THE TRUE ROOTS AND ORIGIN OF THE SCOTS – (2)

A research summary and pointers toward further research

scottland

“Wherever the pilgrim turns his feet, he finds Scotsmen in the forefront of civilization and letters. They are the premiers in every colony, professors in every university, teachers, editors, lawyers, engineers and merchants – everything, and always at the front.” – English writer Sir Walter Besant

lion

“The mystery of Keltic thought has been the despair of generations of philosophers and aesthetes … He who approaches it must, I feel, not alone be of the ancient stock … but he must also have heard since childhood the deep and repeated call of ancestral voices urging him to the task of the exploration of the mysteries of his people … He is like a man with a chest of treasure who has lost the key”

(The Mysteries of Britain by L Spence)

tribes

Arrangement of the tribes in the Wilderness wonderings

This tabernacle arrangement demonstrates that Judah is charged with leadership and symbolizes a

“monopoly of national honors, giving the Leah descended priests (who in practice are absorbed into Judah) the exclusive right and privilege of administering the relationship between Jehovah and Israel.”10

Eventually the tribe of Judah went into captivity about 130 or so years after the House of Israel was conquered and enslaved by Assyria. According to Easton’s Illustrated Bible Dictionary (article “Captivity”):

“The city [Jerusalem] was spoiled of all that was of value, and then given up to the flames. The temple and palaces were consumed, and the walls of the city were levelled with the ground (B.C. 586), and all that remained of the people, except a number of the poorest class who were left to till the ground and dress the vineyards, were carried away captives to Babylon. This was the third and last deportation of Jewish captives. The land was now utterly desolate, and was abandoned to anarchy.

In the first year of his reign as king of Babylon (B.C. 536), Cyrus issued a decree liberating the Jewish captives, and permitting them to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the city and the temple (2 Chronicles 36:22,23; Ezra 1; 2). The number of the people forming the first caravan, under Zerubbabel, amounted in all to 42,360 (Ezra 2:64,65), besides 7,337 men-servants and maid-servants. A considerable number, 12,000 probably, from the ten tribes who had been carried away into Assyria no doubt combined with this band of liberated captives.

10 Wallis 1949: 25

At a later period other bands of the Jews returned (1) under (Ezra 7:7) (B.C. 458), and (2) (Nehemiah 7:66) (B.C. 445). But the great mass of the people remained still in the land to which they had been carried, and became a portion of the Jews of the “dispersion” (John 7:35; 1 Peter 1:1). The whole number of the exiles that chose to remain was probably about six times the number of those who returned.”11 [emphasis mine]

In his famous The Life and Times of Jesus the Messiah, Edersheim similarly remind us that

“It is the greatest importance to remember that only a minority of Jews returned from Babylon in Ezra’s time.”12

The tribe of Judah was taken captive by Nebuchadnezzar – yet only a tiny remnant returned to the Holy Land. In fact, less than 49,000 returned (Ezra 2:64; Neh 7:66) of hundreds of thousands that went into Babylonian captivity!

Note: only a small percentage of Judah ever returned to the Holy Land. What happened to the rest of the tribe?

MIGRATIONS OF JUDAH

Author unknown

I must confess that many, many years ago I first considered the Highlander Scots as Simeon and the Lowlanders as Judah. But over time I began to notice the Judaic character of the Highlanders as well.

One of my favourite scriptures I like mentioning to folks is Is. 11:13 where Ephraim and Judah vex each other.

“And the envy of Ephraim shall depart, and the foes of Judah shall be cut off; Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not trouble Ephraim.” (Is.

11:13) [English and Scots will stop their fighting. Refer to Appendix 2 for a modern example]13

This seems to be a prophecy of English-Scottish conflict and rivalry. Yet, when they cooperated within the United Kingdom (typological of the coming union of Israel predicted in Ezekiel 37), they virtually ruled the world. In fact, together with America, could have ruled the world after World War 2.

Historians unanimously agree that the Scoti tribe came from northern Ireland in skin covered boats forming the kingdom of Dalriada in Argyll. It is from this tribe that the entire nation eventually took its name.

