TRACING OUR ANCESTORS #8
Chapter VII
THE GOLDEN AGE OF PHOENICIA
We have seen, then, that of the various races of mankind the
Adamtc or Aryan was the latest, and was selected and preeminently
fitted to be the building race of civilization. Its origin is
given in Genesis 1:27 and 28: "And God created the Adamite in His
own image ... And God blessed them; and said unto them, Be
fruitful and multiply, and replenish the earth, and subdue it
..." Here begins the selection of a people for a special purpose.
Following the book of Genesis, we find that branch after branch
of that stock was discarded because they disqualified themselves;
and the selection or calling out continued. It was only the "thin
red line" of Seth, Jared, Enoch, Methusaleh, and Noah that
carried on the dynastic succession. Only Noah and his family were
accounted worthy to escape the Deluge, while the rest
perished. "And God spake unto Noah, and to his sons with him,
saying, And I, behold, I establish my covenant with you, and with
your seed after you."
After the Flood, Noah's descendants multiplied, divided the
heather or "dusky" nations between themselves and became the
pioneers of civilization; yet most of them went into oblivion. A
special selection continuec through the line of Shem, Eber,
Peleg, and Abram. The latter alone was chosen to become the
father of the Chosen or Covenant People, within the word in the
Phoenician is Brith-ish, as we have seen. But before we follow
that Chosen line any farther, let us take notice of the fact tha
Abraham was the father of three different divisions of people;
through Hagar the bond maiden he became the father of the
Ishmaelites, the Arabs millions of them. (Refer to the 16th
chapter of Genesis.) Through another bond maiden, Keturah, he
became the father of other countles millions of eastern Hebrews,
many of them living today in India; and only through Sarah, his
rightful wife, did he become the father of the "Children of the
Promise," as Paul wrote. Now, as Abraham was a Hebrew, then it
follows that all of his descendants through Hagar, Sarah, and
Ketura must be Hebrews also, numbering today between four and
five hundred million people (remember this book was written in
1934 - Keith Hunt). It is therefore confusing the race question
completely to speak of the Jews as the Hebrews. Abraham was not a
Jew; neither were any of the twelve sons of Jacob Jews; the Jews
do not appear in Biblical history until 2 Kings 16:5-6, where we
read that Israel combine with Syria and made war against the
Jews. (Not really so, a little over the top here. The tribe
called Judah were Jews - the word Jew meaning one from the tribe
of Judah - Keith Hunt). Now, if Israel made war against the Jews,
it is obvious that the Jews are not the whole of Israel. Yet how
often do we hear learned professors, even Bible scholars, state
that David, Solomon, and Abraham were Jews. Because the Jews
trace their ancestry back to Abraham does not make the latter a
Jew any more than our ancestors of two thousand years ago were
Americans. Abraham was a Hebrew and as God made the everlasting
Covenant with Him, he was the Covenant man and the first
Briih-ish. Our whole educational system will yet have to undergo
drastic changes in its concepts before many years and before we
are through with this Depression (of the 1930s - Keith Hunt).
Some of God's Covenant promises to Abraham and his seed I
have already quoted and discussed in detail in my "Destinies of
Israel and Judah." I only wish to quote here Genesis 15:13-14:
"And he said unto Abram, Know of a surety that thy seed shall be
a stranger in a land that is not theirs, and shall serve them;
and they shall afflict them four hundred years; and also that
nation, whom they shall serve, will I judge: and Israel shall
come out with 'great substance.'" They went into Egypt, and they
came out. Paul in Galatians 3:16-17 gives the Exodus as 430 years
after the Promise to Abraham; Exodus 12:40-41 gives the same
period of 430 years, and accurate chronology confirms it, as also
does the chronology of the Great Pyramid. (Refer to "Coordinated
Chronology of Israel and Egypt "by the author.)
The whole story of the Exodus of Israel and their entrance
into Canaan has been questioned by critical Orientalists, because
they could find no trace of their name in Palestine; yet Dr.
Langdon has found recently from the Telel Amarna tablets and from
other excavations that a people by the name of Habiru or Abiri
entered Palestine about that time and destroyed Jericho - the
term Abiri being the ancient name for "Hebrews."
