Dear Mr. Collins,
I have been researching the subject of the lost tribes of Israel for some time now, and I am stuck on one identification; the tribe of Gad. I have read your article on the subject of the tribe of Gad and found it very helpful, in it’s identifications of Germany. However, I was curious as to if you have any other information regarding this topic.
Thank you and God bless,
Dylan.
MYREPLY
Dylan,
I’m glad you found my commentary on Gad’s linkage to the modern Germans to be helpful. I also discuss the Gad-Germany connection on pages 218-223 of my most recent book, Israel’s Tribes Today. While I utilized as much secular information as I could find when tracing the ten tribes of Israel, I always rely on the prophecies of Genesis 49 as the most reliable source of information. While secular historians can be mistaken and ancient accounts are not always accurate, we can always rely on the Bible’s prophetic evidence about the Israelite tribes in the latter days as being divinely-inspired.
As you know, some of the clues in Genesis 49 about Israel’s tribes clearly point to certain modern nations, but others are more cryptic and open to different interpretations. The biblical prophecy about Gad’s identity in the latter days is one of the shortest tribal prophecies in Genesis 49, but I regard it as making a very persuasive case for latter-day Gadites being found among the German nation. Genesis 49’s prophecy about Gad being a tribe which is “overcome” by “a troop” in the latter days, but which also is able to itself “overcome” at the end portion of the latter days fits Germany’s role in World War II and afterward. Germany was, indeed, overcome by a troop of armies from other nations in World War II, but it has risen to be a dominant economic power in modern Europe.
Genesis 21:12 prophesied that the name of Isaac would be upon the birthright tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh. In the modern world, the name “Isaac” is found most upon the Anglo-Saxon nations of the USA and the English nations and also on Germany. The name of “Saxony” on German provinces includes the Scythian root word “Sac” in it. Israeli researcher Yair Davidy (www.britam.org) and I agree that many Manassehites lived in Germany before migrating to America. If a half-tribe of Manasseh was found among the Germans for many centuries before migrating to America, it hardly stretches the imagination to believe that another tribe of Israel is still among the Germans as well. Especially when Germany’s recent history fulfills the prophecy in Genesis 49 about Gad so well.
For whatever reason, God gave us a very short clue about Gad’s location and characteristics in the latter days. Perhaps he felt it would be such a good clue that no more information would be needed to identify Gad in the modern world.
Steve
