And Andrew His Brother?
Britain, after A.D. 449, was settled by hundreds of thousands of new people not there in Peter's day. History knows them as Angles and Saxons.
They came originally from the shores of the Black Sea — where the House of Israel dwelt! In A.D. 256 they began to migrate from northern Asia Minor along the shores of the Black Sea to the Cymbric Peninsula (Denmark) opposite Britain. These were the people to whose ancestors Peter wrote his epistles.
Which one of the twelve apostles preached to their ancestors — the so-called "White Syrians" — while they abode by the Bosporus and on the Black Sea? Listen to the answer from Greek historians:
"In this division Andrew had Scythia, and the neighboring countries primarily allotted him for his province. First then he travelled through Cappadocia, [Upper] Galatia and Bithynia, and instructed them in the faith of Christ, passing all along the Euxine Sea" — the old name for the Black Sea — ". . . and so into the solitude of Scythia."
One early Greek author gives these journeys in special detail, just as if Luke had written an account of the other apostles as he did of Paul. Andrew "went next to Trapezus, a maritime city on the Euxine Sea, whence after many other places he came to Nice, where he stayed two years, preaching and working miracles with great success: thence to Nicomedia, and so to Chalcedon; whence sailing through the Propontis he came by the Euxine Sea to Heraclea, and from thence to Amastris . . . He next came to Sinope, a city situated upon the same sea . . . here he met with his brother Peter, with whom he stayed a considerable time. . . . Departing hence, he went again to Amynsus and then . . . he proposed to return to Jerusalem" — the headquarters church. "Whence after some time he betook himself . . . to the country of Abasgi [a land in the Caucasus] . . . Hence he removed into . . . Asiatic Scythia or Sarmatia, but finding the inhabitants very barbarous and intractable, he stayed not long among them, only at Cherson, or Chersonesus, a great and populous city within the Bosporus [this Bosporus is the modern Crimea], he continued for some time, instructing them and confirming them in the faith. Hence taking ship, he sailed across the sea to Sinope, situated in Paphlagonia . . ." (pp. 137-138 of Cave's Antiquitates Apostolicae).
Here we find Andrew preaching to the very areas in Asia Minor which Paul bypassed. From this region, and from Scythia north of the Black Sea, migrated the ancestors of the Scots and Anglo-Saxons, as we have already seen. They are of the House of Israel — or else Andrew disobeyed his commission!
And what of the modern Scottish tradition that Andrew preached to their ancestors? Significant? Indeed!
And the Other Apostles?
And where did Simon the Zealot carry the Gospel? Here, from the Greek records, is the route of his journey:
Simon "directed his journey toward Egypt, then to Cyrene, and Africa . . . and throughout Mauritania and all Libya, preaching the gospel. . . . Nor could the coldness of the climate benumb his zeal, or hinder him from whipping himself and the Christian doctrine over to the Western Islands, yea, even to Britain itself. Here he preached and wrought many miracles. . . ." Nicephorus and Dorotheus both wrote "that he went at last into Britain, and . . . was crucified . . . and buried there" (Antiquitates Apostolicae, p. 203).
Think of it. Another of the twelve apostles is found preaching to the Lost Tribes of Israel in Britain and the West. But what is Simon the Zealot doing in North Africa? Were remnants of the House of Israel there, too? Had some fled westward in 721 B.C. at the time of the Assyrian conquest of Palestine?
Here is Geoffrey of Monmouth's answer: "The Saxons . . . went unto Gormund, King of the Africans, in Ireland, wherein, adventuring thither with a vast fleet, he had conquered the folk of the country. Thereupon, by the treachery of the Saxons, he sailed across with a hundred and sixty thousand Africans into Britain . . . [and] laid waste, as hath been said, well-nigh the whole island with his countless thousands of Africans" (bk. xi, sect. 8, 10).
These countless thousands were not Negroes, or Arabs. They were whites — Nordics — who came from North Africa and Mauritania, where Simon preached. These Nordics, declares the Universal History (1748-Vol. xviii, p. 194), "gave out, that their ancestors were driven out of Asia by a powerful enemy, and pursued into Greece; from whence they made their escape" to North Africa. "But this . . . was to be understood only of the white nations inhabiting some parts of western Barbary and Numidia."
What white nation was driven from the western shores of western Asia? The House of Israel! Their powerful enemy? The Assyrians!
For almost three centuries after the time of Simon Zelotes they remained in Mauritania. But they are not in North Africa today. They arrived in Britain shortly after A.D. 449 at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion.
In A.D. 598, when the bishop of Rome sent Augustine to bring Catholicism to England he found the inhabitants were already professing Christians. Their ancestors had already heard the message from one of the twelve apostles.
