John Wilson, 1877
FORTY-FIRST. "The Scriptures were composed by the Jews; to whom we are indebted for those sublime compositions which have delighted and instructed the world in all succeeding ages, and to which, we ourselves owe our superior civilization."
REPLY. - True, several of those employed in penning the inspired volume were Jews. Others doubtless were Israelites; but whether the one or the other, neither can be allowed that honor which belongs alone to the Divine Spirit - the production of the Word of God.
If the Bible be the Word of God, it cannot be regarded as proceeding from "Jewish genius," which nearly overlaid it by vain traditions (Mark 7:10-12), and was not infrequently exercised for the destruction of those whom God employed in the utterance of Divine Revelation for their reproof, correction, or instruction. If the Bible had been of the Jews' own making most probably there would have been more self-laudation in it, and less of the truth with regard to both themselves and others (Jer. 38:3, 4).
Did the Jews appreciate the Scriptures, or discern their true import even after they were produced? They did not. Even till this day they "do err, not knowing the Scriptures" (Matt. 22:29). The very first of the sacred writers [Moses] is not understood by them with regard to the most important subject of which be wrote. Even after fulfilling the Prophecy for eighteen hundred years, they do not discern the humbling cause of their being so long trodden under foot; although they had been so pointedly forewarned of the danger of not hearing "THAT PROPHET" which should be raised up unto them (Deut. 18:15). See also Stephen's testimony (Acts 7:51-53).
FORTY-SECOND. "We are under obligations to the Jews, because we have received the Gospel from them. The Apostles were Jews."
REPLY. - We did not receive the Gospel from the people who are now called Jews. And as to their ancestors, did they not forbid the Gospel to be preached to the Gentiles? (1 Thess. 2:16.) Were they not "filled with madness" when they heard that a message of mercy had been sent to us which, were "afar of"? (Acts 22:21, 22). The apostles and all employed in a work so distasteful to the Jews had become CHRISTIANS, and their posterity were not left among the people now called Jews, but among the followers of Christ. If we wish to express thankfulness for the labors of the apostles, it should be in striving to do good to their descendants, whom it is useless to seek among those who would have hindered their work, but may be found among those who endeavor to follow in the footsteps of the Lamb of God. This consideration will not hinder us from doing good to the Jews; but we should act from right principle, - out of gratitude to our Lord Jesus Christ...
FORTY-THIRD. "The Jews are to be in such repute that ten men out of all languages of the nations even shall take hold of the skirt of him that is a Jew."
REPLY. - This passage (Zech. 8:23), when examined with its context, shows that the prophet speaks of coming before the Lord in prayer. [ABCOG: This also applies physically after the return of Christ, see Zech. 12.] Now there is One who sprang of the tribe of Judah, under the covert of whose robe of righteousness we can draw near to God with acceptance. It is as laying hold of the skirt of "the Man" (Heb. Ish), the Companion Husband that is a Jew, that "ten men out of all the languages of the nations," among whom Ten-tribed Israel were cast out and scattered abroad, are able to approach the Father. Around the skirts of the High Priest's garment were golden bells, which represented the utterance of the Word of God in all languages of the nations. The Word of God is laid hold upon, so as to draw men together in the worship of God. It is only as being clothed with Christ's "robe of Righteousness" that we can come before God, and say to those who have been speaking by the power of the Spirit, "We will go with you; for we have heard," we have listened to the voice of "God with you."
The JEW spoken of is certainly the Lord Jesus Christ, the Companion Husband of Israel whom the Jews rejected, and to whom Israel were to be united according to New Covenant mercy revealed by Him who speaketh from heaven by His Holy Spirit of promise. It is as being united with Jesus and His followers that we come into blessing. Apart from Christ there is no Immanuel "God with us."
FORTY-FOURTH. "But are not the JEWS the Kings of the East,' to prepare the way for whose return the waters of the river Euphrates are being dried up"? (Rev. 16:12).
REPLY. - Certainly the Jews are NOT "the Kings of the East," and if they are to obtain this advancement, it must be at the expense of the English who are in actual possession of sovereign power in the East. [ABCOG: This happened in 1947 with the founding of the state of Israel!] Our own abode being in the West, it is important that we should have the power of traversing the intervening countries between the coast of Syria and the Persian Gulf.
