ORIGIN OF THE JEWS.

Evening Star, Issue 21881, 19 November 1934, Page 3

ORIGIN OF THE JEWS.

10. THE EDITOU. Sir, —In,'.answering your correspondent “ British Christian,” 1 sat down last eveniilg to\ reply soon found that m answering eaoji scriptural passage briefly 1* liad covered six pages, and to otter this .to the editor was, of course, ridiculous. Nevertheless, the notes are available to “British Christian ” if he'cares for them. Now let us endeavour to unravel the tangled threads, for 1 fear-that we are at cross purposes in some things, and may be accused of splitting 1 .hairs. One can see that “ British Christian ” is a perfectly honest and straightforward critic, and’ 1 think that he will agree with the following general outline concerning Israel in the Old Testament. Commencing with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, we have the progenitors of the complete race. We might say that the race continued more or less as a unit until the death of Solomon. After his death w’e find the nation rent in two. Ten tribes,, refusing to acknowledge Rehflboam (Solomon’s son) as King, chose Jeroboam, who was a “ bad egg,” and so from then on Rehoboam and his descendants reigned over Jfidah and Benjamin. Some say that ►this rending of the nation was unfortunate, but in the record of it, 1. Kings, xii., we are told that it was the Divine purpose. From this time on the Ten Tribes continued in an idolatrous manner under If) Kings (‘all bad), not one of. them of David’s line, until for their sins they were transported between 740 and 676 n.c. to Assyria. A remnant tve acknowledge must have remained behind, as your correspondent shows (11. Chronicles, xxxiv., 9), but these deportations disposed, of the main body of the Northern Kingdom. Judah, Benjamin, and some Levites, constituting the southern kingdom, remained in the land for a further 130 years under a line of Kings descended from David. Between 606 and 58a, n.c. this southern kingdom was removed to Babylon, but as Jeremiah had prophesied this captivity was to last for seventy years, and history records the fact that during the reign of Cyrus, the Persians, they were allowed to return, and we have the much discussed records of Ezra and Nehemiah., Your correspondent mentions migrations from the northern house to the southern. We agree with him that it was practically impossible for the northerners to worship God even if they so desired, and so we have four records of Godly people making religious visits to Jerusalem. Three of these visits aro recorded prior to the Assyrian, deportation, and one ninetyone years afterwards, which, of course, proves the existence of a Godly remnant, but does not affect the main body, whicli all reliable records prove was still away, and was still away in New Ttestament days. Our BritishIsrael case is built up on the foundation of the unconditional promises made to the Fathers, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (Genesis, xii. to xix.), and on prophecy and subsequent history relating to the main body of the ten-tribed House or Kingdom of Israel. Difficulties arise, of course, be- • cause of the fact that many of the Old Testament writers use their own peculiar naming, hence we find the northern kingdom sometimes referred to as Ephraim, House of Joseph, and Ezekiel even refers to them as the Whole House of Israel in contradistinction to the “ House of Israel,” which term he. sometimes applies to the southern house, but a little care with the context will usually clear up the matter. By the way, that sieve that Amos speaks of was a riving sieve, with a leather bottom. The*corn was tossed in it and the chaff blown away, the corn being then carried in the sieve to the place of deposit. 1 British Christian leaves out the end of the verse, and in so doing reverses the meaning of the figure, making out that they would be scattered, whereas it reads: “I will sift the House of Israel like as corn is sifted in a sieve. . . . Yet shall not the least grain fall to the ground.” —i.e., to- take root —and so the figure shows that God - would deposit them eventually in that “ appointed place (11. Sam., vii), which we endeavour to prove was in the isles referred to so frequently by Isaiah and Jeremiah. —I am, etc., W. Barnes. November 17.