THE

LOST TEIBES
AND

THE SAXONS OF THE EAST AND

OF THE WEST,
WITH

NE^W VIE^^TS OF BUDDHISM,

AND

f nitslati0iis

0f |lotk-|lei:0rh

|iiMa-

BY

GEORGE MOORE,
HEHBEB OF THB

M.D.,

BOTAIi COLLEOB 09 ]^HTSICIAIfS, LONDON, ETC.

Not dull or barren are the winding ways

Of hoar antiquity ; but strewn with flowers.
Babtoit.

LONDON:
LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS.
MDCCCLXI.
[The right of translation

is

reserved.}

^-'>''

PREFACE.
The

inquiry pursued in this volume was undertaken

as an occasional diversion

from the pressure of severer

demands upon the mind, and formed only an

inci-

dental part of a larger investigation concerning the

ethnology of the East.

Though the

considered in this inquiry

may

several subjects

for the

most part be

unpromising to the multitude of readers who make

a pastime of books, and to interest
quire a very different treatment, yet

the appearance of this

justified

it

is

re-

hoped that

work before the public

will be

by proving worthy of the attention of those

numerous

intelligent persons

in the distribution of
1

whom would

who

look for meaning

mankind.

have thankfully to acknowledge the kindness of

Mr. Norris, through

whom

have been permitted to

copy and to publish anything contained in the publications of the

Eoyal Asiatic Society.

In recording

kindness, I cannot but mingle deep regret with sincere gratitude in recalling the great obligation I

under to the

late

at Oxford, H.

H. Wilson, who

tion to

am

very learned Professor of Sanscrit

first

directed

my

atten-

Buddhism, and indicated the books best suited

PREFACE.

IV

to assist

my

Inquiry.

have infringed upon a right

in copying an engraving from a

work by Lieut. -Colonel

Cunningham, on " The Bhilsa Topes," but

I believe

he will forgive the liberty in consideration of the

fact

that I would have sought his permission, but found

he was engaged in his important duties in India.

volume

will not be displeased if this

promote the
antiquities

He

any degree

in

knowledge of those interesting

fuller

which he has so admirably laboured to

discover and elucidate.

I

would only add

that,

should

it

be

to have readers capable of correcting

my

privilege

any errors con-

cerning matters of fact referred to in this volume,

or of throwing any light on the inquiry

itself,

I shall

be thankful to receive any communication to that

effect.

Since the completion of this work,

covered

Hebraic

which,

inscription,

have

dis-

graven in

ancient Pali characters, stands mysteriously manifest

on the wall of a rock-temple in Kanari, about twenty

miles from

Bombay.

afford a clue to the

As

this

remarkable record

meaning of

may

certain obscure pas

sages in other inscriptions given in the latter chapters

of this work, a literal translation

admitted in this place, the

rendering being reserved
occasion.

Hitherto

the

be properly

vindication of the

full

for

may

original

more convenient
seems

to

remained without any attempt at interpretation.

have

PREFACE.

taken by James Bird, Esq., Secretary of

fac-simile,

Bombay

the

Asiatic Society, will be found

entitled " Historical Researches

volume

interesting

in his

on the Origin and Principles of the Bauddha and

Jaina Religions."*

The numbers merely

indicate

of the

the lines

original.
The

(1)

as that

f of the winepress from the white gushing

soft flowing

which

sets

me at

rest

of

Saka

is

it

that

is

the refining of the fruit, (2)

ministered to thee.

my

the fruit of

low was glowing red;

lip

(3)

Lo, the worship [or blood]

his garden \_paradise\

behold

it

is

blachened.

aroused would have their rights, for they were cast

parting of

Dan,

(5)

one grew mighty

And

the

is

Behold what thou possessest, yea, even theglad-

very grace of his mouth.

soraeness in

my drink,

fruit is

who being

delivered

was

your religion had saved

(4)

which Cyrus

down

at the cry of the

perfectly free.

(6)

laid

His people being

every

even him from uncleanness.

mouth, enkindling them, brought the Serim J together

from the race of Harari.^ (7) My mouth also hastened the rupture, and
his \_Salca's]

as one obeying

gious decree

my

hand thou

his bow.

is

inflicted equality

(8)

turns aside.

the freedom of the polluted

destruction, oppression
twice.

(10)

didst sing praise.

is

and

He who

My gift
penitence.

strife;

reli-

complains of the presence of the

freedom to him who

is

(9)

As

to

Dan

is

fettered,

his unloosing

was

he stoutly turned away, he departed

The predetermined thought

deemed of Kasha wandered about

unclean one, his

is

a hand prepared.

like the [flock] over driven.

The
(11)

prepared was the ready, yea, Gotha, that watched for the presence of

re-

The

Dan,

aiforded concealment to the exile whose vexations became his triumphs

and Saka
vices of

also,

being reinvigorated by the Calamity, purified the East, the

which he branded.

* Plate

44. 14.

t Rakak

rakt, applied

to the refining of wine, &c.

Letters, as if by

another hand, stand above, in the original, which give the sense of perfect

emptiness of

fruit.

Serim Seres

the cause of

much

(free,

or princes [?]).

doubtful discussion.

people called Seres have been

See Latham's Ethnological Essays.

People of the hill-country of Ephraim are so called

2 Sam.

xxiii. 11,

33,

PKEFACE.

VI

Assuming the

correctness of this rendering,

it

pre-

and most suggestive corroboration of

sents a singular

the conclusions arrived at in this volume, as to the

connexion and origin of the Danes, the Goths, and

we here

the Saxons

f"*

named Dan

distinctly associated with the

since

find a people or tribe

the people of Saka, while Cyrus,

well-known king of Persia,

is

who can

Goths and
only be the

poetically referred to as

the desolator of the teacher of Buddhism, Saka,

was

certainly the

and therefore

it

who

same as Godama^ the king of Kasha;

may

not unfairly be inferred that the

destruction of Kasha, mentioned in other inscriptions

n this volume, was caused

quests

by Cyrus, whose con-

extended over Northern India, as well as

Bactria and the country of the Massagetae, amongst

whom,

as Herodotus relates, he

met

considering the relation of the tribe of

Goths,

whom

Dan with

it

may

be interesting to re-

that in the distribution of the

tribes that of

the

have endeavoured to identify with

the Gittites (p. 149, n.),

member

In

his death.

Dan embraced

Israelitish

the country of the Gittites

or people of Gath.

G. M.
Hastings

Dec, 15, 1860.

CONTENTS.

INTRODUCTION.
THE HEBBEW BOOK

A.ND

THE HEBEEW PEOPLE

CHAPTER
EZEKIEL'S TISION

THE

LIGHT

CHAPTER
Israel's perveesion, waexing,

HOW AND WHERE

DID THET GO

eecovert

.17

IV.
.

VI.

123
VII.

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES

CHAPTER
THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI

80

105

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES

CHAPTER

V.

CHAPTER

47

67

CHAPTER
.

III.

THE HEBEEW INFLUENCE AND THE SAXON EACE

new names

CHAPTER

Israel's

II.

a;n^d

CHAPTER

paob

I.

THE CLOUD

I:N^

...

....

143

VIII.

161

CONTENTS.

Vlii

CHAPTER

IX.

THE DOCTEINES OP SAZTA-BTJDDHA

180

CHAPTER
BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS

X.

THEIE OBIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE

CHAPTER

XI.

BUDDHISTIC CAYES AND INSCEIPTIONS

CHAPTER

XII.

THE INSCBIPTIONS AT GIENAE AND DELHI

CHAPTER

....
....
.

THE INSCEIPTION ON FEEOZ's PILLAB

....

XVII.

THE SAXON DEEIVATION AND DESTINY

CHAPTER

288

320

XVI.

THE EELATION OF THE INSCEIPTIONS TO PEOPHECY

265

301

CHAPTER XV.

CHAPTER

227

XIV.

INSCEIPTIONS FOUND AT DELHI

CHAPTER

206

XIII.

SEPULCHEAL INSCEIPTIONS IN AEIAN CHAEACTEES

CHAPTER

....

332

349

XVIII.

THE KABENS AND THEIE TEADITIONS

359

APPENDIX

381

INDEX

...

409

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Plate of Coins

to face

page 156

Bas-relief at Sakchi

171

Illustrations from a Buddhist

Medal

196

Symbols from Bas-reliefs

215

Alphabets

232

Inscriptions from

"

Joonur"

233

Illustrations from Cave-temple at "Joonur"

243

Inscription from Btrath

251

Fag-simile of the Girnar Inscription

269

Sepulchral Inscriptions and Coins

Maniktala

from Jelalabad and

293

Delhi Inscriptions:

North Compartment

303

West Compartment

306

South Compartment
East Compartment

.-

309
312

THE LOST TEIBES AND THE SAXONS OF THE

EAST AND OF THE WEST.

INTRODUCTION.
THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE.

The
of

history of the world predicts the consummation

all

history in a higher standing of our

The darkness

humanity.

of the past

of good

or

of

become

to

Hence with every

the enlightenment of the future.

prophecy,

is

common

we

evil,

find a picture

of the moral condition on which that prophecy

grounded
is

and the general upshot of

all

is

foreseeing

a vision that reveals the dominion of knowledge

over ignorance, and of light over darkness.

are,

There

however, specific predictions in that marvellous

Book on which

Christians found their faith, and the

fulfilment of such predictions has hitherto sustained

the authority of that Book, not only as a record, but

as a

means of throwing

light into the dark passages

of current history, onwards to the end.

feeling

that the truth of that

slight degree,

it,

will,

with a

in

some

be elucidated by this volume, that the

attention of the

subject of

Book

It is

general reader

is solicited

which, though interesting in

to the

itself to in-

INTRODUCTION.

minds,

quisitive

The Bible

first

doubly so to Biblical students.

Is

gave Englishmen an interest in the

now by

East, and

demands upon

its

their hearts,

binds them to concern themselves about

But

transpiring there.
is

necessary to see

its

that

is

to understand the present,

it

all

connexion with the past and

the future.

A portentous
Oriental,

cloud has long hung over

all

that

is

and that cloud spreads, with the elements

bosom.

mighty, and

of a terrible conflict in

its

perhaps final struggle

coming amongst the leading

tribes of

and

men

is

in defence of their traditional creeds

superstitions, against the faiths that are

upon

positive intelligence, the

knowledge of what the

Divine Mind has actually done, and

religions that

are

based

respectively

is

doing.

The

symbolized by the

Lotus, the Crescent, and the Cross, are energising

their votaries afresh.

The

Crescent, the

dimly reflected and changeful

religion inculcated

It

light,

emblem of a

symbolises the

by the sword-bearer, Mahomet.

comes between the highest form of traditional

heathenism, that feeling after God, whose purest em-

blem
is

is

the water-born Lotus, and the Cross, which

the sign of the divine self-sacrifice that destroys sin

and death.

To

the Crescent, as partaking of the

ignorant presumption of a deistic paganism with

its

lunar archaism, belonged the power of beating do^vn

idolatry;

but

it

also held

sword to sword against that

form of the Cross which was borne as a banner

before such Christian conquerors as Constantine and

THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE.

When such
Church and Roman

when

Charlemagne.

conquerors cease,

Greek

Church, East and West,

guns and

find no defence in emperors with great

plausibilities,

the Crescent will wane into the morning

and Turks and Arabs

starlight of a better promise,

will listen to the

Word

that speaks of eternal peace.

If Christian nations, so called, wield the sword with

greater force than other nations,

their
is

power

is

in

armaments

an energy belonging

them

to discern

alone,

it

is

but because there

to their belief

where

strength

all

not because

which enables

lies,

and which,

while conferring validity on their social and

ganizations, inspires

of

general

them with an

irrepressible love

represented by the Cross

is

divine,

gives a sense of authority to those

obey
it

to

As

it.

The

and freedom.

intelligence

and therefore

who

receive

man

policy, it

render a nation determined and ready to

to

speaking,

the

as well as

own

CommerCross represents the Hebrew

the Christian, and so it would

subjugate other people to

element

and

as a faith only so far received as

modify the theory of government and

cially

idea

a faith pertaining to the individual,

subdues the

tends

civil or-

its

laws.

conquer only to tax and supply trade, but, religiously

speaking, the Cross represents the missionary spirit.

In both respects the Cross

is

It converts the peoples that

have no previous religious

literature,

no Koran, no Shasters, no Vedas, but

wars with those that have.

bow down

necessarily aggressive.

to

it

Mere idolaters are to

the physical power and scientific skill

b2

INTRODUCTION.

by the nations that

possessed, as a matter of course,

worship the Author of law and creation but those

;

who

are spiritually ruled

by a written creed which

assumes a divine authority will oppose Christianity or

the Cross with the obstinacy of mental conviction.

Hence the

with the people sym-

difficulty of dealing

by the Crescent and the Lotus. As the

Crescent took the sword, it will perish by the sword.
But the Lotus represents another principle, which

bolized

logically brings

it

into contact with Christianity as a

rival appealing to the

minds of men on the grounds

of conscience and truth.

Buddhists, of

probably

assist

Buddhism
creeds, if

whom

quarter of mankind are

the Lotus

is

the symbol.

It will

understand the relations

us to

of

to the earlier states of society and to other

we

trace the origin of that symbol.

we

first place,

find that

the

In the

Lotus was a sacred

symbol with the ancient Egyptians, and thus

beautiful symbol, like very
India, connects

it

of the mythology of

with Egypt a circumstance, ethno;

logically considered, of

The Lotus,

much

this

much

interest

and importance.

as a sacred symbol, assumes this conventional

T'^

\[

form amongst the hieroglyphics.

The normal number

of the petals of

the lotus

Here we

is

twelve.

see six

of them in profile, divided by the calyx

into threes, thus presenting a triple triplet ; which, in-

terpreted Buddhistically, as well as after the

of the Egyptians,
potentiality,

that

would probably
is

manner

signify perfect

to say, existence sustained

by

THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE.

Now,

Omnipotence.*

interesting to observe that

it is

from a very early period the

symbol of the
lily

Israelites

used

the

be disputed whether the

introduced by Solomon amongst the sacred sym-

was the

bols of the temple

but there
it

may

It

lily.

is

Kings

lotus (1

reason to think that

it

26);

vii.

was, and that

was the accepted symbol representing the twelve

tribes of Israel.

If so,

had probably been

it

their

symbol from the time of their sojourn in Egypt,

where Moses acquired that learning, so much of which

That the common

appears in his writings.

Palestine might afterwards supersede

it is likely,

cause the lotus was not there indigenous.

however, might well

S3^mbolise

lily

of
be-

The lotus,

the tribes by

the

twelve overlapping petal-leaves, seemingly divided,

as

Moses divided them, into four bands, consisting of

three tribes in each.

The Jews

of the lily to this day.

retain this significance

In their service on the day of

atonement they use these words

" Thou,

who

chosen this day in the year, and appointed

balm and cure

for the nation likened

when thy temple

(

p.

unto the

lily,

390.) Whether the lotus was a

symbol of Israel or not,

is Avell

as a

existed aforetime in Jerusalem. "f

The Jew^ by Myer,

Buddhists

it

hast

its

use as a symbol by the

known, and

if

we

succeed, as

we

* " The lotus leaves and flowers are supported upon stalks about a yard
The calyx is divided into four, embracing the flower, resembling a
gigantic magnolia flower, the ideal of elegant cups, a foot in diameter, oi' a
rosy colour, very brilliant towards the edges. These rosy petals, or leaves
of the corolla, are normally a dozen, and overlap each other like tiles upon
a rool"." ' Household Words," Sept. 5, 1857, p. 230.
f " Israel shall grow as the lily." Hos. xiv. 5.
long.

INTRODUCTION.

6
hope, In tracing
force of
will be

Buddhism

to an Israelitish origin, the

what has been stated concerning the

more

lotus

evident.

But, for the present, let us turn

symbol to our own

it is

away from

the Cross that

is

this

conquering

the enemies of civilization, and, with the open Bible,

especial energy to the

gives

Saxon

race.

Though

reason and the teaching of history would convince us

must

that heathendom

from other

perish, yet it is

pages than those of history that

we gather

telligence that associates the downfal of

the in-

heathendom

The burdens

with the diffusion of Israelitish ideas.

of the prophets are heavy with predictions, pointing

to

two grand events

tion of the

only to

Hebrew

the dispersion and

people.

the restora-

These things are

trifles

That people are the proof that their

triflers.

prophets spoke the truth, and the Western world

feels

much

of their significance.

ever amongst
future.

This

them pointing

we

There

to their past

is

Hand

and to their

see only in relation to the tribes of

Judah and Benjamin. Where are the other tribes?

Emphatically lost, and yet there must be a spirit
stirring amongst them that stirs the world.
Can
they ever be found

influence, position,

and transformations may be

cated, though,

Perchance not but that their

;

as a nation,

distinguished, will be

shown

they

indi-

may be no more

in this volume.

The way of the kings of the East, or rather the

kings that come from the sunrising, is to be prepared
by the drying-up of the Euphrates. Whatever that

THE HEBREW BQOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE.

may mean,

it is

generally understood that the people

must be of
since the Jews

referred to are Hebrew, and, if so, they

the Lost Tribes, Israelites, Beni-Israel,

have never been hidden, and their seat

Our

East.

may throw some

research

new ideas,

like

not the far

light

mode and manner

question; but, as the

present some

is

of

on this
it

may

images seen in obscurity,

the reader will kindly refrain from hasty conclusions,

and consent to

The

feel his

way along with

the

^vriter.

interest of the subject is not small, for the nature

of the inquiry involves the consideration of some of

the greatest problems of man's history.

Could the Ten Tribes be traced, we should find a

key to much that

is

hidden in the history of the

world and in the Bible, our understanding would

be enlarged, and our faith confirmed.
attention in the right direction
face of

Time more

over

and obtain a

it,

clearly

By

we should

through the

fuller insisrht of tlie

veil

fixing
see the

thrown

wisdom and

the providence concerned in the distribution of the

human
intellect

races, for the higher

and energies

in the

development of man's

commerce and the war-

fares of the world.

Traces of the Lost Tribes have been supposed to

be found in Mexico* and in Malabar,f in England J

and in Japan. The Afghans claim to be the very
* See Simon's work on Israel in America.
t C. Buchanan on the Hebrews in Malabar.
J Wilson on our Israelitish origin.
Dr. Bettelheim on Loochoo and Japan.

" Christian Researches.'

INTRODUCTION.

8
people,

and their claims are sustained by many

gent witnesses.

Abyssinia

also

is

said to possess

some of them, and even Central Africa

evidence of their presence.*

intelli-

is

not without

In short, the learned

have discovered Israelitish influence in every land,

" from China to Peru."
that there

is

What is our inference? Why,

truth in that prophecy which said that

Israel should be

sown among the

up, and yet not lost. (Hos.

Amongst

viii.

nations, swallowed

8.)

the most civilized nations the

Hebrew

known and acknowledged; but this, as

already observed, is due to the Book which we have
derived from the Hebrew nation, and to the dispersion of the Jews, who are popularly supposed to

influence

is

include the whole house of Israel;

but the Jews

themselves very properly regard themselves as

tinct

dis-

from the Ten Tribes who revolted from the

throne of David.

We

filled in relation to

perceive that prophecy

the

Jews

is ful-

as dispersed; but

we

* There are multitudes of Jews, in every variety of condition, in the

north of Africa but there are probably more of the Hebrew race far within
the interior, about Timbuctoo and the Lake Tsad, and still further to the
To the latter we should look for traces of their connexion with the
south.
Lost Tribes. It is well known that the Gha and other Negro tribes have
numerous well-marked Jewish characters in their religious observances.
A paper by Mr. Hanson, a native preacher, read before the British AssociaNow, unless
tion of Science, at Swansea, 1848, leaves no doubt of the fact.
we suppose that the Hebrews were derived from the interior of Africa, we
must suppose that the Hebrews have penetrated there, and thence diffused
the elements of civilization, and prepared the centre of the land of Ham for
the blessings of Christianity and the new order of universal government to
;

be at

last established.

Christian and scientific missionaries will probably

soon afford us more light on the subject.

Man," p. 476.

See Latham's

**

Varieties

of

THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE.

require larger views, both of nations and of prophecy,

in order to discover the influence of the

The

dispersion of the

nations

who have

Jews

Ten

Tribes.

a testimony to those

is

received Christianity

the principle on which prophecy

but, viewing

constructed,

is

we

should expect to find the history of other nations

by the prophecies that refer to the disperand influence of the Ten Tribes. The following

illustrated

sion

pages are intended to point attention to them, with

a view to trace their connexion with the nations of
India,
earth.

and with

As

testimony,

all

the

kindreds of the

civilized

the Bible will be quoted as authoritative

may

it

be well to state the writer's views

with regard to the character and scope of that

mony.
direct

and

it

The Book assumes

to be the record of the

and divine teaching which

appeals

to

two

its

especial

writers enjoyed,

modes of

in respect to the truth of its pretensions

adaptation of

man; and,
in

human

first

proof

its

testi-

proof

first,

the

doctrines to the spiritual wants of

secondly, the fulfilment of its predictions

history and in individual experience.

is

the pleading of the Inspirer of the Book,

through the words contained in

soul; the second
sufficiently

The

is

it,

with a man's own

a demonstration to those

instructed to

observe

the

who

are

coincidence

between the events foretold and the real history of

Divine Providence amongst mankind.
that of the Perfect Being to
being,

man

The appeal

is

as an intelligent

capable of understanding that

worlds and

souls are governed on the principles of righteousness

10

INTRODUCTIOK.

and

love.

We

are called on to observe the connexion

and relation between the moral and

tion of
is

man and

religious condi-

As humanity

the history of his race.

one in nature, so

providence.

is

of working towards

man

There

a unity

is

in the revelations of that

Being who made man.

The Creative

made

man

the worlds, moulded

Spirit

of dust, and inspired

the breathing soul with self-consciousness and

represented

as of course

whom He has
ciple

so

first to last.

will, is

concerned, that a being

endowed should apprehend the

He

on which

who

necessarily acts towards

prin-

man from

If this be true, then every glimpse of

the connexion between prophecy and history will

help us to connect the beginning of

man with

of man, the design of his creation with

In short, research of any kind

interesting

new

and important

as

it

is

the end

its fulfilment.

only so far really

enables us to perceive

evidence of the fact that the

Maker

of

man

is

ordering man's circumstances with respect to a foreseen

and predicted end,

man
to

in

which the moral relation of

to his Creator shall be demonstrated.

say, all

knowledge

is

That

is

perverted that does not

increase our faith in the perfection of the superin-

tending Intelligence, by proving to us that justice,

love,

wisdom, and omnipotence are one, and presiding

To know
God in that

alike over all the outo-oino-s of existence.

anything truly

is

thing, whether in

individual

to

know the

relation

experience.

will of

to history, creation, or

That the Divine Mind

expressed in man's united history

is

is

the doctrine of

THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE.

the Bible

and

it is

only in that Book that

we

11

find a

bond of connexion between man and man through

all his

kindreds, from the beginning to the present,

and to the end.

tendency to
his

Without that Book each man has a

isolation, limited

only by the interests of

immediate relationships; but with that Book we

become conscious of our

known and

all

relation to all that can be

that can be

by any people

felt

in

any

period of the world.

These observations bear largely

on our

we propose

subject, for

seeking after the

remnants and ramifications of that peculiar people

who were

selected, trained

and judged, and scattered

for the very purpose, as the prophets inform us, that

mankind

in general

might learn more concerning the

methods of the divine government, as that of a just

God and a Saviour.

Our inquiry instructs us
authentic, inspired,
trine.

to the value of an

and well-preserved book of doc-

Without a Bible every man who could might

write his

own

Bible,

and constitute

his decaloo^ue accordinof to his

men would let

find a man who

as other

cannot

as

own

his doctrines
desires,

and as far

him, act accordingly.

deeds, no divine doctrines,

and

We

needs no record of divine

no

history,

no prophecy to

him up to the height of his

own capacity for improvement and where there are
none of those things the mind dwindles down to a
instruct him, and to keep

state of spiritual inanition, or lapses into barbarism

and savageness.

Man must

ciples evinced in deeds

believe in moral prin-

and doctrines above

his

own

12

INTRODUCTION.
" Unless a

impulses in order to his elevation.

how poor a
He must have faith in God as

erect himself above

man!"