On the banks of the Euphrates arose those "waters great and many" (Isa. 7:8), that swept Israel forth of their land. There also the Turks rose into the power which they have since used for desolating the Land, [ABCOG: the Turkish Ottoman Empire ruled Palestine until 1917] and for preventing free communication between the East and the West; while our own people have risen to the dominion of the East, on whom also will ere long be forced an occupation of the great highway between the East and West.
Let us look unto Jesus, and have no confidence in the flesh. The blessing was to come through faith upon the children of promise. Not as Jews was the blessing to come upon them, but as "Gentiles," or "Nations." Let us be thankful to God for the privileges we enjoy, and endeavor to make a right use of them; that disappointment may not result from our promise of fruitfulness, as in the case of the Jews, of whom it was said, "They will reverence My Son." This was no more than might have been reasonably expected. But they said, "This is the Heir: come, let us kill Him."
So surely as the Inheritance was taken from the Jews, will it be given to us, if we be found bringing forth the FRUITS thereof (Matt. 21:43). The fruit expected from us is the doing good unto all as we have opportunity, seeking in all things to glorify Jesus by obedience to His great law of love. Let us contemplate our privileges for humiliation, considering the misuse we have made of the many favors bestowed upon us - natural, spiritual, and providential, - and the power of influencing the happiness of all nations in all parts of the earth. Correspondently great is our responsibility, not to leave the duties of the firstborn to be attended to by another people, to whom "the birthright" was not promised, and has not been given (I Chron. 5:3; Jer. 31:9); for in so doing we are quite as blind and perverse in our own way as the Jews have been in continuing to reject the Messiah. [ABCOG: Amen!]
FORTY-FIFTH. "But was it not said respecting the Jews, 'Blessed is he that blesseth thee; and cursed is he that curseth thee'?"
REPLY. - These words in the prophecy of Balaam (Numb. 24:9), and others of the same import, spoken by the Lord to Abram (Gen. 12:3), have been understood by many as having reference to the merely natural seed of Abraham, without any regard to their spiritual condition... [ABCOG: Wilson's argument at this point becomes irrelevant to the topic of Israelitish Origin.]
FORTY-SIXTH. "Who, then, ARE the Jews?"
REPLY. - Genealogically, a Jew is a descendant of Judah, the fourth son of Jacob. When. the Ten Tribes revolted from under Rehoboam the son of Solomon, and chose Jeroboam the son of Nebat to be their king, the tribe of Benjamin, descended from the youngest son of Jacob, remained with the house of David and these two tribes, with individual families from the others, constituted the kingdom of Judah, as distinct from that of "All Israel." This latter title remained with the great body of the people, who dwelt along the whole eastern and western frontiers, and also possessed the main portion of the land north of Jerusalem (1 Kings 11:12).
TIRZAH appears to have been chiefly the royal residence among the revolted tribes till the time of Omri, who built Samaria (1 Kings 16:23, 24), which was their capital till the time of their deportation by the Assyrians (2 Kings 17.).
The greater number also of the priests and Levites, as well as individual godly families "out of all the tribes of Israel," cast in their lot with the kingdom of Judah, of whose royal family it had been predicted that Christ, the Shiloh, the Prince of Peace, was to come; unto whom was to be the gathering of "the people of the God of Abraham" (2 Chron. 11:13-17; Gen. 49:10 Psa. 47:9).
Jerusalem, which had been the capital of All Israel for seventy-three years, during the reigns of David and Solomon, and in which was the Temple of the Lord, the place of sacrifice for All Israel, lay on the confines of Judah and Benjamin, and continued to be the capital of those who adhered to the house of David (1 Kings 2:11; 11:42; 2 Chron. 7:11-16). Thither they still went up to worship; although the other house -that of Israel - had abandoned the worship of God, according to the Mosaic ritual, from the very time of the revolt.
In the Books of Kings we are given the parallel histories of the kings of Israel and Judah. In the Books of Chronicles is given the history of Judah mainly, and that of Israel only incidentally, down until the captivities: first Of ISRAEL, near the end of the eighth century B.C. (2 Kings 17); and that Of JUDAH at the very end of the seventh and beginning of the sixth centuries B.C. (2 Kings 24, 25.).
The JEWS were restored from BABYLON after seventy years' captivity, many of whom appear to have settled in the north part of the land, previously inhabited by their brethren of the house of ISRAEL, and which subsequently was called Galilee. During their captivity in Babylon, much of their own district of country to the south of Jerusalem had been seized by the Edomites. About B.C. 129, these [Edomites] were conquered by John Hyrcanus, who gave them their choice of either becoming Jews, or of leaving the country (Josephus, B. X111., c. ix., § 1). They preferred to become Jews; and the result was, that Herod, an Edomite, had intermarried with the family of even the high priest, and was king of Judea when our Saviour was born (Matt. 2:1).