From Genesis 46:26-27, we learn that Jacob's family numbered
seventy souls at their entry into Egypt; this was in 1702 B.C. In
Exodus 12:37 we read that at the time of the Exodus Israel's men
over twenty years of age and able to bear arms numbered six
hundred thousand. We have no valid reason to doubt this
statement. It is as good as any other in either Old or New
Testament, and it is confirmed by the enumeration of the various
tribes as given in the first chapter of Numbers, where the total
number of all able-bodied men is given, in Verse 46, as 603,550.
The careful numbering of each tribe, with the exception of the
Levites, and the correct total seems to preclude any imaginary
figures as some critic may claim. Now, it is reasonable to assume
that to the six hundred thousand men have to be added the same
number of women and an equal if not larger, number of children.
This gives us a grand total of over two million souls that left
Egypt at the time of the Exodus in 1486 B.C. (the exact date is
unknown, it is not deductable by any Bible verse/s - Keith Hunt).
This is a phenomenal increase in population, from seventy souls,
during a period of 215 years that Israel was in Egypt. Forty
years later, ABOUT 1445 B.C., after another generation had grown
up (the previous generation having died in the wilderness),
Israel entered the land of Canaan. In the 26th chapter of Numbers
we find the census taken by Moses of the twelve tribes, and the
51st verse gives us the number of fighting men of twenty years
and upward as 601,730, which again gives us an approximate total
of over two million souls. Again we have no reason to question
the correctness of this census. It does not matter whether the
reader accepts the Bible as Divinely inspired or takes seriously
the promises made by God to Abraham - that his seed shall be as
the sand of the seashore and as the stars of the heaven for
multitude. All we have to do is to apply natural common sense to
the problem of natural increase during the ensuing centuries. The
land of Canaan has an area of only about ten thousand square
miles, since its average width is only about fifty miles and its
extreme length 150 miles, as can be seen from any map of
Palestine that gives the degrees of longitude and latitude. This
is about the size of the state of New Hampshire. Into that small
country entered about two million people, giving it a population
of about two hundred persons per square mile to start with, which
is a fair density for a rural country.
But what about the natural growth of that people in the
course of the 475 years that Israel remained in the land, until
the separation of the tribe of Judah from the Kingdom of Israel
(the ten tribes) after Solomon's death in 970 B.C.? (Refer to I
Kings 11th and 12th chapters.)
Let us take a common-sense view of this problem: one thing
is certain, that they kept on increasing. A doubling in
population every hundred years would be a low rate of increase
for so virile a race as the Israelites. The people of Europe have
increased faster than that in spite of all their wars and
pestilences. If, then, two million entered Canaan, there would be
in 100 years 4,000,000 in 200 years 8,000,000 in 300 years
16,000,000 in 400 years 32,000,000 in 500 years 64,000,000.
It is doubtful whether Bible students have ever concerned
themselves with this problem. If they had, then they would have
wondered before what became of such a population, as little
Palestine could not hold them. Scripture makes no mention of such
an increase, for the historical books deal only with the people
within the confines of Palestine; no record has been kept of
people who were not there. In the same way does the Bible lose
sight of the remmant of the ten tribes that went into Assyrian
captivity in later years. Now, in David's time there were
1,100,000 men of arms in Israel and 470,000 in Judah. (Refer to I
Chronicles 21:5.) Let us also note the distinction that the Bible
makes between Israel and Judah as early as David's time. From
these numbers of fighting men we may safely assume a total
population of five to six million Israelites in the reign of
Solomon. But what about the other fifty-odd millions? What
became of them?
Is it possible that a people which increased from seventy
souls to two million in 215 years only trebled in population in
the five centuries during which they were in Palestine?
This is the acid test of the Old Testament. If it is merely
Jewish tradition that has never been verified, we cannot blame
the modern critic for assailing it. If, on the other hand, the
Old Book is the inspired Word of God, then how and where were the
promises to Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, and their seed fulfilled?