And Ireland Too
Another of the apostles sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel was James, the son of Alphaeus. Some early writers were confused by the fact that two of the twelve apostles were named James. James, son of Alphaeus, was the one who left Palestine after the first twelve years. The deeds of this apostle are sometimes mistakenly assigned to James, John's brother. But that James was already martyred by Herod (Acts 12:2).
Where did James, son of Alphaeus, preach?
"The Spanish writers generally contend, after the death of Stephen he came to these Western parts, and particularly into Spain (some add Britain and Ireland) where he planted Christianity" (Antiquitates Apostolicae, p. 148).
Note it. Yet another apostle sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel ends in the British Isles — in Ireland as well as in Britain.
Eusebius, in his third book of Evangelical Demonstrations, chapter 7, admitted that the apostles "passed over to those which are called the British Isles." Again he wrote: "Some of the Apostles preached the Gospel in the British Isles." Could anything be plainer?
Even in Spain James spent some time. Why Spain? From ancient times Spain was the high road of migration from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the British Isles. The ancient royal House of Ireland for a time dwelt in Spain. The Prophet Jeremiah passed through Spain into Ireland with Zedekiah's daughters (Jeremiah 41:10; 43:6). Even today a vital part of the Iberian Peninsula — Gibraltar — belongs to the birthright tribe of Ephraim — the British.
Paul in Britain, Too?
Turn, now, to added proof of the apostles' mission to the lost sheep of the House of Israel in the British Isles. From an old volume, published in 1674, by William Camden, we read: "The true Christian Religion was planted here most anciently by Joseph of Arimathea, Simon Zelotes, Aristobulus, by SE. Peter, and St. Paul, as may be proved by Dorotheus, Theodoretus and Sophronius" (Remains of Britain, page 5).
Did you catch that?
Paul is now included! Had Paul planned to go from Italy into Spain and then Britain? . . . Here is his answer: ". . .I will come by you into Spain" (Rom. 15:28). Clement of Rome, in his letter to the Corinthians, confirms Paul's journey to the West. But did that include Britain?
Listen to the words of the Greek church historian Theodoret. He reports: "That St. Paul brought salvation to the isles that lie in the ocean" (book i, on Psalm cxvi, p. 870). The British Isles!
But was that merely to preach to the Gentiles? Not at all. Remember that the third and last part of Paul's commission, after he revealed Christ to the kings and rulers at Rome, was to bear the name of Jesus to the "children of Israel" (Acts 9:15) — the Lost Ten Tribes. This is not a prophecy concerning Jews, whom Paul had previously reached in the Greek world of the eastern Mediterranean. This is a prophecy of Paul's mission to the British Isles. Could anything be more astounding?
On the Shores of the Caspian Sea
James referred to Israel as scattered abroad. We have found them in Northwest Europe. And in North Africa, from whence they migrated into Britain in the fifth century. And in northern Asia Minor, associated with the Assyrians. In 256 they began to migrate from the regions of the Black Sea to Denmark, thence into the British Isles in 449.
But remnants of the Ten Lost Tribes were yet in another vast region beyond the confines of the Roman Empire. That region was known as the Kingdom of Parthia.
Who the Parthians were has long remained a mystery. They suddenly appear near the Caspian Sea around 700 B.C. as slaves of the Assyrians. "According to Diodorus, who probably followed Ctesias, they passed from the dominion of the Assyrians to that of the Medes, and from dependence upon the Medes to a similar position under the Persians" (Rawlinson's Monarchies. Vol. IV, p. 26, quoted from Diodorus Siculus, ii 2, § 3; 34, § 1 and § 6,.
The Parthians rose to power around 250 B.C. in the lands along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. That was the land into which Israel was exiled.' What puzzles historians is that the Parthians were neither Persians. nor Medes, nor Assyrians or any other known people. Even their name breathes mystery — until you understand the Bible.
The word "Parthian" means "exile." (See Rawlinson's The Sixth Monarchy, page 19.) The only exiles in this land were the ten tribes of Israel. The Parthians were none other than the exiled Lost Ten Tribes who remained in the land of their captivity until A.D. 226. That's when the Persians drove them into Europe.
Now consider this. James addressed his letter to the twelve tribes of Israel scattered abroad. He warns the Israelites against the wars being waged among themselves. When James wrote his letter about A.D. 60 the world was at peace except for two regions — Britain and Parthia. There is no mistaking this. Parthia and Britain were Israelite.
Which of the twelve apostles carried the Gospel to the Parthian Israelites?
The Greek historians reveal that Thomas brought the Gospel to "Parthia. after which Sophornius and others inform us. that he preached the Gospel to the Medes. Persians, Carmans, Hyrcani. Bactrians. and the neighbor nations" (Antiquitates Apostolicae, p. 189).
These strange sounding names are the lands we know today as Iran (or Persia) and Afghanistan. In apostolic days the whole region was subject to the Parthians.