They conquered the Cymric Britons (probably of Levitical stock) and drove out the Picts (probably Canaanites and descendants of Tiras) and, as such, some Scottish tribes became known as Picts as well.

A theory that has been in circulation is that the descendants of Shelah and Er intermarried with the Canaanites/Phoenicians which created an interwoven mixture which was anti-Israel and anti-Judah. It is this group which gave rise, at least in part, to the anti-British Sinn-Fein in Ireland (a name likely derived from Phoenician and Fenian). Their attitude seems to be derived from their forefathers (Num 33:55). Indeed, the region of Spain that the Canaanites/Phoenicians settled in Spain was known in ancient times as Eis Feine.

This is also possibly why Ireland was known as Erin or Erin’s Land, named after Er. Later, Ireland was known as Ierne or Hibernia derived from their ancient forefather, Eber or Heber. The northern islands of Hebrides were originally known as the Heberides and the Irish language as Erse.

To this day southern Ireland is called Eire and the name Shelagh is popular there. According to the website Celtic Female Names of Ireland other derivations are:

“Sile — (SHEE-la) … Sheela, Sheelah, Sheila, Shelagh, Sheelagh, Shiela, Sheilag, Cicily, Celia, Selia, Sissy”.14

Thousands of years ago the descendants of Er and Shelah were recorded in I Chron 4:21- 23 as being skilled with pottery, plants, hedges and fine linen. Does this not describe the southern Irish? Everyone knows about Irish Linen, the love the Irishman has for his garden and their Belleek China.

13 “Scots believe they have a better education, a more beautiful country, better natural resources, better whiskey. The English feel a sense of superiority, a pride as the seat of government, a feeling that they can rule the best. Arrogance and prejudice exist on both sides in spite of the number of people who cross the border regularly.” (Schroeder 1992: 2)

14 http://www.crosswinds.net/~daire/names/celtirishfem.html

Shelah and Er his eldest son are today amongst the southern Irish Catholics, forever a thorn in the side of the British.

Is all this mere coincidence? Surely not as we shall see. In The Jews of Ireland, Louis Hyman noted:

“It is stated in very old copies of The Book of Invasions and other ancient documents that it was the Mosaic law that the Milesians brought into Errin [Ireland] at their coming; that it had been learned and received from Moses in Egypt by Cae Cain Beathach, who was himself an Israelite, who had been sent into Egypt to learn the language of that country by the great master Fenius Farsaith, from whom the Milesian brothers, who conquered Errin, are recorded to have been the twenty second generation in descent; and it is stated in the preface to Seanchas Mord that this was the law of Errin at the

time of the coming of St. Patrick”.15

Zarah had five sons as we have seen (IChron 2:3-6), but in Gen 46:12 where the descendants of Judah are listed as having accompanied Jacob into Egypt, they are not listed. Why?

“And Israel took his journey with all that he had, and came to Beer-sheba, and offered sacrifices unto the God of his father Isaac.

And God spake unto Israel in the visions of the night, and said, Jacob, Jacob.

And he said, Here am I.

And he said, I am God, the God of thy father: fear not to go down into Egypt; for I will there make of thee a great nation:

I will go down with thee into Egypt; and I will also surely bring thee up again: and Joseph shall put his hand upon thine eyes.

And Jacob rose up from Beer-sheba: and the sons of Israel carried Jacob their father, and their little ones, and their wives, in the wagons which Pharaoh had sent to carry him.

And they took their cattle, and their goods, which they had gotten in the land of Canaan, and came into Egypt, Jacob, and all his seed with him:

his sons, and his sons’ sons with him, his daughters, and his sons’s daughters, and all his seed brought he with him into Egypt.” (Gen 46:1-5

“And the sons of Judah: Er, and Onan, and Shelah, and Perez, and Zerah; but Er and Onan died in the land of Canaan. And the sons of Perez were Hezron and Hamul.” (Gen 46;12) [Zarah’s sons appear to be not in the group]

“… and the sons of Joseph, who were born to him in Egypt, were two souls: all the souls of the house of Jacob, that came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.

