Messiah Ben-Joseph

Messiah Ben-Joseph is a concept that exists in some Jewish Apocalyptic literature, it’s not as universally accepted among Rabbinic Jews as some want to make it sound, but it is interesting.   

David C. Mitchell published a book in 2016 titled Messiah ben Joseph that I do recommend because it collects a lot of different relevant texts even though I disagree with some of his interpretations as well as his endorsements of Ben Abrahamson’s weird identifications when talking about the Seventh Century.  I’ll be referring back to his work sometimes in this post. 

Some Christians often talk about the Messiah Ben-Joseph and Messiah Ben-David distinction as if it’s a matter of Jesus fulfilling the prophecies correctly or not associated with Ben-Joseph in his First Advent and Ben-David in his Second Advent.  Ben-Joseph is killed at the Gate of Jerusalem then rises from The Dead while it’s Ben-David who’s the Conquering King.  AD 70 Preterists may be interested in the versions that say Ben-David’s advent is 40 years after the death of Ben-Joseph.

The first thing this ignores is that Ben-Joseph is expected to be a conqueror as well, more so actually, Ben-David simply finishes the campaign mostly carried out by Ben-Joseph. This fits the pattern of the original Ben-David as Solomon’s reign was built on the conquests of David, and David’s own conquests continued what was begun by Saul.

Meanwhile in a lot of these same texts with a Messiah Ben-Joseph we also have a Messiah Ben David often named Menahem Ben Ammiel.  This Menahem is in fact initially born to his human parents in an earlier epoch of history, but exactly when is inconsistent.  

He’s sometimes said to have been born during the time of King David, his mother is definitely the wife of someone named Nathan, sometimes that’s the Prophet sometimes it’s David’s son by Bathsheba, Ammiel is the name of Bathsheba’s father so that makes more sense with the bigger genealogical picture, in Luke 3 a Greek Transliteration of Menahem is the grandson of Nathan Ben-David. But his mother is named Hephzibah and The Talmud’s Messiah named Menahem is called the son of Hezekiah.  

He’s also said to be born the same day the first Temple was destroyed while the Talmud’s Menahem is born the day the second Temple was destroyed. The Veil of The Temple was torn while Jesus was on the Cross and Resurrection is analogized to Birth in The Bible, so Jesus can be said to have a birth that correlates to the true end of the Second Temple. We also know that Hebrew Christians identified Menahem as the Hebrew equivalent of the NT Greek Paraclete translated in the KJV of John and 1 John as Comforter and Advocate. 

Also in some of these same texts in Mitchell’s book it is Menahem Ben Ammiel who is despised and rejected and who Isaiah 53 is quoted in reference to.

Meanwhile Messiah Ben Joseph doesn’t Resurrect himself, it is Messiah Ben David who resurrects him (sometimes Elijah is part of the process).  It is Messiah Ben David who has the Power of Resurrection, who conquers Death. 

Zechariah 9-11 is one contiguous Prophecy and Zechariah 12-14 is one contiguous Prophecy.  But they are not in my view truly contiguous with each other, at least not entirely, chapter 12 verse 1 uses language that to me means a new Prophecy is starting.  Their mistaken conflation with each other is probably how the error of thinking Ben Joseph is the Pierced Messiah happened.  

There are no references to Joseph or Ephraim or Manasseh or Samaria or Joshua in 12-14. And no David in 9-11 though Judah is mentioned.  As Zechariah originally wrote these Prophecies the Pierced One is of the House of David, that’s why the House of David mourns Him, all four names mentioned in 12:12-13 are also in the Luke 3 genealogy.

There are two places where Joseph/Ephraim imagery could be relevant to Revelation.  

In Revelation 6 the Rider on the White Horse has a Bow and is given a Crown.  Joseph/Ephraim has a Bow in Genesis 49 and Zechariah 9 and has a Crown in Isaiah 28.

Meanwhile the standard Ben Joseph Narrative arguably fits the Two Witnesses in Revelation 11 pretty well, they are a problem for the World for a time till The Beast wages war against them and prevails over them and kills them leaving their bodies to rot in the City for a period of time until they Rise from The Dead.  

One aspect of the Messiah Ben-Joseph tradition Mitchell doesn’t want to engage with is the idea of Ben Joseph as a Gentile and/or Proselyte rather than someone of Jewish ancestry.  

It’s often suspected that the exiles of the Northern Kingdom were culturally assimilated into the Gentile communities the Assyrians settled them amongst and lost their Israelite Identity unlike the Southern Kingdom’s exiles.  Meanwhile Genesis 48 prophesied Ephraim to become a Multitude of Nations or as some translate it the Fulness of The Nations, the LXX doesn’t use Pleroma in Genesis 48 but does use it to translate that same Hebrew word elsewhere. 

And so some interpretations of Messiah Ben Joseph see him as a Gentile ally of the Jews or maybe a full convert who may or may not indirectly descend from the Northern Tribes. 

Mitchell, when discussing the Dead Sea Scrolls, argues against the reading that Joseph is leading a foreign army in 4Q372 and from then on doesn’t seem to acknowledge the Ben Joseph as a Gentile idea at all. But it is a big factor in Messiah Ben Joseph discourse to this day. 

For example today the Britam Website does this.  They are Jews who essentially believe in British Israelism and related ideas even though they aren’t Christians. So they expect Messiah Ben Joseph to be a Western political leader, probably specifically WASP since they identify Joseph with the English Speaking world.

However in Ancient Times people were more often looking to the East, since Assyria settled them in Northern Mesopotamia and Media.  Cyrus had Median descent through his Mother so maybe even his being called Messiah by Isaiah 44-45 was as a Messiah Ben Joseph?

