fact, the very phrase "mound builders" should be more correctly phrased "mound people". In the Hebrew language, Tel is a mound or hill. Techa translates as a camp or people….thus Teltecha or Toltecha. The Israelites are known for their mound building and were instructed to build an alter to Yahweh upon reaching each new destination. As the migrations of the Israelites are followed throughout from the Middle East through the Caucsus Mountains and unto the farthest outposts of Europe - the mounds and remnants of their travels can be found. From the northern most reaches of Europe across to the far eastern areas of North America the evidence continues.
The Toltecas referred to the regions of the great north as Quichee. Quiche was used in the Celtic-Algonquian regions of the north in the form Quechee. It is derived from the Hebrew word QTsH meaning frontier, outmost coast, end, uttermost part, and shore. It is interesting to note the Indian name for Lake Superior is Quechee-Gumee.
The alphabet of the ancient Celts/Irish is Ogam, which is a series of vertical lines, in distinct groups somewhat resembling a fence. Ogam in Hebrew in fact means "reed fence." The Ogam alphabet has been found throughout South America.
Quichee is also used in the Mayan, "Titulos" to describe the Guatemalan Yucatan region to the extent that "Quichean civilization" is equivalent to "Mayan civilization"; meaning frontier civilization". The very name for Mexico, "Messi-koh" itself is derived from the Hebrew word for a "future King" and was named for a famous Tolteca chieftain.
Vikings and Aztlan
In William Prescott’s "History of the Conquest of Mexico and Peru" he says, "Quetzalquatl" - he was the white man, wearing a long beard, who came from the east; and who, after presiding over the golden age of Anahuac, disappeared as mysteriously as he had come, on the great Atlantic Ocean. As he promised to return at some future day, his reappearance was looked for with confidence by each succeeding generation."
The bearded, white-skinned Toteca "god" of the Maya, who was later passed down to the Aztecas, was according to legend a man-god who arrived in Quiche (Aztlan-Guatemala) in a magnificent boat. In the religious legend, he is said to be a benevolent god, and was symbolized in architecture by a feathered serpent and is called Quetzal-coatl. By the Maya he was called Votan, Ku-Kul-Kan, and Dan.
Votan, was the name of the 3rd century Scandinavian emperor. The sacred land of the Norseman was the land Thule. In Brewers Classical dictionary of Phrase and Fable under Votan it says, "Chief god of the Scandinavians, his real name was Sigge son of Frizdulph but he assumed the name (title) Odin (Votan) when he left the Tanais (Asia) because he had been a priest (Khan) of Odin - the supreme god of the Scandinavians." Odin is from the Hebrew word Adon which means Lord. Brewer continues, "Father of Odin was Bor, (Odin 1) and his brothers are Vile and Ve, his wife Frigga. Sons Thor and Balder."
In about 330 B.C., Pytheas sailed northward to a land in the Artic circle generally considered to have been Iceland. He called the land Thule. Quetzalcoatl-Ku-Kul-Kan was a blond, bearded, white skinned diety of the Tolteca-Mayateca. His secondary names were Votan and Dan
Finally, I quote again from the "Discovery of Ancient America":
"This Norse Votan who lived in the third century aligns in time with the Tolteca Votan, who was considered ancient at the time of the Spanish conquest. This Tolteca Votan ruled for a time in the central highlands of the Guatemala, then returned "alive to his people" (in Mexico). Although he promised to return, there is no record of his reappearance in Meso-America. (South America)
"If Votan of the Tolteca is Votan of the Norse, it would explain why the Aztecs would refer to Hernando Cortez and his men as Tules (gods) since they thought the conqueror was Quetzal-coatl (Votan) with his followers returning as promised. The helmet worn by one of the Spaniards raised considerable interest among the Aztec caciques (chieftains), as it was remarkably similar to the helmet of Quetzal-Coatl that they kept in their temple of Huitziloptchli. On display in the National Museum is the carved head of a "noble Aztec". The face is that of a Norseman (Plate 40, George C. Vaillant, Aztecs of Mexico)
"Tulan is the fabled land on the other side of the sea that the Maya-Tolteca forefathers came from, the land of seven canyons. The land of Egypt (Delta) has been called the "land of seven rivers". Could this be a portion of the fabled land of Tulan? Tulan, the home of the ancestors on the other side of the sea: Consider that the Aztecas called the Spaniards, who were bearded, white men, Tules (gods). Hence, Tules are gods. Also note that in TULA was the great TOLTEC edifice dedicated to Quetzal-coatl by these mysterious people. "
Additional evidence could be offered to show that the civilizing force upon both the North and South American continents is of the white race. Wherever they have traveled, they have raised up civilization.
It is quite accurate for the non-white people of Mexico and South America to make the claim that they were here before the white man - after all the white man and woman (Adam and Eve) came from the Tarim Basin and Mesopotamia region. However, it is equally inaccurate for them to make any claim to our South Western states because it was once known as Aztlan. Aztlan it once was - but it was not of their creation. After the white man and woman left, the great cities, highways, temples, market places, scientific centers, and essentially all civilization eroded until the white Spaniards came to find a destitute, blood thirsty, cannibalistic people who had not advanced one bit since the founders of their cities had left them. The battle of the Alamo settled the reconquering of the South West or Aztlan. It was reconquered by the people who had made it great once before - the white race!
Tuesday, October 20, 2009
White Boy Set on Fire
This white boy, Michael Bower, was allegedly set on fire by Jesus Mendez and Steven Shelton, pictured below.
There are other "minority" (Hey, they are the majority world wide) teens who are being sought for this sickening murder attempt also! Did you catch this on NBC, CBS, or ABC? I did manage to find a small piece on CNN, but no mention of the race of the perpetrators. And it seems the punks did it because he had reported his dad's bike stolen. http://www.cnn.com/2009/CRIME/10/13/florida.teen.burned/index.html?iref=newssearch
A story in the Miami Herald, of which I am unable to get to the link any longer, perhaps they have removed it (?) let me know if you find it - by Jennifer Lebovich said, "Within minutes of being burned over much of his body, Michael Brewer wailed in agony as onlookers tried to help the 15-year-old, according to 911 tapes released Friday.
“Please, please, please,” the boy screamed and cried.
“Please help me,” he repeated.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office released the series of calls in connection with Monday’s attack by a group of five teenage classmates in Deerfield Beach. The teens, say police, set Brewer on fire after dousing him with rubbing alcohol, and have been charged in the attack. The boy remains in intensive care and doctors say it will take months for him to recover."
End of quote:
This reminds me of another burning incident. About twelve years ago, I was in a little town in Mississippi called Rome. There were approximately twenty whites in the little town and a couple hundred blacks. I was visiting one of the two white families who lived there. The eldest son of this family spent a great deal of time dealing with domestic abuse situations in this little town. His family owned the small mom & pop grocery store and cafe there and found themselves in the position of pretty much taking care of the blacks there...gave them jobs, overlooked small instances of theft at the store, brought diapers and formula to a number of the different black women who's baby daddies was off on another drunk. Sometimes they would sit with some of the women after patching their black and blue eyes, cut faces, etc. and just sat with them as these women feared their man coming home to give them another beating. I spent some time there, and I thought, my God and this goes on like this all the time. "yes, maaam" they said. Violet, a black woman I met there, just couldn't say enough good things about this wonderful family who helped the town out again and again. When some thieving black punks, friends of her adult son, broke in and threatened her, this family bought her a new window, and once again, watched out for her and her place...again. Gee, funny, all these black folks in town new that this family was in fact, a klan family. No, this didn't make me "join" the Klan. I had already been a member for 15 years and an officer/spokeswoman for at least 10. So..no..this was no defining moment.
Okay, so I said something about a burning incident right. So after a week there, and meeting the locals - during the day - all nice enough. I head to the cafe around dusk and here I see about 50 of the local black teens standing around in a group laughing and having a good time. "Hey, Misses" they holler out to me. "Hey" I holler back. Nothing intimidating in - either from me to them nor them to me. What I found alarming is that as I looked over to see what all the laughing was about I notice the old hound dog I had seen laying under a Magnolia tree that afternoon during a hot and muggy Mississippi summer day. I wanted to puke and tears immediately came to my eyes. These "minority" teens had poured gasoline or kerosene on it and had set this dog on fire. It must have just happened, cause once you tried to separate the sounds of laughter from the other night sounds you could here this pitiful painful whimper. I'm sure it was kerosene as it burns slower and if you've lived in the country you've probably used a kerosene heater a time or two. Gasoline would have burned the dog up quick. Needless to say, the dog didn't die right away. The next day I left as scheduled. Violet waved goodbye as I drove past the charred remains of that ole dog. Are our natures really the same? Is our compassion the same? Not on an individual basis, because I know there are excections on both sides of the fence. But as a group are these the same.
As another news story or commercial plays out about the huge humanitarian efforts being conducted by white nations, I think about that dog and poor poor Michael. But more than that I wonder what America will be like for white children thirty or forty years from now.
Friday, October 16, 2009
The Biblical/Israelite Origin of the White Race
A few more stupid comments have come to my attention regarding the origin and colonization of the white race. I know most didn't learn this in school and its hard to find a lot of books about it today, although there are quite a few. You can't write a book about something that you have no knowledge about and it certainly therefore follows that you aren't going to learn about it in the majority of educational institutions including Bible seminary.
I know that you just don't know, but its sad when you don't know that you don't know. The Bible says that truth is given to those who love truth. If you don't have a real love for truth - even if you think you may not like that truth - then you aren't going to have it. Sorry.
One of the silliest comments was a statement saying that the Greeks, Italians, and Spanish aren't white! Can you believe it! I know that we will find some Greeks, Spaniards, Portequise, and Italians that aren't white. But you will also find some folks from Nebraska, Kansas, and Ireland that aren't white. Heck, we even just finished celebrating Columbus Day and we heard plenty of troublemakers ranting about how we should't be celebrating the white racist colonization of America. Gee, folks are confused.
And I know it can get difficult to understand given the educational standards of the last 60 years in this and other nations, but Hispanic is not a racial determination. Hispanic is a language identifier. Just because there was widespread race mixing throughout Mexico, Central and South America and those people speak Spanish doesn't mean that Spaniards are not white. The majority of the people of Spain remain white and there are still white people in South America. Believe me, the white nationalists in countries like Argentina and Brazil can tell all of us in the U.S., Canada, and our other white sister nations what the consequences of race mixing are. Yup, they sure are living the dream down there. Are you ready for a majority non-white U.S.? Well, get ready for it. Like Brad Paisley says, "Welcome to the future!"
So for those of you who don't let MTV, CNN oh yeah, and even FOX news do your thinking for you, below is a little bit of info, among a vast array of other historical information available, that I have selected to share with you. It might be hard for some of you to read, depending on your educational level, but I know plenty of you will write and thank me and of course I say, "you're welcome!"
Start Reading - Now.
A highly respected Danish linguistic expert Dr. Ann Kristensen has reached the same conclusion (that we have proclaimed for years) that the Cimmerians who later became the Celts can be positively identified as a section of the so-called "Lost Ten Tribes of Israel" in deportation.
Dr Kristensen was skeptical at first but the more she researched into Assyrian sources she found the Cimmerians making their first appearance in recorded history around 714 B.C. in the very area of modern Iran where the Assyrians had settled the deported tribes of Israel a few years earlier. She reaches conclusions that the Gimira or Cimmerians are lost Israelites.
In "WHO WERE THE CIMMERIANS AND WHERE DID THEY COME FROM" - translated by Jorgen Laessoe of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Dr Kristensen wrote:
"There is scarcely reason any longer to doubt the exciting and verily astonishing assertion propounded by students of the Ten Tribes, that the Israelites deported from Bit Humria of the House of Omri are identical with the Gimirraja of the Assyrian sources. Everything indicates that the Israelite deportees did not vanish from the picture but that, abroad, under new conditions they continued to leave their mark on History.
Read More
Language Proofs Of Descent From Ancient Israel
A QUESTION OF ORIGIN
Note: the following study presents exciting new research identifying the descendants of the ancient lost house of Israel. It has tremendous bearing on Bible prophecy, the fulfillment of the covenants, and the duties and obligations of God's chosen people in the world today.
I. LINKS TO ANCIENT ISRAEL
What happened to the Biblical house of Israel, the people of God who were carried away into Assyrian captivity eight centuries before Christ and never heard from again? This age-old mystery can finally be solved through the knowledge which archaeology provides concerning ancient languages. The evidence following supports the theory that the ancient ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, after their conquest by Assyria in the late 8th century, B.C., became the Scythian-Cimmerian-Celtic peoples who colonized Europe in the early Christian centuries. This has been analyzed in an interesting article by author and historian Geoffrey Ashe. (1)
We will address this through linguistics, the study of languages.
