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Sixty Anglo-Israel Difficulties AnsweredDifficulties 31-40John Wilson, 1877 THIRTY-FIRST. "The Welsh certainly are a most remarkable people, and the Cymri [ABCOG: Cymry is western Wales] were evidently Baal-worshippers." REPLY. - And you might have added that in this way they be identified with Israel, who were likewise noted for similar idolatry. In the ruins of Nineveh a marble slab has been found, which bears on this point of the discussion, and has been translated as follows:- "SARGON MARCHED AGAINST THE CITY OF SAMARIA, AND AGAINST THE TRIBE OF THE BETH KUMRI, OF WHICH HE TOOK AWAY 27,280 FAMILIES INTO ASSYRIA." And in the British Museum is to be seen a black basalt obelisk five feet high, on which this has been deciphered: "The tribute of Yahua ab-il Khumry;" i.e., of Jehu the son of Omri:- "silver, gold, vessels, goblets, pitchers, and other things, all of gold, have I received." And one of the baked clay hexagonal prisms also tells that in the reign of Esarhaddon the Kimmerians were under the leadership of one TUISPA. Now the Israelites of Samaria were often called "Kumri," because of their idolatrous priests called "Chemarim." The Kimbri, Cimbri, Cumry, or Cymri, are always mentioned by Tacitus as making part of the great Germanic race. As "Scythians," they have occupied Denmark, a small part of the north of Germany, and Great Britain, where the Cambrian Scythians and Cymri are called "Welsh;" from Goer (Heb.), "a stranger," which next became "Goel," and then "Woel." Herodotus says (Book 4., s. xi.), that the Cimmerians came from the region called Kimmerion (the country of the Khumri Israelites). Pliny says that the Saccasani gave to their country the name of Saccasena (Saxonia). Sunna signifies "son" (and also the Hebrew Shanah, a repetition). Now the Sacae were the most celebrated of the Scythians (wandering tribes or dwellers in booths.) NOTE. - The Hebrew word "Chemarim" occurs only three times in the Old Testament: 2 Kings 23:5, where it is translated "idolatrous priests;" Hos. 10:5, where it is simply "priests;" and Zeph. 1:4, where the word is given untranslated. In the German Bible the word "Camarim" is retained in all three passages. The letter m, at the end, being merely part of the masculine plural termination, the real word stands KMRY. For further information, consult Layard's "Nineveh," Rawlinson's "Herodotus," "Western Asiatic Inscriptions," and "Parkhurst's Hebrew Lexicon." THIRTY-SECOND. "If they had been Jews, must have brought their rites with them; but they did not bring one." REPLY. - What rites? The Ten Tribes were not "Jews" as we now understand the term. They had forsaken the Law of Moses after the death of Solomon; and God granted them their choice, gave them a bill of divorce, and sent them away; while He retained Judah under the old marriage covenant (Jer. 3; Hos. 1., &c.). ISRAEL never belonged to the synagogue worship adopted by the Jews after their return from Babylon. They had been given over to worship "the host of heaven, the sun and moon, and new gods," such as were worshipped by the Kymri and Saxons, the remembrance of which we retain in the days of our week. But it is not correct to say that in their corrupted form of religion our forefathers were without evidence of their having sprung from ancient Israel. As noticed in the work on "Our Israelitish Origin," in their places, times, and manner of worship, as well as in their forms of government, arts of peace and war, physical, moral, and intellectual constitution, and in their language, which is a gathering up of all the languages spoken between this and Egypt, along the routes by which they have come into Western Europe; by all these - but especially as fulfilling the destiny of Israel when out of the Land - may we know these people to be "The outcasts of Israel," to whom the Lord hath been showing the mercy promised unto our forefathers; and, as in the case of Abraham, simply through faith. For thus it was to be, "That the promise might be sure to all the seed, not to that only which is of the Law" (Rom. 4:16) under which the Jews were, while ISRAEL was divorced and sent away (Jer. 3:11-17). The Promises were not only to the Jewish portion of Israel, but to "that also which is of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all." Israel were to be cut off, cast away, and to appearance lost. But the people nominally lost as "children of Israel," were in truth to be found "sons of the living God" (Hos. 1, 2). It is nothing against this to maintain