Josephus in Antiquities of The Jews Book 20 Chapters 2-4 describes the life of Izates II King of Adiabene, he and his mother/aunt Helena were Gentiles by birth but converted to Judaism.  This Biography in my opinion clearly seeks to make Izates a parallel to Joseph in many ways starting with the envy of his half brothers. Either Josephus or an earlier source he’s drawing on I’m convinced saw Izates as a possible Messiah Ben Joseph and/or progenitor of one.  In the Talmud Adiabene called Hayab is identified as a place where Northern Kingdom Exiles were taken. I’ve argued the Kurds are the main modern descendants of the Northern Kingdom’s exiles using both geographical and DNA evidence, and indeed Erbil the ancient capital of Adiabene is in modern times the capital of Iraqi Kurdistan.

Iizates II’s main wife was the daughter of another Mesopotamian King who converted to Judaism Symacho of Characene, but he had multiple wives and children by them.  He was succeeded on the throne by his brother Monobaz II who also converted to Judaism. In Wars of The Jews Book 2 Chapter 19 Section 2 Monobaz II is an ally of the Jewish Rebels in AD 66 and sends two Kinsmen one named Monobaz and one named Kenedeus to fight in the war. Later in Book 5 Chapter 6 Section 4 we are told that sons and brethren of Izates were among those taken as hostages to Rome.  Also Book 4 Chapter 9 Section 11 also mentions a Palace built by a Grapte who was a relation of Izates.   Cassius Dio's account also confirms that the Jews had allies from beyond the Euphrates in Roman History 65:4.

But someone else involved in the First Jewish-Roman War is also worth noting here.  Simon bar Giora is believed to be someone who's father was a Gentile convert o Judaism, and his first rise to notoriety during the Revolt was at Bethoron and later in Samaria, with some even arguing Jurish in Samaria was his hometown. And one of my Preterist theories about the Two Witnesses involves him as one of them.

Yusuf, the Arabic form of Joseph, was the actual name of the Himyarite King popularly known as Dhu Nuwas who reigned from AD 522-530.  The Himyarites were also Gentile Converts to Judaism and there is evidence Yusuf wasn't his birth name but one taken after he converted to Judaism.  So I have no doubt he too was seeking to present himself as a Messiah Ben Joseph figure.

But what about the most well known historical figure popularly viewed at the time to have been Messiah Ben Joseph, Nehemiah Ben Hushiel?  I have too many speculations about that subject going on in my head right now, it could be its own very long post or multiple.  And some do indeed involve him being a Gentile.

But let’s return to Genesis 48’s Fulness of The Gentiles.  

Some Christians believe Paul was deliberately drawing on that passage in Romans 11 where the Fulness of the Gentiles are grafted into Israel and then All Israel will be Saved.  Meaning all Gentile Believers are by Adoption Children of Ephraim. 

I’m a Partial Preterist who believes the start and maybe even end of The Millennium are already in the past but the Parousia and Literal Bodily Resurrection of The Dead is still yet to come.  Like Post Millennials I believe we have a mission to make the current world better as much as we can, but like Amillennials I still expect the Return of Jesus is what finishes the Project. 

So to me the Christian view of Messiah Ben Joseph should be that he’s not an individual but The Entire Body of Christ.  We are the Rider on the White Horse of both Revelation 6 and 19 conquering with the Sword of The Spirit which is the Word of God rather than literal violence. Many of us have been Killed by the Enemy doing so and probably more will be, but all will be Risen by Jesus when He returns. 

But we are most truly fulfilling that mission when we do so as friends and allies of The Jews not as their enemies.

Did Ephraim return to Egypt?

One of the alleged Bible Contradictions you will see thrown around is Hosea 8:13 and 9:3-6 saying that Ephraim will return to Egypt while Hosea 11:5 says Ephraim will not return to Egypt.

It’s one thing to look for these between different books with different human authors, or a book really big in scale that’s easy to imagine as multiple older texts awkwardly patched together.  But Hosea is clearly a complete stand alone coherent message that obviously says these seemingly mutually exclusive things intentionally for a reason.

However most Apologists have decided to reconcile these texts in a way where only Hosea 11 is true at “face value” because everyone’s thinking is dominated by the popular simplified narrative that the fate of the Northern Kingdom was entirely being carried away by Assyria, or counter to that deconstructing the idea of a Northern Tribes exile at all.

The problem is contextually it’s Hosea 8 and 9 that are Prophecies of the then near future while Hosea 11 when read in its entirety is a bigger picture Prophecy, it's about the past but also the far future when Israel will never be disobedient again. The present tense language is poetic or even ironic, it’s about God having protected Ephraim from returning to Egypt in the past. But the allusion to a future Captivity in Egypt is itself kind of in Hosea 11 in verse 11.  And the concept of Israelites returning to Egypt if they fall into disobedience is a concept already warned of back in Deuteronomy 28:68.

When you read carefully the accounts of the Assyrian Captivity you’ll realize that in spite of occasional hyperbole none of them are actually about the entirety of The Northern Kingdom.  1 Chronicles 5 talks about Pul carrying away just the Transjordan Tribes,, 2 Kings 15:29 talks about Tiglath-Pileser carrying away just Naphtali, and 2 Kings 17 is just the Capital City of Samaria which was in territory allotted to Manasseh.  The proper allotment of Ephraim isn’t included in any.

Instead 2 Kings 17:4 says that Hosea sent messengers unto So King of Egypt.  The word Pharaoh comes from a word for the royal palace of Egypt’s Kings yet The Bible uses it often as if it’s a personal name, I think the same is happening here and that So is actually a form of Sais also rendered Sau and Zau which at this time was the capital of the 24th Dynasty.  

These emissaries may have happened to be of the Tribe of Ephraim and been there when Samaria fell and helped negotiate the city becoming a refuge for fleeing Ephraimites.  The 24th Dynasty was short lived but we know little about Sais's status during the Memphis based Cushite Dynasty numbered as the 25th, this hypothetical status as a haven for Ephraimites could have been maintained.  

The last 24th Dynasty King of Egypt who reigned from 725-720 BC was Bakenranef whose named is rendered in Greek sources as Bocchoris. In Against Apion Book I sections 34-35 Josephus discussing the version of The Exodus told be Lysimachus of Alexandria and he names Bocchoris, Tacitus repeated the same story.  This Ephraimite Refugee Crisis could be a factor in why conflation happened. 

