Steven M. Collins’ Pretzel Factory #6

With this sixth paper, we continue our critical review of Steven M. Collins’ twisted view/s, that the “JEWS ARE JUDAH”  in his position paper on Internet web site http://www.israelite.info/Christian_Authors/Jews-are-Judahreasons.htm. Steven M. Collins’ mailing address is: P.O. Box 88735, Sioux Falls, SD 57109-1005. Collins is the author of a book entitled The Lost Tribes of Israel ... Found, which I would give only a mediocre rating. By the way, if you haven’t read my paper #’s 1 through 5 you may not entirely comprehend this one.

In my brochures entitled Steven M. Collins’ Pretzel Factory #’s 1 through 5, I completely invalidated all four of his four reasons he presumes “THE JEWS ARE JUDAH.” Time after time after time, Collins manages to create faulty premises to the detriment of his final conclusions, which are also flawed. He swears unequivocally that he gets his evil concepts from Yahweh’s, or as he states it, “God’s Word.” But as I demonstrated in my first five flyers, his deleterious concepts can only be from the pits of Hell! It is blasphemous to suggest otherwise! I have now debunked his 4 reasons of 4, and I’ll continue addressing some of the remainder of his vile, obnoxious, nauseating refuse, which he evidently doesn’t seem to think stinks.

I will now pick up Collins on page 10 of his 17 page position paper where I left off in my brochure entitled Steven M. Collins’ Pretzel Factory, #5.

“The Bible itself records that only a small delegation of Jewish captives returned to Judea under Nehemiah and Ezra while the majority of the tribe of Judah stayed in Asia and Mesopotamia. Even prior to the Parthian empire, the Bible confirms that the Jews had large numbers and influence in Persia’s empire. Esther became Queen of Persia (Esther 2:16-22), and Mordechai was the King’s ‘Prime Minister’ (Esther 8). Esther 3:12 records that the evil Haman tried to instigate a ‘holocaust’ against the Jews, and tricked the king into issuing a decree of destruction against the Jews which was sent to the rulers of all the Persian provinces. When God arranged for Mordechai to replace Haman, the Jews were rescued by a decree of deliverance which was sent to all 127 provinces stretching ‘from India unto Ethiopia’ (Esther 8:9).”

“What is noteworthy about Esther’s account is that it confirms that the Jews were so numerous and dispersed throughout Asia and Mesopotamia that any decree concerning them had to be sent to all 127 Persian provinces! If the Jews had only a scant number of local populations, a few local decrees would have sufficed. Esther 8:17 records that for a time in Persia’s empire, it became quite popular to be Jewish, and that ‘many of the people of the land became Jews.’ When discussing the Judean Jews, it was noted that many Edomites merged with them to become fully-accepted members of the tribe of Judah, according to God’s assimilation decrees in Leviticus 19:33-34 and Ezekiel 47:22-23. The book of Esther records that the Asian Jews also had ‘many’ non-Jews merging with them! God’s assimilation decrees would have applied to this merger as well. While the Judean Jews merged with a very closely-related group (the Semitic/ Hebrew Edomites), many of the Gentiles who merged with the Asian Jews would have been much less closely related racially. However, since ‘the people of the land’ under Persian rule included many people who were relocated members of the ten tribes of Israel, some of those who ‘became Jews’ may have been Israelites of other tribes who readopted religious practices which were practiced by or known to their forefathers in the old kingdom of Israel. Such actions would have merged various Israelite tribal bloodlines with those of the Jews.”

“In the above accounts, we see that the racial make-up of the Judean Jews began to differ over time with that of the Asian Jews, but it is critical to realize that under God’s assimilation laws, both groups of Jews were regarded as true members of the tribe of Judah! Esther 8:17 doesn’t say that the people who merged with the Jews ‘became impostor Jews;’ it declares that they ‘became Jews’ (i.e. members of the tribe of Judah). In this passage, the Bible itself recognizes that the merger of non-Jewish Asians into the tribe of Judah was regarded as completely valid in God’s eyes. This precedent will be important when we discuss the Khazars’ adoption of Jewish customs.”

