The Taylor Prism now housed in the British Museum, is a hexagonal baked clay document containing Sennacherib’s account of the captivity of Israel. Further evidence is found on the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser the 3rd, which depicts the humiliation of Jehu, the 10th king of the Northern House. Found at Kalhu; aka Caleh, Nimrud (30km south of Mosul) by Sir Austen Layard in 1846, and fortunately also in the British Museum, it shows him bowing down before the Assyrian ruler.
In the Assyrian text, he is referred to as Son of Omri his ancestor. Omri the 6th king ruled for 33 years. Jehu managed 28 years, better than Hoshea, who only got to 9 due to his imprisonment by the Assyrians after he stopped giving presents to Shalmaneser. (2Ki 17:3-4) On the obelisk, Jehu is also referred to as Iaua, son of Khumri. He is seen wearing the distinctive Phrygian cap, the head wear of the Northern Tribes perpetuated today on elves, pixies and garden gnomes. Phrygian is also a language, akin to Greek, spoken by the people Paul visited in Colossae.
Fifty years after their deportation, the captives took their chance to break free when the Assyrians came under attack, causing outlying troops to be recalled to Nineveh to defend the city. Guarding the Israelite’s would be the least of their worries with the host of Babylon soon to arrive. Ezra wrote; the tribes …entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river, which tells us they were in the upper regions near the headwaters prior to their departure. They had been placed on the high tablelands providing several routes out of the area: East towards Afghanistan; west to Asia Minor and the Greek islands; North-West to the Ukraine and Russian planes or to areas in the South.
Shortly after their escape, the largest group found living in the area were the Parthians who ranged through much of the region, including Babylon. The Parthians were an anomaly, having appeared quite suddenly (International History Project: Guisepi) around 670-BC. They were formidable in battle, known to be excellent horsemen and archers. Their reputation as a disciplined military force spread rapidly. Motivated by their fearsome reputation, Alexander, after a short-lived affray, agreed a pact with them. Some Parthians are thought to have accompanied him to India.
George Rawlinson, Camden Professor of Ancient History, published two extensive volumes on the Parthians in 1873. With elder brother, Henry and Sir John Wilkinson, he also translated the writings of Herodotus. According to Rawlinson, by the end of the pre-Christian era the Parthian Empire was established to such a degree that its only rival of note was Rome.
Around 40-BC, they drove the Romans out of Judea and for a short time derailed the plans of Herod Antipater who decamped to Rome. To further irritate him the Parthians installed, Antigonus the last of the Hasmoneans to rule in his place. Antigonus was active in uprisings against the Herodians and Rome, which three years later led his downfall. Herod Antipater returned in 37-BC to establish his rule. Antigonus was executed at Antioch. (Josephus; Antiquities 15: 12.9)
In 36-BC, the Romans launched a major attack against Parthia but were defeated. It was soon agreed a better policy was to leave the Parthians alone. Their kin were the Scythians, named by Paul when writing to the Colossians. The Book of Acts also refers to the Parthians, first to be mentioned when Peter spoke of the Christ at Pentecost.
Are not all these who are speaking Galileans? And how is it that we hear, each of us in his own native language? Parthians and Medes and Elamites and residents of Mesopotamia, Judea and Cappadocia, Pontus and Asia, Phrygia (Colossians) and Pamphylia, Egypt and the parts of Libya belonging to Cyrene, and visitors from Rome, both Jews and proselytes, Cretans and Arabians; we hear them telling in our own tongues the mighty works of God. (Acts 2:7-11)
Despite the fact they operated under different names and lived separately, Parthians and Scythians were from the same stock. That they are both mentioned by Paul and Luke gives weight to their origin, which we will get to shortly. At least three Apostles visited Parthia when taking the Gospel to Israel. (Matthew: 10:6; 15:24) James addressed his only Epistle to the scattered (12) tribes, (James 1:1) which confirms all of Israel were taken north by the Assyrians.
That the Parthians controlled much of Babylonia at the time is attested by Herodotus and Josephus. They were masters of the hit and run raid. One of their more daring attacks was on Babylon during the captivity of the remnant of Judah, which caused major damage to the city and towns. They carried away many captives, removing them north. This Scripture from Jeremiah speaks of a people reunited after decades of separation. Now, notice the direction the Children of Israel came from.
For out of the north there comes up a nation against her, which shall make her land desolate, and none shall dwell therein: they shall remove, they shall depart, both man and beast. In those days, and in that time saith the LORD; the children of Israel shall come, they and the children of Judah together, going and weeping: they shall go, and seek the LORD their God. (Jeremiah 50:3-4)
Israel came from out of the north as the land of their earlier captivity was north of Babylon. Here, Jeremiah shows us the nation that would come up against Babylon and take away the children of Judah was indeed, the children of Israel. The rescue of several from Judah is important, as we know that the two sticks of Ephraim and Judah were joined prior to their journeys into the north and west. None of these people were Jews. They were Israel-Ephraim and some of Judah and Benjamin. The Jews were the remnant that returned to Jerusalem years later under Ezra and Nehemiah.