2nd Chronicles 30 has Ephraimites among both those who rejected Hezekiah’s Passover invitation and those who accepted the invitation.  I think the rejectors of Hezekiah’s Passover are the ancestors of the Samaritans.  Those who accepted it possibly at least partially stayed in Jerusalem, 1 Chronicles 9:3 refers to a time when the population of Jerusalem included people of both Ephraim and Manasseh. 2 Chronicles 15:8-9 refers to people of Ephraim and Manasseh moving south all the way back in the time of Asa. But later the Babylonian Captivity and Return is still documented as being only Judah and Benjamin with their Levites.

After this came the reign of Manasseh King of Judah who desecrated The Temple with Idols.  Those who hold the view that The Ark actually came to Ethiopia through Egypt rather than the Menalik story believe this is most likely when The Ark was removed from The Temple.  But I don’t think it specifically came to Elephantine till later.  At first it was perhaps these Ephraimites in Jerusalem who recalled their brethren in Sais and helped some Levites smuggle it there. 

The Cushite Dynasty was destroyed and Egypt conquered for a time by Esarhaddon and Assurbanipal.  Nahum 3:8-1 speaks of the Egyptians being massacred and carried away into a Captivity of their own.  But after all that the 26th Dynasty arises from Sais under Psamtik I, his son was Necho II.

In 2 Chronicles 35 Josiah among other things orders The Ark returned to The Temple.  But we don’t see the fulfillment of that intent like we do the other things in Josiah’s speech.  Instead right after he is done preparing The Temple he attacks Necho, Necho tells him he is doing YHWH’s will and that YHWH is with him and in verse 22 the narrative voice agrees.  I’m convinced that the obvious subtext here is that Necho had The Ark.

The Elephantine Colony were initially mercenaries serving the 26th Dynasty.  I'm among those who disagree with the accusations that they were Polytheists.  After the Elephantine Temple was destroyed some stayed and some went to Tana Kirkos. 

Bishop James Ussher in the 17th Century interpreted Psamtik I as fulfilling at least part of Isaiah 19 and he didn’t even know about the Elephantine Temple.  The “Midst of Egypt” is often looked for in the Memphis/Giza area because people want to read it through the lens of the Upper-Lower Egypt divide, but in antiquity I don't think people outside of Egypt thought too much about that.  This Hebrew word for Midst as a geographical term in the context of Egypt I think most likely refers to The Nile.

Josephus in Antiquities of The Jews Book 11 Chapter 8 Section 6 possibly alludes to Samaritans being settled in Thebes by Alexander The Great.  What’s said about the Samaritans and Sanballat in this part of Josephus is tied up in Anti-Samaritan Propaganda so I take it all with a grain of salt, but it’s worth noting.  Since Sanballat is called a Horonite it’s possible he had nothing to do with the Samaritans as Josephus accuses but was an apostate Ephraimite leader, or a leader of Gentiles settled in Ephraimite territory.

Later in Book 12 Chapter 1 Josephus talks about Ptolemy I settling both Judeans and Samaritans in Egypt.  Book 13 Chapter 3 Section 4 refers to this Samaritan presence in Egypt showing it continued.  

The Hellenistic Period also included more Jews form Judea coming to Egypt which could have included more from Ephraim, particularly in Alexandria and the Onais Colony, there was also a Jewish community at Akhmim.

And at the end of Wars of The Jews Josephus talks about surviving Jewish rebels coming to Egypt at the end of the War and causing trouble in 73-74.

After the Kitos War in 116-117 all Jews in Egypt and Cyrenaica (where the rebellion started) who survived were forced to return to Judea, but this might not have included the Samaritans.  

A Jewish Community in Egypt would re-emerge from Jews who migrated there from Judea some time after the Bar Kochba Revolt.  Those may have been partly descendants of those who lived there before.  

But also Hadrian banned Jews from living anywhere Jerusalem was even visible from (according to Eusebius Church History Book IV Chapter 6 Section 3), and that includes a good chunk of Biblically Ephraimite territory (today roughly the Ramallah and al-Bireh Governorate and some of the Jericho Governorate).  Gophna (Modern Jifna) is one example of a city in Ephraimite territory archeologically confirmed to have ceased being Jewish and became Pagan at this time.

A Law issued by Theodosius I on February 18th 390 AD shows there were still Samaritans in Egypt then.

This website documents evidence of continued Samaritan presence in Egypt down to the Eighteenth Century.

https://members.tripod.com/~osher_2/Pummer.htm

[Update: Annoyingly that Website doesn't work anyone, and neither does the one capture of it on the Internet Archive.]

Armenia and Lachish

The Armenians are another people group DNA analysis has shown to be closely related to The Jews.

During much of the divided Kingdom Period the city of Lachish was the second largest city in Judah, and in fact the largest within Judah's proper tribal allotment since Jerusalem was originally a city of Benjamin.  Assyria failed to conquer Jerusalem, but in it's war with Judah during the reign of Hezekiah it did capture and carry away into captivity the population of Lachish.  Micah 1 is a Biblical reference to the Assyrian Captivity of Lachish, and it uses Eagle Imagery of Lachish which also became a symbol of Armenia.  But it's also referenced in 2 Chronicles 32:9 and possibly alluded to in 2 Kings 18:14-17 & 19:8 and Isaiah 36:2 & 37:8.  

Thing is even though the Biblical references to this are faint it's well documented in Assyrian Archeology.

There are no Biblical clues to where the Judeans of Lachish were taken like there are for the Northern Kingdom's Captivity.  However where Assyria settled the northern captives made sense in the context of what their other recent conquests were, Assyria liked to move populations from one conquered region to another to weaken local national identities.  So it's notable that between the Northern Kingdom's captivity in the 8th century BC and when Lachish was taken in the 7th century BC the Assyrian Empire had conquered Urartu extending it's borders further north.  And the Armenians first began to emerge in the former Urartu lands after Assyria conquered it.  It took awhile however, the Orontid Kings don't show up till 570 BC, and nothing is known to have been written down in the Armenian language till their translation of The Bible in the 5th Century AD.

