British-Israel-World Federation

For general information about Anglo-Israelism see the article by that name.

The British-Israel-World Federation is an organization that was founded in London July 3 1919, although its roots can be traced back to the 19th century. At one time this organization enjoyed the patronage of members of the British Establishment including HRH Princess Alice of Athlone, the Duke of Buccleuch, the Rt. Hon. the Earl of Dysart, the Rt. Hon. the Countess-Dowager of Radnor, the Rt. Hon. Lord Gisborough, and the Rt. Hon. W F Massey (Prime Minister of New Zealand).

History

The British-Israel-World Federation was born as a movement in the 19th century and federated in 1919 during the days when the "sun never set" on the British Empire. From 1924, the organization maintained an office next to Buckingham Palace. In 1990, it moved to Putney on the Thames, but since 2003 has been based near Bishop Auckland in Co Durham. British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is the belief that people of Western European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The concept often includes the belief that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David.[1][2]

According to British Israelism, the Lost Ten tribes of Israel found their way to Western Europe and Britain, becoming ancestors of the British and related peoples.

British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is the belief that people of Western European descent, particularly those in Great Britain, are the direct lineal descendants of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. The concept often includes the belief that the British Royal Family is directly descended from the line of King David. There has never been a single head or organisational structure to the movement. However, various British Israelite organisations were set up across the British Commonwealth and the America from the 1870s, and many still continue to exist. Adherents may hold a diverse set of beliefs and claims that are ancillary to the core genealogical theory, but there are central tenets that all British Israelites follow, including Two House Theology, which is at the core of British Israelism. A central teaching of the British Israelites' Two House Theology is that, while Jews are considered to be Israelites, not all Israelites are considered to be Jews. British Israelites believe that Jews descend only from the tribes of Judah and Benjamin), while the House of Israel gave rise to the British people or Anglo-Saxon-Celtic kindred peoples of northwestern Europe.

British Israelism gained notoriety in the 1860s and 1870s. However, there were predecessors of the theory before it became established as a movement.

Early versions

Title page of Richard Brothers' book A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times, from 1795.

The idea that the British descend from the ten lost tribes of Israel can be traced to various works from the early modern period (c. 1500 - 1800). Adherents of British Israelism claim that earlier sources exist, such as ancient or medieval manuscripts, but these are disputed.

The earliest known advocates of British Israelism include M. le Loyer, an early 16th-century French Huguenot magistrate; Adriaan van der Schrieck, a Flemish scholar (d. 1621); Vincenzo Galilei; the English antiquarian Henry Spelman; Jakob Abbadie; and John Sadler.

Some have speculated that British Israelism arose from earlier schools of thought, in particular various schools of "Phoenicianism" or "Orientalism" that developed from the 18th century. In the early 20th century, the archaeologist R. A. Stewart Macalister said that it was "very popular" for earlier writers to ascribe a Middle Eastern or Central Asian genealogy to the peoples of Ireland or Britain . Charles Vallancey, for example, published a work in 1772 attempting to prove that the Irish language was Phoenician, while John Pinkerton's A Dissertation on the Origin and Progress of the Scythians or Goths (1787) attempted to show that the Scots were Scythians who had originated in Central Asia. The historian Sharon Turner later used Pinkerton's research and identified the Saxons as being Scythian. Other works such as Eastern Origin of Celtic Nations by James Cowles Prichard attempted to prove a Far Eastern origin for the Celts. In Ireland there also developed a popular school of "Phoenicianism" in which some historians, such as Joaquín Lorenzo Villanueva (1837). attempted to link the Irish to ancient Phoenician settlement. Early British Israelites relied on such literature for historical evidence, but also used the Bible as support.

Professor Nicholas Goodrick-Clarke considered John Wilsonto be an inflential writer on the subject. During the late 18th century, under the influence of a religious climate of Millenarianism, British Israelism emerged as a distinct ideology, based on the preaching and writings of Richard Brothers. It is generally considered that British Israelism was first founded in England, from where it spread to the United States. Brothers was the first to expound a version of British Israelism, but he lacked credibility due to his (alleged) mental illness. Having prophesied the end of the British monarchy, he was imprisoned in an asylum for the criminally insane. Modern adherents of British Israelism have denounced the view that Richard Brothers had anything to do with originating their doctrine. They point out that Brothers considered himself a descendant of King David, and not the British royal family. Other key texts of this period included Ezra Stiles' The United States elevated to Glory and Honor (1783) and the Chronicles of Eri (1822). Wilson adopted and promoted the idea that the "European race, in particular the Anglo-Saxons, were descended from certain Scythian tribes, and these Scythian tribes (as many had previously stated from the Middle Ages onward) were in turn descended from the ten Lost Tribes of Israel". (Parfitt, 2003. p. 54) Wilson's ideas were to be refined, and new ideas were developed, well into the second half of the 19th century. Wilson gave public lectures to spread his message, but did not form any organisation or movement. John Wilson published Our Israelitish Origins in 1840.

1860s to 1890s

In the latter half of the 19th century there were many British Israelites. Prominent authors active during this period included:

Canon Samuel Lysons, Edward Hine, F.R.A. Glover, Hibbert Newton, John Cox Gawler, Robert Polwhele, Charles Ottley Groom Napier, John Pym Yeatman, Herbert Aldersmith, William Carpenter, Protheroe Smith, Thomas Stratton, Elieser Bassin, William H. Poole, Thomas Rosling Howlett, Frederick Charles Danvers, Charles Piazzi Smyth, George Moore, C. A. L. Totten, Edward Wheeler Bird, Moses Margoliouth, Robert Govett, Jonathan Titcomb, John Leyland Feilden, Marcus Blake Brownrigg and Alexander Beaufort Grimaldi.

Edward Hine departed England for the United States in 1884, where he promoted the idea that Americans were the lost tribe of Manasseh, whereas the English were the lost tribe of Ephraim. He also first developed the link between Germany and ancient Assyria. The British Israel movement achieved organisational status from the 1870s onwards in a melee of rival groups and amalgamations. In 1875 the British-Israel Association and the Anglo-Israel Association were formed, followed by the British-Israel Conference Association in 1876, the Metropolitan Anglo-Israel Association in 1879 and The British-Israel Identity Corporation in 1880. Amalgamation under the Earl of Dysart led to The British-Israel Association in 1886, which mutated into the Imperial British-Israel Association in 1908 and finally the British-Israel-World Federation in 1919. The Banner of Israel, first published in 1877 by Robert Banks of Fleet Street, London, continued until its incorporation into The National Message in 1926. The National Message, a quarterly magazine, was first published in 1922 by the British-Israel-World Federation and continued until 1981. Hine's work The British Nation Identified with Lost Israel (1871) sold up to 250,000 copies.

1900s to 1940s

British Israelites of the early 20th century included:

J. H. Allen, Richard Reader Harris, Lawrence Graeme Allan Roberts, ‎Edward Faraday Odlum, William Gordon Mackendrick, William Henry Fasken‎, Charles Marston, Elizabeth Oke Gordon, F. F. Bosworth, Alexander James Ferris, William Bond, Frank Sandford, Samuel Thornton, David Davidson, Errol Manners and Charles Fox Parham.

William Pascoe Goard Vice-President of the British-Israel-World Federation (1921-1937).

It has been claimed that by the early 20th century there were more than two million British Israelites in Britain and the United States. However, the membership of the main organization, the British-Israel-World Federation, reached only 20,000 at its height, in the 1920. In 1922 the British-Israel-World Federation set up Covenant Publishing, which still exists today. During this time several prominent figures became patrons of the organization. Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone, was Patron-in-chief. One of the most notable members was William Massey, then Prime Minister of New Zealand. Due to the expansive nature of the British Empire, believers in British Israelism spread from the United States and Britain to other countries in the British empire and beyond.

British Israelism became widely promoted in the United States during the early 20th century. A key figure in this period was William Pascoe Goard, who was Vice-President of the British-Israel-World Federation from 1921 until his death in 1937. He wrote more than a dozen books on the theory. Howard Rand also promoted the British Israelite theory and became National Commissioner of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America in 1928. He published The Bulletin, later renamed The Messenger of the Covenant (more recently, it has been renamed Destiny and is published by Destiny Publishers).

Mid-20th century

J. Llewellyn Thomas wrote Objections to British Israel Teachings Examined (1951). The theory of British Israelism was also vigorously promoted by Herbert W. Armstrong in the 1950s founder and former Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God. Armstrong wrote United States in Prophecy (also printed as "United States and Britain in Prophecy"), first published in 1945 and followed by further editions. Armstrong believed that the theory was a key to understanding biblical prophecy: "One might ask, were not biblical prophecies closed and sealed? Indeed they were—until now! And even now they can be understood only by those who possess the master key to unlock them." (Armstrong, 1967, p. 5) Armstrong believed that he was called by God to proclaim the prophecies to the "ten lost tribes of Israel" before the "End Times".

Front Cover of Herbert Armstrong's United States and Britain in Prophecy (1945)

Armstrong's belief caused his separation from the Church of God Seventh Day because of its refusal to adopt the theory. Armstrong created his own church, first called the "Radio Church of God" and later renamed the "Worldwide Church of God". He described British Israelism as a "central plank" of his theology. (See 'Armstrongism'.)

After Armstrong's death, his former church, which changed its name to Grace Communion International (GCI) in 2009, abandoned all his teachings, including British Israelism. It offers an explanation of the doctrine's origin and its abandonment by the church at its official website. Church members who disagreed with the doctrinal changes left the Worldwide Church of God/GCI to form offshoot churches. Many of these organizations, including the Philadelphia Church of God and the United Church of God, still teach British Israelism.

The late Professor Roger Rusk (1906–1994), brother of former U.S. Secretary of State Dean Rusk, was a prominent teacher of British Israelism. He worked for 13 years as a public school teacher. After completing a doctorate in physics, he worked for 28 years as a professor at the University of Tennessee, where he became Emeritus Professor of Physics. He was also a member of the American Physical Society and the "Tennessee Academy of Science".

In 1961 George F. Jowett published The Drama of the Lost Disciples, which has sold many thousands of copies. In 1976 William Howard Bennett , a Fellow of the Royal Geographical Society, published Symbols of Our Celto-Saxon Heritage with the aim of establishing what he believed were the Israelite origind of British heraldry. The poet Patience Strong (1907–1990) was also a British Israelite.

Contemporary period

The British-Israel-World Federation continues to exist, with its headquarters in Bishop Auckland, County Durham, and local chapters throughout the British Isles. The most recently established chapter is BIWF-USA, based in Heber Springs, Arkansas. In London the Orange Street Congregational Church teaches a form of British Israelism, and the Ensign Trust publishes The Ensign Message in its furtherance. In Australia the Christian Revival Crusade, founded by Leo Harris, once taught this theology, but has abandoned it. The Revival Centres International, a prominent group that separated from the Crusade, and other splinter groups, continue to teach the doctrine. The "Churches of God" in Ireland are also known for their teaching on this subject. There is also the "British-Israel Church of God" [5]. British Israelite literature also continues to be produced. Historical Research Projects is a modern British Israelite publisher that has published In Search of... The Origin of Nations (2003), which mainly attempts to establish that Northern Europeans descended from Shem. Another modern British Israelite author is Steven M. Collins, who has published at least three books claiming to trace the Israelite origins of certain European nations. A recent source estimates that there are only 5,000 members or adherents of British Israelism in Britain, with unknown but similar numbers in the United States and the Commonwealth.

Brit-Am is a vehicle for Yair Davidy (founded ca.1993), based in Israel, who also identifies the Lost Ten Tribes with the British and related peoples. Yair Davidy mostly uses literal biblical explanations to justify his beliefs, supplemented by highly subjective interpretations of mostly ancient literary sources.

Support

A research paper, published in 2002 on the British-Israel movement has noted:

...The British-Israel movement crossed denominational lines but was predominantly Anglican but despite an anchor in the Church of England, British-Israel appealed across multi-denominational Protestantism. The key to this was its literal interpretation of the Old Testament in stressing its identity with the British Empire, as opposed to divisive spiritual interpretations.

