The Weekly Kansas chief. [volume] (Troy, Kan.) 1872-1918, 1880-11-25
NEWS OF THE LoNG-LosT TRIBES.
The Report that n Portion Of the Ten Tribes
has Been Found.

Prof. Sachau, who has lately returned from
the East, brings news of a discovery that can
not fail TO prove interesting to all Bible students
In H. Kings, xvii, Z, we read that ''the King of
Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away
into Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in
HabOr by the river of GOZan, and in the cities of
the Medes." In the 18th chapter and llth verse
this is repeated. From the context in both pla-
ces, one gathers that Shalmaneser carried the
israelites away; although he did in reality die
during the three years of the siege, which was
brought to n successful conclusion by his sue
cess0r, Sargon, in 20. In |. Chronicles, ", 26,
the deportation of the lsraelites is ascribed to
Pul and to Tiglath-Pilneser-both, probably,
names for the same person, the predecessor of
Shalmaneser. The Reubenites the Gadites, and
the half tribe of Manasseh are mentioned as
those whom he depOrted, and Hara is added TO
the places mentioned i'll Kings. Ii may be well
to recall, in passing, that Tiglath- Pilneser ac-
tually did wrest the trans-JOr,lanic territory
from the King of Israel. In the apochryphal
Book of Tobit find the Israelites spoken of
rs dwelling in the cities of the Medes and a
city, RACES, is mentioned, place in the neigh
borhood of the modern Teheran, south of the
Caspian Sea. Shortly after, or about the time
of the capture of Samaria, Sargon conducted
some campaigns in Babylonia and Elan, on the
Persian Gulf, and from these regions he brought
inhabitants to supply the vacancy caused by
the deportation of the lsraelites.
Haah portion Of the city of Nineveh,
at the time of Sargon's accession been somewhat
depopulated by civil strife. The cities of the
Modes were southeast of the sea of Urma, and
south of the Caspian. But where was ''Haber,
river of Gozan ~ Both names appear twice.
Habnr appears at a tributary of the Euphrates
and Gozan part of the Mesopotamia. For a
long time this was supposed to he the region
meant. There had, however, been no wars or
disturbances of any sort to cause the depopula-
ton of this part of NesOpotamia, and it is diff
Il
for them there. Further, to settle them in a
place from which they could readily return to
their home, would have been contrary to the As
syrian policy. There was also a scarcely known
Habor and Gozan in the neighborhood of the sea
of Urma, and there Is yet valley of HabOr
west of that sea. The expeditions of Tiglath-
Pilneser and Shalmaneser against Media, against
Namri, about the Sea of Urma, and against
land that is unknown. because the inscription is
defective, but which lay apparently in the same
north-easterly direction from Nineveh, would
have made room for the importation of people
from Samaria and We tind in point of fact. "the
cities of the Medes,' mentioned as place into
which the Israalites were settled. This locality
would have been far enough removed from Sa-
maria to preclude the possibility of return. Ii
satisfies, further, the close connection in the BIZ
BILE narrative between Gozan and Media.
West of the Sea Of UrTnia, among the mount
aims, dwells the small remnant that still speaks
Arampan. While travelling in this region Prof
After some difficulty, he succeeded in visiting
them. He found people speaking the Turkish
tongue, but retaining the Jewish religion. They
had a tradition that they belonged to the ten
tribes of Israel, and that they had been brought
thither by the Assyrians. There seems no rea-
son to doubt the truth of their tradition. The
lSraelites in Nineveh and in the cities of the
Modes naturally We're lost in the population
about them; bat these Israelites, isolated
among the mountain valleys would lust as nat
y hay ed heir ba
way that the AramRans have preserved their
language. Hebrews they certainly are. They
could not have come out of Babylon, unless a
body of commercial Jews suffered an impossible
metamorphoSis into agricultural Israelites. In
less you derive them from the six tribes of Is
rael, they remain unexplained.
Ii is a pity that Prof Sachau, not being an
Old Testament scholar, did not interest himself
as 10 the Hebrew text they use, nor as TO any di-
vergcncy of rites or ceremonies from those now
i'll use among the Jews. 1t is, of course, prOba-
Bile that they came under the influence of the
ubiquitous mercantile jews accepted their texts,
and were rabbinized; but il is. nevertheless pos
sible that a search among them might be richly
rewarded.
1t is interesting to trace the fate of the differ
ent tribes. part of Simeon was absorbed in
Judah. part, we learn from |. Chronicles,
w., ~, migrated TO Mount SER, and ultimately
were lost among the Arabs. The Rechabites
seem TO have taken the same direction, namely,
toward Arabia. Reuben appears to have lost
itself in Moab. Cad and the half tribe of Man
asseh were absorbed in other peoples. Of Eph-
rain, probably lssachar. and the other half of
Manasseh, the well-to-do people, were deported
by Sargon; the poorer classes, with settlers
from Babylonia and Elan, formed the Samari-
| tans, hated by the Jews, Asher Naphtali,
Zebulon, and the greater part of Dan, far as
they were not lost in the neighboring Phenician
and Aramaic population, formed, with some adj
mixture from the jews proper. the despised Gal
ileans Judah, Levi, Benjamin. part of Sim
con, and Part of Dan, with stray families from
other tribes, are the modern jews.
Among the Jews of Habor, some of the Jew
ish tribes of Arabia, il is not impossible that
valuable discoveries may yet be made.-IRde-
DeBdeEL