The Irish Branch of the "Scarlet-Thread"

This is the third in a series on the “Scarlet-Thread”. My former articles were entitled Following The Trail Of the “Scarlet-Thread” and The Roman Branch of the “Scarlet-Thread”. The Scarlet-Thread we are speaking of is found first at Genesis 38:27-30:

“²⁷ And it came to pass in the time of her travail, that, behold, twins were in her womb. ²⁸ And it came to pass, when she travailed, that the one put out his hand: and the midwife took and bound upon his hand a scarlet thread, saying, This came out first. ²⁹ And it came to pass, as he drew back his hand, that, behold, his brother came out: and she said, How hast thou broken forth? this breach be upon thee: therefore his name was called Pharez. ³⁰ And afterward came out his brother, that had the scarlet thread upon his hand: and his name was called Zarah.”

At this point we must ask the question: Why did the midwife use a scarlet thread to identify the firstborn of the twin sons born to Judah by Tamar? This is unusual, inasmuch as Judah previously had three sons by the Canaanite woman, daughter of Shua. Why were not Pharez and Zarah counted as numbers four and five? To comprehend all of this, we need to go to Genesis 49:8-12:

“⁸ Judah, thou art he whom thy brethren shall praise: thy hand shall be in the neck of thine enemies; thy father’s children shall bow down before thee. ⁹ Judah is a lion’s whelp: from the prey, my son, thou art gone up: he stooped down, he couched as a lion, and as an old lion; who shall rouse him up? ¹⁰ The sceptre shall not depart from Judah, nor a lawgiver from between his feet, until Shiloh come; and unto him shall the gathering of the people be. ¹¹ Binding his foal unto the vine, and his ass’s colt unto the choice vine; he washed his garments in wine, and his clothes in the blood of grapes: ¹² His eyes shall be red with wine, and his teeth white with milk.”

In this chapter Jacob foretells the inherent attributes of each of his twelve sons, and the peculiar characteristics their descendants would assume. To Judah fell the attribute of royalty. Evidently Jacob was aware of Judah’s merits of royalty long before this prediction was ever made, as this was long after the twins Pharez and Zarah (Zerah) were born when the midwife bound a scarlet thread of royalty on the hand of Zerah. By-and-large, very few Bible scholars comprehend the importance of the insignia of the scarlet thread, and who it represents today.

As we have already observed, when Jacob gave his dying blessing to his twelve sons he likened each of them to an animal, object or personal characteristic which afterward became the family or tribal emblem. Thus, the lion became the tribal emblem for both of Judah’s sons, Pharez and Zerah. But in addition to the lion, the line of Zerah also acquired the ensign of the scarlet thread, which is still with us today. Sometimes it is displayed as a scarlet thread and at other times as a red hand.

From The Covenant Vision Ministry, P.O. Box 3192, Mount Druitt Village, N.S.W. 2770, Australia, Senior Pastor and Co-Founder, Frank W. Dowsett, J.P., “Heroes Of Faith”, part 10, “Rahab”, we observe in part: “This ‘Red Thread’ has remained a symbol of the Israel people to this very day. We have the scarlet border around the Royal Standard. The British Navy has a strand of red woven into the ropes they use. In the early days, royal mail was tied with a red cord, until now, it is used by the legal profession to bind their legal documents. The use of the expression ‘red tape’ is a very common term, as everyone will recognise.”

Anyone who wishes to know more about the emblems of Zerah-Judah, needs to get a copy of the book Symbols Of Our Celto-Saxon Heritage by W.H. Bennett. He devotes pages 110-124 to this topic where he explains how both the Irish and the Scottish clans have the Scarlet-Thread and the Red-Hand as their official symbols.

With this exposé, it will next be demonstrated why we have a need for knowing more about the British “Scarlet-Thread”. In order to achieve that, it will be necessary to take into consideration the Biblical account of the Pharez branch of Judah. Because it is better known, this account will be abbreviated.

With Jacob’s dying blessings on his sons at Genesis 49, we first become aware that Yahshua Christ would descend from Judah, vv. 8-12. At Ruth 4:18-22 we are informed of the lineage from Pharez to David thusly: “¹⁸ Now these are the generations of Pharez: Pharez begat Hezron, ¹⁹ And Hezron begat Ram, and Ram begat Amminadab, ²⁰ And Amminadab begat Nahshon, and Nahshon begat Salmon, ²¹ And Salmon begat Boaz, and Boaz begat Obed, ²² And Obed begat Jesse, and Jesse begat David.”