Portions of other neighboring nations were from time to time incorporated with Judah and Benjamin; and from all these together are descended the people we call Jews. The name "Jew" is in itself a glorious title. Literally it means praise or confession, and appears to have been given with a reference to Him unto whom "every knee shall bow, and every tongue confess" (Phil. 2:10; Gen. 49:8). At the birth of Judah his mother had said, "Now will I praise the, Lord" (Gen. 21:35); and Jacob seems to have recognized both the humanity and divinity of our Lord when he said, "Judah, thou art He whom thy brethren shall praise." David, who so directed the praises of Israel to the coming Saviour, was a JEW in the right [accurate] sense of the word.
In the very beginning of the epistolary writings of the New Testament this title is claimed for the true worshippers of God (Rom. 2:28, 29): "For he is not a Jew which is one outwardly; but he is a JEW which is one inwardly, whose PRAISE is not of men, but of God."
So, also, near the beginning of the Apocalypse [Book of Revelation] a caution is repeatedly given against looking only on the outward appearance (Rev. 2:9): "I know the blasphemy of them which say they are Jews, and are not, but are the synagogue of Satan." "Behold, I will make them of the synagogue of Satan, which say they are Jews, and are not, but do lie. Behold, I will make them to come and worship before thy feet, and to know that I have loved thee" (Rev. 3:9).
It should not be forgotten that in the, apostolic age the Jewish people were parted into two great portions; that of those who believed, and took the name of Him in whom they believed, the Expectation of Israel from the beginning. THESE held to the faith, did the works of Abraham, and were called CHRISTIANS after Christ, the object of their praise.
But the others, who remained under the curse of their broken law [i.e, having broken the law], and were verily guilty in rejecting and speaking against the Holy One of God - "that Prophet," - have in common parlance been called Jews; although they have no true claim to the blessing of either Judah or Israel, until found in that "One Seed" unto whom the promises were made (Gal. 3:16-29; John 8:24). It is only in Christ that all the promises are "Yea" and "Amen" (2 Cor. 1:20). From the time of that generation which rejected the Saviour, the Jews have been left "wanderers among the nations," witnesses to all men of the impotency of mere natural descent to procure the blessing. And in proportion as our people [the natural House of All Israel] have been gathered unto Shiloh, and have submitted themselves to Him, hath "the blessing of Abraham" come upon them, although bearing the name of Gentiles.
FORTY-SEVENTH. "What do the Jews say about this theory of the Israelitish origin of the English? Are they willing to allow the place of the Firstborn to another people than themselves?"
REPLY. - A Jewish writer once undertook, in "The Scattered Nation," to reply to the query, "WHERE ARE THE TEN TRIBES?" But the real question was ignored - that of the Birthright, the heirship to "the promises made unto the fathers," which were to be fulfilled to a people in Christ whom our Lord distinguished from the Jews, saying, "The kingdom shall be taken from you, and given to a Nation bringing forth the fruits thereof" (Matt. 21:43).
Many are the prophetic Scriptures which make a similar distinction between Israel and Judah; recognizing the fact that the people lost as Israel were to be found in Christ (Isa. 54:5); that the people made "Lo-ammi" [Not a people] were to be made "the people of God," "being born [ABCOG: begotten] again of the incorruptible seed of the word" (1 Pet. 1:23; Hose 1:10); and that they would ultimately be made the means of evangelizing the world, and of converting the Jews (Jer. 31:7). When "the dispersed of Judah" are gathered together, it will be as being added to "the outcasts of Israel," who Will have been previously "assembled" (Mic. 5:3; Hos. 1:11).
When "Jacob, by faith, blessed both the sons of Joseph" (Heb. 11:21), under Divine guidance, he spoke words which the God of truth intended to fulfil, by actually bestowing upon them the inheritance of blessing promised to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Gen. 15:5; 48:16-19). The people appointed to inherit this Birthright therefore are not to be looked for among the people called Jews, but among those who are uncircumcised [ABCOG: Circumcision is irrelevant - 1 Cor. 7:19] as Abraham himself was when God entered into covenant with him, as recorded in Gen. 15. Indeed, when "Jacob, by faith, blessed both the sons of Joseph" with the fullness of the blessing promised to him and to his ancestors, he recognized those who should especially heir these promises as being, "a multitude of GENTILES " (Or Goyim).