William Bennett Bond, Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada from 1904 to 1906, was a British Israelite.

Jonathan Holt Titcomb, the first Anglican Bishop of Rangoon in the 19th century, published several works on his belief in British Israelism. One of his works was republished in 1928 by Covenant Publishing as "British-Israel: How I Came to Believe It", Titcomb believed that during the End Times the two Houses (Judah and Israel) would be reunited, and that the Teutonic or Celtic peoples were Israel:

...we should have a representation of the Teutonic and Keltic races, or, at least, a large portion of them, lying in Britain, Gaul, Germany, Denmark, and Scandinavia, waiting to be collected into one nationalized mass."

Samuel Thornton was an eminent Anglican bishop of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia who wrote:

......British-Israel truth is most wonderful. I wish I had known it twenty-five years earlier. It makes clear so many things that had been obscure.

File:J.H Allen Judah's Sceptre Front cover 1902.jpg

J. H. Allen's Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (1902)

William H. Poole, a Methodist minister, published Anglo-Israel or the Saxon Race?: Proved to be the Lost Tribes of Israel (1899).

J. H. Allen of the Wesleyan Methodist Church, who later founded the Church of God (Holiness) wrote Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright (1902), which is still today considered a 'classic' text by modern British Israelites.

The prominent English barrister, King's Counsel and Methodist minister Richard Reader Harris (KC) in 1908 wrote his book The Lost Tribes of Israel, which expressed his belief in the theory that the Anglo-Saxons are descended from the Ten Lost Tribes:

... Such then are the Scriptures that appear to me to furnish strong evidence in favour of the contention of those who believe that in the Anglo-Saxon race God possesses today the descendants of the house of Israel. If this be true, it adds tremendously to our responsibilities, and opens before us in a way that no human tongue can describe, spiritual possibilities, temporal possibilities, national possibilities, and universal possibilities.

Robert Bradford, a Methodist clergymen, who served as an Ulster Unionist Member of Parliament from 1974–1981, was a British Israelite.

William Pascoe Goard who in 1921 become Vice-President of the British-Israel-World Federation was a Methodist minister.

Famous Baptists who believed in British Israelism include Mordecai Ham (1877–1961). Ham gave a speech at the Seventh Annual Conference of the British-Israel-World Federation on October 4, 1926. His speech was recorded and published in 1954 and as of 2002 continues to be reprinted in booklet form by British Israelites.

Revd T. R. Howlett B.A. minister of Calvary Baptist Church in Washington D.C was a British Israelite who wrote Anglo-Israel, the Jewish Problem: The Ten Lost Tribes of Israel Found and identified in the Anglo-Saxon Race (1896).

English Fundamentalist Independent Baptist Rev. James Mountain authored British Israel Truth Defended (1926) and The Triumph of British-Israel (1930) both of which have been republished apart of Covenant Publishing's "classic" series in 2004.

Martin Lyman Streator (1843–1926) one of the early founders of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in 1900 published Anglo-American Alliance in Prophecy, which is considered one of the earliest key publications of British Israelism in America.

Pentecostalism has a long history with British Israelism. Many early founders of pentecostalism were British Israelites including Charles Fox Parham.

George Jeffreys (pastor) who founded the Elim Pentecostal Church was a British Israelite.

Christian Revival Crusade (CRC Churches International) a Pentecostal Protestant Christian denomination based in Australia, which was founded by Leo Cecil Harris in 1945 originally subscribed to British Israelism.

Frank Sandford (1862–1948) was a British Israelite.

Faith healer John Alexander Dowie who founded the Christian Catholic Apostolic Church believed in British Israelism. Covenant Publishing sell a 34 page booklet entitled "Leaves of Healing" which quotes Dowie's identification of Britain with Israel from his miscellaneous writings.

The famous faith healer and author of Christ the Healer F. F. Bosworth in 1920 broadcast a radio lecture entitled The Bible Distinction Between the House of Israel and the House of Judah which promoted his views on British Israelism and Two House Theology.

Allan Abraham Beauchamp (April 17, 1874 - December 30, 1944) was one of the foremost publishers in the United States of books on British Israelism. He converted to Christian Science sometime before Mary Baker Eddy's death in 1910. His conversion to Christian Science was due to the complex interaction between Christian Scientists and advocates of British-Istaelism which had begun in Eddy's lifetime. Beauchamp was active as a book dealer in New York City (Manhattan) between 1900-1912, specializing in rare books, manuscripts, and ephemera having to do with Christian Science. About 1913 he moved to Winchester, Massachusetts (a suburb of Boston), and established a bookstore (Copley Square Book Shop) and publishing house (A. A. Beauchamp) at 603 Boylston Street on Copley Square in Boston. This address would remain the headquarters of his British-Israel-related publishing business for the next 32 years - until his death in 1944. Within a few years after starting his publishing house, he began publishing a popular British-Israel magazine titled The Watchman of Israel.

Julia Field-King (born August 27, 1840), an American Christian Scientist from Iowa who was a friend and student of Eddy, sailed to England in 1896, under Eddy's orders, to study British Israelism. Prior to her 1896 trip to England, Field-King had been greatly impressed by the writings of Anglo-Israelism proponent C. A. L. Totten. Totten engaged in a genealogical exercise, attempting to prove the Davidic ancestry of the British royal family. Field-King engaged in extensive research trying to prove Totten's thesis; she went even further, and tried to prove that Mary Baker Eddy herself was a descendant of King David. Mrs Eddy came to be a believer in British Israelism. It held a special attraction for her, as she felt that British Israelism was a belief that might give a boost to the Christian Science movement in England. In 1898, Mary Baker Eddy wrote a poem titled “The United States To Great Britain” In this poem, Mrs. Eddy refers to the United States and Great Britain as "Anglo-Israel," and our "brother," Great Britain, as "Judah's sceptred race".

In a letter in 1902 to Julia Field-King regarding a work tracing the lineage of Queen Victoria back to King David, Mary Baker Eddy wrote: "Your work, The Royal House of Britain an Enduring Dynasty, is indeed masterful: one of the most remarkable Biblical researches in that direction ever accomplished. Its data and the logic of its events sustain its authenticity, and its grandeur sparkles in the words, 'King Jesus.'" In the words of Jeremiah, quoted in the book: "David shall never want a man to sit upon the throne of the House of Israel." (Jer. 33:17) Mrs. Eddy states: "Christian Science ... restores the lost Israel." In many of Mary Baker Eddy's writings, she addressed the Israelites as Christian Scientists. Until her death, Mary Baker Eddy continued to keep an interest in British Israelism.

Early members of the Church of Christ Scientist Mother Church accepted the Anglo-Israel message of Mrs Eddy. However, after Mrs. Eddy’s death in 1910, the Mother Church denied belief in anything having to do with British Israelism, and any Christian Scientists in the Mother Church who supported British Israelism were excommunicated. Nevertheless, after Eddy's death many Christian Scientists remained adherents of British Israelism.

Because the Mother Church no longer wanted to teach British Israelism, a number of offshoot Christian Science churches and groups were set up to continue teaching British Israelism. One notable example, the Christian Science Parent Church, was organised in 1912 by an English Christian Scientist named Annie Cecilia (Bulmer) Bill (December 1859 - July 1, 1936). Bill became convinced that she was the true spiritual successor of Mary Baker Eddy. Bill moved to the United States after World War I, and in 1924 she established the American branch of the Christian Science Parent Church. As soon as Annie Bill set up the Christian Science Parent Church, many Christian Scientists left the Mother Church to join it. Annie Bill believed the Mother Church was no longer teaching Christian Science the way it should be taught. Her book The Universal Design of Life (1924) acknowledged Mary Baker Eddy's authority. The Christian Science Parent Church taught a mixture of Eddy’s Christian Science combined with Annie Bill’s teachings on British Israelism and spirituality. Initially, the Christian Science Parent Church had high respect for Mrs Eddy. Members would read both Eddy's textbook Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures and Bill's textbook The Universal Design of Life. Members of the Christian Science Parent Church believed that the English-speaking peoples are the lost tribes of Israel and are in Bible prophecy.

Another Christian Scientist who was a firm believer in British Israelism was John Valentine Dittemore (1876-1937), who joined Bill's Christian Science Parent Church. Dittemore was a well-known contributor to A. A. Beauchamp's British-Israel magazine The Watchman of Israel. Dittemore corresponded with Beauchamp, and told him that Annie Bill's doctrines were correct. Later, Beauchamp joined the Christian Science Parent Church. Beauchamp’s magazine, published on behalf of British-Israelism, became the magazine of the Christian Science Parent Church, and British-Israelism became the central perspective promoted by Bill. The Christian Science Parent Church had a messianic view of history: The English-speaking peoples are the lost Israel, and Bible prophecies proclaim that the English-speaking peoples will bring about spiritual perfection on Earth. Annie Bill believed the northern and western European peoples, and the North American peoples, are the descendants of the ten ancient tribes of Israel, and that these particular people are destined to lead the world, spiritually, to the millennial dispensation. A number of members of the Christian Science Parent Church also came to believe in pyramidology, the idea that the measurements and geometric design of the Great Pyramid in Egypt had religious and prophetic significance.

The vigorous efforts of Beauchamp and Dittemore to promote British-Israelism resulted in dramatically increasing the membership of the Christian Science Parent Church. Many of these new church members were independent believers in British-Israelism, who had never been members of an organized body of believers in British-Israelism prior to joining the church. Many subscribers to Beauchamp's The Watchman of Israel became full-time Christian Scientists. The Census of Religious Bodies reported that in 1926 the Christian Science Parent Church had 29 congregations, with 582 members in the United States. By 1928 there were over 44 congregations in Great Britain, Australia and Canada, and by 1930 there were 88 congregations and over 1200 members.

In the late 1920s Annie Bill denounced Mary Baker Eddy’s writings. Bill's new textbook The Science of Reality replaced her old textbook The Universal Design of Life, which had acknowledged Eddy’s authority. Bill changed the name of the Christian Science Parent Church to the Church of Universal Design, and continued to lead the church up until her death in 1936. In 1924 Beauchamp left the Christian Science Parent Church and pursued other interests, but he rejoined the church (under its new name the Church of Integration) in the 1940s.

After Annie Bill's death, a new leader named Francis John Mott (April 13, 1901 - December 1980) took over her church, continuing the propagation of the British-Israel message and the work of Annie Bill. In 1937 Mott changed the name of the church from the Church of Universal Design to The Society of Life. Later he changed the name of the church again, this time to the Church of Integration. A. A. Beauchamp’s British-Israel magazine The Watchman of Israel was retitled The Universal Design, A Journal of Applied Metaphysics. Mott initially made his views known in several books published by A. A. Beauchamp. The British branch of the Church of Integration was destroyed in the chaos of World War II. In America the Church of Integration survived, and briefly revived after the war. Beginning in 1946, a new magazine titled Integration was issued from the Church of Integration's headquarters in Washington, D.C.. Eventually, however, the Church of Integration - which was never numerically strong - dissolved.

At least one follower of Annie Bill who opposed Mott's leadership, Mary Sayles Atkins (1879-1966), continued to write, under her pen name, Mary Sayles Moore, about Bill and during the 1950s published several volumes with A. A. Beauchamp, who had left the Church of Integration in the 1940s. Her most important volume was Conquest of Chaos, which reviewed Bill's career and the rise of Mott.

Mary Hawley (Beecher) Longyear (1851–1931), the founder of the Longyear Museum was a British Israel proponent. Mrs. Longyear and her husband John Munroe Longyear (1850-1922) were very helpful to Eddy and the early Christian Science church in providing the funds to purchase land for the church and for the Christian Science Benevolent Association in Chestnut Hill. Mrs. Longyear was a pioneer in the field of historic preservation. She searched the back roads of Massachusetts and New Hampshire to locate and purchase four houses in which Eddy once lived. She had portraits painted of Mrs. Eddy and Mrs. Eddy's early students and had reminiscences written by many of those who knew her. For over three-quarters of a century, the Longyear Museum has provided exhibits and resources about the life and achievements of Mary Baker Eddy. The Museum moved into its new building in Chestnut Hill, Massachusetts.