that our history is dark, and that previous to our submission to the rightful Heir of David's throne, many of our ancestors were fierce pagans. It is far more to the prejudice of our argument that we now act so little like "sons of the living God," and are so feebly employed in conveying blessing to the nations. Yet so it is, that if the Lord have a people upon the earth, they are to be found among the English; and if there be a ministration of blessing at all to the nations, it is through their instrumentality. Soon may we fully awake to the duties of our high calling in Christ Jesus, and as truly realize our oneness in Him in the outpouring of His Spirit, as we have in the past fulfilled the other predictions respecting Israel! Soon may the Tribes of Israel unite in calling for the Return of their King! It is meet that our preparation should precede HIS coming. THIRTY-THIRD. "We are not Jews. We have not their peculiar manners, customs, or physiognomy." REPLY. - ISRAEL never were Jews. Also the Jews have acquired their religious peculiarities since Ephraim separated from them; and more particularly since the Babylonian captivity. Joseph was mistaken, after only a few years' separation, for "a man of the country," by his own brother. And if Judah did not know Joseph, much less is it to be expected that the Jews should recognize us after the families have been separated for thousands of years. And yet many of us bear the peculiar features of the Abrahamic race, even more prominently than the Jews - beauty, activity, integrity, invention, and progress. Our political arrangements and social manners also bear the impress of the institutions of Moses; while our loss of circumcision and seeming change of language may be accounted for by the analogous case of the Jews (Nehemiah 13:24). - "Watchmen of Ephraim," 1:202, 381, &c. When the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans took place, Israel had been 800 years divorced from that old Covenant, of which Circumcision was regarded as the outward sign. Comp. Jer. 3:8 with 1 Kings 18., Hos. 1. Why, then, should they be looked for as retaining it in their longer wanderings in the Northern Wilderness, when all the time of their sojourn in the Wilderness of Sinai, under the leadership of Moses, they left it altogether unobserved? (Josh. 5:7.) Then they expected soon to enter the Land of Promise; but now they had been given a "bill of divorce," and sent away, bereft even of the name and other outward tokens of being the Lord's people. Besides, was it not clearly foretold that ISRAEL, as distinct from Judah, should be "utterly taken away," and that they should be made "Not His People"? (Hos. 2, 3, &c.) THIRTY-FOURTH. In no particular can I see any feature which resembles the peculiarities of the Jews; but very many that are common to the heathen races of Europe and Asia. REPLY. - To do justice to our argument we should not look for the peculiarities of the people called "Jews;" but for those characteristics which the God of our fathers declared it was His purpose to impress upon the people He intended to make use of for conveying His truth and manifesting His goodness to all nations. Let the English especially be judged of in this light - not, indeed, according to the rule of absolute perfection, but as being compared with others, in regard to physical, moral, and intellectual qualities, and whatever may be needful to a race designed for universal stewardship. There is a genial vigor in the Anglo-Saxons, which, of course, best develops under the influence of Protestantism; but it was manifested in its own way before they were nominally acquainted with Christianity; and when converted by Roman missionaries they became the most active and successful belonging to that church. Other races had high civilization, and received the Gospel pure from the teaching of the Apostles; but if they have not retrograded, they have for many centuries made comparatively little advance; whereas the Anglo-Saxons received it when it was being overlaid with superstition, and thus have been privileged to bring it forth in truth for the blessing of all nations. They are partially mixed with the Romanized portions of European population; but where this is least, integrity of character and practical goodness are the most conspicuous; and such as we do not find even among other Christian nations, whether civilized or barbarous, previous to their conversion. The writer of "Our Israelitish Origin" was not singular in recognizing Israelitish customs in those of Britain. One of the most