Himself, that

is,

His

himself,

thing

revealing

all

that pertains to the

As a

well-being of man, before he can be improved.

cannot intend to act

is

through some medium, as

will,

the Author and Finisher of

man

man

if

he believes he cannot, so

neither can he aim at a higher position morally and

intellectually without evidence that

man may

He must see a human example of the

know how it may become his. Divine
it.

implies communication in words as to

able and possible, and
nication

as

felt

Hence

another.

further implies

and

teaching
is

desir-

its

revelation has always taken

two

first,

chief forms, alike interesting to thinking

prophesying as

fact,

commufrom one human mind to

it

truth

what

attain

foreshowing

men

the working

out

of

human hismode and medium of wor-

divine moral government in relation to

tory; and, secondly, the

shipping

God

as evinced in doctrines

and taught by

divine deeds in the past history or experience of men.

Hence, the book containing a record of such deeds

essential to the perpetuation of pure religion;

is

and

hence, too, the necessity for the general diffusion of

the instruction contained in that book.

Men
there

everywhere believe that there has been or that

still

is

a revelation.

All

men

believe in the

best book, morally speaking, of which they

hence, every people that has

know;

a literature has

its

authoritative book or books, and every nation respects

THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE.

13

other nations just according to that nation's estimate

of the written
nations.

religious

code belonging to

government of India

Is not the

those

in English

hands partially paralysed, notwithstanding our conquests, because,

though professing to be Christian,

has yet been afraid, from the

open before those

Mahomedans

whom

in India

it

first,

it

to set the Bible

would govern?

The

have been truer to their Pro-

phet than Englishmen have been to their God; and

therefore,

though they would compel idolaters to

submit to the Koran, yet the Hindoos were ready

rather to band themselves with* those consistent alike

and

in their creed

their cruelty, than submit to milder

masters whose faith seemed to be only a compromise,

if it

were not the mere worship of

Mammon.

The

Indian government have charged the preachers of

the Cross with worse than foolishness, and yet the

sown by those very preachers has saved that

land.
Our Bible is our only credential, and woe be
unto us if we are ever ashamed of it
seed

Common

sense in every country having a book,

believes in the need of a

permanent word, or written

revelation; and hence the multitude of false Bibles

in the world.

but that law

is

The
really

necessity of a moral law

found written out plainly in no

book, and in no heart, but as

it is

volume of the Hebrews and yet

;

of Israel that

we

is felt

transcribed from the

it is

from the history

derive the deepest insight of the

consequences of breaking the laws of worship and

sociality.

It

was a speculative idolatry which led to

INTRODUCTION.

14

and final dispersion of the Ten Tribes

the deportation

produced by the most degrading

for that idolatry,

conceptions of the Divine attributes, gendered a wor-

common

ship of symbols that at once blinded the

mind, and hindered the people^s reception of God's

teaching in their history and by their inspired prophets, while

it

also

brought down their morality to

The Holy Land rejected

be no vain pursuit if we endeavour to

the low level of the heathen.

them.
trace

It will

some of the

Since

Rome

results in the dispersion of Israel.

with iron rule subjugated the nations

and trampled down the Holy

God taught

the words of

where the Son of

City,

life

to those

who

crucified

Him, the scattering of the Jews amongst the peoples

has been everywhere recognised as the judgment of

God for their rejection of his mercy. The trampling

down of the Holy Land by the worst of the Gentiles
(Ezek.

vii.

24),

and

its

division

by the Turks, has

been so visibly the fulfilment of prophecy,

that,

even

according to the creed of Mahomet, the Turks do not

own
it

for

it,

but only hold

some purpose

it

still

in keeping tiU

in reserve, or

God

till

requires

the punish-

Jews is complete, when they are again

The Jews themselves wait for their
to possess it.
restoration, and expect it soon. But still the scattered
families of Judah, as a wonder, a sign, and a witness,

ment

of the

stand apart, belonging to no nation, though ruling

the money-markets of
millions of

the world.

At

least seven

such witnesses testify to the people of

Christendom that prophecy

is

the light of

God

to

THE HEBREW BOOK AND THE HEBREW PEOPLE.

man.

There

is

15

warning and promise, as well as pro-

phecy, to the whole civilized world, in the present

state

and known history

of

scattered Jews.

those

But there are other Hebrews besides these who are

There are those tribes that
telling upon the world.
never returned from beyond the Euphrates to the Land
of

Promise.

Their history,

wisdom, power, and love of

They

too, will indicate the

Him who

are representatives of Joseph and

Manasseh; and the blessings that

phetic

scattered them.

mouth

the

of

fell

Ephraim and

from the pro-

aged Isaac, in

whom

all

the

families of the earth are to be blessed, are not void to

The Hand that rules the waves and

directs the streams of life is upon them ; though they
seemed but as a wild herd choosing their own way in
the desert, yet they are really led as if by a shepherd

the Lost Tribes.

amongst the mountains.

of the world's history
is

likely to fall

upon

is

Now

that the winding

at hand,

some sudden

their history

that the Author of prophecy

which

shall

up

light

show

God of providence.
who crucified their

the

is

The direct descendants of those

King are seen in every Christian land with the veil
upon their heart, but still reading the holy books
and observing the traditions of their

fathers,

and

proving to us the truth of prophecy in a manner

scarcely less than miraculous.
to

What

the Jews are

Christendom, the other outcasts of Israel, " the

remnant

left

in the East.

from Assyria,"

We

in the significant

will be to the heathen

seem to hear the voices of the dead

language put by the prophet into

INTRODUCTION.

16
the

of that outcast Israel, " After two days he

mouth

will revive us^ in the third

we

day he

shall live in his sight.^^

then,

is

(Hos.

will raise us up,

and

This

life,

vi. 1,

in faith, faith in their king Iinmanuel,

clared to be the Son of

" de-

God with power, by

We

resurrection of the dead."

are in the midst of

the third day from the date of IsraePs captivity

according to

St. Peter's call to

the

if,

remembrance, we are

and a

to regard a

day as

Jew would

scarcely understand the idea of an indefi-

nite period.
will

now

cations,

literally a

thousand years

But, not to discuss such points here,

pass on in search,

and then of

facts,

first,

we

of prophetic indi-

concerning the dispersion

Ten Tribes and their influence on the world.

When we have followed some of the traces of their
of the

dispersion,

we

shall be

prepared to consider what con-

iiexion can be discovered between that event, the

religious system of

Buddhism, and the formation of

the Saxon and Gothic nations.

THE TEEE OF BUDDHA.

17

CHAPTER L
EZEKIEL'S VISION

As

the

THE

prophet Ezekiel

LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

addressed the words of

Jehovah to the captives of Israel, and was himself

one amongst them, we turn to his prophecies as the
most likely to contain those guiding indications of
which we are now in search. The prophet witnessed
the varied and degrading idolatries into which the
professed people of God had fallen.
Instead of testifying against the heinous sins connected with the

worship of idols and deified

ideas, those

who

possessed

the holy oracles had mingled the words of

the ritual of idols, confounded the doctrines

God with
of Heaven

with those of Hell, and, no longer seeking forgiveness

of sin

by the appointed

sacrifices,

and

at the

mercy-

wings of the golden cherubim, they

had profaned the holy place and the holy Name and,
seat beneath the

no longer looking

for the

Shechinah of Jehovah's

and gilded gods of

their own making, and sought no honour but such as
accorded with the obscenities, cruelties, and blasphepresence, they gloried in painted

mies of their

own abominable

habits.

witnessed this and was astonished.

He

The prophet
foresaw the

obstinate adherence of this people to their adopted

idolatries;

and, the Holy Spirit stirring his heart

ezekiel's vision

18

with holy indignation and abhorrence, caused the

words of burning truth to burst from his lips while

But

he denounced them as outcasts.

of Jehovah's

feeling

the Almighty must

still

in the

because of

retributions,

holiness, he felt, too, that the

yet,

wisdom and the

find utterance ;

his

love of

and therefore,

through the terrible array of wrath he saw, also, the

triumphs of mercy. Hence, in the prophecy spoken
against the rebellious house of Israel, the wondrous
course of a redeeming Providence is depicted upon
the cloud that bears the lightning and the thunder;
even the judgments that pursue the people in their
wanderings point ever to the eternal refuge.
The prophet opens his stupendous mission in awful
symbols, and in a manner worthy of the grand occasion, his

words and

his thoughts being alike divinely

appropriate to the purpose.

in the Spirit

Like

St.

on the Lord's day, an

John the

divine,

exile, alone in

but that angels came to him, the prophet seems

to look as if into the opened heavens, and, beholding
with the Spirit's eye future times and existences
unformed except in spirit, he foretells, with the dissoul,

tinctness of one describing

what he

sees,

the destinies

of Israel, and the results of their dispersion in relation to the world.

Let us imagine ourselves amongst the rocks above

the green and flowery banks of the river Chebar,*
as it flows in silvery smoothness through the open

by many a murmuring streamlet gushing

from the brown hiUs and scattering the gleams

valley, fed
do^v^l

* " Per

solitudines aboraeque aranis herbidas ripas," says

the river Chebar.

M.

1.

xW.

c. iii.

Ammiauus of

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

of the declining sunshine like things of
in the light.

A lonely man

19
life

rejoicing

slowly paces the green-

sward now with fixed gaze he bows his face towards

the ground, intent on reverent thoughts, and now
;

with keen eye upraised to the cloudless heavens, as if

he would penetrate the profoundity of the Infinite,

and see God.

He

stands Avith covered

brow

as he seems to con-

template some wondrous scene spreading out before

his

eye on the wide plain towards the north.

from thence with a vast cloud

upon its wings, turning rapidly upon its centre,
carrying fire in its bosom, and shedding an amber-

whirlwind

is

rolling on

coloured radiance around

its

path.

The appearance

of four living creatures proceeds from the whirling

and they look in the distance like human

beings.
But each has four faces and four wings, and
their feet are like those of a young heifer, narrow
and sharp, and hollow-soled and cloven, and they
cloud,

shine like burnished brass.

On

each of the four sides

of the advancing mystery there are faces and wings

and under the wings, human hands. Their wings

meet together above their heads, and they fly straight
forward in each direction, expanding as they fly, and
yet continuing united by their wings above.
Each
of the living beings has the face of a man, with the
face of a lion on the right side.
There are the faces
of a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle appropriate to
each of the living beings.
They have each four
wings and four faces. Two of the four wings of each
creature are stretched out above and these join the
wings, each of the other, on all sides, and with the
;

c 2

20

ezekiel's vision

other two wings each

creature covers

body.

its

Thus w^inged and protected they go straight forward

as the spirit in them wills to move they turn not a?
if to determine where to go, but they move straight
;

on to every quarter of the world. There is a brilliance about them as of burning coals or flaming
lamps, and a flashing as of lightning.
Their whole
appearance

that of a fire of glowing coals, or of

is

torches in the wind flaring out sudden gleams of

brilliance, or, like the aurora-borealis^

flashes of brightness, or,

we

witness often in a

the lightning plays, with continuous

rising storm,
flashes,

as

with intercurrent

The

amidst the dark, rolling clouds.

living

beings themselves seem to change places, and pass

and repass with the speed of lightning.

first

See the

chapter of Ezekiel.

The meaning of the wondrous symbols is not manifest,

and, alas, our commentators give us

ing,

and

light

less

better to view
sense,

and of

on the subject.

little

Will

the subject in the light of

not be

it

common

scriptural, as well as of classical

in the emplojnnent of symbolical

language?

learn-

usage

By

this

means we may possibly obtain a clear meaning without any display of particular research, and that, too,
without presumption. We must remember that the
prophet
in

is

standing on the banks of the river Chebar,

Kurdistan,

heavens.
fiery

and looking towards

From

this quarter he beholds the whirling

cloud advancing towards him,

descries the

the northern

and then he

wondrous appearances proceeding out of

Now, according to prophetic usage, a whirlwind,

a cloud, and a fire signify a multitude of people

it.

THE LIGHT

THE CLOUD.

IN

21

and spreading mischief,

and therefore the first idea we derive from this description is that of an invading army from the north.
We need not stay to prove that the symbol of a
cloud signifies a multitude, and by implication a great
power of accomplishing either good or evil. This
figure is a natural one, and frequently used by poets

by some

scattered

Homer

thus, in

great

company of

violence,

(11.

ver.

273), a cloud of foot

foot soldiers.

Jeremiah

is

(iv. 13), in

announcing the approach of an invading army, em" Be-

ploys several of the figures here introduced.

come up as clouds^ and

hold^ he shall

be as a whirlwind

Ezekiel,

in

his chariots shall

his horses are swifter than eagles'''

describing the

descent

similar terms (xxxviii. 15, 16,

of

and

Gog,

also 9,

uses

10).

cloud very aptly symbolizes a multitude in motion,

from the dry

soil usually accompanies an army.
Xenophon, in his
Anabasis^ finely notices this fact.
When Cyrus was
for in Eastern countries a cloud of dust

approaching Artaxerxes, over a vast plain, like that

over which the prophet was looking when he saw the
the first indication of the
approach was " a white cloud seen in the

future in

enemy ^s

his

vision,

distant horizon, spreading far

and wide.

cloud drew nearer, the bottom of

and

solid.

As

it

still

advanced,

after,

chariots

appeared dark

it

was observed in
in the sun and
;

the ranks of horse and foot, and

or

armed

were distinctly seen."

As regards the symbolical meaning

may

the

it

various parts to gleam and glitter

soon

As

find sufficient evidence in the

we might

refer to profane

and

of winds

Holy

we

Scriptures,

classical writers.

22

EZEKIELS VISION

'

In Jeremiah (xlix. 36, 37), the symbol is again employed, and again explained
" And wpon Elam I

will bring

heaven^

the

and I

four winds from the four quarters of

will scatter them towards all those winds;

and there shall he no nation whither the outcasts of Elam

shall not come.
For 1 will cause Elam to be dismayed
before their enemies^ and I will send the sword after
them until

The
from

I have consumed

and the coloured brightness proceeding

fire

it

them,^^

are less familiar symbols.

What

does the

When

language of prophecy teach concerning fire?

associated with other indications of evil,
sickness, affliction, torment, destruction,
tion, as

we

find

in

the strength

FIRE round about, and

For

heart.

behold^

his chariots like

denotes

and

purifica-

such passages as the following

him

''Therefore he hath poured ui)on

anger and

it

of the
it

the

battle^

fury of his
heJiath set him on
the

bwMt^Thim^ yet he laid

Lord

a ichirlwind^

will
to

it

not

to

come with fire, and

render his anger with

fury^ and his rebuke like flames (?/fire." (Isai. Ixvi. 15.)
" Yea^ I will gather you and blow upon you in the fire

of

my

wrath^

will bring the

refine themJ^

With

and ye

shall be melted in the midst,^^

third part through the fire,

(Zech.

"

and I will

xiii. 9.)

the significance of colour the readers of the

Bible in general are, unfortunately, very

quainted, and hence they lose

very

little

much

beautiful truth so frequently expressed

by

ac-

of the

it.

The

symbolical meaning of colours and of their combina-

was comparatively well understood by the

ancients; and even in the Middle Ages this variety of
symbolism was in some degree preserved amongst us.

tions

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

23

though now the cloud of the dark ages, without its

Iris, seems to have settled down on the colleges of
heraldry, and we look in vain to the learned in coats
of arms to tell us what they mean by the colours,
yet so religiously preserved in their distinctness by
the emblazoners of shields and crests.

The

spirit

and sense of religious truth was once expressed in

heraldry, but now, perhaps, more of the spirit of pride
and pretension. In our cathedral windows we may
see the Apostles and their Lord, robed in the hues of
light, as significant of

the individual character attri-

buted to each of them by ancient

artists,

who

with conventional meaning in their colours.

now

know

not where

their

luminous language,

modern

artists, in

painted

But we

to look for an interpretation of

though

it

appears that

reverent ignorance, perpetuate the

symbols, while they have lost their significance.

we may

receive the testimony of those who,

If
like

Moses, were learned in Egyptian lore, or in that of

the Etruscans and the Hebrews,

all

the colours of

were to them expressive of spiritual truths.

The Israelites seem clearly to have understood the
varied renderings of light on the gemmed breastplate of the high priest, and every tint, as well as
every form in the furniture, and the decorations of the
tabernacle and the temple, spake with intelligence to
This symbolism of colour
the wise amongst them.
was calculated to become a universal language. Thus,
in India and China the characters of their deities and

light

their doctrines are expressed

by the

initiated.

by colours understood

In Hue's translation of the Chinese

records of Christianity

we read

of the luminous

84

EZEKIEL^S

VISION

conveyed in the blue chariot, and its

doctrine being a blue cloud, because it is truth from

religion berng

We

heaven.

read of the vermilion palace, and the

adornments of all colours^ and, as usual, we take what

we do not understand for mere poetry, instead of
perceiving what the fathers of the world intended to
tell us, namely, that they believed all moral and social
excellences to stand in relation,

first,

to the pure white

and then to the primitive colours

blue, yellow, and red, as expressive of faith, hope,
and love in their earthly manifestation. The days
light of heaven,

of the week are beautifully, though, alas,

trously,

with

associated

now

idola-

Divine qualities by

the

Brahmins thus, Sunday is pure sun-light; Monday

or Moonday, as its reflection is white, that is purity
Tuesday, flame-coloured coral, or love and hope in
action; Wednesday, the emerald, kindliness and accommodation; Thursday, the topaz, holy knowledge;
:

Friday, the diamond, light embodied as in a teacher

Saturday, the sapphire, truth, slow and sure.

day of the week

festation of some
appropriate

is

thus connected with the mani-

deity,

colour.

Each

which

The

is

seven

expressed by the
precious

things

honoured by Buddhists, in China, and elsewhere, are

gems, or other substances of various colours.
These
are used to express virtues, and are accordingly
found in the tombs of Buddhist notables in India.*
The science of colour as a symbol has been too much
neglected

for,

while the facts of material action and

phenomena have been sufficiently regarded, their

moral meaning has been overlooked, and is now
* See Mythology

of India,

and Major Ounningham's Bhilsa Topes.

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

almost lost to us.

But,

25

we would apprehend the

if

word of prophecy, and throw its light into dark

places, we must give more heed to the language of
sure

symbol, lest the Apocalypse of heaven should have

been written in vain for us.

The amber-coloured or golden brightness proceeding
out of the midst of the

fire

and cloud described by

the prophet would, to a learned Oriental, probably

and mercy accompanying the infliction

of the wrath denounced against the people on whom
It is not the colour of pure
the invasion was to fall.
unclouded light, but of light seen through a hazy
medium, a difi'used mixture of red and yellow, such
signify love

as

we sometimes

summer sunset or in
Whether in the words of

witness in a

the glow of the rising day.

prophecy, or in the sky, or in the hedgerow flower,

this colour
that,

clouds

always means the same thing.

whatever wrath

may

surround

may
us,

prevail,

It

means

and whatever

hope and love

still

live,

and that the divine character is still written upon

nature with the same finger that moulded man and
put the bloom upon his cheek in token of love and
hope, as the natural expression of healthful Hfe.

God's

own names

of love and light are written

by the ancients in letters of gold and vermilion.

Though the accommodating glories of the Omnipotent
arise out of a profundity too deep, and therefore too
dark, for an angel's ken to penetrate, yet all above

man, to Him who made

you, and raise your eye towards heaven and, even
in the midnight you shall see the glories of His
wondrous hand more sweetly and yet more vastly
us and around, says, " Look,

26

ezekiel's vision

The

than in the meridian day.

beams

light of eternity

forth in golden radiance from immeasurable

darkness,

all

space

is

full

of eyes piercing with their

gentle brightness into your soul,

but believe in

The

it.

you

man.^ if

will

colours of all the stars are

those of truth and love."

Next

to the whirlwind, and the cloud, and their

attendant glory,

we have

presented to us in the pro-

phet's vision the results of those

the cloud came, as

sembling

man

sition, as life,

term

it

Out of

phenomena.

were, four living beings re-

This scarcely needs expo-

(ver. 5).

or living being,

is

the ordinary Oriental

for collective existence, especially in relation to

mankind

as existing in connected societies.

Hence,

from the general appearance of the whole vision, we

are taught that, out of this invasion from the north,
four varieties of
all

human

institutions should spread in

directions in association with

men having amongst

them the same elements and means of

intelligence,

industry, endurance, and success.

Each

having four faces and four wings,

division,

intimates

four modes

character under

many modes

all

of

manifesting the

mental

circumstances, together with as

of advancement and defence.

appearing under the form

either

of

All these

one cherub,

viewing their faces collectively, or as four cherubs,

viewed separately,

signifies that the

movements and

peculiarities of the collective bodies of living beings

are especially appointed, qualified, and directed

by

Divine Power, with reference to the ultimate revelation of wisdom, truth, justice, and mercy, as evinced in
all

the ways of Providence, both in the physical and

27

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

spiritual history of the

that part of

it

human

race ; or, at least, of

here signified.

Layarcl, in his

work on the Nimroud

sculptures,

out the resemblance between the

points

symbolic

employed by the prophet Ezekiel in his

sublime vision, and the Assyrian religious emblems

figures

supposed to be typical of divine attributes. Ezekiel,

no doubt, had seen those emblems but the figures of
;

a man, a lion, an ox, and an eagle, as emblematic of

Divine I^ower in relation to the chosen tribes were,

as

we

shall show,

employed and understood by the

Israelites long before their captivity; and, therefore,

if

the prophet meant to refer to Assyrian ideas at

which

is

all,

very doubtful, he certainly would, by that

reference, teach the Israelites, to

his prophecies,

how

all

whom

he addressed

the attributes of the true God,

Jehovah, and not a confusion of divinities, were concerned in carrying out his purposes with regard to
his chosen people.

The

feet of the living beings are first particularized

(ver. 7).

The

the body, and

natural and

feet are the inferior extremities of

signify the

lower form of what

is

necessary to the carrying out of any

Thus our Lord, in washing

the feet of his disciples, taught them not only humility, but that even those parts of their nature most
exposed to defilement were perfectly cleansed by Him,
and if they walked together aright and according to
To sit at the
his Word, should be preserved pure.
feet is to take the place of the humble scholar, and to
physical efibrt or design.

set foot

on a place

is

to take bodily possession of

and to rule there; as in Deut.

i.

36, xi.

24;

it

Rev.

S8

ezekiel's vision

X. 2; Ps. xliv. 5, xci. 13; Isai. xxvi. 6;

Mai.

iv.

with his
is

23;
said to trouble the waters

3.

Pharaoh

feet

(Ezek. xxxii. 2); which in the

interpreted to

rowed

Dan.

soldiers,

is

mean

vii.

Targum

that his auxiliaries, or bor-

trampled down the people

whom

invaded like a river rushing over the ground.

they

The

feet of the symbolic creatures are said to be straight

or narrow, and

flat at

the base like the feet of a calf;

probably to indicate the fitness of the power or people

walk through difficulties, just as creatures

of the ox kind can pass over the most difficult and
miry places in conseqence of their feet expanding as
they descend into the mire, and, from their peculiar
construction, immediately contracting again when
drawn up; thus rendering it easy for them and

typified to

naturally agreeable to traverse those countries

in

which other creatures would be lost, or find no footing and no food.

Thus, the head of the ox, together
with the feet of the calf, indicates their fitness to
occupy the course of rivers, and reap advantage from
those lands which, from their abounding in water,

may, by industry and proper natural appliances, be

rendered most productive of food for

The

man and

beast.

colour of the feet, sparkling like burnished brass,

expresses a furbished firmness and preparedness, with

means of action and of progress, both strong and

bright.
The Grecian empire is symbolized by brass
in Daniel.
St. John, in the Apocalypse, saw Jesus
with

feet like fine brass as

(Rev.

i.

burning in a furnace

15), and, in Daniel's vision at Hiddekel, the

army and
which

if

the mighty one

mighty one

whom

predicted

he there saw, and

war

and

divisions,

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

appeared with
if

to

feet, in colour, like

signify that

the

29

polished brass, as

angel was commissioned to

employ natural means, as the minister of Jehovah, to

conquer and subdue, by power and violence, the
(Dan. x. 6.)
natural opposers of righteousness.
Just as now, in China and in India, Jehovah is
at war with oppressors by means of those appointed.

hands of a man were under their wings on their

four sides y This sentence expresses the fact that
human agency and skill were spontaneously, and as
''''The

if

with perfect freewill, engaged in carrying out the

movements and

desires of the living creatures, or

men. The hands are the instruments of reason. Throughout the Holy Scriptures
the actions of the hands are employed to express
those of the heart and mind in the exercise of power.
Thus, to give the hand is a token of submission (as
in 2 Chron. xxx. 8; Ps. Ixviii. 31; Lam. v. 6).
Horace (Epod. xvii. ) uses the same expression. These
collective bodies of

hands, or the peculiar

human instruments

were employed in

of the in-

under
the united wings, or under the protection and sustaining power of an ever-connected and connecting
There is no break, no interruption to
Providence.
God's purpose and proceedings and as the cherubim
over the mercy-seat in the Holy of Holies had their
wings joined above and below, so it is all through
nature and providence.
The ministry of Jehovah's
messengers is unbroken and unceasing, and man's
agency and volition break not the chain of Divine
Thus Solomon placed the two cherubim
causations.

telligent will,

all

directions

30

ezekiel's vision

within the oracle, with wings extended from wall to

wall. (1

Kings

vi. 27.)