Armenia's traditional claim to descent from sons of Gomer (chiefly Togarmah but Ashkenaz is also mentioned) I think refers to some of the ancestors of the Urartu who lived in the region before them and who they intermingled with.  Or maybe the Armenian Language being Indo-European is their influence.

Both the Six Pointed Star and a Red Lion are among Armenia's National Symbols.  Many insist the Six Pointed Start didn't become a Jewish Symbol till fairly recently, but archeological evidence does exist of it being used in Ancient Israel, and I have a hypothesis that the Hebrew Bible's Lily Imagery is partly where it comes from.  

Plato's Myth of Er son of Armenios is probably an adaptation of Armenian legends about their local hero Ara The Beautiful.  That draws attention to the possibility that the Armenian name Ara could be related to the Hebrew Er.  In Genesis 38:3-7, 46:12, Numbers 26:19 and 1 Chronicles 2:3 the name of Er is given to Judah's firstborn son who died childless.  I believe Er's widow Tamar did eventually marry Shelah after the events of Genesis 38 end and that she's the mother of Shelah's children (in addition to Zerah and Pharez) called Shelanites in Numbers 26:20 (and Shilonites of 1 Chronicles 9:5).  

It could be the real story behind the myth was this second Er being thought of as a symbolic rebirth of the first Er.  I don't think Semiramis was ever part of the Ara mythology prior to Hellenistic influence in the region, and Plato we also know would change the myths he talked about to suit his rhetorical purposes.  However if a literal belief in Reincarnation was part of the Pre-Christian Paganism of Armenia, my current theories about the origins of that belief suggests it would have came not from the Judean element of their ancestry but from the same people responsible for their language being Indo-European.

Contextually I think the use of Zimri in Jeremiah 25:25 could be to a Proto-Armenian tribe since it's in the same verse as other east of the Euphrates nations.  Zimri was also a son of Zerah son of Judah in 1 Chronicles 2:6.  

And the dynastic name Zariadres could identify descent from Judah's son Zerah. There is an Aramaic Inscription of Artaxias I proclaiming himself a "Son of Zerah" so the Artaxiad Dynasty is Zerahite as well.  Artaxias's claimed continuity with the prior Orontids is what's questionable, if true at all I suspect it's via a marriage.

There is also an Armenian folk hero named David of Sassoun who's father was called Lion Mher meaning "lion like".  

Maybe Lachish and/or these other cities were a frequent home to Cadet branches of the House of David, like Orleans was for France and York for England?  David himself, Rehoboam and Abijah are all known to have had a lot more children then just the Son who followed them on the Throne.  And Lachish is referred to as a city Rehoboam fortified. in 2 Chronicles 11:9, as are Marseha and Adullam.  Maybe established local leaders of Lachish married daughters of Rehoboam, and maybe they were of the Zimri and/of Shelanite clans?

It's also possible the Armenians aren't connected to Israelites only through Lachish.  At it's greatest extent Armenia overlapped quite a bit with Kurdistan so some deported Northern Israelites could have came there too.

Perhaps I should give some more thought to Armenia's close relationship to Georgia however.  The oldest civilization in what is today called Georgia was Colchis.  Certain classical Greek writers like Diodorus Siculus (in Section 28) said that the Colchi descended from the same "foreigners exiled from Egypt" that the Jews descended from, and that they also practiced circumcision. "The nation of the Colchi in Pontus and that of the Jews, which lies between Arabia and Syria, were founded as colonies by certain emigrants from their country; and this is the reason why it is a long-established institution among these two peoples to circumcise their male children."  The Georgians were called Iberians during Greco-Roman times, a name which could derive from Eber/Hebrew.  So maybe the Colchi were the lost clan of Calchol son of Zerah son of Judah?  

The Colchi definitely existed on the shores of the Black Sea before the captivity of Lachish however, so we'd need an additional route for how they got there.  They could have just been a colony founded by Judean sea faring merchants.  However Joel 3 speaks of Tyre & Sidon and the Philistines selling children of Judah and Jerusalem to Ionians(Javan) as slaves.  Ezekiel 27:13 speaks of Javan, Meshach and Tubal trading in commodities including Slaves that they got from Tyre.  Meshach and Tubal are the names of two ancient cities in Georgia.  

Herodotus also claimed the Colchi practiced Circumcision though his theory on why was that they were an Egyptian colony.  Modern scholars tend to dismiss these Greek references to Circumcision in Colchis because none of the Karvelian tribes seem to have ever practiced it.  However the Georgian Jews were already present in the region by the time of Nebuchadnezzar, so it could be they were who these Greek authors were thinking of.

It's possible additional Jewish migrations to these regions happened later, like during the Babylonian Captivity or when it ended.  Two patrilineal descendants of Herod The Great were Roman Client Kings of Armenia as Tigranes V and Tigranes VI.  And then Jewish Christians of the first couple centuries eventually brought The Gospel to Armenia, Armenia even claims to have beaten Rome to making Christianity their State Religion in 301 AD. I think it actually happened a little later probably at the same time as Iberia in the 330s and like them perhaps partly because of diplomatic relations with Constantine. 

It is sometimes claimed that only the Georgian Bagratuni claimed Davidic descent, but their heraldry was a Lion even in Armenia. Indeed our first recorded reference to this from Pseudo Juansher says it was Adamase himself who was of Davidic stock not his father in law.

The Sumbat Chronicle genealogy of the Georgian branch connects them to David in a way that seemingly excludes the Armenian branch, but that link alone may not be the whole story.  I think the Isaac who is generation 87 of the Sumbat Chronicle genealogy is Isaac/Sakah II of the Armenian Bagratuni and Dhan is Vahn I Mamikonian.  

I think this Isaac is Sakah I and Sakah II of the Armenian Bagratuni being combined and the generations in-between skipped and it's the generations after him that are mistaken in connecting this line to Iberian royalty too early.  

https://archive.org/details/toumanoff-cyril-1967.-studies-in-christian-caucasian-history.-georgetown-university-press/page/n167/mode/2up

The Genealogy of Armenian Bagartuni starts on page 338 (or 168 of 304).