Names of tribal units change when carried over into other languages, making it a challenge to connect them without definite guidelines to determining language affinities. There are two well-established principles in particular that enter into this discussion regarding ancient languages, both European and Middle-Eastern. One concerns consonants, and the other concerns vowels. They are:
· "Guttural" consonants "Kh", hard "G", and hard "C" are interchangeable.
· Vowels are very frequently interchanged, added, or substituted.
CONSONANTS
We will examine what recognized language scholars have written concerning these principles, and then make a practical application of them. First, concerning consonants, the learned seventeenth-century linguistic scholar, Dr. O'Brien, compiler of the first Irish-Keltic language dictionary, had this to say: "It hath been observed in the remarks on the letter C, that it is naturally commutable with G, both letters being of the same organ and nearly of the same power; and hence, in our old parchments, they are written indifferently for each other.... The same indifference, or interchangeable use of letters G and C in the Latin tongue, and the latter being generally substituted in the place of the former, appears from ancient Roman inscriptions, and most particularly from that of the Columna Rostrata, erected in honour of Duillins, the Consul, whereupon were engraved the words macistratos, leciones, pucnando, Carthaciniensis, for magistratos, legiones, pugnando, Carthaginiensis, etc... Which gave occasion to Diomedes to call G a new consonant."(2)
This interchangeability of hard consonants was also true in ancient Mesopotamia. In the Assyrian Cuneiform Alphabet, the same character stands for both the hard "G" and "Kh," (as can be seen in the encyclopedia chart reproduced in the written form of this tract).(3) A moments' reflection will indicate to you that the same part of the mouth and throat is used to sound out all three hard consonants: Kh, hard G, and hard C, and that a change of spelling is easily and logically made from one to another, because virtually no change in pronunciation is involved. This is verified by modern Hebrew language and literature scholar, Dr. Isaac Elchanan Mozeson, who teaches language studies at Yeshiva University in Jerusalem. He states, "The Hebrew G, the Gimel, is often a K in Greek and other Western tongues. [The Hebrew letter G] resembles a backwards K."(4) As an example, Mozeson gives the word, "colossus," which originated as "Golios," the Hebrew word for the Biblical giant, Goliath. He states, "The Greek pronunciation would sound like "kol-ios" - just as the [Hebrew word for camel], Gamal, was rendered "kamelos." (5) Note again the interchanges between the K, G, and C.
Another key point is that it is the consonants which carry the value. Language expert, Siegfried H. Muller says, "In most languages, consonants are the main carriers of thought." Further, "The outstanding structural feature of the Hamito-Semitic family is triliterality of word roots. They consist mostly of three consonants, and the insertion or omission of vowels -- often not written and to be supplied by the reader...vocalization of consonants serves to create a set of verb and noun forms whose meanings are related to that of the root." In other words, from a word root of three consonants, various related words would be created by insertion of vowels, but all of them would carry the same basic meaning as the root. You would not be able to take a root word applied to a particular tribe of people, add differing vowels and identify a different tribe. If the cononental root word is the same, the two tribes would be the same people. For example, Muller says, "Correspondingly, from Hebrew KTV are derived KoTaV, "written," KTiVah, "writing," KTiV, "spelling," KToVet, "inscription," KTaV, "script," KaTaV, "correspondent." In all of these, although various vowels be added, the words all correspond to the same root topic. We will be applying this interesting principle shortly in connecting several seemingly unrelated ancient tribes.
VOWELS
Nineteenth-century scholar, Sir William Betham (1779-1853), was knighted by the King of England for his research into ancient history, language, and archaeology. He had this to say concerning vowels in ancient languages: "Vowels are often substituted for each other: the same words are written promiscuously with an a, o, and u, an e or an i." (6) As an example, he discussed the ancient inhabitants of western Britain, "the Welsh, who have ever called themselves by the name of Cymri, Cimbri, or Cumbri." (7) As can be easily seen, the name of this ancient tribe has been variously spelled with differing vowels: Y (often called a "pseudo-vowel"), I, and U. Such variations are a good example of the common vowel shifts which are found in the name of this historic people, who we will learn more of shortly.
Another scholar of renown was Dr. Richard Cumberland (1632-1718), Anglican Bishop of England in the early 17th century. He authored several celebrated books, and was well-regarded in his day for his expertise in ancient history and languages. He wrote, "The learned will not wonder at change of vowels in a name, especially when its made by authors of different countries and times, because they know this is a thing very usual; yet for the service of readers that are not much used to such changes, I will give proof thereof."
"Wherefore, I have observed, that in Jeremiah 48:23, our translation calls a place in Moab, Beth Meon, which signifies the house or temple of Meon, agreeably to the Hebrew text and to the Chaldee paraphrase. But the Septuagint calls it the house of Maon; and so doth the vulgar Latin. The Moabites agreed with the Egyptians in their idolatry, who worshipped their first king and planter as a god, under the name of Osiris. But when they speak of him as a man who first reigned among them, they call him Meon or Menes, with a Greek termination: Which word, Bochart well observes, signifies habitations or places to dwell in, which he brought them to and settled them in." Samuel Bochart (1599-1667) was a well-known Huguenot scholar.
"Now, by the same reason that Meon is changed into Maon, Menes must become Manes, as he is called in Herodotus and Dionysius Halicarnassensis, or Manis, as this god and powerful potentate is called by Plutarch de Iside. (8)
On the subject of vowels, Professor Cyrus H. Gordon, who is perhaps the leading American archaeologist of the twentieth century, stated concerning a Hebrew Old Testament name, "The ancient Hebrew text... has only the consonants...which were later supplied with vowels to make a verbal noun of it." (10) In the 6th century, A.D., Hebrew scholars added vowel marks to the text of the Hebrew Bible in an attempt to restore the original pronumciation of words. But in some cases, with words not commonly used, they had to guess what the original vowel signs should have been. One example of this is the word, Gomer, which was used in the text of Genesis, Hoseh, and Ezekiel between 1200 and 600 B.C., well over a millennium before post-New-Testament-era scholars added vowel marks. Scholars now know that the letter-sound "O" was not in use in Semitic languages in ancient times. Linguist C.B.F. Walker says that the ancient Semitic languages used the four vowel sounds a, e, i, and u. (Reading the Past, p. 26)
Dr. Isaac Mozeson adds, "The Bible has no vowel marks in the original, handwritten parchment form...Vowels are certainly interchangeable, and ought to be largely ignored when comparing words from different languages." (9) We will therefore remove the vowels in comparing the names of the following four mysterious peoples in ancient times.
It is true that some Semitic languages, such as Hebrew, originally contained no written vowels at all, but only consonants, with the vowels supplied by the reader. The drawback to this is obvious: Different speakers might use different vowels, creating a slightly different pronunciation of the same words. As an example, the name of God in Hebrew consisted of the four consonantal characters, YHVH, and is therefore called the tetragramation, meaning "four letters." Centuries later, a scholarly argument is raging concerning whether the name of God was originally pronounced Yahweh, Yahvee, Yahvah, or something similar. The solution may perhaps never be known, because of the absence of vowels in ancient written Hebrew. Indeed, it is possible that more than one pronunciation was in use in ancient times, due to the absence of stated vowels to guide the speaker.
III. FOUR TRIBAL NAMES
These two principles, concerning consonants and vowels in ancient languages, will help us in identifying several ancient tribal names which are prominent in the Bible and ancient history. These are the:
· KHUMRI
· GIMIRRAI
· CIMMERIANS
· GOMER
These names at first notice appear to be entirely different peoples - or are they? Modern scholars now admit that at least three of them are only different forms of the same tribal name. To see that this is the case, let us first examine the above names using our language principle concerning consonants. Since the guttural consonants KH, G, and C are all interchangeable, we can rewrite these names as follows: (Note that in the third name, we can drop the "ANS" which is simply a Greek suffix indicating proper names. This gives us:
· GUMRI
· GIMIRRAI
· GIMMERI (ANS)
· GOMER
This helps to make the picture clearer, but we need to also realize that vowel shifts, or changes in the vowels used in a name, were frequent occurrences. In addition, some ancient languages did not include vowels in their writing at all. Therefore, the identity of these four can be most easily seen if we write them using the consonants only:
· GMR
· GMRR
· GMMR
· GMR
Repetition of consonants, as seen in the second and third names above, was also a common occurrence. Therefore, by the grammatical rules governing language, all four tribes must be one and the same people. Who were they? Let's examine them one at a time.
IV. MANY NAMES, ONE PEOPLE
THE "KHUMRI" OR "GOMRI"
When the conquering armies of the nation of Assyria came against the ten-tribe kingdom of the house of Israel late in the eighth century, B.C., they did not refer to God's People as "Israel" or "Jews." Instead, the Assyrian word for them was, "Khumri." This has been established through the deciphering of Assyrian "cuneiform" clay tablets. Ancient historian, Alan Ralph Millard, in his recent book, "Treasures from Bible Times," says, "In 1846 men working for Henry Layard on the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Calah (Nimrud) uncovered a block of polished black stone, carved and inscribed. The 'Black Obelisk' records the triumphs of the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser... The first panel in the second line of pictures proved exciting. The text above the kneeling figure lists tribute brought to the king from 'Yaua son of [Khumri]' that is, Jehu, who took the throne from a descendant of Omri, king of Israel." (11) Millard reproduces the Assyrian words mentioning Israel, along with a literal translation.
Famed 19th century archaeologist, Sir Henry Layard, rediscovered the ancient Assyrian cities, and remarked, "An identification connected with this word KHUMRI or Omri is one of the most interesting instances of corroborative evidence that can be adduced of the accuracy of the interpretations of the cuneiform character...Sargon is called on the monuments of Khorsabad, 'the conqueror of Samaria and of the circuit of Beth KHUMRI'...Samaria having been built by Omri, nothing is more probable than that - in accordance with a common Eastern custom - it should have been called, after its founder, Beth KHUMRI, or the house of Omri." (12) Samaria was the capital of the Ten-Tribe Israel nation. The Assyrians named the Israelites after their King Omri, which they pronounced "Khumri" or "Gomri." This is not surprising, because the Israelites, as well, often gutturalized the pronunciation of the Hebrew "O" by prefixing to it the sound of a "G" or a "Kh." Hebrew scholar Mozeson gives, as examples, "The correct guttural pronunciation of 'olum' (world, eternity) is really 'kholum'," (13) and the city-name, "Amora," is pronounced in Hebrew, "Gomorrah." (14)
So the first mysterious tribe of our ancient list, the Khumri or Gomri, are definitely identified by ancient inscriptions as Israelites of the so-called, "lost ten tribes," who disappeared from history in the Caspian Sea region of Medo-Persia during the late 8th century and early 7th century, B.C.
THE "GIMIRRAI, GOMER, CIMBRI, CELTS, TEUTONS"
The Encyclopedia Britannica says, "Certain it is that in the middle of the 7th century, B.C., Asia Minor was ravaged by northern nomads (Herodotus iv. 12), one body of whom is called in Assyrian sources Gimirrai and is represented as coming through the Caucasus. They were probably Iranian speakers, to judge by the few proper names preserved. The name has also been identified with the biblical Gomer, son of Japheth (Gen. x. 2,3). Later writers identified them with the Cimbri of Jutland, who were probably Teutonized Celts..." (15)
It is fascinating that the Gimirrai suddenly appeared out of seeming nowhere in the same century as the lost tribes of Israel disappeared, yet no scholar ventures to investigate a link between them. The additional mention of "Iranian" (i.e., Medo-Persian) words in the Gimirrai vocabulary indicates some physical contact between the Gimirrai and Medo-Persians, such as the captive Israelites might have been expected to have had. Historian Sharon Turner, in fact, stated that he identified 262 Medo-Persian loan-words in the Anglo-Saxon-Cimmerian vocabulary. (16) Who were these mysterious people? According to scholars, the Gimirrai, Gomer, Cimbri, Teutons, and Celts are all linked together as the same people. By applying the rules of language, we realize that the "Gimirrai" were also the same people as the "Khumri," who have been positively identified as Israelites of the lost ten tribes. It is therefore no coincidence that the lost tribes of Israel disappeared in Medo-Persia-Iran (II Kings 17:6), the birthplace of the Gimirrai.
The same Encyclopedia Britannica article has this to say about the people known today as Cimmerians: "An ancient people of the far north or west of Europe, first spoken of by Homer (Odyssey, xi. 12-19), who describes them as living in perpetual darkness. Herodotus (iv. 11-13), in his account of Scythia, regards them as the early inhabitants of South Russia (after whom the Bosporus Cimmerius and other places were named.)" (17) The same encyclopedia reference also traces the European "Cymry" and "Celts" to this same people. There seems to be no question in historian's minds, that whoever these Cimmerians were, they were the ancestors of a significant branch of the modern people of Europe. (See box below) Again, by applying the two basic linguistic rules mentioned previously, it may be seen that the Cimmerians were none other than the Khumri or Gomri, the lost ten tribes.
