p. 322 | The Ten Lost Tribes by Editor

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 26, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 21.

The Ten Lost Tribes.

By Editor

Last week we had a short note in "Our Question Corner" with reference to the "Lost Tribes" of Israel. As we then stated, the Bible does not recognize any such thing as certain tribes being lost. Since writing the note above referred to, we note an article in the Independent of March 8 on the same question. After stating that the Assyrian inscriptions agree in all leading particulars with the biblical account of the captivity, the article states that probably to exceed 50,000, all told, were carried away. Sargon says that from Samaria he carried away 27,280 persons. A few more were added after this. He also says that he sent Arabs into the land. "The system of deportation," says the article, "practiced by the despots of that day, never sent the entire people of a land into exile," but only those "whom it was feared might cause rebellion." Only "the leading and influential families" were removed. All weapons were taken away, and all who made them deported. The article thus concludes:—

In reality the ten tribes never were "lost." The few people carried away by Tiglath Pileser form an insignificant contingent compared with the masses that remained. They could not have constituted one-tenth of the people. The deported were not tribes, or larger parts of tribes, but only individuals, or at most families. These, indeed, have been "lost," but lost beyond a least chance of rediscovery. The tribes as such remained in Canaan, and absorbed the heathen settlers that were sent in. The division into tribes signified little or nothing in later times; the division into tribal territory was not regarded. Anna, of the tribe of Asher, dwells in Jerusalem; Joseph, the carpenter, of the tribe of Judah, in Nazareth; Paul, a Benjamite, in Tarsus; Barnabas, a Levite, in Cyprus, etc. In general, the Jew of the New Testament era knew as little from what tribe he came as does the modern Jew. Then as now the Jews were cosmopolitan. Their Diaspora was scattered over the entire world. Everywhere they found they could prosper as well, or even better, than in their native land. The endless wars in Palestine finally destroyed them as a nation altogether, in the days of Titus and Hadrian. This great Diaspora embraced representatives of all the tribes of Israel. Among modern Jews all these tribes, without any doubt, have their descendants. In other words, the "lost" tribes never have been, and are not now, "lost."