_The Land of the North--Jeremiah, Ether and Esdras' Testimonies-The
course of the Israelites Northward--The Jordan, the Don, the Danube,
etc.--The Land of Mæsia and Dacia--The Cetae--Zalmoxes_.
Having traced the Ten Tribes to Media, the next question is, what has
become of them, for they are not to be found in that land today. Many
attempts have, at various times, been made to discover the Ten Tribes
of Israel as a distinct community, but all have failed. Josephus
(_Antiquities xi_) believed that in his day they dwelt in large
multitudes somewhere beyond the Euphrates, in Asareth, but Asareth was
an unknown land to him. Rabbinical traditions and fables, committed to
writing in the middle ages, assert the same fact, with many wonderful
amplifications. The imaginations of certain Christian writers have
sought them in the neighborhood of their last recorded habitation.
Jewish features have been traced in the Affghan tribes; statements are
made occasionally of Jewish colonies in China, Thibet and Hindostan
(the Beni-Israel), while the Black Jews, of Malabar, claim affinity
with Israel. But none of these people would, in any but the slightest
degree, fill the place accorded in the prophecies to Ephraim and his
fellows.
The fact that James the Apostle opens his epistle with the following
words, has been adduced as an argument that the condition of the Ten
Tribes was known to the early Christians: "James, a servant of God and
of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes who are scattered
abroad, greeting." But it would rather convey the idea to our mind
that the epistle was addressed to those of the houses of Israel and
Judah, who, for the various reasons before cited, and which by that
time had multiplied, had wandered into Egypt, Greece, Rome and other
parts of the earth, and not to those whom God had hidden to fulfill
more completely His promises to the Patriarchs.
We have before stated that the Latter-day Saints believe that the Ten
Tribes still exist, and that their home is in the far north. That they
still exist is absolutely necessary to fulfill the unfailing promises
of Jehovah to Israel, and to all mankind. The presence of the remnants
of Judah, in every land today, is an uncontrovertable testimony that
the covenant made with Abraham has not been abrogated or annulled. The
vitality of the Jewish race is proverbial, and can we reasonably
expect that when one branch of a tree shows such native strength, that
the other branches will not be proportionately vital? Is it not more
consistent to believe that, as the Jewish race under the curse of the
Almighty and suffering centuries of persecution, still survives, so is
it with the rest of Jacob's seed, rather than that they, ages ago,
were blotted out of earthly existence?
The belief that the Latter-day Saints hold that these tribes are
residents of the northern regions of the earth, is sustained by a
cloud of scriptural witnesses of _ancient_ and _modern_ days, to whom
we now appeal. Our first witness shall be the Prophet Jeremiah. In the
third chapter of his prophecies we find the Lord rebuking both Israel
and Judah for their treachery and backsliding, yet still proclaiming
His long-suffering and mercy to His covenant people. He then gives
command to the Prophet, saying:
"Go and proclaim these words towards the north, and say, return thou,
backsliding Israel, saith the Lord, and' I will not cause mine anger
to fall upon you; for I am merciful saith the Lord and I will not keep
anger forever. * * * In those days [the latter days] the house of
Judah shall walk with the house of Israel, and they shall come
together _out of the land of the north_ to this land that I have given
for an inheritance to your fathers."
Again, in speaking of the mighty works accompanying the final glorious
restoration of the house of Jacob, the same prophet declares:
"Therefore, behold, the days come, saith the Lord, that they shall no
more say, the Lord liveth which brought up the children of Israel out
of the land of Egypt, but the Lord liveth which brought up and which
led the seed of the house of Israel out of the _north country_, and
from all countries whither I had driven them, and they shall dwell in
their own land." (_Jeremiah xxiii_). Again it is written (_Jeremiah
xxxi_): "For thus saith the Lord, Sing with gladness for Jacob, and
shout among the chief of the nations; publish ye, praise ye, and say,
O, Lord save thy people, the remnant of Israel. Behold I will bring
them from the north country and gather them from the coasts of the
earth * * * I am a father to Israel, and Ephraim is my first born.
We will turn for a moment from the Asiatic to the American continent.
There we find Ether, the Jaredite, about 600 years B. C., prophesying
of the latter days: "And then also cometh the Jerusalem of old; and
the inhabitants thereof, blessed are they, for they have been washed
in the blood of the Lamb; and they are they who were scattered and
gathered in from the four quarters of the earth, and from the _north
countries_ and are partakers of the fulfilling of the covenant which
God made with their father Abraham."
But the most definite word on this subject given by any of the ancient
writers of the Asiatic continent is contained in Esdras, a book of the
Apocrypha (_II Esdras xiii_). Therein is given a dream and its
interpretation showing forth the works and the power of the Son of
God. It is to Him and His gathering of the people together that the
Prophet refers. The verses more particularly bearing on our subject
read as follows:
39. "And whereas thou sawest that He gathered another peaceable people
unto Him. 40. "Those are the Ten Tribes which were carried away
captives out of their own land in the time of Oseas the king whom
Salmanaser the king of the Assyrians took captive, and crossed them
beyond the river; so were they brought into another land. 41. "But
they took this counsel to themselves, that they would leave the
multitude of the heathen, and go forth unto a further country where
never man dwelt, 42. "That they might there keep their statutes which
they never kept in their own land. 43. "And they entered in at the
narrow passages of the River Euphrates. 44. "For the Most High then
showed them signs, and stayed the springs of the flood till they were
passed over. 45. "For through the country there was great journey,
even of a year and a half, and the same region is called Arsareth (or
Ararath). 46. "Then dwelt they there until the latter time, and when
they come forth again, 47. "The Most High shall hold still the springs
of the river again that they may go through; therefore sawest thou the
multitude peaceable."