Let us remember now that we were talking about a period of only
475 years between Israel's entry into Canaan and the breaking up
of Solomon's kingdom, when the Assyrian invasion and the
captivities were still centuries in the future. A glance at the
map will show that Palestine is practically a maritime country,
Jerusalem being only about thirty-five miles from the sea. What
then was to hinder the ever-increasing population from taking to
the sea, like every other people that live near the sea has done
or is now doing? Witness the people of Holland, Norway, Denmark,
and England. The people of Israel were no exception to that rule;
in fact, they became the greatest sea-rovers, adventurers, and
colonizers of antiquity, and have been until this day, as we
shall be able to show. The very name of their progenitor, Heber,
means "colonizer." They were destined to be the greatest
colonizing race of all time, among whom the Lord divided the
nations, as we have quoted from Deuteronomy.
Let us now turn to some of the Scriptural passages which
refer to Israel's maritime activities. "Zebulun shall dwell at
the haven of the sea, and he shall be for a haven of ships; and
his borders shall be unto Zidon." Genesis 49:13. "His glory is
like the firstling of his bullock, and his horns are like the
horns of unicorns: with them he shall push the people together to
the ends of the earth: and they are the ten thousands of Ephraim,
and they are the thousands of Manasseh. And of Zebulun he said,
Rejoice Zebulun, in thy going out; and, Issachar, in thy tents.
They shall call the people unto the mountain; there they shall
offer sacrifices of righteousness: for they shall suck of the
abundance of the seas, and of treasures hid in the sand." -
Deuteronomy 33:17-19. "And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp:
he shall leap from Bashan." - Verse 22. "Gilead abode beyond
Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the
sea shore, and abode in his breaches. Zebulun and Naphtali were a
people that jeoparded their lives unto the death in the high
places of the field." - Judges 5:17-18. These passages give us a
fair hint of the adventurous spirit and enterprising nature of
the tribes referred to; and the question, "Why did Dan remain in
ships?" makes it quite obvious that seafaring was their
occupation. Yes, we might easily deduce from it that they stayed
in other lands and did not return.
A study of the book of Joshua and an examination of any
chart of ancient Palestine will show that the tribes of Dan,
Asher, Zebulun, Ephraim, and Manasseh lived close to the
Mediterranean, none of them more than twenty-five miles away from
the sea.
Israel entered the land of Canaan ABOUT the year 1445 B.C.
Now what happened about that time? Within one hundred years the
"Golden Age" of Phoenicia began, which reached its zenith about
1000 B.C. simultaneously with the Golden Age of Solomon, and then
dwindled away to the commercial and naval activities of Tyre and
Sidon. Phoenicia's glory was then over, and so was Israel's.
Before Israel entered Canaan the Lord warned them: "Take heed to
thyself lest thou make a covenant with the inhabitants of the
land whither thou goest, lest it be for a snare in the midst of
thee." - Exodus 34: 12.
Furthermore, Israel was commanded to exterminate the
Canaanites: "Speak unto the children of Israel, and say unto
them, When ye are passed over Jordan into the land of Canaan;
then ye shall drive out all the inhabitants of the land from
before you, and destroy all their pictures, and destroy all their
molten images, and quite pluck down all their high places: and ye
shall dispossess the inhabitants of the land, and dwell therein:
for I have given you the land to possess it." - Numbers 33:51-53.
"But of the cities of these people, which the Lord thy God doth
give thee for an inheritance, thou shalt save alive nothing that
breatheth: but thou shalt utterly destroy them; namely, the
Hittites, and the Amorites, the Canaanites, and the Perizzites,
the Hivites, and the Jebusites; as the Lord thy God hath
commanded thee: that they teach you not to do after all their
abominations, which they have done unto their gods; so should ye
sin against the Lord your God." - Deuteronomy 20:16-18.
But Israel did not obey. The first three chapters of judges
tell us how they amalgamated with the heathen population of the
land. "And the children of Israel dwelt among the Canaanites,
Hittites, and Amorites, and Perizzites, and Hivites, and
Jebusites: and they took their daughters to be their wives, and
gave their daughters to their sons, and served their gods. And
the children of Israel did evil in the sight of the Lord, and
forgat the Lord their God, and served Baalim and the groves." -
Judges 3:5-7.
Here was the turning point in Israel's life. A nation of
hardy husbandmen became gradually a people of martime
adventurers, traders, and colonists, roaming over the oceans, and
settling in distant lands under other names. Then indeed were
fulfilled the words of Deuteronomy 32:26-29: "I said, I would
scatter them into corners, I would make the remembrance of them
to cease from among men; were it not that I feared the wrath of
the enemy, lest their adversaries should behave themselves
strangely, and lest they should say, Our hand is high, and the
Lord hath not done all this. For they are a nation void of
counsel, neither is there any understanding in them. O that they
were wise, that they understood this, that they would consider
their latter end!" Again in the 83rd Psalm, Verse 4: "They have
said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the
name of Israel may be no more in remembrance."