“The numerous Asian Jews prospered for centuries under Parthian rule. When the Parthian Empire was over-thrown by the Sassanian Persians in 227 A.D., there was a dramatic change of events which affected the Asian Jews. At this point a digression about Parthian history is essential.”

Inasmuch as Collins is determined to use the Book Of Esther to erroneously prove that “assimilation” among Israelites was “permissible”, I’ll use the Book of Susanna to prove that it is not. First for some background on it:

WE NEED ALL THE STORY OF DANIEL: There is evidence that the book History Of Susanna found in the Apocrypha should be placed at the beginning of Daniel, and that the Daniel mentioned there is the same Daniel as in our present Bibles. As Daniel was quite young in the History of Susanna, it could only be placed at the beginning.

To demonstrate how all this fits together, I will quote first from The Interpreter’s Dictionary of the Bible, volume R-Z, page 467: “SUSANNA ... [Σωσάννα]. An addition to the book of Daniel wherein the prophet displays his wisdom. The story is so well written, with so few characters and such impressive issues, that it is widely regarded as one of literature’s great pieces, as the ‘first detective story.’

“Susanna was accused of adultery by two elders whose advances she had repulsed. She maintained her innocence, but when put to trial before the community on their testimony, she was about to be found guilty. Daniel shouted for true justice and was permitted to cross-examine the elders. He asked each elder separately under what tree the sin had been committed. The elders named different trees, thus contradicting each other. Susanna was then acquitted, and the elders were executed in accordance with the biblical law: ‘Then you shall do to him as he had meant to do to his brother’ (Deut. 19:18-21) ...

“The story of the trial indicates the value of cross-examination of witnesses. As narrated, the story is in direct contradiction to the Pharisaic practice and law that false witnesses can be put to death only on the basis of an alibi – i.e., other witnesses show that the first pair of witnesses were with them at the time of the committal of the crime; they were not at the scene of the crime and therefore have given false testimony. Thus the book of Susanna depicts only a contradiction of ‘witnesses in fact’ and not in ‘matter of time.’ Because of this contradiction to Pharisaic accepted law, the book was not included in the [Jewish] canon [at Jamnia, 100 A.D.]”

For a description of the content of the History Of Susanna as found in the Apocrypha, I will use The Zondervan Pictorial Encyclopedia of the Bible, volume Q-Z, page 546: “The narrative tells of Susanna, a pious woman of great beauty who lived with her wealthy husband Joakim in Babylon. Adjacent to his house Joakim had a large garden in which Susanna loved to stroll at midday when the elders (judges) and litigants, who were in the practice of conducting their business in Joakim’s house, had departed. Two of these elders, however, had for some time been secretly inflamed with desire for Susanna, and one sultry day individually stole back to the garden where, having surprised each other, they were forced to confess their mutual designs on Susanna. After she had sent away her servants in preparation to bathe, the elders confronted her with the alternative of either submitting to their desires or being exposed as having been caught with a young man. Susanna chose to be unjustly accused ‘rather than to sin in the sight of the Lord.’ At the trial on the following day the men gave their false testimony. But as Susanna was being led away to her execution, the young Daniel was moved by the Lord (in answer to Susanna’s prayer) to protest the precipitate action. At their invitation, Daniel sat with the judges in a renewed examination of the evidence. He shrewdly examined the men separately, inquiring under which tree in the garden Susanna and her alleged lover were seen. The contradictory answers to this question exposed the treachery of the two elders who in turn received the punishment which was to have been Susanna’s. The innocence of Susanna had been vindicated and the narrative concludes with the statement that from thence onward Daniel’s reputation among the people was established.”

While this summary is quite excellent, it leaves out the identification of the two men, which is of the utmost importance to the story. That is found in verses 56-57: “56 So he [Daniel] put him aside, and commanded to bring the other, and said unto him, O thou seed of Chanaan, and not of Juda, beauty hath deceived thee, and lust hath perverted thine heart. 57 Thus have ye dealt with the daughters of Israel, and they for fear companied with you: but the daughters of Juda would not abide your wickedness.”