BIBLE "GOMER" MIGRATED TO EUROPE
"Gomer...a people known in Assyrian inscriptions as Gamir or Gimirrai. They are the Cimmerians of ancient Greek literature...According to the Greek author Homer, the Cimmerians... appeared in the northern provinces of the Assyrian Empire at the time of Sargon II, during the 8th century, B.C....Poets of the time spoke of the "Cimmerian Bosporos," and the Armenians still call part of their country Gamir. It is thought that the Crimea bears their name to the present day." -Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p. 269
"...In Yoma 10a and Yer. Meg.i.9...stands either for "Cimmerii" or for "Germany". -The Jewish Encyclopedia, vi:40
"Gomer: ...Most of the interpreters take him to be the ancestor of the Celtae, and more especially of the Cimmerii." -Popular & Critical Bible Encyclopedia, ii:726
"Gomer...became identified with the German Cimbri and the Celtic Cymry." "The old sound of their name is still retained in the mouth of the inhabitants of Wales, who call themselves Cumri or Cymry, and their land Cymru." -Franz Delitzsch, quoted in Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, by John Peter Lange, xiii:362
"The Cimbri, as well as the Cumry or Cymry in Wales, and in Bretagne [Britain], are to be regarded as in relation with the Cimmerians." -Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, by John Peter Lange, i:348
V. WHO WAS GOMER?
The eminent Christian historian and archaeologist, Dr. Henry Sayce, stated, "Gomer is the Gimirra of the Assyrian inscriptions, the Kimmerians of the Greek writers." (18) Many reference works associate the names Gimirrai and Cimmerians with Gomer, connecting all three together (see references above) using the very same established linguistic rules we have presented. In fact, because the ancient Hebrew language did not contain vowels, the present rendering of "Gomer" is a later construction. Since it is now known that the original Assyrian word for Israel was pronounced "Khumri," and the Babylonian was "Gamir" or "Gimirrai," it is probable that the original vowel-less Hebrew word was pronounced similar to these actual forms, as well. This information is known through the reading of ancient source documents which give us an accurate view of the 7th century, B.C. world that was not possible until recent years.
The first scholarly reference above tells us that the Gimirrai suddenly appeared in history during the reign of Sargon II, 722-705 B.C. He was the Assyrian king who conquered Samaria and deported the Israelites to the Assyrian-controlled province of Medo-Persia. It is amazing that historians never notice the tremendous "coincidence" of this: The first historical notice of the existence of the Gimirrai was during the same 17 years that the Israelite-Gomri-Khumri were deported and lost to history in that same province!
GOMER IN GENESIS
But the connection of "Gomer" or "Gimirrai" with ancient Israel has been clouded by confusion over reference to them in the tenth chapter of Genesis, the so-called "register of nations." In Genesis 10:2-3, we read, "The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah." A literal, racial interpretation of these verses would make Gomer (or Gimir) a son of Japheth, and not of Shem as the Israelites were. But there are at least two important reasons why this is not so. First, Japheth lived at the time of the Noahic flood, which has been dated by Christian scholars to about 3400 B.C., more than 2,500 years before King Omri, who reigned about 882 to 871 B.C. As shown previously, the Israelites were called "Khumri" or "Gimirri" after King Omri; clearly, the "Gomer" in Genesis chapter ten is ages before his time!
Secondly, the tenth chapter of Genesis is a geographic representation of nations, rather than racial, and is allegorical rather than literal. We believe in taking the Bible literally whenever possible, interpreting allegorically only when a literal explanation cannot apply, such as the case here. It has been shown by scholars that the national relationships found in Genesis Ten do not fit a literal, racial interpretation. For example, Dr. Sayce says, "The tenth chapter of Genesis is ethnographical rather than ethnological. It does not profess to give an account of the different races of the world and to separate them one from another according to their various characteristics. It is descriptive merely, and such races of men as fell within the horizon of the writer are described from the point of view of the geographer and not of the ethnologist. The Greeks and Medes, for example, are grouped along with the Tibarenian and Moschian tribes because they all alike lived in the north; the Egyptian and the Canaanite are similarly classed together, while the Semitic Assyrian and the non-Semitic Elamite are both the children of Shem. We shall never understand the chapter rightly unless we bear in mind that its main purpose is geographical. In Hebrew, as in other Semitic languages, the relation between a mother-state to its colony, or of a town or country to its inhabitants, was expressed in a genealogical form. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were regarded as 'the daughter of Jerusalem,' the people of the east were 'the children' of the district to which they belonged." (19)
Dr. Sayce points out that this is the reason the South Arabian tribe of Sheba is listed twice in Genesis Ten, once under the designation of Ham in verse seven, and again listed under Shem in verse twenty-eight. The tribe of Sheba originated in the south, later spreading a colony far to the north to clash with Assyria in the days of Tiglath-Pilesar and Shalmanesar. (20) Sayce further remarks, "When, therefore, we are told that 'Canaan begat Zidon his first-born, and Heth,' all that is meant is that the city of Sidon, and the Hittites to whom reference is made, were alike to be found in the country called Canaan. It does not follow that there was any ethnological kinship between the Phoenician builders of Sidon and the prognathous [i.e., 'protruding-jaw'] Hittites from the north. Indeed, we know from modern research that there was none." (21) Sayce, in fact, reproduces Egyptian drawings of both Phoenicians and Hittites, (shown in the printed form of this tract) showing graphically that there was a dramatic difference in racial features (and therefore origins) between these two peoples. Similarly, Assyria, Elam, and Babylonia (Arphaxad) were called brethren, "not because the natives of them claimed descent from a common father, but because they occupied the same quarter of the world." (22) Ancient races portrayed on Egyptian monuments are shown in the printed version of this tract, reproduced from Sayce's book. Included are a king of the Hittites (with pigtail), Hittite soldiers, an Israelite, and a chief of Ganata or Gath, showing Phoenician-Canaanite features. (23)
PROPHETIC NAMES FOR ISRAEL
GOMER: Assyrian, Khumri or Gomri; Babylonian, Gimirrai or Gamir, Greek, Cimmerian; English/Welsh, Cymry, Cimbri, Cumbri, or Celt
JEZREEL: "Scattered" into Assyrian dispersion 762-676 B.C.
LO-RUHAMAH: "Not pitied" by God because their sins received a just recompense.
LO-AMMI: "Not God's People," because they were divorced by Him and sent away to a far land.. Scholars have traced their migration through the Caucasus Mountain region and into Europe in the early pre-Christian centuries.
SONS OF THE LIVING GOD: "Christians" -Israel's ultimate restoration would later come when they accepted Christ as Savior, becoming His Bride at the marriage supper of the lamb.
GOMER IN HOSEH
The name, Gomer, appears again in an interesting passage in Hoseh 1:3. The Encyclopedia Britannica comments on that prophetic book by saying,: "The most interesting and important problem of the book relates to the marriage of Hosea, which is closely related to the form and content of his message. According to the first chapter, Hosea is commanded to take a harlot for his wife and children of harlotry; he therefore marries Gomer bath Diblaim, who subsequently has three children, to whom the prophet gives symbolic names that he may make them the texts of prophetic messages concerning Israel." (24) In prophetic symbolism, the prophet Hoseh marries an Israelite harlot named "Gomer," (probably originally pronounced "Gomri" or "Gimir") symbolizing the Ten Tribes of Israel, who true to the prophecy became known as Gimirrai or Cimmerians. In God's eyes, Israel indeed was a harlot adulterating herself with false worship, and the fact she is purposely called "Gomer" shows that people to be ethnic Israelites. The symbolism continues with their children's names: Jezreel, (meaning "scattered"), Lo-Ruhamah ("not pitied"), and Lo-Ammi ("not my people"). As these prophetic names show, Israel was punished by being conquered, scattered in the Assyrian dispersion, and divorced by God. Hoseh's words therefore make no logical prophetic sense unless "Gomer" and her offspring were lost and dispersed Israel and their descendants. Hoseh 1:10 is appropriate here: "In the place where it was said unto them, 'You are not my people,' (i.e., no longer recognized as Israel and perhaps blind to their true identity), there shall they be called, 'sons of the living God.' (i.e., "Christ-sons" or Christians, an indication that a Spiritual transformation in them would later occur). History recorded the fulfillment of that prophecy when the "Celtic-Cimmerian" peoples migrated into Europe, accepted Christianity, and became known as Christendom, or "Christ's Kingdom."
"Hoseh's words make no logical prophetic sense unless Gomer and her offspring were lost and dispersed Israel."
GOMER IN EZEKIEL
One last important reference to Gomer needs to be mentioned, which appears in Ezekiel chapter 38. Gomer is listed as joining a confederacy led by "Gog, chief prince of Meschech and Tubal." Gomer apparently does not lead this confederacy, nor are the other listed confederate nations Israelites. In addition, one should not assume that all of the lost tribes, Gomer/Gamir, are allied with Gog, but only one portion. So it is primarily a non-Israel invading force, which also includes some number of Israelites. Therefore, dispensationalists who identify Gomer as Europe may be at least partially right in that identification, because the Celtic-Cymry race did spread throughout Europe, before colonizing North America, Australia, South Africa, and other lands. But because Gog's army invades the "mountains of Israel," they assume that Gomer itself must not be Israelite. That assumption has little basis. Israelites have warred among themselves since the kingdom was divided into Israel and Judah after the time of Solomon, about 975 B.C. Whether the battle typified in Ezekiel is literal or allegory is impossible to predict beforehand, but that it represents to some degree yet another fratricidal war between Israelites seems obvious.
One possible fulfillment was addressed in the old nineteenth-century prophecy, "GEORGE WASHINGTON'S VISION," a prophetic vision received by America's first President during the Revolutionary War. It speaks of a confederacy comprised of "Europe, Asia, and Africa" coming in battle against America: "Then my eyes beheld a fearful scene: From each of these countries arose thick, black clouds that were soon joined into one." The late Professor C.A.L. Totten of Yale University wrote in the year 1898: "The third and last peril clearly indicates a future invasion of our country by the Old World. The drift of events and Bible prophecy indicate that a great combination of powers will be the actor." (25) In the prophecy, help against this peril comes in the form of divine assistance, apparently the Second Advent.
"GOMER WAS AN ISRAELITE..."
-Dr. Thomas Scott's Bible Commentary,
Vol. IV, p. 704, Hoseh 1:2 (1864)
VI. SUMMARY: TWO CERTAINTIES
The Encyclopedia Britannica article we quoted states that it is "certain" that the tribe of Gomer is identified with the Celts, Teutons, and related peoples of Europe. We have found through linguistics (the study of languages), as well as through Bible prophecy in Hoseh, that the people called Gomer or Gimir are in fact Israelites. Linguistically, Israel's name, Khumri, is the phonetic equivalent of the European, Cymri; and Gomri/Khumri is also the consonantal equivalent to Gomer, Gimir, and Cimmiri. Therefore, if it is indeed a certainty that Gomer is found in the Europeans of today, then it is an equal certainty that those same Europeans are Israelites.
We have quoted sources that find these Cymry-Celtic people in England, Wales, and Germany. The Encyclopedia Britannica further traces them to Scandinavia, Scotland, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Russia; in fact, they spread themselves throughout the continent of Europe. The Britannica also reveals that the New Testament Epistle to the Galatians was written to them,26 in which the Apostle Paul refers to them as "the sons of Abraham." (Galatians 3:7)
It is odd that scholars so easily admit to certainty concerning the relationship between the names Gomer, Gimirrai, and Cimmeri, yet are silent concerning the name Khumri. It is never mentioned or investigated. Author and historian Geoffrey Ashe, mentioned earlier, states that it is "altogether too complicated" and "a theme for speculation only." That argument is rather specious, since it never appears "too complicated" for them to positively link the other three names Gomer, Gimirrai, and Cimmeri, using the same rules!
Mr. Ashe also speaks of "alleged linguistic coincidences" which support the Anglo-Israel view. But there is nothing either alleged or coincidental about it. The information we have presented is based upon standard, accepted grammatical rules, and the known fact that Israel was the Khumri of the ancient inscriptions. Since the name Gomri/Khumri is the consonantal equivalent of Gomer, Gimir, and Cymri, it would indeed be a strange "coincidence" if they were not identical peoples! Scholars don't consider the identity of the latter three as coincidence, but as fact!
What does this mean to you and I who trace our roots to this same Biblical people? It is a tremendous heritage and responsibility that we realize. Israel was to be God's servant nation, and a light to the world. Israel, too, would receive many promises, including Jacob's blessing as outlined in Genesis chapter 49. The knowledge of your identity should inspire and invigorate you with evangelical fervor, to make a positive difference in your world and to serve God more faithfully each day. The Anglo-Israel identity is now a proven fact! What you do with this knowledge is up to you. See to it that you make your calling and election sure! (2Peter 1:10)
FOOTNOTES:
Geoffrey Ashe, article: "Lost Tribes Of Israel," in "The Encyclopedia of Myth and Magic," pp. 1645-1646.