The Christian Science Endtime Center founded in 1996 by Stanley C. Larkin is the only active Christian Science organisation which supports Mary Baker Eddy's Anglo-Israel studies.

British Royal Family

In 1996, The Independent, reprinted the facsimile of a 1922 letter by George VI (then Duke of York). He wrote:

...I am sure the British Israelite business is true. I have read a lot about it lately and everything no matter how large or small points to our being ’the chosen race.’

Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone was a chief patron of the British-Israel-World Federation from 1920 until her death. Her daughter Lady May Abel Smith was also a patron of the Federation until her own death in 1994.

It is also claimed by modern British Israelites that Queen Victoria believed herself she descended from King David, they quote a letter she wrote supposedly supporting this view that she occupied the throne of David. In 1876, The Banner of Israel proudly announced that both Queen Victoria and Princess Louise, Duchess of Argyll had both accepted copies of John Wilson's Our Israelitish Origin. On the occasion of Queen Victoria ’s Diamond Jubilee, in 1897, the British-Israel Association presented an illuminated parchment stating:

...It is the profound belief of your Memorialists that the high and pre-eminent position allowed by the British Nation and Empire under Your Majesty ’s long and prosperous reign will ever continue and increase by virtue of our Abrahamic Descent, we being the chosen people of God, as daily proclaimed in our National Church Service’ and further referred to the Queen as ‘The Royal Lion of Judah’.

Scholars, academics, and others

Numerous prominent scholars, academics and other notable figures have supported British Israelism including: the Canadian geologist and Bible scholar Edward Faraday Odlum, M.A., B.Sc., F.R.F.S. (1850–1935); Roger Rusk the brother of US secretary of state Dean Rusk, Hebrew scholar and professor in physics for 28 years at the University of Tennessee; British General Sir Walter Walker KCB, CBE, DSO & bar (1912–2001); William Ferguson Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand 1912–1925; Patience Strong (1907–1990), English Poetess; John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920), GCB, OM, GCVO, Admiral of the Fleet; C. A. L. Totten, professor of Military Tactics at Yale University (1889–1892); John Cox Gawler (1830–1882), Keeper of the Monarch's Crown Jewels; John Bracken, PC (1883–1969), 11th Premier of Manitoba (1922–1943) and leader of the Progressive Conservative Party of Canada (1942–1948); Thomas Bavin KCMG (1874–1941), 24th Premier of New South Wales; Robert Randolph Bruce, Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia (1926–1931), Arthur Cherep-Spiridovich (1858—1926); Sir Standish G. Crauford, Brigadier-General, Bart., C.B., C.M.G., C.I.E., D.S.O, author of Our Celtic Heritage (1867); David Davidson, Esq., C.E., M.C., F.R.S.A., (1844–1956), famous British structural engineer; Sir Errol Manners K.B.E (1883–1953), distinguished Royal Navy admiral; Lt.-Col. J.A.McQueen, D.S.O., M.C. Military Intelligence; Joseph Cockfield Dimsdale PC, KCVO, Bt, Lord Mayor of London (1901–1902); William Henry Fasken, Brigadier-General, author of Israel's Racial Origin and Migrations (1934); James Bernard Nicklin, (b. 1881); inventor and author of Testimony in Stone (1961), Sir George Grey, KCB (1812–1898), Governor-General of New Zealand; Reader Harris, K.C. (1847–1909), barrister and King's Counsel; George Jowett (1891–1969), world-class gymnast, author of The Drama of the Lost Disciples (1961); Oliver Lodge FRS (1851–1940), prominent British physicist; Rev. Lawrence Graeme Allan Roberts (born 1844), Commander of the Royal Navy, author of British History Traced From Egypt And Palestine (1927); Herbert Aldersmith, F.R.C.S M.B. LSA (1847–1918), renowned English physician, Adam Rutherford, F.R.A.S., F.R.G.S.; founder of the Institute for Pyramidology and E. Raymond Capt

As late as the 1860s and 1870s, several highly-educated men such as Professor Charles Piazzi Smyth, Astronomer Royal for Scotland, Fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society, and Fellow of the Royal Societies of London and Edinburgh, Dr. George Moore, Member of the Royal College of Physicians, John Pym Yeatman, Esq., Fellow of the Royal Historical Society, C.O. Groom Napier, geologist and Fellow of the Royal Statistical Society, Dr. Herbert Aldersmith, Fellow of the Royal College of Surgeons and others – though not professional anthropologists or ethnologists – were able to authoritatively voice the British-Israel message, which won over many converts. Charles Marston, Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of London who funded major archaeological excavations across Palestine between 1929-1938 was also a notable academic proponent of British Israelism.

Reactions

British Israelism has had opposition and criticism by some Christian groups since the 19th century, and in modern times has received less attention from the broad spectrum of Christian denominations.

Despite a significant clerical membership of British Israelites, it was admitted, by British-Israel in 1880, that British Israelism was reviled by the clergy, as a whole.

In the Church Times, of 12 June 1885, British-Israel was compared to the Mormons in what was declared to be the latest development of “Chosen Peopleism”, a phenomenon which has ‘perpetually appeared and re-appeared in the world, but always with disastrous results’, dismissing British-Israel as a religious equivalent of craving for aristocratic distinction.

The broad spectrum of Christian denominations do not teach British Israelism, and some consider it speculative. Modern British Israelites have responded that critics do not represent their views.

Christadelphians

The Christadelphian movement, since its foundation by John Thomas, has been a strong opponent of the British Israel doctrine because of its own interpretations of Israelite identity. Robert Roberts an early Christadelphian founder debated British Israelite pioneer Edward Hine, at least twice, the first in Birmingham where he delivered his speech Anglo-Israelism Refuted followed by a further lengthy debate hosted over three days, held on April 21–23, 1879, at Exeter Hall, London, with Lord William Lennox presiding. The latter debate was later published in booklet form in 1919 as "Are Englishmen Israelites?", (Birmingham: C. C. Walker).

Catholics

The Roman Catholic Church does not teach British Israelism as a doctrine. It became recognized as a distinct teaching under Edward Hine and John Wilson in the 19th century. The Roman Catholic Church has no official statement on the British Israelism belief that a church was founded in Britain by Joseph of Arimathea during the Roman Empire. For this reason Edward Hine, John Wilson and most other early British Israelites were strongly anti-Catholic. Edward Hine regarded nuns as ‘silly women’ with cross appendages round their necks and priests were ‘feminine men', while John Wilson wrote the pope was the anti-christ. The Two Babylons is a popular anti-Catholic work still cited by British Israelites.

Jews

Many Jews reject a Two House Theology which British Israelism accepts. Several early Jewish sources are used to support Two House Theology, which is a key tenet of British Israelism. However, these sources do not state where the ten lost tribes of Israel are located, neither if they were really lost. The Babylonian Talmud (Mishnah) Sanhedrin 110b for example notes:

...THE TEN TRIBES WILL NOT RETURN [TO THE LAND OF ISRAEL], FOR IT IS SAID, AND CAST THEM INTO ANOTHER LAND, AS IS THIS DAY: JUST AS THE DAY GOES AND DOES NOT RETURN, SO THEY TOO WENT AND WILL NOT RETURN: THIS IS R. AKIBA'S VIEW. R. ELIEZER SAID: AS THIS DAY — JUST AS THE DAY DARKENS AND THEN BECOMES LIGHT AGAIN, SO THE TEN TRIBES — EVEN AS IT WENT DARK FOR THEM, SO WILL IT BECOME LIGHT FOR THEM

Most Jews have never subscribed to Two House Theology, and continue to reject this doctrine and therefore oppose British Israelism. Despite this, there have been few historic Jews who talked about "lost tribes". Several Medieval Rabbis and Jewish Torah scholars began to locate the ten lost tribes, but the location greatly varied. Modern British Israelites often quote from Maimonides who wrote:

...I believe the Ten Tribes to be in various parts of Europe.

Brit-Am has compiled many more of these Rabbinic sources, including the testimony of Nahmanides who placed the lost tribes of Israel in France and Northern Europe.

File:Moses ben Isaac Edrehi.jpg

Moses ben Isaac Edrehi

Moses ben Isaac Edrehi (1774–1842), a Moroccan-born Rabbi and Kabbalist believed the lost tribes of Israel were also located in Europe, writing in his Historical Account Of The Ten Tribes (1836):

...Orteleus, that great geographer, giving the description of Tartary, notices the kingdom of Arsareth, where the Ten Tribes, retiring, succeeded [other] Scythian inhabitants, and took the name Gauther [Goths], because they were very jealous for the glory of God. In another place, he found the Naphtalites, who had their hordes there. He also discovered the tribe of Dan in the north, which has preserved its name. ...They further add, that the remains of ancient Israel were more numerous here than in Muscovy and Poland - from which it was concluded, that their habitation was fixed in Tartary [ie Scythia] from whence they passed into neighbouring places ... it is no wonder to find the Ten Tribes dispersed there; since it was no great way to go from Assyria, whither they were transplanted, having only Armenia betwixt them.

Dr. Moses Margoliouth, an anglican priest from Jewish heritage, in his History of the Jews in Great Britain (1851) wrote:

...the Israelites must have visited the western countries (of Europe) in the days of Solomon.

Elieser Bassin, a 19th century Russian Jew of aristocratic origins and a convert to Christianity, in his British and Jewish Fraternity (1884) equated Britain with the Israelite tribe of Ephraim:

...The Hebrew Scriptures point to the British Isles as the home of God's first-born (i.e. Ephraim, the collective name for the Ten Tribes, Jeremiah 31:9)...It is my conviction that Britain is the nation with whom God has from first to last identified Himself. I, an Israelite of the House of Judah claim you as Israelites of the House of Ephraim (Le. the House of Israel). As believers in the faithfulness of our covenant-keeping God, I call you to awake from your sleep.

After Bassin's publication more Jews began to embrace British Israelism from the late 19th century.

The Jewish Encyclopedia, although not supporting the British Israel teachings, noted: "The identification of the Sacae, or Scythians, with the Ten Tribes because they appear in history at the same time, and very nearly in the same place, as the Israelites removed by Shalmanesar, is one of the chief supports of the theory which identifies the English people, and indeed the whole Teutonic race, with the Ten tribes" (Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901, Vol. 12, p. 250).

In 1900, SJ Deutschberger, a Jew and head of ‘The Industrial Mission to the Jews’ became General Secretary of the British-Israel Association.

Politics

British Israelism was not ostensibly a political movement but it was inevitable that any association that interpreted Biblical prophecy against the background of actual historic, real-time and future events would attempt to influence, take credit or comment on the relevance of those events. Primarily an Anglican organisation, it was inevitable that the British-Israel movemant would contribute to political issues concerning the Jews, Catholics and Palestine. In essence, the character of movement was pro-Conservative, Nationalist, Imperialist and anti-Home Rule. British Israelism did have followers in both legislative houses from the 19th century, however, limited by significant elected representation it promoted, through various publications, those influential public figures who blindly reflected its own theologically driven policies and prophecies. It is only in from the 1870s that the British-Israel press really started to roll enabling commentary on their domestic political stance. Prior to the United Kingdom general election, 1874 Edward Hine asserted, that the British-Israel movement had "no motive to endeavour to operate any influence, in a political sense", however, in the same year, Hine appealed for representatives in Parliament and stressed the importance of selecting MPs indoctrinated by British-Israel philosophy. There was is no record of how successful his campaign was but in the event the Conservatives, under Disraeli, won with a majority of 52 seats which pleased the British-Israel pundits. Hine was not alone and Viscount Folkestone, president of the Metropolitan Anglo-Israel Association and MP, asserted, in 1880:

...I am sure that this association, in the course of time…will assume a very prominent position in the history of the nation. I have no doubt but that it will exercise a great influence on the policy, both home and foreign of our future governments.

