From a reader:
Dear Mr. Collins,
I caught you on the Tamar show interview and checked out your website. I am of Hungarian ancestry and have been doing some research on it. From an old (1800s) Hungarian history book I found the claim of the Magyars (Hungarians) to be descended from the Scythians. It detailed the nomadic lifestyle they lived in the Hungarian region during the time of the Roman empire. When I heard what you had to say on the Scythians, I was fascinated. I do know Hebrew. I thought you might find it interesting that the Scythian name also follows the form of another Hebrew word – Succoth. In ancient Hebrew pronunciation, the “Tau”, last letter of “Succoth”, was pronounced as “th” if no dot was present in the center of the letter. The only difference was the letter “waw” or modernly said “vav” was included in “Succoth”. That letter also served as a vowel and was often dropped in old Hebrew spellings of many words. In this case you have “samech”, “caph” and “tau”. When you consider that the Scythians were nomads from their homeland of Israel, they were again “dwellers in booths”, like the 40 years in the wilderness. That is why they were so mobile, not land tied, as all the other nations tended to be. They knew they were not in their true home! I don’t know if you think my thoughts to be a little far-fetched, but I just wanted to pass them along for your consideration. Thank you for your work. By the way, their is a common “modal gene” that is in the DNA of the Cohen descendents. It has served as a strong indicator of Cohen descent. That same gene has been found among both the American Indians and amongst the Hungarians.
Again, thank you and I will let you go,
Darrell Farkas
My response:
Dear Mr. Farkas,
Thank you for your email and listening to my interview on the Tamar Yonah radio program on Israel National Radio [other readers may listen to one of these Tamar Yonah interviews at the link shown on my homepage]. I agree with you that the name “Scythians” is derived from the Hebrew word “Succoth,” and I have pointed out this connection to some live audiences where I have spoken. The consonants of the Hebrew word Succoth are “S-CC-TH,” which correspond to the consonants of the word “Scythian” (S-C-TH). Since the Scythians were essentially nomadic people living in tents, the meaning of the Hebrew word Succoth (meaning tents or booths) also confirms the Israelite ancestry of the Scythian people.
Steve