Dr. O'Brien, quoted in Betham, "Etruria-Celtica," 1842, vol. 1, p. 59
McClintock & Strong's Encyclopedia, vol. 2, p. 603
Dr. Isaac Elchanan Mozeson, "The Word," 1989, p. 39
ibid., p. 49
Sir William Betham, "Etruria-Celtica," 1842, vol. 1, p. 58
ibid., p. 14
Dr. Richard Cumberland, "Origines Gentium Antiquissimae; or, Attempts For Discovering the Times Of the First Planting of Nations," London, 1724, p. 331
Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon, "The Common Background Of Greek And Hebrew Civilizations," W.W. Norton & Co., 1965, p. 138
Mozeson, p. 10
Alan Ralph Millard, "Treasures From Bible Times," 1985, p. 31
Sir Austen Henry Layard, "Discoveries Among The Ruins Of Assyria And Babylon," G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1853, chapter 26, pp. 492-494 abridged edition; pp. 612-614 unabridged edition
Mozeson, p. 48
ibid., p. 80
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1957, vol. v, p. 707-8
Sharon Turner, "History of the Anglo-Saxons," 1836, p. 100
Encyclopedia Britannica, ibid., p. 707
Dr. A. H. Sayce, "Races of the Old Testament," 1925, p. 71
ibid., p. 65-66
ibid., p. 67
ibid., p. 66
ibid., p. 66-67
ibid., frontispiece
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1957, vol. xi, p.783
National Forecast Magazine, vol. xix, Oct., 1959
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910, vol. v, p. 611-614
The Other Exodus
Forgotten History of the
Danite Exodus from Egypt!
In the days of the Pharaohs, we read of an adventurous hero named Danaos and his followers who dwelled in Egypt. Then came an event, or series of events now corrupted by the mists of time, which caused them to be exiled by the Egyptians. Recorded history then tells us that they boarded ships in Egypt and sailed away to establish new homes in Greece.
The beginning of Greek history is often dated to this “exile” of Danaos and his followers, called Danaoi or Danaan, from Egypt. This event has been dated by historians to about 1450 to 1493 B.C. However, it is significant that the Hebrew exodus from Egypt is dated to the very same time-period: 1447 to 1491 B.C. Are these two events related? Could indeed the Danaan “exile” from Egypt have been a part of the Hebrew “exodus”? An analysis of ancient records indicates that this was indeed the case.
The Hebrew Exodus
The exodus — that wondrous event by which “the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:51) — has been called Israel’s Independence Day and the turning point in world history. The starting point of their journey was the city of Rameses, located about six miles from the present Egyptian capitol of Cairo. As God’s people set forth on their trek out of Egypt to the Promised Land, Pharaoh pursued with 600 chariots (Ex. 14:7), a mighty host that must have stretched a half-mile long at three abreast, plus an unknown large number of foot soldiers. Into an opening of the Red Sea they rushed! God temporarily held back the flood, creating a dry pathway long enough to allow His covenant people to escape, but Pharaoh and his army perished as the sea returned. This miraculous event is memorialized in the Song of Moses (Ex. 15:1-18), and sung in victory by the redeemed Overcomers in the Millennial scene of Revelation 15. It is therefore a type or shadow of the New Covenant victory of Christians over unbelief, sin and evil, and contains lessons for us all to benefit from today.
First century, B.C., Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, gave collaborating evidence from the Egyptian point-of-view for the truth of the Bible’s exodus account. Of the Hebrews, he said, “Their forefathers had been banished out of the whole of Egypt... in order to purify the land.” (The History Of Antiquity, p.458) There was some truth to this assertion, after Egypt had endured the horrible swarms of insects and pestilential diseases of the ten plagues!
Early Greek geographer and historian, Strabo (born 63 B.C.), also lent support to the Biblical account, saying, “Moses told them and taught that the Egyptians were not right in representing the divinity as a wild or domesticated animal, nor the Libyans, nor were the Hellenes wise in giving gods the form of men. For only the One was God which surrounds us all... By such doctrines Moses convinced not a few men of reason, and led them to the place where Jerusalem now is.” (ibid., p. 459) These “doctrines” of Moses are known as the Ten Commandments. You can read them yourself in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
A Second Exodus
Some historians say that the Egyptians left no contemporary surviving accounts of the presence of Hebrews and the exodus. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (iv:7) reports, however, that as early as the 15th century, “Egyptian texts… mention… a foreign people called “Apuriu” residing in Egypt and performing the service of slaves.” The encyclopedia further states that these people are identified by many scholars as the Habiru or Hebrews. Ancient records also report that a Semitic people called Danaan were expelled from Egypt, and sailed to Greece to establish the early Greek civilization. Could the fabled Danaan be a reference to the Biblical Hebrew tribe of Dan? William Ridgeway’s Early Age of Greece (p.220) dated the Danaan exodus from Egypt as 1450 B.C. This is virtually identical to the date of the Hebrew exodus, which is dated to 1447 B.C. by Dr. Stephen E. Jones and 1453 B.C. in Dr. Adam Rutherford’s Bible Chronology (p.120). Other historians use slightly differing dates: The History of Etruria (p.95) by Mrs. Hamilton Gray dates the Danaan exile at 1493 B.C., which compares to a Hebrew exodus of 1491 B.C. according to Bishop Usher’s dating. (McClintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia III:396) Two unrelated Egyptian exoduses did not occur at the same time! Historic evidence indicates that the Danaan were the seafaring Biblical tribe of Dan and were therefore part of the Hebrew Exodus. The Bible tells us that the tribe of Dan were seafarers who “stayed in their ships.” (Judges 5:17) The Bible also gives much other evidence of Hebrew seafaring in ancient times, as related in our companion study Ancient Hebrew Sea Migrations.
It should be mentioned that some Christian expositors date the exodus two centuries later, around 1225-1275 B.C., trying to fit a full 400-year captivity entirely within Egypt through a misunderstanding of the Scripture record. (See Secrets Of Time, by Dr. Stephen E. Jones for details on this issue.) Many scholars agree that this date is too late, and conflicts with the time of the Judges. In addition, Egyptian monuments during the 14th century refer to a region of western Galilee as “Aseru,” which was settled by the Hebrew tribe of Asher after the settlement of Canaan. (Jewish Encyclopedia 2:180) Therefore, Israel had to have already settled Canaan by that time. The Jewish Encyclopedia also points out that “I Kings 6:1 fixes the interval between the exodus and the building of the Temple at over 480 years. Rehoboam — 41 years after the building of the Temple (I Kings 14:25) — is contemporaneous with Shishak, the first king of the twenty-second dynasty (c.950 B.C.) This would give about 1470 B.C. for the Exodus. The finding by Flinders Petrie (1896) of an inscription by Merneptah I, in which for the first time Isir’l occurs in an Egyptian text, as well as the contents of the El-Amarna tablets, has corroborated the virtual correctness of the date given above.” (5:296) This date of 1470 B.C. is exactly in the middle of the narrow date range given by other scholars for both the Hebrew exodus and the Danaan exile from Egypt.
The Semitic Danaan, the Tribe of Dan
The Semitic identity of the ancient Danaan sailors has been commented on by historians. G.F. Schomann stated, “Even among the ancients some considered that the [Danaan] settlers who arrived [in Greece] from Egypt were at any rate not of Egyptian descent, but adventurers of Semitic race, who, having been expelled from Egypt, had some of them turned towards Greece.” (Antiquities Of Greece, p.12)
These Danaan were not only Semitic; they were Hebrews, according to ancient Egyptian records. Professor Max Duncker, in The History Of Antiquity (I:456-466), gave fascinating details of a two-fold land/sea exodus as told in an ancient Egyptian account: “The narrative of Hecataeus of Abdera, who was in Egypt in the time of Ptolemy I, and wrote an Egyptian history, gives us the most unprejudiced account, composed from the widest point of view, and connects the emigration of the Hebrews, whom he does not consider Egyptians, with the supposed emigration from Egypt to Greece. [Hecataeus says,] “Once, when a pestilence had broken out in Egypt, the cause of the visitation was generally ascribed to the anger of the gods. [Editor’s Note: The Ten Plagues are called a “pestilence” in Exodus 9:14-15, and were indeed caused by God!] As many strangers dwelt in Egypt, and observed different customs in religion and sacrifice, it came to pass that the hereditary worship of the gods was being given up in Egypt. The Egyptians, therefore, were of opinion that they would obtain no alleviation of the evil unless they removed the people of foreign extraction. [Note: This “removal” is the Egyptian appellation for the exodus of Scripture.] When they were driven out, the noblest and bravest part of them, as some say, under noble and renowned leaders, Danaus and Cadmus, came to Hellas [Greece]; but the great bulk of them migrated into the land, not far removed from Egypt, which is now called Judea. These emigrants were led by Moses, who was the most distinguished among them for wisdom and bravery.” Hecataeus of Abdera was a Greek historian living in fourth century B.C. Egypt under Ptolemy I, a general of Alexander the Great. In the extract above, this ancient historian clearly connected both the Hebrews and the Danaan as part of the same exodus. Therefore, the Danaan were in fact the Biblical tribe of Dan — a seafaring tribe and part of the Hebrew exodus.
Another marvelous account, although also spoken with a decidedly Egyptian bias, is that of Lysimachus of Alexandria (355-281 B.C.), whose history was preserved by Flavius Josephus in Contra Apionem: “At the time of king Bocchoris [possibly the Greek name for the Pharaoh of the exodus], unclean and leprous men had come into the temples to beg for food. Hence there was a blight on the land; and Bocchoris received a response from Ammon [an Egyptian god], that the temples must be purified. The lepers, as if the sun were angry at their existence, were to be plunged into the sea, and the unclean were to be driven out of the land. Hence the lepers were... thrown into the sea; but the unclean were driven out helpless into the desert. These met together in council; in the night they lit fires and lights, and called, fasting, upon the gods to save them. Then a certain Moses advised them to go through the desert till they came to inhabited regions... they established a city Hierosyla [Jerusalem] in Judea...” (ibid., p. 463)
This ancient historic document provides evidence that the exodus involved two distinct groups with different destinations. Some of the Hebrews expelled from Egypt in the exodus were “thrown into the sea” and sailed north across the Mediterranean to found the earliest civilization in Greece, while Moses led the rest of Israel eastward “helpless into the desert” of the Wilderness.
The Exile From Egypt
What happened to cause Danaus and his followers to be expelled from Egypt? The reason handed down from the mists of time has obvious corruption to it. The Egyptian accounts refer to two brothers, Danaus and Aegyptus. Danaus was said to have 50 sons, who each married one of the 50 daughters of Aegyptus. According to the legend, each of the daughters then slew their husbands on their wedding night. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., 7:793) Aegyptus was also said to have “driven out” Danaus from Egypt. Danaus therefore designates some people who had dwelled in Egypt, and Aegyptus seems to indicate a personification of the land of Egypt itself. This strange and contorted legend, if rooted on an actual historic event, seems to indicate that some form of mass slaughter had occurred. It is far more likely that we have here evidence of the tenth plague on Egypt, the slaughter of the firstborn. This event was indeed the decisive event that caused Pharaoh to order the Hebrews to leave the land of Egypt. (Ex.12:29-33)
The waterway systems of ancient Egypt played an important part, since the Danaan went into exile on sea-going ships. The modern Suez Canal, linking the Red Sea northward to the Mediterranean, had not yet been built. Instead, a series of canals and waterways linked the Nile River eastward to the Red Sea. Encyclopedia Britannica, in an article on the Suez Canal, states: “And so it is that the earliest canals of which history has mention were constructed to link the Nile valley to the Red sea and not to pierce the narrow neck of land which separated the latter from the Mediterranean… As early as 2000 B.C., a canal linked the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, via the Wadi Tumilat, with the Bitter Lakes, whence another channel was dug to the Red sea.”
Historian Alexander Wheelock Thayer, in The Hebrews In Egypt And Their Exodus, presents evidence that on the night the exodus began, Moses had a Hebrew force seize the boats on the Nile as well as those on the canal leading to the Red Sea. Thayer says, “This may reasonably have been, to seize all the shipping and boats on the canal and Jam Suph about Pithom, to hasten… the business of crossing” the Red Sea. Thayer assumes that Moses would have been unaware that God would open a footpath through the Red Sea, and originally planned to cross by boat. It also assumes that Moses planned to patiently ferry, presumably in many hundreds of trips, all of the hundreds of thousands of people, animals, and belongings of Israel across the Red Sea while fleeing Egyptian pursuit! This would have been impractical, since “the total number of Israelites [were] probably about two millions. This number is accepted by the best critics.” (Biblical Encyclopedia by Gray and Adams I:191)
For whatever reason, a Red Sea crossing by boat was never attempted, for the Bible does not record the presence of any boats as the Israelites approached the Sea. Therefore, if Egyptian boats were seized for the exodus, a different plan was in place. The boats were apparently used instead by the Danite sailors as vehicles to escape from Egypt. The exodus was most probably two-pronged. It was an escape by both land and sea from the land of Pharaoh!