This 1880 election did, however, indicate the low influence of British-Israel in the hustings. Despite pleading its non-political stance, British-Israel backed Disraeli. British-Israelites encouraged the nation to support the party that would achieve God’s destiny. The Liberals, under Gladstone, won by a majority of 176 seats but true to form they found biblical prophecy to cover the non-Imperial policies of Gladstone ‘Come, My people, enter those into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee; hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation be overpast.’ (Isa. 16:20) to mark Britain's withdrawal from expansion. It followed that British-Israel did not expect Liberals to have long enough in power to affect foreign policies. Post 1880 election, British-Israel were gladdened to hear the Liberals intended maintaining the empire but deplored its repudiation of further colonial annexations therefore not fulfilling Britain’s destiny to rule the world. Sure enough the appropriate biblical prophecy was found ’And the kingdom and dominion, and the greatness of the kingdom under the whole heaven, shall be given to the people of the saints of the most High, whose kingdom is an everlasting kingdom, and all dominions shall serve and obey him’ (Daniel 7:27). Palestine was the apex of the British-Israel geographical agenda due to the Biblical prophecy ‘Unto thy seed have I given this land, from the river of Egypt unto the great river, the river Euphrates’ (Genesis 15:18). British-Israel believed that promises to Israel, as contracted with Judah, must be fulfilled. The key biblical passage indicated that Palestine would be shared with the Jews and ‘In these day the house of Judah shall walk to or with the house of Israel, and they shall come together out of the land of the north to the land that I have given for an inheritance unto your fathers.’ (Jer. iii. 18, 19). Most British-Israelites of the 19th century and early 20th century were therefore Christian Zionists, as many continue to be. British-Israelites in the late 19th century equated Edom with the Ottoman empire hence the deposition of the Sultan could only be actioned by Anglo-Saxon Israel in the form of England ‘I will inflict vengeance upon Edom by the hand of My people Israel‘ (eze. 25:14). In 1902, noting the stormy political situation in the Balkans exasperating the Turkish, British-Israel declared on Palestine ‘The land must be cleansed, and the intruder turned out of it, to allow of the return of the People of Zion’. Disraeli’s acquisition of the Suez Canal and Cyprus between 1874 and 1878 made physical conquest of Palestine inevitable. British-Israel applauded the government’s bold stroke in acquiring half the shares in the Suez canal proclaiming it as the beginning of the restoration movement and an Act of God. The Suez Canal shortened the sea trip to India by 5000 miles and part fulfilled biblical prophecy ‘in the same day the Lord made a Covenant with Abraham, saying, Unto thy seed have I given this Land, from the River of Egypt into the great river, the river Euphrates’.

A Young Disraeli
by Sir Francis Grant, 1852

Disraeli was praised by British-Israelites in that his surname ‘Of Israel’ was seen as fulfillment of ‘One shall say, I [am] the LORD'S; and another shall call [himself] by the name of Jacob; and another shall subscribe [with] his hand unto the LORD, and surname [himself] by the name of Israel‘. In 1875, Lionel de Rothschild supplied Disraeli with the £4 million to purchase the Khedive of Egypt’s controlling shares in the Suez Canal Company. However, there was one problem here in that Biblical prophecy maintained of Ephraim ‘He shall not return to Egypt.’ Hine remarked on the coincidence that at a time, national identity with Israel, Benjamin Disraeli was selected as Prime Minister and ‘I have faith to look upon this man as one specially raised by God as a deliverer for our nation’ and ‘under the auspices of a Premier, of Jewish or Israelitish origin, and raised, we cannot but believe, to his high and influential position by Divine Providence to exert a prominent influence on the coming events’. His prophetic feelings were backed up by staff writer Harrison Oxley in ‘We identify Benjamin Disraeli, Esq., as one called in a most distinguished manner to lead the Nation to glory, and by the Identity, we see clearly how Judah and Israel became united, how Palestine comes into the possession of the British Nation’. One offshoot of The Anglo-Israel Association was The International Universal Alliance whose purpose was ‘to secure the neutralisation of Palestine under the guarantee of the great Powers, with the view of assuring the security of Christian and Israelitish populations.

British-Israel maintained that British Imperialism was a direct result of Gladstone’s Home Rule policy, which was viewed as sign of weakness in that electors had to choose between Britain existing as an Empire or falling to pieces by a series of secessions. In 1880, British-Israel commentating on foreign policy asked ‘Shall the colonies be retained by Israel? Shall the great “company of nations” in federation with the “little island of the North” fulfill their grand destiny as marked out in the Word of God? “Nay”, say the Opposition, “federation is a mistake; the greatest injury that might happen to this empire.’ Imperialism strengthened ties with the Mother country and British-Israel dived this into Political and Biblical. Under Biblical Imperialism, Britain’s appointed destiny was to annex regions of the world in fulfillment of Biblical covenant such as Palestine. Judah had been employed for this purpose in that a Jew, Disraeli, had purchased the Suez canal shares and a Jew, Rothschild, had financed the acquisition. British-Israel referred to Salisbury’s election, in 1900’ as a thoroughly Imperial party and attributed election victory to Joseph Chamberlain, whose role as Colonial secretary, had struck blows against Home rule and Kruger’s Boers, and proof that electors wanted an extension of the Empire. In fact British-Israel displayed intense relief that, in their opinion, the two greatest disasters of modern times - the handing of Transvaal to the Boers and the abandonment of Sudan - were now behind the country. The establishment, in 1907, of a permanent annual Imperial Conference was seen as part fulfillment of the prophecy of ‘Company of Nations’ and attributed to the enterprise ‘ the chosen race’ topped by the inauguration of Empire Day in 1909.

In order to fulfill biblical prophecy, British-Israelites wished to see unification of the colonies under the security of a United Empire of Great Britain. In this respect they were buoyed by the 1897 Federal Convention of Australia to unify the antipodean colonies based on successes in Canada. As with Disraeli, they used an influential individual as a symbolic vehicle for their Imperial aspirations - Joseph Chamberlain. Speaking at the Royal Colonial Institute, in 1897, ‘As regards the self-governing Colonies, we no longer talk of them as dependencies. We think of them and we speak of them as part of ourselves, as part of the British Empire.’ They applauded him for acting ‘honourably, generously and nobly’ to the defeated Boers and opined that South Africa would bloom under Britain as had other lands brought under subjection. A subject they reminded Edward VII, on his coronation:

...that your Reign may witness the Federation of the Anglo-Saxon Race by consolidating the ties which unite the Colonies with the Mother Country.’

Joseph Chamberlain had great sympathy with the Jewish Community. He promoted the aims of Zionism aiding Herzl’s project to found a Jewish settlement between Egypt and Palestine securing an offer from the British government for a Zionist colony in East Africa and in particular appealing to British-Israel through his aversion to Home Rule. In an obituary to Joseph Chamberlain, ‘the missionary of Empire‘, British-Israelites proclaimed:

...He leaves, indeed, to British-Israelites, an imperishable memory, an endearing influence, and an instructive message.‘

While most British-Israelites well received Zionism in the early 20th century, they criticised most Jewish Zionists as being forgetful of all what the Biblical prophecy implied, as do modern British Israel adherents. Since British Israelism maintains both Houses (Judah and Israel) would one day be re-united, British Israelites considered the Israeli Declaration of Independence (1948) as perhaps fulfilling part of the Biblical prophecy (Jer. 3: 18) and continue to do so. Most modern British-Israelites claim to be apolitical, or supporters of monarchism. However some British Israelite members or groups support British Nationalism. Selected British National Party members listed in 2008 also belonged to the British-Israel-World Federation. British Israelism is also popular in Northern Ireland, amongst Ulster Loyalists. Tara (Northern Ireland) was a British-Israelite Loyalist faction, it existed from the 1960s - 1980's.

Tenets

Hebrew-English language connection

That Hebrew is linked to the English, Welsh, Cornish or Manx languages is a core tenent of British Israelism. Numerous scholars since the 18th century have attempted to link British tongue to Hebrew or a Semitic origin, James Cowles Pritchard connected the Celtic languages to Hebrew in his Eastern Origin of the Celtic Nations (1857), writing that the Celtic language "forms an intermediate link between [the Indo-European] and the Semitic, or perhaps indicates a state of transition" (p. 349). Earlier, Henry Rowlands (1655–1723) author of Mona Antiqua Restaurata: An Archaeological Discourse on the Antiquities, Natural and Historical, of the Isle of Anglesey, the Ancient Seat of the British Druids (1723) already connected British dialect to Hebrew. However, there was an even earlier publication linking Hebrew to Welsh, written by Charles Edwards in 1676 entitled Hebraismorum Cambro-Britannicorum specimen. John Wilson quoted Dr James Andrew, who in his Hebrew Dictionary and Grammar (1823) maintained ‘The dispersion and incorporation of the Ten Tribes of Israel amongst the Assyrian and other northern nations, accounts most satisfactorily for the numerous traces of the Hebrew language that still remain amongst the languages of Europe’. Another early authority British Israelites cite on language is Charles Vallancey who in his An Essay on the Antiquity of the Irish Language (1772) wrote of similarities between Phoenician and Irish. Distinguished Celtic scholar John Rhys, also usually is found referenced by British Israelites, since in his book The Welsh People (with D. B. Jones, 1900) he wrote of, "convincing evidence of the presence of some element other than Celtic... We allude to an important group of Irish names formed much in the same way as Hebrew names are represented in the Old Testament." A research paper was presented to the British Archaeological Association in 1877 which proposed that the very names the Welsh used for their own people, “Gael” and “Kymry”, were “of purely Hebrew origin.” This paper is usually found cited in British Israelite literature, amongst others.

British Israelites also quote William Tyndale who famously wrote:

...The English tongue agreeth with the Hebrew a thousand times more than with the Latin.

As well as the ancient Welsh poet Taliesin in the Book of Taliesin:

...My lore is written in the Hebrew tongue.

British Israelites believe that the Israelites lost their original language (Hebrew) after they were captured and resettled by the Assyrians; they usually quote Isaiah 28: 11 which notes: “For with stammering lips and another tongue will he speak to this people”. This was first cited by Edward Hine as one of his identity evidences.

Jewish or Phoenician miners in Cornwall

Map of Europe based on Strabo's geography, showing the Cassiterides just off the northwest tip of Iberia

British Israelites often cite legends and historical sources which establish an early Jewish (Judahite) or Phoenician miner settlement in Cornwall, well before the mainstream accepted date of the first Jews in England (1070). According to British Israelites there were supposedly several hundred Jewish miners having traveled there in early BC times for tin for Solomon's Temple. The British Isles were well known for tin mines in classical antiquity (see Cassiterides). The idea that early Jewish miners were in Cornwall is found in numerous history books on Cornwall from the 19th century, including Richard Polwhele's History of Cornwall (1803) which notes that the oldest pits containing smelted tin in Cornwall were nicknamed Jew's Houses. A very old town in Cornwall is also known as Market Jew and British Israelites and others point out that this suggests an early Jewish settlement. Max Muller however opposed this idea and wrote an article entitled Are there Jews in Cornwall? attempting to debunk it. The idea continued to be discussed in later works, Albert Montefiore Hyamson dedicated a chapter in his History of the Jews in England (1928) discussing the legends and historical sources of an early Jewish miner presence in Cornwall.

Physiognomy

A key factor of British Israelism is the belief that the ancient physical appearance of the Hebrews, Jews (Judahites) or Israelites (lost ten tribes) closely matches that of the White British or Nordic related kindred. British Israelites point out that King David is described as adomi meaning ruddy (reddish or rosy) in the Old Testament (1 Samuel 16: 12; 17: 42) which means he either had red hair or that he had a rosy complexion, which is a notable trait of Caucasians who throughout history have been known to blush or have rosy cheeks. Red hair is most frequent in northern and western Europe, with Scotland and Ireland who have the highest percentage of redheads in the world. It has never been agreed by any Bible scholar as to what adomi precisely means in 1 Samuel 16: 12 and 17: 42 (either the hair colour or the skin complexion of David). Adam Clarke for example in his Commentary on the Bible (1831) wrote that these passages related to red hair colour, Bible translations also vary either translating adomi as red hair or a ruddy skin complexion.