It must be briefly pointed out here that Ruth was not a Moabite. Before Ruth’s time the Moabites had been conquered and absorbed by the Amorites. What the serious Bible scholar must understand is that during the Joshua period, the Israelites destroyed the Amorites, who had absorbed the Moabites, killing and/or displacing both of them. Upon driving the Amorites (+ absorbed Moabites) out of the promised land, it is recorded at Joshua 18:7 that half of the tribe of Manasseh, along with the tribes of Gad and Reuben, moved into the former land of Moab, east of the Jordan. It was later, during the Judges period, that an Israelite lady from the conquered land of Moab by the name of Ruth journeyed with her mother-in-law Naomi back to Bethlehem.

From David, the Pharez line of kings that followed were: Solomon, Rehoboam, Abijam, Asa, Jehoshaphat, Jehoram, Ahaziah, Joash, Amaziah, Uzziah (or Azariah), Jotham, Abaz, Hezekiah, Manasseh, Amon, Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiachin, and lastly Zedekiah. With Zedekiah we have a fly-in-the-ointment, for after him there is not a Biblical record that a king from the Pharez branch of Judah ever sat on a throne again! And that Biblical absence of a king from Pharez-Judah covers a period of 2600 years up until our present day. Yet we are told at Psalm 89:35-37 that Yahweh would not lie to David! This passage reads:

“³⁴ My covenant will I not break, nor alter the thing that is gone out of my lips. ³⁵ Once have I sworn by my holiness that I will not lie unto David. ³⁶ His seed shall endure for ever, and his throne as the sun before me. ³⁷ It shall be established for ever as the moon, and as a faithful witness in heaven.”

I don’t know about you, but the last time I checked, the sun and the moon were still shining. When faced with this Biblical evidence, some will argue that when Christ came, He took the throne of David, and now rules from His throne in Heaven. Well that would still leave a 595 year gap without a descendant of David on a throne. So, the Almighty either lied or He didn’t! And as for Christ taking the throne of David at His first coming, Scripture shows otherwise, as stated at John 18:35-36:

“³⁵ Pilate answered, Am I a Judaean? Thine own nation and the chief priests have delivered thee unto me: what hast thou done? ³⁶ Yahshua answered, My kingdom is not of this world: if my kingdom were of this world, then would my servants fight, that I should not be delivered to the [Canaanite]-jews: but now is my kingdom not from hence (meaning from this place).” So if Christ’s kingdom was not in Judaea, where was it?

On another occasion, Yahshua informed the bad-fig-jews at Matt. 21:43: “Therefore say I unto you, The kingdom of Yahweh shall be taken from you, and given to a nation bringing forth the fruits thereof.” To what nation was it given?

We can see from these two passages that had the bad-fig-jews accepted Christ as king, He would have had to refuse such an offer, for His true kingdom was elsewhere. We will now endeavor to find the location of that other nation. Did you ever lose something very valuable and wonder how you would ever find it, and then resolved to recall the last place of having that valuable item in your possession? That’s exactly what we are going to have to do with the lost kingdom of Pharez-Judah. And where was it at the last time we had it in our possession? The answer is: when Zedekiah was still king of Judah. So let’s now start looking for the proverbial needle in the haystack.

During the last days of Zedekiah’s kingship, we find Jerusalem under siege by the Babylonians led by Nebuchadnezzar. At that time, Zedekiah would have been about 32 years old and had the record of being a deceptive leader. Overtaken in the desert plains of Jericho, Zedekiah was taken to Nebuchadnezzar at Riblah, and all of his sons were slaughtered before his eyes. In killing all of Zedekiah’s sons, Nebuchadnezzar falsely assumed he had forever destroyed the Pharez-Judah king line.