The LORD had warned Israel their punishment would mean the removal of both their inheritance and name; no longer to be called Israel or with memory of their past. However, they were still to remain as a people to fulfil God’s promise to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. For these distinctive and gifted clans and tribes, great in number and pushed by the LORD, absorption was never an option. No longer known by any biblical name they disappear into the nations. We see their re-emergence many centuries later disseminating and preaching the Gospel of Christ to the world.
Enlarge the place of thy tent, and let them stretch forth the curtains of thine habitations: spare not, lengthen thy cords, and strengthen thy stakes; For thou shalt break forth on the right hand and on the left; and thy seed shall inherit the nations, and make the desolate cities to be inhabited. (Isaiah 54:2-3)
The Greeks called them Kimmeroi, their version of Khumri the Assyrian term for the people of Omri. We know them as the Cimmerians. On the Behistun Rock found by Henry Rawlinson in the mid 19th Century, we find mention of a people called by two different names: Gimiri and Sacae. Cut in 516-BC, the inscription is in Susian (The language of the Elamites) Babylonian and Persian. The Babylonian version calls them Gimiri; the Persian and Susian cuts call them, Sacae. Herodotus also called them Sacae. Josephus called them Scythians, even though they were the same people from the same stock.
Constantly on the move, their main form of shelter was a large portable tent. Called a Succoth, it comes from the time of Jacob’s reunion with Esau, and means a temporary booth or house. (Genesis 33) The name Succoth characterized these itinerant peoples; over time it morphs from Succoth, to Sculth ending as Scyth. Called; the tent dwellers by surrounding nations, we know them as the Scythians. To add another layer of identification to these itinerant peoples, Rawlinson gives the name Parthian to mean, the exiles.
Rawlinson’s discovery provides further clues to the origin of these people. Inscriptions list several nations paying levy to Darius of Persia; numbered among them were the Gimiri. The Babylonian version of this record used their word, Gimiri in place of the Assyrian, Khumri. It was later found that the Babylonian substitute word also means the tribes. It is from Gimiri we get; Cimmerians and later, Crimea where some later settled.
But, the most startling find was the name, Sacae of whom Herodotus wrote: The Sacae or Scyths were clad in trousers and had on their heads tall, still caps rising to a point. They bore the bow of their country and the dagger: besides which they carried the battleaxe or sagaris. They were in truth Amyrgian Scythians, but the Persians called them Sacae, since that is the name which they give to all Scythians.
Parthian describes them as exiles, Scythian as tent dwellers and the Babylonians and Assyrians state they were the tribes; not just any tribes but ‘the tribes.’ And consistent with Herodotus, Josephus, and the International History Project, they appeared from out of the blue. We also have a name that combines all three, tells us their manner of dress and the weapons they used; Sacae.
These evocative names and descriptions more than suggest we have found Ephraim-Israel. We have uncovered several displaced tribes, living in portable dwellings that dress and carry arms as did the people earlier taken captive by the Assyrians; great in number who unexpectedly appeared from nowhere. Herodotus writes of the Scythians emerging in the same vicinity from which the Israelite Tribes had departed 50 years after their deportation. It is quite plain the Parthians, Cimmerians and Scythians are the tribes of Israel-Ephraim. They were at Pentecost, Paul also writes of them. (Col 3:11) Besides, there is no record that states it could be anyone else; no reasonable explanation as to whom these unexplained people could be, if not the Israelite tribes of Old Testament times.
Note:
Part 4: Migration follows Ephraim after they leave the region of their exile under a variety names and peoples. It has nothing whatsoever to do with any supposed exodus or Diaspora of the Jews at this or any other time. The account of the Jews of the 1st Century and the emergence of Jews in 8th Century Eastern Europe (the Khazars) is an entirely different subject. It is a completely different history involving a totally different people, which you will find elsewhere on this site. They have absolutely nothing to do with the line of Abraham and his covenants from the LORD.
Despite what you might find in modern encyclopedias, the migration of Israel is a real history, the beginnings of European and British culture and its international growth since then; the Americas and the Commonwealth an example. It is the history of peoples and nations that gave us the Bible, preached the Gospel of Jesus and established the Christian faith throughout the World.
Throughout the generations they also gave us superb literature, magnificent music also pushing the boundaries of medicine and science. They established the practice of social justice, legal rights and representation, free and democratic societies, free speech and quality of life. It is certainly not ideal, but surely an improvement on a not so distant past feudal past and the years, which preceded it. The only perfection is the truth and grace of the LORD and His Christ and the Kingdom.
End of Part 3