British Israelites often quote the ethnological work of Assyriologist Archibald Sayce who discovered from ancient artwork and tablet descriptions in Palestine, that the Amorites (Akkadian: Amurru) were a pale skinned, blue eyed, red haired race. Flinders Petrie also wrote they were fair haired. British Israelites point out that these Amorites were not the descendants of Canaan who sprung from Ham (Genesis 10: 6) but that the term Amorite or Amurru became applied to non-Hamitic groups who inhabited that same region. Cambridge Ancient History (Vol 1, 1929, p. 230) for examples notes that the term Amurru was used to label more than one ethnic-group, but who occupied the same region. British Israelites therefore conclude that the pale skinned fair haired Amurru Sayce and Petrie wrote about were a Hebrew kindred peoples. These Amorite features of red hair, blue eyes and pale skin are pointed out to be Nordic (or Northern European) racial features, thus establishing a link between ancient Hebrew physiognomy and the Nordic race. Often cited as further evidence is the ancient Egyptian mural on Seti I's tomb which depicts four racial types - the Asiatic, Nubian, Libyan and Egyptian. British Israelites point out that the Asiatic (who they consider a Hebrew) has painted blue eyes, and a reddish beard.

British Israelites have maintained that Jesus was white skinned and fair haired. They often quote the testimony of William Holman Hunt who studied Hebrew physiognomy for 10 years before painting his The Light of the World which depicts Jesus as blonde haired and pale skinned. Apocryphal historical texts are also often cited which describe Jesus as golden or red haired, these include the Description of Jesus by Publius Lentulus which describes the hair of Jesus as chestnut (reddish-brown) and his eyes bright blue (see Publius Lentulus).

British Israelites however believe the physiognomy of the Jews (Judahites) changed in 538 BCE (see below).

Two House Theology

British Israelites are advocates of Two House Theology. They believe while most modern Jews (Ashkenazi, Sephardi) are lineal descendants of Judah (or in some cases from the tribe of Benjamin) that the other tribes (see ten lost tribes) are not Jewish, but that the White British or Northern European related kindred descend from them. It is accepted by British Israelites that during the United Monarchy of Israel (1020 BCE - c. 930 BCE) all the tribes became known as Israel under King David. For example II Samuel 5: 5 mentions King David ruling over over all Israel and Judah, while I Kings 2: 11 describes David ruling Israel for 40 years (meaning all tribes). Jacob who all twelve tribes of Israel descended from was also named Israel (Genesis 32: 28), while Judah's decendents diverge (Genesis 38). British Israelites therefore assert that while all Jews are Israelites, not all Israelites are Jews. The Jews (Judahites) they point descend from Judah who split with the other ten tribes during the collapse of the United Monarchy (930 BCE). After the collapse of the United Monarchy during the succession of Solomon's son Rehoboam, the ten tribes formed the Kingdom of Israel in the north (with its first capital Shechem, followed by Samaria), while the tribe of Judah formed the Southern Kingdom of Judah (containing Jerusalem). British Israelites point out that after the split of United Monarchy and formation of the two kingdoms, the ten tribes of the Kingdom of Israel became known as a distinctive 'House' which differentiated them to the southern Judahites.

Old Testament passages which show the House of Israel (northern 10 tribes) to be distinct or separate from the House of Judah (Jews) are cited by British Israelites to support their Two House Theology. Examples include 1 Samuel 11: 8; Jeremiah 3: 18; 13: 11; 31: 31; 37; 33: 24; Ezekiel 8: 1; 14: 1. British Israelites also note that the House of Israel (ten lost tribes) were never called Jewish or Jews, and that the first place the Judahites (or Jews) appear in the Bible (II Kings 16: 6) is when they were at war with the House of Israel. British Israelites believe the two 'Houses' will be united during End Times and cite the prophecies in Ezekiel chapter 37 which notes that one day the two 'Houses' will be united under a King from the stock of David (see Davidic line). As further evidence, British Israelites cite the geographical description in Jeremiah 3: 18, which notes when the two 'Houses' will be united they will come from the far north, which British Israelites interpret to mean Northern Europe or Britain.

Critics of the above interpretation point out that Jeremiah 3: 18 describes both 'Houses' coming from the north (and not just the House of Israel). However British Israelites point out that according to II Kings 18: 13, a small portion of the tribe of Judah was deported with the House of Israel (10 lost tribes). This happened when Sennacherib invaded a portion of Judah in the 8th century BC during the reign of Hezekiah, but did not manage to capture its capital Jerusalem. Most Judahites (Jews) therefore were not captured and deported but remained in their land until the Babylonian Captivity (6th century BC). As secular evidence, British Israelites often quote from the prism of Sennacherib (see Taylor and Sennacherib Prisms) which records that 200,150 Judahites (Jews) were captured and deported by Sennacherib from 46 towns across Judah. Most archeologists today consider this number to be an exaggeration and that the figure was actually 2,150. Nonetheless the accuracy of II Kings 18: 13 of a real historic event has been verified by archeology. British Israelites believe that this small portion of deported Judahites (who joined the deported House of Israel, see II Kings 17), whether 2,150 or 200,150 founded a Davidic bloodline and monarchy in Ireland or Britain (confirming the north location of the House of Judah in Jeremiah 3: 18).

This small portion of Jews or Judahites who left Judah centuries before the Babylonian Captivity are contrasted by British Israelites to the Jews who remained there (from who the modern Jews they believe descend). British Israelites maintain that the physiognomy of the Jew changed when they were freed by Cyrus in 538 BCE and returned to Judah, where they mixed with other racial or ethnic types who had settled there when the Judahites had been deported by the Babylonians. As scriptural evidence, British Israelites point to Isaiah 3: 9 which notes that the people of Judah changed in countenance or their faces (i.e. skin complexion, or facial features). This teaching was first published by Edward Hine in his The British Nation identified with Lost Israel (1871). British Israelites therefore point out the physical appearance of Jews has changed, but that prior to the Babylonian Captivity, the Jews physically resembled the Israelites, and were a Nordic racial type.

A key teaching of British Israelism is that the Israelites are a homogeneous people. British Israelites often point out Bible passages and laws which condemn the Israelites (or Hebrews) from intermarriage, and for them to remain a separate people (Amos 9: 9; Deuteronomy 7: 3; Exodus 34: 16; Numbers 25:7-8). They often point out that Isaac was not allowed to marry outside of his own people (Genesis 24: 4; 28: 1), nor Jacob (Genesis 28: 6) and that the sin of Solomon was taking concubines (1 Kings 11: 2). Critics of this (particularly mainstream Christians) state that the reason the ancient Israelites were not allowed to intermarry since idolaters would lead the Israelites astray. British Israelites point to Biblical passages such as Deuteronomy 23: 2 which notes that the ancient Israelites were not to produce mamzers. British Israelites cite James Strong's Hebrew Dictionary (1890) which defines a mamzer as a mongrel, the Luther Bible (1584) which defines it as a mischling (cross-breed) as well as Webster's Dictionary. British Israelites point out that the Old Testament law concerning the Israelites was established in order to preserve God's plan for the birth of the messiah through Mary.

Critics of the British Israelite teaching assert that the White British ancestry includes several ancient tribes, for example the Celts, Picts, Anglo-Saxons, Jutes, Vikings and Normans. British Israelites counter that these ancient peoples sprang from the same ancestry. British Israelite literature on the subject quotes several notable 19th century scientists and historians who concurred that the British originated from a common ancestry. For example Edward Augustus Freeman wrote in his Origin of the English Nation (1879):

...Tribe after tribe, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Frisians, poured across the sea to make new homes in the Isle of Britain. Thus grew up the English nation - a nation formed by union of various tribes of the same stock. The Dane hardly needed assimilation. He was another kindred tribe, coming later than the others. Even the Norman was a kinsman.

Fate of the Israelites

According to the British Israel teaching, the Two House Theology proposes that certain tribes of Israel became lost (see lost ten tribes) after they were captured and deported by the Assyrians in the 8th century BC. In general, British Israelism holds that the House of Israel did not return to the Kingdom of Israel. As evidence British Israelites cite Biblical passages such as II Kings 15: 29; 17: 6; 18: 11 which note that the Israelites were taken by the Assyrians and settled in several Assyrian cities (see Halah) as well as the Medes, and II Kings 17: 18 which notes only the tribe of Judah was left (with some Benjamites and Levites amongst them ). Archeological evidence cited includes records of the Assyrian deportation of the Israelites (Isaiah 62: 2 which states the Israelites were to lose their name i.e. identity after their deportation and settlement in the Medes, British Israelites have always maintained that the authors of the New Testament (and others, such as Josephus) knew who the Israelites were and where they settled. Hence British Israelites maintain that Jesus knew where precisely the Israelites were when he sent the apostles to the lost sheep of the House of Israel (Matthew 10: 6; 15: 24).

British Israelites believe that the deported Israelites in Assyria and the Medes became the ancient Parthian, Scythian (Saka) and Cimmerian peoples of that same region in the 8th or 7th century BC. They often stress two points on this topic (often quoting Encyclopædia Britannica): that the Scythians and Parthians emerged at the exact same time the Israelites were deported and secondly that they sprung up in the exact same region. The geographical linked boundaries or overlaps of Scythia and Parthia with Assyria and the Medes are further cited as establishing a link. British Israelites also note that the author(s) of 2 Kings 17:23 and 1 Chron 5:26 wrote that several tribes of the Israelites (including Gad, Reuben and half the Tribe of Manasseh) were still in the region of the Medes or Assyria during their own day. Since the Book of Chronicles dates to the 5th or 4th century BC, British Israelites believe that the author(s) knew that some tribes of the House of Israel remained in exile during their own period, specifically in the region of the Medes and Assyria (see Neo-Assyrian Empire). Certain tribes however are stressed by British Israelites to have migrated west into Europe since the territory of the Scythians stretched into Ukraine and Romania (see Scythia Minor). The Tribe of Dan is also earlier thought to have migrated into Europe by British Israelites, since they had access to ships (Judges 5: 17.)

Adherents of British Israelism believe that the Behistun Inscription as well as Assyrian tablets connect the Scythians with the people known in Babylonian as Gimirri or Cimmerian to the Israelite House of Omri. The theory suggests that the "Cimmerians / Scythians" are synonymous with the deported Israelites. George Rawlinson wrote:

We have reasonable grounds for regarding the Gimirri, or Cimmerians, who first appeared on the confines of Assyria and Media in the seventh century B.C., and the Sacae of the Behistun Rock, nearly two centuries later, as identical with the Beth-Khumree of Samaria, or the Ten Tribes of the House of Israel.

British Israelites claim that the Babylonian term Gimirri or Assyrian word Khumri derived from Cimmerian:

It should be made clear from the start that the terms 'Cimmerian' and 'Scythian' were interchangeable: in Akkadian the name Iskuzai (Asguzai) occurs only exceptionally. Gimirrai (Gamir) was the normal designation for 'Cimmerians' as well as 'Scythians' in Akkadian.

Jehu kneeling at the feet of Shalmaneser III on the Black Obelisk.

The archeologist and British Israelite, E. Raymond Capt, claimed that there were similarities between King Jehu's pointed headdress and that of the captive Saka king seen to the far right on the Behistun Inscription. He also posited that the Assyrian word for the House of Israel, Khumri, after Israel's King Omri of the 8th century B.C., is phonetically similar to Gimirri. (Cimmerian)

British Israelites quote the testimony of Josephus, who in his Antiquities of the Jews (93 AD) wrote:

...the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country [Media]; wherefore there are but two tribes [Judah and Benjamin] in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers.

