Why have people been searching for the lost tribes of Israel for two thousand years?

The destruction of the Kingdom of Israel resulted in ten of the twelve tribes of Israel being exiled by the Assyrian king, and their whereabouts have never been seen since. Later Jews and Christians, for their own religious purposes, have been searching for these ten lost tribes of Israel, and they are still searching for them into modern times.

The Fall of the Kingdom of Israel

Strictly speaking, what David and Solomon led was not a true nation-state, but just a loose tribal alliance. The alliance was unstable, shaken to its foundation by the tribes' strong egos and mutual jealousies.

The Davidic family belonged to the relatively backward, nomadic tribe of Judah, and the more advanced and wealthy tribes in the center and north had always been dissatisfied with this. There had been many serious rebellions as early as King David's lifetime, but the prosperity of King Solomon's time later covered up the rifts between the tribes. The luxurious and luxurious King Solomon

Soon after the death of King Solomon, the ten northern tribes openly split away and formed another country, which was historically called the "Kingdom of Israel"; the remaining Judah and Ben The two tribes of Jamin and part of the tribe of Levi formed the "Kingdom of Judah" south of Solomon's kingdom.

The Jewish Kingdom is still under the rule of the House of David, but the northern Kingdom of Israel is much larger in area and population than the Jewish Kingdom. It is also much richer and more civilized than the Jewish Kingdom. . However, about two centuries later, this northern kingdom was conquered and annexed by the powerful Assyrian Empire.

If all the Jews had come together and established a powerful kingdom, they could have developed into the most important country in Western Asia. After the split, both countries were too weak to compete with other countries. Moreover, conflicts between the two Jewish states, the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah, occurred from time to time over competition for farmland and pasture, which further weakened each other's power.

The greater danger comes from the outside. The surrounding powers such as Egypt and Assyria have been eyeing the two Jewish countries. At that time, Assyria's military power was one of the best in the world. The Assyrians had advanced iron weapons and a powerful fleet of chariots.

In the mid-8th century BC, Assyrian King Sargon II thought it was time to conquer the Kingdom of Israel. Under his leadership, the Assyrian army easily crushed the resistance of the Israelites, and the capital Samaria was completely destroyed in 722 BC. In this way, the northern kingdom of Israel perished after existing for two hundred years and experiencing the rule of nine kings.

After the northern Kingdom of Israel was destroyed by the Assyrian Empire, tens of thousands of people, including the king, were taken back to their empire by the Assyrians and exiled to some distant places. The Bible records this: "The king of Assyria captured Samaria and took the Israelites captive to Assyria. He settled them in Harah, in Habor by the Goshen River, and in the cities of the Medes." (The Bible 2 Kings 17:6)

From then on, these ten tribes of the Kingdom of Israel left Palestine and eventually disappeared from history.

The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel

Where were these ten exiled tribes of Israel? What happened to them afterwards? Could they ever return to Palestine and reunite with their Jewish compatriots? Since there has been no news about them since their exile, this has become an eternal mystery. In the history of the Jewish people and religion, there has always been a saying about the "Ten Lost Tribes". After Israel was conquered by Assyria, ten tribes were lost

Due to the origin relationship between Judaism and Christianity, this statement also has great influence in Christianity and the entire Western world.

According to the Bible, Jacob, the ancestor of the Jewish patriarchs, and his two wives and two maids gave birth to twelve sons, named Reuben, Simeon, and Levi. Wei, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Later, the descendants of the twelve sons developed into twelve tribes, collectively called the Israelites.

The twelve Israelite tribes arrived in Egypt together, and then escaped from Egypt under the leadership of Moses and returned to Canaan. Later, David of the southern tribe of Judah unified the tribes and established the ancient Hebrew kingdom.

In the late 10th century BC, this kingdom split into two countries: the northern Kingdom of Israel included ten tribes of Israelites, and the southern Kingdom of Judah included only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin. and a small group of members of the tribe of Levi.

According to research by historians, the place mentioned in the Bible above is the northwest of modern Iran, southwest of the Caspian Sea. It is generally believed that some of these ten tribes may have come to Babylon later and returned to Palestine with the Jews, while most of them stayed in the place where they were exiled and later assimilated with the local people, thus will be lost in history forever.

However, many devout religious people (including Jews and Christians) do not accept this statement.

They said God had promised to return these lost tribes, and if these tribes disappeared, how could God's promise be fulfilled?

The Bible clearly states: “This is what the Lord God says: I will take the children of Israel from all the countries to which they have gone, and I will gather them from all sides and lead them back to their homeland. I will make them one nation there... they will no longer be two nations, and they will never be divided into two nations again.” (See Ezekiel 37:21-22)

Therefore, They firmly believe that these tribes will not disappear and they will return to God's promised land and establish their country when the Messiah (Savior) comes.

For the Jews, if the ten lost tribes still exist, then one day they will return to their fellow Jews. This will not only strengthen the power of the Jews, but more importantly, it will confirm the predictions of the ancient Jewish prophets, thus further strengthening the faith of the Jewish believers.

The Christians also hope to find these lost tribes, but they have another purpose. They believe that the disappearance of the ten Israelite tribes occurred many centuries before Jesus was crucified, but that the Jews (i.e., the tribe of Judah) were present at the time of Jesus' crucifixion and that they were responsible. Therefore, if the ten missing tribes of Israel are found and they are converted to Christianity and acknowledge Jesus, it will prove that the Jews have gone astray and that Christianity is the right way.

