Messianic/Nazarene VS. Christian

[Paul Younan]

And akhi Paul, I'm interested in those references of Josephus and others which you have, by all means post them.

Hi Khati Christina,

Antiquities of the Jews - Book XI (Ch. 5)

When Esdras had received this epistle, he was very joyful, and began to worship God, and confessed that he had been the cause of the king's great favor to him, and that for the same reason he gave all the thanks to God. So he read the epistle at Babylon to those Jews that were there; but he kept the epistle itself, and sent a copy of it to all those of his own nation that were in Media. And when these Jews had understood what piety the king had towards God, and what kindness he had for Esdras, they were all greatly pleased; nay, many of them took their effects with them, and came to Babylon, as very desirous of going down to Jerusalem; but then the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country; 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 an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers. Now there came a great number of priests, and Levites, and porters, and sacred singers, and sacred servants to Esdras. So he gathered those that were in the captivity together beyond Euphrates, and staid there three days, and ordained a fast for them, that they might make their prayers to God for their preservation, that they might suffer no misfortunes by the way, either from their enemies, or from any other ill accident; for Esdras had said beforehand that he had told the king how God would preserve them, and so he had not thought fit to request that he would send horsemen to conduct them.

You can see from the above quote that, even after 8 centuries, they were still in the land where the King of Assyria had exiled them (modern-day northern Iraq and northwest Iran) (cf., 2 Kings 17 - "So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day.")



Notice Christina, that the deportation of the Trans-Jordan tribes by Shalmanesar V (the red arrow) took those those tribes (Reuben and Gad and the half-tribe of Manasseh) right into the area around Nineveh (see the book of Nahum, who was one of the captives.)

For scientific evidence, notice how modern-day "Assyrian" DNA is most closely related to Jordanian DNA: (see <!-- m --><a class="postlink" href="http://www.assyrianfoundation.org/genetics.htm">http://www.assyrianfoundation.org/genetics.htm</a><!-- m -->)

Why would the DNA of modern-day "Assyrians" be closer to Jordanian DNA, than to the DNA of those nations surrounding them in Iraq, Iran and Turkey .... where they live? Perhaps they are not "Assyrian" after all, but the descendants after 2,800 years of those 2 1/2 tribes from the trans-jordan?



This information, along with the quote of Josephus recording the speech of King Agrippa of the Jews, placing the captives in "Adiabene" (ancient Assyria), is astounding because truly Meshikha did gather the lost sheep of the "house" of Israel ... and they went on to create what John Stewart called the "Greatest Missionary Church the world has ever known", taking the Gospel to the farthest reaches of Asia.

For more information, read Asahel Grant's magnificent book here:

http://www.peshitta.org/pdf/grant.pdf

+Shamasha Paul