Shalom Steve
I’m a real fan of your webs & issues.I have prayed for you lately since you were a little sick.I totally agree with you that Western nations inspite of the current economic crisis were & are the leading nations especially the U.S.A.
I don’t think it’s a coincidence these nations dominated politically as well as economically almost the whole world.It make sense that these nations come from Israel tribes.Some of the European nations like Norway, Finland, Poland, etc…didn’t have big maritime empires like the United Kingdom, France, the Nederlands, Spain or Portugal, but these countries contributed with an important amount of colonizers to populate the U.S.A. & other places.
Yes, European countries are the base of the United States of America.Even most of black Americans are partially European.Latinoamericans are a mixture of native Americans with white people from the European countries of Spain & Portugal, if they are from Brazil.
Not counting Denmark, Scandinavian countries as well as Switzerland didn’t have remarkable maritime empires but these nations were & still are among the richest & most influential nations on the world.In fact many of the most important banks in the world are in Switzerland & Swiss currency & Scandinavian currencies are important still.
Western power started with Alexander the Great dominating territories from his native Macedonia in Greece to India.After several Greek empires of Alexander the Great heirs, came the Romans which had an empire from the British Isles to the Middle East.With the pause of Islamic Empires the West has dominated the world since then.
After commenting about the power of Western countries i would like to know which tribe come Spain & our brother nation Portugal from.You say the name of the Iberian Peninsula in which both nations are placed, comes from Heber or Eber, one ancestor of Hebrews before Abraham.You also said the name is Phoenician-Israelite like British or Brit meaning covenant in Hebrew.The answer of this question would be interesting not just for Spaniards & Portuguese but for Spanish Americans, Brazilians & even for people within the U.S.A.
I assume you know Spain & Portugal were populated before the Roman conquest by peoples being one of the most importants the Celtics.When the Roman Empire fell we were invaded by the “Barbarian” German people of the Visigoths.
After saying this here comes my question: If Spain & Portugal come from one of the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, which tribe do they come from?
Daniel Alvarez
MYREPLY
Shalom Daniel,
Thank you for your positive feedback and prayer support (my health issues relate to chronic pain and injury effects). Your email raises a number of good questions about the maritime history of the Israelites and the whereabouts of modern Israelite tribes.
I’ll first mention that nations do not have to have a maritime history (or empire) to be Israelite in origin. Some Israelite tribes were entirely landlocked in the ancient Promised Land, so they understandably had less opportunity or inclination to go to sea. The same can be said for landlocked nations today (i.e. Switzerland). Also, some modern Israelite nations (such as Finland) have narrowed oceanic access even though they do have a seacoast. However, a strong naval tradition is a common characteristic of Israelite nations and empires. The ancient kingdom of Israel joined with Tyre and Sidon in the powerful Phoenician Empire, which long possessed the greatest navy and trading fleet in the ancient world (I Kings 9:26-27, 10:22). Under King Ahab, the northern ten tribes were still solidly allied to Tyre and Sidon as Ahab’s Queen, Jezebel, was a Sidonian (I Kings 16:31). When Ahab searched the world for Elijah, he sent messengers to all kingdoms and nations to search for Elijah and he took an oath of their rulers that they had done so (I Kings 18:10). As my books note, if Ahab had been the king of a starving, petty kingdom, other nations would have laughed at Ahab’s demand. However, modern readers forget King Ahab was the leader of the “Phoenician” Empire and the Phoenician fleets controlled maritime access for all nations and kingdoms. Any nation that didn’t look for Elijah could have been barred from maritime trade routes. It was logical for Ahab to assume that Elijah might have fled to a far-distant land via a ship so he sent messengers to search for him (I Kings 17:8-9 reveals Elijah was hiding where Ahab and Jezebel would least expect him to be–in a suburb of Jezebel’s hometown).