Josephus believed the House of Israel (ten lost tribes) were beyond the Euphrates during his own era, which scholars have asserted was the western border of where he believed the Israelites were located in the 1st century AD. Josephus believed the Israelites during his own time were an immense multitude, and therefore countless which British Israelites claim fulfills the prophecy of Hosea 1: 10: Yet the number of the children of Israel shall be as the sand of the sea, which cannot be measured nor numbered. British Israelites maintain that as the Scythians and Cimmerians extended their territory into Europe (Scythia Minor and Sarmatia) they increased their multitude, and that the Israelites by the early first few centuries AD had a great territory (see Sarmatians).

British Israelites believe that most of the ten tribes of Israel were stationed in Scythia and the Parthian Empire (which included the territory of the ancient Medes as Acts 2: 9 connects them) during the first century AD when Jesus sent the Apostles to these precise regions. One or two of the tribes however British Israelites believe moved into Europe from an earlier time (such as the Tribe of Dan); this teaching began with Edward Hine and John Wilson who noted that Dan were a maritime tribe, and that certain Biblical passages indicated they entered Europe long before the other tribes. As evidence to support their teaching that the apostles were sent to the exact region the Israelites were settled, British Israelites cite 1 Peter 1: 11 which notes the apostle Simon Peter was sent to Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia Minor and Bithynia, to 'God's elect' (which British Isralites believes means Israel, quoting Deuteronomy 7: 6) while calling them 'strangers'. British Israelites note that the Greek word translated 'strangers' parepidēmois means a foreigner or someone residing in a strange country. British Israelites note that these regions Peter was sent to were adjacent to Scythia and Parthia, and that they were colonised by Celtic tribes, who sprung from the Scythians. British Israelites quote ancient authors, such as Strabo who connected the Scythians to the Celts, calling them Keltoskythai, Celtic Scythians (Geographica, 11.6.2) while also noting similarity in culture and archeology. British Israelites also point out that Galatia in etymology is related to the Celts and that these supposed Celts were called 'strangers' in 1 Peter 1: 11 because the original inhabitants of those regions were Japhethites, and not from the line of Shem.

The opening verse to the Epistle of James is also cited by British Israelites, which notes:

James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, To the twelve tribes scattered among the nations: Greetings.

British Israelites point out that James also was therefore sent only to the lost Israelites, as well as the small segment of Judah who had been deported (II Kings 18: 13). Also cited is Origen's testimony (recorded by Eusebius) concerning where the apostle Saint Andrew went, that being Scythia. British Israelites also quote other historical sources and apocrpyha which places the rest of the apostles in the area of the Scythians or Europe. British Israelites also connect Simon the Zealot to Britain by quoting Dorotheus of Tyre who wrote in the 4th century AD that Simon Zealot visited Britain.

Adherents of British Israelism further connect the Saka-Scythians (whom they believe to be the Lost Tribes of Israel) to being progenitors to other ancient peoples. When the Scythians vanished and Parthian Empire collapsed (2nd - 4th century AD) British Israelites maintain that they became known under other tribal names. British Israelites note that the Sarmatians were also called “Scythians” by the Greeks but Herodotus wrote that the former “Scythians” were called "Germain Scythians" (meaning "True Scythian") whereas the Sarmatians were simply called “Scythians.” It is suggested that the term "Germain Scythian" is synonymous with "Germanii" or, in modern times, "Germanic" or "German." However adherents of the Germany-Assyria equation reject this link (see Assyria and Germany in Anglo-Israelism). The Cimmerians who were connected to the Scythians in territory by Herodotus, are linked to the Cimbri and Cymry (Welsh) by British Israelites, but also by 19th century Celticists. The late 19th-century Celtic language scholar John Rhys for example stated that

...the (Celtic) Kymry were for some time indifferently called Cambria or Cumbria, the Welsh word on which they are based being, as now written, Cymru ... and is there pronounced nearly as an Englishman would treat it if spelled Kumry or KUMRI.

Rhys argued that both Celts and the Scythians came from an area south-east of the Black Sea, and migrated westward to the coast of Europe. He compared the Welsh autonym, Cymru, with the name of the Cimmerians, Kumri. He believed that the names Iberia for Spain, and Hibernia for Ireland were connected to a variation of "Hebrew" and that this was evidenced in philology.

British Israelites link the Scythians to various early British peoples such as the Picts by quoting ancient writers such as Claudian and Virgil, who both considered the Picts to have sprung from the Scythians or Goths. British Israelites also quote Procopius who wrote the Goths sprung from the Thracian Getae, as well as Henry Rawlinson who wrote:

The identity of the Getae with the Goths of later times is more than a plausible conjecture. It may be regarded as historically certain.

Getic (Getae) links to the Picts or Scythian-Gothic-Pictish links are further cited by British Israelites. Examples include the Pictish Chronicle which mentions Scithe et Gothi, 'the scythians and Goths', as being the ancestors of the Picts. The Anglo Saxon Chronicle also opens by stating the Picts came from Scythia. Another link is the Agathyrsi a Thraco-Scythian people who Servius in his Commentary on Aeneid 4.v.146 wrote traveled to Scotland, Raphael Holinshed eleborated on this connection. British Israelites also quote the Historia Brittonum which connects the Scots to Scythia and the Declaration of Arbroath (1320) which links not only the Scots to the Scythians, but also to the Israelites.

Abraham Ortelius's Theatrum Orbis Terrarum (1570) is also quoted by British Israelites as it connects the Scythian to the Thracians (Getae)

Regarding the Anglo Saxons British Israelites quote from Sharon Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons (1799) which links in etymology the Scythians to the Saxons.

British Israelites maintain that all these migrating tribes who sprung from the Scythians and migrated into Northern Europe were all directed into 'Islands' or 'coastlands' - as their final resting place. These 'Islands' are described in Isaiah 24: 15; 42: 4; 49: 1; 51: 5 and Jeremiah 31: 10. British Israelites point out that Isaiah states these 'Islands' sat in the far north, at the ends of the earth i.e Northern Europe. British Israelites thus believe the White British people of Britain and several other Nordic countries, are who the modern Israelites descend from. Who exactly these other Nordic countries are depends on the indidividual view of the British Israelite, there is no standard established identification.

Tribe of Dan

The Danaides (1903), a Pre-Raphaelite interpretation by John William Waterhouse

A key tenet of British Israelism is the belief that the Israelite Tribe of Dan migrated into Europe before the other tribes of Israel because they were a maritime people (Judges 5: 17). John Cox Gawler (1830–1882) wrote Dan: The Pioneer of Israel in 1880 tracing signs of the Tribe of Dan across Europe, but the idea can first be traced to Edward Hine's The British Nation identified with Lost Israel (1871). While some British Israelites place Dan's migration into Europe at the start of the 8th century BC others place the migration even earlier: 1200BC or 1500BC. Gawler believed that the Tribe of Dan had escaped in ships during the Exodus. British Israelites identify the Exodus with the migration of Danaus, which is preserved in ancient Greek historical accounts. They identify in turn Danaus with the Tribe of Dan, often citing Hecataeus of Abdera who wrote:

When they were driven out, the noblest and bravest part of them, as some say, under noble and renowned leaders, Danaus and Cadmus, came to Hellas [Greece]; but the great bulk of them migrated into the land, not far removed from Egypt, which is now called Judea. These emigrants were led by Moses, who was the most distinguished among them for wisdom and bravery.

British Israelites therefore believe a portion of the Tribe of Dan (whom they equate with Danaus) split from the other tribes who were led by Moses out of Egypt. The migration of Danaus from Egypt to Greece is found preserved in Herodotus and Aeschylus. British Israelites believe that an early Israelite colony was established in Greece and quote from Josephus who wrote that the Spartans descended from Abraham and from 1 Maccabees 12: 21 which says the same thing, as well as quoting Stephanus of Byzantium who established genealogical links between the Greeks and Israelites. Links between Danaus and other ancient European peoples are further established in British Israelism literature. J. C Gawler and Edward Hine first connected Danaus or the Danaids (see Daughters of Danaus) to the legendary Irish Tuatha Dé Danann. British Israelites believe the Tribe of Dan left a trail all over Europe, pointing out that Jacob prophesied that Dan would be a 'Serpent by the way, an adder by the path' (Genesis 49: 17) meaning that he would leave a trail wherever he would go. British Israelites specifically believe that this trail would contain the word 'Dan' (or words similar) since Joshua 19: 47 notes that the Tribe of Dan named territory after their own name. Often pointed out where the Tribe of Dan settled across Europe leaving their name are Denmark (Danish: DANmark) and Danube (DANube), amongst many others. British Israelites however believe that the Tribe of Dan's final resting place was the Islands in the far north, meaning the British Isles. Often quoted is a place called Dan's Resting Place in Ireland on Ptolemy's world map.

Davidic origin of British monarchy

Main article: List of legendary kings of Britain § Tea Tephi

One of the core beliefs of British Israelism is that the British monarchy are lineal descendants from King David (see Davidic line). British Israelites cite I Kings 9: 5; I Chron. 17: 12, II Chron, 17: 18 and II Sam. 7: 13 which state that the throne of King David over Israel will be established forever. However the idea that the early British or Irish kings descended from King David is found in numerous early writings from the Early Modern Period, not solely British Israelite literature, for example Vincenzo Galilei's Dialogue of Ancient and Modern Music (1581) notes Galilei's belief that the Irish descend from King David. The idea however became prevalent and central to British Israelite teaching in the 19th century. John Wilson and Edward Hine briefly touched on the subject in their works, but the first thorough research and attempt to link King David to the British monarchy was conducted by Rev. Frederick Robert Augustus Glover, M.A. (1800-1881) of London who in 1861 published England, the Remnant of Judah, and the Israel of Ephraim.

Glover in 1861 claimed that the Irish princess Tea Tephi was one of Zedekiah's daughters. Since King Zedekiah of Judah had all his sons killed during the Babylonian Captivity no male successors could continue the bloodline of King David, but as Glover noted Zedekiah had daughters who escaped death (Jeremiah 43: 6). Glover believed that Tea Tephi was a surviving Judahite princess who had escaped and traveled to Ireland, and who married a local High King of Ireland in the 6th century BC. This theory was later expanded upon by Rev. Alexander Beaufort Grimaldi (born 1839) who published in 1877 a successful chart entitled Pedigree of Queen Victoria from the Bible Kings and later by Rev. Walter Metcalfe Holmes Milner (born 1859) in his booklet The Royal House of Britain an Enduring Dynasty (1902, revised 1909). The latter work has been republished in over 30 editions, and is still sold by Covenant Publishing. A collection of bardic traditions and Irish manuscripts which detail Tea Tephi were also published by J. A. Goodchild in 1897 as The Book of Tephi. Charles Fox Parham also authored an article tracing Queen Victoria's linage back to King David, and further all the way back to Adam entitled Queen Victoria: Heir to King David's Royal Throne.

Grimaldi and Milner expanded on Glover's research by claiming that Jeremiah himself in the company of his scribe Baruch ben Neriah traveled to Ireland with Tea Tephi, and that they are found described in Irish folklore and old Irish manuscripts. British Israelites identify Baruch ben Neriah with a figure called Simon Berac or Berak in Irish myth, while Jeremiah with Ollom Fotla (or Ollam, Ollamh Fodhla). However there has long been a debate and controversy about these identifications, mainly because of conflicting or inconsistent dates In 2001, the British-Israel-World Federation wrote an article claiming they no longer subscribed to these two identifications, but still strongly stick to the belief that the British monarchy is of Judahite origin. Several other genealogical links are claimed by British Israelites to connect the bloodline of King David to the British monarchy, one identifies Dara (or Darda) the son of Zerah of Judah as Dardanus, an early ancestor of the Trojans in Greek mythology. British Israelites believe an early Trojan colony settled in Britain establishing a monarchy.

Stone of Jacob

British Israelites believe the Stone of Jacob (Genesis 28: 18) is the Stone of Scone, used for centuries in the coronation of the monarchs of Scotland, later the monarchs of England and since 1603, British monarchs. The Stone of Scone has traditionally been known as Jacob's pillow, since Jacob rested on a stone for his pillow (Genesis 28: 11). British Israelites cite early myths and historical writings which identify the Stone of Scone with the Stone of Jacob, as well as pointing out that when the Stone of Scone was housed at Westminister a small plaque next to it reported the legend it was Jacob's Pillow. The stone is a key part of the British Israel teaching, since British Israelites believe wherever the Israelites are today, they would have the stone with them because the stone was a sign of Jacob's birthright.

