Lost in speculation

The author of this book, Stephen M. Collins, is a former member of Barry Fell's hyperdiffusionist organization, the National Epigraphic Society. His religious views are less clear, but he seems to be a dissident Adventist or Armstrongite. The book itself is published by the Christian Patriot Association, apparently a militia outfit in Oregon, best known for its attempt to create an underground bank independent of the IRS. Judging by the author's website, his political positions are less extreme than those of the CPA, however. (The book was published almost 25 years ago.)

The whereabouts of the ten lost tribes of Israel has fascinated both Jews and Christians for millennia. Virtually all regions of the globe has been proposed as the true home of the lost tribes: India, China, Ethiopia, Afghanistan, even northern Europe. The Mormons still believe that the American Indians are descendent from the tribe of Manasseh. That would make *me* a true Israelite. Thank you. Meanwhile, many Oriental Jewish communities claim to be one of the lost tribes, and if you accept that, most of the tribes have already been re-united with Judah in modern Israel. This is also the position of some Orthodox Jews. Of all the speculations about the lost tribes, the only ones that are at least seemingly serious place them in Kashmir and Afghanistan. But even that seems to be a very long shot.

Collins believes in something known as British Israelism. Under this scenario, northwestern Europeans in general and the Anglo-Saxons in particular are descended from the ten lost tribes mentioned in the Bible. More specifically, Britain is Ephraim while the United States is Manasseh. This position was also held by Armstrong's Worldwide Church of God (WCG). One of Armstrong's points was that Biblical prophecies about a future attack on Israel are actually about a Russian attack on the United States and Britain!

Collins' book "The Lost Ten Tribes of Israel Found" is an attempt to back up these claims by historical research. It's not convincing. Rather, the author ends up making even wilder claims as he goes along. He claims that the Phoenician trading empire was really Israelite. Next, he identifies the Scythians and Parthians with the lost tribes. But these peoples were Indo-European rather than Semitic! Parthia is idealized and depicted almost as a Western-style democracy. As for Jesus, he was supposedly a royal claimant to the Parthian throne. Why else would the Magi search for him? During his lost years, not recorded in the Bible, Jesus travelled widely, to both Britain, Parthia and pre-Columbian America. Apparently, Jesus and Quetzalcoatl is the same person! Collins also believes in the correspondence between Jesus and king Abgar of Edessa (actually a 4th century forgery), since the rulers of Edessa had good relations with the Parthians. After the fall of Parthia, the lost tribes migrated to Europe, where they became known as Goths and Saxons. Proof? One of the Schythian tribes was named Massagetae, which sounds like Manasseh. It also sounds like Getae (an ancient people in Thrace), which sounds like...Goths!

Really?

Somehow, I feel Collins has gotten lost in all his speculations!

Of course, the whole point of this book is to claim that the prophecies of the Bible that apply to Israel, really apply to the Germanic nations, making them somehow special. Ironically, this makes it necessary to reclassify the Germanic peoples as Semitic, rather than Indo-European, which may or may not rub some other factions of the alternative milieu the wrong way. It also makes it necessary to claim that the Semites were White. Collins tacitly assumes that the Egyptians were White as well, otherwise the prophecies concerning Ephraim and Manasseh might as well be applied to Black nations. Ephraim and Manasseh, of course, were half-Egyptian.

"The Lost Ten Tribes of Israel Found" is of interest to people doing research on the legend of the ten lost tribes. However, it cannot be considered real history. The ten tribes, it seems, are still lost, somewhere beyond the Sabbath river...