It is also a remarkable fact that a few hundred years after Joel had delivered his message of condemnation to Tyre and Sidon, that the people of one of these Grecian states, the Lacedemonians or Spartans, claimed relationship with Israel as children of Abraham, and had their claim allowed, and still more remarkable in the light of poetical justice, that these Lacedemonians were the ones used by Alexander the Great in the destruction of Tyre, and in the fulfillment of the words of the Lord through Joel: "Behold I will raise them out of the place whither ye have sold them, and will return your recompense upon your own head" (Joel iii:7). It would appear that the sons destroyed the cities that had sold their fathers into captivity. The fact that these Lacedemonians did claim kindred with Israel, is narrated both by Josephus and the author of the First Book of Maccabees. The writers of both histories give a synopsis of the letter sent by Oreus, king of the Lacedemonians, to Onias, the High Priest of Israel. The two accounts agree very closely. Josephus gives the opening clause of the king's letter in these terms: "We have met with a certain writing whereby we have discovered that both Jews and Lacedemonians are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham." In the book of Maccabees it runs as follows: "It is found in writing that the Spartans and Jews are brethren, and come out of the generation of Abraham." (I Mac. xii.) The Jews admitted the relationship in a letter full of sentiments of friendship and brotherhood, sent by a special embassy to the Spartan court. This letter is given in full in I. Maccabees, chap. xii. In neither history is any hint given as to which branch of Abraham's family the records showed that the Lacedemonians belonged, but from their rigid virtue and honesty, and their near approach to the united order in their daily lives, it is presumable that they had not been long separate from a people in whose midst the law of the true God was known and observed.
It being thus admitted that the people of one Grecian state were of the family of Abraham, students of history have endeavored to trace Israel to other parts. The inhabitants of the Ionian commonwealth, one of the most enterprising communities of ancient Greece, are claimed to have been of Israelitish stock, the most weighty argument used in the advocacy of this idea is the great similarity that existed between their laws and customs and those of the Jews. Attention is especially drawn to the fact that the Ionians were divided from choice, and not from the force of circumstances or geographical position, into twelve communities, corresponding with the twelve tribes of Israel. The same argument is advanced regarding the Etrurians who were among the earliest settlers in Italy, and who, tradition states, emigrated from Tyre or its neighborhood. They also were divided into twelve communities or states, but all under one king. Admitting that these two nationalities were of the outcasts of Israel, there is no difficulty in understanding how the children of Jacob spread abroad over all the coasts of Europe and northern Africa, as they were (especially the Ionians) renowned for enterprise at sea, the last named being the first people among the Greeks to undertake long voyages.
More than one author has advanced the idea that the Welsh are of the tribe of Manasseh, some vague traditions of that people being thought to point in that direction; it has also been asserted that the Irish are of that tribe. From this idea we differ. With greater show of reason it has been claimed that Denmark was colonized by the tribe of Dan (in Danish it is Danmark, or Dan's land, to this day), so, according to this, a Dane is simply a Danite. Jutland, adjoining, is regarded as Judah's land, Jute being considered merely another form of the word Jew; while a little further north we find Gottland, Gothland, or Gad's land, as these writers believe, thus tracing in immediate proximity the homes of three prominent tribes of Israel through the names given to the regions they settled in.
Some who, of late years, have made the subject of Israel's "identification" their study, have gone almost to the verge of the ridiculous in the minuteness with which they have endeavored to fix the boundaries of the lands which, they assert, were occupied by descendants of the different tribes. Our position is the Biblical or prophetical one, that Ephraim has mixed himself with the nations; theirs, that remnants of all the tribes can be localized and their descendants determined with the same certainty as the posterity of those races who have never in God's providences, and for the accomplishment of His purposes, been "lost." One set of these enquirers claim to have made the following discoveries. They have traced the tribe of Dan to the north of Ireland and of Scotland; Simeon to Wales; Naphtali, as Jutes, to Kent; Gad and Asher, as Angles and South Angles, to Mercia and East Anglia in England; Ephraim to Northumberland and as far north as Edinburgh; Manasseh to the north of England; Reuben as East Saxons, to Essex; Zebulon, as West Saxons, to Wessex; Issacher, as South Saxons, to Sussex; all these last named places being in England.
There is another cause that many believe led to the migration of certain families of Israel and Judah. Before the final captivity of either kingdom was brought about there were several partial deportations of the people to Assyria and Babylon, or local captivities. Assyria commenced by carrying off the inhabitants nearest her dominions and gradually extended her incursions. The captivity of Judah was still later. In the interval, it is argued, that many Israelites, believing in the words of the prophets and seeing the evils that were coming upon them, migrated to Egypt, Greece, or other convenient lands; some, doubtless, led, as were Lehi and the son of Zedekiah, by the revelation and commandment of God, others simply following the inclinations of their own feelings.
As abundant proof that many were led by God from the land of promise before the days of the captivity we have the words of Nephi:
"For it appears that the house of Israel, sooner or later, will be scattered upon all the face of the earth, and also among all nations, and behold there are many who are already lost from the knowledge of those who are at Jerusalem. Yea, the more part of all the tribes have been led away; and they are scattered to and fro upon the isles of the sea; and whither they are, none of us knoweth, save that we know that they have been led away. And since they have been led away, these things have been prophesied concerning them, and also concerning all those who shall hereafter be scattered and be confounded."
Also the testimony of his brother Jacob:
"And now, my beloved brethren, seeing that our merciful God has given us so great knowledge, concerning these things, let us remember Him, and lay aside our sins, and not hang down our heads, for we are not cast off; nevertheless, we have been driven out of the land of our inheritance; but we have been led to a better land, for the Lord has made the sea our path, and we are upon an isle of the sea. But great are the promises of the Lord unto they who are upon the isles of the sea; wherefore as it says isles, there must needs be more than this, and they are inhabited also by our brethren. For behold, the Lord God has led away from time to time from the house of Israel, according to His will and pleasure. And now behold, the Lord remembereth all they who have been broken off, wherefore He remembereth us also."
That we may better understand the various partial and subsequent general captivities of Israel and Judah, the following short statement thereof is here inserted. The dates given are those of the commonly accepted chronology: