Merits & Shortcomings of British-Israel, Part #13

This is the 13th critical review of the beliefs known collectively as British-Israel, and as with the first twelve, we will address statements which W.H. Poole made in his book entitled Anglo-Israel Or, The British Nation: The Lost Tribes Of Israel (hereinafter A-I/BN). The purpose of this series is to support this belief system where it is correct and to give constructive criticism where it is in error. With this paper we will explore more of the topics which Poole addresses and we’ll evaluate whether the premises are valid or flawed. We will start this session by quoting Poole on page 54; a continuation on the topic of “Language” where we left off in part #12 of this series:

“LANGUAGE. [continued]

“Professor E.W. Bird says, ‘In regard to the assumption that the Anglo-Saxon is Aryan, and one with the Germanic, Teutonic and Latin family of tongues, we deny that the evidence is conclusive of the facts assumed. We assert, on the contrary, that the Anglo-Saxon, in grammatic [sic, -al] structure and idiomatic texture, differs materially from the so-called cognate German, or Aryan languages. The truth rather seems to be that English is a Shemitic tongue, which has long been in contact with Aryan tongues, and has thereby suffered a large transfusion of verbal roots and dialectic forms. It exhibits just such a transformation as one would expect Hebrew would have sustained by subjection to the domination of the Aryan tongues, during a period of more than thirteen centuries. The Saxons, if Hebrews, were, during that long period, migrating slowly westward across the Aryan territories of Europe from their Shemitic centre; and their language, while it tenaciously retains its Hebrew grammatic [sic. -al] and idiomatic structure, besides a really large number of Hebrew roots, has adopted, as it was sure to do, the very considerable amount of Aryan verbal roots and dialectic forms we know to exist in it. This we believe to be the true theory of the affinity of the Anglo-Saxon with the Teutonic, or Germanic language, erroneously assumed to be its foundation. Such affinity of language as exists is proof of contact not of affinity of race’.”

My critique: I’m not sure here whether or not Poole is attempting to exclude the Germans as Israel by language, but on page 52 he seems to include the Teutons. Back to Poole:

“Ptolemy’s map of Ireland, there are several names of places given in the old Hebrew form. On the spot, where, on our maps we have Carrickfergus, he had Dan-sobarce, Dan’s refuge, or resting-place, and there stands the ruins of a fortress of immense strength. The name Tara is a pure Hebrew name, which means the Two Tables. The grave of Tephi, the Hebrew princess, is not called a grave in the acceptation of the usual word, as was Sarah’s, which is called Kavar, but it is called Mergech, the repository, or receptacle. In the ‘Early Irish Antiquities Archaeological, vol. vii,’ Governor Pownall says, ‘My surprise was great when I found in Buxtorf that ‘Fodhan Morain’ was the Chaldee name for Urim and Thummim. Not satisfied with Buxtorf, I wrote to the learned Rabbi Heideck, now in London, his answer was satisfactory, and contained a dozen quotations from various Talmud commentaries. In short my friend the Rabbi will have it, that none but Jews or Chaldees could have brought the name or the thing to Ireland.’ The name Jodhan Morain occurs very often in the early Irish literature. How came all this Hebrew to find its way into our language?”

William Finck’s critique: “The names Poole uses from Ptolemy’s Geography are highly uncertain, since there are many medieval interpolations to the manuscript. It is apparent that Ptolemy uses Greco-Roman names everywhere in his original work, and no others. The Irish names may very well be Hebrew, but they are not Ptolemy’s!”

My critique: Here is another case where British-Israel consulted a Canaanite-jew, but in this instance, the rabbi may have been correct. I would also like to state, while I have been very critical of Poole and British-Israel in the first 12 parts of this series, with this part #13, we will dwell on an important topic to their merit, and I would rate its accuracy about 95%. I will now repeat a portion that I cited of Poole’s book in part 2 of this series, which is found on pages 55-56:

“JEREMIAH.