The Persians understood wings to symbolize power

and possession.
Thus Cyrus, in his prognostic
vision, when sleeping in the country of the Massagetae, saw Darius, the eldest son of Hystaspes, with
wings on his shoulders, like a cherub, one of which

overshadowed Asia, and the other Europe; a vision

" So
fulfilled in that Darius who befriended Daniel.
this Daniel prospered in the reign of Darius and in
the reign of Cyrus the Persian." Dan. vi. 28.
The
Hebrew word that signifies a wing also means a
covering. Eagles' wings are mentioned as symbols of
Divine protection and conveyance in Exodus xix. 4.
The phrase " the wind hath hound them up in her
wings^'' is used by Hosea (iv. 19) to denote the condition of Ephraim, or the tribes of Israel, when torn
from their native land, and scattered by the Assyrian
conqueror, and afterwards to the four quarters of the
world, and never suffered to rest, but still, under
Divine protection, supplied with power and guidance.
The faces are the outward expressions of inward
characters, and these are symbolized by a union of
the human face with that of a lion on one side, and
that of an ox with that of an eagle on the other. To
explain this

we must

refer to the legionary standards

by Judah, Reuben,
Ephraim, and Dan. (Num. x.) Under each of these,
according to the Targum, marched three tribes.
Each standard was of three colours, like the precious
of the hosts of Israel, headed

stones in the breast-plate of the high priest, on which

the

names of the

tribes

were engraven.

Now,

be-

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

appropriate

these

sides

colours,

it

31
stated,

is

by

Abenezra and others, that the banners had emblazoned on them the emblems of each tribe. That of
Reuben was the form of a man that of Judah, a
lion that of Ephraim, an ox that of Dan, an eagle.
Thus, we have ancient, and in this matter, good au;

understood

thority, for believing that the Israelites

the emblems

mean
As

own

tribes collectively.*

in each of the four living beings the

emblems

whole of

were united, as
under one system of co-operation and as these

these
if

their

employed by the prophet Ezekiel to

of the Israelitish tribes

fourfold manifestations of Divine order over-ruling

human
cloud

effort

it

is

and the

issued from the whirlwind

reasonable to conclude that

amongst the Israelites,

addressed, understood
* The cherubim, or

whom

to
it

the

wise

the prophecy was

under the

to signify that,

four living creatures of St. John's vision, are similar

and they are attended by similar evidences of the

dominion of God in their presence, as indicated by lightnings and thunderings, and voices, and the seven lamps of burning fire, i.e., the seven spirits
The character in which the power of Him who sits on the throne
of God.
is manifested amongst them is represented by the colours of the sardine
and jaspar being compared to his appearance, while the rainbow around his
throne is like an emerald. Eacli living creature has six wings, and is full
The glacial, sea-like crystal, too, is
of eyes before and behind, and within.
to those of Ezekiel,

there. All these things

may be

fairly

tered seed of Israel, far and near,

understood to signify that it

who

are to cry night

is

the scat-

and day, " Holy,

Lord God Almighty, which was and is to come." The type is

carried on from the literal Israel to the Christian Church, so that our interpretation of the cherubim or living creatures being symbols of the
holy, holy.

Israelites is here confirmed.

lion tribe,

is

also the

lamb

He who

the chosen tribes, sing "

lizing

then*

(Rev.

iv.

4.)

the root of David, of Judah, the

in the midst of the throne, to

living creatures, namely, a lion, a

blood."

is

calf,

hast redeemed us to God by thy

triumphant
So that this
song is that of Israel in

Thou

conversion, the future being realized as

Patmos.

whom ihefour

a man, and a flying eagle, symbo-

present to

the

Seer

of

32

EZEKIEL*S VISION

an army from the north, they

should be scattered, and that yet in that scattering
all the tribes should be involved and driven forth, as
if by the winds, towards the four quarters of the
heavens, and over all the earth.
But yet, amidst the
seeming confusion, they were taught that an exact
providence should preside over them, and mercy be
visible in judgment for the purposes of Jehovah in
violent incursion of

the separation of Israel from the nations should not

be frustrated, notwithstanding the entire failure of

the chosen tribes in the covenant

with their fathers.

We may

made with them and

also learn

from

this

symbolic portraiture that in this fourfold, and yet

united system of living beings spreading their influ-

ence over

all

were

division

the earth, the characteristics of one

the

characteristics

of

the

whole.

There are the human faces and human hands,

with their power of expressing and evincing in2. There is the face of
tellect, afifection, and skill.
3. There
the lion, expressive of courage and daring.
is the face of the ox, speaking of patience, toil, and
1.

There is the imperial eagle-face of keenness, far-seeing and decisive, and armed for rapine.
We might sustain our interpretation by quoting
plenty.

4.

authorities concerning the appropriateness of these

symbols but probably a reference to the benediction

;

and comprehensive prophecy of Moses will be sufficient to indicate the propriety with which one of the
emblems is made to embrace three of the tribes. As
an example, we may observe that, though Judah was
designated by the dying Jacob as a lion's whelp, the
comparison of the lion

is

also applied to the tribes of

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

Dan and Gad by

33

the dying Moses in his triumphant

blessings on Israel. (Deut. xxxiii.)

The symbol of

a lion to convey the ideas of courage and strength

is

and other books to

need explanation. That the ox was applied as the
symbol of the tribes descended from Joseph we learn
" His glory is like the
from the words of Moses
too frequently used in the Bible

firstling of his bullock, his

unicorns

horns are like the horns of

with them shall he push the people together

Here
industry is indicated as the source of wealth and
Wherever
power, Avhich push aside all opposition.
agriculture has made any advancement, there the ox
is admitted to be the appropriate symbol of industry
and plenty and power.
With regard to the eagle it should be remarked
that the prophet seems to mention the eagle almost
in a parenthetical manner at the end of his descrip" They four had also the face of an eagle^^^ as if
tion
this symbol were especially required, above all, to
to the ends of the earth. ^' (Deut. xxxiii. 17.)

designate the tribes of Israel in their dispersion over

the earth.

The prophet Ezekiel himself

applies this

symbol to express an idea of kingly power. (Chap.

In Isaiah the eagle denotes Cyrus,
xvii. 3, 7, 12.)
whose ensign was an eagle. JEschylus applies the
same symbol to Xerxes. (Cheoph. v. 245.) This
symbol may fairly be regarded as most remarkable

when

applied to the scattered tribes, since

that,

notwithstanding their dispersion, they should

This symbol

acquire kingly authority.

significant, since it is as kings

it

is

indicates

the more

from the East, or the

sun-rising, that the tribes are to be recognised,

when

34

EZEKIEL^S VISION

their

way

is

prepared by the drying up of Euphrates.

^''^
that
It is then to be observed, " that they four

is,

all

the tribes, " had also the face of an eagle^^ as if to

show that each of the four divisions under which the

were classed, should be possessed of regal

dignity, however disguised.
With regard to the symbol of a man, which, though
the first in order, we consider last, there is more to
be said than can here be conveniently admitted. But
that the idea intended to be conveyed is that of intelligence and affection need hardly be observed. More,
far more, however, is probably designed to be taught
by the symbol, since, in several parts of the prophecy
of Ezekiel, the man is spoken of as especially inThe man who
structing him in the purposes of God.
measures the departments of the temple, and marks
tribes

out the localities for

all

the tribes

is

understood to be

Immanuel, and it is He who still accompanies the

dispersed and desolated people, bringing them by
ways they knew not at last to recognise Himself as
their Saviour and their King.
" Thy judgments are as

Hosea

to the

Ten

Tribes.

the light^^^ says the

The judgment

prophet

sent

upon

the tribes goes with them as a present, instructing

spirit,

everywhere.

The burning

coals of purifying

and the flashing light

of severe instruction, accompany them, and going up
and down amongst them in all directions, shooting out

afiliction or of

destroying

fire,

lightnings, not only enlightening, while discomfiting

themselves, but

also

all

amidst

whom

They bear the lightning with them

they come.
in

all

their

goings (ver. xiv.), they carry light or destruction to

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

their opposers,

This

is

35

and become mighty by their

trials.

the especial prediction concerning the descen-

dants of Isaac,

known and unknown

and we believe

that history confirms the prophecy in all

its

bearings.

Without further enlargement of the subject, at

present, we here obtain the idea of a vast commingling
of Israel with some northern power, rushing in upon
the country over which the prophet is supposed to be
lookinof.
He and his Israelitish brethren were then
exiles in the valleys and hills of Mesopotamia and
The tribes were to be involved in this
Media.
northern cloud, and by it scattered to the four
The wisdom and goodness of God are to be
winds.
seen in the providence which appoints and accomThe
panies this wide and ultimate dispersion.
spheres and regions of government under which the
outcasts shall be brought, are to illu state the might
and the mercy of the Omnipotent Ruler of all the
cycles of time, and all the revolutions alike of nations
The wheels within wheels, the
and of worlds.
spheres within spheres, the cycles upon cycles, however vast and distant in the prospective, however
dreadful and unsearchable in their extent, are all
informed by an indwelling Intelligence. Like the
vault of heaven on a starry night, the terrible extent
and seeming depth of darkness is full of revolving
order, and there are eyes looking through it, and
pervading

it;

'

revolving bands of light are tying the

we may, we cannot
hold upon us.
The

on the multitudes of people in

their dispersions, and, however human energy may

universe together; and, go where

escape their influence, and their

Divine attention

is

36

ezekiel's vision

be called into action, and seemingly be causing and

determining consequences, yet

all

the evolutions of

humanity are but working out and

the

fulfilling

purposes of the Almighty, within the bounds

first

appointed, as regards time as well as space, for

lias fixed

the laws of

all iDeing.

He

The angels of God

are as his eyes, searching into all things pertaining

and going up and down, so to say,

amongst the branches of the two olive trees that
stand before the Lord of the whole earth. (Zech. iv. 3
Rev. xi. 4.) The spirit of the living beings, that is,
life itself, with human will, intelligence, and activity,
Through all reis in the movements everywhere.
gions, and in every cycle. Providence overrules and
regulates the movements of the vast host passing
along on wings, with the noise of many waters, like
the voice of the Almighty in the thunders of his
power, though still the articulate voice is that of man,
speaking alike in reason and affection (ver. 24).
The firmament is stretched over them from the reto our nature,

gions of the terrible crystal,* or the icy boundaries

of the frozen north, even to the burning south

that

firmament is like a sapphire throne of truth and

justice, above which sits a man having the ambercoloured glory around him from head to foot, as if
beaming forth from all his body in the purifying
In
brightness of commingled judgment and mercy.
the end of Ezekiel's prophecy the man appears sur-

rounded by the sevenfold harmony of pure

* As the word here translated crystal
/ro5^ (Gen. xxxi. 40),

we should be

frost in this place instead of crystal.

is

rendered ice (Job

light, as

vi.

quite justified in rendering

16) and

it

ice

or

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

37

seen by the beloved and loving disciple in the rain-

bow around

the throne.

Lord,

the risen, reigning

who

a Larab slain, and

That

who

is,

the very glory of

occupies the throne as

ultimately reveals Himself to

the whole worshipping universe, according to the

covenant made with Noah in behalf of

when

creatures,*

all

living

the rainbow was set in the clouds

mercy for ever. (Gen. ix. 16.)

Thus, John saw the Lord Jesus enthroned amidst
the adorning hosts above, the centre and the glory
of all livinof beinofs, the source of life and W^ht to
all the systems of life in all worlds.
As the Sun of
of heaven as a sign of

riofhteousness

He

shines forth in

all

the attributes of

beauty and of power, the centre and source of

all

and blessing, penetrating and

possessing with the beams of his love all who are
willinor to receive and transmit
the lio^ht of his
attractiveness,

life,

gloiy.

When

the prophet was instructed to address the

was foreseen that they would not

receive his words (chap. ii. 7); audit was because
of their love of idolatry and will-worship that the
prophetic denunciations were heard amongst them.
captives of Israel,

In the

spirit of

it

prophecy, w4iich

Jesus, the prophet

went

brethren, declaring the

them there
if

is

the testimony of

to the rebellious house of his

woe

that should

come upon

went he heard, as
intimation of what should follow, a

but, nevertheless, as he

behind him,

in

voice of a great rushing, yet distinctly saying, ''Blessed

* The Hebrew word for living creature is the same as that of 9th of
Genesis, where the covenant with Xoah and everj/ living creature is recorded.

38

ezekiel's vision
glory

he

the

iii.

12.)

In

all

the

of the

Lord

frorii

this 'placed

(Chap,

prophet^s progresses and visions and

prophetic missions the sight and the sound of the

and of the wheels accompanied him, as

if to afford an ever-present sustentation to his spirit
under the trials of his commission; for he was to
utter words of fire against the impudence and hardheartedness of his kindred, who would scorn and
despise him and his godly messages.
It is remarkliving beings

able that in each of the chief divisions of his pro-

phecies Ezekiel recurs to the vision which he saw

from the banks of the river Chebar, as if this vision

afforded a key in his own mind to the mystery of
God's providential proceeding in relation to his chosen,

but now outcast people.

He

still

saw, wherever he

went, the golden glory beaming from the fiery cloud,

and the bi'ightness shining from the man whose body

was brilliant as burnished brass, or as the molten
metal pouring in a glowing stream from the opened
furnace.

(Chap.

when the elders

own house (viii.

iii.

of

13;

Judah

iii.

23;

viii.

12.)

Thus,

sat with the prophet in his

12), the vision of the cherubic pre-

and of the glory of God in the plain, by the

river Chebar, recurs to him; but most particularly
when, in reference to the departure of the Shechinah
from the temple at Jerusalem, it was seen by him
that the sapphire throne, the seat of truth and of
righteousness, was still occupied, and the man in
linen, the interceding high priest, was directed to go
sences,

between the wheels and the cherubim, or systems

of living beings, and seize the burning coals, and

in

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

scatter

them over the

And

for ever.

39

destroy

city, as if to

its

polity

then a loud voice cried to the wheels

in the prophet^s hearing, " 0, wheel

''

" as if to

say in

meaning as the revolutions

though there be wheels in wheels,

one word, mighty in

of the universe,

its

spheres in spheres, worlds in worlds, imperia in imperils^ still

and

in that

they are

turned by the Divine Hand,

all

Hand they

are one."

The wheel seems

to

be the symbol of the ongoings of the Almighty, as

seen in the Assyrian monuments, and amongst the

symbols of Buddha; but an earlier employment of

the symbol existed probably amongst the Hebrews.
At least the voice cried, " 0, wheel '^ to the pro!

phet's

spirit,

when

wheels with the face

saw the four

of a cherub, a man, a lion, and
in

vision

he

an eagle (Zech. x. 13), just as they appeared in

that temple of Solomon called the house of the
Lord Jehovah, which was erected about 1004 B.C.
The whole of the tribes appeared to be symbolized by

CO

the twelve oxen in the house of Solomon,

wantino- because he himself was the

eao:le is

been questioned what kind of wheel

It has

meant

eao^le.

was

but we are told that " the work of the [sym-

bolic] wheels

was

like the

having axletrees, naves,

in all parts.
fies

and the

(1

Kings

work of a

felloes,

vii. 33.)

chariot wheel,''

and spokes complete

That a wheel signi-

the proceeding superintendence of the Supreme

Power was understood by the Greeks and Persians,

as well as by the Hebrews, is sho^vn by the address
of

Croesus

wheel in

the

human

Lydian
affairs,

to

Cyrus

''
:

There

is

which, continually revolving,

does not suffer the same persons to be always success-

40

ezekiel's vision

(Herod,

fill."

i.

It is remarkable, also, that in

207.)

the tenth chapter (verse

5),

Avhere the prophet

is re-^

ferring to God's providence in Jerusalem, the beings

having

life,

that

to say, the cherubim,

is

ferently distributed

are dif-

and, instead of the face of an

ox, there appears the face of a cherub, in the first

place.

(Chap. x. 14.)

This vision, apparently, relates to the after captivity

and ultimate dispersion of Judah,

that

time the symbolic cherubs

still

for

whom

at

spread their

wings over the mercy-seat, and stood gazing on the

golden tablet, as if to read what the finger of God

mercy write thereon for all Israel.

As was the life, so was the providence. It is still
with the use of Divine Power that the human will
While free as the winds and the electric
is working.
forces that move the clouds and form them, yet, like
them, all wills are moving according to fixed laws,
by which the Divine Will subdues all things to eternal
The wheels moved as the spirit of the
purposes.
living beings moved; and as the faces, or outward
would

still

in

characters of the divided hosts were determined,

so

went straightforward
to the end necessarily resulting from the disposition

they went, that

is

to say, they

manifested (ver. xv. 21).

witness the potency of the
for evil:

good,

in

In this awful vision

human

adapting

spirit for

itself to

we

good or

the gracious

leadings of God's providence, and to the laws of his

moral government, thus proceeding direct to the

difi'usion and maintenance of all natural and spiritual
blessings; while evil, on the other hand, consists in
resistance to the teachings of Heaven,

and leads only

THE LIGHT
fo

IN

war and wasting, though,

41

THE CLOUD.

in these results, also, the

According to

Divine character shall be glorified.

the state of man's will and intelligence collectively

and

and
up, or removed from

individually, will be the result nationally

Even when

personally.

lifted

the sphere of earth, the spirit of the

life

remains in

and according to the ordinance of

Him who constituted both life and death, the sphere
in which we choose to move accompanies us, like the
atmosphere of our existence, in whatever worlds we
dwell, for it is the state of our wills with respect to
God's law that determines our position and constithe living beings

tutes the essence of our being.

look the important fact that

the Shechinah,

We

must not

when the glory

over-

of God,

departed from the Lord's house at

cherubim which the

prophet saw by the river Chebar.
He mentions the
cherubim in this new relation as only one living
Jerusalem,

it

stood over the

creature (chap. x. 20), but as proceeding in a fourfold

manner from the

with the glory of the

(Chap. X. 19.)

pany of

east gate of the Lord's house

God

" This

of Israel over

is the living

them above.

creature [or com-

saw under the God of Israel

of Chebar; and I knew that they were the
These went forth, and the sound of their

people] that I

by the river
cherubim.''^

" wings teas heard^ even

to

the

outer court [that

amongst the Gentiles], as the voice of

God when He speaketh^ (Chap. x. 5.)

we gather

the

is,

Almighty

From

this

from the dispersion of Judah,

and from the casting out of Israel, Jehovah would
speak with power concerning his providence, righteousness, and mercy to the Gentiles, in all lands; but
chapter

that,

42

ezekiel's vision

that

Israel,

then

in

should

Assyria,

mainly

be

scattered eastward, but not utterly destroyed;

thus saith the

Lord God^

I have cast them far

and although I have scattered
although

among the heathen^

them among the countries^

off

sanctuary in

yet will

countries

the

''/<9r

I be

where

to

them as a

they

shall

little

come^

Thus we are again brought back to

the starting point, from the river Chebar from whence
(Chap.

xi. 16.)

we

are to look for the fourfold outgoings of Israel,

under the wings of God to every quarter of the

world; and by the judgments manifested in their
dispersion preparing the world for the final harvest,
when the angels from the four quarters of the

as

earth

shall

be sent forth with

reap the ripened

sickles

to

and bring the wheat, that is

good, and with living power in
the seed of God, unto the garner

fields,

to say, all that is

it,

their

the true Jezreel^

of heaven.

In the vision the prophet was looking towards the

north

but he describes what he sees thus

"

As for

of their faces they had the face of a man

the face of a lion on the right side ; and they four

the likeness

and
had
had

the

face of an ox on the

left

side

they four^ alsOj

" They turned not when they

of an eagle,
The right
went^ they went every one straight forward^
the face

''^

side of the four divisions

in the direction

Targum

is

was towards the

they faced they went.

east,

and

If then, the

correct in describing Judah's division as

symbolized by a lion and Reuben^s by a man,

it fol-

lows that the dispersion of those classed under these

tribes,

Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and the one half

tribe of

Benjamin; Reuben, Simeon, Gad was

to-

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

43

wards the west; and, for the same reason,

that the four tribes symbolized

follows

also

it

by the

ox,

Ephraim, Manasseh, and the other half tribe of Benjamin, and those symbolized by the eagle, Dan, Asher,
Naphtali, took their direction to

the

east.

It

is

and with good reason held that only

some of the tribe of Judah, and a part of the tribe
of Benjamin, were recognised as occupying Judea
traditionally,

after the

may fairly
tribes who re-

Hence, we

Babylonish captivity.

remnants of the other

mained beyond the Euphrates were involved in whatinfer that the

ever influences led to the general dispersion of the

children of Israel as distinct from those who, from

dwelling in Judea, were afterwards called Jews

that portions of

all

so

the tribes are not insignificantly

represented as symbolically appearing under the forms

of the four living creatures seen proceeding out of

the midst of the whirlwind, the cloud, the

fire,

and

the brightness of the prophet's visions at the river

Chebar.
It is

important to observe that, though Ezekiel was

a prophet of Judah, he

is

expressly directed to " set

mountains of Israel and to pro-

his face against the

phecy against them (vi. 2). He is consulted both

by the elders of Judah and the ancients of Israel.
Throughout his prophecies he keeps distinctly before
''

them the

To

the

diflference in their condition

elders of

Judah he

Jerusalem's destruction

exhibits

(chaps,

that

God

he

the

viii. ix.

the elders of Israel, as distinct from

xiv.-xx.),

and prospects.
cause of

x. xi.); to

Judah (chaps,

points out their iniquity, and

will not be inquired of

says

by them through the

44

ezekiel's vision

prophets, but that

God

will

answer the house of

by Himself, without the intervention of

a prophet (xiv. 7; xx. 3).
There is remarkable
Israel directly

on the peculiar abominations of the false

prophets of Israel, who seduced the people by divining
lies (iii. 7), and promising peace concerning Jerustress laid

salem,

as

if

all

Israel

might expect

deliverance

because of the prosperity they foretold for the people

of Judah.
to

The symbol

these false prophets employed

express their promises to the people was the

erection of a "slight wall" (xiii. 10), which others

" daubed with untempered mortar," as if to indicate
their

hope of restoration and of being

together in their

own

land.

built

up

But God, by the true

prophet, says of the wall, " I will rend

with a

it

stormy wind in my fury an overflowing shower in

mine anger, and great hailstones in my fury
(xiii. 13).
This symbol of a slight wall of loose
stones daubed with clay, as expressing the hopes of
the false prophets, will throw some light upon usages
to which reference will be made in future chapters of
this volume. The contrast is between (Ezek. xiii. 10)
a mere stone hedge and the wall of a city (xiii. 12)
that is to be the defence of the rebellious Israel, this

of the restored to Jerusalem.

There are clear

inti-

mations throughout the prophecies of Ezekiel that

there would

be a new writing

or record of the

reunion of Israel as a whole; but the deceived of both

houses, Judah and Israel, would be excluded, " they
shall not

be in the secret [assembly] of

my

people,

nor written in their writing [or register] of the house

of Israel, nor enter into the land of Israel"

(xiii. 9).

THE LIGHT IN THE CLOUD.

45

Those who called themselves more especially BeniTsrael, the house of Israel, the whole house of Israel,
those

who were

separated from Judah by the rebellion,

most frequently styled by the prophet the reHe shows that a new Israel will be
bellious house.
formed out of the pious of both parties who should

are

be restored ultimately to the land of

he symbolizes by the two sticks

Israel.

(xxxvii.

This

16-19),

"

For Judah, with his companions of the children of Israel;" and, on the other,
''
For Joseph, the stick of Ephraim, and for all the
house of Israel his companions." '' Thus saith the
Lord God, Behold, I will take the stick of Joseph,
which is in the hand of Ephraim, the tribes of Israel
his fellows, and will put them with him, even the
stick of Judah, and make them one stick, and they
shall be one in my hand."
This seems to have been
fulfilled in a measure by the restoration under Ezra
and Nehemiah and Zerubbabel, though an ultimate
greater restoration and reunion is still foretold.
The
idolatrous people of both Judah and the rebellious
house of Israel called Joseph, Ephraim, and the tribes
remained in the countries beyond the Euphrates; the
rebels were purged out from those who were to enter
one having written on

it

into the land of Israel (xx. 38).

house of

Israel,

rebels are
Israel in

thus saith the Lord God,

man

Go

ye, serve
"

idol, if

summed up thus
their own heart;"

" I will take the house of

"

I,

the Lord, will answer

every one by myself;" " I will set

that

for you,

ye will not hearken unto me

The judgments that are to come upon the

ye every one his

(xx. 39).