Danite Migrations To Europe
Whether it was their original intention or not, the Danaan sailed their ships north to the secluded bay of Argos in the Greek Peloponnesus. The Encyclopedia Judaica (5:1257) quotes a leading Israeli archaeologist, Y. Yadin, who states, “...there is a close relationship between the tribe of Dan and the tribe of Danaoi whose members were clearly seafarers.” This encyclopedia also tells us, “the name Dan should be regarded as a short form of Dan(ann)iel or the like.” (5:1255) Again the connection with the Greek Danaan is unmistakable. Dr. Robert Latham, one of the most respected 19th century authorities, firmly stated that the Danaan of Greece were the Israelite Tribe of Dan. In his Ethnology of Europe, Latham commented, “Neither do I think that the eponymus [i.e., founder] of the Argive [Greek] Danai was other than that of the Israelite tribe of Dan; only we are so used to confine ourselves to the soil of Palestine in our consideration of the history of the Israelites, that we... ignore the share they may have taken in the ordinary history of the world.” (p. 137)
Archaeologist Dr. Cyrus Gordon states that they later sailed from Greece to other European coastlands, including Ireland and Denmark. In his book Before Columbus, Gordon relates, “A group of Sea People bore the name of ‘Dan.’ The Bible tells how a segment of the seafaring (Judges 5:17) Danites [were part of] the tribal system of ancient Israel... The Danites were widespread. Cyprus was called Ia-Dnan ‘The Island of Dan(an).’ The same people were called Danuna, and under this name they appear as rulers of the Plain of Adana in Cilicia. Greek tradition has their eponymous ancestor, Danaos (Dan), migrating from the Nile delta to Greece...” (p.108) Note that the Israelites did in fact emigrate from Egypt. Cyrus Gordon added, “Virgil also designated the Greeks as “Danai.” Bold scholars see the influence of the Danites in Irish folk lore... and in the name of Danmark (‘Denmark’): the land of Dan...” (p. 111)
There is indeed strong evidence that the Danaan of Ireland, Cornwall and Scotland, the Danaan of Greece and Italy, as well as the Danes of Denmark, were Israelites of the tribe of Dan. W. Ewart Gladstone in Juventus Mundi states that the Tuatha de Danaan of Ireland came from the Danaan of Greece. The similarity of name would itself seem conclusive; but is there other evidence that these two groups of Danaan were related? Dr. H.R. Hall, in The Civilization of Greece In The Bronze Age, stated concerning the Greeks of the age of Homer, “Athenian funerary lekythoi [painted vases] give us coppery-red or brown hair side by side with dark-brown or black, and generally fair complexions, resembling a certain Irish Celtic type.” (p.288) Keating’s History of Ireland says, “The Dannans were a people of great learning, they had overmuch gold and silver… they left Greece after a battle with the Assyrians, and for fear of falling into the hands of the Assyrians came to Norway and Denmark (Dannemark) and thence passed over to Ireland.” (p.40) The Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters explains, “The colony called Tuatha-de-Dannan conquered the Firbolgs and became Masters of Ireland… were highly skilled in architecture and other arts from their long residence in Greece and intercourse with the Phoenicians.” (p.121) They have left their names in many places; we find Dannonia, Caledonia, and Donaghadee in the Lough of Belfast. We can see by now it is no coincidence that the early Greeks resembled the Irish Celts, because the Tuatha de Danaan of early Ireland descended from Greek “Danaan” colonists who sailed westward in search of new lands.
These Danaan colonists did indeed settle in Denmark, which name means, ‘Dan’s Mark’ or ‘Dan’s Land.’ In ancient times, Denmark was settled by a tribe called the “Dani,” according to early Roman historian, Procopius (fifth century, A.D.), who recorded that the Dani were a group of tribes inhabiting the Danish peninsula. (VI.xv.1-6) That these were part of the Hebrew tribe of Dan may be seen in the fact mentioned previously that Biblical Dan was called, “Dani-el or Dananniel,” a variation of ‘Dani’ or ‘Danaan.’
I know that you just don't know, but its sad when you don't know that you don't know. The Bible says that truth is given to those who love truth. If you don't have a real love for truth - even if you think you may not like that truth - then you aren't going to have it. Sorry.
One of the silliest comments was a statement saying that the Greeks, Italians, and Spanish aren't white! Can you believe it! I know that we will find some Greeks, Spaniards, Portequise, and Italians that aren't white. But you will also find some folks from Nebraska, Kansas, and Ireland that aren't white. Heck, we even just finished celebrating Columbus Day and we heard plenty of troublemakers ranting about how we should't be celebrating the white racist colonization of America. Gee, folks are confused.
And I know it can get difficult to understand given the educational standards of the last 60 years in this and other nations, but Hispanic is not a racial determination. Hispanic is a language identifier. Just because there was widespread race mixing throughout Mexico, Central and South America and those people speak Spanish doesn't mean that Spaniards are not white. The majority of the people of Spain remain white and there are still white people in South America. Believe me, the white nationalists in countries like Argentina and Brazil can tell all of us in the U.S., Canada, and our other white sister nations what the consequences of race mixing are. Yup, they sure are living the dream down there. Are you ready for a majority non-white U.S.? Well, get ready for it. Like Brad Paisley says, "Welcome to the future!"
So for those of you who don't let MTV, CNN oh yeah, and even FOX news do your thinking for you, below is a little bit of info, among a vast array of other historical information available, that I have selected to share with you. It might be hard for some of you to read, depending on your educational level, but I know plenty of you will write and thank me and of course I say, "you're welcome!"
Start Reading - Now.
A highly respected Danish linguistic expert Dr. Ann Kristensen has reached the same conclusion (that we have proclaimed for years) that the Cimmerians who later became the Celts can be positively identified as a section of the so-called "Lost Ten Tribes of Israel" in deportation.
Dr Kristensen was skeptical at first but the more she researched into Assyrian sources she found the Cimmerians making their first appearance in recorded history around 714 B.C. in the very area of modern Iran where the Assyrians had settled the deported tribes of Israel a few years earlier. She reaches conclusions that the Gimira or Cimmerians are lost Israelites.
In "WHO WERE THE CIMMERIANS AND WHERE DID THEY COME FROM" - translated by Jorgen Laessoe of the Royal Danish Academy of Sciences and Letters, Dr Kristensen wrote:
"There is scarcely reason any longer to doubt the exciting and verily astonishing assertion propounded by students of the Ten Tribes, that the Israelites deported from Bit Humria of the House of Omri are identical with the Gimirraja of the Assyrian sources. Everything indicates that the Israelite deportees did not vanish from the picture but that, abroad, under new conditions they continued to leave their mark on History.
Read More
Language Proofs Of Descent From Ancient Israel
A QUESTION OF ORIGIN
Note: the following study presents exciting new research identifying the descendants of the ancient lost house of Israel. It has tremendous bearing on Bible prophecy, the fulfillment of the covenants, and the duties and obligations of God's chosen people in the world today.
I. LINKS TO ANCIENT ISRAEL
What happened to the Biblical house of Israel, the people of God who were carried away into Assyrian captivity eight centuries before Christ and never heard from again? This age-old mystery can finally be solved through the knowledge which archaeology provides concerning ancient languages. The evidence following supports the theory that the ancient ten tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel, after their conquest by Assyria in the late 8th century, B.C., became the Scythian-Cimmerian-Celtic peoples who colonized Europe in the early Christian centuries. This has been analyzed in an interesting article by author and historian Geoffrey Ashe. (1)
We will address this through linguistics, the study of languages.
Names of tribal units change when carried over into other languages, making it a challenge to connect them without definite guidelines to determining language affinities. There are two well-established principles in particular that enter into this discussion regarding ancient languages, both European and Middle-Eastern. One concerns consonants, and the other concerns vowels. They are:
· "Guttural" consonants "Kh", hard "G", and hard "C" are interchangeable.
· Vowels are very frequently interchanged, added, or substituted.
CONSONANTS
We will examine what recognized language scholars have written concerning these principles, and then make a practical application of them. First, concerning consonants, the learned seventeenth-century linguistic scholar, Dr. O'Brien, compiler of the first Irish-Keltic language dictionary, had this to say: "It hath been observed in the remarks on the letter C, that it is naturally commutable with G, both letters being of the same organ and nearly of the same power; and hence, in our old parchments, they are written indifferently for each other.... The same indifference, or interchangeable use of letters G and C in the Latin tongue, and the latter being generally substituted in the place of the former, appears from ancient Roman inscriptions, and most particularly from that of the Columna Rostrata, erected in honour of Duillins, the Consul, whereupon were engraved the words macistratos, leciones, pucnando, Carthaciniensis, for magistratos, legiones, pugnando, Carthaginiensis, etc... Which gave occasion to Diomedes to call G a new consonant."(2)
This interchangeability of hard consonants was also true in ancient Mesopotamia. In the Assyrian Cuneiform Alphabet, the same character stands for both the hard "G" and "Kh," (as can be seen in the encyclopedia chart reproduced in the written form of this tract).(3) A moments' reflection will indicate to you that the same part of the mouth and throat is used to sound out all three hard consonants: Kh, hard G, and hard C, and that a change of spelling is easily and logically made from one to another, because virtually no change in pronunciation is involved. This is verified by modern Hebrew language and literature scholar, Dr. Isaac Elchanan Mozeson, who teaches language studies at Yeshiva University in Jerusalem. He states, "The Hebrew G, the Gimel, is often a K in Greek and other Western tongues. [The Hebrew letter G] resembles a backwards K."(4) As an example, Mozeson gives the word, "colossus," which originated as "Golios," the Hebrew word for the Biblical giant, Goliath. He states, "The Greek pronunciation would sound like "kol-ios" - just as the [Hebrew word for camel], Gamal, was rendered "kamelos." (5) Note again the interchanges between the K, G, and C.
Another key point is that it is the consonants which carry the value. Language expert, Siegfried H. Muller says, "In most languages, consonants are the main carriers of thought." Further, "The outstanding structural feature of the Hamito-Semitic family is triliterality of word roots. They consist mostly of three consonants, and the insertion or omission of vowels -- often not written and to be supplied by the reader...vocalization of consonants serves to create a set of verb and noun forms whose meanings are related to that of the root." In other words, from a word root of three consonants, various related words would be created by insertion of vowels, but all of them would carry the same basic meaning as the root. You would not be able to take a root word applied to a particular tribe of people, add differing vowels and identify a different tribe. If the cononental root word is the same, the two tribes would be the same people. For example, Muller says, "Correspondingly, from Hebrew KTV are derived KoTaV, "written," KTiVah, "writing," KTiV, "spelling," KToVet, "inscription," KTaV, "script," KaTaV, "correspondent." In all of these, although various vowels be added, the words all correspond to the same root topic. We will be applying this interesting principle shortly in connecting several seemingly unrelated ancient tribes.
VOWELS
Nineteenth-century scholar, Sir William Betham (1779-1853), was knighted by the King of England for his research into ancient history, language, and archaeology. He had this to say concerning vowels in ancient languages: "Vowels are often substituted for each other: the same words are written promiscuously with an a, o, and u, an e or an i." (6) As an example, he discussed the ancient inhabitants of western Britain, "the Welsh, who have ever called themselves by the name of Cymri, Cimbri, or Cumbri." (7) As can be easily seen, the name of this ancient tribe has been variously spelled with differing vowels: Y (often called a "pseudo-vowel"), I, and U. Such variations are a good example of the common vowel shifts which are found in the name of this historic people, who we will learn more of shortly.
Another scholar of renown was Dr. Richard Cumberland (1632-1718), Anglican Bishop of England in the early 17th century. He authored several celebrated books, and was well-regarded in his day for his expertise in ancient history and languages. He wrote, "The learned will not wonder at change of vowels in a name, especially when its made by authors of different countries and times, because they know this is a thing very usual; yet for the service of readers that are not much used to such changes, I will give proof thereof."
"Wherefore, I have observed, that in Jeremiah 48:23, our translation calls a place in Moab, Beth Meon, which signifies the house or temple of Meon, agreeably to the Hebrew text and to the Chaldee paraphrase. But the Septuagint calls it the house of Maon; and so doth the vulgar Latin. The Moabites agreed with the Egyptians in their idolatry, who worshipped their first king and planter as a god, under the name of Osiris. But when they speak of him as a man who first reigned among them, they call him Meon or Menes, with a Greek termination: Which word, Bochart well observes, signifies habitations or places to dwell in, which he brought them to and settled them in." Samuel Bochart (1599-1667) was a well-known Huguenot scholar.