The Stone of Scone in the Coronation Chair at Westminster Abbey, 1855.

Several works have been published by British Israelites on the subject, most notably The Coronation Stone and England's Interest in It by Ellen M. Rogers (1881, revised 1928) and Stone of Destiny by F. Wallace Connon (1951).

British Empire and America in prophecy

British Israelites have long maintained since their early origins that the British Empire is in Bible prophecy and point out that Abraham was promised to have nations (plural) spring from him (Genesis 17: 4; 6; 18: 18), that the descendants of Jacob (Israel) were to "spread abroad to the west and the east, to the north and the south" (Genesis 28: 14) and that God specifically told Jacob that through him would come "a nation and a company of nations" (Genesis 35: 11). These passages British Israelites interpret as being the British Empire, the nation of Genesis 35: 11 is considered to be Britain whiles its 'company' of nations - the British colonies (see British Commonwealth) which belt the world, west east, north and south (Genesis 28: 14). As the British-Israel-World Federation notes under their statement of beliefs:

Israel was to spread abroad to the West, East, North and South: "And thy seed shall be as the dust of the earth, and thou shalt spread abroad to the west, and to the east, and to the north, and to the south: and in thee and in thy seed shall all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 28:14). It was in that exact sequence that the British Empire was established as the only non-totalitarian empire that the world has seen.

The British-Israel-World Federation also cites Genesis 12: 2 in which God declares to Abraham "And I will make thee a great nation, and I will bless thee, and make thy name great", they interpret 'great' as being a reference to Great Britain. Furthermore British Israelites believe that Ephraim is England, quoting Genesis 48: 19 in which Jacob (Israel) revealed that the descendants of Joseph would become two great peoples—brother nationalities. Those that descended through his son Manasseh would become a 'great' people, while those who would come through his other son, Ephraim, would become a group or multitude of nations and would even be more 'greater'. There has long been a dispute between British Israelites on this passage. Traditionally the earliest British Israelites (Edward Hine, John Wilson, J. H. Allen) identified Ephraim with England (or Britain) while Manasseh with America, an early publication on this topic was Ephraim England by Robert Douglas (1886). However some British Israelites in contrast in the early 20th century began to identify Ephraim with America, while Britain or England with Manasseh. This started a slight rift in the British Israel movement, and works have been put out on each identification in attempt to try and refute the other, including most notebly the short booklet Epraim and Manasseh: Role Reversal Refuted. Most British Israelites today however continue traditionally to identify Ephraim with England or Britain, while America with Manesseh. The reverse identification has become the minority position.

Numerous works have been written by British Israelites on the British Empire or America in prophecy. Examples include: Our Inheritance in the Great Seal of Manasseh, the United States of America by C. A. L. Totten (1897), Anglo-American Alliance in Prophecy by Martin Lyman Streator (1900), The British Empire by W.A. Holme Twentyman (1903), The Destiny of the British Empire and the USA by Roadbuilder (1921), The Empire in Solution With Chapters on Anglo-Saxon Civilization by William Pascoe Goard (1931), The British Commonwealth & The United States Foretold in The Bible by A.J. Ferris (1940), Great Britain & The U.S.A. Revealed as Israel The New Order by A.J. Ferris (1941), The Path To Peace In Our Time - Outlined From The Great Pyramid's Prophecy - The Supreme War Objective And Britain And America In Submission by David Davidson (1942) and The British Empire in the Light of Prophecy by Bernard L. Bateson (1947). Herbert Armstrong wrote United States in Prophecy (1945, revised 1951, 1967, 1980).

There are also a minority of British Israelites who believe America is not in prophecy. These British Isrealites hold the position that the Israelites must always have the throne of King David ruling over them (I Chron. 17: 12; II Sam. 7: 13). Since the Thirteen Colonies in 1776 declared their independence and formed the United States of America, they lost their loyalty to the British monarch and no longer had a monarchy to rule over them. Some British Israelites therefore strongly reject the idea that America are Israel (Ephraim or Manessah). An example of a British Israelite who held this minority view was William H. Poole who only believed the nations of the 'British crown' were Israelites, including Canada where he served as a Methodist minister. Since Canada, Australia and New Zealand remain a part of the British Commonwealth, modern British Israelites who hold this minority view within British Israelism have no problem with accepting these countries as Israel, alongside Britain.

Levite origin of Druids

The Israelite or Levite origin of the Druids has been a tenet of British Israelism since the early 20th century. It is not however tracable back to John Wilson or Edward Hine but instead seems to have emerged around as a tenet or teaching around the 1920s. Early British Israelite publications on this topic include Our Descent from Israel (1931, revised 1940) by Hew. B Colquhoun and Druidism in Britain: A Preparation for the Gospel (Covenant Publishing Co., Ltd, 1935) by Rev. L. G. A. Roberts. Both these works argue that Druidism sprung from an early Levite migration to Britain. Often cited as evidence, are earlier sources which attempted to establish this link. William Blake for example in his preface to chapter two of And did those feet in ancient time explained that the British “derived their origin from Abraham, Heber, Shem, and Noah, who were Druids.” Earlier John Milton in his Areopagitica said something very similar about the Hebrew origin of the Druids. British Israelites also quote Charles Hulbert, who in his The Religions of Britain (1826) announced that:

...so near is the resemblance between the Druidical Religion in Britain, and the Patriarchal Religion of the Hebrews, that we hesitate not to pronounce their origin the same.

Other works cited by British Israelites are William Cooke's An Enquiry into the Patriarchal and Druidical Religion, Temples (London, 1754) and Edward Davies, The Mythology and Rites of the British Druids, Ascertained by National Documents (London, 1809). British Israelites believe that Jesus and Joseph of Arimathea met Druids in the early 1st century AD, and claim that the Gaulish god known as Esus described in Lucan's Bellum civile was actually Jesus. In recent times, non-British Israelite scholars have stumbled on this topic and have begun to research into the claim that Esus could have been Jesus.

Apostolic origin of British Church

Another major tenet of British Israelism is the belief that the British Church itself is of Apostolic origin. British Israelites believe that many of the apostles visited Britain, including most notably Simon the Zealot. The idea that Simon the Zealot visited Britain is traceable to Dorotheus of Tyre who wrote in the 4th century AD that Simon Zealot visited Britain. Nikephoros I of Constantinople also wrote in the early 9th century AD that:

Simon... the same doctrine he taught to the Occidental Sea, and the Isles called Britanniae.

Caesar Baronius dated Simon's visit to Britain in 44 AD. British Israelites also place Aristobulus of Britannia in Britain around 60 AD and note that an ancient epitaph of his name was unearthed in Dorchester. A popular British Israelite publication discussing these theories that Christianity entered Britain long before the orthodox date of 597 AD (see Gregorian mission) is George F. Jowett's The Drama of the Lost Disciples (1961). Often quoted by British Israelites is Tertullian's and Eusebius's testimony that Christianity had entered the British Isles already by the 1st or 2nd century AD. British Israelites also connect Joseph of Arimathea to Britain, who they believe arrived in Britain in the early 1st century AD, citing Gildas who wrote in his De Excidio et Conquestu Britanniae that:

Christ the True Sun afforded his light, the knowledge of his precepts, to our Island in the last year of Tiberius Caesar.

The 'last year' of Tiberius was 37 AD and so British Israelites believe Joseph was in Britain as early as that date. Many legends from Glastonbury also connect Joseph to that region (see Glastonbury Thorn and Chalice Well) and furthermore British Israelites believe Jesus himself may have traveled with Joseph to Glastonbury. Stories of the settlement of Joseph of Arimathea in Britain are best found preserved in Rabanus Maurus's 9th century Life of Mary Magdalene, William of Malmesbury Chronicle of the English Kings (1120), Polydore Virgil, James Ussher and Hugh Paulinus de Cressy's The Church History of Brittanny or England, from the beginning of Christianity to the Norman Conquest (1668). Cressy even claimed he had found an ancient tombstone bearing Joseph's name, dating his death to 82 AD at Glastonbury, which read:

After I had buried the Christ, I came to the Isles of the West; I taught; I entered into my rest.

British Israelites stress the fact that the first four Church councils (Council of Pisa 1409, Council of Constance 1414, Council of Siena 1423 and Council of Basle 1431), all agreed:

... the Churches of France and Spain must yield in points of antiquity and precedence to that of Britain as the latter Church was founded by Joseph of Arimathea immediately after the passion of Christ.

British Israelites also claim that William of Malmesbury's account of Joseph in Britain has been verified by a passage in the Domesday Book. Malmesbury specifically claimed that Joseph was granted twelve hides of land in England, while the Domesday Book notes that the Church of Glastonbury had twelve hides that never paid tax. British Israelites further believe that Jesus built the first Christian church at Glastonbury. They usually quote from a letter Augustine of Canterbury sent to Pope Gregory I which notes that at Glastonbury a wattle church was constructed by the 'hands of Christ Himself'. Many British Israelite or related works were put out in the 19th and early 20th century discussing all these historical sources and legends which connect Jesus, Joseph of Arimathea and the apostles in Britain. Notable examples include: The Origin and Early History of Christianity in Britain from its dawn to the death of Augustine by Andrew Gray (1897), Christ in Cornwall? by H. A Lewis (1900), The Coming of the Saints by J. W Tarlor (1906), St Joseph of Arimathea at Glastonbury by Rev L. S Lewis (1924), Glastonbury Traditions Concerning Joseph of Arimathea by H. Kendra Baker (1930), Did Our Lord Visit Britain, as they say in Cornwall and Somerset? by Cyril Comyn Dobson (1936) and Glastonbury by P. W Thompson (1937). Claims of Joseph or Jesus having traveled in Britain are not however limited to British Israelites. In 2009, a documentary was released in support of the British legends claiming Jesus visited Britain by the Church of Scotland minister Dr Gordon Strachan. Recent books on this topic, include Strachan's own work Jesus the Master Builder: Druid Mysteries and the Dawn of Christianity (2000) and more recently The Missing Years Of Jesus: The Extraordinary Evidence that Jesus Visited the British Isles by Dennis Price (1 Nov 2010).

British Israelites also believe that Paul the Apostle 'the apostle (of the Gentiles)' (Romans 11: 13; 2 Timothy 1: 11) visited Britain. As evidence they cite Theodoret of Cyrus' account of Paul who entered Britain in the early 1st century AD and the First Epistle of Clement which notes that Paul traveled to the utmost parts of the west (3: 10–15) which they interpret as meaning the western limits of Europe. R. W Morgan in 1928 published St. Paul in Britain: or, the origin of British as opposed to Papal Christianity which is still highly popular amongst British Israelites today. Some British Israelites also cite the The Lost Chapter of the Acts of the Apostles to support their claims that Paul visited Britain.

Creationism

Since genealogy is a part of the core of British Israelism, virtually all British Israelites are creationists since they believe in a historic Adam (see Descent from Adam and Eve) from who they believe the Anglo-Saxon-Celtic kindred or Nordic race ultimately descended from and therefore reject the theory of evolution. Most British Israelites believe that Caucasians descend from Adam, while the other peoples decend from a separate Pre-Adamite creation or a polygenist origin. However a few British Israelites maintain that all mankind decended from Adam, but this remains the minority position.). A notable British Israelite C. A. L. Totten noted that pre-adamism is essential to the British Israelite teaching, and Adam was only the father of the Caucasian. British Israelite literature on the internet is well known for rejecting the theory of evolution.