intelligent writers upon the Land of Israel says, "The land was held, like that in our own country, in the times of our Davids and Williams, by military tenure or service. Every Israelite of age was liable, by his feudality, to be called out to bear arms in defence of his country. Each tribe had its own 'elder,' who administered the laws, and led the forces to battle. His subordinate officers were the heads of families, as the emirs and sheiks are among the Arab population of the present day."Hundred Days in the East," by the late Rev. A. P. Black. THIRTY-FIFTH. "The Anglo-Saxons had a plurality of deities; and I am under the impression, at least, that human sacrifices were not infrequently offered up to their deities." REPLY. - It is true that the Israelites ought not to have become idolaters; but there would not then have been the necessity for their expatriation. One of the principal reasons for Moses teaching the children of Israel the words of his remarkable song is thus stated (Deut. 31:29) "For I know that after my death ye will utterly corrupt yourselves, and turn aside from the way which I have commanded you, and evil will befall you in the latter days; because ye will do evil in the sight of the Lord, to provoke Him to anger, through the work of your hands." He also predicted that in "the latter days" it would be said of them (chap. 32:16, 17),- "They provoked Him to jealousy with strange gods, With abominations provoked they Him to anger. They sacrificed to devils, not to God To gods whom they knew not, To new gods that came newly up, Whom your fathers feared not." The Druids, it is said, offered up human sacrifices; but this order of men did not belong to the Anglo-Saxons. Some people are as apt to confound the ancient Britons with the Anglo-Saxons as they are to call the house of ALL ISRAEL "Jews." Only confusion of idea can be expected from such confounding of terms. But even supposing the Anglo-Saxons were guilty of offering up their children in sacrifice, those who expect to find Ephraim by Jewish marks should not object, seeing that "the Jews" were accustomed to cast their children to Moloch, even in the neighborhood of their national Temple at Jerusalem, where Josiah had also to put down "the idolatrous priests" of Baal. THIRTY-SIXTH. "But we have not been dealt with in Judgment, according to the threatenings against Israel" REPLY. - Our forefathers were so dealt with, that, as Israel under the [penalty of the] Law, they were "destroyed" (Hos. 13:9). Then fell they back into "the Everlasting Arms," to be dealt with according to the free promises made to the Fathers, and which Paul identifies with the Gospel (Rom. 15:8). The term of Israel being forsaken by the Lord was to be comparatively "for a small moment" (Isa. 54:7). She was to be followed into the wilderness, and there spoken to "comfortably" by the Lord (Hos. 2:14). When the working of God in Providence is considered in the light of His Word, it will be found that He has been the God of all the families of Israel in their generations (Jer. 30:24; 31:1). And at the time of Israel's restoration Ephraim, the Lord's "Firstborn," is to be discovered AMONG THE GENTILES as "a seed the Lord hath blessed" (Isa. 61:9), as having been corrected in measure, and not left altogether unpunished (Jer. 30:11). God covenanted with Abraham to be the God of his posterity "in their generations" (Gen. 17:7; 28:13-15). The New Covenant, or Testament, was promised to the same people with whom the former Covenant was made (Jer. 31.); and finally, the Bride inhabiting the Heavenly City is found to be more especially of the twelve tribes of Israel (Rev. 21:12). PREVIOUS TO THEIR RESTORATION Israel are recognized as possessing great political power and abundant means of temporal and spiritual blessing (Isa. 58.). The promises made to the Fathers, their opening up by the Prophets, and the indications of the New Testament, all require that Israel should be found A PEOPLE CALLED BY THE NAME OF THE LORD - a Christian people, - AND AMONG THE CHIEF MEN OF THE EARTH (Isa. 41:9). THIRTY-SEVENTH. - "The Hebrew nation is positively to dwell alone, and is not to be numbered with other nations. A plain distinction is to be, kept up; not a vague, uncertain, or casual separation. The Jew is to be a Jew, without ambiguity or question." REPLY. - The Hebrew verb Ghah-shev (Numb. 23:9) is found in this place only in the reflexive form, and the passage should be read "And shall not reckon itself among the nations." So long as Israel were permitted to continue in the Land of