"As

[the idolater], I will

my

face against

make him

a sign and

46

ezekiel's vision, etc,

a proverb, and will cut

him

oif

from the midst of

people;" "If the prophet be deceived

he hath spoken a thing,

('JI^'JIB)

I the

( nriH)'' )

my

when

Lord have deceived

that prophet; and I will stretch

out

my

hand upon him;" "The punishment of the prophet

shall be as the punishment of him who seeketh unto
him " (xiv. 5, 7, 8, 9, 10). We shall probably see
the force of these words as we proceed.

47

CHAPTER

11.

ISRAEL'S PERVERSION, AVARNING,

We

AND RECOVERY.

have seen the beams of glory bursting from the

cloud in the prophet^s vision;

Jehovah, in

human

we have

seen that

manifestation, sits on his sapphire

throne erected above the firmament of heaven and

above the cherubim

we have

seen the glory spread-

ing from the icy regions of the terrible crystal to the

and we have seen

however involved
the ways of God to man may seem to be, yet the
spheres and systems of all life, animal, human, or
angelic, still run onward, in a path prepared, to an
appointed end; and that, however devious from the
course directed by the law of God may be the chosen
determination of man's will, yet all the discordances
of man are harmonized by the Omnipotent, according
The cycles of time,
to the wisdom of his own will.
the circuits alike of worlds and of ages, the movements of all intelligences, become involved in the
universal Power in which all the agencies of heaven
and of earth are working out the development of
Divine order, and rolling on with all the worlds to

torrid zone

that,

when God shall be kno^vn as

Origin and the End of all existence. The

the eternal revelation,

all in all,

the

general idea of the prophet's vision seems to be, that

Israel's perversion,

48
the Spirit

man by

of

everywhere, subduing the rebellious will

is

sure methods, however slow, to the ac-

knowledgment of God's goodness and perfection, and

that to this end the watchfulness that never tires
would have us look, in all our attempts to understand the mysteries of Providence ; but
as revealed in the history of Israel

we

look a

little

to the exiles

especially

and of Judah.

If

into the details of EzekieFs addresses

by the

able to see where

at this time,

now

river Chebar,

we should

we

shall be better

look for the outcast tribes

and probably be better

qualified to un-

derstand other prophecies concerning them.

WeAi^tMnd

that they would not listen to the pro-

phet ^^mTi), and then that he portrayed to them the

destruction of Jerusalem, as if to

show them the

hope from thence. After which, he

tells them they should be driven out amongst the
Gentiles to eat defiled bread, and that only a third
part of them should escape from the sword, |^^4?^5^k^^
lence, and the famine that should pursue theT^(v. 12)
but that, after the nations had witnessed the Divine
judgments upon them, the remnant of them should
be signally blessed and made a further evidence of
the wisdom and goodness of the Divine government,
by their recovery from idolatry and pollution to true
fruitlessness of

and patience; and thus also become, by their

example and their teaching, a blessing to the nations
amongst whom they had been hidden and oppressed.
faith

It may be questioned
9,f20, f40, /^44.)
whether the prophet spoke these things to the ba-

if(Ezek.

vi.

nished Israelites in general. In the 7th chapter of his

prophecy he seems to limit his threatening predic-

^^

WARNING, AND RECOVERY.

tions to a certain class of his

49

countrymen, namely,

whole multitude of them who should not return

(ver. 13) probably meaning those who should refuse,
the

j6U

or not be permitted, to avail themselves of the oppor-

Jews under Ezra and Nehemiah to repeople their own land, and again build the
walls of Jerusalem (ver.fl3]^icWhen Hosea prophesied to the Israelites in Samaria, under the name of
Ephraim, he told them that they should go into
bondage similar to that their fathers experienced in
" Ephraim shall be desolate in the day of
Egypt
rebuke among the tribes of Israel : I have made known
that which shall surely J^""(ver. 9). They sought help
against Judah from the Assyrian king Jareb therefore that golden calf which the people of Israel worshipped in Bethaven shall be a present to king
Jareb; and the king of Samaria ''shall be cut off as
" Ephraim," says God by
foam upon the waters.
Hosea (xi. 12), " compasseth me about with lies, and
Israel with deceit; but Judah yet ruleth with God,
There is divine
and is faithful with the saints."
tenderness in the upbraiding which the prophet adtunities afforded to the

^^

dresses to the Israelites concerning their persistence

and great wickedness which necessitate

their utter removal from the Holy Land.
''When ^sm^
Israel was a child, then I loved him, and called my '^Ajjj
son out of Egypt. I taught Ephraim to walk, taking
them by their arms. I drew them with cords of a
man, with bands of love. He [Ephraim] shall not
in the idblatry

return into the land of Egypt, but the Assyrian shall

be his king, because they shall refuse to return T (Hos.^'

//i 1-5). This interchange of the singular and the plural

ISRAEL'S PERVERSION,

50

common in speaking of a people as

personified in the name of an individual. The point
of the passage is this those who boasted of being pecupersonal pronouns

is

descended from Ephraim, the most

highly blessed son of Joseph, might well be sent back
to Egypt as a punishment for their worship of Baalim
liarly Israelites,

but, instead of that, th<^y should

subjects to

become and remain

the Assyrian, whose help they sought

against Judah, because, or when, they shall refuse

to return.

Of those who escape from

and famine,

tilence,

it is said,

mountains like^dom^of

they shall escape

the valleys^

to

the

out of place and in

In answer to the be-

(O^^^Vir. 16-22.)

sorrow.

the sword, pes-

wailing supplication of the prophet, Jehovah declares

that

He

make a

will not

full

end of Israel as a nation,

notwithstanding their total removal.

When the Assy-

rian took the inhabitants of Samaria captive, and led

away

bondage beyond the

Euphrates, the Jews of Jerusalem, from whom they
had been so much and so long divided by their religious and political feuds, cried to them, upbraidingly,

the whole of Israel

" Get ye out far

giveny
tested

(Chap.

from

the

xi. IG?)''

afterwards,

the Holy Land.

as

into

to

When

Lord^ unto us

The Jews were

their

name

in the

ing

by words and

they saw about

Him

fitness

to

of the
signs

land

fearfully

possess

the Prince of Peace

amongst them
salvation

is this

came

Father, teach-

and wonders,

nothing of this world, the world

they loved, and they cried out, " His blood he upon us
The dispersed, the outand upon our children.''^
\^sts of Israel,

had no voice

cifixion of Jesus.

in the rejection

and cru-

His miracles they never witnessed,

WARNING, ANi/ RECOVERY.

of

his

and they

never heard;

they

resurrection

51

resisted not the testimony of

God

when the Holy

witness of Christ's as-

Spirit, as the

against themselves

hand of God, to reign in the

power of his risen life, was preached in many tongues
kindled into lustrous utterance as by fire from Heaven.
The Ten Tribes, though apostates, were not in a
position thus to deny their Lord and Saviour, as
Judah ultimately did so it appears from the prophecy
that the remnants of Israel shall be converted first and
cension to the right

that they shall enjoy the blessings of the

nant, while yet the dispersed of

themselves of

all

Judah

new

cove-

shall be availing

the secular powers of the last days,

from whence
was when the

to re-establish themselves in the land

them.

their iniquities expelled

It

whole house of Israel were bowed down in the miseries

of banishment that the Jews taunted their brethren

words above quoted (xi. 15); and it was then

that the word of Jehovah came to Ezekiel, saying, " Al-"^ti/^
though I have cast them far off among the heathen, and
although I have scattered them among the countries,
in the

yet will I be to tliem as a

little

countries where they shall come.

sanctuary in the

Therefore say. Thus

Lord God, I even gather you from the people,

and assemble you out of the countries where ye have
been scattered, and will give you the land of Israel.
And they shall come thither, and they shall take away
all the detestable things thereof, and all the abominasaith the

tions thereof, from thence.

heart,

and

I will

put a new

And
spirit

I will give them

one

in you^ and I will

take the stony heart out of their flesh, and will give them

an heart of

flesh, that they

may walk

E 2

in

my

statutes,

Israel's perversion,

52

and keep mine ordinances, and do them ; and they

But as
shall be my people, and I will be their God.
for them whose heart walketh after their detestable
things, and their abominations, I will recompense
their way upon their own heads, saith the Lord God.
Then did the cherubim lift up their wings and the
wheels beside them; and the glory of the God of
And the glory of the
Israel was over them above.
Lord went up from the midst of the city, and stood
upon the mountain which is on the east side of the
city. Afterwards, the Spirit took me up and brought
me in vision, by the Spirit of God, into Chaldea, to
them of the captivity so the vision I had seen went up
from me. Then I spake unto them of the captivity
(ii.
all the things that the Lord had shewed me "
;

16-25).

In order to understand these words

member

that the prophet

is

we must

re-

addressing the people of

Judah and Jerusalem concerning themselves,

as well

as the rebellious house of Israel ; hence the change of

person in the address " I have cast them off, yet I
:

will be to them as a little sanctuary

amongst the hea-

then, but I will re-assemble you after being scattered,

and bring you into the land of Israel." It was when

the prophet had heard these words that he saw the
cherubim lift up their wings, with the wheels beside
them (the mercy and providence of God), and the
glory of the

God

of Israel over

glory went forth from the city

Then the
of Jerusalem, and
them.

stood on the mountain to the east of the city, that

the

Mount

whence the Lord Jesus

Heaven, and where the angels were

of Olives, from

ascended into

is,

WARNING, AND RECOVERY.

53

same Jesus ivhich

is taken up into heaven^ shall so come in like manner
(Acts i. 11.)
as ye have seen him go into heaven^
heard by the disciples to say:

May we

''''This

not with propriety conclude that this refer-

Mount

ence to the

of Olives as the seat of the glory,

or the last place on which

was

it

seen, is intended to

convey the idea that the Israelites should be truly

restored in heart and spirit, by faith in Him who is

and who "has ascended

up into heaven to receive gifts for men, for the rebellious also, that the Lord God might dwell among
the Resurrection and the Life

them?"
Immediately after the vision the prophet went into
Chaldea, to

tell

the captives there also ail theyfetiings

(0^^x17^2-25.)
Lord had shown him.
He informs us what he said and did amongst the prophets, the princes, and the elders of Israel and Judah,
The elders of Israel obeyed him
in the land of exile.
not, but preferred to worship Baal, the god of fire,
and the calf in high places. Though they still pretended to reverence the name of Jehovah as the
Supreme God, to whom the gods of the heathen were
as servants, the place to which they desired to go was
Bamah, the high place. Probably mth a voluntary
that the

humility,

like

other

worshippers of

angels,

they

proudly professed to be too humble to address their

prayers and open their hearts at once to Jehovah,

though He had revealed Himself as the Father of all

They could come to the
that truly honoured Him.
prophet indeed as to a mediator, or a
access to God, Jehovah,

way

that the

still

medium

of

but that was not the

Holy One required

to

be honoured.

34

Israel's perversion,

Obedience to his laws in life and practice, was the

only appointed mode of approaching Him, and obtain-

TWjelderg^f Israel still went up to

worship on high ^^es! ' Then said the prophet unto
them, when they, in mock humility, came to inquire
ing blessings.

what they should do: ^^ Are ye polluted after the

manner of your fathers ? As Ilwe^atth the Lord God^
I will not be inquired of by you^^x' 30, 31]. Neither
shall

it

be as

wood and

you think

stone^ but as

with a mighty hand^

to

and

be like the heathen^ to serve

live^

saith

the

Lord^ surely

with a stretched out arm^

and

fury "poured out^ will I rule over you. I will

bring you into the wilderness of the people; and
there will I plead with you^ face to face^ as I pleaded
with your fathers in the wilderness of the land of
Egypt,
I will cause you to pass under the rod [like
counted sheep\ and I will bring you into the bond
icith

^^
[xx. 29-39].
The address of Ezekiel
of the covenant
to the elders of Israel in this chapter (20th) is

a recapitulation of the

mode

of God's dealings in

grace and judgment with their fathers from the

They

first.

are upbraided with their idolatry, and told the

result.

Their rebellion

Author of

own

life is

is

charged upon them.

The

represented as pledging Himself by

which are the

more forcible from the fact that the Israelites were
accustomed " to swear by the sin of Samaria, and say.
Thy God,
Dan, liveth; and the manner of Beerhis

life

to accomplish his words,

As much as to say the

golden calf there worshipped is as much a living God
They are told that those who
as Jehovah Himself.
sheba liveth."

(Amos

viii.

14.)

are purged from their idolatry shall be restored to the

WARNING, AND RECOVERY.

Holy Land, and that the

55

rebellious shall be cast out.

This separation of the Israelites into two

classes,

one

and the other to be scattered, has been

Hence the prophecy has appeared pecuoverlooked.
liarly obscure, and even contradictory, since within a
few verses a return is promised, and yet a thorough
casting out and rejection is threatened. The point to
which the reader s particular attention is invited in
connexion with our inquiry is this a certain class of
Israelites, and that a large one, is not to be restored to
Palestine, and yet they are as a body to be removed
" / will purge out from
from the place of their exile
among you the rebels^ and them that transgress against
to return,

me; I

them forth out of

will bring

they sojourn^

and

[o;; J)ixt]

tjie

country where-

^i'^y^&Mf^^

enter into the

Notwithstanding this,
land of Israer (^fev/Zo),
devouring fire, an
mercy accompanies the rebels.
'

>

unquenchable flame, g^a^fopth to burn all faces from

the south to the north (v^: 47, 48).
It is a purifying flame, a flame of Divine vengeance, a convincing
process

it is

I the Lord

heavenly

fire

have kindled

it ;

" All flesh shall see that

it

shall not be

quenched^

Well might the prophet exclaim, at the end of his

address, " Ah^ Lord God I they say of me, Doth he not ^^^^''^
^^
The same will be said of any one
speak parables .^"
who sees and announces the Divine judgment in a
Divine method.
'

Do

not the

preceding

statements

sufiicient plainness the fact that,

express with

when

the remnant

known, the

of Israel, scattered in lands but

little

wilderness of the people {Midbar

Hdammim),

have

lost sight of their original, the

shall

goodness of God

$6

Israel's perversion,

shall in grace

be abundantly

to

fulfilled

them by

their restoration through his correcting providence to

a right state of heart ?

Daniel and Jeremiah appear

to have foretold the gospel dispensation as that of the

especial or holy covenant,

and

it

this into

is

which

the outcasts are to be ultimately brought when, feeling

and acknowledging their evil dispositions, they renounce their own pretensions, forsake all idols, and
from the heart obey the gospel.*

The prophets

testify of the history of Israel.

Each

prophet personifies God in relation to the peculiar

Deity humanizes Himself to reason with

people.

them, to warn and to prognosticate.

human

He

puts Himself

which can best illustrate His love for man as manifested through the
chosen people.
Thus Hosea puts Divinity before us
as in his own person, and as acting the part of a
loving husband to a deceitful and abominable wife.
Israel is that wife; but the ^vife takes the name of
the husband, and the true Israel is really represented
by the prophet. Her proceedings and names symbolically indicate the history of Israel both at home and
abroad, in Palestine and in other lands. The prophet
represents himself as married to Gomer, the daughter
of Diblaim (Hosea i. 3).
Here, we conceive, Israel

into all the

in
to.

its

It

relationships

northern, or Scythian connexion

is

the

house of

Israel

as

is

alluded

distinct

from

Judah that is represented as the adulterous wife

by Hosea (i. 3).
Why does he name her Gomer,
* See Dan.
viii.

xlix.

ix. 27; xi. 22, 28, 30, 32 ; Jer. xxxi. 31 ; xxxiv. 18 ; Heb.
Ezek.
xxxvii. 26; Heb. xiii. 20; Isai. xxx. 18, 19; xlviii.
8, 13;
The messenger of the covenant is the Messiah. (MaL iii. 1.)

WARNING, AND RECOVERY.

the daughter of Diblaim?
that Gomer, as

It is

a country,

is

57

an interesting

fact

identified with that

of the Scythians by the ancients.*

May

not the

Hosea with Gomer be

representative marriage of

prophetic not only of the peculiar apostacy of the

but also of their association with the

Scythians in that apostacy? If so, we have this

house of

Israel,

ground for seeking Israel in Scythian connexion.

According to the figure of the prophet,
fulfilment of the holy bond is only on one side. Israel
additional

God, but the unselfish love, the

highest, the divine, the law-giving love, triumphs
unfaithful

is

over

all

to

the defects of

ness, not indulgence,

its

unfaithful object.

is

the ground of the Divine

Detesting and punish-

conquest of fallen humanity.

ing the wrong, the love goes on to evince

nature until
of

it

man and

begets love like

the heart

of

Forgive-

itself,

God

beat,

its

unfailing

and the heart

so to say, in

unison.

The whole scheme of the prophecy of Hosea is in

the first chapter. The result of this nominal marriage
with a people of

false religions

(whoredoms)

is

first

a son called Jezreel (the seed of God), to signify the

kingdomj^L^^^J, but yet the preservation of a godly race (ver. 4).

Then a daughter
named Lo-ruhamah (not having obtained mercy) is'^jsje^
said to be born, because, as it appears, the people
Nf
of Israel in their exile did not trust to God like Judah
cessation of the

* Gomer
It

is also

signifies that

the

are descended.

name

which

is fulfilled

or thoroughly brought to pass.

of the son of Japhet, from

Diblaim

is

whom

the Scythian nations

a dual word, and signifies two (people) brought

together by outward pressure

it is

a dual word, doubtless adopted by the

prophet to express the fact by a verbal symbol.

58

ISRAELIS PERVERSION,

(ver.
^''

but to armed power ^^^^refore, says God,

utterly take them away (ver. 6).
Afterwards

7),

I will

another offshoot

arises, called

Loammi (not my people),

no longer recognised as Israel.

Yet Israel is in
number numberless, and where it was said, " Not my
people^ there they are called sons of the living GodJ^

To

find Israel, the descendants of the rebel tribes,

we must

the Lo-ammi, in the latter day,

look for

the people which most readily and willingly received

the Gospel, or are most ready to receive

it,

when

properly presented to them.

We

must not forget that the predictions concerning

the seed of Isaac, repeated and enlarged in the prophecies concerning the offspring of Joseph, are not
fulfilled

in anything that history has taught us in

relation to the dispersed of

Judah.

the direful defection of Israel,

in

them

it is

Notwithstanding
yet promised that

shall all the families of the earth

be blessed,

that their seed shall yet be countless as the sea-side

sands, and that where it was said " Ye are not my
people^

THERE

it

living

God,''''

(Hosea

shall be said^
i.

Ye are
Their

10.)

the sons

way

is

of the
indeed

hedged up with thorns and enclosed as by a wall, but

that is to the end that they should not be able to
follow their own devices, but only the more remarkably manifest the marvels

When Jehovah

reasons

of

with

Divine Providence,

them

through

the

them under the figure of a

woman betrothed to him for ever, and yet

prophet, he addresses
faithless

by

their

idolatries

behaving faithlessly; to be

re-

covered, however, at last, in righteousness and judg-

ment, and lovingkindness, and tender mercies, and

divine faithfulness, so that she should

know and

love

WARNING, AND RECOVERY.

59

her Lord without the possibility of defection ever-

more. (Hos.

ii.)

But the most striking part of the figure thus emIn the
ployed by the prophet is most overlooked.
review of Hosea^s prophecy, which is peculiarly apfrom Judah, it appears
remarkably interested in the

plied to Israel in distinction

that the whole earth

is

Their perfect recovery

recovery of the outcast people.

is,

in fact, the harvest of the

unto

me

world

"

I will sow

her

in the earth^^^ saith the prophet, in Jehovah's

Through the scattering of

name.

Israel, like

wheat

broadcast from the sower's hand, the wide earth shall

yield her increase.

The day

of Jezreel^ the day of the

seed of God^ the day of judgment, the day of decision,

the day of love, the day of God's vengeance, that

the day in which Israel and eludah,

now

is

divided as

if

never more to meet, shall choos^pnp head, and be

indeed the visible sons of God. (Chap. i. 11.)
Their
restoration

is

the establishment of the final kingdom,

an anastasis, as

if

of

life

from the dead, the actual

when

that adoption shall be manifest for

which the apostle of the Gentiles looked forward, " to

regeneration,

wit, the

redemption of the body from the bondage of

corruption, the manifestation of the sons, or seed, of

God," the true Jezreel. (Rom.

viii.

shall be fulfilled, " It shall

words

Lord^ that

I will hear

the heavens^

23.)

Then

come topass^

and

the

saith the

heavens shall

hear the earthy and the earth shall hear the corn^
wine,,

and

the oil^

and

these

and

the

they shall hear Jezreel,^^ the seed

or sons of God. (Chap.

ii.

20.)

All shall then visibly

Adamic order, the Divine plan of

which God rested in love and in

operate after the

government, in
blessing with

man

as the head of creation

from the

60

Israel's perversion,

lowest ordinances of nature upwards to the highest

hang in conscious
dependency on the Spirit, the Power, and the
Presence of the Supreme, the only Lord whose best
offices of

intelligence, all

name

last

Love,

is

shall

love

manifested

in

perfect

humanity.

To quote
find, or

the passages in the Bible in which

all

fancy

we

find, predictions

of blessing to

we
all

the dwellers of earth through the literal descendants

of Abraham, would be to transfer a large part of that

wondrous book

for all the prophecies relate

more or

less to the history of that people, either in their dis-

persion, consequent on their unbelief, or in their re-

covery, through faith in their Redeemer.

called

Abram

him the

out of

Ur

When God
made
new dis-

of the Chaldeans, he

representative and federal head of a

which separation in heart and mind from

all idolatries unto the worship of Jehovah, should
be always accompanied by Divine favour and blessing.
It was this going out from all the practices of idolatrous heathenism to seek a heavenly rest, a land of
promise and immortality, in the devotion of his soul
to the God who by his word fabricated the heavens and
the earth, that distinguished Abraham, and, despite
pensation, in

him to be designated " the friend

was to Abraham that the promise

his infirmities, caused

of

Gody

Now

it

was made that he should be the father of many

nations, and that in his seed all the families of the
earth should be blessed. (Gen. xvii. 19, 20; xxi. 10.)
It is to

be observed that the promise was made under

very unpromising circumstances, or, as St. Paul

expresses it, a promise of life and blessing to proceed

WARNING, AND RECOVERY.

from one as good as dead.

(Heb.

xi.

61
All

11-16.)

from the time that

Abraham was a childless wanderer to our age of Mammonism, it has always appeared a most unlikely thing
that the whole world should be blessed through and
along, from the first to the last,

in the seed of Isaac, for, as Tacitus says, "

of

all

The Jews
(Book v. 8.) The

nations are held the vilest."

land of Canaan was the seat of the worst forms of

and consequently of the most hideous vices.

This land was punished by Israel as the hand of
Jehovah, and occupied by the Hebrews in fulfilment

idolatry,

made

of the promise

to

Abraham

nevertheless, for

were themselves
The land was given as an everlasting poscast out.
But the cosession on terms which they neglected.
venant of God still stands on His part sure, and the
central land shall be again and for ever the dwelling

their idolatries, the chosen people

of the faithful seed of Israel,

whence the whole earth

shall be filled with praise.

But where

know

is

not where.

them in

And

the earth ;"

the seed of Isaac shall spring

countless as the sea-side sands.

prophecy been

now

Scattered we
yet Jehovah said, " / will sow

the select seed

fulfilled ?

up

Has not the word of

Probably many will say that

the language of the prophecy

is

to be understood with

a large poetic licence, or in a spiritual manner.

Pro-

might answer amongst

the believers in the Sibylline leaves, but it will not

phecy with a

limitless licence

serve the purpose of those

positive, plain-speaking

who

God.

place their faith in a

Believers in the Bible

take that book to be God's truth because

it

does not

allow us to exercise the craft and cunning of imagi-

62

Israel's perversion,

nation in the invention, or in the interpretation, of

either its facts or the doctrines connected with them.

What Jehovah means He

says and does, and that

both as a Creator and a Saviour; and

it

is

the coin-

cidence between the truths of creation and history,

with the truths of salvation, that renders the Bible, in

and new covenants, a trustworthy book. It

If, then,
agrees alike with man and man's world.
the book is to be consistent in all respects, as it appears to be in so many, we may expect a literal fulold

its

filment of the prophecies concerning the seed of Isaac,

U/
r
^mmm

and the blessing of the world in his name. Does it

appear that the Jews, as they now stand, in any
degree represent a fulfilment of the promises?

