Ok, I probably won’t get too many comments on this, but it is an interesting topic for me. For some quick background, I previously posted on this topic. I recently purchased a copy of “Quest for the Lost Tribes” by Simcha Jacobovichi. In this documentary, he tries to make a case where he identifies most of the lost tribes, and their possible locations throughout the world. He comes up with some startling conclusions.
What is interesting to me about these lost tribes is the connection to the Book of Mormon. The BOM claims that the Nephites were descendants to the Tribe of Manasseh. So I was interested to see what insights the movie might have on this tribe in particular.
First of all, we often refer to the 12 tribes of Israel, but there’s some discrepancy in numbering them. Jacob (Israel) had 12 sons: Dan, Naphtali, Issachar, Zebulon, Gad, Reuben, Levi, Joseph, Benjamin, Judah, Asher, Simeon. Due to idolatry, sometimes Dan is excluded from this list, and Levi did not receive land, but rather the priesthood, so this tribe is sometimes excluded from the list of the lost tribes. Joseph, as favorite son, gets both of his sons, Ephraim, and Manasseh included.
So, the Jews today are descendants of Judah. Joseph Smith claims that the American Indians are descendants of Manasseh (Joseph), so that explains how two of the tribes are not lost any more. The other 10 (or 12 tribes, depending on how you count them) were scattered by an invasion of the Assyrians in 700 BC. There is little archaeological evidence of these 10 tribes after 500 BC, so little is known about them. But there are prophecies in the Old Testament (Isaiah, Ezekiel) that these lost tribes would return to their promised land.
In the documentary, Jacobovici makes a case that he may have found large groups of people representing these lost tribes. A group in Ethiopia claims to be descendants of Dan. In the 1980’s, the chief rabbi became convinced that these Ethiopians were truly of the tribe of Dan. In the Civil War in 1991, the Israeli government airlifted this group, who practiced many Jewish customs, out of the war zone, and repatriated them in Israel, based specifically on their being a lost tribe of Israel.
1.5 million people, claiming to be descendants from the Tribe of Manasseh (Bnei Manashe) live on the India/Burma border. Many rabbis are becoming convinced that these people may be correct, and many are trying to migrate to Israel. Briefly, here are some others :
- Naphtali – China and Iran
- Zebulon – Bombay, India
- Issachar – Uzbekistan
- Tribes of Gad, Ephraim, Reuben,Simeon – can be found among the Pashtun (Pathans) tribes of Afghanistan
- Asher – Tunisia
Obviously, some of these groups have converted to Christianity, and Islam. They represent various races, and don’t look like the typical image of a Jew. Most of these obscure groups have unknown origins. Many of the groups have maintained some of their old Jewish traditions. For example, the Pashtuns seem to have combined their Islam and Jewish beliefs, some still killing a Passover lamb, even though this is not an Islamic custom, and many of these tribes have Israeli sounding names, even though they are Muslim.
There is not much DNA evidence in this film. However, there is another film, which I will detail in a future post, dealing with the Lemba tribe in South Africa. They claim to be one of the lost tribes of Israel, but make no specific tribal claims. They are kosher, wear Jewish clothing, and a DNA test was done on an Episode of Digging for the Truth, which seems to indicate that they have some semitic DNA. Perhaps they descended from the Ethiopian group, perhaps another way.
While I agree that these claims are highly speculative, there are some interesting claims. The Bnei Manashe (of Burma) are part of the National Geographic Genome Project, and in 2010, we will find out if there claims can be backed up by science that they are truly Semitic people.
What do you make of these claims about the lost tribes becoming found? What are the implications for the Book of Mormon?
Mormon Heretic 
One interesting similarity in malay-jewish language:
The sometimes ago malay calls their religious man : lebai while jewish calls them rabbi (pronounced rabbai).
Or is it just my imagination..:)
Another interesting finding jewish ×× ×•×©×™ (enoshÃ) : malay manusia
1. 23-8-2015 1. Indios = 1. Indian 2. African (Black)
2. Sinos = 1. Chinese 2. Japenese
3. Taiwanese
3. Anglos = 1. English 2. American
3. German 4. French
(White)
4. Hebrew = 1. Israel 2. Middle East
3. Malay (Jew = Jawi = Alif
Ba Tha)
Israel = Ben
Malay = Bin = Son of
Binti = Daugther of
and every one of this LOST TRIBES have to “BEN” their name in the I.D
A friend just lent me a book on this subject. By Yair Davidy The Tribes The israelite origins of western people. .