"Now, by the same reason that Meon is changed into Maon, Menes must become Manes, as he is called in Herodotus and Dionysius Halicarnassensis, or Manis, as this god and powerful potentate is called by Plutarch de Iside. (8)
On the subject of vowels, Professor Cyrus H. Gordon, who is perhaps the leading American archaeologist of the twentieth century, stated concerning a Hebrew Old Testament name, "The ancient Hebrew text... has only the consonants...which were later supplied with vowels to make a verbal noun of it." (10) In the 6th century, A.D., Hebrew scholars added vowel marks to the text of the Hebrew Bible in an attempt to restore the original pronumciation of words. But in some cases, with words not commonly used, they had to guess what the original vowel signs should have been. One example of this is the word, Gomer, which was used in the text of Genesis, Hoseh, and Ezekiel between 1200 and 600 B.C., well over a millennium before post-New-Testament-era scholars added vowel marks. Scholars now know that the letter-sound "O" was not in use in Semitic languages in ancient times. Linguist C.B.F. Walker says that the ancient Semitic languages used the four vowel sounds a, e, i, and u. (Reading the Past, p. 26)
Dr. Isaac Mozeson adds, "The Bible has no vowel marks in the original, handwritten parchment form...Vowels are certainly interchangeable, and ought to be largely ignored when comparing words from different languages." (9) We will therefore remove the vowels in comparing the names of the following four mysterious peoples in ancient times.
It is true that some Semitic languages, such as Hebrew, originally contained no written vowels at all, but only consonants, with the vowels supplied by the reader. The drawback to this is obvious: Different speakers might use different vowels, creating a slightly different pronunciation of the same words. As an example, the name of God in Hebrew consisted of the four consonantal characters, YHVH, and is therefore called the tetragramation, meaning "four letters." Centuries later, a scholarly argument is raging concerning whether the name of God was originally pronounced Yahweh, Yahvee, Yahvah, or something similar. The solution may perhaps never be known, because of the absence of vowels in ancient written Hebrew. Indeed, it is possible that more than one pronunciation was in use in ancient times, due to the absence of stated vowels to guide the speaker.
III. FOUR TRIBAL NAMES
These two principles, concerning consonants and vowels in ancient languages, will help us in identifying several ancient tribal names which are prominent in the Bible and ancient history. These are the:
· KHUMRI
· GIMIRRAI
· CIMMERIANS
· GOMER
These names at first notice appear to be entirely different peoples - or are they? Modern scholars now admit that at least three of them are only different forms of the same tribal name. To see that this is the case, let us first examine the above names using our language principle concerning consonants. Since the guttural consonants KH, G, and C are all interchangeable, we can rewrite these names as follows: (Note that in the third name, we can drop the "ANS" which is simply a Greek suffix indicating proper names. This gives us:
· GUMRI
· GIMIRRAI
· GIMMERI (ANS)
· GOMER
This helps to make the picture clearer, but we need to also realize that vowel shifts, or changes in the vowels used in a name, were frequent occurrences. In addition, some ancient languages did not include vowels in their writing at all. Therefore, the identity of these four can be most easily seen if we write them using the consonants only:
· GMR
· GMRR
· GMMR
· GMR
Repetition of consonants, as seen in the second and third names above, was also a common occurrence. Therefore, by the grammatical rules governing language, all four tribes must be one and the same people. Who were they? Let's examine them one at a time.
IV. MANY NAMES, ONE PEOPLE
THE "KHUMRI" OR "GOMRI"
When the conquering armies of the nation of Assyria came against the ten-tribe kingdom of the house of Israel late in the eighth century, B.C., they did not refer to God's People as "Israel" or "Jews." Instead, the Assyrian word for them was, "Khumri." This has been established through the deciphering of Assyrian "cuneiform" clay tablets. Ancient historian, Alan Ralph Millard, in his recent book, "Treasures from Bible Times," says, "In 1846 men working for Henry Layard on the site of the ancient Assyrian city of Calah (Nimrud) uncovered a block of polished black stone, carved and inscribed. The 'Black Obelisk' records the triumphs of the Assyrian king, Shalmaneser... The first panel in the second line of pictures proved exciting. The text above the kneeling figure lists tribute brought to the king from 'Yaua son of [Khumri]' that is, Jehu, who took the throne from a descendant of Omri, king of Israel." (11) Millard reproduces the Assyrian words mentioning Israel, along with a literal translation.
Famed 19th century archaeologist, Sir Henry Layard, rediscovered the ancient Assyrian cities, and remarked, "An identification connected with this word KHUMRI or Omri is one of the most interesting instances of corroborative evidence that can be adduced of the accuracy of the interpretations of the cuneiform character...Sargon is called on the monuments of Khorsabad, 'the conqueror of Samaria and of the circuit of Beth KHUMRI'...Samaria having been built by Omri, nothing is more probable than that - in accordance with a common Eastern custom - it should have been called, after its founder, Beth KHUMRI, or the house of Omri." (12) Samaria was the capital of the Ten-Tribe Israel nation. The Assyrians named the Israelites after their King Omri, which they pronounced "Khumri" or "Gomri." This is not surprising, because the Israelites, as well, often gutturalized the pronunciation of the Hebrew "O" by prefixing to it the sound of a "G" or a "Kh." Hebrew scholar Mozeson gives, as examples, "The correct guttural pronunciation of 'olum' (world, eternity) is really 'kholum'," (13) and the city-name, "Amora," is pronounced in Hebrew, "Gomorrah." (14)
So the first mysterious tribe of our ancient list, the Khumri or Gomri, are definitely identified by ancient inscriptions as Israelites of the so-called, "lost ten tribes," who disappeared from history in the Caspian Sea region of Medo-Persia during the late 8th century and early 7th century, B.C.
THE "GIMIRRAI, GOMER, CIMBRI, CELTS, TEUTONS"
The Encyclopedia Britannica says, "Certain it is that in the middle of the 7th century, B.C., Asia Minor was ravaged by northern nomads (Herodotus iv. 12), one body of whom is called in Assyrian sources Gimirrai and is represented as coming through the Caucasus. They were probably Iranian speakers, to judge by the few proper names preserved. The name has also been identified with the biblical Gomer, son of Japheth (Gen. x. 2,3). Later writers identified them with the Cimbri of Jutland, who were probably Teutonized Celts..." (15)
It is fascinating that the Gimirrai suddenly appeared out of seeming nowhere in the same century as the lost tribes of Israel disappeared, yet no scholar ventures to investigate a link between them. The additional mention of "Iranian" (i.e., Medo-Persian) words in the Gimirrai vocabulary indicates some physical contact between the Gimirrai and Medo-Persians, such as the captive Israelites might have been expected to have had. Historian Sharon Turner, in fact, stated that he identified 262 Medo-Persian loan-words in the Anglo-Saxon-Cimmerian vocabulary. (16) Who were these mysterious people? According to scholars, the Gimirrai, Gomer, Cimbri, Teutons, and Celts are all linked together as the same people. By applying the rules of language, we realize that the "Gimirrai" were also the same people as the "Khumri," who have been positively identified as Israelites of the lost ten tribes. It is therefore no coincidence that the lost tribes of Israel disappeared in Medo-Persia-Iran (II Kings 17:6), the birthplace of the Gimirrai.
The same Encyclopedia Britannica article has this to say about the people known today as Cimmerians: "An ancient people of the far north or west of Europe, first spoken of by Homer (Odyssey, xi. 12-19), who describes them as living in perpetual darkness. Herodotus (iv. 11-13), in his account of Scythia, regards them as the early inhabitants of South Russia (after whom the Bosporus Cimmerius and other places were named.)" (17) The same encyclopedia reference also traces the European "Cymry" and "Celts" to this same people. There seems to be no question in historian's minds, that whoever these Cimmerians were, they were the ancestors of a significant branch of the modern people of Europe. (See box below) Again, by applying the two basic linguistic rules mentioned previously, it may be seen that the Cimmerians were none other than the Khumri or Gomri, the lost ten tribes.
BIBLE "GOMER" MIGRATED TO EUROPE
"Gomer...a people known in Assyrian inscriptions as Gamir or Gimirrai. They are the Cimmerians of ancient Greek literature...According to the Greek author Homer, the Cimmerians... appeared in the northern provinces of the Assyrian Empire at the time of Sargon II, during the 8th century, B.C....Poets of the time spoke of the "Cimmerian Bosporos," and the Armenians still call part of their country Gamir. It is thought that the Crimea bears their name to the present day." -Adventist Bible Commentary, vol. 1, p. 269
"...In Yoma 10a and Yer. Meg.i.9...stands either for "Cimmerii" or for "Germany". -The Jewish Encyclopedia, vi:40
"Gomer: ...Most of the interpreters take him to be the ancestor of the Celtae, and more especially of the Cimmerii." -Popular & Critical Bible Encyclopedia, ii:726
"Gomer...became identified with the German Cimbri and the Celtic Cymry." "The old sound of their name is still retained in the mouth of the inhabitants of Wales, who call themselves Cumri or Cymry, and their land Cymru." -Franz Delitzsch, quoted in Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, by John Peter Lange, xiii:362
"The Cimbri, as well as the Cumry or Cymry in Wales, and in Bretagne [Britain], are to be regarded as in relation with the Cimmerians." -Commentary on the Holy Scriptures, by John Peter Lange, i:348
V. WHO WAS GOMER?
The eminent Christian historian and archaeologist, Dr. Henry Sayce, stated, "Gomer is the Gimirra of the Assyrian inscriptions, the Kimmerians of the Greek writers." (18) Many reference works associate the names Gimirrai and Cimmerians with Gomer, connecting all three together (see references above) using the very same established linguistic rules we have presented. In fact, because the ancient Hebrew language did not contain vowels, the present rendering of "Gomer" is a later construction. Since it is now known that the original Assyrian word for Israel was pronounced "Khumri," and the Babylonian was "Gamir" or "Gimirrai," it is probable that the original vowel-less Hebrew word was pronounced similar to these actual forms, as well. This information is known through the reading of ancient source documents which give us an accurate view of the 7th century, B.C. world that was not possible until recent years.
The first scholarly reference above tells us that the Gimirrai suddenly appeared in history during the reign of Sargon II, 722-705 B.C. He was the Assyrian king who conquered Samaria and deported the Israelites to the Assyrian-controlled province of Medo-Persia. It is amazing that historians never notice the tremendous "coincidence" of this: The first historical notice of the existence of the Gimirrai was during the same 17 years that the Israelite-Gomri-Khumri were deported and lost to history in that same province!
GOMER IN GENESIS
But the connection of "Gomer" or "Gimirrai" with ancient Israel has been clouded by confusion over reference to them in the tenth chapter of Genesis, the so-called "register of nations." In Genesis 10:2-3, we read, "The sons of Japheth; Gomer, and Magog, and Madai, and Javan, and Tubal, and Meshech, and Tiras. And the sons of Gomer; Ashkenaz, and Riphath, and Togarmah." A literal, racial interpretation of these verses would make Gomer (or Gimir) a son of Japheth, and not of Shem as the Israelites were. But there are at least two important reasons why this is not so. First, Japheth lived at the time of the Noahic flood, which has been dated by Christian scholars to about 3400 B.C., more than 2,500 years before King Omri, who reigned about 882 to 871 B.C. As shown previously, the Israelites were called "Khumri" or "Gimirri" after King Omri; clearly, the "Gomer" in Genesis chapter ten is ages before his time!