(I'm thinking of making a post arguing that Cleopas was married to a Sister of Jesus)

The name of the Bagartuni comes from a Persian word meaning "Gift of God", so it could be a name a clan of Davidic Ancestry chose to honor claiming descent from David's son Nathan since Nathan in Hebrew means Gift. Nathan is also the Son of David who Luke 3's Genealogy of Jesus goes back to. 

And the reference to this in the De Adrministrando Imperio by Constantine VII Porphryogentius says they traces their ancestry through Mary's Genealogy (which Christians tend to view as Luke's) rather then Joseph's from Matthew.  And Constantine's claim of there being a David ruling as a vassal of Heralcius is also him saying something of Iberia that was actually the case with Armenia.  David Saharuni wasn't a Bagratuni but he could have had kids who become intermarried into the Dynasty that the other histories failed to record.

But regardless of the Bagratid's origins they were by the 8th Century both in Armenia and Georgia of Atraxiad Ancestry. 

Zariadres

Artaxias I of Armenia

Artavasdes I of Armenia

Artaxias I of Iberia

Artoces of Iberia

Pharnavaz II of Iberia

[Female Name Unkown wife of Kartam of Cholchis]

Pharasmanes I of Iberia

Mihrdat I of Iberia

Amazasp I of Iberia

Pharasmanes II of Iberia

Ghadam of Iberia

Pharasmanes III of Iberia

[Female Name Unkown wife of Vologases II]

Khosrov I of Armenia

Tiridates II of Armenia

Khosrov II of Armenia

Tiridates III of Armenia

Salome of Ujarma

Trdat of Iberia

[Female Name Unkown-Wife of Varaz-Bakur II]

Pharasmanes IV of Iberia

Mihrdat IV of Iberia

Archil of Iberia

Mihrdat V of Iberia

Vakhtang I Gorgasali

Dachi of Iberia

Bacurius II of Iberia

[Name Unkown]

Pharasmanes VI of Iberia

Bacurius III of Iberia

Adarnase I of Iberia

Stephen II of Iberia

Adarnase II of Iberia

Stephen of Kakheti

Mirian of Kakheti

[Female Name Unknown-Wife of Prince Nerse I Nersiani]

Adarnase III of Iberia

Nerse of Iberia

[Female Name Unkown-Wife of Adarnase I of Tao-Klarjeti]

Ashot I the Great

Zariadres

Artaxias I of Armenia

Tigranes I

Tigranes the Great

Artavasdes II of Armenia

Tigranes III

Tigranes IV and Erato

[Female Name Unknown wife of Pharasmanes I of Iberia]

Mihrdat I of Iberia

Amazasp I of Iberia

Pharasmanes II of Iberia

Ghadam of Iberia

Pharasmanes III of Iberia

[Female Name Unkown wife of Vologases II]

Khosrov I of Armenia

Tiridates II of Armenia

Khosrov II of Armenia

Tiridates III of Armenia

Salome of Ujarma

Trdat of Iberia

[Female Name Unkown-Wife of Varaz-Bakur II]

Pharasmanes IV of Iberia

Mihrdat IV of Iberia

Archil of Iberia

Mihrdat V of Iberia

Vakhtang I Gorgasali

Dachi of Iberia

Bacurius II of Iberia

[Name Unkown]

Pharasmanes VI of Iberia

Bacurius III of Iberia

Adarnase I of Iberia

Stephen II of Iberia

Adarnase II of Iberia

Stephen of Kakheti

Mirian of Kakheti

[Female Name Unknown-Wife of Prince Nerse I Nersiani]

Adarnase III of Iberia

Nerse of Iberia

[Female Name Unkown-Wife of Adarnase I of Tao-Klarjeti]

Ashot I the Great

Zariadres

Artaxias I of Armenia

Tigranes I

Tigranes the Great

Artavasdes II of Armenia

Tigranes III

Tigranes IV and Erato

[Female Name Unknown wife of Pharasmanes I of Iberia]

Mihrdat I of Iberia

Amazasp I of Iberia

Pharasmanes II of Iberia

Ghadam of Iberia

Pharasmanes III of Iberia

[Female Name Unkown wife of Vologases II]

Khosrov I of Armenia

Tiridates II of Armenia

Khosrov II of Armenia

Tiridates III of Armenia

Khosrov III the Small

Bambishn

Nerses I the Great 

Isaac of Armenia

Sahakanoush

Hmayeak

Vasak

[Female Name Unkown]

Mushegh II 

Kahan Gail

Mushegh III

Hrahat

Dawith

Samuel II of Armenia

Dzoyk

Ashot Msaker

Kurds descend from The Northern Kingdom

I used to flirt with more epic and sexy theories about the "Lost Tribes", but now I focus on who makes the most sense based on the DNA evidence.

The Kurds are among a few middle eastern Ethnic Groups who DNA has shown to be even closer related to The Jews then the Arabs.  And since I view even the Edomites as having been absorbed into the Arab population that means they must be among those who descend from Deported Northern Israelites. 

1 Chronicles 5:26 refers to the Trans-Jordan Tribes being carried away by Assyria to Halah, Habor and Hara by the River Gozan.  2 Kings 17:6 and 18:11 also refer to those locations minus Hara but adds "Cities of the Medes" (some have argued it originally read "Mountains of Media", still implies the same general area) as being where the Captives of Samaria under King Hosea were taken.  Then 2 Kings 19:12 and Isaiah 37:12 mentions Gozan and Haran as among nations Assyria had destroyed previously.  From studying similar words in the Hebrew texts I think Hara is a shortened form of Haran, so it's like they're going full circle and being taken back to where Abraham was before he was called.

