Dear Mr Collins:
I am aware of some of your works from a couple of your books given to me by a friend and also from Yair Davidy. I also enjoyed listening to you on Tamar Yonah’s show. Tamar sounded really intrigued by your research especially when the Brazil – iron ore discussion was brought up. Thank you so much for doing this research.
My father’s birthplace is Brechin, Scotland and it has an interesting history. I was wondering if you know anything about the Picts in this area. Brechin has a place called Pictavia which I did not visit but visited the areas where there are the “Aberlemno Stones” with carvings on them.
I get the impression that the Picts were of an Egyptian nature and eventually merged with the Scots under King Kenneth. Or do you believe that the Picts were of Israelite decent?
Also I listened to your restoration conference talk and you mentioned that the House of Israel would be identified thru Isaac and that might answer my question on why this window that is shown in the Brechin Cathedral is absent of Jacob. The Brechin Cathedral has only one of 2 round towers left in Scotland. I was also wondering if the word Brechin is of the Hebrew language.
I understand if you cannot answer all of my questions.
Thank you and blessings
“Anonymous”
MYREPLY
Dear “Anonymous,”
Thank you for the positive feedback re: my guest appearance on the Tamar Yonah program on Israel National Radio.
Regarding the Picts of ancient Scotland, this group did not have a persuasive case for including them as members of the scattered ten tribes of Israel. Daniel 9:7 asserts that the ten tribes were scattered into “many countries” after the kingdom of Israel fell, and my books trace the major groups of Israelites in their respective migrations. It is not possible to identify every band of Israelites who fled elsewhere on the earth. Even secular sources differ on the Picts’ origin. The Encyclopaedia Britannica (1943 Ed., Vol. 17, p. 913) states that there was no connection between the Celtic and Pictish languages, arguing that they were separate peoples. However, the Encyclopedia Americana (1988 Ed., Vol. 22, p. 76) assumes the opposite was true. Little is known about the Picts.
I do identify the Celts of the British Isles and mainland Europe as descendants of the many colonies of the ten tribes of Israel who were “on their own” after the kingdom of Israel fell and its people either went into Assyrian captivity or fled to their new homelands by the Black Sea. However, one group of the ten tribes (the majority of the tribe of Simeon and contingents of other tribes) left the wilderness encampment during the 40-years of wandering between the Exodus from Egypt and the entry into the Promised Land. This account is in Numbers 25-26 and it is the subject of a free article at my website (see “The Missing Simeonites”). I offer some identifications re: later emergences of these missing Simeonites in my book, Israel’s Tribes Today, but I did not include the Picts as an Israelite people. That does not mean they weren’t from an Israelite background, but I could not identify them as such, based on the evidence.
Steve Collins