We

f trow not. Are they hereafter to possess and bless all

lands? If they do, surely it will not be as Jews,
unless Judaism is to supplant Christianity, and trample

down

the Saxon race, with their

the Gospel and

its

New

Testament,

comments, in the Epistles and the

Apocalypse.

Amongst

the earliest prophecies there

eminent, which perhaps

may

is

one pre-

afford a clue to others.

When

Jacob blessed his grandsons Ephraim and

Manasseh, he designedly and significantly crossed his

hands, so that, contrary to custom, the right hand

rested on the head of the younger, and the left on

Joseph would have corrected the

supposed mistake; but the devout and blind old
grandfather said "/ know^ I know^ my son, Manasseh
that of the elder.

shall be great,
greater.
bless the

but truly his younger brother shall be

The angel which redeemed me from all evil

lads I and let my name be named upon them,

WARNING, AND RECOVERY.

and

name of my

the

fathers

63

Abraham and

Isaac^ and.

them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earths

The promises of overflowing
(Gen. xlviii. 16.)

let

blessings on the house of Joseph

and

his children

have not been fulfilled in anything that history has

yet brought to our knowledge concerning the Jews.
They have not become a multitude of nations yet,
nor are all lands blessed by them, nor are they blessed
If the prophecy be fulfilled, there must
themselves.
be another people hidden, yet vastly diffused, in

whom

Where

it is fulfilled.

is

the tribe of

Ephraim?

known on the exchange by that name,

nor in the name of Jacob, nor of Abraham, nor of
Isaac, as far as we can ascertain.
The prophecy was
not fulfilled in Palestine, nor is it now in the course
Certainly not

of fulfilment amongst

the Jews;

and

yet, if

times of the Gentiles are nearly completed, as

all

the

the

we must
some manner yet

signs of the times distinctly indicate, then

believe the prophecy fulfilled in
to be discovered.

The

vulo-ar starers

after crlarino*

wonders will never see prophecy converted into fact

but those will who watch the Hand that works
silently.

By

the insertion of one seed vitalized by

His touch God

forms of

filled

the whole earth with the highest

and adoration. The word of God unlike life, ever expanding and never seen

life

folds itself

but by the seers of the Spirit as well as the letter.

Look at the Jews. The promises made to Isaac
indeed embraced the Jews, but the promises to the
children of Joseph^ extend beyond them.
The tribe
of Ephraim belonged to that division of the Hebrew
people

who remained amongst

the idolaters

when

the

64

Israel's perversion,

captivity

was

by the

relaxed

decree

Cyrus.

of

Ephraim is especially mentioned by the prophets, and

the words of Hosea are peculiarly strong concerning
the estrangement of this tribe " Ephraim is joined
to idols; let him alone''^ (chap. iv. 15, 16, 17); and it
appears that Ephraim was so prominent a leader in
:

idolatrous innovations, as that the

name

stood in that

respect as the representative of the whole

house of

Israel, as

address:

"0

(Chap.

we

find in that divinely tender

Ephraim^

vi. 4.)

''

There

of the

what

is

shall

idolatry in

do unto

thee?*^

Ephraim

Israel

is defiled

Ephraim is mixed with the

Because he made many altars to
peoples (vii. 8).
sin, altars shall be to him to sin; and through his
idolatry Israel is swallowed up among the Gentiles as
Observe the

result.

no pleasure (viii. 8) like an unclean and broken urn cast into the sea as worse than
useless.
He forgot his Maker, and yet huilt temples.
In consequence of this attempt to do God service by
a vessel in which

flattering

their

is

own

deemed themselves the peculiar

blessings are

and their

now

who

very people

vanity, the

inheritors of divine

outcasts alike from their fatherland

fathers' hopes.

They have

forgotten

all

their

traditions of Jehovah's covenant with their fathers,

they are to

know themselves

as utterly desolate

and

through a manifestation of grace of which they have no record.

Speaking of Ephraim and Israel as one, the prophet
Hosea says " My God shall cast them away, and
hopeless, incapable of recovery but

they shall wander among the nations." (Chap. ix. 17.)

Thus confirming and repeating the prophecy of

WARNING, AND RECOVERY.

65

Moses, who, foreseeing the disobedience of

Israel, said

them all *' The Lord shall scatter thee among all
people from one end of the earth even unto the other,
Nevertheless, the end of their
(Deut. xxviii. 64.)
wanderings is this " Ephrahn shall say, What have
I to do any wore with idols ? I have heard him and
From
observed him saying^ I am like a green fir-tree
me is thy fruit found. Who is wise^ and he shall
understand these things ? prudent, and he shall know
to

''^

themV

(Hos. xiv. 8, 9.) "'0 Israel^ thou hast destroyed

thyself: but in

me

is

The iniquity of Ephraim

I will ransom them from

thine help.

bound up^ his sin is hid.

the power of the grave !

is

death.

death^

will

redeem them from

will be thy plagues.

will be thy destruction.''^

(Hos.

xiii.

grave^

We

9-14.)

look then for the fulfilment of these prophecies

known

must

among

and who can be

recovered from the degradation of their habits and
position only by that operation of the Holy Spirit
which causes a belief in the resurrection, and raises
the soul from death by the word of Christ.
We
a people not

as Israelites,

must look for the descendants of the literal Israel

amongst those who now are, or are ready to become,
the spiritual Israel in short, among Christian nations,
and among those who are willing to receive the word
;

of God, the truth as

shall

have

We
this

it

it

is

in Jesus, as soon as they

fairly presented to them.

will proceed in

our endeavours to substantiate

conclusion by examination of the history and the

existing facts of the world, as far as

their connexion with Israel.
in the

we can

But there

is

trace

one point

prophecy most striking in connexion with the

66 Israel's perversion, warning, and recovery.

grand revolution now proceeding in the East, the

It is this: when
greatest that ever happened.
Ephraim, or the outcast house of Israel, is beginning
to be recovered, he awakes, so to say, with the question, " What have I to do any more with idols V Thus
indicating that, up to the moment of the sudden
change, these hidden Israelites are idolaters, but
throw their idols off in haste and altogether, just as
the old races in China now do, and as those of India
will ere long.
This is only an illustration, an argument, and an inference may be connected with the
fact by and bye
" A nation shall he horn in a day^
All times and all means spring from one source
and terminate in one end, the manifestation of the
Divine Beigg, the revelation of the Author and
Finisher of life.
Such, at least, is one of the grand

we

by contemplating the facts to

which our inquiry now conducts us, and it is itself

lessons

shall learn

worth our patience.

67

CHAPTER
HOW

AND.

Having arrived
symbohc vision

III.

WHERE DID THEY GO?

at the conclusion that the prophet^s

signifies

the scattering of the re-

beUious Israelites and Jews through the wide world,

ill

proof alike of judgment and of mercy,

we

pro-

ceed to inquire by what instrumentality this was

been intimated that they were to be

involved in the cloud and the whirlwind, and mixed

effected.

It has

up with a vast multitude of people in the north from

Avhence they are to be borne, as on the wings of the
;

wind, unto every part of the habitable globe.

they were thus involved and scattered

certain evidence to inform us; but

much

we

How

we have no

shall discover

reason for the inference that they voluntarily,

went forth from the place of their exile

into the land offering them the asylum and the

as a body,

They refused to listen to the

warning; God rejected them, and we know

liberty they desired.

''prophet's

and could not return to Palestine.

They who were of the Ten Tribes had altogether
separated themselves from the Jews as a body by
apostacy and relentless warfare against the house of
David; and, had they desired again to occupy
Samaria, that land could not receive them it was

that they did not

f2

68

HOW AND WHERE

DID THEY GO?

by a people who had been placed there by the

Assyrian monarch in exchange for themselves. There
was, therefore, no room for them in their own former
filled

country, had they been inclined or permitted to re-

They were completely outcasts; they were

rejected alike of God and their country. An invasion
turn.

of the land of Media and Mesopotamia, through some

of the most fertile provinces of which they appear to

have been scattered, might indeed have

facilitated

would have
been a friend to them, and one mighty enough to
meditate and effect such an invasion would probably
have promoted their rebellion, encouraged their banding together, and have hailed them as the best auxitheir escape.

liaries.

But we

foe to their oppressors

find nothino^ distinct enouo^h in the

history of those countries and those times to afford

us any proof that they were drawn into the northern

whirlwind and the cloud by such means. It is at

most probable that, if they left the place of their

exile at all, they went out in peace, still deceiving
themselves with hopes to which they had no title,
since they had forsaken the covenant with the house
of David, in which " the sure mercies " promised by
Jehovah were alone to be found. But, if they could

least

leave the place of their exile peaceably,

that the power of their oppressors

it is

evident

must have been

previously subdued by some other power which
proved itself friendly to themselves. That power we
believe to have been Scythian, since this was the only
invading force of which we have any information that
could in any degree fulfil the requirements of the
vision of a whirlwind and a cloud coming from the

HOW AND WHERE

DID THEY GO?

north and involving the captives of Israel

69

who

so-

journed in Media and Mesopotamia, and bj the banks

of the Tigris

and the Euphrates.

We

shall present

evidences of the connexion of the Israelites with this

northern power as
in order

more

we advance

fully to

in

our inquiry.

But,

understand the condition of the

revolted tribes, and of such of the tribes of

Judah

and Benjamin as were seduced by them after their

removal from the Assyrian and Persian dominion, we
must revert to the words of prophecy, which show
us that theirs was a condition resulting from their
wilfulness and obduracy of heart in choosing a religion for themselves in keeping with their temper of
mind. Instead of receiving and obeying the religious
ordinances which had been enjoined upon them, they
only ostensibly reverenced them as oracles to be interpreted according to their liking and convenience,
just as the heathen interpreted the utterances of their
Sibvls.

In the second book of Esdras (chap,

xiii.) it is said

Ten Tribes went forth under circumstances

" The Most High showed
peculiarly favourable.
signs for them, and held still the flood until they

that the

were passed over." It is stated that ^' they entered

into [passed?] Euphrates by the narrow passages of
the river." If we look into a map, we shall see that
such a course would lead them through Armenia,
northward, into the midst of nations of Scythian
origin.

We may

take this evidence as so far indi-

cating what Jews believed concerning the

at a very early period.

apocryphal,

we

Ten Tribes

Since Esdras, however,

ask what other indication

is

is

there that

HOW AND WHERE

70
the

DID THEY GO?

Ten Tribes ever had an opportunity of withdraw-

And, supposing
them to have thus withdrawn, where were they likely
to go? The record of the Scythian invasion of Media
and Mesopotamia will afford us the reply.
The
Scythians once occupied those countries under circumstances in which the Israelites were very probably
As alike enemies of Persia and
greatly favoured.
Assyria, it was natural for the Scythians and the
Israelites to seek to be on good terms with each

ing from the place of their exile?

other.

But the history

of the Scythians

ably involved and obscure.

obscurity

concerning

It

may

people

is

remark-

be that this very

whom

with

the

must have had association is one of the

peculiar providences by which the path of the wanIsraelites

dering tribes has been concealed.

this obscurity, traces

of the

Notwithstanding

Ten Tribes

are found

amongst the Scythians to the east of the Caspian Sea,

in Sogdiana, Bactriana, Independent Tartary, and
Bokhara, and, indeed, amongst all people sho^vn by
history or language ever to have had any connexion
with that part of the world. There was a bond of
sympathy between the Scythians and the Israelites.
Scythia was doubtless,
Their foes were the same.
open to the sons of bondage whenever they could
avail themselves of an opportunity to escape.

Why

should they not seek refuge in the land of freedom?

Jewish historians, perhaps confounding the captivity

with the after diffusion of the Jews, relate that the

Ten Tribes were

Persia, but also

phorus.

carried not only into

Media and

into countries north of the

Ortelius also speaks of

them

Bos-

as being in

HOW AND WHERE

We may

Tartary.

DID THEY GO?

then deem

71

probable at least

it

that the Israelites in Media were in correspondence

with the Scythians, and this would go far to account

for the attack of those people

as

cursion,

as well

remarkable fact that, in their vast

the

for

upon Assyria,

they went to the borders

country, but then turned aside, as

if

in-

Hebrew

of the

to avoid disturb-

ing the sacred land, at that time unprotected, except

We

have the evidence of Herodotus

as to the singular fact, that the Scythians were bent
upon invading Egypt, but were diverted from their
purpose by large presents from the Egyptian king
Psammetichus. They are said, however, to have
robbed the temple of Ascalon on their return, and to

by Providence.

with some strange malady in con-

have been

afflicted

sequence,

(Clio. 104.)

But are there any people with a name

degree indicating the connexion of the
Israel with that of the Scythian ?

Sacce placed

the very

in

house of

Yes we
;

any

find the

by Ptolemy beside the Massagetae, and

name

Sacce suggests the possibility that the

sons of Isaac^ as the Israelites delighted to call themselves,

became, in

fact,

the neighbours of those vic-

and blended with

them, or became allies, in their eventful wars with all
the nations around them.
Nor is it without some
probability that the Scythians, who overran Asia for
twenty-eight years, were themselves led on by the
Israelites, if, indeed, the great body of them were not
torious Scythians, the Massagetae,

of

Hebrew

origin.

This would account for their

found in Media and Mesopotamia. These

very Scythians were afterwards all called Sacce by
being

first

HOW AND WHERE

72

the Persians.

DID THEY GO?

Their incursion took place in the reign

of Cyaxares, son of Phraotes, king of Media.

The

Nebuchadnezzar who took Jerusalem married the

When this
daughter of this Cyaxares of Media.*
king Cyaxares was in revolt against Assyria, and
while in the very act of besieging Nineveh, with the

came
overpowered them, and

aid of the Babylonians, these so-called Scythians

down upon

these besiegers,

seized the empire of Asia, which, as

we have

said,

they retained for twenty-eight years, (b.c. 641.) The

especial fact to be observed

is this,

the Scythians and

SacaB were afterwards confounded together.

These overpowering hosts came through Media and

Mesopotamia, where the vast multitudes of exiled

had been located, and growing into power

for more than a hundred years.
The Asiatic dominion was ultimately recovered for the Medes and
Persians under Cyrus the Great.
Thus the way was
Israelites

prepared for the restoration of the Jews, the tribes of

Judah and Benjamin, according

to prophecy, while

we hear nothing

Ephraim

of the house of

or Israel.

Where, then, were they? There is one great event in

the history of Cyrus that may throw some light on
the subject.
This king was desirous of conquering
the Massagetae. He went into their country, and, while
there, dreamt that Darius had subdued Asia and
Europe. This occurred on the banks of the Araxes.
(Herod, i. 209.)
Now we must remember that it
was to the borders of this river, which is the same as
Kir, that Tiglath-Pileser deported the people of Damascus when he subdued Syria, (b.c. 740. 2 Kings

* Dr. Angus's Chronology,

Bible Hand-book, p. 536.

DID THEY GO?

HOW AND WHERE

73

These people, therefore, were amongst the

Massagetce who defeated Cyrus, and they had been
formerly friends and allies of the Israelites, and spake

xvi. 9.)

the same or a similar language.

It

is

probable, there-

Ten Tribes afterwards passed into that

in united bodies they went out from

fore, that

the

country,

if

We

Media and Mesopotamia.

shall find proof here-

and the

Getae, or

Gothi, are ultimately blended together in

some of

after that the Israelites, the Sacae

their migrations.

Names,

dates,

in too great

and events are involved

a confusion in the histories of those countries and

times to be

now

unravelled, so

selves with the light

we

possess,

best of our ability as far as

gather up hints as

we must

it

we go on

content our-

and follow

will lead us.

at present.

it

to the

We only
We have

imagined some reasons for supposing the Scythian

Sacae to be connected with the house of Isaac but
we shall find other and stronger reasons as we proceed to investigate the subject in the higher and
;

clearer light of prophecy.

In this place, however, a

sketch of the kings and chronology of Assyria, in

relation to the Israelites

and the Jews,

will aid us in

forming a clearer idea of the statements already

made.
Pul, or Phul, is the first Assyrian king mentioned

kingdom to TiglathPul made the

Pileser, they are associated together.
He also
Israelites pay tribute to him in 769 B.C.
probably deported some of the people at least the
captivity of Reuben, Gad, and the half tribe of
Manasseh is attributed to him as well as to Tiglath-

in Scripture.

As he gave

his

HOW AND WHERE

74

DID THEY GO?

Pileser in 1 Chron. v. 26.

These tribes were removed

to Halah, Habor, Hara, and Gozan.
Habor is supposed by some to be the same as
Chebar; Hara was the mountainous country of
Media, and Gozan probably the district now known

Habor be the same as Chebar, now

Khabur, we have the fact that some of the Israelites
deported by Pul were located where others of their
tribes were afterwards located by Tiglath-Pileser.
as Buhtan.

If

There Ezekiel the prophet addressed their elders and

beheld his vision. The people dwelling by the Chebar
are named Sucki (Soki or Saaki) in the Assyrian
records translated by Rawlinson.*
This name might

by themselves
whether we suppose the name de-

well be applied to the Israelites, either

or their masters,
rived from

11:;

or from ira.

In the

first

case

it

would mean a people poured from one place into

another; and in the second it would be but the
appropriate patronymic, in short, which Amos applies to

them, namely, sons of Isaac

hence, perhaps,

Sakhi= Saxons.
Tiglath-Pileser

Judah, to assist

was invited by Ahaz, king of

him against Pekah, the king of

who, with the aid of the Syrians, endeavoured

to expel the descendants of David from the throne of
Israel,

Jerusalem. f

Tiglath-Pileser on this occasion

sub-

dued Syria, and brought the whole of the country of

Gilead and Naphtali, east of the Jordan, under his
dominion, leaving only Samaria to the kingdom of
Israel.

He

sent his prisoners into Assyria, or, as

* See note to Herodotus.
1 2 Kings xvi. 7-9.

HOW AND WHERE

DID THEY GO?

75

on the banks of the Kir, a

branch of the Araxes which flows into the Caspian
This
This was about 740 B.C.
Sea, in lat. 39 N.
king of Nineveh was master of Media, Armenia, Kurdistan, Syria, and the northern parts of Palestine.

some

think, the country

Amos

foretold this captivity

" I will break also the

bar of Damascus, and the people of Syria shall go

into
i.

captivity into

Kir,

saith

the Lord."

(Amos

5.)

Shalmaneser,

named Shalman by Hosea,

led

an

which was now

confined to the narroAv limits of Samaria.
He comTen Tribes, and removed
pletely subdued the
27,280* families from Samaria at once into Halah,
Habor, Gozan, and the cities of the Medes. It appears that his death for a short time suspended the
removal of the rest of the Israelites. This was about
725 B.C.
We observe that the Israelites, on this
occasion, were exiled to the same parts of the empire
of Assyria as those transported by Pul and TiglathPileser; the cities of the Medes being also now
mentioned, though some authorities have it that, at
the time the Ten Tribes were carried to Assyria, the
Medes had revolted, and Babylonia was a separate
kingdom. But this occurred seven years from the
building of Rome, in the second year of the eighth
Olympiad, 748 B.c.f
Sennacherib, or Jareb,J succeeded Salmaneser B.C.

army

against the

kingdom of

Israel,

* See Eawlinson's translation of Assyrian

records. ^Athenaeum,

23, 1851.

f Diod. Sic. lib.

J Hosea x. 6.

ii.

Justin,

lib.

i.

c. iii.

Aug.

HOW AND WHERE

76

He

720.

DID THEY GO?

completed the removal of the

Israelites,

brought the whole of Galilee and Samaria under his

dominion, and then sent an army of 180,000 men
against Hezekiah, king of Judah.

But, in consequence

of the faith and prayer of this king, this vast

army

was utterly destroyed by the angel of God beneath

the walls of Jerusalem.*

After this the Assyrian

empire began to decline and that of Babylon to

Hence we

crease.

learn, in the story of Tobit,

in-

who

resided in Nineveh, that the overthrow of Nineveh

was

by the Israelites. He exhorts his son

that place,f and to go into Media, where the

anticipated

to leave

Israelites dwelt.

was under Nebuchadnezzar (605 B.C.) that

Babylon dominated over all the East. During his
reign the Chaldeans marched upon Jerusalem and
carried away a large number of Jewish nobles into
Babylon among whom were Daniel and his friends. J
This deportation of Jews was very different from
that of the Israelites, and at least a hundred years
It

subsequent.

The return of

Jews took place after Cyrus had

united the kingdoms of Media, Persia, and Babylon,
and it is likely that he gave the Jews authority to
the

rebuild their temple in Jerusalem in consequence of

their aid in the conquest of Babylon.

In the restoration of the Jews as related by Ezra

and Nehemiah we hear nothing of the Ten Tribes

and the reason for this may be found in the entire
* 2 Kings

t Tobit
J

xix.

Herodotus,

xiv. 4, 10-15,

Jer. xxiv. 5

lib.

Rollin,

xxv. 12 ; Ezek.

i.

1.

lib. iii. c. ii.

xii.

13

Dan.

i.

1,

2 ; Athenaeus,

lib. xii.

HOW AND WHERE

DID THEY GO?

77

apostacy of Israel, and in the circumstance of their

separation from the Jews, and also in the events that

which they were

banished.
It was the chiefs of Judah and Benjamin
that promoted the return as stated by Ezra (i. 5).
These were assisted by the priests and Levites.

had occurred

in the countries to

Some remnants

of the house

willing to submit to the

new

of Israel

who were

order of things appear to

be named by Ezra (x. 25.) as

all

that were recog-

nised.

The circumstances

must have tended to produce a permanent separation between the Ten Tribes
and the Jews, or men of Judah and Benjamin, are
numerous; but perhaps the most remarkable are the
that

great changes that took place in the relations between

Media, Nineveh, Babylon,

and

Israel

during the

interval between the reign of Sennacherib

of Nebuchadnezzar; in which period the

must have been

entirely dissociated

brethren in Palestine, and liable to

Ten Tribes

from
all

and that
all

their

the abuses

which opposing tyrannies could exercise over an oppressed, a captive, and a homeless people.
Esarhaddon, the third son of Sennacherib, took
Babylon, and reigned over it, together with Nineveh,
in 680 B.C.
In this change the people of the tribes
must have been involved. From 667 B.C. Sardochus
reigned over Nineveh, Babylon, and Israel for twenty
years, and over Media also, until that country revolted, which happened in the thirteenth year of his
reign (654 B.C.). All these changes no doubt greatly
influenced the position of the

and Media.

The

revolt of

Ten Tribes

in Assyria

Media was very

likely

HOW AND WHERE

78

indeed to have been

its cities

much

DID THEY GO?

assisted

by the presence

in

men famous

for

of multitudes of Israelites,

stratagem and the restlessness of tried bravery and

fanaticism.

But

the most

marked change

in the

position of these people, who, from their religious

would

endeavour to keep themselves

distinct, probably occurred when the hardy Scythians
came down from the north and trampled under them

prejudices,

still

alike the despotisms of

The Median empire

Media and Assyria

(b.c. 633).

at that time contained, besides

JVTedia-Magna and Media- Atropatene, Persia, Assyria,

Armenia, and Cappadocia.*

They occupied Media,

Mesopotamia, and great part of Assyria immediately

after the revolt of Media, and while civil

war was raging

between Nineveh and Babylon. The Scythians, occupied, in fact, the very provinces in which the Ten Tribes
dwelt, and from whence they overran the whole of
Asia as far as Egypt on the south and the Indus on
May we not, then, regard this incursion as
the east.
that predicted in the vision of Ezekiel under the
image of a whirlwind and a cloud from the north?
It alone, of all events in the history of those countries,
fulfils

the requirements of the prophet's vision. This

vast and marvellous invasion of rugged hosts seems

to have as completely altered the aspect of central

Asia at that time as did that of a kindred people

under

Alaric the

Romanized Europe.

Goth

change the

destinies

of

The Hand Divine guided the

cloud; in all its seemingly lawless evolutions is seen

" the fire unfolding itself,'* and the self-moving Spirit
rules in

all

the rollings of the whirlwind.

* Eawlinson's Herodotus,

vol.

i.

p. 373.

HOW AND WHERE

The

facts

DID THEY GO?

79

about to be presented will probably

justify the inference that the overflowing of these

Scythians from the steppes of Tartary led to the

ulti-

mate removal of the Israelites, as a body, from Media,

Mesopotamia, and Assyria into the land of the Tartars
and thence into all parts of the habitable globe, according to the

literal

dressed to Israel, and

now

proclaimed to the whole

men may everywhere

world, that

ment,

force of the prophecies ad-

look for their

fulfil-

and understand that the destinies of nations

and of men are determined by their obedience to the

laws of uprightness, truth, and justice, or of the
charities of earthly life under the kindred but higher
charities revealed from heaven.
Into the consideration of this world-wide dispersion of Israel it is not

now my purpose

to enter.

