HERALDRY: THE CLUES TO HISTORY – THE RED LION AND THE RED HAND
Judah, the fourth son of Jacob, was given the privilege of being the progenitor of the royal line and in Genesis 38 the story is told of Judah’s descendants. Judah  had married Shuah, a woman of the Canaanites, and they had three sons, Er, Onan and Shelah.  Er married Tamar, but he was wicked, and the Lord did not want him to carry on the royal line, so he died before he could sire any sons.  Tamar, however,  must  have been  of pure Hebrew  stock,  and  she  was  allowed  to continue in Judah’s household. The custom in those days was that if an elder brother died childless, the next in line should marry the widow, but Onan would not co-operate. He also died.  Shelah,  the youngest son was, at that time, too young to marry Tamar, so she  found  herself in a quandary,  knowing  that it was her duty to provide an heir for Judah.  She was in Judah’s household to keep her in safety until Shelah came  of age, but Tamar was not prepared  to wait.  She must have been  quite a lot older than Shelah, and reluctant to marry a lad so much younger, even when  he did become old enough.  She could also have feared  that Shelah would come  to an early end like his brothers, leaving her in a very difficult position. She therefore  tricked Judah into making love to her and became pregnant.  In this extraordinary way, worthy of a “TV Soap”, God’s chosen royal line was kept within the Israelite  race,  and  Judah’s marriage  to a Canaanite was overruled.
Judah acknowledged the children  (for Tamar was expecting twins) as his and gave Tamar tokens of a rod or staff, a ring and  bracelets to prove this.  It is very significant that in our own British Coronation ceremony, the monarch  is, amongst other tokens, presented with a rod or staff (the sceptre) and a ring and bracelets!
The twins’ birth was difficult, as we are told in Genesis 38, vv.27-30. One child appeared to be going to be the first-born, so the midwife bound a red cord around  his wrist, but then the arm was withdrawn and the other child was  born first.  This caused a dilemma, as the midwife had marked  Zarah as the firstborn, but Pharez was actually delivered first.  This fact  must  be very important since the story is given in such detail in the Bible.
As we have seen, in spite of their status as a chosen family to do God’s will, Jacob’s family were  not all in harmony with one another, and there were numerous disputes  and  jealousies.   The extraordinary birth of Tamar ‘s twins was a good seed bed for more problems between the tribes.  This emphasises that God had not chosen  a perfect family for His work – just the best of a bad bunch, it would seem!
Shelah did not inherit the promise  of the royal line, since  his mother  was a Canaanite,  and  the royal line descended via Pharez and Zarah. Pharez was adjudged the heir, and  we can  imagine  Zarah’s  dissatisfaction, once  he had learned  the facts of his birth.  It probably gave him a chip on his shoulder!  Pharez’ line is given in great detail in the Bible, because he became the ancestor of King David, and ultimately, of Jesus Christ; but after the third generation, there is no further mention  of Zarah’s descendants.
From this fact we may infer that most of Zarah’s people  must have left Egypt and gone on their travels around the Mediterranean, as many Israelites appear to have done during the  long  sojourn and  later enslavement in Egypt.  One may imagine  that a great many of them were too proud to endure such conditions and made their escape to the wider world.
They would have taken their family symbols wherever they went, so we should look for the Lion of the Tribe of Judah and  the  distinguishing scarlet cord and bloodstained hand  of Zarah.  The Lion was  still the emblem of Judah, so Zarah’s line was differentiated by a rampant  lion, red like the bloody hand.  Where should we look today for these symbols?
Zarah’s grandson was  Calcol (I Kings  4:31 ; I Chronicles 2:6).  Another was Darda.” They were  both sons of Zarah’s son, Mahol.
Some of these people reached Spain, where others of the Hebrew race had already settled, and they founded the city of Saragossa  (Zaragossa), named after their ancestor.  Significantly, Saragossa is on the River Ebro.
Founding settlements did not prevent  sections of these  people  from  moving on,  ever  westwards and northwards, in obedience to the deep-seated urge of their race. Some, under Calcol, settled in Hibernia (another Hebrew rooted name), and went later to the Hebrides.  These  people,  according to Irish legend, founded  the Kingdom of Ulster, around 1600 BC. Up to recent times,  Ulster’s  emblem was  the  Red  Hand, encircled by a scarlet cord.  This will probably  be deliberately changed and lost in the new governmental arrangements which  are still being hammered out in that troubled  land, just as there are moves afoot to do away with the dragon from Welsh arms and standards when there is a separate Welsh Assembly. Satan is trying to obliterate the history of the people, so that they may no longer “look unto the rock whence they are hewn”, as the Bible bids us. The amazing significance of the fact that the Red Hand is Ulster’s badge is lost to historians and politicians alike, because they ignore the origins of these ancient people.  Nowadays the scarlet cord is omitted, but this does not nullify the historic fact that it was part of the ancient arms.
Many  Scottish clans  incorporate the Red Hand in their armorial bearings. Since the Scots originally crossed from Ulster to Scotland, this is not surprising.  However, not all the people of Zarah went to Hibernia and Scotland. Others  trace  their ancestry from  the Scythians,  who came  from Central Asia.  This is where  the Northern House of Israel disappeared from the world’s view. The Scythians were also known as “Skuths” (Scots), though some  derive the name  from Scota, who is believed  to have been  one  of Zedekiah’s daughters, rescued by Jeremiah.  Zedekiah’s daughter, being of the Royal Line of Pharez,  united  the two strands  when  she  married Eochaidh, the Heremon of Ireland, who was of the line of Zarah. There are obviously both elements in the nation, and they were all of the same  stock.  The Scottish Red Hand does not have the scarlet cord in its heraldry, except in the Royal Standard.
The rampant  Red Lion appears in the Northern Irish Governmental arms, and it is upon a background which is the six-pointed Star of David. Various Judahite strands are woven into the history of Northern Ireland.  These must contribute  to the peoples’ proud independence. How deeply these folk memories lie!
The second  grandson,  Darda, migrated to the region which is now northern Turkey, and the straits between Asia Minor and  Europe  are  named the  Dardanelles. Legend  tells that Dardanus  founded  Troy, in Northern Turkey. After the Greek destruction of Troy, the people fled westward and northward, and mingled with other Israelitish tribes, including the Scythians. They took their rampant  Red Lion with them,  and  today, the Scottish badge is a rampant Red Lion in a red border (the scarlet cord?) The Royal Stewart (or Stuart) arms are a rampant Red Lion with two crowned unicorns as supporters.  The Unicorns or Bulls of Ephraim with the Lion of Judah! This is very significant.
The Trojans also came to Britain, and Brutus of Troy is the legendary founder of London, arriving here about 1100 BC. The Trojans came  via Spain and brought the rampant  Red Lion as their emblem, which it remained until the Saxon invasions.  It survives today in the Royal Arms, and  on the Royal Standard.  The rampant  Red Lion appears also in the arms of some  of the Scottish clans, and in the case of MacLachlan and Clanranald it is coupled  with the Red Hand.  It also appears in the arms  of several  ancient  Welsh Houses, which  should not surprise us, if we are aware  of the origins of these people.  In England, also, it appears on the arms of towns and of many old families. Holland is also represented, and South Holland and  Eindhoven have rampant  Red Lions.
Wherever they went, Zarah-Judah  took their family emblems, and by these we may trace them.