Even after the exile, the Carthaginians inherited the Phoenician dominance of the oceans. The maritime Celts had a strong sea-going presence (the Celts were descended from colonies of Israelites which were cut off in the British Isles, Iberia and mainland Europe after Israel fell. The Parthians had huge vessels and fleets which sailed the Indian and Pacific Oceans (as my books document). The Scythians in the Black Sea region were major wheat suppliers to Athens and likely sent their cargoes to Athens in ships. When the Goths and Vandals migrated out of Asia into Europe, they already had shipbuilding skills. Goths sailed across the Black Sea to modern Turkey in large invasion fleets, and the Vandals sailed from Europe to Africa and ruled the Mediterranean Sea with their fleets from Carthage. In the modern era, the British, Americans, French, Dutch, Germans, Danes, Norseman from Scandinavia, etc. have all had seafaring traditions and overseas territories. Even nations without overseas possessions (such as Ireland) have a strong seafaring history).
I am aware that the Celts of the Iberian Peninsula were Israelite and that the later Goths and Vandals who entered Spain/Portugal were also Israelite. We do need to recall that not all the “Caucasian” tribes entering Europe were Israelites. When the Sassanian Persians drove the Israelites and Semites out of the Asian region ruled by Parthia, other Semitic peoples as the Assyrians, Elamites, etc. came with them. The Scythians joined the Parthian migrations into Europe and many allied but non-Israelite people came with them. Hungary gets its name from the non-Israelite Huns, who also came out of Asia when they invaded Europe. Because the Israelite tribes lost their origins, we are dependent on biblical prophecies to identify them in the modern world. We are most dependent on the biblical clues given to us in Genesis 48-49 for identifying the tribes of Israel in the modern world. This prophecy is specifically about each tribe in the latter days (Gen. 49:1), so we can be sure God has fulfilled his prophecies (Isaiah 41:21-26). Some identifications (the USA as Manasseh, the British nations as Ephraim, Zebulon as the Dutch, etc.) are easy to ascertain. Other tribes must be found via more cryptic clues and these clues are subject to different interpretations by people with honest differences of opinion. In my books, I’ve done my best to apply the biblical clues to modern nations to identify specific modern nations with specific Israelite tribes, based on the biblical clues and evidence.
In my books, I do not identify Spain or Portugal as being linked to a specific Israelite tribe. This does not mean that there are not Israelites there. Historical analysis indicates Israelites are in Spain and Portugal, but I can’t identify a specific, individual Israelite tribe as being dominant in those nations, based on my understanding of the clues of Genesis 49. Your email noted the Celts and Visigoths were in these nations and the Vandals also migrated through the Iberian Peninsula on their way to Africa. Another tribe allied to the Scythians was the Alans, and historical accounts indicate they joined the migrations of the Goths and Vandals into the Iberian Peninsula. The entire nation of the Vandals reportedly left the Iberian Peninsula when they migrated to Carthage. The Encyclopedia Britannica (1943 Ed. Vol. 22, p. 971) records that “the whole nation” of Vandals sailed to Africa from Andalusia, numbering 80,000 males (plus their families). For this reason, I expect little or no Vandal origins in modern Spanish people.
Other European nations have mixtures of (what I think) are identifiable Israelite tribes due to their proximity to neighboring nations. Examples of this are my identification of Belgium being a mixture of Reuben and Zebulon (due to the Walloons and Flemish having clear French and Dutch links). The Swiss people also have linguistic links to neighboring nations (the German- and French-speaking portions being linked to Gad and Reuben, in my view). Italy received many migrations of Goths into its northern regions, and so I believe many Israelites are still located in northern Italy, but I cannot identify them as a tribal unit due to the lack of a linguistic or clear demographic connection to another identified nation). Spain and Italy also are separated from neighboring nations by mountain ranges (the Pyrenees and Alps) which inhibited the ready mixing of peoples. Belgium is in a plain and its people are identifiably “French” or “Dutch,” based on both cultural and linguistic histories. Pockets of Israelites are also located all along the migration routes out of Asia into modern Europe.
For the above reasons, I cannot which tribe is dominant among those Israelites located in modern Spain or Portugal. Given the prophecy in Genesis 49:5-7 that Simeon and Levi will be “scattered” widely among the other tribes, one would expect these tribes would be present among the Israelites in all nations where they are now located. However, due to the historic connections between Levi and Judah, I think modern Judah (the Jews/Israelis) would have a disproportionately larger number of Levites in their midst.
Steve