"Then men shall say, because they have forsaken the covenant of
the Lord God of their fathers, which he made with them when he
brought them forth out of the land of Egypt: for they went and
served other gods, and worshipped them, gods whom they knew not,
and whom he had not given unto them: and the anger of the Lord
was kindled against this land, to bring upon it all the curses
that are written in this book: and the Lord rooted them out of
their land in anger, and in wrath, and in great indignation, and
cast them into another land, as it is this day." - Deuteronomy
29: 25-28.
Israel's very name and the knowledge of their existence as a
nation and race was to cease from the memory of men. Their
dispersion began as soon as they entered the land of Canaan
instead of displacing the heathen nations under Jehovah's
guidance, they intermingled with them and followed strange gods.
When Israel entered the Promised Land they drove the Canaanites
that were not destroyed into the narrow strip of land lying
between the Lebanon Mountains and the Sea, a territory only about
fifteen miles in width and one hundred miles in length. This was
Phoenicia proper, and the cities of Tyre and Sidon were its chief
ports. It becomes self-evident, therefore, that such a little
strip of territory could not furnish the men to carry on the
world-wide traffic and enterprises which we associate with the
name of Phoenicia. When we read in our popular histories of
Phoenicia, we must never consider it as a national unity, like
Egypt, Babylon, or Rome; for Phoenicia in this respect was
different from any other country in history. Phoenicia never at
any time was a nation under one government, but was merely a
geographical designation for a particular strip of coastal plain
along the Eastern Mediterranean. Prof. George Rawlinson remarks:
"The cities of Phoenicia lived for the most part on friendly
terms one with another, but at no time formed a regular
confederacy. In the normal condition of things each had its own
monarch, who was quite independent of all the rest. On approach,
however, of serious danger, the various towns drew together,
alliances were formed, and joint armies and navies collected."
If we look at the map of the Near East, we find that the
whole of Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor combined is barely the
size of our Southern States east of the Missippi; and if we apply
common sense we can well imagine that the natural increase of
millions of Israel, for a period of five hundred years, spread
all over that section, settling not only in Syria and Asia Minor
and the land of the Hittites but also in the Aegean Islands close
by.
Little is known about the Hittites, but what we do know is
that their greatest period was contemporaneous to the
five-hundred-year period that Israel occupied the land, and to
the Golden Age of Phoenicia. Prof. Waddell traces most of the
British immigrants of about 1000 B.C. as coming from Syria,
Cilicia, and Cappadocia in the land of the Hittites. The Hittites
are spoken of in Scripture quite frequently, and their remains
indicate that they possessed a high state of civilization. As the
sons of Heth and of Canaan and Noah, they were of course
Phoenicians; but as Waddell also connects the name of Hittite
with that of Catti, Gad, and Goth, it is a good guess that it was
the Israelites, from 1500 to 1000 B.C. who gave the Hittite
civilization the eminence that it held during that time. In fact,
the passage quoted from judges 3:5 states that Israel lived among
the Hittites. Those Phoenician Hittites were of course
worshippers of Bel, the god of Sun fire, as we have already seen,
but Scripture tells us that the Israelites also served these gods
and forsook the worship of Jehovah. Hundreds of thousands of
Englishmen have come to America, and their descendants are
Americans today; so likewise did thousands of Israelites settle
in the land of the Hittites and passed as Hittites.
Now, let us take notice that it was during the same period
that there arose in the Aegean Islands and on the coastland of
Europe another civilization, whose lustre still survives until
this day - the civilization of Greece - but it must be borne in
mind that the instigators of that civilization never called
themselves Greeks but Hellenes, Achaeans, Danai, and
Lacedaemonians. Scholars have wondered where that high type of
culture and manhood suddenly came from, but a little searching
with an open mind will soon answer that question; and let it be
noted that the so-called mythical age of Greece is also
contemporaneous with the Golden AgE of Phoenicia and Israel.