Secondly, the tenth chapter of Genesis is a geographic representation of nations, rather than racial, and is allegorical rather than literal. We believe in taking the Bible literally whenever possible, interpreting allegorically only when a literal explanation cannot apply, such as the case here. It has been shown by scholars that the national relationships found in Genesis Ten do not fit a literal, racial interpretation. For example, Dr. Sayce says, "The tenth chapter of Genesis is ethnographical rather than ethnological. It does not profess to give an account of the different races of the world and to separate them one from another according to their various characteristics. It is descriptive merely, and such races of men as fell within the horizon of the writer are described from the point of view of the geographer and not of the ethnologist. The Greeks and Medes, for example, are grouped along with the Tibarenian and Moschian tribes because they all alike lived in the north; the Egyptian and the Canaanite are similarly classed together, while the Semitic Assyrian and the non-Semitic Elamite are both the children of Shem. We shall never understand the chapter rightly unless we bear in mind that its main purpose is geographical. In Hebrew, as in other Semitic languages, the relation between a mother-state to its colony, or of a town or country to its inhabitants, was expressed in a genealogical form. The inhabitants of Jerusalem were regarded as 'the daughter of Jerusalem,' the people of the east were 'the children' of the district to which they belonged." (19)
Dr. Sayce points out that this is the reason the South Arabian tribe of Sheba is listed twice in Genesis Ten, once under the designation of Ham in verse seven, and again listed under Shem in verse twenty-eight. The tribe of Sheba originated in the south, later spreading a colony far to the north to clash with Assyria in the days of Tiglath-Pilesar and Shalmanesar. (20) Sayce further remarks, "When, therefore, we are told that 'Canaan begat Zidon his first-born, and Heth,' all that is meant is that the city of Sidon, and the Hittites to whom reference is made, were alike to be found in the country called Canaan. It does not follow that there was any ethnological kinship between the Phoenician builders of Sidon and the prognathous [i.e., 'protruding-jaw'] Hittites from the north. Indeed, we know from modern research that there was none." (21) Sayce, in fact, reproduces Egyptian drawings of both Phoenicians and Hittites, (shown in the printed form of this tract) showing graphically that there was a dramatic difference in racial features (and therefore origins) between these two peoples. Similarly, Assyria, Elam, and Babylonia (Arphaxad) were called brethren, "not because the natives of them claimed descent from a common father, but because they occupied the same quarter of the world." (22) Ancient races portrayed on Egyptian monuments are shown in the printed version of this tract, reproduced from Sayce's book. Included are a king of the Hittites (with pigtail), Hittite soldiers, an Israelite, and a chief of Ganata or Gath, showing Phoenician-Canaanite features. (23)
PROPHETIC NAMES FOR ISRAEL
GOMER: Assyrian, Khumri or Gomri; Babylonian, Gimirrai or Gamir, Greek, Cimmerian; English/Welsh, Cymry, Cimbri, Cumbri, or Celt
JEZREEL: "Scattered" into Assyrian dispersion 762-676 B.C.
LO-RUHAMAH: "Not pitied" by God because their sins received a just recompense.
LO-AMMI: "Not God's People," because they were divorced by Him and sent away to a far land.. Scholars have traced their migration through the Caucasus Mountain region and into Europe in the early pre-Christian centuries.
SONS OF THE LIVING GOD: "Christians" -Israel's ultimate restoration would later come when they accepted Christ as Savior, becoming His Bride at the marriage supper of the lamb.
GOMER IN HOSEH
The name, Gomer, appears again in an interesting passage in Hoseh 1:3. The Encyclopedia Britannica comments on that prophetic book by saying,: "The most interesting and important problem of the book relates to the marriage of Hosea, which is closely related to the form and content of his message. According to the first chapter, Hosea is commanded to take a harlot for his wife and children of harlotry; he therefore marries Gomer bath Diblaim, who subsequently has three children, to whom the prophet gives symbolic names that he may make them the texts of prophetic messages concerning Israel." (24) In prophetic symbolism, the prophet Hoseh marries an Israelite harlot named "Gomer," (probably originally pronounced "Gomri" or "Gimir") symbolizing the Ten Tribes of Israel, who true to the prophecy became known as Gimirrai or Cimmerians. In God's eyes, Israel indeed was a harlot adulterating herself with false worship, and the fact she is purposely called "Gomer" shows that people to be ethnic Israelites. The symbolism continues with their children's names: Jezreel, (meaning "scattered"), Lo-Ruhamah ("not pitied"), and Lo-Ammi ("not my people"). As these prophetic names show, Israel was punished by being conquered, scattered in the Assyrian dispersion, and divorced by God. Hoseh's words therefore make no logical prophetic sense unless "Gomer" and her offspring were lost and dispersed Israel and their descendants. Hoseh 1:10 is appropriate here: "In the place where it was said unto them, 'You are not my people,' (i.e., no longer recognized as Israel and perhaps blind to their true identity), there shall they be called, 'sons of the living God.' (i.e., "Christ-sons" or Christians, an indication that a Spiritual transformation in them would later occur). History recorded the fulfillment of that prophecy when the "Celtic-Cimmerian" peoples migrated into Europe, accepted Christianity, and became known as Christendom, or "Christ's Kingdom."
"Hoseh's words make no logical prophetic sense unless Gomer and her offspring were lost and dispersed Israel."
GOMER IN EZEKIEL
One last important reference to Gomer needs to be mentioned, which appears in Ezekiel chapter 38. Gomer is listed as joining a confederacy led by "Gog, chief prince of Meschech and Tubal." Gomer apparently does not lead this confederacy, nor are the other listed confederate nations Israelites. In addition, one should not assume that all of the lost tribes, Gomer/Gamir, are allied with Gog, but only one portion. So it is primarily a non-Israel invading force, which also includes some number of Israelites. Therefore, dispensationalists who identify Gomer as Europe may be at least partially right in that identification, because the Celtic-Cymry race did spread throughout Europe, before colonizing North America, Australia, South Africa, and other lands. But because Gog's army invades the "mountains of Israel," they assume that Gomer itself must not be Israelite. That assumption has little basis. Israelites have warred among themselves since the kingdom was divided into Israel and Judah after the time of Solomon, about 975 B.C. Whether the battle typified in Ezekiel is literal or allegory is impossible to predict beforehand, but that it represents to some degree yet another fratricidal war between Israelites seems obvious.
One possible fulfillment was addressed in the old nineteenth-century prophecy, "GEORGE WASHINGTON'S VISION," a prophetic vision received by America's first President during the Revolutionary War. It speaks of a confederacy comprised of "Europe, Asia, and Africa" coming in battle against America: "Then my eyes beheld a fearful scene: From each of these countries arose thick, black clouds that were soon joined into one." The late Professor C.A.L. Totten of Yale University wrote in the year 1898: "The third and last peril clearly indicates a future invasion of our country by the Old World. The drift of events and Bible prophecy indicate that a great combination of powers will be the actor." (25) In the prophecy, help against this peril comes in the form of divine assistance, apparently the Second Advent.
"GOMER WAS AN ISRAELITE..."
-Dr. Thomas Scott's Bible Commentary,
Vol. IV, p. 704, Hoseh 1:2 (1864)
VI. SUMMARY: TWO CERTAINTIES
The Encyclopedia Britannica article we quoted states that it is "certain" that the tribe of Gomer is identified with the Celts, Teutons, and related peoples of Europe. We have found through linguistics (the study of languages), as well as through Bible prophecy in Hoseh, that the people called Gomer or Gimir are in fact Israelites. Linguistically, Israel's name, Khumri, is the phonetic equivalent of the European, Cymri; and Gomri/Khumri is also the consonantal equivalent to Gomer, Gimir, and Cimmiri. Therefore, if it is indeed a certainty that Gomer is found in the Europeans of today, then it is an equal certainty that those same Europeans are Israelites.
We have quoted sources that find these Cymry-Celtic people in England, Wales, and Germany. The Encyclopedia Britannica further traces them to Scandinavia, Scotland, France, Belgium, Switzerland, Spain, Italy, and Russia; in fact, they spread themselves throughout the continent of Europe. The Britannica also reveals that the New Testament Epistle to the Galatians was written to them,26 in which the Apostle Paul refers to them as "the sons of Abraham." (Galatians 3:7)
It is odd that scholars so easily admit to certainty concerning the relationship between the names Gomer, Gimirrai, and Cimmeri, yet are silent concerning the name Khumri. It is never mentioned or investigated. Author and historian Geoffrey Ashe, mentioned earlier, states that it is "altogether too complicated" and "a theme for speculation only." That argument is rather specious, since it never appears "too complicated" for them to positively link the other three names Gomer, Gimirrai, and Cimmeri, using the same rules!
Mr. Ashe also speaks of "alleged linguistic coincidences" which support the Anglo-Israel view. But there is nothing either alleged or coincidental about it. The information we have presented is based upon standard, accepted grammatical rules, and the known fact that Israel was the Khumri of the ancient inscriptions. Since the name Gomri/Khumri is the consonantal equivalent of Gomer, Gimir, and Cymri, it would indeed be a strange "coincidence" if they were not identical peoples! Scholars don't consider the identity of the latter three as coincidence, but as fact!
What does this mean to you and I who trace our roots to this same Biblical people? It is a tremendous heritage and responsibility that we realize. Israel was to be God's servant nation, and a light to the world. Israel, too, would receive many promises, including Jacob's blessing as outlined in Genesis chapter 49. The knowledge of your identity should inspire and invigorate you with evangelical fervor, to make a positive difference in your world and to serve God more faithfully each day. The Anglo-Israel identity is now a proven fact! What you do with this knowledge is up to you. See to it that you make your calling and election sure! (2Peter 1:10)
FOOTNOTES:
Geoffrey Ashe, article: "Lost Tribes Of Israel," in "The Encyclopedia of Myth and Magic," pp. 1645-1646.
Dr. O'Brien, quoted in Betham, "Etruria-Celtica," 1842, vol. 1, p. 59
McClintock & Strong's Encyclopedia, vol. 2, p. 603
Dr. Isaac Elchanan Mozeson, "The Word," 1989, p. 39
ibid., p. 49
Sir William Betham, "Etruria-Celtica," 1842, vol. 1, p. 58
ibid., p. 14
Dr. Richard Cumberland, "Origines Gentium Antiquissimae; or, Attempts For Discovering the Times Of the First Planting of Nations," London, 1724, p. 331
Dr. Cyrus H. Gordon, "The Common Background Of Greek And Hebrew Civilizations," W.W. Norton & Co., 1965, p. 138
Mozeson, p. 10
Alan Ralph Millard, "Treasures From Bible Times," 1985, p. 31
Sir Austen Henry Layard, "Discoveries Among The Ruins Of Assyria And Babylon," G.P. Putnam & Sons, 1853, chapter 26, pp. 492-494 abridged edition; pp. 612-614 unabridged edition
Mozeson, p. 48
ibid., p. 80
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1957, vol. v, p. 707-8
Sharon Turner, "History of the Anglo-Saxons," 1836, p. 100
Encyclopedia Britannica, ibid., p. 707
Dr. A. H. Sayce, "Races of the Old Testament," 1925, p. 71
ibid., p. 65-66
ibid., p. 67
ibid., p. 66
ibid., p. 66-67
ibid., frontispiece
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1957, vol. xi, p.783
National Forecast Magazine, vol. xix, Oct., 1959
Encyclopedia Britannica, 1910, vol. v, p. 611-614
The Other Exodus
Forgotten History of the
Danite Exodus from Egypt!
In the days of the Pharaohs, we read of an adventurous hero named Danaos and his followers who dwelled in Egypt. Then came an event, or series of events now corrupted by the mists of time, which caused them to be exiled by the Egyptians. Recorded history then tells us that they boarded ships in Egypt and sailed away to establish new homes in Greece.
The beginning of Greek history is often dated to this “exile” of Danaos and his followers, called Danaoi or Danaan, from Egypt. This event has been dated by historians to about 1450 to 1493 B.C. However, it is significant that the Hebrew exodus from Egypt is dated to the very same time-period: 1447 to 1491 B.C. Are these two events related? Could indeed the Danaan “exile” from Egypt have been a part of the Hebrew “exodus”? An analysis of ancient records indicates that this was indeed the case.
The Hebrew Exodus
The exodus — that wondrous event by which “the Lord did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt” (Ex. 12:51) — has been called Israel’s Independence Day and the turning point in world history. The starting point of their journey was the city of Rameses, located about six miles from the present Egyptian capitol of Cairo. As God’s people set forth on their trek out of Egypt to the Promised Land, Pharaoh pursued with 600 chariots (Ex. 14:7), a mighty host that must have stretched a half-mile long at three abreast, plus an unknown large number of foot soldiers. Into an opening of the Red Sea they rushed! God temporarily held back the flood, creating a dry pathway long enough to allow His covenant people to escape, but Pharaoh and his army perished as the sea returned. This miraculous event is memorialized in the Song of Moses (Ex. 15:1-18), and sung in victory by the redeemed Overcomers in the Millennial scene of Revelation 15. It is therefore a type or shadow of the New Covenant victory of Christians over unbelief, sin and evil, and contains lessons for us all to benefit from today.
First century, B.C., Greek historian, Diodorus Siculus, gave collaborating evidence from the Egyptian point-of-view for the truth of the Bible’s exodus account. Of the Hebrews, he said, “Their forefathers had been banished out of the whole of Egypt... in order to purify the land.” (The History Of Antiquity, p.458) There was some truth to this assertion, after Egypt had endured the horrible swarms of insects and pestilential diseases of the ten plagues!
Early Greek geographer and historian, Strabo (born 63 B.C.), also lent support to the Biblical account, saying, “Moses told them and taught that the Egyptians were not right in representing the divinity as a wild or domesticated animal, nor the Libyans, nor were the Hellenes wise in giving gods the form of men. For only the One was God which surrounds us all... By such doctrines Moses convinced not a few men of reason, and led them to the place where Jerusalem now is.” (ibid., p. 459) These “doctrines” of Moses are known as the Ten Commandments. You can read them yourself in Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 5.