“Did you ever notice what a wonderful man the Prophet Jeremiah was? How much more fully God revealed Himself to him than to the other prophets, and how clearly he saw and wrote of the movements of divine providence to his people and to the nations! The Rev. Dr. Potter says, ‘Everybody knew that the whole political history of every nation of the world was admitted to be written in the book of Daniel.’ And yet when Daniel desired to look into the future he became a student of the books of Jeremiah, and from him the great Prime Minister of Chaldea learned of the times and seasons that were drawing near, Daniel, ix, 2. The prophet Jeremiah was specially intrusted by the Lord with a royal commission to take the daughters of king Zedekiah in charge, with the king’s household. The king’s sons had been killed, and his own eyes put out. There was a small remnant left. By an act of disobedience, the royal household was taken away to Egypt, Jeremiah xliii, 6, ‘So they came into the land of Egypt,’ but they were commanded to leave immediately, ‘For I will punish them that dwell in the land of Egypt.’ They were commanded to go to the north and west to Tarshish, Isaiah lxvi, 19:

“‘And I will set a sign among them, and I will send those that escape of them unto the nations, to Tarshish, Pul, and Lud, that draw the bow, to Tubal, and Javan, to the isles afar off, that have not heard my fame, neither have seen my glory; and they shall declare my glory among the Gentiles.’

“‘To Tarshish and to the Isles afar off!’

“Why send them to Tarshish and to the western Isles afar off? The Royal commission given to Jeremiah will answer the question.”

“A NEW NATION.

“In Jeremiah i, 10:

“‘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.’

“i.e. nations.

“Trees are God’s symbols of nations and kingdoms. If a new nation is to be called into existence it is spoken of as a tree to be planted, or, if a nation is to be destroyed, he speaks of it as a tree to be cut down, or plucked up, thus Nebuchadnezzar in his dream saw a tree, Daniel iv, 10-11:

“‘Thus were the visions of mine head in my bed; I saw, and behold a tree in the midst of the earth, and the height thereof was great. The tree grew, and the height thereof reached unto heaven, and the sight thereof to the end of all the earth.’

“And Daniel went to him and interpreted the dream:

“‘20 The tree that thou sawest, which grew, and was strong, whose height reached unto the heaven, and the sight thereof to all the earth. Whose leaves were fair, and the fruit thereof much, and in it was meat for all; under which the beasts of the field dwelt, and upon whose branches the fowls of the heaven had their habitation. It is thou, O king, that art grown and become strong: for thy greatness is grown, and reacheth unto heaven, and thy dominion to the end of the earth.’

“The Assyrian Empire, too, was spoken of under the same figure. Ezek. xxxi, 3:–

“‘Behold, the Assyrian was a cedar in Lebanon with fair branches, and with a shadowing shroud, and of an high stature; and his top was among the thick boughs. The waters made him great, the deep set him up on high with her rivers running round about his plants, and sent out her little rivers unto all the trees of the field. Therefore his height was exalted above all the trees of the field, and his boughs were multiplied, and his branches became long because of the multitude of waters, when he shot forth. All the fowls of heaven made their nests in his boughs, and under his branches did all the beasts of the field bring forth their young, and under his shadow dwelt all great nations. Thus was he fair in his greatness, in the length of his branches: for his root was by great waters. The cedars in the garden of God could not hide him: the fir trees were not like his boughs, and the chesnut trees were not like his branches; nor any tree in the garden of God was like unto him in his beauty. I have made him fair by the multitude of his branches: so that all the trees of Eden, that were in the garden of God, envied him.’

“What a fine description of a great nation!

“Egypt, too, was spoken of in the same way, as a tree, thus:

“‘18 To whom art thou thus like in glory and in greatness among the trees of Eden? yet shalt thou be brought down with the trees of Eden unto the nether parts of the earth.’

“And the interpreter said [same verse]:

“‘This is Pharaoh and all his multitude, saith the Lord GOD.’

“Now when the Lord speaks of his own people Israel, he uses the same figure, Jeremiah xlv, 4, ‘that which I have planted will I pluck up, even this whole land, and that which I have built will I break down.’ And he says Isaiah xxxvii, 31 :–

“‘And the remnant that is escaped of the house of Judah shall again take root downward, and bear fruit upward. For out of Jerusalem shall go forth a remnant, and they that escape out of Mount Zion: the zeal of the Lord of hosts shall do this.’

“The remnant is not to be destroyed, it shall grow again and be a fruit-bearing kingdom. There is to be a nation transplanted to a new soil, for thus saith the Lord, Ezekiel xvii, 22:–

“‘Thus saith the Lord GOD; 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. 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. And all the trees of the field shall know that I the Lord 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 the Lord have spoken and have done it.’