Enough

for

my

present

purpose will be found in a very limited department

of this inquiry,
this

work

and

shall

to such evidences as

confine

attention in

we may be

able to

discover of the connexion of Israel, under another

name,

alike

with Scythia, India, and England.

80

CHAPTER

IV.

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE AND THE SAXON RACE.

However
book

infidels

may

cavil

and sneer

at the oldest

have the facts in connexion

with it to account for, which the truth of that book
alone explains.
The people who wrote the Bible
and transmitted it to us have altered the whole aspect
of politics and religion; they have remodelled the
world, and that, without intending anything more
than to express their own convictions. Their faith
in the world, they

has cast mountains into the

people,

the

as

Grecians

The contemptible
Eomans called the

sea.

and

Hebrews, have turned the pillared temples of Athens

and the Eternal City into dust, to be blown away into

by the breath of Time.

The names of old heroes once worshipped

oblivion

now

there,

round the nonsense

verses of our schools the philosophers who haunted
the porticoes of temples and the groves of the academies in long garments, uttering their proud
attempts at wisdom with the gravity and mysteriousness of that miserable ignorance of God and of themselves which all their most oracular discourses
serve

for

little

but

to

expressed

these,

with

all

their honours, give place

in silence to the dauntless prophets of

Jehovah and

HEBREW INFLUENCE AND THE SAXON RACE.

There is the
philosophy without the Bible has done nothing
fact
The seed of
to improve the moral world as yet.
the ruder disciples of the holy Jesus.

Abraham

the

man who

so long ago strangely sepa-

rated himself and his family from the pantheists of old

Asia in order to assert faith and to worship a personal

and a speaking God, the God manifest in humanity

have by their books and their ideas altered the habits of
the whole civilized world, and now regulate, or will
soon regulate, the intercourse of nations in

all

that

and law. The man

who was called '' the Friend of God " is acknowledged
by Europe, Asia, and America, and by multitudes in
relates alike to

Africa

commerce,

religion,

as the father of the faithful, thus pro-

also,

Abraham in spirit, just

so far as they obey the God who called him to seek
for a country beyond this world.
What if those
Christian nations that profess the faith of Abraham as
the proper pattern of their own should not only be
fessing to be the true seed of

spiritually his descendants

possess

it,

by

faith,

so far as they

but be even bodily influenced by an infu-

sion of his blood throuo^h the scatterin^^ of his lineal

descendants, the tribes of Israel, lost amongst the

Gentiles?

Word

But,

if

not

so,

they have at least received

from the children of Abraham, and

the people thus ostensibly his seed are the models of
humanity. In their records we possess the highest
examples of all that is most ennobling in our nature,
the

of

because there

life

we

see

man

influenced by the highest

motives, and enabled, by the apprehension of divine

relationship, in all their eflbrts to

aim at the honour

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

82
of

Him who

" glorious in holiness^ fearful in praises^

is

doing wonders^^
Disregrardino; for a

moment

the Jewish mission to

the Gentiles at all times of their history, but especially

the Apostolic ministry in

King

all

lands with the Gospel of

Jews in their hands, the

presence of the dispersed of Judah among us is sufficient to remind us of our indebtedness to them as
men teaching us a grand lesson of the deepest inWe see in their origin and history more of
terest.

the crucified

of the

the use of history than in that of

we

for in that

all

the world besides

see the direct connexion of national

and individual well-being with obedience to God's

Here is the secret of Providence. To know
laws.
God in the abstract is impossible. He reveals HimMan
self relatively, that is, in good and in evil.
must study these in relation to the outward worlds
of creation and history, and also in his own soul.
He is to distinguish good from evil, to feel the beauty
To appreciate the
of holiness, and love that beauty.
character of the just God, and to imitate Him who is
manifested as the Saviour in

whom

righteousness and

love are united, are spiritual duties now.

* The

literal

Jews are a wonderful

These are

people, even in respect to their

They resist the causes of disease and death better than most
According to the investigations of Dr. Gaiter, of Wieselburg, the

physique.
people.

mean
20'2.

life

of

He

Jews

is

45'5 years

of Germans in general, 26"7

of Croats,

the influence of race.

ascribes the difference altogether to

Out

of a thousand Christians at Frankfort, 39 reach 70 years, while of the same

number of Jews 73 attain that age. This is the more remarkable, since

Jews intermarry so much amongst themselves for Dr. S. M. Bemis shows

that, of 6321 marriages between cousins in Kentucky, 3677 produced infirm children 1116 deaf and dumb, 468 born blind, 1854 idiots, and
239 scrofulous. Ranking's Med. Obs., vol. xxix. arts. 6 and 7.
;

AND THE SAXON RACE.

the purposes of revelation and faith ; and

83
all

specula-

these

mind away from contemplating

truths confounds, distresses, and destroys us.

With

this

tion that takes the

form of revelation the whole course of

Providence

But the

coincides.

plainest

evidence

remaining for us of the connected history and interests of human nature is found in the Bible and in
the history of the Israelites
their books, but as

now

not only as recorded in

visible in the effects of their

and their presence in all civilized lands.

The Jews at least cannot but testify to their past
dispersion

history; they cannot but point to Jerusalem; they

cannot but appeal to their laws;

quote their prophets

they cannot but

they cannot but sing the songs

they cannot but lament in the language of

Jeremiah they cannot but indicate their hopes, and,
of Zion

while testifying alike of judgment and of mercy, they

cannot but thus direct the eyes of all thinking inquirers to the Jews* future as the only future foretold with

any sign of promise worth having.

The

Hebrews' past has involved the well-being of the

nations with whom they have mixed, and so will it
be with their future.

How

How

marvellous their story

blended with the destinies of empires

Egypt
and Babylon, and Assyria and Rome have meddled
with them and come to ruin, because they dealt with
them unrighteously.
And there is a controversy
still pending with the Russian, the Mahometan, and

Roman

Catholic empires, as also with the Persian,

the Mogul, the Chinese, the Burmese, and the Indian

empires in connexion with

the outcasts of Israel.

their past

The
G 2

conduct towards

history of the world, as

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

84

God's and man's world,

And

the history of the Hebrews.

is

the British empire and the republics of the

if

Western hemisphere be not ruinously involved in the

approaching and universal struggle, it is because of
their better standing in relation to the Jews in consequence of receiving the Word that went out from
Those nations which submit by choice
Jerusalem.
to the

Word

that smote

sisting Caesars

now own

down with

violence the re-

the kindred of their Saviour,

and acknowledge their obligation to the Jews for

having conveyed to them the models of the wisest
constitutions, and taught them to look before and
after, to trace the meaning of God's handwriting concerning the origin and ultimatum of our race. Thank
God, the influence of Jewish history and prophecy is
deeper in our literature and habits of thinking than
is the influence of Jewish Mammonism on our money

The purpose of both

markets.

these

seen yet, and that probably soon.

consent of Jews as
fio^ht,

money

efifects is
If,

to be

without the

dealers, the nations cannot

so neither can those nations that adhere to the

Bible be

much

troubled by the contentions that arise

about the Greek, Armenian, and Romish churches as

represented at Jerusalem by idolatries that are there
the proper derision of the Moslems and the scandal
of true Christians, and an abomination in the eyes of

those very Jews

who

look upon the whole land in

which the objects of contention stand as

their

own

Through the favour of the God whom

worship, and through whose interference

inheritance.

they

still

they rightfully expect to be ere long reinstated, they

still ply every art at their command to accomplish

AND THE SAXON RACE.

the end they desire, that
all

those powers

to say, the destruction of

is

who pretend

to

any authority

The Holy Land

land of their fathers.

85

is

in the

prepared to

them back.

These points are full of interest

at the present turbulent and maturing and finishing
period of history; but the largest element in the
receive

world's present condition

it

unknown, and therefore

is

cannot be taken into the calculation concerning

We

comino^ events.

do not know

cast tribes of Israel, to

whom

so

how the ten outmuch of unfulfilled

prophecy belongs, now stand in relation to the other

They are only hidden, however, not lost.
peoples.

Not a seed
process.

is

to

And

fall

if

to the

it

is

ground

difficult

separate people, or to discover

mixed up with

others, yet

it

impossible, since the world

shall arise

We

in the

to find

winnowing
them as a

where they

are,

if

cannot remain for ever

to see the light that

is

upon them. (Isaiah

Ix.)

by trustworthy history that only a portion of the Hebrews who were

are already well informed

carried captive into Assyria and

to Palestine.

its

provinces returned

All attempts to account for the re-

mainder are unsatisfactory.

Probably

plausible attempt to find their locality

Grant, who, being a missionary

Christians, occupying

many

among

is

the

most

that of Dr.

the Nestorian

of the hills of the country

over which the Israelites were probably dispersed by

their conquerors,

has arrived at the conclusion that

these Nestorian Christians are the descendants of the

Ten

and that the Scriptures are fulfilled by

But if Dr. Grant's
their discovery and conversion.
views do not come up to the terms of the prophecies
Tribes,

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

86

concerning Israel, to which

chapter directed attention,

it

we have

in

a former

will be unnecessary to

follow his several arguments in order to expose their

What

fallacy.

Dr. Grant wished to prove, of course,

under the circumstances, became very evident to himself; but he has not shown that the Nestorians are
numerous, nor that they are " swallowed up as an
empty vessel amongst the nations.''^ (Hos. viii. 8.) The
Nestorians are very probably descendants of the few

who

Israelites

did not leave the land of their captivity

small remnant were distinguished in the early

this

ages of Christianity, that

is,

the sixth and seventh

a most marvellous

manner, by their
sending out Christian missions to the east and the
north, the traces of which still remain to a remarkcenturies,

in

among

able extent

the Chinese, the Tartars, and pro-

bably more southern nations in the Eastern hemi-

We have in

sphere.

general but a small conception of

the influence that early Christians, through converted

Israelites,

world.

exerted over the views of the heathen

It is at least

Syrian churches have

a noteworthy fact that the early

left visible

evidence of their mis-

sionary zeal and power, both in China and in India.

Those early Syrian churches were Nestorians, and, in

as far as the

modern Nestorians

aflbrd strong evi-

dence of their Israelitish descent, as well as of their

actual connexion with the early Syrian churches, so
called, it

is

probable that their missionary efforts in

China and India originated in the fact that people of

their own kindred were known to be in those countries.
If

we

we go back

find, as

into the records of ancient history,

before observed, one

marked period of

AND THE SAXON RACE.

87

great obscurity, especially in relation to the country to

which the Israelites were exiled. The wars of the

Medes and Persians, which desolated those parts of
Armenia, Media, and Assyria in which the captives
dwelt, are not so narrated by any historian as to give
the least clue to the relation in which the Israelites
stood to those people, either during their continuance

neighbourhood or afterwards. But there is

one remarkable people beginning, for the first time, to

in their

take a

name and

a place in history.

The

Sacae are

now

mentioned, but only incidentally, as a tribe of

Scythians, or indeed as being the ver}^ Scythians
themselves.

It

appears as

if

the existence of the

by the Greeks and

the Eomans by supposing them to have come from the
north.
Nearly all that geographers and historians
Saca3 could only be accounted for

have preserved or intimated concerning this people, in

respect to their early

succinctly stated bv
Turner in his History of the Anglo-Saxons.* " The
locale^

is

Saxons were a Gothic or Scythian tribe and, of the

various Scythian nations which have been recorded,
the Sakai, or Sacas, are the people from whom the
descent of the Saxons may be inferred with the least
;

violation of probability.

Sakai-suna, or the sons of

the Sakai, abbreviated into Saksun, which

is

the same

sound as Saxon, seems a reasonable etymology of the

word Saxon. The Sakai, who in Latin are called

were the most important branch of the Sc}i:hian

nation.
They were so celebrated that, as already
Sacae,

observed, the Persians called all the Scythians

* Vol.

i.

p.

100.

by

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

88
the

name

of Sacae;

and Pliny, who mentions

this,

remarks that they were among the most distinguished

people of Scythia.*

Strabo places them eastward of

them to have made many incursions on the Kimmerians and Treves, both far and
They seized Bactriana and the most fertile part
near.
of Armenia, which from them derived the name Saka-

the Caspian, and states

sina

they defeated Cyrus, and they reached the Cap-

padoces on the Euxine.f This important fact of a part

of

Armenia having been named Sakasina

by Strabo

in

mentioned

is

another place J this seems to give an

;

[early] geographical locality to our primeval ances-

and to account for the Persian words which

occur in the Saxon language, as they must have
come into Armenia from the northern regions of

tors,

Persia.

"That

'

some of the divisions at least of the

people were called Sakasuna, is obvious from Pliny
for he says that the Sakai who settled in Armenia
[implying that they had come from another country],
were named Sacassani, which is but Sakasuni, spelt
by a person unacquainted with the meaning of the
combined words. And the name Sacosena,|| which
they gave to the part of Armenia they occupied, is
It is also imnearly the same sound as Saxonia.
portant to remark, that Ptolemy mentions a Scythian
people, sprung from the Sakai, by the name of
* Pliny,

lib. vi. c.

19.

f Strabo,

lib. xi.

pp. 776, 788.

"
J Strabo, p. 124. Mr. Keppel, in his late travels, calls this the beauKarabaugh."
In a letter to the Koyal Literary Society
tiful province of
he says, " I have traced 262 words in the Persian, Zend, and Pehloi lan-

guages

like as

Pliny,

many

in the Anglo-Saxon."

lib. vi. c. 11.

||

Strabo,

lib. xi.

pp. 776, 778.

AND THE SAXON KACE.

Saxones.
the same

the

who reached Armenia were

they may have traversed Europe with

If the

called Sacasani,

89

Sakai

appellation

which, being pronounced by

Romans from them, and then reduced

to writing

from their pronunciation, would have been spelt with

the X instead of the ks, and thus Saxones [or Saxons]
would not be a greater deviation from Sacosani or
Sacksuna, than we find between French, Fran9ois,
Franci, and their Greek name Phraggi ; or between
Spain, Espagne, and Hispania.'*
Saca-suni being the name of this people in Armenia,
is itself a clue to their origin
for the word would
mean, in Hebrew, the changed Saks '^t^roii^ not
sons of Sak, but Saks that had altered their abode or
;

their character.

The Persians of old distinguished the Sacae into

those of Saka Huma-verga [Amyrgian], and those of
Saka Tigra-khuda^ that is to say, the Tribes seated
on the confines of India, and those scattered through
the Persian empire.

them

first as

themselves

simply

The name
the Tribes^

but ultimately

it

Sacce was applied to

perhaps adopted from

came to

signify

bowmen,

because they, like the Ephraimites and the English,

were so famous

for the use of the

The country called Sakai

is

bow.*

one of those which were

subject to Darius, according to Norris's interpretation

The locality
of this country is not indicated except by its connexion in the inscription; and from that we gather
that it was on the borders of Media to the north-east,

of the Scythic Behistun in script ion. f

* See Rawllnson's Herodotus, note, vol. iv. p. 65.

t See Journal of Royal As. Soc. vol. xv. pp. 136-139.

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

90

known

some of the Sakai after the Scythian

invasion of Armenia and Assyria.
Our Anglo-Saxon historian Turner points out the
probable manner in which this bold and enterprising
people were impelled westward until settled in our
own land. We will not follow him but from another
source we are interested to learn that the White
Island in the west (England?) was in India denominated Sacana, from the Sacas or Sacs, who conquered
that island, and settled there at a very early period,
as we find from the fact being mentioned in the
Pur&.nas named Varada and Matsya.* Captain Wilford
has shown from these Puranas that the British Isles
are to be understood by Sacam, as well as certain

the

seat of

of the Continent, such

adjacent parts

That these Sacas, or

tical

Sacs,

as

Saxony.f

were of a race iden-

with those that entered north-western India

and overran a great part of Asia,

or expressed

whether

either implied

who mention them,

East or the West. The fact, then, seems

by

in the

is

historians

all

pretty well established that the Saxon race sprung

from the East, and that these have opposed and superseded the dominion of old Rome wherever they have
The spreadings and doings of
reached in the West.
the Saxon race constitute the chief parts of modern

no land where they are not, and

no people that has not been stirred up by them.
They now take the Bible with them wherever they
go, and found their commerce with the wide world
upon the rights and liberties which Christianity has
taught them to value as their lives. Here, then, as
history.

There

* Asiatic Res.

is

vol.

ii.

p.

61.

Asiatic Res.

xi. p.

54

AND THE SAXON KACE.

far as the

Western world

people in

whom

is

concerned,

91

we

discover a

are fulfilled most of the conditions

of the prophecies concerning Ephraim, the son of

that Joseph
in

Egypt

and hidden
the whole family of Jacob and the

who was

until

sold

by

his brethren

famished nations needed his manifestation as a man

made wise and provident by wisdom from above.

and yet from him shall

flow the blessings of both earthly and heavenly
nature to enrich humanity in every clime.
The fact that we have six or seven hundred words

Thus Ephraim,

too, is hidden,

in our language

of Persian origin agrees with our

own origin, amongst the Persians, but not of them.

Hebrew roots, too, are not few amongst our homeliest
words.
If we are related to the Sacae, our stirring,
restless,

conquering

spirit is in

keeping with that of our

famous for the bow and the battleaxe.

A glance at the ancient Sacas in the East will
show the likeness. They had detached themselves
from Persia before Alexander's invasion. Indepen-

forefathers, ever

dently they fought, as

allies

of Darius,

at

Arbela.

They contended with Alexander's army without

honour.

dis-

century later they established their rule

from the Aral lake to the mouths of the Indus.

They then invaded central India, but then fell under
the dominion of the Parthians, probably of the same
race, and finally were absorbed in the kingdom of the
Sassanidce^ also Saxon, pretty much as the Saxons of
England have become blended with the Normans, or
Northmen, and the Danes, all traceable to the same
Saxon source.
The revolutionizing influence of the Saxons who.

/
"^

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

92
in

olden time, took possession of

India,

was certainly no

who emigrated

Saxons

less

a great part

of

marked than that of the

So that,

westwards.

if it

can

be shown that the Saxons had any connexion with

the descendants of Isaac, or were in their origin of
the same race, then

it

we ought

follows that

to find

indications of their dominance through their opinions

in the East as well as in the West, but
cially in India.

And

if

we Englishmen

more

espe-

are only a

branch of the same stock that at an early period revolutionized India, and still maintain the influence of
their religious ideas throughout the East,

how won-

and interesting is the providential position of

England at present in respect to our Eastern doderful

minion!

If

we could but

clearly demonstrate

our

unbroken descent as Englishmen from the house of

Isaac, and believe the prophets, with what interest
we should look upon the promises made to Israel, and
Now, whether
try to read our destiny in the Bible
!

we

succeed in this or not,

we

Bible being truly ours,

ultimate results, in
terest,

the Israelites.

it is

all

plain that, the

Hebrew

are involved, in respect to

that interests or ever did in-

And we may

be sure that, so

we too have a revelation, and that not merely

through men and angels, but by the direct teaching
and institutions of God through his Spirit in the
Church, as we Christians profess to believe, the con-

far as

sequences of our neglecting rightly to employ our

means will be proportionately met by condemnation

and dismay. If Israel has suffered as an outcast,
and been lost as a distinct people, for worshipping
Baali instead of the Holy One, shall professed Chris-

93

AND THE SAXON RACE.

tians escape,

who only worship Mammon, and make

a market of God's holy temple?

Spiritually, at least,

truest

and highest

and

therefore, doubtless, in the

sense, the prophecies concerning

the chosen tribes are fulfilled in us.

oracles of God, are blessed with the

We

dews

hold the

of

heaven

and the fatness of the earth. Nations serve us, and

bow down to us, and are the better for it. We are
lords, yea, lords over our own brethren, and " cursed
is every one who curseth us, and blessed is every one
who blesseth us." (Gen. xxvii. 28, 29.) We Saxons
are heirs of the world, not by right, but by divine
favour and providential training.
We are bringing
the ends of the world together and binding mankind
into one compact community, by the sacred ties of the
highest intelligence and religion, involving, of course,
all

material blessings.

earth

is

This

is

as

it

should be, for

one orb rolling round in eternal love, and em-

braced in the light of Divine benevolence.

true glory

is

But the

not altogether an outward and visible

which the eye of the spirit

alone can see or endure, and that glory is the unfolding
of the divine government in the history of the human
race, and especially as manifested in the fulfilment of
those prophecies contained in the sacred book by
which God will demonstrate his attributes of foreknowledge and wisdom, and prove Himself to be, in
one word, the Omnipotent, that is. Good Will in infinite operation.
So says the true Christian.
There

thing.

We

is

a glory

are involved in the fulfilment of the prophecies

by Jehovah, but how and to what extent the

future must make known. If these Sacie can be con-

inspired

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

94

nected with the

we

Israelites,

of Israel and Judah

is

can see

to be effected.

how the union

From Judah

sprung the human and Divine Saviour of men, and

Israel receiving his

Word

hails

Him

as their Salvation

and as the reigning Sovereign of a redeemed world.

Thus

all

nations shall be blessed

by the

faith that

Jews and Gentiles alike to Christ.

work was published some time since (by Mr.

unites

J. Wilson,

of Brighton),

This was too

Origin.

entitled

Our

much opposed

Israelitish

to the views of

popular expositors to be received with the candour

it

must be acknowledged that Mr.

Wilson in that work has done much more to meet
the requirements of prophecy than any that preceded
him and although we dare not follow him into all the
results to which he would lead us, still he has shown
a large amount of probability, and indeed very much
deserved;

but

it

of the letter of Scripture, in favour of the opinion he

has advocated, namely,

that

the

Saxons

are the

descendants of Israelites as distinguished from the

Jews.

It is not to the purpose, however, here to

Mr. Wilson has not advanced

any direct evidence of Saxon connexion with Israel
by descent, but he has indicated a great deal in the
Anoflo' Saxon character and customs which accords
follow in this track.

better with the notion of our Israelitish origin than

with any other explanation of our peculiarities but

he lays most stress upon the circumstance that the
;

prophecies concerning the family of Joseph are not

fulfilled,

unless

in

the

Anglo-Saxons; a mode of

treating the subject in the highest degree questionable, since it is necessary to the validity of

such an

AND THE SAXON RACE.

argument,

first

to prove our Israelitish origin

monstrating, not only that

Sace,

95

we

by

de-

are derived from the

but also that the Sacae were certainly Hebrews.

Could we but find the broken link in the chain by

which the Sakai or Sacae are supposed to have been

we should be

no loss
to discover some of the modes in which the wondrous
prophecies, so apparently contradictory and paradoxical, concerning the outcast tribes have been fulconnected with the Israelites,

filled

in

their descendants;

for

here

at

are

we, the

Anglo-Saxons, with mind and heart imbued with the

history and hopes of Israel, elevated and enlarged

by the sublime doctrines and predictions of their

sacred seers, sages, kings, and prophets, singing the
songs of Zion in our temples, living in the noble
expectation

universal

of

blessedness

under

the

King of Salem, and desiring and

endeavouring to promote the coming of his kingdom
in all lands.
The Saxons embrace the world, and
the devout amongst them realize in faith and spirit
the visions of all true prophets and seers that have
glorious reign of the

been since the world began, and now anticipate the

period

when a King

shall reign in righteousness,

princes rule in judgment. (Isai. xxxii.)

What

and

could

converted Israelites do more?

But the Imk

is

broken

the connexion between the

Sakai and the house of Israel has not yet been found.

But we think we have found it at last, as we are

about to show something very like positive proof that
the Sacae and the Getae, who formerly invaded India,
sprang from the same source as the Saxons and
Goths of the West, and were directly connected with

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

96

with a people who employed their lanThis, however, will scarcely serve to prove

Israelites, or

guage.

Gothic and

that the

Saxon races are the

descendants of Joseph, to

direct

whom

were promised all

the blessings of increase and abundance.
The facts
and arguments accumulated by several writers may
well suffice, however, to convince us that an Israelitish
influence has been infused into

we

tlie

people from whence

sprung, and that the spirit of Israel's training, in

war, legislature, religion, and

outward endeavour,
has been operating amongst us to qualify our populations to colonize all countries and while preparing
the ground for the highest culture, penetrating the
everlasting hills for gold and treasure, traversing all
all

seas, building

docks in every harbour, intersecting the

mountains and the valleys with roads of wrought

iron, riding on fiery chariots with the speed of tempests, sending forth their thoughts and words on
lightning wings from land

to

land,

and declaring

everywhere, this earthly earnestness notwithstanding,

that this world

is

not our

rest.