It was the later Romans who first called those people by the name
of Greeks, from the Latin word Graeci, meaning "Orientals." Those
traced their cescent from Deucalion and Pyrrha, who escaped from
the Deluge with their three sons. The earliest inhabitants of
Greece were the Pelasgians, who were the erectors of the
Pelasgian or Cyclopean stone monuments, which we also find in
Britain. Their name indicates that the Pelasgians were the sons
of Peleg, the son of Eber (Genesis 10:25.) The Hellenic
civilization, however, did not commence until the Dorian invasion
of about 1200 or 1100 B.C. Dorian, however, is only another form
of Trojan, as the interchange of T and D is common to the early
Aryan languages. That the Trojans were Israelites we shall see in
Chapter XI.
To readers of Homer's Iliad and Odessey the name of Danai is
familiar; in the Iliad the Danai are mentioned 147 times, and it
requires no great stretch of the imagination to see that the
Danai were people of the Israelitish tribe of Dan. Later Grecian
history knows the Danai no more: they moved northward into
Europe, and we can trace their wanderings by the place-names they
left behind them, such as Danube, Donetz, Danzig, Dnieper,
Dniester, and even into Denmark and Norway, where they appear as
the Donsk people. Some of them, however, seem to have stayed in
Greece, but under different names, such as Macedonians and
Lacedaemonians or Spartans, In confirmation of this we have a,
passage in the First Book of the Maccabees, 12:20-22, which
mentions a letter received by the Jewish High Priest of the day,
about 300 B.C. The passage reads: "Arius, king of the Spartans,
to Onias, the chief priest, greetings: It has been found in
writing concerning the Spartans and the Jews, that they are
brethern and that they are of the stock of Abraham; to our
knowledge ye shall do well to write into us of your prosperity."
Although the Greeks were notorious idolators, yet they
believed in one Jove, the Father of Gods, whose name is easily
identified with Jehovah. The name of Hellen, the ancestor of the
Hellenes is difficult to identify; yet Hellen is said to be a son
of Deucalion and is either Shem or Eber. Sir Flinders Petrie in
his "A Review of History" speaks of the Fifteenth and Sixteenth
Egyptian Dynasties as Hellenic shepherd kings and says: "As
Hellene is the regular equivalent of the martime 'Ha Nebu,'
'lords of the north.' The 15th Dynasty is correctly named from
Phoenicia, whence it entered Egypt." As the Fifteenth and
Sixteenth Dynasties are also spoken of as Hyksos kings, it
identifies, therefore, the latter with the Hebrew-Phoenicians,
the Phoenicians with the Hellenes and in all probability Hellen
with Eber. Sanchoniathon, the Phoenician, speaks of "Saturn or
Kronos, whom the Phoenicians call Israel." Kronos had twelve
sons, one of whom was Jehud or Jupiter. That Jehud is Judah is
not difficult to see. The story of the Greek Hercules is the
story of Samson, who was a Danite.
If we bear in mind the fact that the whole of Greece, Asia
Minor, Phoenicia, and Palestine is only a limited territory and
the distances from one part to another were short, it is easy to
see that the wonderful culture of Hellas and of Phoenicia that
came into being shortly after the millions of Israel entered
Palestine about 1450 B.C. was derived from them. That culture of
course was pagan and so were most of the Israelites; and even
Solomon "followed strange gods," as the Bible records. The
"classics" of ancient Hellas are still the marvel of the world;
yet few of its modern admirers realize that the blood of the
Greek philosophers and heroes was the blood of Israel and the
blood of the Anglo-Saxon race. If we look at the wonderful
sculptures of Greece and the beautiful statues of men and women,
many of them appearing to be of fair complexion, who else could
they be but the fairest type of Hebrew-Aryan manhood and
womanhood, types that have never been surpassed? Even though our
evolutionists tell us that we have progressed since then,
instead, we are still trying to imitate those classical figures.
If people only had fewer preconceived ideas and were more willing
to study the Bible than to criticize it, they would find in its
pages the answer to a thousand perplexing problems of today.