When Nebuchadnezzar allowed Zedekiah’s daughters to go free, he was ignorant of the Israel law. Under a decision rendered by Yahweh in the matter of the daughters of Zelophehad, a judgment was incorporated into the Israel Law of Inheritance to provide for the daughters so that they might inherit, as though they were males, when there were no sons. The case of Zelophehad’s daughters was directed to Moses when they appeared before him and demanded an inheritance in the land, for their father died leaving no sons: “And Yahweh spake unto Moses saying, The daughters of Zelophehad speak right: thou shalt surely give them a possession of an inheritance among their father’s brethren; and thou shalt cause the inheritance of their father to pass unto them”, Num. 27:6-7. (Destiny Magazine, May, 1947)

At Ezekiel chapter 17, the story of Zedekiah is retold in allegory. At verse 20, Ezekiel wrote: “And I (Yahweh) will spread my net upon him, and he shall be taken in my snare, and I will bring him to Babylon, and I will plead with him there for his trespass that he hath trespassed against me.” Previously at verse 9, Ezekiel wrote in part: “... and cut off the fruit thereof, that it wither? ...” This is in reference to Nebuchadnezzar killing all of Zedekiah’s sons. Once we understand the allegory, we can see clearly Nebuchadnezzar’s motive.

Then at verses 22-24, Ezekiel wrote in allegory concerning Zedekiah’s daughters as “young twigs”:

“²² Thus saith Yahweh singular-Elohim; I will also take of the highest branch of the high cedar, and will set it; I will crop off from the top of his young twigs a tender one, and will plant it upon an high mountain and eminent: ²³ In the mountain of the height of Israel will I plant it: and it shall bring forth boughs, and bear fruit, and be a goodly cedar: and under it shall dwell all fowl of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell. ²⁴ And all the trees of the field shall know that I Yahweh have brought down the high tree, have exalted the low tree , have dried up the green tree, and have made the dry tree to flourish: I Yahweh have spoken and have done it.”

To understand the allegory of this passage, one must grasp that the “young twigs” and a “tender one” represent the daughters of Zedekiah. Therefore, the daughters of Zedekiah could carry on the king-line of Pharez-Judah. The “high” and “green” tree represent the king-line from David until Zedekiah, and the “low” and “dry” tree represent the Zerah-Judah-Trojan line of kings. In other words, the king-line of Pharez-Judah would be transferred and united with the Zerah-Judah line. And one of Zedekiah’s daughters would be the instrument to bring that about. The important thing to notice here is that it was the end for the David-Solomonic line of Pharez-Judah, except for one exception. Do to king Jaconiah’s curse, the David-Solomonic line continued inactive from Zedekiah on down to Joseph, where Christ inherited it from His custodial father.

It is apparent here that the basis of this whole episode completely revolves around Zedekiah’s daughters. Therefore, it is paramount that we discover the rest of their story! The last recorded Bible passage that speaks of king Zedekiah’s daughters is found at Jeremiah 43:5-7:

“⁵ But Johanan the son of Kareah, and all the captains of the forces, took all the remnant of Judah, that were returned from all nations, whither they had been driven, to dwell in the land of Judah; ⁶ Even men, and women, and children, and the king’s daughters, and every person that Nebuzaradan the captain of the guard had left with Gedaliah the son of Ahikam the son of Shaphan, and Jeremiah the prophet, and Baruch the son of Neriah. ⁷ So they came into the land of Egypt: for they obeyed not the voice of Yahweh: thus came they even to Tahpanhes.”

At this point it may appear to many that Jeremiah never finished his original task which Yahweh commissioned him to complete, for it is not recorded in Scripture, and for good reason. Had the despots of this world, such as Nebuchadnezzar, understood where the royal house of Judah was transferred to, they would have long since destroyed every family member! Jeremiah’s six part commission given him by Yahweh is found at Jer. 1:10 thusly: “See, I have this day set thee over the nations and over the kingdoms, to root out, and to pull down, and to destroy, and to throw down, to build, and to plant.” Scripture records fulfillment of all of this commission except “... to build, and to plant.” Therefore, we have to look elsewhere to find what Jeremiah built planted. The major object which Jeremiah was instrumental in “throwing down” was the male part of the Pharez-Judah king line, but the line would survive through the daughters.

Isaiah prophesied of Jeremiah’s commission “to build, and to plant” at 37:31-32 thusly: “³¹ And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward: ³² For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of mount Zion: the zeal of Yahweh of hosts shall do this.”

One of the daughters of Zedekiah was named Tea Tephi, and Jeremiah had every means at hand to fulfill his mission. Jeremiah was respected by Nebuchadnezzar, yet his own countrymen looked upon him as a traitor. Upon the capture of the city, Jeremiah was given the freedom to go and do as he wished, and as we have observed, Scripture traces him and the king’s daughters to Egypt where they vanish from the Biblical record.