The River called Gozan in those verses is most likely the Khabur a significant tributary of the Euphrates that has tributaries of it's own, Guzana/Gozan is the name of an ancient city on that river whose remains are now called Tell Halaf, it may be a translation or scribal issue that switched the name of the river and city, or maybe they just were more interchangeable in Antiquity, what Senecharib said clearly uses Gozan as a City name rather then River name.  Edessa and Nisibis are both cities on rivers that are tributaries of this river as are many other important cities of Syrian and Turkish Kurdistan.  Antiochus Epiphanes renamed Edessa/Urfa as Callirrhoe or Antiochia on the Callirhoe, I'm not sure what exactly Callirhoe refers to here, but it could come from Halah given how Harran is similarly called Carrhae in Greek. 

Ancient Media meanwhile overlaps with modern Iranian Kurdistan, and the Kurdish Language is classified as a Northwestern Iranian language closely related to the Median Language (as are the Zaza-Gorani Languages spoken by some Kurds).  During classical Greco-Roman times this region included Corduene/Gordyene, Media Atropatene and Osroene, it's complicated however because multiple ethnic groups existed in those regions.

These were all territories at least partly under Assyrian control in 740-720 BC, the more fanciful identifications for these places like Velikvosky's theories and those of British Israelism have Assyria somehow deporting Israelites to places Assyria never controlled.

The passages including Naphtali in the Captivity don't specifically refer to these locations,  But the Deuterocanonical book of Tobit gives us good reason to believe Naphtalite clans were actually living in the heart of Assyria itself (I know that the main protagonists of Tobit are in Media, but it established Ahkir an important Vizer of Assyria as their cousin), and 2 Kings 17:23 also refers to captives being taken to Assyria.  So I think they are the ancestors of first century Adiabene who's capital was Arbela and through them the Kurds of Iraqi Kurdistan who's chief city is Irbil.  

Corduene/Gordyene was inhabited by a people called the Carduchoi/Carduchi who are also popularly proposed to be ancestors of the Kurds and possibly their namesake.  There is a medieval Jewish legend that the Corduene were the result of Solomon marring some of his Jinn to 500 Jewish Women.  That is a weird legend which is certainly not correct, but it does show that ancient Jews thought of these people as in some way related to them.  It could partly have it's roots in 1 Kings 4's account of Solomon marrying two of his daughters to Northern Governors, one of them being governor of Naphtali.

A region in Media Atropatene called Cadusia may have also been named after Gad.  A city in northwestern Iran is called Zabad, possibly related to the Zabad of 1 Chronicles 7:'s Ephraimite Genealogy in verse 21.  There is also a city in Iranian Kurdistan called Salmas who's name could be related to the Biblical name Salma or to Shillem a clan of Naphtali from Number 26:49 and Genesis 46:24.  Salmas first appears in the historical record right at the same time the Parthian Empire was conquered by the Sassanids.

The proper Kingdom of Media of classical antiquity didn't actually begin till just after when the Northern Kingdom of Israel was conquered.  Deioces is the name given in Classical sources for it's first King, the dates work for this being a Median name given to King Hosea reigning in the region after his deportation.  

Historian	Herodotus	George Cameron	Edvin Grantovsky	Igor Diakonoff
Era	700-647 BC	728-675 BC[8]	672-640 BC	700-678 BC[5]

Deioces is also speculated to be the same person as Hushung in the Sahanameh, Hushung is a name that both phonetically and in meaning could be a poetic adaptation of the name of Hosea.  So Media Atropatene could be the Arsareth that II Esdras says King Hosea lead some of the exiles to.

Dejoces is a direct Paternal-ancestor of Astyages who's daughter was the mother of Cyrus.  Media Atropatene was the one former Persian territory not fully conquered by the Greeks under Alexander, it remained Semii-Independent till the 1st century when their Royal Family became the main Parthian Royal Family and through them of Armenia as well.

Of course contrary to Herodotus the Medes never had a centralized State, they were a decentralized confederations of tribes and cities of mostly local autonomy who only ever seemed to have a single King when they needed to unify for war.  But that kind of fits how I think of the Northern Israelites too.

Saladin was of Kurdish ancestry.

One controversial point of contention in Lost Tribes speculation in whether or not we should expect them to have been absorbed into other population so thoroughly they forget their Israelite Identity.  And I feel like maybe it depends which Tribe you're talking about.  Because it might be worth noting that the name Manasseh means "forget" as explained in Genesis 41:51.

The Captivity recorded in 1 Kings 17 is of principally the City of Samaria.  But even that was only part of Western Manasseh.

The reason why many even who agree with me that not actually everyone was deported still assume this deportation probably includes some of Ephraim too or even was primarily of Ephraim is because people get confused about which tribal allotment Samaria was apart of.  Shechem was on the border of Ephraim and Manasseh, so cities north of Shechem like Samaria and Tirzah are Manasseh.   However because the mountain range both Shechem and Samaria are apart of gets called "Mount Ephraim" or "Mountains of Ephraim" people get confused.  It also doesn't help how both Samaria and Ephraim are used as poetically synymous with the entire Northern Kingdom.  

I suspect that after the fall of the House of Omri the Northern Kingdom was dominated by Manasseh.  Jeroboam and Baasha were the only Northern Royal Families who's Tribal affiliations were explicitly identified, my hunch about Omri is that he was a Danite.  Jehu rose to power in Gilead, Eastern Manasseh, and Menahem was from Tirzah, Hosea rebelling against the house that overthrew Menahem's house I see as circumstantial evidence he was related.  Menahem being called Son of Gadi in 2 Kings 15 could be because he descends from Gaddi the spy representing Manasseh in Numbers 13:10-11.

I think even some of the Manassites who never left the Land eventually forget who they were.  I think some of them became absorbed in the population of the Northern West Bank Palestinians, (like those of Jezreel aka Zir'in).  

That's not to say I don't think any Ephraimites could have been among the deported.  Samaria's status as the capital probably caused it have a diverse population. 

Asher and Phoenicia

The first mention of Tyre in The Bible is in Joshua 19:29 as a city in the allotment of Asher.