One of the main reasons why ancient Israel has disappeared from
the stage of history is that Israel did not speak Hebrew but
Phoenician. The Hebrew is a daughter of the Phoenician. As we
have already seen the Phoenicians, the house of Enoch, were the
inventors of the alphabet, their language and alphabet must
therefore be the oldest and the parent stock from which all
others have sprung. About the time that the millions of
Israelites began to overflow the borders of Palestine during the
Golden Age of Phoenicia into the Aegean Islands, the Greek began
to branch off, as shown on Plate V, and during the centuries
developed into the familiar Greek letters. At about the same time
Hebrew-Phoenician colonists settled in Italy under the name of
Etruscans and Umbri (Latin for Hebrew) and the Latin alphabet
began to take its form. (Refer to "Aryan Origin of the Alphabet"
by Prof. Waddell.)
When in 1103 B.C. Brutus of Troy and his Barat Phoenicians
invaded England, they brought their Phoenician script with them,
although the language had been spoken in Britain since the coming
of the first Aryans a thousand years before. From this Phoenician
developed the language of Brittany, the Irish and Scotch Gaelic,
the Manx, and the Welsh. The Chronicles of Erie were written in
an Irish form of Phoenician and were translated only a hundred
years ago by Roger O'Connor. Another form of the Phoenician
alphabet and language appears in the Gothic Runes and in the
language of the Gothic Eddas and the Sagas, which the Goths, the
Asa and Saxons brought with them into Europe, when they appeared
in the early Christian centuries. That they were Israelites of
the Captivities will be seen from Chapter XI. From the Phoenician
Gothic and the language of the Eddas developed the modern
English, German, and the Scandinavian languages. The simple
Phoenician script and language survived on the Mediterranean as
late as the beginning of the Christian era for commercial
purposes under the name of Punic, in the same way that the
English is the universal commercial language of today.
The Semitic branch of the Phoenician stock includes the
Aramaic, Hebrew, Arabic, Syriac, and Armenian languages. The
Hebrew of today with its vowels was derived from the Aramean,
which the Jews learned in the Babylonian captivity. "The Aramaic
in the time of our Lord had taken the place of the genuine
Hebrew, as the colloquial language and had usurped its name; and
the Aramaic is intended by the Hebrew language or the Hebrew." -
Citation from Davis, "Dictionary of the Bible."
When the ten tribes of Israel were taken into Assyrian
captivity, they took their language with them, and the only
inscription that they left in Palestine is the Siloam inscription
in Jerusalem, and it is not in Hebrew but in Phoenician. The
language of Israel and their writing appears again in the Gothic
Runes of eastern and northern Europe. When the kingdom of Judah
went into Babylonian captivity about 600 B.C., and only 42,000 of
them came back seventy years later, they adopted the Aramaic; and
the generation that came back had forgotten their fathers'
language to the extent that Ezra had to translate the Law
to-them. The early writings of Israel were written in Phoenician
and not in Hebrew. As our scholars have failed to see the
difference between Israel and the Jews, they have completely
confused the issue; and when they speak of ancient Hebrew they
mean Phoenician. "The oldest Hebrew MS dates from A.D.489; is a
roll and was found in the Karaite Synagogue in the Crimea." The
Targums version of the Old Testament does not date any earlier
than the Babylonian captivity of the Jews, and it was written in
the Aramaic Chaldee language, and even of that version there is
no B.C. manuscript in existence. So when our scholars speak of
the ancient Hebrew of the Israelites they mean Phoenician
evidently, for they never have seen it written on a scroll, only
on the Siloam inscription, the Moabite Stone, and the Phoenician
engravings of the East, the Mediterranean, Southern Russia, and
Europe, particularly in Britain. Neither the Phoenician nor the
Aramaic possessed any vowels; therefore the pronunciations
differed according to locality and age. The vowel signs of the
Hebrew manuscripts were introduced by Jewish scholars between the
fifth and ninth centuries A.D. None of the manuscripts from which
our Bible was translated are older than the fourth century.
(Refer to "Bible" in "Encyclopedia Brittanica," Vol III, page
859, 11th edition.)
Only when we trace the origin of the Phoenicians to the
descendants of Noah and follow the central stem of that root
through the line of Heber and Abraham can we lift the veil of
mystery that has hung over the Phoenicians throughout the ages;
then can we understand who were the leading spirits of the Golden
Age of Phoenicia and of the Mythical Age of ancient Hellas. At
that time no Jew had ever been born; (a very misleading thought -
a Jew is from the tribe of Judah, hence there were Jews, but it
is true most have mislead others by thinking all Israelites were
and are Jews, but the truth is far from that fact - a Jew is from
the tribe of Judah, and there were another 12 tribes - Keith
Hunt); yet the Jews of a later age and until this day have
succeeded in beclouding this issue and have blinded the minds of
our scholars.