The statements of Esdras throw considerable light upon the reasons why
the captives in Media preferred not to return to their ancient home in
Canaan; supposing always that that privilege had been accorded to them
as well as to the captives of the house of Judah. In their home of
promise they had seldom kept the counsels and commandments of God and
if they returned it was probable they would not do any better,
especially as the Assyrians had filled their land with heathen
colonists whose influence would not assist them to carry out their new
resolutions. Hence they determined to go to a country "where never man
dwelt," that they might be free from all contaminating influences.
That country could only be found in the north. Southern Asia was
already the seat of a comparatively ancient civilization. Egypt
flourished in Northern Africa and Southern Europe was rapidly filling
with the future rulers of the world. They had, therefore, no choice
but to turn their faces northward. The first portion of their journey
was not however north; according to the account of Esdras, they appear
to have at first moved in the direction of their old homes, and it is
possible that they originally started with the intention of returning
thereto, or probably in order to deceive the Assyrians they started as
if to return to Canaan, and when they had crossed the Euphrates, and
were out of danger from the hosts of the Medes and Persians, then they
turned their journeying feet toward the polar star. Esdras states that
they entered in at the narrow passage of the river Euphrates, the Lord
staying the "springs of the flood until they were passed over." The
point on the River Euphrates at which they crossed would necessarily
be in its upper portion, as lower down would be too far south for
their purpose.
The upper course of the Euphrates lies among lofty mountains and near
the village of Pastash, it plunges through a gorge formed by
precipices more than a thousand feet in height and so narrow that it
is bridged at the top; it shortly afterwards enters the plains of
Mesopotamia. How accurately this portion of the river answers the
description of Esdras of the "narrows," where the Israelites crossed!
From the Euphrates the wandering host could take but one course in
their journey northward, and that was along the back or eastern shore
of the Black Sea. All other roads were impassable to them, as the
Caucassian range of mountains with only two or three passes throughout
its whole extent, ran as a lofty barrier from the Black to the Caspian
Sea. To go east would take them back to Media, and a westward journey
would carry them through Asia Minor to the coasts of the
Mediterranean. Skirting along the Black Sea, they would pass the
Caucassian range, cross the Kuban River, be prevented by the Sea of
Azof from turning westward and would soon reach the present home of
the Don Cossacks. It is asserted, on good authority, that along this
route and for "an immense distance" northward, the country is full of
tombs of great antiquity, the construction of which, the way in which
the dead are buried therein, and the jewelry, curiosities, etc., found
on opening them, prove that they were built by a people of similar
habits to the Israelites. Dr. Clark, a well-known traveler, states
that he counted more than ninety such mounds at one view near the
Kuban River.
We will here digress, and give some of the ideas of a writer on the
Israelitish origin of the nations of modern Europe (Mr. J. Wilson),
though in our own words. He endeavors to prove that Israel traveled
north-westward from the neighborhood last spoken of, and claims that
the names of all the principal rivers, in the regions round about,
show that colonists from the Holy Land gave them. The Jordan was
distinctively the River of Canaan as the Nile was of Egypt. The word
Jordan is by some claimed to mean flowing, by others the River of
Eden. There was also the Dedan or Dan (el Leddan) flowing into it;
which would lead to the supposition that the word Dan had some
connection with Israelitish rivers not now understood. Suffice it, the
exiles doubtless carried with them many hallowed recollections of
their ancient river, which it was but natural they should seek to
perpetuate as they journeyed farther and farther from its waters and
from their long-cherished home. As a result we find in south-eastern
Europe the Don, the Daniz or Donitz, the Daneiper and Daniester (now
contracted to Dneiper and Dniester) and the Danube. The conclusions of
the writer already referred to are that Israel gradually drifted
westward to the region known to secular history as Mœsia and Dacia,
the one north and the other south of the Danube, and called by modern
English speaking people, Roumania and Bulgaria. To further strengthen
his theory he claims that Mœsia means the land of Moses, and Dacia the
land of David (after Israel's shepherd king), and that the people of
the latter kingdom were called the Davi. In this country dwelt also
the Getæ (a Latinized form of Gad) who, some historians assert, were
the forefathers of the Goths, of whom we shall speak again hereafter.
The historian Herodotus, in recounting the conquest of his people by
Darius states, that the Getæ "believed themselves to be immortal; and
whenever one dies, they believe that he is removed to the presence of
their god Zamoxis (Zalmoxis) * * * and they sincerely believe that
there is no other deity." He also states that this god left them the
institutions of their religion in books. Mr. Wilson directs attention
to this idea of only one God, so different to the Pantheism of the
surrounding peoples, and that of man's immortality as tending to prove
the Israelitish origin of the Gatæ, particularly as in analyzing the
word Zalmoxis he finds it to be composed of Za, el, Moses. If his
facts be correct, his conclusions are warranted, but of his facts we
express no opinion.