These, however, are

not the positive marks by which the offspring of the

escaped remnant
Still

is

to be

known

at last.

these Sacce are too peculiar in their rise

and

by Providence as one of
the grand way-marks by which the patient and
humble inquirer after evidences of Divine purpose in
the distributions of mankind may expect to be
history not to be intended

directed in the right road to the end he seeks; for he

knows that

all

that stands prominently forwards in

the world's history

elucidate

is

some point

intended in a special manner to

in the prophetic

Word.

The

AND THE SAXON RACE.

ways of God

97

ciples

man, as verbally revealed on the prinof moral law in the books and in the experiences

of the

Hebrew people,

to

There

history.

are also revealed in the world's

indication that the Sacse, if they

is

took not their name from the house of Isaac, were at

least connected

with Isaac's descendants.

Sacce or Sakai

is

The word

remarkable in the history of lan-

guage, and the philologists have been unable satisfac-

The word

torily to trace its origin.

remarkable, but

are told

of Isaac's parentage

story
xvii.

we

It is

17.)

from pTO,

its

Isaac

is

derivation

equally
in

the

and home-life. (Gen.

and means laughter,

either as expressive of derision, incredulity, or joy.

The

initial

is

not essential to

it,

and

is

perhaps

make it a personal as well as prophetic

designation.
Now, as we find this name adopted by
prefixed to

the house of Israel and applied to them by the pro-

who denounced them and their idolatries

name not long before their banishment, we

phet Amos,
in this

have only to discover reason and occasion for their

using this designation afterwards, to account at once
for the name Sacae and all that is connected with it.
In

Amos

(vii.

9) the

word

Isaac

is

employed as

synonymous with Israel. It was after the tribes of Israel

had separated themselves from Judah, and thus also
from the hopes and promises connected with the house
of David, that they acquired this name. After they had,
in their pride and independence, sought another king,
and one of their own, rather than accept any in the royal
line to which the prophecies had pointed for the
Messiah and the everlasting kingdom, the prophet
calls them the house of Isaac.
This is memorable.

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

98

They did not think by

this rejection of

God's Anointed

to reject the hopes of Israel, but rather in their wil-

upon the anterior

promise, and to look for blessing and power in the
name of Isaac, the true seed of Abraham, in whom all
the nations of the earth should be blessed.
They
fulness

appeared to

back

fall

arrogated the right of dominion in this

name when

occupying the

is

hills

of Samaria; and

highly probable that,

king drove

when

it

therefore

the conquering Assyrian

from their fatherland,

they still boasted of their descent from Isaac.
They
preferred to mingle idol- worship on high places with
all

their families

and thought, perhaps, with

their traditional ritual,

the opinionated and Cainlike

spirit

of refiners of

God's ordinances, to honour Jehovah more by calling

Him Baal^ or Lord

God

the

The

of

all^

than by worshipping

Him as

of their fathers and the chosen people only.

origin of the

name

Sacce^ or SaJcai^ for the inha-

Armenia which the Sac^

bitants of that part of

occupied after the expulsion of the Scythians,

thus naturally accounted

is

That they should be

for.

confounded with the Scythians

equally natural,

is

reason to suppose that they

afterwards colonized amongst that wide-spread race
especially as there is

of marauders, and gave their

name

to the country

they occupied beside the Massagetae.

so

conspicuous a

nations,

amongst the Scythian

prowess, and industry, as

arts,

at length to give their royal

name

Sacce

is

attained

position

from superior

part of that race.

They

name

It is at least

to the

dominant

remarkable that the

not applied by the classic historians

and geographers to any

tribe of the Scythians until

AND THE SAXON RACE.

some time subsequent

99

to the exile of the liouse of

Isaac,

History assures us that the Israelites were per-

mitted to exercise very remarkable influence dut-ing

was a family of the exiles named

Shambat that reigned in Armenia for a considerable
period, as it is said, contemporary with Nebuchadnezzar.*
Then, again, Daniel and his compatriots of
the royal house of David were elevated to positions
their captivity.

It

of the highest influence during the reign of Darius,

and by the wonders that God wrought through the

holy name of Israel's Jehovah, became dreadful and
revered throughout and beyond the Persian dominion,
which extended from this side of the Euphrates to
the Indus, and from the Caspian to the Arabian Sea.
After the Persian empire came under the power
of Nebuchadnezzar,
Daniel's

king of Babylon, the name of

God was known

to

many tongues

and

all

and languages that could be reached

by the messengers of the mighty despot, now restored
to his reason, were exhorted by him to praise, extol,
and honour the King of Heaven the self-existent
Deity of the Jews " all whose works are truth, and
his ways judgment, and who abases all who walk in
people, nations,

pride." (Dan. iv. 37.)

If that strangely beautiful

episode of history, the book of Esther, relates to the

condition of those

Jews who remained

in the land of

their exile after the return of their brethren to Jeru-

salem

(b.c.

536), as

appears to do,

it

we have

evi-

dence that they were at that time very numerous and

influential.

The events
* See Armenia,

related in the story are said

in

Penny Encyclopedia.

h2

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

100

to have occurred in the reign of Ahasuerus,

who

is

supposed to be the same as Artaxerxes (b.c. 462).

It is stated that his dominion extended from India*

hundred and twenty-seven proIt must, therefore, have emvinces. (Esther i. 1.)
braced all the countries into which the Ten Tribes
were deported by the Assyrians. If, therefore, the
Ten Tribes, as a body, were still in those countries in
the time of Esther, we might reasonably expect to
find something concerning them in this book but we
do not. Throughout, the Hebrews are named by the
designation invariably and distinctively applied only
Judeans or
to those attached to the house of Judah
Jews (DmiiTi). This is remarkable, as the circumstances related would necessarily have involved all
Esther had
the Israelites then in those countries.
been providentially elevated to an influential partnerto Ethiopia, over a

ship in the throne of the splendid tyrant Ahasuerus.

Haman, one
pride,

of his nobles, in

endeavoured to

envious and ignoble

resist the

encroachments of

Jewish influence and he contrived to obtain an edict

for the entire destruction of the Jews, on the ground
;

that the national and established religion was endan-

gered by them.

(Esther

iii.

8, 9.)

pointed for a general massacre of

day was ap-

the ambitious

* India is here called 'lliT, or Hodhu. Is it not probable that this name
from Aj^odhja (? HIVIDj now Gude, which, accordinof to the Raraayana, once ruled over all India ? The first dynasty of Gude is said to have
is

been founded by Raraah, a sort of hero-divinity, who came from his holy
mountain west of Caubul, probably Indo-Koosh. Now Raamah is the son
Indo-Koosh takes
of Gush, or Koosh, the grandson of Noah. (Gen. x. 7.)
its

name from

this

the same as this

Gush, the son of

Raamah

Ham.

May

not the hero

Bamah

be

AND THE SAXON RACE.

exiles

feated.

101

but in the meantime Haman's craft was de-

The

king's heart, strong in wilfulness,

weaker than the voice of woman

was

for it is ordained

that the eloquence of beauty, love, and faith shall

be always stronger than the changeless laws of the

Medes and Persians

for such laws are

strength of man, but nature

The Jews were

made

in the

the strength of God.

is

to be slaughtered

the

word had gone

and could not be recalled their enemies were

armed, and animated with the hope of a rich and
easy spoil. (Esther ii. 16.)
But a counter-edict gave
the Jews the right to defend themselves, and they

forth,

vindicated their right like

men

possessed of noble

hearts and trained to the high thoughts and deeds of

a patriotic and divine creed.

''

They gathered them-

selves together in their cities throughout all the pro-

vinces of the king'' (ix. 2), and " slew seventy -five
thousand of their enemies," and " had the rule over
"
those that hated them," though " they took no prey

Now,

none of the Ten Tribes

were concerned, but only the Judeans; from which
(ix.

we

16).

in all this

infer that the Israelites,

who

delighted to

call

themselves Beni-Israel, had before that departed as

a body from Media and Persia.

During the twenty-

eight years in which the Scythians kept the Medes,

and Assyrians in subjection, the Israelites

must have enjoyed ample opportunity to become
acquainted with them, and afterwards to join them,
if, as we have reason to believe, the Scythians were
friendly to them.
And if they went, where were they
so likely to go as into the countries on the borders of
the Caspian Sea, where the Scythians predominated?

Persians,

102

THE HEBREW INFLUENCE

We know that

Ezekiel was consulted by the elders of

Israel

when on

the banks of Chebar, and

B.C.

He

at Tel-

This was about

abib he visited his exiled brethren.

594

when

then told them of his vision, and they

appear to have spoken of their desire to go into some

country beyond

known

probably some place that might be

as the Highland, or high place, such as the

steppes of Tartary

for

he

states, as if in reference

alike to their desires, their destiny,

that he " then said unto them.

and their idolatry,

What

is the

high place

whereunto ye go? the name thereof is even called

Bamah [a high-place] unto this day." This play
upon the words the high-place and a high place is
utterly unaccountable, except on the supposition of
their having mentioned their going collectively to
some land to which they gave the name of Habamah.
The places in which they were accustomed to conduct
their idolatrous worship were called high -places; but
it is evident such places were not here meant, for the
prophet, after telling them how God would judge and
scatter them and pour his fury on them, and purge
out the rebels and not let them enter the land of
Israel, adds," As for you,
house of Israel, thus saith
the Lord God, Go ye, serve ye every one his idols,
and hereafter [also], if ye will not hearken unto me,
but pollute ye my holy name no more with your
God declares He
gifts and your idols." (xx. 39.)
will "bring them out from the people and gather
them from the countries where they are to be scattered;"

"and

country where

will

bring them forth out of

tliey sojourn,

but they

into the land of Israel" (xx. 33-39).

the

shall not enter

As

heretofore,

AND THE SAXON RACE.

SO hereafter, they shall

go and

still

103

They

serve idols.

some high place called the Bamah

were they not always going to Bamah, for is not that
the name of the places in which they were constantly
talk of going to

committing idolatry with steady devotion ?

the prophet, go to your desired

Bamah

Go, says
serve your

when there, as you do now; but know, God,

whose name you pollute, will judge you there. We

idols,

may possibly see more of the meaning of

as we proceed.
We must not here lose

this

Bamah

sight of the

significant fact that the prophet foretells that,

though

these Israelites desired to be like the heathen, they

" That which cometh into your
should not be so.

mind

shall not be

at

all,

that ye say,

we

will be as

the heathen, as the families of the countries, to serve

wood and

stone"

(xx. 32).

They

are to be distinct

from ordinary idolaters in their idolatry, not actually

worshipping wood and stone as gods. According to
the best chronology we can get on the subject, it
appears that the prediction of their exodus from
Assyria was delivered about the year 594 B.C., or
seven years after the captivity of Jehoiachin (compare Ezra i. 2 with xx. 1), two years after the vision
on the banks of the Chebar (now Khabur). The
Scythians had been expelled but a few years before,
for Cyaxares 1. reigned forty years (Herod, i. 106),
and died 600 B.C., soon after his conquest of Nineveh,
which he undertook immediately subsequent to their
expulsion.
There was, doubtless, sympathy between
the Scythians and those Ephraimites who were given
up to idolatry and the worship of high places they
were alike prone to intoxication and famous for the
;

HEBREW INFLUENCE AND THE SAXON RACE.

104

use of the bow. In Persian, Sacai, that

is,

a Sacian, was

synonymous with glutton and drunkard,* which are

terms applied by the prophet to the house of Isaac
and, if historians may be trusted, the Saxon branch
of the Scythian family have always taken so very

kindly to their food and their drink as to worship their

gods with gluttony and drunkenness.

But where

shall

we

find

any record of the exodus

of the Ephraimites, the house of Israel, the house of

Isaac, the

house of Joseph, the rebellious house ?

By

had the prophets addressed them;

but, after Ezekiel, no prophet mentions them. Daniel
ignores them Haggai has no message for them Ezra
and Nehemiah fail to account for them. Where are
all

these names

they?

We may

we have

better answer that question

when

considered another, which shall form the

subject of a distinct chapter.

* An. Hist. Un.

vol. xx. p. 15.

105

CHAPTER
Israel's

Did

V.

new names.

the Israelites acquire other

captivity

names during

their

At the time that Ezekiel

visited the captives

by the

Nebuchadnezzar was ruler, not only over

the kingdom of Babylon, but also over the whole of
Assjnria, Nineveh having been taken and added to
Media, so that all the Hebrew captives were under
his dominion.
The Israelites of the captivities under
Tiglath-Pileser and Shalmaneser were in Media and
in the country about the Chebar.
They had been
there nearly a hundred years, and were probably
very numerous at the time when Nebuchadnezzar
founded the Babylonian empire and conquered Judea.
We should therefore expect to discover some traces
river Chebar,

of their existence in the profane historians of the

Babylonian and Median empires.

It

would be

in

them under the name of

or Hebrews, seeing that as such they had

vain, however, to look for

Israelites
lost

their

nationality.

We

should therefore

them under some name expressive of

seek

their condition

at present, rather than as indicating their nation.

think that those

name
in

who dwelt

in Assyria acquired the

and that those in Media will be found

the Budii (BovStot), said by Herodotus to be a
of Sacae,

106

Israel's

new names.

(Herod,

tribe of the Medes.

i.

101.)

The Budii

ap-

pear to be the same as the Putiya of the Persians,

and are supposed by Rawlinson

the Babylonian inscriptions.

to be the Budii of

This able writer also

regards these Budii as a Scythian people, and deems

it

probable that they

may be

identified with the

Phut

of Scripture; but I would accept the Persian name,

Putya or Puthya^

as a

name

plied to the Israelitish people

likely

enough

to be ap-

by themselves

n''n9=

broken of God. That the Budii are mentioned by

Herodotus as a Scythian people, and also as a tribe of
the Medes, may be accounted for very easily, if it can
be shown that they were neither, but really Israelites
hidden under this name, both in Media and Scythia;
and, of course, on the same ground, their supposed
identification with

Phut

is

at once disposed of.

As,

however, the Budii will be fully considered in a succeeding chapter, I will leave them at present with

a simple assertion of their being most likely

a people to

whom

word Budii would very well

a Hebrew word, it would signify

the

apply, seeing that, as

the separated people (''Hi).

named

Israelites,

There

SuJchi^ in the inscriptions

is

another people,

deciphered by

Raw-

linson.

This people dwelt by the Chebar; probably on

the

of the

site

modern Zacho or Sacho. These people

may

possibly be identified with the Sacae, or Sakhai,

who

afterwards get confounded with the Scythians, in

consequence of their being mixed with them. All

the reasons for this identification cannot be at present
stated ; but one strong reason appears in the fact that

they occupied the situation between the Tigris and

Euphrates by the Chebar, where Ezekiel met the

NEW NAMES.

ISRAEL'S
Israelitish

captives,

whom

identify with the Sacae,

107

have endeavoured to
on the supposition that they
I

adopted this name in remembrance of their descent

from Isaac; but the word

having come to us with

its original orthography, we reason on the subject with
Could we find the word Sacae
the more difficulty.
itiot

spelt in characters equivalent to the three letters that

form

the root

word Isaac

of the

pn^, the ques-

word is too
to have any other
derivation ^han that assigned to it in Holy Writ.
(Gen. xxi. d.)/;'Now, I think we have the word pre-

would be almost decided,

peculiarly Hebrew in its form
tion

for the

cisely in those equivalents in the Scythic version of

the Behistun inscription, so ably presented to us in the

memoir thereon by Mr. E. Norris.* This version may

or may not be Scythian it is enough for our purpose
that we find the word we want inscribed on a rock in
Persia about the time of Cyrus.
The word consists
;

of three characters, which Mr. Norris renders Saakka,

but which in Hebrew equivalents would probably

stand as pra, the very word Isaac without the

initial

makes no part of the name. If

we suppose the name Sukhi to be derived from any
other Hebrew word common to the Chaldees also,
we may perhaps find it in ^^^ which would still
apply to the Israelites, for, as a name, it would mean
a people emptied from one place into another.
We
have the same word in use amongst us, and to sack a
city is to empty it of treasure.
We might imagine
several derivations of the word; but we need not
wander into further conjecture, as it is enough that
yod^ which properly

* Journ. Eoj. As. Soc.

vol. xv. art. 1, p.

206.

108

Israel's

new names.

by the Israelites had a name

which so far connects them with the Sacae, or Sakhai,
for by and bye we shall discover this name in distinct connexion with a people that used the Hebrew
tongue.
The only Hebrew equivalent for the name
of the people called by the Latins Sacae and the
the country inhabited

and SaVac) is that already given

as the equivalent of the Behistun inscription, and in
English the Sacs or Saxons.
That the Sacae had
some remarkable bearing upon the Babylonians is
evident from a singular festival celebrated amongst
them called Sacca or Sacea. Athenaeus, after Berosus, informs us that the festival was instituted
in consequence of a signal victory obtained by CroeGreeks Sakai

King of Lydia, over the

sus,

to

(Sd/cat

Sacae, said

by Athenaeus

This took place about

be a Scythian people.

The Babylonians were at that time the

allies of the King of Lydia but the circumstances of
the festival celebrated by the Babylonians in remem562

B.C.

brance of that event are of too remarkable a character

by the mere fact of the alliance.

Five days every year were devoted to this festival
by the Babylonians; during which the slaves or
servants commanded their masters, one of them being
for the time constituted chief over the house, and
wearing a kind of royal robe, which they called
It would appear, therefore, that this
Zagana.*
victory of Croesus over the Sacae in some way

to be explained

related

to

the

their slaves.

Is

mastery of the Babylonians over

it

not,

then, probable that

these

Sacae were at one time in the position of slaves or

* Anc.

Hist. Univ. vol.

iv. p.

121.

ISRAELIS

NEW NAMES.

109

and that they had escaped from their dominions, and for a time assumed
a royalty of their own, and possessed a power which
even Croesus might boast of having checked? That
the Babylonians had reason to rejoice in his victory
is evident
and perhaps their rejoicing may be excaptives to the Babylonians,

we suppose that the Sacoe and the Scythians

were encountered by Croesus when on their way to
invade the Babylonians, who would not only rememplained, if

ber that the Scythians had not long before '' become
masters of all Asia'* (Herod.) for twenty-eight years,

but were the more to be dreaded

now

on by
the Sacae, who desired to avenge themselves upon
the tyrants who had enslaved them.
Zagana was
probably the
prefects,

name

D''^:iD,

of the robe
title

as led

worn by the

chiefs or

among the Babylonians and

and amongst the Jews also, after their

return from captivity.
In the Behistun inscription
Persians,

we

find three classes of Sacae referred to (p. 150);

namely, the Sacae

who

named next

use arrows, and the Sacae

beyond

( ?)

the river.

We

to India, the

who

Sacae

are said to be

therefore find

them

scat-

tered very ^videly, and no longer constituting one

people or nation, although evidently one race; which

which we should expect the

house of Isaac to be found at that time, under the
circumstances to which we know they must have
been exposed, first, from their separations in their
early captivity, and then from the wars and divisions

is

just the condition in

in the countries they occupied.

The

river referred

must have been either the Tigris or the Euj)hrates.

The word rendered beyond {yittuvanna) would, I

to

110

new names.

Israel's

gone beyond, implying

their voluntary removal from their original seat (by
the Chebar) a fact which would fully accord with
the testimony of Esdras and the facts already stated.
The Ephraimites, or house of Isaac, were notable as
bowmen (see Ps. Ixxviii. 9) and here the use of the
conceive, be better rendered

arrow

is

given as characteristic of one division of the

was of the

Cyrus and Alexander

the Great encountered to their cost and we know the
Saxons that fought their way to England were also
Sacae, as it

Sacae that

famous bowmen.

As one

class of these

SacaB,

at the time of

the

Behistun inscription, dwelt in the north about the Caspian sea, and another at the north-west of India,

may

we

well imagine the third class, seemingly a peace-

able people, on the west of the rivers Tigris

and

Euphrates, desirous of being united with their brethren,

whom

they could have no hope of reaching

through Media and Persia, which were now the lands

of their foes; and therefore their course could only
be through the passes of the Massa, or Mount Mesha,
on the western side of the Caspian, through which
the Scythians are said by Herodotus to have entered
Armenia. The Massagetas and the Scythians were
probably ready to let them settle amongst them, or to
pass on

and, in fact, the early history of the SacaB

mixed with those

nations, so

been confounded together.

tory of Media

we

nmch

so,

is

that they have

In looking over the

his-

find that Ctesias* leaves the SacaB

and the Medes at peace with each other after a long

struggle together, the SacaB having been led on by a
* Diod.

Sic.

1. ii. c.

3.

Israel's

new names.

wonderful heroine named Zamara.*

Ill
This

may be in

some measure fabulous as to date, but is likely to have

been asserted on other grounds than that of imagination.
Such a statement points to some such reality.
Then, again, the Parthians are said to have revolted
from the Medes under the protection of the Sacae who
inhabited Mount Haemodus, which separates India from
Scythia. Thisagain points to the standing of these Sac^e
in relation to the Medes,

and

also indicates the direc-

which we are to look for " the peculiar people.'*

There were no impediments in the way of their

tion in

colonization

existence of

among
a new

the Scythians, and, in fact, the

people under the

name

of Sakai,

or Sacae, about the east of the Caspian Sea and on the

northern side of the

Imaum mountains,

is

proved by

re-

ference to the historians already quoted in the extract

from Turner's History of the Anglo-Saxons, and also

by the name of the country being given

in the Be-

histun inscription as under the protection of Darius,

the son of

Hystaspes

(b.c.

555).

The

Sacae, like

most of the tribes of Israel, who once inhabited the

mountains of Samaria, were a pastoral as well as a
warlike people, and the country into which we shall
trace the Sakai, or Sacae, was peculiarly adapted to
That a large
the wants and habits of such a people.
body of Hebrews did proceed northward from Armenia, and were resident in the neighbourhood of the
Caspian Sea, appears probable, as already stated, from
the circumstance that, after the Jews were permitted
to return to Palestine, Ezra sent to the chief of
the place, Casiphia (Ezra viii. 7), for ministers.
* Anc. Hist.

vol. v. p. 25.

112

Israel's

new names.

It is important to observe that the Caspians are

mentioned by Herodotus in connexion with the Sacae

as

united tributaries to Darius, son

(Herod,

iii.

This Darius was king of Babylon,

93.)

Media, and Persia. (Dan.xi. 2). Here

Babylonian

also that the

lar
*'

of Hystaspes.

title

we again observe

Sacae

is

not vernacu-

but foreign, and, as used by them, simply means

the tribes," corresponding to the Greek Haju^vAot.*

Ezra's message

is

remarkable, and proves that Hebrews

were not only dwelling near the Caspian, but observing Hebrew rites there, and were subsisting under
Ezra states " I sent
a government of their own.
them [the messengers] with commandment unto
Iddo, the chief of the place Casiphia, and I told them
what they should say unto Iddo and to his brethren
:

the Nethinims at the place Casiphia, that they should

We

bring unto us ministers for the house of God."

have the authority of Dr. Henderson

the word Casiphia as the
ing on the Caspian Sea.f
captivity are

still

name of a country borderHebrew remnants of the

resident on the eastern borders of

But when we come

the Caucasus.

for interpreting

Sacae in northern India

we

to speak of the

shall find distinct evidence

that the Nethinim were there also, and

name

of Botans.

called Isicki,

who were

for the first time allied with

in the consulate of Nero,

their

name

in the

certainly associates

But

the

It is not unlikely that the people

Rome

of Isaac.

known by

were Hebrews

and

them with the house

Tacitus, in alluding to their usefulness

Roman

invasion of

* See note

in

Armenia under

H. C. Rawlinson's Herodotus

f Kussian Researches.

Tiridates,

Cimmerians,

NEW NAMES.

ISRAEL'S

113

implies that they so effectually aided Carbulo because

they were good horsemen and well acquainted with

Armenia; characteristics that would well accord with

remnants of the Sacae, who conquered that country,
according to Strabo, and whom we suppose to have
gone through that country in their passage to the
land of the Scythians.

We

seem

to get a glimpse of the Sacse again in the

mightiest dynasty of the Parthians.

The

Sassani, or

Saxani, threw off the authority of the Assyrian kings

and founded an independent kingdom, which subsequently extended from the Indus to the Euphrates,
and from the Oxus to the Persian Gulf. Were not
The last of the Sassanide kings
the Saxani, Saxons?
was Yesdigird, who set himself to harass the Jews
in Persia (Heb. Liter, p. 217); but

that those

who

it is

remarkable

sided with the house of David, or the

so-called Davidic family,

were

all

put to death.