And he sent Judah before him unto Joseph, to show the way before him unto Goshen; and they came into the land of Goshen.” (Gen 46:27-

28) [note the Judaic character – the one leading or pioneering the way. Full of zeal and interest in what lay ahead]

It would seem that they, or some of them, had already migrated out of the region.

15 Hyman 1972: 1. Some professional linguists such as Theo Vennemann has argued for a Semitic substratum in the Celtic languages, although this has not been accepted at this time by most linguists. In a short article Vennemann notes that “The non-Indo-European structural features of Insular Celtic have all been shown by Morris Jones and Pokorny to occur in Hamito- Semitic, and by Gensler to form a characteristic bundle of islglosses just of Hamito-Semitic and Insular Celtic.” (Vennemann 2001:1)

It may be that Zarah’s son Calcol (IChron 2:3-6) left the region of Egypt early on in the history of Israel and found their way to Spain where they founded Saragossa (originally Zaragassa = stronghold of Zarah) which is in the Ebro valley of Spain.

Later they migrated to Ireland or Hibernia – the original name for Ireland, derived from Eber. Reference to Eber may be found in Gen. 11:14 and Num 26:45).

Here Calcol’s descendants settled in Ullader (known as Ulster or Northern Ireland today).

Now remember, it was the hand of Zarah whose wrist had the scarlet thread tied around it and the red hand became a primary heraldic symbol of Ulster to this day. Even in Scotland the symbol was used in the Arms of old families and 14 Clan Chiefs!16

Another son of Zarah was Darda (see IChron 2:6; IKings 4:31). It appears that they may have given their name to the Dardenalles and were prominent at Troy about 1500BC prior to the Exodus. In other words they were among the Hittite Trojans giving rise to many European Royal Houses.

About 400 years later a descendant of Darda, Brutus of Troy, sailed to Britain and founded New Troy or Londenium (London). Here a branch of the Judahite Royal Throne was established.17

Calcol may have given his name to the Colchis region near the Black Sea.

The History of Britain was written by the historian Nennius in the 8th century in which he evidently has access to ancient records and traditions:

“15. According to the most learned among the Scots, if any one desires to learn what I am now going to state, Ireland was a desert, and uninhabited, when the children of Israel crossed the Red Sea, in which, as we read in the Book of the Law, the Egyptians who followed them were drowned. At that period, there lived among this people, with a numerous family a Scythian of noble birth, who had been banished from his country, and did not go to pursue the people of God. The Egyptians who were left, seeing the destruction of the great men of their nation, and fearing lest he should possess himself of their territory, took counsel together, and expelled him. Thus reduced, he wandered forty-two years in Africa, and arrived with his family at the altars of the Philistines, by the Lake of Osiers. Then passing between Rusicada and the hilly country of Syria, they travelled by the river Malva through Mauritania

16 Murray 1984: 15

17 The following is extracted from Raymond F McNair’s booklet King David’s Everlasting Dynasty: “Smith’s Dictionary of the Bible says that Flavius Josephus equates Darda with the Greek Dardanos: “DARDA…Joseph[us] DARDANOS; Darda” (vol. 1, p. 397). “Dardanus…mythical founder of Dardanus on the Hellespont [i.e. the Dardanelles] and ancestor of the DARDANS of the Troad [area ruled by the Trojans]…became the founder of the royal house of TROY” (Ency. Brit., 11th ed., Vol. V11, p. 829).

The “Hebrews” built “ancient Troy”! According to Scottish historian John MacLaren, certain Israelites had settled in Asia Minor in ancient times. [Note At that time Western Asia Minor was then inhabited primarily by Greek colonists, but some of those “Greeks” were in fact Israelites who lived among the Greeks]. “The HEBREWS then built an altar to the Lord thanking Him for their deliverance from the Egyptians. The king of Greece visited their camps with his Hebrew servant, telling them to build a city and fortify themselves against their enemies…[they then] commenced to build the city of TROY” (The History of Ancient Caledonia, 1879 ed., p. 4). Furthermore, Josephus and the first book of Maccabees both mention that some Israelites had lived in Southern Greece many years before Christ. He quotes the Spartan King Areus as saying, “We have discovered that both the Jews and the Lacedemonians [of S. Greece] are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham” (bk. 12, chap. 4, sec. 10, pp. 296-297).

