BRO. SMITH: I read with interest the remarks that appeared in Review No. 18, under the above caption. I have been strongly convicted for the last few months that all those speculations "that there are ten tribes of literal Israel somewhere existing, who must sometime in the future be restored," were without foundation in the Bible. I am also satisfied the more I look at this subject that many prophecies which have been supposed to relate to the future, have met with a literal accomplishment in the past, and to talk of their being fulfilled in the future must give them a second fulfillment.
It appears to me that proof is at hand to sustain the position taken in your article, that all Israel were recognized as existing in the land after the ten tribes had revolted. My object in writing this is to pen a few testimonies I have in addition to those you have quoted. They seem to teach that there were twelve tribes in the land three hundred years before Christ.
During the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (after the death of Alexander,) he sent to the Jews the following request: "Send six of the elders out of every tribe, and those such as are most skillful of the law, that by their means we may learn the clear and agreeing sense of these books, and may obtain an accurate interpretation of their contents, and so may have such a collection of these as may be suitable to thy desire." Jos. Ant. Book xii Chap. ii, Sec. iv. (According to Rollin's history, Ptolemy Philadelphus commenced his reign about 290, B. C.)
Again, in Sec. 5 of the same chapter, Josephus represents Ptolemy as saying to the Jews, "I have determined to procure an interpretation of your laws, and to have it translated out of the Hebrew into Greek, and to be deposited in my library." In Sec. 6, he gives us Eleazar's reply, "We have chosen six men out of every tribe, whom we have sent, and the law with them."
Now the question is, how many men did they send? If there were but two tribes in the land they could have sent only twelve men; but Josephus states that they sent seventy-two. This of course shows that twelve tribes were recognized at that time in the land, for six men of a tribe would require twelve tribes to make seventy-two men.
J. N. LOUGHBOROUGH.
White Rock, Ills., Sept. 16th, 1857.