Narrow neck only as the inroduction . . north south east west . . surrounding seas . .
by NATURE . . SQUARE . . The Pearl of Orient . . RECONSTRUCTED . . NEW . .
Jerusalem . . NEW . . Bethlehem . . COVERED by WHITE CLOUD . . MENTIONED BOTH
IN . . Quran and Bible as Ancient Language . . Modern age in scientific . . haze . . HAZE !!
METROPOLE OF THE UNIVERSE
Founder . . . “” THE FRONT IS LIGHT”” . . . Francis Light
INDEX 1ST
UNKNOWN . . . to the Local of The NEW Bethelehem . . . The Marker . . . The Star . . .
THE 14 POINTED . . . Symbolised Of His EXISTENCE . . . very early in the morning . . .
above the sky of The Pearl Of The Orient . . . Very Bright if clear weather . . . If to view form the mainland that attached to Narrow Neck 5AM TO 7AM . . . only if you have the proper morning . . . and most of The Local Lost Tribes call it “”satellite”” . . . AND . . .
the same 14 POINTED STAR as their NATIONAL FLAG . . . THE SAME . . . 14 POINTED
STAR . . .dont all of you EVER LEARN . . . ALL OF YOU . . . THE LOST TRIBES
. . .and I wont blame them . . . so it shall be written . . . so it shall be done . . .
The Lost Tribes . . UNKNOWN. . .for time being. . .UNKNOWN!!!
*Archipelago * Shalam, hi I am Malay. Here we melayu/malay/bani ta mim/nusantara there was some confusion about our oringin between being one of the lost tribes of Israel and the descent of Keturah(Abraham third wife). Some of us claim that we’re Israelites by Joseph(Manasseh and Ephraim) and some claim we’re descend of madyan(Abraham+Keturah childs). But when Islam arrived here. Muslim claim malays’ raja(sultan) and malays were child of alexander the great. Our tradition also have mix between Islam and Hindu-Buddha (and maybe some jew) althought all of us(malay) were muslim. In ancient malay marriage tradition they do use ‘kaki lilin'(candles feet) or knows as menorah in jew. The word spiritual in malay-Rohani and in hebrew-Rouhani. There’s a lot confusion about our rael origin in our malay archipelago community.
There’s a lot of confusion about our real roots/origins. Our elder also having a skill that connect another world ‘alam ghaib’ (jinn world) and our traditional holy weapon ‘keris’ can stand itself. They also can comunicate with it just like the story of King Solomon in Islam believe. We also believe here in Malay Archipelago there was muslim jinn which wearing Malay traditional costume ‘orang bunian’
None of the Malay elders ever claimed Jewish (bne israeel) ancestry before this GENOME PROJECT crops up in the intenet. Malaysia Malay mainly originate from Indonesia which are concentrated in the middle to southern states of Peninsular Malaysia. The upper part and eastern part of Peninsular Malaysia are mostly a mix of Thais, khemer and viets.
As for the Jewery origin in Malays, I find it hard to see Malays have the physical appearance of middle eastern physical. More over the genome’s DNA tests population which is too small doesn’t represent the Malay race. Yes there are some positive findings from the test sample population but we are yet to determine the test subjects’ direct lineage from ‘Arabs’ commercial traders to conclude how ancient the DNA traits as the genomes’ DNA test hypotsss goes.
You may be correct. Regarding physical characteristics, are you aware that the Lemba Tribe in Africa has Jewish DNA, even though these people are black and look nothing like Jews? See https://mormonheretic.org/2009/05/31/similarities-between-the-lemba-and-lehi/
To local known as Sheikh, Syed or Sayyid for men and Syarifah for women . . . If DNA as the reason . . . And still UNKNOWN to the world because in their I.D only as RACE :- MALAY . . . Because those VVIP Malay DNA belong to Siam/Thailand , Pakistani, Indonesia, Japanese etc . . . In order to secure those VVIP status pride . . . The DNA hidden because of the VVIP EGO . . . but The Truth still THE TRUTH
Other than candle holder look like menorah, malays also have a traditional dance named “menora”.