The blessing of Abraham was to come upon the GENTILES, through faith (Gal. 3:14), who were to be literally descended from Jacob through his long-lost son Joseph. They might not be known to the Jews any more than Joseph was known by Judah when he came down to buy corn in Egypt, and found his brother in the very circumstances predicted by those dreams, on account of which, and his truth-telling tendency, Joseph was hated by his brethren, and sold by them into the hands of the Ishmaelites. Joseph was certainly not known as a Jew, or even as an Israelite, when his brothers met him in Egypt. He was regarded by them as a mere Gentile; and it is clear that his descendants, who were especially to inherit the Birthright, were to be "a multitude or fullness of GENTILES" (Gen. 48:19).
Such being the case, where are we to look for these heirs of blessing? Of course not among those who are known not to be "Goyim," who have always distinguished themselves from the Gentiles, ... The people of promise were to "be known among the Gentiles" (Isa. 61:9), not by the curse [of Deut. 28], but by the blessing; not by the reputation of Israelitish descent, but by their being "born [ABCOG: begotten] again of the incorruptible seed of the Word" (1 Pet. 1:4); by their being found "sons of the living God" (Hos. 1:10). Not as common Gentiles, worshipping idols dumb that cannot save, they were to be found a living, life-diffusing race. "All that see them shall acknowledge them that they are the seed which the Lord hath blessed." Those who have not found blessing in Jesus and all who do not wish to be a blessing "in the midst of the nations," and to "the ends of the earth," we do not claim as worthy of an Israelitish origin.
FORTY-EIGHTH. "A pretentious volume [Wilson's Our Israelitish Origin] has been written to demonstrate that the Anglo-Saxon race, are alone entitled to this honor, although the Irish and Welsh have been found to dispute their claim."
REPLY. - The author of the magazine article, "WHERE ARE THE TEN TRIBES?" like the rest of our opponents, seems to have been too wise in his own conceit to prepare himself for rightly reporting on the subject. So far from claiming, an Israelitish origin for "the Anglo-Saxons alone," the book recognizes "THE ISRAELITISH ORIGIN OF THE MODERN NATIONS OF EUROPE." We never even thought of all the tribes as being comprehended in the Anglo-Saxons, nor of setting up their claim as opposed to that of the Welsh, or to those of our people in Ireland, America, Australia, New Zealand, the Cape of Good Hope, or other "ends of the earth," whither they have been spread out. The claim of the English was not made to the exclusion of either the Nestorians or any other Christianized portion of ancient Israel on the Continent.
Neither was a claim put up for the Anglo-Saxons as being descended from the lost tribes generally, but only from that tribe from which "a multitude of Gentiles" were to proceed, who, for Christ's sake, were to be found in the position occupied by the English, from whom light and salvation were to go forth to the nations generally, and who were to be so manifestly favored of God, that when men asked blessing for other tribes, they would ask it after the pattern of blessing given in this people, saying;, "God make thee so-and-so. God give you the privileges of British citizens. God give you an open Bible, liberty of worship, a free press, free trade, constitutional government, an asylum at home for the oppressed of all nations, and free development by colonization to all the ends of the earth" (Gen. 48:20).
We perfectly agree with the writer alluded to that "blindness in part has happened to Israel." And so it was to be "until the fullness of the Gentiles" promised to Ephraim should have "come in; and so all Israel" shall be blessed along with him. Why? Because the more Ephraim comes to the knowledge of his true position as the Firstborn will he imbibe the spirit of the Great Redeemer in yearning for the Recovery of the Lost.
Jacob made a clear enough distinction between the children of Joseph and the other tribes of Israel. But this author conglomerates them into one confused mass under the curse [of Deut. 28]. Does he doubt that God will prove true to His promise? (Lev. 26:40-45). He recognizes the wondrous accuracy of prophecy in regard to the Jew, and quotes Deut. 28:37: "Thou shall become an astonishment, a proverb, and a byword among all nations whither the Lord shall lead thee." The echoes of these denunciations are caught up after the lapse of centuries, and in 1 Kings 9:7 we find it written, "Israel shall be a proverb and a byword among all people."
FORTY-NINTH & FIFTIETH: [ABCOG: These address aspects of Jewish history irrelevant to "Our Israelitish Origin"]
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