You can see from this that Daniel understood the difference between a Judahite and a Canaanite trying to pass himself off as a member of the Tribe of Judah, of which Collins falsely claims there isn’t any! Either Daniel is a liar or Collins is a liar!

This is identical to what those impostors today are doing over in Palestine calling themselves “Israelis”, but who are really Canaanites. And people like Collins and company are aiding and abetting them in their misdirected effort. Most detrimental of all, they are using Daniel’s prophecy out of context to support those Canaanite variety of “Jews.” Today, we should be as wise as Daniel and have the intuitiveness to recognize that difference also.

Let’s repeat what Daniel told those impostors: “O thou seed of Chanaan, and not of Juda.” No wonder the “Jews” had the History Of Susanna taken out of the Scripture at Jamnia. If you will go back and reread these verses, you will notice that it wasn’t the first time a Canaanite had attempted to seduce an Israelite or Judahite lady. It’s Genesis 3 all over again; and again and again and again. Notice how Daniel exposes how they use the element of fear to get what they want (“for fear of the Jews”, John 7:13; 19:38; John 20:19.). It is apparent that if the History Of Susanna was still the first part of Daniel in our Bible, today we would have a better idea about what the Canaanite variety of “Jew” is all about (that is, a Canaanite claiming he is of the Tribe of Judah).

So what do we have today? We have a whole bunch of people going around all over the country claiming the Canaanites are “God’s chosen people”, Collins without exception! Actually, Collins is advocating “assimilation” with those whom the Israelites were to exterminate! Collins went so far as to assert that even some of Judah’s brother tribes became “Jews”, when he said:

“However, since ‘the people of the land’ under Persian rule included many people who were relocated members of the ten tribes of Israel, some of those who ‘became Jews’ may have been Israelites of other tribes who readopted religious practices which were practiced by or known to their forefathers in the old kingdom of Israel. Such actions would have merged various Israelite tribal bloodlines with those of the Jews.”

This is just plain stupid because Judah is the royal tribe. Since Collins likes to quote Genesis 49 out of context, how is he going to reconcile making a member of another tribe a king? That’s making Jacob, under inspiration of the Holy Spirit, a liar! Jacob is not the liar; rather the liar is Collins! If one listens to Collins very long, anyone can become of the Tribe of Judah, therefore anyone could become a king in Israel, whatever his race! How insane! I will repeat here again what Collins said as I quoted him in this brochure:

“In the above accounts, we see that the racial make-up of the Judean Jews began to differ over time with that of the Asian Jews, but it is critical to realize that under God’s assimilation laws, both groups of Jews were regarded as true members of the tribe of Judah!”

According to Collins, any old mamzer (bastard) can claim to be of Judah. I assure you, Collins does not speak for “God.” Maybe his god, but not Yahweh! I will now continue quoting Collins’ distasteful diatribe”

“The Semitic Parthian Empire:

“The Parthian Empire had, for a considerable period of time prior to its fall, become openly Semitic in nature. Judaism was already well-established in Parthia, and Christianity became widespread in the Apostolic times. There are records that many of the apostles (Thomas, Andrew, Bartholomew, Philip, and Matthew) evangelized in the various provinces of Parthia. [15] Even the Bible records that the Apostle Peter wrote one of his epistles from Babylon (I Peter 5:13), which was then a major City in Parthia’s empire.”

“Consider again the visit of the Magi (or ‘Wise Men’) to the young Jesus Christ. Few are aware that the Magi were Parthian nobles and priests who elected Parthian emperors, and that ‘Wise Men’ was their formal title as Parthian ‘Senators.’ [16] The Bible does not say only three Magi visited Jesus, and this author believes they numbered at least twelve (one for each of the tribes of Israel who then lived in the Parthian Empire). Matthew 2:3 records that King Herod and ‘all Jerusalem’ were ‘troubled’ (The Phillips New Testament renders it ‘deeply perturbed’) when the Magi’s caravan arrived at the city. Three weary riders on dusty camels would not have alarmed an entire city or caused an urgent warning about their arrival to come to King Herod. However, twelve Parthian priests and nobles from Parthia’s king-making Senate would have been urgent news, indeed! Accompanying the Parthian nobility would have been a huge number of armed escorts, bakers, attendants, servants and camp-followers.”