Most British Israelites hold a unique position on the actual creation of the earth or universe and man, accepting the scientific evidence that the universe and earth is old (see Old Earth Creationism) but believing that (Adamic) man is only 6,000 - 20,000 years old. For example Herbert Armstrong was a Gap Creationist believing in an old earth and universe but believed man was only 6,000 years old, the United Church of God (which follows Armstrong's teachings) still holds to this form of creationism. The British-Israel-World Federation has not made it clear what their exact views are on creationism, but their publisher Covenant Publishing, sells Old Earth Creationist and anti-evolution literature while at the same time genealogical charts which date the creation of Adam to around 4,000BC. Most British Israelites also believe the flood of Noah was only local.

Linked Sub-beliefs

Along with the core-tenets there are various sub-beliefs linked to British Israelism.

Pyramidology

Main article: Pyramidology § British_Israelism

German Assyria Equation

There were two original views as to the relationship between the Germans and British-Israel; either the British people, alone, were identified with the Tribes of Israel (Edward Hine) or they included the Germans (John Wilson) and other European peoples (including the Dutch and Scandinavians). Hine maintained that only the Ten Tribes of Israel were included within the British race and excluded the Continental Teutonic or German peoples, who he instead believed descended from Assyrians not Israelites. Hine believed all the tribes of Israel settled in Britain only, with Manasseh who became the Americans (who mostly descended from British stock). Hine had identified the Ten Tribes as being together in Britain in that Ephraim were the drunkards and ritualists, Reuben the farmers, Dan the mariners, Zebulon the lawyers and writers, Asher the soldiers etc, or that these tribes were regional or local people in Britain. Hine's particularist view was received with some hostility by other British-Israelites, who maintained that other Europeans descended from the lost tribes of Israel, not solely Britain. See Assyria and Germany in Anglo-Israelism for a more detailed discussion about this British Israelite sub-belief.

Phoenicianism

Some British Israelites believe in a unique form of Phoenicianism, believing that parts of the British or Irish population are descended from ancient Phoenicians. However most British Israelites believe that the Phoenicians ultimately in origin were Canaanites, Hebrews, or Israelites not a separate ethnic group. Often linked to this is the view that the Phoenicians brought paganism or polytheism to Britain. British Israelites connect the Semitic God Baʿal or Bel of Phoenician Canaanite religion to the Celtic God Belenus as well as Belinus, a legendary king of the Britons, as recounted by Geoffrey of Monmouth.

British Israelite or related works on Phoenicianism include most notably Phoenician Ireland by Henry O'Brien (1837) and The Phoenician Origin of Britons, Scots, and Anglo-Saxons (1924, 2nd Ed. 1925) by British explorer Laurence Waddell, which remains a key text British Isrealites still cite from.

Irish Canaanites

Edward Hine identified the Irish as descending from Canaanites. However this identification remained unpopular, since it later began to contradict claims of the Davidic line having sprung from Ireland. In 1879, a British Israelite publication expanded on Hine's identification of the Irish as Canaanites:

It is Ireland that is the thorn in the side of England at the present moment, and the attitude of Mr Parnell and his agitating friends is disgusting the patrons of this warm-hearted and impulsive nation...

This was referencing Hine's Biblical identification of the Irish with the Canaanites based on Numbers 33: 55, which reads: ‘if the children of Israel did not drive them out then it shall come to pass that those which ye let remain of them shall be pricks in your eyes, and thorns in your sides, and shall vex you in the land wherein ye dwell.’ It was Hine's opinion that the Irish were 'thorns in the side' of the English (Israel) because of their complicated relationship with Britain during the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland.

Research findings

Genetics

Human genetics shows a difference between Jews and Western Europeans. Genetic research on the Y-chromosomes of Jews has found that Jews are closely related to other populations originating in the Middle East, such as Kurds, Turks, Armenians and Arabs, and concluded that:

Middle Eastern populations...are closely related and...their Y chromosome pool is distinct from that of Europeans. (Nebel, 2001.)

Y-DNA Haplogroups J2 and, to a lesser extent, J1 are most commonly identified in Jewish people. Western Europeans are mostly identified as Haplogroup R1b.

Historical criticism and support

Some critics of British Israelism claim that some tenets of the theory are based on speculation. Tudor Parfitt, author of The Lost Tribes: The History of a Myth, states that the proof cited by adherents of British Israelism is "of a feeble composition even by the low standards of the genre." (Parfitt,2003. p. 61.) Other critics note:

“When reading Anglo-Israelite literature, one notices that it generally depends on folklore, legends, quasi-historical genealogies and dubious etymologies. None of these sources prove an Israelite origin for the peoples of northwestern Europe. Rarely, if ever, are the disciplines of archeology, sociology, anthropology, linguistics or historiography applied to Anglo-Israelism. Anglo-Israelism operates outside the sciences. Even the principles of sound biblical exegesis are seldom used, for...whole passages of Scripture that undermine the entire system are generally ignored...Why this unscientific approach? This approach must be taken because to do otherwise is to destroy Anglo-Israelism's foundation.” (Orr, 1995)

Proponents of British Israelism claim numerous links in historical linguistics between ancient Hebrew and various European place names and languages. As an example; proponents claim that “British” is derived from the Hebrew words “Berit” and “Ish”, and should therefore be understood as “Covenant Man”. Critics, however, argue that these words have other roots and that this interpretation of the Hebrew is incorrect. Another example is Rhys' assertion of equivalence between Cymry and Cimmerian, which is at odds with the generally accepted derivation of Cymry from an earlier Celtic form *kom-broges, meaning "people of the same country"; only the modern form of the word looks similar. Yet another example is the alleged connection between the 'Tuatha Dé Danann' and the Tribe of Dan. Secular sources indicate that the true root of this phrase is the 'People of the Goddess Danu'. Other links are claimed, but cannot be substantiated and contradict the findings of academic linguistic research. This shows conclusively that English belongs to the Indo-European language family and is unrelated to Hebrew, which is a Semitic language of the Afro-Asiatic language family. “No trace of the slightest real connection can be discovered” between English and ancient Hebrew. (Greer, 2004. p74.)

Adherents of British Israelism cite various scriptures in support of the argument that the Northern Israelite Tribes were lost. Critics argue that British Israelists misunderstand and misinterpret the meaning of these scriptures.

• One such case is the distinction that British Israelists make between the “Jews” of the Southern Kingdom and the “Israelites” of the Northern Kingdom. They believe that the Bible consistently distinguishes between the two groups. Critics counter that many of these scriptures are misinterpreted because the distinction between “Jews” and “Israelites” was lost over time after the captivities. They give examples such as the Apostle Paul, who is referred to as both a Jew (Acts 21:39) and an Israelite (2 Corinthians 11:22) and who addressed the Hebrews as both “Men of Judea” and “Fellow Israelites”. (Acts 2:14,22.) (Greer, 2004. p22) Many more examples are cited by critics.

• British Israelists believe that the Northern Tribes of Israel were “lost” after the captivity in Assyria and that this is reflected in the Bible. Critics disagree with this assertion and argue that only higher ranking Israelites were deported from Israel and many Israelites remained. (Dimont, 1933. p5) They cite examples after the Assyrian captivity, such as Josiah, King of Judah, who received money from the tribes of “Manasseh, and Ephraim and all the remnant of Israel”, (2 Chronicles 34:9) and Hezekiah, who sent invitations not only to Judah, but also to northern Israel for the attendance of a Passover in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30) (Dimont, 1933.) (Note that British Israelites interpret 2 Chronicles 34:9 as referring to "Scythians" in order to fit with their theory.)

• British Israelism states that the Bible refers to the Lost Tribes of Israel as dwelling in “isles”, (Isaiah 49:1,3) which they interpret to mean the British Isles. Critics assert that the word “isles” used in English-language bibles should more accurately be interpreted to mean “coasts” or “distant lands” “without any implication of their being surrounded by the sea.” (The Jewish Encyclopedia, 1901. Vol.1, page 600.) For example, some English translations refer to Tyre as an ‘isle’, whereas a more accurate description is that of a ‘coastal town.’ (Greer, 2004. p25)

• Another is the issue of identity of the Samaritans (an ethno-religious group of the Levant), mentioned in the Gospels, who believe their descent is from a group of Israelite inhabitants who have connections to ancient Samaria from the beginning of the Babylonian Exile up to the time of Christ.

Historical speculation

British Israelism rests on linking different ancient populations. This includes links between the "lost" tribes of Israel, the Scythians, Cimmerians, Celts, and modern Western Europeans such as the British. To support these links, adherents claim that similarities exist between various cultural aspects of these population groups, and they argue that these links demonstrate the migration of the "lost" Israelites in a westerly direction. Examples given include burial customs, metalwork, clothing, dietary customs, and more. Critics argue that the customs of the Scythians and the Cimmerians are in contrast with those of the Ancient Israelites. Further, the so-called similarities and theories proposed by adherents are contradicted by the weight of evidence and research on the history of ancient populations. It does not provide support for the purported links.

Ideology

Parfitt suggests that the idea of British Israelism was inspired by numerous ideological factors, such as the desire for ordinary people to have a glorious ancestral past, pride in the British Empire, and the belief in the "racial superiority of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants".

Notable adherents

• Richard Brothers (1757–1824), early believer and teacher of this theory.
• John Wilson (1799–1870), collected his lectures in a book, Our Israelitish Origin (1840).
• Charles Piazzi Smyth, the pyramidologist and Astronomer Royal for Scotland.
• William H. Poole, minister, known for his book Anglo-Israel or the Saxon Race?: Proved to be the Lost Tribes of Israel (1889).
• J. H. Allen, wrote Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright which was the basis of Herbert W. Armstrong's teachings on this same subject.
• C. A. L. Totten, Professor of Military Tactics at Yale University, he wrote countless articles and books advocating British. Israelism, including a 26-volume series entitled Our Race.
• Richard Reader Harris (KC) (1847–1909), founder of the Pentecostal Movement in London.
• William Massey, Prime Minister of New Zealand (1912–1925).
• William Comyns Beaumont (1873–1956) British journalist, author, and lecturer.
• Herbert W. Armstrong (1892–1986), United States founder of the Radio Church of God.
• Roger Rusk (1906–1994), author and self-proclaimed Bible scholar.
• Charles Fox Parham (1873–1929), American preacher who was instrumental in the formation of Pentecostalism.
• Alan Campbell Pentecostal pastor from Northern Ireland.
• Mary Baker Eddy (1821–1910) founder of the Christian Science religion.

See also

• History of the Jews in the United Kingdom
• Israelis in the United Kingdom
• Jewish Christians
• Messianic Judaism
• Nordicism
• Franco-Israelism

Further reading

• Kossy, Donna. "The Anglo-Israelites" in Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief, Los Angeles: Feral House, 2001 (2nd ed. exp. from 1994). (ISBN 978-0-922915-67-5)
• Baron, David. The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes: Anglo-Israelism Examined. 1915.
• Darms, Anton. "The Delusion of British Israelism: A comprehensive Treatise." Our Hope, New York.
• Kellogg. Howard. "British-Israel Identity." American Prophetic League, Los Angeles
• May, H.G. 16 September 1943. "The Ten Lost Tribes", Biblical Archeologist, volume 16, pp55–60.
• McQuaid, Elwood. Dec./Jan. 1977–78 "Who Is a Jew? British-Israelism versus the Bible", Israel My Glory, p. 35
• Wilson, John. Fall 1968. "The Relation Between Ideology and Organization in a Small Religious Group: The British Israelites". The Review of Religious Research, pp51–60.

External links

• British-Israel-World Federation website
• Anglo-Israelism and British Israelism by B.A. Robinson, at Religious Tolerance.org
• Jewish Encyclopedia entry on Anglo-Israelism
• "British Israelism: A Mirage" Nettelhorst, R.P. April/May & June 1979. Accessed: 2009-01-10
• "The Legend of British-Israel" Dimont, C.T. 1933 Accessed: 2009-01-10

See also

• Anglo-Israelism
• Stone of Scone
• Israelis in the United Kingdom
• William Pascoe Goard

External links

• British-Israel-World Federation
• Canadian British-Israel Association
• British-Israel basics
• Article on the subject
• "Imperial British-Israelism: Justification for an Empire", a thesis by Gregory S. Neal, 1987