A book entitled Hellosemitica says, “And already Hecataeus of Abdera [c. 4th century B.C.] represented both the Jewish Exodus and the Greek migration of Danaos and Cadmus as episodes of one and the same event…. Thence the assertion…that the SPARTANS (whose kings…claimed descent from Danaos) are brothers of the JEWS and descend from Abraham’s kindred” (Hellosemitica, 1965, p. 98).” (McNair 2006:16-17)

as far as the Pillars of Hercules; and crossing the Tyrrhene Sea, landed in Spain, where they continued many years, having greatly increased and multiplied Thence, a thousand and two years after the Egyptians were lost in the Red Sea, they passed into Ireland, and the district of Dalrieta. At that period, Brutus, who first exercised the consular office, reigned over the Romans; and the state, which before was governed by regal power, was afterwards ruled, during four hundred and forty-seven years, by consuls, tribunes of the people, and dictators.

The Britons came to Britain in the third age of the world; and in the fourth, the Scots took possession of Ireland.

The Britons who, suspecting no hostilities, were unprovided with the means of defence, were unanimously and incessantly attacked, both by the Scots from the west, and by the Picts from the north. A long interval after this, the Romans obtained the empire of the world.

“16. From the first arrival of the Saxons into Britain, to the fourth year of king Mermenus, are computed four hundred and twenty-eigtht years; from the nativity of our Lord to the coming of St. Patrick among the Scots, four hundred and five years; from the death of St. Patrick to that of St. Bridget, forty years; and from the birth of Columcille to the death of St. Bridget four years.” [emphasis mine]

This account differs by 200 years with that of the Declaration of Arbroath regarding the migration from Spain to Ireland. And given that Scythians were not known by that name for over 700 years after the Exodus, there may be a mix-up in the story and, as such, could be

a story of the flight from Jerusalem about 586BC instead.18

If Calcol gave his name to the Colchis region by the Black Sea, what other information from the area may be gleaned?

The first we hear about the Iberians is from Hecataeus who wrote in the 500sBC. Alas, his writings have not survived the scourge of time, but Roman and Greek historians refer to him. Hecataeus claims that the Iberians lived in Iberia, Spain. Similarly Herodotus (485- 425BC) refers to the Iberians in his works on two occasions.

In Book II.163 he connects the Iberia with Tartessus (a city near the straits of Gibraltar in Spain) and mentions them again in Book VII.165.

Theophanes, a companion to Pompey, wrote about a people known as the Iberi that lived in the region. Strabo quotes Theophanes and it is from him that some of his knowledge is preserved (no known original writings of his have been preserved).

In any event, Theophanes tells us that the Iberi had a nobility, soldiers, farmers, priests, towns and markets. The were organised on patriarchal lines and the property of each family was administered by the eldest member.

Could they be connected to the Middle Eastern Haberi or Hebrew Ibri? Did some of them settle in Spain, becoming known as the Iberi in the Iberian peninsula?

Strabo tells us that

“the migration of western Iberians [was] to the region beyond the Pontus [Black Sea] and Colchis.”19

18 Filmer c1970: 2

19 Strabo 1.3.21. I have also read accounts of Canaanites and even Black peoples from the region apparently migrating to Scotland before being driven out.

In the 17th century a writer known as Purchas wrote a work Pilgramage (published 1614AD) in which we find the following:

“The Iberians, saith Montanus [a Christian heretic in the 2nd century], dwelt near to Meotis; certain Colonies of them inhabited Spaine and called it Hiberia.”

Meotis was the original name for the Sea of Azov north-east portion of the Black Sea. So it seems from this record, that a part of the tribe migrated into Spain.

to be continued

Previous Post | Next Post

The Ensign Message

The Official Journal of the Ensign Trust, London

THE ENSIGN MESSAGE

THE TRUE ROOTS AND ORIGIN OF THE SCOTS – (2)

A research summary and pointers toward further research

Suggested Further Reading on the Tribes of Israel

MIGRATIONS OF JUDAH