If Collins does no better commenting about the Wise Men than he has on other matters, we could care less what he personally thinks. Why wouldn’t it have been three Wise Men? Remember, the Wise Men had three gifts: gold, frankincense, myrrh. If we are to believe Collins, that there were twelve Wise Men, nine of them came empty-handed to celebrate the most glorious birth of Christ. If that is the case, the Wise Men weren’t very wise, were they?! That would be like being invited to a wedding and not taking the newlyweds a gift. This is probably something else he has dreamed up, pulling it out of thin air, and demanding (like a god) for everyone else to believe it! Why does he even speak on such a thing unless he has documentation? It is obvious, much of which he speaks about Parthia he simply imagines. I would rather refer to Josephus on Parthia, for Josephus mentions Parthia 22 times. Back now to Collins’ harangue:

“Parthia and Rome had fought over Palestine a few decades previous to this time (Parthia had evicted the Romans from Palestine for a [sic.] several years!), and the arrival of a large body of Parthian soldiers in Jerusalem was technically a violation of the Roman-Parthian treaty that neither side would send an army across the Euphrates River (the border between the empires). The full story of this visit is detailed in chapter 9 of my book The ‘Lost’ Ten Tribes of Israel ... Found!).”

I have checked chapter 9 of Collins book which he mentions here. As long as Collins can give good solid documentation for what he says, fine. But Collins seizes undue liberty by saying “it is likely” or “it probably was” or “they doubtless asked” something of that sort as if it were literally true, and that no one should question his supposition. This whole position paper of Collins demonstrates how he takes liberties far beyond anything reasonable.

It makes me wonder if Collins may be of the Tribe of Reuben, for he surely is “unstable as water”, or as some might say, “like a loose cannon”! I find in many places he will say one thing and later contradict himself. An example of this is in chapter 9 where he conjectures without documentation that the Wise Men were escorted by thousands of soldiers, and then at page 272 says: “History records that Roman-Parthian relations were peaceful at the time that Jesus was born. The Bible confirms this was the case as the Parthian Magi did not sneak into Roman territory to look for the Messiah, but rather came directly to King Herod, quite open about their reasons for being in Roman-occupied Palestine ...”

If that’s the case, why all the large company of soldiers? One can be quite certain, that had a large contingent of soldiers been in the area accompanying the Wise Men, Herod with his scouts would have been right there to meet them before they arrived at Jerusalem! Herod was not that stupid! If the “star” was an angel as Collins suggests (which makes sense), the Wise Men would have had no need for an army escort!

In chapter 9, page 292 Collins says this: “In Matthew 10:6 and 15:24, Jesus referred to the ‘lost sheep’ of the House of Israel (the ten tribes of Israel). In Mark 6:34, Jesus regarded the multitudes who followed him as ‘sheep,’ and most of those multitudes would have been Jews of Judea. Since sheep dwell in ‘folds,’ what was meant by Jesus’ imagery of John 10:16 that he had ‘sheep’ in more than one ‘fold?’ Jesus refers to Judea (the land of the Jews) as ‘this fold’.” ...

Inappropriately, Collins overlooks what Christ Himself said at John 10:26-27: “But ye believe not, because ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you. My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.”

So it is apparent not all who lived in Judaea during Christ’s lifetime were of Christ’s “fold.” Collins, in his ignorance, is trying to bring the wolves in among the sheep. This can only be an antichrist position. Yahshua said: “... he that gathereth not with me scattereth ...” (Matthew 12:30; Luke 11:23). By Yahshua’s statement here, He makes Collins an irresponsible liar! 

Clifton A. Emahiser’s Teaching Ministries