The 2 Houses Of Israel

[Paul Younan]

Interesting info Akh. Though one must ask themselves what happened to a country of more than a million people... There have been found Aramaic writing even in Britain and a town (and famous battle) called gbrah! Not evidence of anything, but still tres cool <!-- s --><img src="{SMILIES_PATH}/happy.gif" alt="" title="Happy" /><!-- s -->

Akhi,

Only some tens of thousands were taken into captivity. It was Assyrian policy to wipe out rebellious parts of the empire (i.e., Samaria) and spare the artisans, scribes, etc. for use elsewhere in the empire.

Even Josephus (800 years later) said that they are still in Assyria. He recorded King Agrippa's (the "king" of the Roman province of Judea) speech to the Jews, in which the king himself stated while trying to convince the Jews not to rebel against Rome:

"What? Do you think your fellow-tribes in Adiabene are going to come to your assistance? Even if they would want to, the Persians would not allow it."

And then 500 years after Josephus, Jerome even said that the tribes were "Still beyond the Euphrates, in the land of their captivity...nor has their captivity ever been loosed."

As you should know, Adiabene is in the heart of Assyria (exactly where II Kings and Chronicles said they were taken to by the king of Assyria.)

By the time of Josephus, it had been 800 years since their captivity. By the time of Jerome, maybe close to 1,300 years? And both of them said that they are still in Assyria. (not Europe, not North America, not Japan nor the other ridiculous theories that have sprung up because everyone wants to be part of them!)

In a recent edition of Biblical Archaeological review that Akhan Dean sent me, there was an interesting article proving from archaeological records that the Israelites blended in with the native Assyrians, often intermarrying with them, taking on Assyrian names instead of their Hebrew names and even serving as priests to Ashur in the temples (the pagan Assyrian diety).

Remember, we're not talking about people who were worshipping the God of Abraham. That's why they were deported to begin with. They are not "Jews" in any sense of the word, except that some of them today practice the Jewish religion of their forefathers before they sinned. Others have converted to Christianity or Islam. We know plenty of them.