A Second Exodus
Some historians say that the Egyptians left no contemporary surviving accounts of the presence of Hebrews and the exodus. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (iv:7) reports, however, that as early as the 15th century, “Egyptian texts… mention… a foreign people called “Apuriu” residing in Egypt and performing the service of slaves.” The encyclopedia further states that these people are identified by many scholars as the Habiru or Hebrews. Ancient records also report that a Semitic people called Danaan were expelled from Egypt, and sailed to Greece to establish the early Greek civilization. Could the fabled Danaan be a reference to the Biblical Hebrew tribe of Dan? William Ridgeway’s Early Age of Greece (p.220) dated the Danaan exodus from Egypt as 1450 B.C. This is virtually identical to the date of the Hebrew exodus, which is dated to 1447 B.C. by Dr. Stephen E. Jones and 1453 B.C. in Dr. Adam Rutherford’s Bible Chronology (p.120). Other historians use slightly differing dates: The History of Etruria (p.95) by Mrs. Hamilton Gray dates the Danaan exile at 1493 B.C., which compares to a Hebrew exodus of 1491 B.C. according to Bishop Usher’s dating. (McClintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia III:396) Two unrelated Egyptian exoduses did not occur at the same time! Historic evidence indicates that the Danaan were the seafaring Biblical tribe of Dan and were therefore part of the Hebrew Exodus. The Bible tells us that the tribe of Dan were seafarers who “stayed in their ships.” (Judges 5:17) The Bible also gives much other evidence of Hebrew seafaring in ancient times, as related in our companion study Ancient Hebrew Sea Migrations.
It should be mentioned that some Christian expositors date the exodus two centuries later, around 1225-1275 B.C., trying to fit a full 400-year captivity entirely within Egypt through a misunderstanding of the Scripture record. (See Secrets Of Time, by Dr. Stephen E. Jones for details on this issue.) Many scholars agree that this date is too late, and conflicts with the time of the Judges. In addition, Egyptian monuments during the 14th century refer to a region of western Galilee as “Aseru,” which was settled by the Hebrew tribe of Asher after the settlement of Canaan. (Jewish Encyclopedia 2:180) Therefore, Israel had to have already settled Canaan by that time. The Jewish Encyclopedia also points out that “I Kings 6:1 fixes the interval between the exodus and the building of the Temple at over 480 years. Rehoboam — 41 years after the building of the Temple (I Kings 14:25) — is contemporaneous with Shishak, the first king of the twenty-second dynasty (c.950 B.C.) This would give about 1470 B.C. for the Exodus. The finding by Flinders Petrie (1896) of an inscription by Merneptah I, in which for the first time Isir’l occurs in an Egyptian text, as well as the contents of the El-Amarna tablets, has corroborated the virtual correctness of the date given above.” (5:296) This date of 1470 B.C. is exactly in the middle of the narrow date range given by other scholars for both the Hebrew exodus and the Danaan exile from Egypt.
The Semitic Danaan, the Tribe of Dan
The Semitic identity of the ancient Danaan sailors has been commented on by historians. G.F. Schomann stated, “Even among the ancients some considered that the [Danaan] settlers who arrived [in Greece] from Egypt were at any rate not of Egyptian descent, but adventurers of Semitic race, who, having been expelled from Egypt, had some of them turned towards Greece.” (Antiquities Of Greece, p.12)
These Danaan were not only Semitic; they were Hebrews, according to ancient Egyptian records. Professor Max Duncker, in The History Of Antiquity (I:456-466), gave fascinating details of a two-fold land/sea exodus as told in an ancient Egyptian account: “The narrative of Hecataeus of Abdera, who was in Egypt in the time of Ptolemy I, and wrote an Egyptian history, gives us the most unprejudiced account, composed from the widest point of view, and connects the emigration of the Hebrews, whom he does not consider Egyptians, with the supposed emigration from Egypt to Greece. [Hecataeus says,] “Once, when a pestilence had broken out in Egypt, the cause of the visitation was generally ascribed to the anger of the gods. [Editor’s Note: The Ten Plagues are called a “pestilence” in Exodus 9:14-15, and were indeed caused by God!] As many strangers dwelt in Egypt, and observed different customs in religion and sacrifice, it came to pass that the hereditary worship of the gods was being given up in Egypt. The Egyptians, therefore, were of opinion that they would obtain no alleviation of the evil unless they removed the people of foreign extraction. [Note: This “removal” is the Egyptian appellation for the exodus of Scripture.] When they were driven out, the noblest and bravest part of them, as some say, under noble and renowned leaders, Danaus and Cadmus, came to Hellas [Greece]; but the great bulk of them migrated into the land, not far removed from Egypt, which is now called Judea. These emigrants were led by Moses, who was the most distinguished among them for wisdom and bravery.” Hecataeus of Abdera was a Greek historian living in fourth century B.C. Egypt under Ptolemy I, a general of Alexander the Great. In the extract above, this ancient historian clearly connected both the Hebrews and the Danaan as part of the same exodus. Therefore, the Danaan were in fact the Biblical tribe of Dan — a seafaring tribe and part of the Hebrew exodus.
Another marvelous account, although also spoken with a decidedly Egyptian bias, is that of Lysimachus of Alexandria (355-281 B.C.), whose history was preserved by Flavius Josephus in Contra Apionem: “At the time of king Bocchoris [possibly the Greek name for the Pharaoh of the exodus], unclean and leprous men had come into the temples to beg for food. Hence there was a blight on the land; and Bocchoris received a response from Ammon [an Egyptian god], that the temples must be purified. The lepers, as if the sun were angry at their existence, were to be plunged into the sea, and the unclean were to be driven out of the land. Hence the lepers were... thrown into the sea; but the unclean were driven out helpless into the desert. These met together in council; in the night they lit fires and lights, and called, fasting, upon the gods to save them. Then a certain Moses advised them to go through the desert till they came to inhabited regions... they established a city Hierosyla [Jerusalem] in Judea...” (ibid., p. 463)
This ancient historic document provides evidence that the exodus involved two distinct groups with different destinations. Some of the Hebrews expelled from Egypt in the exodus were “thrown into the sea” and sailed north across the Mediterranean to found the earliest civilization in Greece, while Moses led the rest of Israel eastward “helpless into the desert” of the Wilderness.
The Exile From Egypt
What happened to cause Danaus and his followers to be expelled from Egypt? The reason handed down from the mists of time has obvious corruption to it. The Egyptian accounts refer to two brothers, Danaus and Aegyptus. Danaus was said to have 50 sons, who each married one of the 50 daughters of Aegyptus. According to the legend, each of the daughters then slew their husbands on their wedding night. (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., 7:793) Aegyptus was also said to have “driven out” Danaus from Egypt. Danaus therefore designates some people who had dwelled in Egypt, and Aegyptus seems to indicate a personification of the land of Egypt itself. This strange and contorted legend, if rooted on an actual historic event, seems to indicate that some form of mass slaughter had occurred. It is far more likely that we have here evidence of the tenth plague on Egypt, the slaughter of the firstborn. This event was indeed the decisive event that caused Pharaoh to order the Hebrews to leave the land of Egypt. (Ex.12:29-33)
The waterway systems of ancient Egypt played an important part, since the Danaan went into exile on sea-going ships. The modern Suez Canal, linking the Red Sea northward to the Mediterranean, had not yet been built. Instead, a series of canals and waterways linked the Nile River eastward to the Red Sea. Encyclopedia Britannica, in an article on the Suez Canal, states: “And so it is that the earliest canals of which history has mention were constructed to link the Nile valley to the Red sea and not to pierce the narrow neck of land which separated the latter from the Mediterranean… As early as 2000 B.C., a canal linked the Pelusiac branch of the Nile, via the Wadi Tumilat, with the Bitter Lakes, whence another channel was dug to the Red sea.”
Historian Alexander Wheelock Thayer, in The Hebrews In Egypt And Their Exodus, presents evidence that on the night the exodus began, Moses had a Hebrew force seize the boats on the Nile as well as those on the canal leading to the Red Sea. Thayer says, “This may reasonably have been, to seize all the shipping and boats on the canal and Jam Suph about Pithom, to hasten… the business of crossing” the Red Sea. Thayer assumes that Moses would have been unaware that God would open a footpath through the Red Sea, and originally planned to cross by boat. It also assumes that Moses planned to patiently ferry, presumably in many hundreds of trips, all of the hundreds of thousands of people, animals, and belongings of Israel across the Red Sea while fleeing Egyptian pursuit! This would have been impractical, since “the total number of Israelites [were] probably about two millions. This number is accepted by the best critics.” (Biblical Encyclopedia by Gray and Adams I:191)
For whatever reason, a Red Sea crossing by boat was never attempted, for the Bible does not record the presence of any boats as the Israelites approached the Sea. Therefore, if Egyptian boats were seized for the exodus, a different plan was in place. The boats were apparently used instead by the Danite sailors as vehicles to escape from Egypt. The exodus was most probably two-pronged. It was an escape by both land and sea from the land of Pharaoh!
Danite Migrations To Europe
Whether it was their original intention or not, the Danaan sailed their ships north to the secluded bay of Argos in the Greek Peloponnesus. The Encyclopedia Judaica (5:1257) quotes a leading Israeli archaeologist, Y. Yadin, who states, “...there is a close relationship between the tribe of Dan and the tribe of Danaoi whose members were clearly seafarers.” This encyclopedia also tells us, “the name Dan should be regarded as a short form of Dan(ann)iel or the like.” (5:1255) Again the connection with the Greek Danaan is unmistakable. Dr. Robert Latham, one of the most respected 19th century authorities, firmly stated that the Danaan of Greece were the Israelite Tribe of Dan. In his Ethnology of Europe, Latham commented, “Neither do I think that the eponymus [i.e., founder] of the Argive [Greek] Danai was other than that of the Israelite tribe of Dan; only we are so used to confine ourselves to the soil of Palestine in our consideration of the history of the Israelites, that we... ignore the share they may have taken in the ordinary history of the world.” (p. 137)
Archaeologist Dr. Cyrus Gordon states that they later sailed from Greece to other European coastlands, including Ireland and Denmark. In his book Before Columbus, Gordon relates, “A group of Sea People bore the name of ‘Dan.’ The Bible tells how a segment of the seafaring (Judges 5:17) Danites [were part of] the tribal system of ancient Israel... The Danites were widespread. Cyprus was called Ia-Dnan ‘The Island of Dan(an).’ The same people were called Danuna, and under this name they appear as rulers of the Plain of Adana in Cilicia. Greek tradition has their eponymous ancestor, Danaos (Dan), migrating from the Nile delta to Greece...” (p.108) Note that the Israelites did in fact emigrate from Egypt. Cyrus Gordon added, “Virgil also designated the Greeks as “Danai.” Bold scholars see the influence of the Danites in Irish folk lore... and in the name of Danmark (‘Denmark’): the land of Dan...” (p. 111)
There is indeed strong evidence that the Danaan of Ireland, Cornwall and Scotland, the Danaan of Greece and Italy, as well as the Danes of Denmark, were Israelites of the tribe of Dan. W. Ewart Gladstone in Juventus Mundi states that the Tuatha de Danaan of Ireland came from the Danaan of Greece. The similarity of name would itself seem conclusive; but is there other evidence that these two groups of Danaan were related? Dr. H.R. Hall, in The Civilization of Greece In The Bronze Age, stated concerning the Greeks of the age of Homer, “Athenian funerary lekythoi [painted vases] give us coppery-red or brown hair side by side with dark-brown or black, and generally fair complexions, resembling a certain Irish Celtic type.” (p.288) Keating’s History of Ireland says, “The Dannans were a people of great learning, they had overmuch gold and silver… they left Greece after a battle with the Assyrians, and for fear of falling into the hands of the Assyrians came to Norway and Denmark (Dannemark) and thence passed over to Ireland.” (p.40) The Annals of Ireland by the Four Masters explains, “The colony called Tuatha-de-Dannan conquered the Firbolgs and became Masters of Ireland… were highly skilled in architecture and other arts from their long residence in Greece and intercourse with the Phoenicians.” (p.121) They have left their names in many places; we find Dannonia, Caledonia, and Donaghadee in the Lough of Belfast. We can see by now it is no coincidence that the early Greeks resembled the Irish Celts, because the Tuatha de Danaan of early Ireland descended from Greek “Danaan” colonists who sailed westward in search of new lands.
These Danaan colonists did indeed settle in Denmark, which name means, ‘Dan’s Mark’ or ‘Dan’s Land.’ In ancient times, Denmark was settled by a tribe called the “Dani,” according to early Roman historian, Procopius (fifth century, A.D.), who recorded that the Dani were a group of tribes inhabiting the Danish peninsula. (VI.xv.1-6) That these were part of the Hebrew tribe of Dan may be seen in the fact mentioned previously that Biblical Dan was called, “Dani-el or Dananniel,” a variation of ‘Dani’ or ‘Danaan.’
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