Promise, they exulted in their separation from other nations. It was not with their own will that this distinctiveness ceased to exist. It was God's act, consequent upon their disobedience. Yet it may be said the prophecy of Balaam here alluded to regards the number of the people of Israel rather than the distinction of race (ver. 10.) "Who can count the dust of Jacob, and the number of the fourth part of Israel?" If Israel were to be altogether distinct, as some have supposed the Jews to be, of course they could be reckoned up. The words are not so applicable to the Jews, who during nearly the whole Christian dispensation have been without a country of their own, as to ISRAEL; who, besides dwelling here in the British Isles in "a place of their own," are infinitely spread out among the nations of the earth. WE cannot be reckoned up. "The dust of Jacob" cannot be counted. It is not correct to say that no actual admixture with other nations has taken place with regard to the Jews. Facts are opposed to such a theory. They are a very mixed people. They mingled with the people of the Land as soon as they entered it. Even Salmon, prince of Judah, married Rahab, a Canaanitess. In the same line we find Ruth the Moabitess. But such actual admixture of races did not vitiate our Saviour's genealogy. He was the promised "Seed of Abraham." In the time of the Maccabees the Jews subdued the Edomites and forced them to become Jews (Josephus, B. XIII., c. ix. §. i.; Prideaux Conn. Vol. iii., 413,) so that when our Saviour was born, the king of the Jews [Herod] was an Edomite. Herod mingled his blood with that of the highest priestly family of the nation, which by some has been supposed to be altogether apart from other nations. If they were to be apart from any particular people, surely it should be from that against which the Lord said He would have "indignation for ever" (Mal. 1:4.) Yet these Edomites were merged with the Jewish people.... [ABCOG: Wilson's speculation about Edom omitted]. Not only have other peoples been mixed with the Jews. The germs of the first churches were Jewish, and left their descendants not among the people known as Jews, but among the Christians who have been reckoned Gentiles. Are not "all the promises of God yea and amen in Christ Jesus?" Or are those promises respecting Israel's glorious future sure to only the descendants of the Jews who rejected Christ - that Blessed One through whom alone the blessing can come? THIRTY-EIGHTH. "That no actual admixture of races is sufficient to constitute a claim to Jewish privileges is evident from the case of the Samaritans, who as a mongrel race were classed by our Lord with Gentiles, not to be visited by His disciples. Israel was to be a peculiar people, and will be so to the end of time." REPLY. - It has been already shown that even in our Saviour's genealogy an actual admixture of races did take place. It may be questioned whether it was merely "mongrel" descent that prevented the Samaritans from being regarded with favor by the Jews, who received proselytes from among the Gentiles, and even compelled many to become Jews. The mere fact of doubtful descent, or even of undoubted Gentile descent, would not have kept the Samaritans apart from the Jews. It was because they said, "Our fathers worshipped in this mountain" (Gerizim), while the Jews maintained that "Jerusalem is the place where men ought to worship;" it was because they had a different center of unity, and were acting in disobedience to the command that Israel should have one altar; it was because they did not conform to the law, and not on account of their being a mongrel race, that they were in separation from the Jews. Had the Samaritans conformed to the Jewish system, they might as well have been merged into the Jewish nation as the Edomites, or such portion of the Canaanites as the Gibeonites, who were brought almost as near to God in the Temple worship, as the Levites. The Jebusites also appear to have remained in Jerusalem, and to have been built up in the capital of the Jews. On the threshing-floor of Araunah the Jebusite, the avenging angel stayed his hand when the people of Israel were being hewn down by pestilence. This afterwards became the site of the Temple - the center of unity for all Israel. There is some mistake with regard to the claim of Jewish privileges being made on behalf of the English. We only show that the blessings we have enjoyed have not come by chance, but are according to God's appointment, as indicated in the mystery of Jacob's blessing the sons of Joseph. We