Thus Jeremiah, accompanied by Baruch and the king’s daughters, disappeared from view out of Egypt, right in the sight of their fellow Judaeans. Following Jeremiah’s disappearance from Egypt, there appears in western history a man along with a group of people who answer in every respect to the description of Jeremiah and the remnant he had with him, along with certain other valuable possessions. Evidence from Irish history would fill a volume.

To cite a few recorded facts, we have Tea Tephi (meaning tender twig), a Princess from the East, arriving in Ireland at that time, who was known as the King’s daughter, along with her guardian the prophet, Ollam Folla. With them were the Urim and Thummin breast plate, and the Stone of Destiny, or Lia Fail, which accompanied them to this Isle in the sea. The Harp of David hung in Tara’s Halls, and the evidence also bears out the claim that the Ark of the Covenant accompanied this remnant as well. ...

Upon Jeremiah’s arrival with his ward in Ireland, he soon arranged for Tea Tephi’s marriage to Eochaidh, the Heremonn of the line of Zerah. Thus, the two lines of Pharez and Zerah were forever united in marriage. (Prior 4 ¶s gleaned from Destiny Magazine, May, 1947)

It should now be evident why every serious Bible student should know about the Scarlet-Thread of Zerah-Judah. And to gain such knowledge, it is important that we investigate the story of the Trojan, Brutus. For if the story of Brutus is not true, we are left with a badly flawed Bible with no chance of a remedy. If Brutus’ story is incorrect, our only alternative is to conclude that Yahweh lied to David. What we know about Brutus today comes from a Welsh cleric named Geoffrey of Monmouth who completed a work in Latin which he titled Historia Regum Britanniae, or History of the Kings of Britain, and later about 1205 a parish priest from the west Severn district named Layamon wrote a rhymed chronicle called Brut. Geoffrey was apparently a canon at the secular college of St. George’s until the institution’s demise in 1149. Geoffrey of Monmouth has many critics today that say his story about Brutus simply is not true; that he made it all up in order to gratify his own ego. But as time goes by, more and more of his writings are proving to be correct. That’s not implying that Geoffrey of Monmouth was 100% on everything he wrote, but if we don’t have his history about the Trojan Brutus, we have no hope of reconciling some of the more important passages in the Bible. There were other British historians such as Gildas, Bede, and Nennius whom Geoffrey drew from, but for the story of Brutus, Geoffrey is our primary witness. Geoffrey claimed to have had a very ancient book loaned to him by Walter, Archbishop of Oxford, who was also quite learned in history. Equipped with Walter’s book in hand, Geoffrey was ready to write his history. Because no other copy of that book has ever been found, critics have had a field day condemning Geoffrey’s works. After considering the Biblical, secular historical, and traditional evidence, we should also treat the archaeological aspects. Jer. 16:16 says in part: “Behold, I [Yahweh] will send for many fishers ... I will send for many hunters ...” The fishers were the disciples of Christ and the hunters were the archaeologists who started their work about 1800 A.D.

One of the hunters was Heinrich Schliemann, a German merchant, world traveler, archeologist, and a man of enormous linguistic ability. Schliemann began digging at a large mound at Hissarlik (site of Troy) in 1870 to be joined later by Wilhelm Dörpfeld. Of the many valuable items unearthed at Hissarlik were some terra-cotta whorls (a device used in spinning). Though whorls have been found at other places in the world, these were of special interest. Inscribed on the whorls from Troy were solar swastikas or sun crosses, and containing Sumerian writing hitherto unobserved, thus linking the Trojan inscriptions to cup-markings found in Britain. (“cup-marks” are simply inscriptions on rocks.)

These whorls from Hissarlik kindle interest in the beautiful enameled swastika devices from the late Keltic bronze shields on display in the British Museum in the Thames near Battersea, and point toward Trojan and Eastern derivation which is also observed in British art and craft. These whorl inscriptions from Troy also match markings on early British coins, and are also found on Celtic crosses and monuments. [This information gleaned partly from Prehistoric London pages 83-85, by E.O. Gordon and from several Internet websites.

Judah’s son Zerah (without sons) is mentioned at Gen. 46:12 with Jacob and the seventy going to Egypt, and again at the census of Num. 26:13, 20 as having families, yet at v. 21 no sons of Zerah are mentioned in that sensus (as were Pharez’s sons), for Zerah’s sons had evidently already left the main body of the Israelites not to be mentioned again. These three papers on the Scarlet-Thread has been an effort to identify the descendants of Zerah, and to where they had gone.