Tribal Identifications: Joseph-1
THE BLESSINGS
THE BLESSINGS
GENEALOGY OF THE BLESSINGS JOSEPH
Both the general identification of west European peoples with the Northern Hebrews, and the equation of specific groups with particular Israelite Tribes and Tribal clans, is dependent to some extent on an understanding of the blessings and the manner of their fulfillment.
The Promised Blessings began with Abraham. He was the first Patriarch and to him it was promised to become "A great nation and in you will all the families of the earth be blessed" (Genesis 12;2-3). "And will make my covenant between me and thee, and will multiply thee exceedingly" (Genesis 17; 2). "I will make nations of thee and kings shall come out of thee; And I will establish my covenant between me and thee and thy seed after thee in their generations for an everlasting covenant, to be a God unto thee, and to thy seed after thee" (Genesis 17; 6-7). Abraham begat Ishmael and Isaac. Ishmael traditionally was the ancestral forefather to many of the Arabs. Isaac received the covenant promise and to him devolved the promised blessings: "My covenant will I establish with Isaac" (Genesis 17; 21); "I will establish my covenant with him for an everlasting covenant, and with his seed after him" (Genesis 17;19). God informed Abraham, "In Isaac shall thy seed be called" (Genesis 21; 21).
Jacob received the Blessings promised to Abraham and to Isaac. The Children of Jacob were to become the Chosen People. Isaac blessed Jacob, "God Almighty bless thee, and make thee fruitful and
multiply thee, that thou mayest be a multitude of people; And give thee the blessing of ABRAHAM, to thee and to thy seed with thee.." (Genesis 28;2-3). Jacob was given the additional name ISRAEL, "Thy name shall be called no more Jacob, But ISRAEL; for as a prince hast thou power with God and with men and hast prevailed" (Genesis 32; 28). "Thy name is Jacob: thy name shall not be called any more Jacob, but Israel shall be thy name: and He called his name ISRAEL" (Genesis 35; 10). Jacob (Israel) had Twelve Sons, "Now the sons of Jacob were twelve" (Genesis 36; 22).
The TWELVE SONS OF ISRAEL were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulon, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, and Asher. All the sons of Israel received a Blessing from their father, "Everyone according to his blessing he blessed them" (Genesis 49; 28). In addition to the individual blessing given to each one there existed the Natural Right of Leadership and the Birthright. The Natural Right of Leadership was to involve Judah who provided the House of David and was to receive the task of Lawgiver. The Birthright, in effect, meant reception of those same blessings given to all the Tribes but in greater quantity and intensity. It also indicated a natural right to certain predominance -and a two-fold portion in the inheritance.
"Judah prevailed above his brethren, and of him (comes) the chief ruler; but the birthright was Joseph's" (1-Chronicles 5;1 2).
Jacob blessed Joseph, "The blessings of thy father have prevailed above the blessings of my progenitors unto the utmost boun of the everlasting hills: they shall be on the head of JOSEPH, and on the crown of him that was separated from his brethren" (Genesis 49; 26).
Joseph had two sons, Ephraim and Menasseh. Both Ephraim and Menasseh received the status of full Tribes in their own right. "Ephraim and Menasseh.. are mine; as Reuben and Simeon, they shall be mine", said Jacob (Genesis 48;5) meaning that they should be counted as Tribes amongst the brothers of JOSEPH. Jacob blessed Ephraim and Menasseh, "The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth," (Genesis 48; 16). "And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Menasseh: and he set Ephraim before Menasseh" (Genesis 48; 20).
The prevalence of Ephraim is repeated in Jeremiah (31;9), "I am a father to Israel, and EPHRAIM is my firstborn".
The Promised Blessings were unconditional, "By myself hath I sworn, saith the LORD...that in Blessing I will bless thee and in multiplying I will multiply thy seed.." (Genesis 28; 15). "God is not a man neither the son of man that he should repent..He hath blessed and I cannot reverse it" (Numbers 23;19-20).
NATIONAL GOALS
The blessings were concomitant with a Divine Purpose. Of Abraham it was said, "Abraham shall surely become a great and mighty nation, and all the nations of the earth shall be blessed in him. For I know him that he will command his children and his house after him, and they shall keep the way of the LORD to do justice and judgment; that the LORD may bring upon Abraham that which he hath spoken of him" (Genesis 18; 18-19).
The task of performing "justice and judgment" after becoming "a great and mighty nation" through which all the nations of the earth would be blessed devolved upon Joseph. Millions of people throughout the world (if not tens of millions) have not starved to death or massacred each other only because the "Anglo-Saxon" nations saved them. The only real restraint on tyranny anywhere today is that exercised by these countries.
The quality of Empathic Consideration (Chesed) was associated with the Northern Kingdom in which the Tribe of Joseph was paramount. "We have heard that the kings of the House of Israel are merciful kings", said servants of the King of Syria (1-Kings 20; 31).
The prophet Amos condemned Judah for not keeping the Law, he also condemned "Israel", meaning the Ten Tribes, "because they sold the righteous for silver" (Amos 1; 4-6). A great Rabbinical Authority (the "Natziv") explained that keeping the Law was the special forte of Judah and therefore it was expected of him. When he failed to fulfill the expectation he became liable. The Ten Tribes on the other hand, had never been noted as Scripturally observant but they had been known for empathic consideration of others (Chesed). When, through selling the righteous for silver, their level of Social Justice fell and they too became liable.