There is a lot of overlap between what the Greeks and later Romans called Phoenicia and what was allotted to the Tribe of Asher in the days of Joshua.  Zidon/Sidon itself is listed in Joshua 19:28.  Dor was basically the southernmost city of what they called Phoenicia and Joshua 17:11 lists it as a City originally meant for Asher but that Manasseh wound up taking.  And what was allotted to Asher arguable extends as far north as into the Byblos district where Afq/Aphaca is.

Of course many of these are cities the Canaanites weren’t chased out of, as we’re told of Dor in Judges 1:27 and five proper Asher allotted cities in Judges 1:31, and the five in that verse weren’t even made tributaries like the others, they were fully independent.  That verse includes Zidon and Acco/Acho (the city known today as Akka and to the Crusaders as Acre but in Acts was Ptolemais).  The Asherites are also described different then the tribes preceding them in Judges 21, they dwell among the Canaanites rather then the Canaanites dwelling among them.

Greek authors also referred to the Phoenicians as a Circumcized people, which according to The Bible the Canaanites were not, Circumcision is part of what made the Israelites distinct from their neighbors.

But Judges 1:31 doesn’t mention Tyre, and that gets me to wondering, was Tyre an Asherite city for more of its ancient history than we usually think?

Hiram was the King of Tyre contemporary with David and at least the early reign of Solomon.  1 Chronicles 22:4 and 1 Kings 5:6 refer to Hiram and his kingdom as distinct from the Zidonians, not from Sidon as a city but from the Sidonians as a tribe.  It seems weird that he is merely allied with the House of David and not part of their Kingdom if he’s an Israelite, but maybe being surrounded by so many Canaanite cities cut them off.

Isaiah 23 refers to Tyre as the Daughter of Sidon, meaning the population of Tyre had become Sidonian by then.  And other Prophets like Joel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and Zechariah constantly pair Tyre and Zidon together as practically twin cities, but all these are much later, so when did the change happen?

Ethbaal/Ithobaal the father of Jezebel you may have seen referred to as a King of Tyre, but The Bible in 1 Kings 16:31 calls him king of the Sidonians and never mentioned Tyre in its Ahab & Jezebel narrative at all.  The source for him being a King of Tyre is chiefly the Phoenician Historian Meander as quoted by Josephus in Against Apion.  These sources also tell us he did not descend from Tyre’s prior Kings but founded a new Dynasty, he was a Priest of Astarte who killed the previous king Phelles implying this was a Coup d'etat perhaps religiously motivated.  

But that also wasn’t the first time this happened, Phelles’s own dynasty gained power the same way decades earlier.  According to Meander Hiram/Hirom was succeeded by a Son then a Grandson but then his Dynasty ended.  Meander’s names for the Father, Son and Grandson of Hirom seem to imply Tyre was already worshiping Baal and Astarte even then, but those names could have been altered by the later Baalist record keepers.

When you study the Etymology of the name Phoenicia and why the Greeks gave that name to this region, you'll discover it's tied to a Greek word for Purple and to Phoenicia being a source of Dates and a rare Purple Dye, and that this is also tied to how Purple became a color associated with Royalty, hence "Tyrian Purple".  

So Jacob's blessing for Asher in Genesis 49:20 is arguably fulfilled by Asher being Phoenicia, the Royal Dainties are the Dates and Tyrian Purple Dye.  Moses' blessing from Deuteronomy 33:24 can fit as well.

The Phoenicians had a major influence on the early prehistory of Ancient Greece.  The Greek Alphabet is basically an adaptation of the Phoenician Alphabet, Aphrodite was basically just Astarte coming to Greece via Phoenician colonies on Cyprus.  The memory if this link in Greek Mythology ties Tyre particularly to Thebes in Boeotia an Aeolian region.

Later in the Hellenistic era Zeno of Citium and Chrysippus of Cios were Hellenized Phoenicians who were core to founding the Stoic School of Philosophy which would be the dominant Theistic school of Greek Philosophy during the era of The New Testament.

I don’t believe in British Israelism so I don’t see this as evidence that the Ancient Greeks as a whole or even specially the Aeolians in Boeotia literally primarily genealogically descended from Asher or Dan.  But the cultural influence is interesting, and perhaps adds some poetic symmetry to how, if my theories are correct, the modern Descendants of Asher follow liturgically Greek Rites of Christianity probably due to being Hellenized Jews before converting to Christianity.

As I discussed in my last Lost Tribes post, DNA research seems to show that the Christians of Lebanon are kin to The Jews.  My focus in that post was on arguing for the Maronites being Dan.  But I also think the Christians in the Tyre, Sidon, Jezzine and Nabatieh Districts of Lebanon, as well as the Haifa and Akko districts of Israel mostly descend from Asherites who converted to Christianity at some point in the first four centuries AD.  Those that follow Greek Rites from Asherites who were Hellenized by the First Century, and the Syriacs those who were not Hellenized.  The Melkite Greek Catholics are the largest Christian group in these districts followed by the Greek Orthodox as a somewhat close second.

Acts 11:19 tells us that one of the regions the Hellenized Jewish Christians we met in chapters 6-7 were scattered to during the persecution following the Martyrdom of Stephen was Phenice in the KJV which is a well known shortened form of Phoenicia, these Christians in Phenice are mentioned again in Acts 15:3, 21:3-7 and 27:3-12 where in this time Acco was called Ptolemais.

The Christians in this region are even the majority population in the villages of Mi'ilya and Fassuta, as well as Jezzine in Lebanon.

I believe the Israeli Christians native to what was Galilee in New Testament times also descend chiefly from 1st Century Jews, but they would be of the Tribes of Zebulun and Issachar, and maybe some remnants of Naphtali.

Dan in Lebanon

I had in the past been attracted to identifying the Dan of Judges 18 and Jeroboam's Idol with Baalbek, but I have changed my mind on that.

While Baalbek was a site with Temples going way back into the Bronze Age, the most impressive structures there now are Roman ones, chiefly The Temple to Jupiter built by Hadrian.  It seems like originally the far more important cult center was to the West, in the eastern part of the Byblos District of Modern Lebanon.

