BRITISH

Southland Times, Issue 20013, 29 October 1926, Page 9

BRITISH

To the Editor. Sr> —It would seem that the word ‘‘British is British Israelism’s fifth rib and that the language sword has found its mark. Else why should “Saxon” spring in again to help “Bible Student” carry off the British bone? Let me tell these British Israel twins that there are laws of philology which operate like the laws in any other branch of science, and that nations do not descend from the clouds and “adopt” languages like twins can be adopted. One of the twins is “concerned about the Hebrew of the Israelite people.” It is still there, in use by Jehovah’s people Israel, and going strong, with a new lease of life through the offices of the Hebrew University. Let me inform the twins, for their language study, of what Professor Sayce says about Hebrew: “Hebrew is but a local dialect of the Canaanite group to which belong Phoenician, Moabite and other neighbouring idioms from which it differs no more than Assyrian from Babylonian, or Somersetshire from Dorsetshire English. The fragments of its ancient literature preserved in the Old Testament are the only sources of our knowledge of it.” Yet we are glibly told “there are hundreds of Hebrew roots and thousands of Hebrew words in the English language ” What Tyndale “thought” is no evidence against the ‘“farts.” What Murray’s Dictionary’ “says” is accepted as evidence in a Law Court. Murray cuts “British” right out of the Hebrew programme. Well, let us now climb Tara’s Hill. For the benefit of readers who do not know—Tara’s Hill is in Ireland. Here again we enter the field of amazing derivations. British Israeiism *hat Ireland has another name, Hibernia, ’ taken from a Hebrew word meaning, “from beyond the river.” Do you not see the cunning and trickery of it? A Scripture expression is brought in. Land “beyond the river” indeed! So the uninstructed are turned aside by another falsehood, like the “British” falsehood. Unfortunately for British Israeiism, however, “Hibernia” has absolutely nothing whatever to do with the Hebrew (although I could suggest a typical British Israel derivation “Hebrew-near,” “Hebrew-nia,” “Hibernia,” just change a letter or two, and there you are*. It is from a Celtic stem and existed in a primitive form Iberiu or I verm. The island was known in ancient Greek as Ivernia and in Latin as Hibernia. British Israeiism tells us Jeremiah climbed the hill of Tara with the ark of the Covenant, which he buried, and that with him was. Zedekiah’s daughter who married an Irish prince, etc. What fabrication! The last record of Jeremiah is that he was in Egypt. Not a particle of evidence can be produced as to his further movements. Presumably he died. I think we need no evidence about that. But we are asked to believe that he came puffing up Tara’s Hill, carrying the Coronation Stone (a chunk of good Scotch granite) in a sugar-bag over his shoulder and under

his arm a box of Hebrew words and roots to plant in spring. Here is another tit-bit of British Israeiism. It derives “Tara” from the Hebrew “torah”—the law. How beautifully it fits! Unfortunately Tara is good old Celtic. The original name of the hill of Tara was Liathdruim, i.e., “the grey eminence.” According to Keating, Thea, the wife of Heremon, the first monarch of Ireland, ordered a palace to be built on it for herself, whence it was called Temora (Temur), i.e., “the House of Thea.” But according to the Dinn Seanchers, an ancient Irish topography, the etymon of Temur is “the house of Music” (from Teadh, a musical chord, and Mur, a house) and it was so-called, adds that valuable MS., “from its celebrity for melody above all places in the world.” The word Tara (Teamhair) denotes “a pleasant and agreeable place with a covered or shaded walk upon a hill for a convenient prospect.” So much for the connection with “torah” the law. I am so sorry for the mental indigestion of the Saxon twin. I am wholly to blame for the silly words. My handwriting sometimes has a fit of Hebrew. No wonder the printer turned “Jack” into “jacle.” And yet I think I can put British Israeiism on to a good thing. Fancy waking up in the morning to find that our beloved “Jack” comes from the Hebrew, though after a decent journey through Greek and Latin and French, I suggest a touch to the Jeremiah legend. Surely he would be accompanied by a jolly band of Jack Tars (tar is really clipped from tarpaulin, but let us derive it for British Israeiism purposes from Tara), distant cousins to the brigade that dragged the guns to Ladysmith. I am sure that for tugging the wonderful mystery l)ox up the hill they would deserve the order of the Lion and the Unicorn. Here is another word for the language scrap-book. Please file in the Hebrew lite. “Jeremiad” from Jeremiah. A likely word for the cover of our British Israel correspondence when it closes.—l am, etc., FRANK SAMPSON.