only claim to use the blessings which God promised to a people distinct from "the Jews," and which have actually come to us, not by right of natural descent, but by adoption and grace. God has been marvelously dealing out the blessings of the Firstborn to us who have eyes but see not, and ears but hear not; who have been employed in opening the ears of others to the great things of God, but have not been hearing what He has been saying respecting our own peculiar case - the most remarkable in the, Providence of God, both as regards His cause and the destinies of mankind. In the future Israel is not to be unmixed any more than in the past. The stranger is not to say, "The Lord hath utterly separated me from His People" (Isaiah 56:3, 6-9; Ezekiel 47:22, 23). He is to be received into God's house, and to have inheritance equally with Israel. THIRTY-NINTH. In what sense can "the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel," be from Joseph, as stated by parenthesis in Jacob's prophecy, Gen. 49:24? Is not Christ the Good Shepherd of Israel (Ezek. 34:11; John 10:11, 12); "the Tried Stone" (Isa. 28:16; Matt. 21:44)? REPLY. - In all cases of disputed interpretation of Scripture we should endeavor to ascertain the primary meaning of the Hebrew or Greek words used; and when we do so here, we find that the whole controversy has arisen out of the supposed divine inspiration of the artificial vowel points introduced by the Jewish commentators, called MASORETES, who ranged from about A.D. 200 to 950, which are a continual gloss upon the meaning of the Law and the Prophets, and whose one great aim seems to have been to baffle the New Testament (as in this case) and to hinder the Christian conversion of the Jews by false construction of several parts of the Old Testament which are referred to or translated in the New. The greatest of uninspired teachers have always appealed to the common sense, or human powers of comparison and judgment, of their hearers. But in a matter of this kind, where so much depends upon a competent knowledge of an unfamiliar language, educated conscience also requires to be in active exercise, carefully to ascertain the meaning by personal scholarship, or by a true appreciation of the force of competent testimony. Self-sufficient, idle carelessness is easily satisfied. What then is the true meaning of these three letters, M-SH-M, translated "from thence" in Gen. 49:24? M which is here rendered "from," in the immediately preceding clause is translated "by," and might just as well or better have been in this case; and SH-M, Shem, "name," as of a person, which either out of carelessness, or for the reason previously stated, has been here given the vowel of Sham, signifying "there," or a place. The primary cause of the two significations of the same word may have been that SHEM had his dwelling at Damascus, which to this day is called by the Arabs EL SHAM, or "the place of Shem." Shem, as applied to the Name of the Lord, is used throughout the Old Testament, as in Mal. 1:11, 14; 4:2. Hence this passage should rather be translated "The arms of his hands were made strong by the hands of the Mighty God of Jacob " (Psa. 144:4), BY THE NAME OF THE SHEPHERD (Familiar Friend) OF ISRAEL (Psa. 23:1; Prov. 18:10). FORTIETH. Were the Anglo-Saxons one and the same with the Teutonic peoples? REPLY. - No; the Sakai and KADUSI were distinct, though allied peoples in the time of Cyrus. They went up with him to the siege of Babylon, predicted 170 years previously by Isaiah (13:3). (See Xenophon's " Cyropaedeia," B.v., 2, 25.) The latter was one of the inspired designations of the people of God, as in Exod. 19:6, where it is promised that if they would obey the Voice of God they should be to Him Goyi Kadosh = "a Holy Nation." From its first and second syllables come the words GOD (Saxon), Deus (Latin), and Theos (Greek); as also the Chaldaic forms of the same, as applied to the peoples = GOTH and TEUT. The other nearly synonymous designations, Germani, "the numbered strangers" (Gen. 15:13), mentioned by Herodotus as among the Persians, and Allemani, "all the numbered," are likewise Hebrew, as well as the Sakai (or bowmen, Kashi) of Joseph, and the Angli or Engli (bullocks), of Ephraim (Mal. 4:2; Jer. 31:18). from Sixty Anglo-Israel Difficulties Answered. Chiefly from the Correspondence of the late John Wilson, compiled by his daughter. London: S. W. Partridge and Co., 9, Paternoster Row. 1877 John Wilson, 1877. Sixty Anglo-Israel Difficulties Answered
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