Though many Israelites had left the region already, multitudes remained behind, spread over adjoining territory. They lost their identity and became identified with the names of the districts in which they lived.
Josephus, the Jewish historian, was familiar with Parthia as a major dwelling place of the Ten Tribes. He declares: "But then the entire body of the people of Israel [the Ten Tribes] remained in that country [they did not return to Palestine]; wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans. while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are in an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers" (Antiquities of the _Jews. bk. xi, ch. v, § 2).
There it is! The very area to which Thomas sojourned was, reports Josephus, filled with uncounted multitudes of the Ten Tribes. Josephus was, apparently, unaware of those who had already migrated westward. But he does make it plain that only the House of Judah ever returned to Palestine. The House of Israel was "beyond Euphrates till now."
Parthia was defeated by Persia in A.D. 226. Expelled from Parthia, the Ten Tribes and the Medes moved north of the Black Sea, into Scythia. (See R. G. Latham's The Native Races of the Russian Empire, page 216.) From there, around A.D. 256, the Ten Tribes migrated with their brethren from Asia Minor into Northwest Europe. This migration was occasioned by a concerted Roman attack in the east. It backfired on the Romans, for hordes of Israelites and Assyrians suddenly broke through the Roman defenses in the West that same year.
Thomas also journeyed into Northwest India, east of Persia, where the "White Indians" dwelt. These "White Indians" — that is, whites living in India — were also known as Nephthalite Huns, in later Greek records. Any connection with the tribe of Naphtali? They were overthrown in the sixth century and migrated into Scandinavia. The archaeology of Scandinavia confirms this event.
Bartholomew shared, with Thomas, the same vast plains, according to Nicephorus. Bartholomew also spent part of his time in neighboring Armenia and a portion of Upper Phrygia in Asia Minor. Nicephorus termed the area, in his history, the "Western and Northern parts of Asia," by which he meant Upper Asia Minor, modern Turkey today. This was the same district to which Andrew carried the Gospel, and to which Peter sent two of his letters.
Jude, also named Libbaeus Thaddaeus, had part in the ministry in Assyria and Mesopotamia. That is part of Parthia which Josephus designated as still inhabited by the Ten Tribes. The Parthian kingdom, which was composed of the Ten Tribes ruling over Gentiles, possessed Assyria and Mesopotamia during most of the New Testament period. From the famous city Babylon, in Mesopotamia, Peter directed the work of all the apostles in the East.
Scythia and Upper Asia (meaning Asia Minor) were the regions assigned to Philip. (See Cave's Antiquitates Apostolicae, p. 168.) Scythia was the name of the vast plain north of the Black and the Caspian Seas. To this region a great colony of Israelites migrated after the fall of the Persian Empire in 331. From Scythia migrated the Scots. The word "Scot" is derived from the word "Scyth." It means "an inhabitant of Scythia." The Scots are part of the House of Israel.
Interestingly, the word Scythia, in Celtic, has the same meaning that Hebrew does in the Semitic language — a "migrant" or "wanderer."
Where Did Matthew Go?
Matthew, Metaphrastes tells us, "went first into Parthia, and having successfully planted Christianity in those parts, thence travelled to Aethiopia, that is, the Asiatic Aethiopia, lying near India."
For some centuries this region of the Hindu Kush, bordering on Scythia and Parthia, was known as "White India." It lies slightly east of the area where the Assyrians settled the Israelite captives. A natural process of growth led the House of Israel to these sparsely populated regions. From there they migrated to Northwest Europe in the sixth century, long after the apostles' time. Dorotheus declares Matthew was buried at Hierapolis in Parthia.
The Parthian kingdom was, in fact, a loose union of those lost tribes of Israel who dwelt in Central Asia during this period. The Persians finally drove them all out. Whenever Parthia prospered, other nations prospered. Whenever the Parthians suffered reverses, other nations suffered. Remember the scripture: "And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee' (Gen. 12:3).
Ethiopic and Greek sources designate Dacia (modern Romania) and Macedonia, north of Greece, as part of the ministry of Matthias. Dacia was the extreme western part of Scythia. From Dacia came the Normans who ultimately settled in France and Britain.
The French tradition that Mary, the mother of Jesus, journeyed into Gaul (modern France) lends heavy weight to John's having been in Gaul in his earlier years. It was to John that Jesus committed Mary's care. She would be where he was working. Paul knew Gaul to be an area settled by the House of Israel. He bypassed Gaul on his way from Italy to Spain (Romans 15:24, 28). Gaul must have been reached by one of the twelve.
How plain! How can any misunderstand! Here is historic proof to confirm the identity and location of "the House of Israel." The identity of Israel, from secular sources, is itself also independent proof of where the twelve apostles carried out God's Work.
How marvelous are the mysteries of God when we understand them!