Chambers Encyclopedia, under the article "Phoenicia,"
remarks: "The Golden Age of Phoenicia, during which her colonies,
her manufactures, and her commerce were in this most brilliant
phase, seems to have waned simultaneously with that of Judea.
As Solomon in the latter, so does Hiram in the former, mark the
end of that peace and happiness which made their countries rich
and glorious, as no other country of their day."
"Surely, the secret at last is out," says Prof. H.B.Hannay.
"The Cyclopedist admits that with the demise of Solomon and
Hiram, the socalled Phoenician Age practically came to an end."
The Cyclopedist, is, however, in error in referring to
Judea, for the Kingdom of Judea started only after Solomon's
death. And the very reason that Phoenicia's greatness had passed
was that the Northern Kingdom of Israel, the house of Isaac, or
the Beth-Sak of the Assyrian tablets, became harrassed by the
armies of Assyria, and all those who did not leave Palestine
voluntarily were finally driven into Assyrian captivity, between
the years 747 and 676 B.C. (correctly between 747 and 718 B.C. -
the northern 10 tribe House of Israel went into Assyrian
captivity - Keith Hunt).
"Yes, the Northern Israelites-the Beth-Sak-were the heroes of the
Golden Age, its creators and sustainers. It is when they are
suddenly and tragically hurried into oblivion that lo, the
activities and glories of the so-called Phoenician Golden Age
mysteriously shrink, wither, and fade away too! Glory departs, -
but it reappears elsewhere. From time to time as the centuries
roll on, it shines forth anew in divers countries to which the
disintegrated and scattered communities of the Beth-Sak can be
proved to have found their devious way; not, however, as
communities known to be Hebrews, but under different names -
names familiar enough to the historian and the schoolboy - which
few would ever dream of associating, and some of which have in
fact never been associated, with the Hebrew Race. This, of
course, is anticipating the argument; but the digression enables
us to catch a glimpse of the probable reason why, during the
centuries which have come and gone since the captivity referred
to, the Hebrew element or aspect of the stirring epoch which has
been misnamed the Phoenician Golden Age, has dropped so entirely
out of sight and remembrance." - H.B.Hannay.
It is this oblivion of the name of Israel that the Psalmist
had in mind when he said: "They have said, Come and let us cut
them off from being a nation: that the name of Israel be no more
in remembrance."
Of course, we must not overlook the people who lived in
Palestine when Israel entered the land, the people of Syria and
the Hittites, all of them Phoenicians, for they also were the
descendants of Noah and of Ham. What pure religion they once
possessed had long been displaced by Bel worship and its
abomination. When, therefore, the new blood of their kinsmen the
Israelites came among them, the latter easily predominated; but
Israel all too easily adopted the pagan religion of the
Canaanites and the Hittites. After Israel had disappeared from
Palestine, the Canaanite-Phoenicians founded Carthage, Venice,
and Marseilles; and we have every reason to believe that the
Latin nations of Europe are descended from the Canaanites, and so
also are the Southern Irish. (Not true as for the southern Irish,
not true at all - Keith Hunt).
When we read in Scripture of the wealth and glory of
Solomon's kingdom, it is obvious that that kingdom reached far
beyond the boundaries of Palestine and Eastern Asia. The
reference to a three-year's journey of the ships of Tarshish
would indicate that those ships went to far distant countries in
pursuit of trade and colonization. Both Solomon and Hiram, king
of Tyre, maintained an eastern and a western navy, as we see from
I Kings 9:26 and 10:11 and 22; and 2 Chronicles 8:18 and 9:21.
The word Tarshish appears in the Old Testament quite
frequently. In the roster of the sons of Japhet in the tenth
chapter of Genesis we find Tarshish as a son of Javan. On ancient
maps we find Tarshish or Tartessus as the name of southern Iberia
or Spain. Otherwise, the word Tarshish is connected with shipping
and colonial enterprise. Of Jonah we read that "he took ship to
Tarshish." Hasting's Bible Dictionary states that: "Tharshish
stood for the commerce of the West, as Sheba and Dedan stood for
the commerce of the East." ....