If the malays are from keturah, then we are not jews, as much as the arabs are. According to quran, jews is defined as descendants of yakob and not upwards. As much as ismail is the brother of isaac, therefor the sons of keturah deserve the same status. Therefor malays can only possibly be distance cousins of jews. Thus the g6pd result might be telling the truth.
[…] some interesting documentaries, one from a Jewish-atheist journalist, Simcha Jacobovich asking Have the Lost 10 Tribes been found? (He thinks the answer is […]
malay ( Lebai ) = jewish ( Levi ), Malay ( Kopiah ) = Jewsih (Koppa ) ,Malay ( Menorah)=jewish (menorah)
dont claim malay is from indonesia, because indonesia also malay origin.filipine, sri langka, cambodia, malaysia, singapore, brunei. madagascar, hawaii.. they all origin of malay.malay dont mean it malaysia, malay is come from the same genes or malay descendent.because indonesia also change his language from melayu to bahasa indonesia. there a history of that.
i ve still shocks right now if correct we not jewish but bani israil group howewer tht just a rumors and 1 more thing yep we dont know who the real descendants of mala but we not claim were we from because we have malaysia now tht all and life long melayu
The whole “Lost Ten Tribes” theory is a furphy, which comes from the time when people assumed that the “historical” books of the Bible were literally true (600,000 Israelite warriors during the Exodus anyone?). It further assumes:
a) That the Assyrians deported the bulk of the population of Israel and the Book of Kings’ description of this is literal;
b) The Yahwism practiced in the Northern Kingdom was theologically coherent and capable of transmission in the same manner as Judaism after the Babylonian Exile; and
c) That the deported Israelites would not have assimilated within a century or so such that they would no longer be identifiable ca. 600 BC, let alone 2024 AD.
Each of these is highly unlikely. The Book of Kings itself indicates that a substantial Israelite population remained in the north such that King Josiah invited them to come south. Moreover, contrary to the Jewish slander contained in the Tanakh, there is little reason to believe that the Samaritans were mainly other Assyrian deportees mixed with a small number of Israelites, but rather were simply the original Israelites who had not undergone the theological developments experienced in Babylon by the Jews. All the genetic evidence suggests that in fact Samaritans have the closest genetic connection with the ancient inhabitants of Canaan. Assyrians are never attested elsewhere in destroying/removing an entire population dispersed over a wide area and the numbers of Israelite captives that the Assyrian records claim were taken are only a few ten-thousands, far too small to leave a significant genetic legacy unless one assumes far higher birthrates for them than the communities in which they were placed, to say nothing of the fact that most of them would have been impoverished and economically desperate, which was not advantageous to successfully raising children.
Assumption B is untenable for anyone who accepts the findings of modern scholarship and is in any case inconsistent with the Bible itself, which portrays Israel as having abandoned monotheism before the exile itself. If the Torah was “lost” in allegedly more pious Judah until Josiah recovered it, how would the more sinful Israelites in exile recover it? This is borne out by how manuscript scholars suggest the Samaritan version of the Torah is dependent upon and derives from the version developed by the post-exilic Jews.
Assumption C is unlikely if one accepts the Book of Kings as having any validity given how readily the Israelites allegedly engaged in worship of Baal etc. Pushing mythology aside, it is a fact that Jews spread widely throughout Persia and further east, but there is no record of them encountering peoples resembling what the Tanakh suggests repentant Israelites should have been like. We know how readily even diaspora Jews in many cases adopted not only the Greek language but even worship of the Greek Gods, while today’s Palestinians are in large part descended from Jews who converted first to Christianity then Islam when it was politically advantageous to do so, so there is no reason to believe that Israelites would have left any identifiable cultural features in the places they settled that are still observable 2500 years later.
The claim that the Burmese are Israelites is just beneath contempt and simply reflects the influence upon their oral beliefs by Christian missionaries (contrary to common opinion stories told by oral cultures can completely transform in a single generation), and the Israelis’ rush to accept them seems like simply arising from a desire for more meat they can grind in future wars.