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Scotland & The Lost Tribes of Israel

from
Various postings to soc.culture.scottish,    Brit-Am,  and  other sources.

This page was originally a collection of postings to soc.culture.scottish.  An updated list of sources is cited last below.  The Capital Scot does not endorse the accuracy of this information, but merely presents it as a matter of readers' interest.  There is an unprovable tradition that Scots are descended from the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.  There is also lore that the Scots are descended from Noah before the Assyrian conquest of Israel.

Lost Tribes from Israel

In 721 BC the Kingdom of Israel (i.e., the Northern Kingdom) fell to the Assyrians.  The ten tribes who made up the Northern Kingdom have often been called the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel and fantastic stories have developed to explain what happened to them.  Neither the Bible nor any collateral written sources inform us of the fate of the subjects of that kingdom.  However, a lot of speculation and oral tradition have accumulated that would have us believe as facts some information about the fate and destiny of the Israelites.  There is probably no mystery about this: they were probably deported, intermarried with the invaders, and eventually lost their separate identity.  One example of this is a notion that the Samaritans of the first Century A.D.  were the miscegenous offspring of the conquered Israelites and their Assyrian masters.  This notion is partly founded in the well-known cruelty of the Assyrians.  At the time of Salmaneser III (858-824 B.C.), the Assyrian army marched through Mesopotamia, destroying cities, taking tribute, treating the populace with brutality, and conducting mass deportations of people.

Three Brit-Am articles provide interesting reading on tis topic:
   The Brit-Am article on Jacob's son Simeon attributes the origin of the Celtic people from the tribe of Simeon after the fall of Israel.  The article modifies this with the following observation:  Some Jewish sources say that all of Simeon was taken away in Assyrian times.  Nevertheless, it should be emphasized that in Jewish tradition it is generally accepted that many from Simeon remained with Judah and are to be found amongst the present-day Jews.
   According to another Brit-Am article on Jacob's son Asher the latter's son, Beriah, gave his name to to the people of Bergio (i.e., a tribe of the Suetidi or Suehan -Swedes).  (This one seems to require a stretch of belief.)
   The Brit-Am article on Jacob's son Dan asserts a relationship between one section of the tribe of Dan and the Damnonii of Scotland.

Speculation has it that if the ten lost tribes of this era had an exodus towards Europe, they then would have had to pass through Asia Minor.   In this case the chances are that they settled among what seemed like the peaceful hills of what is now Turkey.   The Greeks, Celts, Romans, Byzantines, and Moslems all came to conquer.  Hebrew settlements, now lost, did exist.  Their former existence is now a political issue.  The Turkish Government controls the history of the land.  Permits are required to research lost Jewish settlements in what is now called the sacred soil of a Moslem country.

Definite evidence, however, exists of European movement in the opposite direction.  The Celts conquered Central Turkey, the land called Galatia and their highly successful farming settlements gradually spread down into Lebanon.  Their lost tribes became famed as the Druces.  When the Turks captured Lawrence of Arabia, he explained his fair hair and blue eyes by saying he was a Druce.

Scots' Descent from Noah

Fundamental Christians and Orthodox Jews hold that the early works of Hebrew writers was of God and never in error.  The lost tribe mystery comes from the tenth chapter of Genesis which shows that all nations sprang from a common ancestry.  That point is made clear through series of powerful stories that capture hearts and minds, whether or not the reader believes that they actually happened.

After the great flood the Ark landed on Mount Ararat (as traditional interpretation of the Biblical text has it) in Turkey.  Then came the repopulating of the earth from all those animals on the Ark and from Noah's sons and daughters.  The sons became tribal leaders.  The eldest was Shem, followed by Ham, and Japheth as the youngest.  The sons of Japheth are in Genesis 10.2, and the assumed prototype of all future Europeans.  (Indo-European people did inhabit Turkey during these early times.) The son Gomer indicated the Cimmerian people, the Oekimmerioi mentioned by Homer as a gloomy tribe living near the Crimean peninsula.  Many say the word Celtic arose from this early term.

The descendants of Gomer's eldest son, Ashchenaz, became the Scythians.  In Jeremiah 51:27 they lived near Mount Ararat.  In later Hebrew literature, the name Ashkanaz indicated the German people.  The dispersions of sons who have sons keeps going on to show the family of nations.

One old story goes of how the Scots descended from the Hittites, a further interpretation of the above mentioned biblical sources.  These lusty warrior giants played bagpipes, wore kilts and were masters of riding swift chariots.  Under the banner of the flying eagle they swooped down on the Biblical lands with the new technology of iron, and swept aside all stood in their way.  Some of their iron, and men, were said to come from Scotland.  The Hittites had far-flung trading posts and their relationship with the local women was as hot-blooded as their conquests in the field.   So began the saga of the bravest of warrior races, they would travel over land and sea to get into the thick of the action.

Modern Celtic scholarship shows something else again, but does not deny the tendency for Scots to be soldiers of fortune.  No matter what the truth may be, the spirit in past stories can still captivate inner feelings.  I don't know of any complete works on the biblical based lost tribes, so have given my sketchy outline of what to look for.

Related Lore - Pontius Pilate

There is a legend that Pontius Pilate was born in Fortingall, Perthshire, the son of a Roman and a local girl.  There are a lot of acheological remains there, including a homestead which might have been Roman.  According to Was Pontius Pilate a Scot?, From out of remote Glen Lyon, the longest glen in Scotland, has come an intriguing oral tradition that Pontius Pilate was born in the hamlet of Fortingall, which lies at the entrance to this dramatic and picturesque highland glen.  This ancient tradition also claims that Pontius Pilate was related to the Scots King, Metallanus, whose royal seat was located on a hill fort called Dun Geal (the White Fort) at Fortingall.

Sources

Exchanges at soc.culture.scottish from the following sources:
From: Samuel Shponka
Subject: Are Scots descended from 10 Lost Tribes of Israel?
Date: Sat, 14 Aug 1999
Organization: EnterAct L.L.C. Turbo-Elite News Server
From: Billie Ewing
Subject: Re: Are Scots descended from 10 Lost Tribes of Israel?
Date: Fri, 20 Aug 1999
Organization: MindSpring Enterprises
From: Don Kean
Subject: Re: Are Scots descended from 10 Lost Tribes of Israel?
Date: Sat, 21 Aug 1999
Organization: Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
From: Don Kean
Subject: Re: Are Scots descended from 10 Lost Tribes of Israel?
Date: Wed, 18 Aug 1999
Organization: Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
From: Don Kean
Subject: Re: Are Scots descended from 10 Lost Tribes of Israel?
Date: Thu, 19 Aug 1999
Organization: Melbourne PC User Group, Australia
[NOTE: These email addresses may no longer be active.]

Brit-Am has been sponsored solely by Ms. Betty Rhodes since it's origins in 1999.  Recently credit has been added to Mr. Yair Davidiy of Jerusalem who is the founder of the Brit-Am Organization, and author of all content thereon, except the genealogy section, which Ms. Rhodes authors.

Sacred Connections page Was Pontius Pilate a Scot?

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