That Spain was a Hebrew-Phoenician colony is indicated by
its ancient name of Iberia, "the land of the Hebrews." The name
of the Spanish river Ebro is also derived from Eber, the
grandsire of the Hebrews; while that of the river Guadalquivir
was originally Wadi-al-Hibri in Moorish meaning "the river of the
Hebrews." In the Golden Age of Phoenicia Iberia was a Phoenician
colony, and from its gold and silver mines Solomon imported most
of his treasures. These mines were worked by the Danites and
Gadites or Catti in the interest of Hiram and Solomon. Some years
ago a stone was discovered near Gibraltar, telling in Phoenician
of a certain Adoram who was sent there by Solomon to collect
tribute. In I Kings 12:18 we read that Adoram was collector of
tribute for Rehoboam, the son cf Solomon. (Refer to H.B.Hannay,
"European Race Origins," page 27).
The chief Phoenician seaport in Iberia was Gadeira or Gades,
from Gad - the modern Cadiz - where most of the gold and silver
was loaded, and it also served as a half-way station to the
British Islands or Cassiterides, also derived from Cassi or
Calif. The Gadites were, with the Danites, the most enterprising
of the Phoenicians; they were continually "gadding about." The
Cassiterides were also spoken of as the "Tin Islands," because of
the tin that was brought from there, particularly from Cornwall,
and which was shipped from the Bay of Penzance or Phoeniciana.
It is a mistaken idea of some scholars to assume that the
name of Cassiterides is derived from some Oriental name of tin.
On the contrary tin ware was named after the Cassiterides, as for
instance "casserole."
Numerous ancient writers testify to the colonization of the
British Isles in their days. This is Herodotus' testimony: "I
cannot speak with certainty nor am I acquainted with the islands
called Cassiterides, from which tin is brought to us ... it is
nevertheless certain that both our tin and our amber are brought
from these extremely remote regions (the Cassiterides and the
Baltic) ... in the western extremities of Europe." - Herodotus,
Book 3.
Several other ancient writers refer to the British Isles in
their days; yet our modern professors ignore their evidence.
Polybius, the Greek historian of the 2nd century B.C., writes:
"Some will enquire why, having made so long a discourse on Lybia
and Iberia, we have not spoken more fully of the outlet at the
Pillars of Hercules, nor of the interior sea, nor yet indeed of
the Britannic Isles, and the working of tin, nor of the gold and
the silver mines of Ibernia (Ireland)."
Aristotle in his De Mundo states: "Beyond the Pillars of
Hercules, the ocean flows around the earth. In this ocean,
however, there are two islands, and those are very large, and are
called Britannic, Albion, and Ierne, which are larger than those
before named. They lie beyond the Keltic, and there are not a few
small islands around the Britannic Islands, and around Iberia."
Pliny says "The whole of the Roman Empire was supplied with
metals and tin from Britannia ... Greece, too, was supplied with
tin and sundry metals from the same source as early as 907 B.C."
But the most valuable evidence of all concerning the Western
Isles is supplied by Ptolemy: "They were peopled by descendants
of the Hebrew Race, who were skilled in smelting operations, and
excelled in working metals." This confirms all that has been said
so far.
Considering all this testimony we see that as soon as the
Phoenix of Israel began to set in the East, a new home had been
appointed for them in the West, in Brith-ain---the Land of the
Covenant. Therefore we read in 2 Samuel 7:10: "Moreover I will
appoint a place for my people Israel, and will plant them, that
they may dwell in a place of their own, and move no more; neither
shall the children of wickedness afflict them any more, as
beforetime."
.........................
To be continued
Note:
And is it not from the line of Noah/Shem that the world has be
given MOST of its enterprises, skills, inventions, colonization,
sea-faring powers, over the centuries. Logically as from
population of the Holy Land during 1450 B.C. and the captivity of
the House of Israel by 718 B.C. the author has correctly stated
that the mighty Phoenician world was mainly the industry and
sea-faring wanderings of some of the tribes of Israel,
culmanating in the huge and glorious wealth and influence of the
Empire of king Solomon of Israel.
Keith Hunt
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