In this way, the search and discovery of these ten lost tribes is nothing more than an activity of academic value for historians, anthropologists and writers, but for devout Jews For Christians, it has a more important religious significance. Therefore, for many centuries many people continued to search for these lost tribes of Israel.

Two thousand years of search

During the Middle Ages, there were constant reports of the discovery of one, a few, or even all lost tribes.

For example, a 9th-century Jewish traveler named Eldadan claimed that he was a member of the lost tribe of Dan. He stated in his diary that the four tribes of Dan, Gad, Naphtali, and Asher lived "in the land of Cushi" (modern-day Ethiopia and surrounding areas). He said he also knew where six other tribes were because he had visited the area where they lived. The story of Eldadan was once widely circulated and caused many scholars to conduct textual research and research on it.

In the 12th century, a European named Benjamin wrote a travel diary of his travels around the east coast of the Mediterranean. He recorded in detail the many things he heard about the lost tribes. This book once again aroused widespread interest.

In modern times, people's enthusiasm for searching for missing tribes has not diminished. In the early 19th century, a French Jew named Joseph Benjamin spent almost his entire life searching for the missing tribes of Israel. He traveled almost throughout the Middle East and North Africa, but later he came to the conclusion that the lost tribes did not settle in a certain place, but became wandering wanderers like the Jews in Europe. who.

His greatest achievement was the discovery of some Jews in India who called themselves "Bonnai Israel". These Jews had lived in and around Bombay for many centuries, but Benjamin was ultimately unsure whether they were the lost tribe of Israel.

In the mid-19th century, a Christian missionary group called the "Hebrew Christians" also carried out activities to search for lost tribes. The members of this group are all Jews who converted to Christianity. They hope to find those ancient Israelites and convert them to Christians.

An Englishman named Wolfe in this group preached to local Muslims and Jews in the Middle East from 1821 to 1845. His search for the ancient Israelites extended as far as Persia and Central Asia. When he heard that the Pashtuns in Afghanistan might be the lost tribe of Israel, he went to Kabul alone several times and conducted a series of investigations, but it turned out that they were not ancient Israelites. Wolff believes that China is very likely to have descendants of ancient Israelites, but he himself has not been able to come to China.

In addition to those previously mentioned, there are a number of other peoples who have also been thought to be possible lost tribes of Israel. Soon after Europeans arrived on the American continent, some people claimed that the local Indians were the ancient lost Israelites.

In 1775, a book called "History of the American Indians" was published in London. The book listed many similarities in etymology and grammar between the Indian languages ??and Hebrew. Chu, also said that the two types of people have a lot of similarities in physical, psychological and cultural aspects. As for how the ancient Israelites came to the American continent, no one can tell clearly.

An Amsterdam Jewish rabbi named Manas in the 17th century said that the ancient Israelites first moved to the Tatar area, then to China, and finally from China to the Americas.

Later, when people discovered that there were many black people in Ethiopia called "Falasha" who believed in ancient Judaism, they were also claimed to be the descendants of the disappeared ancient Israelites. Some people even believe after research that these black Jews are the descendants of the "Dan" tribe among the twelve lost tribes.

However, some authoritative African historians claim that these black people are local people who converted to Judaism at a certain period in history. They cannot be the descendants of the ancient Israelites because from the perspective of race and blood, they are not the same as the Jews. Any similarities.

The Black Jews of Ethiopia

In the 19th century, some British people claimed that they were the real "lost tribe". They said that a large part of the Anglo-Saxons belonged to the ancient Israelites. They wrote books and found a lot of evidence to prove this statement.

According to them, the Israelite tribes continued to migrate to the northwest and later settled in northern Europe. They said that these Israelites left some traces on their way north. For example, the name "Danube" is related to the tribe "Dan". In fact, these statements are far-fetched and some are completely unreasonable. In fact, these self-proclaimed "Anglo-Israeli" Britons are a small religious sect who want to strengthen their legitimacy and sanctity by calling themselves the Lost Tribe. This faction later spread to the United States and other places.

In response to various rumors and activities about the "Ten Lost Tribes", Godby, an authoritative scholar of the Old Testament at Duke University in the UK, wrote a book in 1930 - "The Lost Tribes" , A Myth", effectively warns people not to have any hope of finding those so-called "lost tribes", nor to engage in meaningless exploration-style search activities.

He said that on the one hand, the ancient Hebrews, like many other ethnic groups at that time, were exiled to foreign lands after being conquered. After experiencing various hardships, they wanted to make their race Preserving it intact is almost impossible. These ancient Hebrews either died in painful migrations, or they survived and were naturally assimilated into foreign nations. There were many such situations in history, and the Israelites were just a small part of them. Just an example.

On the other hand, he also said that not all subsequent Jews may be direct descendants of the ancient Israelites. They are not a purely homogeneous nation. In the long historical process, they have also Also absorbed other ethnic groups. Therefore, it is meaningless to search for the so-called "lost tribe".

Since then, the search for "lost tribes" around the world has indeed decreased. But some people, especially those who are religious, are still unwilling to give in. News about the discovery of "lost tribes of Israel" in a certain place is still heard from time to time.