“Nimrod had planted a tree (Babylon) and it had been cut down. Ashur [sic Asshur] had planted a tree (Assyria) and it had been plucked up by the roots. Mizraim had planted a beautiful tree in a good soil (Egypt) but it had withered away. Now the Lord says, ‘I will plant a tree (Great Britain) and you Jeremiah, are to be my deputy in this thing, I have this day appointed thee ... to plant a nation.’

“Dr, Adam Clark says, ‘This branch is another Monarchy which shall come up in the line of David,’ – this high cedar is the royal family of the tribe of Judah, the highest branch is David’s family, and the tender one is a daughter of king Zedekiah.

“If a new kingdom is to be planted, it is reasonable to ask, where? Not in the East, for the Babylonian and Medo-Persian empires are crumbling to the dust. Not in the South in Egypt, or in Ethiopia; for they are doomed to destruction, and the armies are mustering to lay low the pride of Egypt.

“Where is this plant of the Lord to be set? Where is his tree to be made to grow? Will the prophetic harp be tuned to tell of Babylon and Persia, and Media, and Assyria, and Greece, and Rome, and Egypt, and Rosha; and not one single strain foreshadow where this new empire is to be founded? These people are to be lost for long years, and to disappear from among the nations for a time; trees must have time to take root, and to grow. If the Egyptians had known the future of Joseph, they would have strangled him.

“‘God moves in a mysterious way

His wonders to perform.’

“So he plants his tree in the Isles of the west, in the Isles of Tarshish, and in the farthest off one, because most secure from the eagles of imperial Rome. There was a large and prosperous colony of Hebrews over there already; they had been there preparing the way of the Lord for several centuries; they had secured already immense treasures invested in arts and commerce; there is already great commercial enterprise in the ‘Tuatha de danan,’ the tribe of Dan. The merchant princes have found a home there, and are prepared to give a right royal welcome to the ‘tender branch’; the Lord had said, this tender branch, this tree of the Lord is ‘to be planted on a high mountain, in a land of traffic, a fruitful field by the rivers of waters, in a city of merchants,’ the name of the place is not given, but you can see the Emerald Isle in the picture.

“How long Jeremiah and the king’s daughters, and Baruch and their attendants, or household, remained in Egypt, I don’t know. It is certain that they were there. How long they were in Spain, I don’t know. There was a large colony of their people there, how long they remained there we may not know, but we do know that just seven years after they left Mount Zion, we find them landing on the Irish coast. It is more than probable that some monument, or slab, or marble will be found to fill up this missing link of seven years.

“I might quote from the Psalter of Cashel, the annals of Tigernac, and of the four masters, and from the Welsh triads, from very ancient poems, and monumental inscriptions to prove the arrival of large companies of the descendants of the chosen people, and of their arrival at different times, bearing evidence in their language and institutions of a Hebrew origin, but I must not in this paper indulge to any extent, more than a mere synopsis of what history informs us accompanied the prophet and his royal charge B.C. 580 or 581. They came under the direction of the ship owners of Dan.”

“A REVEALER.

“There was a revealer, or prophet, one divinely commissioned called Ollam-Fodla, a teacher from God; with him, as a scribe, Simon Baruch, Isaiah [sic Jeremiah] lv, 1, also the daughters of Zedekiah, and their household and attendants. They introduced many new things into Ireland. The tables of the law, the Mur-olla-main, or school of the prophets; a system of civil jurisprudence with a chief priest, or head, and he was called Jodhan-Morain, a name found in Jeremiah xxiii, 40, and Isaiah xi, 3.”

My interruption: I find no such name at Jer. 23:40 or Isa. 11:3, but from the Internet, I found one site that referred to the term “Jodhan Morain”. This may have some connection to the word “judge”, Strong’s #H-8199 of Isa. 11:3. See end of this article for an explanation. Back to Poole:

“They appointed a Rectaire, a Hebrew word for judge. They brought with them the Liah-fail, or coronation stone, which stone is now in Westminster Abbey, upon which all the kings and queens of Great Britain, for 2,300 years, have been crowned. They brought the harp and other musical instruments, and the grand old melodies, which to this day ‘dissolve us into ecstacies,’ or as Milton says, ‘Might create a soul under the ribs of death.’ They introduced a curriculum for the ‘ollams’ requiring them to complete a course in the school of classics, the school of law, and the school of philosophy and poetry. It required twelve years study to graduate in those schools. A literary title in those days meant work. However, when the man won his honours they made ample provision for his necessities. ‘An Ollam was allowed a standing income of (20) twenty cows, and their keep on the chieftain’s farm, besides plenty of refections [sic] for himself, his wife and family, with their attendants to the number of twenty-four.’ He was also entitled by law to have two hounds and six horses. He was free from arrest and his wife also.