In their place of exile and re-settlement it would seem that Social Justice is still expected from the Ten Tribes. "Hate the evil and love the good, and establish judgment in the gate: it may be that the LORD God of Hosts will be gracious unto the remnant of JOSEPH" (Amos 6; 15).
Part Two
Tribal Identifications: Joseph -2
YASUBI AND ASAP
The Assyrian Empire after the exile of the northern Israelites times is often referred to as Neo-Assyria since important changes took place that may have been at least partially due to Israelite influence. Israelite groups from the Tribes of Joseph were discernable ("Yasubians", "Yasubgallians") in the Scythian areas of Mannae and Media where the Israelites had been exiled to. Yasubgalli probably mreans The Exilbr (galli) of Joseph . Later, in the eastern Iranian area close to the Indus were the people of "Asapioi" who were also to be called "Isapoi" and "Ysufzi" meaning JOSEPH. These names (like all those of Afghanistan see Bellew) were later to be applied to other different peoples. The root ASAP" in the Hebrew Scriptures is related to the birth of Joseph: "And she [i.e. Rachel] conceived, and bare a son; and said God hath taken away [in Hebrew: ASAPH ] my reproach: And she called his name Joseph", Genesis 30; 23-24). The name Joseph in the Iranian-Afghan region was renderable as "Jo-asaph" and at all events "ASAP" is a reasonable derivative in Semitic regions of Joseph. Other Scythian peoples such as the Aspassi in Chorasmia (east of the Caspian Sea) and the Aspacarae (whose names bear the ASP root) in Serica (north of China) were also descended from Joseph. The Aspacarae of Serica were identical to the eastern-Sienbi or Suebi and in western Europe are sometimes referred to as SWEAF and represented by the eponymous figure of Svipdag. The Sweaf-Sienbi participated in the Anglo-Saxon invasions of Britain.
Sweaf and the root Asap were also linked with the Aspourgian Tribe near the mouth of the Don River in southern Russia. The Don River was identified by Jewish Chroniclers with the Sambation River. According to Talmudic tradition part of the Lost Ten Tribes had settled on the banks of the Sambation and beyond it. The Aspourgian settlement has been identified with the legendary Asgard home of the ancestral gods of the Scandinavians and Anglo-Saxons. Irma Haynman (Jerusalem, 1994) speaks of the military and religious organisation of the Aspourgians who revered a mythical Aspourgos . There was also a Royal Scythian-Parthian dynasty named after Aspourgos. Ms. Haynman adduced evidence that the root "asp" is derived from the same Semitic-root as the name of Joseph and that the figure of "aspourgos" was regarded by his followers as identical with Biblical Joseph.
[Some researchers claimed in the past that the root asp was cognate with an Iranian word meaning horse . Haynman shows that this derivation is unlikely or at least of secondary significance.]
Sheaf the Forefather was identical with Joseph!The figure of Joseph inspired the legend of Sceld Scefing (Sheafing, Sheaf) who was the mythological ancestor of the Anglo-Saxons and, in addition to Joseph, has aspects taken from the accounts of Moses and Noah after the fashion of synthetic mythologies. The Hebrew "Yoseph" in Assyrian would have been rendered "Yoshef" (with a "sh" instead of "s") and in Scythian areas the initial "Yo" sounds on names were often dropped and thus we have something like "sheaf." In Anglo-Saxon English the word "sheaf" means bundle of corn and is linked with the original story of Joseph and was one of his symbols.
This person had been found as a child sleeping in an oarless boat which drifted into a harbour in the Land of the Angles before they crossed the Ocean to Britain. When he grew up he gave the people Laws and taught them agriculture. He was the ancestor of their leaders. Sceld had been named "Sheafing" due to the sheafs of wheat on which he slept in the oarless boat that brought him into the Harbour on the North Sea shore. In popular traditional Jewish art Joseph is also sometimes represented by a sheaf of wheat. The symbol of a sheaf of wheat for Joseph (or for one of his sons) derives from a.dream which Joseph related to his brothers, "My sheaf arose your sheafs stood round about and made obeisance to my sheaf" (Genesis 37;6-7).
Evidence links Sceld Sheafing with Targiteaus the legendary ancestor of the Scythians (mentioned by Herodotus) and with Aspourgos whom the Royal Scythians worshipped and who also was derived from the figure of JOSEPH son of Israel. The logical conclusion from this and from our own evidence is that they must indeed have been descended from Joseph. Sceld Scefing (Sheafing) was the mythical ancestor of the Anglo-Saxons and they said he was descended from Shem (or that he was the same as Shem) whereas the other Europeans were descended from Japhet. Sceld Scefing was linked with Beowulf. There are Hebrew elements in the poem of Beowulf (as noticed by others) and we may dedicate an article to this subject in the future. The impression exists that the early Anglo-Saxons and Frisians did have the idea that they were descended from Israel and so did some of the other early Barbarian peoples..
Yair Davidiy
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