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The House of Israel

Lehem and King Josiah was
a descendant of David, who
came from Beth Lehem. "The
Parallels Between Scythians remnant of his brethren" returning unto the
and Israelites Children of Israelis is spoken of (v.2-3) and
refers to the partial (and temporary -- then)
re-settlement of Israelite Scythians in the for-
Talmudic sources and connected commentar- mer land of northern Israel. The important
ies state that King Josiah ben Amon of Judah verses, for our consideration, are verses 5-8:
sent Jeremiah the prophet to bring back the
Lost Ten Tribes and that SOME FEW OF
THEM DID IN FACT RETURN TEMPO- "And this man shall be the peace, when the
Assyrian shall come into our land: and he [i.e.
RARILY and that they after left and returned to Assyria] shall tread in our palaces, then shall
their places of exile. A religious reformer we raise against him [i.e. against Assyria]
known as Zoroaster had appeared in Scythian
areas in the time of Jeremiah. The message of seven shepherds, and eight principal men."
Zoroaster was originally Hebraic but after his "And they shall waste the land of Assyria with
death the Iranian Magi paganized it.
the sword, and the land of Nimrud in the en-
trances thereof...."
Tradition held that Zoroaster had been taught
by Jeremiah. During the reign of King Josiah
of Judah and in the time of Jeremiah the "And the remnant of Jacob shall be in the
midst of many people as a dew from the
Scythians had settled for a time in the land of LORD..."
Israel and had made it a centre of theirs. King
Josiah of Judah died fighting on the side of the
Scythians. After Josiah's death the Scythians "And the remnant of Jacob shall be among the
departed from the Land of Israel. GENTILES in the midst of many people as a
lion among the flocks of sheep..."

The Scythians bore tribal names similar to Is- Again, the main point of these passages
raelite ones, their ancestor was identified with
JOSEPH of Israel, their artwork was of maybe applicable only to the Messianic era
Israelite-Phoenician origin. yet it is also descriptive of our explanation of
the Israelite-Scythian equation. The Assyri-
ans, at first, came into the land of Israel and
The events of the Scythian-Assyrian epoch trod it down, including the royal palaces, as
were also echoed in Biblical prophecy. The
prophets largely predicted events which in archaeological excavations of Samaria have
their fullness will occur in the Messianic era. proven. They then exiled all of the surviving
inhabitants. From their places of exile, the
Nevertheless, they often presented their ac- Israelite-Scythians made peace with Assyria,
count of the future in the description of events then became "Shepherds" i.e. allies and pro-
happening in their own times or not so long
afterwards and thus history may be consid- tectors of Assyria, and after that graduated to
ered to repeat itself. There are a few Biblical be the effective rulers of the Assyrian Empire,
i.e. "eight principal men." Finally the
passages concerning the fall of Nineveh, the Israelite-Scythians destroyed the Assyrian cit-
Assyrian capital, which are also opposite to ies and wasted "the land of Assyria with the
the Scythian-Judean symbiosis in the reign of
King Josiah. The fifth chapter of Micah, for sword," just as Micah describes.
instance, speaks of a ruler coming out of Beth

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