A site in that region called Afqa/Afka/Apheca/Afeka is one of the sites proposed to be the Aphik/Aphek allotted to Asher in Joshua 19:30 and Judges 1:31.  Marvin H. Pope of Yale University proposed that somewhere in this area was the ancient home of El referred to in the Ugarit texts.  In Greek Mythology this same region is the setting of the story of Adonis/Adonais who's name comes from the Biblical Hebrew Adoni/Adonai which is not otherwise known to have been used by Canaanites who preferred Baal as their word for calling a god Lord.  So I really do think this is evidence this cult was a Paganized worship of of the God of Abraham.

Both those references to Asher's Aphik mentioned a Rehob nearby.  If this is the same Rehob that is identified with the "Entering in of Hamath" in Numbers 13:21 as well as the Bethrehob of Laish in Judges 18, then that is the city of Northern Dan.  Judges 1:31 lists these cites as among those Asher didn't drive the Canaanites out of, so that's consistent with them still being Canaanite when Dan arrives later.  

My current theory reads that verse as making them the northern most of those cities and Accho/Acco the Sothern Most.  Accho is the city called Ptolemais in Greco-Roman times and thus in The New Testament, Acre by the Crusaders and is now known as Akka in modern Israel.  It would be the only of the Judges 1:31 cities that is today in Israel rather then Lebanon.  And Asher unlike the tribes in the surrounding verses didn't even make these Canaanite cities Tributaries, they remained fully independent.  

So Rehob/Laish/Dan is probably Yanouh (the nearby temples at Qaalat Faqra and Yammoune are also interesting).

For Naphtali the main cities they didn't drive the Canaanites out of, but that they did make Tributaries, were Beth-Anath and Bethshemesh according to Judges 1:33.  These Tributaries I think were still practicing their Native Baal Worship however.  Two of the sites proposed for Beth-Anath are in South Eastern Lebanon close to the proper Naphtalite territory, Aynata and Safad El Battikh.

More then one city is called Beth-Shemesh in the Hebrew Bible since naturally there were many Houses of Sun Worship.  The one west of Jerusalem was no longer in use by Hellenistic times.  The Bethshemesh in the Land of Egypt mentioned in Jeremiah 43:13 we know was called Heliopolis by the Greeks.  Baalbek was also called Heliopolis by the Greeks.  Baalbek and Afqa are close to being on the same Latitude, along with the port city of Byblos.  

In 1 Kings 5:18 what the KJV weirdly translated "Stonequarers" is actually Gibilites or people of Gebel/Byblos.  Since a Maternal Danite was the architect of The Temple I consider this evidence Gebel was by this time Dan's port city (but was still Canaanite during the Amarna period).

The Byblos District is among the regions of Lebanon where today the majority of the population is Maronite.  I have a theory that the Maronites are the modern descendants of the Danites.  They are significantly the Majority of Christians in Lebanon, and DNA studies have shown the Lebanese Christians to be among the groups even closer related to The Jews then the Arabs are.  Since the people today classified as Arabs includes the Ishmaelites, Keturites, Edomites and probably now also descendants of Moab and Ammon, that would have to make The Maronites fellow descendants of the Twelve Tribes of Israel.  The Maronites are an Eastern Rite Catholic Church meaning like many Ancient Danites they practice Idolatry.

The Adonis connection also means this region's version of Astarte might be the version who became Aphrodite after entering Greece through the Southern Peloponnese.  The same region of Greece said to have been colonized by Danoi/Danaans, but I doubt they left much of a permanent genetic impact there being not it's first residents and then later conquered by the Dorians.

There are other Maronite populations in Lebanon further south closer to Sidon and the border with Israel.  For those who view the Leshem taken over by Danites in Joshua 19:47 as separate from Laish and closer to Sidon it could be around here.  There used to be a Maronite population in the Golan Heights as well, meaning identifying traditional Tel-Dan with Dan isn't entirely wrong.

Before 1948 there were two Maronite Towns in Modern Israel proper, both way up north just south of the border with Lebanon. Kafr Bir'im and Jish.  Mainstream Historians believe this area became Maronite after some Maronites migrated south during the Ottoman period and that these cities were Muslim for about a Millennium, but in my view no solid evidence they were ever Muslim exists.  

Kafr Bir'im is north of a Mountain in Israel called Mount Meron, I think that is where the name Maronite actually came from and thus they were always connected to that mountain somehow.  Other theories on the origin of the name I think are folk etymology.

In Jish a Maronite Church was built over an ancient Synagogue, which suggests the Maronites of Jish do in fact descend from people who were practicing Judaism before they converted to Christianity.

In the first century AD I suspect these Danites who later became Maronites close to the modern Israel-Lebanon Border were not very Idolatrous and practicing Judaism proper, while the ones up in the Byblos region had long fully descended into Idolatry and may have virtually forgotten their Biblical Heritage.  But both would have been using the Aramaic/West Syriac language explaining how both became part of the same Liturgical Rite when they became Christians.

Jish is also called Gush Halav and is the city known in Josephus as Gischala/Giscala.  John of Gischala was a native of this city who became a prominent leader among the Zealots during the Jewish Revolt that started in 66 AD and was taken prisoner by Titus after his victory in 70 AD.  

I have been wondering now if some of the Old Testament prophecies about Dan that have lead to many Pre-Millennial Futurists thinking the "Antichrist" will be a Danite were perhaps actually fulfilled by John of Gischala?

Of course other theories about Dan like to associate them with the Greeks because of Ezekiel 27.  I'm not a fan of how that often leads into British Israelism, but there are Liturgically Greek Christians in Lebanon.  

In Particular here, if one wanted to associate the Maronite regions fully with Asher, then one could argue for Dan being connected to Greek Orthodox of Melkite territories further North. 

Labweh is very close if not in one of the major Melkite parts of Lebanon, and it's the source of the Orontes Rive and has been associated by some scholars with the Entering in of Hamath and thus the northern border of Biblical Israel. 

West of there the North Governate contains a good chunk of Greek Orthodox communities and a region called Dinnyieh.  And the ancient porty city of Tripoli for Dan's ships mentioned in the Song of Deborah.