“Ireland was then divided into five provinces; Meath being the fifth. Each province elected their chief warrior, and the five, so chosen, elected an Eirmon, or Here-mon, or king, whom they crowned as commander of all the army.

“THE KING, 580 B.C.

“This crowned horseman, or king of Ulster was dressed in royal robes, was tall and slender of form, of broad forehead, sparkling blue laughing eyes, thin red lips, pearly shining teeth; on his person was a shirt of white kingly linen, called ‘byssus,’ [Finck: ‘bussos, or ‘byssos’, is actually a Greek word which came from the Hebrew.’] with golden clasps for buttons. A red and white cloak fluttered about him fastened in front with a clasp of gold, and gold fastenings on his shoulder. A gold-handled sword, a white shield, a long, sharp spear, with a white shield, a long, sharp, dark green spear, also a short, sharp spear, with a rich carved silver handle. Fergus said of him, ‘Such a man is of himself half a battle.’

“There was with him a lad, asecretary, with a crimson cloak, a shirt of kingly linen, with gold fastenings, a white shield with hooks of gold, and golden rim. A small sword at his side, a light, short, sharp, shining spear on his shoulder. ‘Who is he, dear Fergus,’ said Ailill, ‘I don't remember,’ said Fergus, ‘leaving any such persons as these in Ulster when I left it. I believe they are the young princes of Tara lately come from the East.’

“Echoid was the king’s name, and it was not good for a man to be alone, especially a popular Irishman. He was a bachelor.

“TARA.

“Matches they say are made in heaven, some of them a long way on this side, I fear.

“To see the ‘tender branch’ was to love her, for she was of all virgins, the most beautiful. Tephi was her name, a pure Hebrew name, a pet name, like our Emma, or Rosamond, denoting fragrance and beauty. The king, or chief, made proposals to her, for a manly man was he. She consulted her guardian, as in duty bound; the prophet consented to the union on three conditions:

“1. The worship of Baal must be renounced and the worship of the true God established.

“2. The nation must accept the moral law as contained in the two tables.

“3. He must provide a school for the Ollams.

“What young nobleman, tired of Bel and the Dragon, his whole nature insulted by the huge falsehoods in Baal-worship, would refuse such an offer? The law of God soon took the place of the law of Baal.

“The school is erected, a pure form of worship established, the prophet blesses the nuptials, and Tephi becomes the beautiful representative of the royal house of David.

“The name of ‘Lothair Groffin,’ a castle in Meath, is changed to that of Tara, and thus we see the tender branch planted on a high mountain, and eminent in a land of traffic, by the great waters, in a city of merchants, as was promised. We are informed by very competent judges, that a large number of Hebrew words are found in the literature of Ireland of those early times, brought there, when the royal household was transplanted from Zion to Tara. [Finck: ‘The island had been populated by Hebrews long before the events described here!’]

Promised data: I found the following at:

https://ensignmessage.com/articles/druidism-and-its-relation-to-christianity/

“This article, called also Jodhan Morain, is supposed to have been worn on the neck of the judge when on the bench, and it was believed it would choke him if he gave unjust judgment. Some authorities say that it was called Morain from a great judge of that name, who formerly flourished in Ireland. ‘My surprise,’ says Governor Pownall (Early Irish Antiquities, Archaeologia, vol 7), ‘was great when I found in Buxtorf, that Jodhan Morain was the Chaldee name for Urim and Thummim. Not satisfied with Buxtorf, I wrote to the learned Rabbi Heideck, now in London; his answer was satisfactory, and contained a dozen quotations from various commentators.” [From England, Their Place and Work Among the Nations 1889.]

The website where this information can be found is evidently sponsored by The Ensign Message, the mouthpiece in London, England for British-Israel. I do, though, favor the idea that the Druids were formerly Hebrew priests.