This

when the Chalif Omar's

arms had made Persia desirous of the

took place about a.d. 651,

all-subduing

triumph of the Crescent.

This distinction between

Jews of the Davidic family and other

Israelites in-

dicates that the majority of the great multitude of

Hebrews
period,

in that country, at that comparatively recent

were Beni-Israel, and that they ultimately sub-

mitted to Mahometan influence ; so that,

any of their descendants there

find them as Mahometans.

find

we
now, we
if

are to
are to

This dynasty, according to Justin, was called Par-

from a Scythian word signifying the banished

Some say the Parthians were the
or the exiles.
same as the Getse, Massagetae, or European Goths.

thian,

'^'^

114

Israel's

Strabo says that Arsaces,

new names.
who founded

the

kingdom of

was a Sacean or Saxon. But the fact seems

to be that the first Saxons who reigned in Parthia
took this name because they were Sacae from the province Aran
hence Arsaces, This titular appellation
was first assumed by the princes of Parthia 254 B.C.
The first who took this name was a native of Balkh
in Bactria.
He revolted from Antiochus Theus, slew
Agathocles, the governor of Parthia, and took the title
of Great King. The country of the Sacae, or Sachae (or
Sanscrit), is called in the Puranas Sacathe tribes
Parthia,

among the

dwipa^ a country

fountains of the

Oxus

and from this name, Saca-dwipa^ the Greeks composed

^KvBai*
They are the same
the word Scythia
people who destroyed Cyrus and his hosts (according

who

to Herodotus),
sisted

the

Xerxes, and

paid tribute to Darius,

who overthrew

who

the dominion of

dynasty in Bactria, about 130

Seleucian

as-

B.C.

Parthians and Medes were amongst the devout Israelites

who were

present on the day of Pentecost in

must have been mixed with the

Parthians on any hypothesis; and if, as Josephus
Jerusalem.

Israelites

asserts, the

descendants of the captives of Assyria

were dwelling

in countless

numbers beyond the Eu-

phrates in his day, then there

in the opinion
Sassani,

if

Israelites.

Sassanes,

that

the

is

nothing improbable

Parthian

dynasty

of the

not Israelitish, was sustained at least by

And
we

if

they were one with the Sacae and

discern how, in the usual order of Provi-

dence, the people once oppressed

by Assyrian tyrants

* So says Major Tod in his account of Greek and Parthian medals but
find the word Skuta for Scythia in the Babylonian and so-called Scythian
j

we

of the Behistun inscriptions as early as Cyrus.

NEW NAMES.

ISRAELIS

115

should become the means of destroying their power,

Nineveh and Babylon and Persepolis should

perish and be interred under the wanderers' feet. We
at least discover in the changes in the country of
so that

Israel's exile, subsequent, if not previous, to the

Jews'

return from captivity, abundant opportunity for a

people so well trained to warfare and toil as these
Israelites were, to
if

have proceeded into another country,

they had desired

true

it.

we have found few

They did

desire

traces at present,

It is

it.

and we do

not expect to find positive proofs of the progresses of

the Beni-Israel until

we have advanced

further.

It

appears to have been the purpose of Providence, in

connexion with the fulfilment of the Scriptures, to

conceal the paths of the outcast tribes until the final

winding up of history, when it shall be demonstrated

that the Spirit which inspired the prophets is the self-

bounds to human revolutions, and

scattered the nations like seed from the sower's hand
into ground prepared to produce fruit for the garner

same

Spirit that set

of God.

^ut did the Ten Tribes ever leave the land of their
If we had found it plainly written in the
captivity?
j)ages of Herodotus that the Ten Tribes did desire to
l^ave that land, and did accomplish their desire, but

few among us would question the

Now, we

fact.

Jiave already appealed to historic evidence of a fact

guite as well preserved and quite as authentic as any^
in Herodotus, or

Xenophon, or Pliny, and

^called apocryphal, or doubtful, in

anonical^ Scriptures.

^re these words:

^^

it is

only

comparison with

In the 2nd Esdras

And jvhereas thou

xiii.

sawe^st^

ouj*

39-46,

th at he,

116
2.^.3

the Son of God] gathered another peaceable

jjiultitude

^re

NEW NAMES.

ISRAEL'S

unto him those are the Ten Tribes which

carried

away

prisoners out of their

^the time of Osea the king,

iif ^ Assyria,

led

away

own land

whom Salmanasar,

captive,

the

and he carried

in

King
them

gyer the waters, so they came into another land.

VjBut they took thi*^ counsel among themselves, that

they would leave the multitude of the heathen, and
^0 forth into 2, further country, where never mankind
dwelt, that they might there keep their statutes,
which they never kept in their own land. And they
entered into Euphrates by the narrow passages of the
For the Most High then showed
river [in Armenia].
signs for them, and held still the flood till they were
passed over. For through that country there was^a
great way to go, namely, of a year and a half; and
Then they dwelt
the same region is called Arsareth.
there until the latter time ; and now,

when they

shall

begin to come, the Highest will stay the springs of the

stream again, that they may come through therefore

sawest thou the multitude with peace." I presume
;

that the

word

rTlt:^lK

properly rendered by

(Arsareth)

its

may

be

fairly

and

exact equivalent Oriens, th^

Orient, the land of the far East, the country always

called Oriental.

Unfortunately

^ebrew word which would

we do not

possess the

decide the point, as the

books of Esdras have reached us only in Greek. Let

us take this remarkable passage at its value as an
early historical evidence in proof of the fact that the

Ten Tribes
abode more

left

the place of their captivity for an

minds in the East, while the

people that might otherwise have prevented it wei::^
to their

Israel's

new names.

117
In chap. xx.

^strained by the providence of God.*

jof Ezekiel, verse 38, there is a strong confirmation of

this passage

God

says, "

/ will

bring them forth out of

where they sojourn^ and they shall not enter

the country

land of Israeli When denouncing the false

prophets of Israel the prophet Ezekiel also declares
into the

that " They shall not be written in the writing of the

House of

land of
must remember that EzekieJ

Israel^ neither shall they enter into the

IsraeV (xiii. 9). We

was himself at that time an exile, and amongst the
Jsraelites by the river Chebar. (Ezek. i. 1, 3.) Now,
Jf the captives are conducted forth from the land of
their captivity, and yet they do not return to Palestine, where do they go?
Hosea prophesied that they
would refuse to return after they had been sent into
Assyria (Hos. xi. 6) and Amos, in predicting the wan;

jderings of outcast Israel in search of divine direction,

^ays, " They

wanderfrovfi sea to sea^ and erom the

NORTH even to THE EAST, and shall run to and fro to
(Amos
seek the word of theLord^ and shall not find
^viii. 12.)
This prediction could not have been
J5^erified by any wandering to and fro in Palestine,
j[)r the word of the Lord was always there. ^^ And
_ besides, from sea to sea, could not be from the north
to t he east in their own land. Other passages from the
jprophets concerning the same subject guide us to
the locality in which the peculiar and j)ure remnant
shall

it,''''

of Israel, escaped from Assyria,

^tter day;

for

* When questioning

is

when Judah and Ephraim

the authority of Esdras,

ber that our Lord appears to quote that book.

with 2 Esdras

i.

to be found in the

it

are to be

will be right to

Compare Matt,

32, and Matt, xxiii. 37 with 2 Esdras

i.

28-33.

remem34

xxiii.

118

Israel's

home

called

together,

it

new names.
is

to be from the

West and

from the East.

Jeremiah,

who

prophesied to the Jews concerning

and restoration, while exulting in the

redemption of Judah, and anticipating the song
of joy on the height of Zion, when the Jews
should be ransomed from the hand of the strong, in-

their captivity

troduces a beautiful episode in remembrance of the

who had

Israelites

long been banished.

name

Personifying

Kamah, he predicts comfort for the weeping Rachel. Then bursting

forth with Divine remonstrance and tenderness,
Ephraim is called to remembrance as a dear child.
the people under the

But, as

if this

of their

idea were not tender enough, the whole

back as by a father's voice addressed

to a wandering daughter.
The refusal of Israel to
people

is

called

look to Zion

is

foreseen, the outgoing of the nation

to a further country
''

is foretold,

Set thee up waymarhs^ and

set thine heart

cities.

make

is

recalled.

thee high heaps

towards the highway, the way thou

wentest; turn again,

these thy

and she

How

virgin of Israel, turn again to

long wilt thou go about,

thou backsliding daughter?" (Jer. xxxi. 21, 22.)

I believe that the course which the Israelites took Z5

marked by those tumuli and high heaps which extend

from the north of the Caspian into Western India.
Writers whose theories concerning the Israelites
would be disturbed by the testimony of Esdras above
quoted, endeavour to dispose of it by a bold stroke.
Thus Dr. Grant, believing that the Israelites as a body
never

left

Assyria, but are

now

in Kurdistan, says that

Esdras, in the passage referred

to,

meant only

to

new names.

Israel's
describe the captivity

119

by Shalmaneser (2 Kings

x\di.

and adds, that as the Israelites on that occasion

crossedthe Euphrates, and thatas the Tigris unites vdih
that river, therefore it was probably included under
6),

may be

the same name, and the country of Arsareth

the same as Hattareh

why assume

that the distance

Armenia would

But
between Palestine and

Halah), or Ararat.*

(i.e,

require, in ordinary Oriental parlance,

Then

a year and a half for a caravan to traverse?

too,

evident that the writer of the second book

is

it

of Esdras speaks of himself as once

tives,

among

the cap-

and therefore we may be well assured

when he spoke

that,

of their going forth into a further

country, he did not

mean

to say that they only

went

from Samaria to Assyria for it is while in Assyria

they resolve to go into a further country, and that
country requiring a year and a half to reach.
A fatal objection to Dr. Asahel Grant's hypothesis
is the fact that the number of these remnants of
;

Israel

is

so

small, being only about

200,000 as the

whole progeny of the Ten Tribes. It is calculated

that the Jews descended from Judah and Benjamin

amount to nearly nine milWhen we remember that it is to the tribes

alone, at the present time,

lions.

descending direct from Joseph that the blessing of

increase

few

especially promised,

is

Israelites

them
shall grow
sent

Lebanon.

it

is

evident that the

remaining in Kurdistan cannot repre-

" I will be as the

as the lily

and

His branches

dew unto

he

cast forth his roots

as

shall spread,

shall be as the olive-tree.

Ephraim

and

Israel

his

beauty

shall say.

* Murray's third edition of Grant's " Nestorians,"

p.

202.

What

120

ISRAELIS

have

I to

do any more with idols;

and observed him

me

is

We

NEW NAMES.

am

like a

have heard him,

green

fir-tree.

From

thy fruit found." (Hos. xiv. 6-8.)

will take

Tribes, that

is,

it

for granted,

then, that the

Ten

the rebel house of Israel or Isaac, did

leave the land of their captivity and pass into the

and that from thence they were dispersed in

various directions, but that the main body of them
ultimately settled in the East.
Mr. Forster observes

north,

that " there

is

great probability that the Arsareth, or

Hasarah [why drop the

which the Israelites

went, is the very nation and country named by
Ptolemy Bar-Zaura, Bar meaning sons in Syriac.

The Hebrew

r?], to

definite article Aa, being

prefixed to

Zaura, or Sara, would form the very word Hasarath,

for

Sarath

is

but the fuller feminine form of Sarah.

Hence we obtain another indication of the Hebrew

or Syrian origin of the name of the people inhabiting
that country, according to Ptolemy;

name he

applies signifies the sons of Sarah, that

Abraham's

Hazara

we

for, in fact,

wife,

the mother of the promised

name

the

is,

of

seed.*'

retained by that country, as

find in Mr. Elphinstone's " Kingdom of Caubul
is

the

still

Helmund river, the largest

river of Khorasan. This country may have been occupied by Israelites, and I believe we shall, as we
(p. 669).

It lies along the

proceed in our research, discover evidences that

In the meantime, though

it

it

was.

appears not improbable

name from Isaac,

and that they were, in fact, Israelites who had either
adopted that name, or had it imposed upon them by
way of distinction, yet we shall obtain evidence

that the Sacae really derived their

Israel's
that the

name

of Sacas

new names;

121

might be associated with

from other circumstances. The harder

vowel of the patronymic being dropped, and the sibilant softened, the sons of Isaac become the sons of
sackcloth it is literally but the change of a breathing.
The one name indeed signifies laughter, and the other
grief; but the transition is as easy and common in
fact as in sound, and surely the history of the Sacae
more than that of any other people proves that both
triumph and trial are providentially associated with
their name.
It is still the Saxon race of which we are in search.
If so, say our readers, why trouble yourself to go
beyond home? Is not Britain the abode of Saxons,
and is not the vast continent of Northern America
peopled by that energetic and subduing race? Yes;
doubtless we are Saxons.
We have sprung from a
Israelites

tribe of fierce barbarians cradled in the East, nur-

tured amongst the Heavenly, or Himalaya mountains,

arms among the hordes of the Tartarian

steppes, forced to become marauders for a maintenance, driven back again by Roman conquerors into
the frozen zone, and now, independent and robust,
from the necessities fixed upon us by a kind Providence, we Saxons dwell upon all the borders of the
world the wonder of its peoples. But yet we are not
trained to

the pure descendants of the sons of Isaac, not pure

Saksuns ; but rather, perhaps, a balanced mixture of

extremes, the offspring of savages and wildmen, the
outcasts

of the family of

Japhet,

united

with

Semitic race inured to the difficulties and dangers of

forest

life,

and contending

for existence with beasts

122

Israel's

new names.

of prey and fiercer beings.

savage worshipper of

when most
earthquake

all

in conflict

has

But we

believe that the

the elements

in

most

adored

thunder, tempest, and in

been tutored by admixture with

wanderers of that race whose faculties had been of

old most elevated by converse with divine and revealed truth.
ours,

and

it

The blood of

may

Israel has

mixed with

be that the admixture of eastern

and northern souls has made the Saxons the most

abstruse, the most metaphysical, the most tempted,
the most daring, the most practical, and the most
^ commanding people in the world. '"The savage Saxon,
indeed,

confounded inspiration with inebriety, and

made drunkenness a part

and proof of his devotion to his deities but now the
book of God is open among his children, and the Voice
that spake alike on Sinai and on the Mount of Olives
is heard with reverence and love.
The contemplative
and devotional spirit of Isaac and his own true sons
is become apparent and predominant among us, and
once, like the Ephraimites,

the seed of heavenly truth

is

rooted and vigorously

blooming in our midst, and our right to the name of

Saxon is proved alike by our Oriental derivation, by
the character of our nation, and by the fulfilment of
the prophecies in our

own

persons.

But

still

we

are

but partakers of a larger portion of the incidental

blessings resulting from the wanderings of Israel,

not the
we,

if

literal Israel ourselves.

But higher

indeed partakers of the heavenly calling.

and

far are

123

CHAPTER VL
CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAAIES.

From

the antecedents of Israel, what

is

to be expected

from such a people when resolving to separate themselves from heathens and to set up an independent
kingdom, not in obedience to any divine command,
but in confident reliance on their own piety and pretensions?
In the land of their fathers they proved
themselves perversely devotional, zealous in altarbuilding, worshipping the heavenly host in groves

and high

necromancy and adoration of the dead, reverencing every form of life, even
to the worship of creeping things, mixing the attributes of Jehovah and every syllable of His holy Name
places, addicted to

with idolatries of every kind.

The

sophistry of senti-

ment, as usual, turned them from the obedience of

faith to the delusions of fancy,

and persuaded them

to believe that they honoured the Creator of all living

and moving beings by worshipping as they liked.

They were religious simpletons, and great perverts,
only because they did not learn God's law, and do it
and now left, so to say, to themselves, wherever they
go their characteristics will appear like the stamp of
a divine signet, a mark from the finger of God upon
them " Ephraim is turned to idols, let him alone.''
:

124

They

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

are

still

and

to be looked for as separatists, prose-

and yet with high pretensions

to priestly purity having, as of old, colleges and convents for unmarried prophets and prophetesses, monks
and nuns believing in a Messiah always present and
always coming; blending a theocracy with a kingly
power; neglecting all the institutions of God for formalities of their own and strong and wrong alike in
heart and head, madly deifying their own ideas, and
taking their dreams for oracles.
In consequence of
not distinguishing the God of all the prophecies and
all the promises from such gods as Egypt and Assyria
honoured, they confound the Branch of renown, the
Branch of righteousness foretold by their true prophets,
with the fabulous traditions of heathendom.
The
hopes of restoration from the Fall through the perfect

lytizers,

idolaters,
;

offshoot

of the tree of

life

in

Paradise,

the holy

woman, are merged and lost in confusions

without record and so, in imitation of their Assyrian
captors, they hold up the branch to their nose before
a figurative god, in honour of their own conceits as a
seed of the

people worthy of especial favour.

Their habits of

idolatry are so ingrafted as to be rooted in their stock

and incorporated with all the outgrowths of their life.

It was always with them as it is with ourselves, all
promises of amendment were in vain, because made
in self-dependence and with neglect of the expressed
Pride even took the
will and written word of God.
garb of Divine benevolence, and compassed sea and
land to proselytize the abject kindreds of humanity;
but, like the self-appointed

Eden,

it is

mission of Satan

into

only the propagandism of a restless spirit

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

125

that converts the weak, ignorant, naked, and sim-

upon Providence and Mercy, into willworshippers endeavouring to reach up to Heaven

by the use of their own wits, unrestrained by the
dictations of the Wisdom that in love would rule
them by truth from His own lips. It is for such a
people we are to look, and we shall find traces of their
But the prophets of
influence to the world^s end.
Jehovah, who warned them, and now warn us, have
afforded us light, by which we learn that the people

ple dependents

thus

made

own

outcasts of their

accord, while endea-

vouring to establish an all-embracing kingdom in the

name

of the

God

of truth

and

love, only succeed in

establishing delusions in their progress,

and in the

end are themselves lost altogether as a nation, never

to be recalled into existence, but as by the Voice
that awakens the dead, and says to the dry bones live,
and to the sleepers in the dust arise.
It is said of Israel (Hos. viii. 5, 9), '^ Thy calf^
Samaria^ hath cast thee off ; mine anger is kindled
against them;^how long will it be ere they attain innocency ; for from Israel was it also ; the workman made
it ;

therefore

shall

be

it

is

not

God ;

broken in pieces,

Samaria
have sown the

hut the calf of

'For they

wind^ and they shall reap the whirlwind ;

stalk

the

bud

shall yield

strangers shall swallow

now
is

shall they be

it

among

it

hath no

no meal ; if so be it yield^ the

up. ^Tsrael is swallowed up

the Gentiles as

no pleasure pfor they are gone up

to

vessel wherein

Assyria^ a ivild

ass alone [liu] by himself. I^p This state of loneliness

or, literally.

Buddhism

Israel in Assyria.

is

to be the characteristic of

Here

is

an abrupt and inexplicable

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

126

reference to the

bud of green corn which should be

unfruitful to them, and the product of which should

be devoured by strangers. They looked for fruitfulness in the development of their idolatry, but all they
gathered was to

amongst

whom

like a wild ass

This appears to have

Israel's separation.

by the

consumed

be

strangers,

they should wander.

been precisely the result of

We

have supposed them

scat-

by the whirlwind, and now their own religion,

and chosen idols, cast them off; and while those
whom they indoctrinated seized the good and bad of

tered

their instruction, they themselves sink into helpless-

ness

and degradation, and wither away, becoming

no longer recognisable as a people

wonders.

The remainder of

called of

God

to do

volume

will

show

this

why

especial emphasis

tion,

and yet commingling absorption, in which these

is

laid

on the state of separa-

people are to exist.

The

Israelites practised idolatry in

high places, and

associated the idea of Jehovah as the highest Being

with the idea of height in a literal sense ; and thus

thought to honour God by erecting altars on the
highest points they could reach, just as the Druids

and the old patriarchal worshippers appear to have

done before them. Hence their attachment to hills
and mountains. In their first revolt from the house

when they cried, " What portion have we

Israel; now see to thine
To your tents,
in David?
own house, David," Jeroboam, in order to win them
back, met their general inclination to idolatry in high
places by building altars in high places for them.
In Bethel and Dan he placed golden calves, saying.
of David,

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

127

Israel, which brought thee up

"Behold thy gods,
Thus
out of the land of Egypt." (1 Kings xii. 28.)
we see that the worship in high places, and the idola-

w hich

try of the sacred calf or heifer,

Jjidi^? w.r also

both prevail in

the sins of revolt ed Israel.

In this

form of veneration for high places and the sacred

heifer, they were in sympathy with many other
Oriental idolaters and it is not unlikely that this disposition to worship on eminences, or at least to venerate lofty elevations, may have induced some of the
;

Israelites to

hava xliDsejiulLe,. neighbourhood

of the

Himalayas for their abod e, a^a \ f t,l)ns to see God on

His throne, and abide in the presence they adored.
T he very name Himalayas^ oi;, Heavenly mountainS
indicates the fact that the Eastern nations associated
sacred ideas with the immaculate snows of those subt

lime and inaccessible heights, bearing up as

pillars

if

upon

of " terrible crystal" the very firmament of

heaven, on the starry floor of which the throne of the

Eternal for ever stood.

all

Amongst

these mountains

the Eastern nations believe Paradise

Here

is

home

the

stands.

of their gods; here departed spirits

pass for retribution

evil genii that

still

thence are sent the good and

divide all the regions of the world

between them. Here, too, it is that the physio-philosophers have supposed mankind to have originated
when the earth began to emerge from the fervid sea.

And

here

we

shall find traces of the outcast tribes.

To these mountains, also, we trace home the streams

ofjhe Gothic and Saxon jiations, who all call their
heaven by the Oriental name.
(4 00 A.D.)

Heaven

is

Eimjii

Thus, in Maeso-Gothic
;

in

Alemannic (720),

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

128

nimele; in Frankic (900), Himile ; in Old German

The
(1300), Humele ; in recent German, HimmeL

most remarkable word for Heaven, however, is that

of the Old Saxon (900 a.d.), namely, Himil-arikea^^
which is a combi natio n pf the Sanscrit word Himil^

Heaven^ wjth the H^l;)rew word signifying the expansp. (Gpti.

many

with

i\J^ This One word, connected

as

it is

others of the same origin, will serve inci-

dentally to confirm the observations offered in our

fourth chapter.

was

It

Israelites,
to seek the

He

by the prophet Hosea concerning the

" They shall go with their flocks and herds
Lord; but they shall not find him^^ (v. Q)^^^ti^

said

also says that, as a result of their

own

counsels,

they should refuse to return from under the Assyrian

king.

were

(Hos.

Though they were warriors, they

xi. 6.)

also shepherds

and, like the girdled Shepherd-

kings of Egypt, they took their flocks with them in

and their families were fed on

The neighbourbutter and milk from land to land.
hood of mountains was thus most favourable to their
progress, as affording shelter from foes in case of
need, being comparatively little inhabited, having
suflBicient grass, and where the streams, though more
numerous, were more easily fordable. The Saca^ ar e
located on the north pf. tl^e Hin^alayas by Strabo and
their wanderings,

Ptolemy

hutjare ^aJl presently trace

tllS^sputh.
vol.

iii.

p.
"

Where,

also,

them

also into

Dionysius (Anc. Myth,

226), as rendered by Bryant, says

Upon

the banks of the great river Ind

The southern

Saithae [or Sacae] dwell."

* See M. Mallet's Northern Antiquities (Bohn),

p. 47.

129

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

localities associated

In ideally looking over the

with

the Israelitish people, two places of similar character

and name occur to memory one the province called

Bhutan, in Koordistan, and through which a river
Chebar flows the other in India, at the further exThis word Bhutan, or
tremity of the Himalayas.
Bhootan, is peculiar, and its derivation appears to be
very obscure. The inhabitants of Tibet Proper and
Tangut are all called Bhots, from their religion being
derived from Bhootan or But an. The names of places
:

serve as a clue to the people dwelling in them, exiles

and wanderers bearing with them thus a record of

Thus the Pilgrim Fathers took
their former home.
with them the familiar names of places dear to them
in Old England, and thus throughout the new world
of America the names of cities, towns, and hamlets
famous or beloved in Europe are repeated, to remind
the growing nations of the lands of their fathers.
So, doubtless, was it with the wandering tribes of
Israel, and hence we may be able to associate this
name Bhotan with them. We will first endeavour to
account for the origin of the name in Koordistan, a

who now
name now given to

country so called after the Karduchi,

habit

it.

Koordistan

country anciently

is

known

the

as Atyria, or Assyria.

in-

the

This

country, according to Ptolemy, Avas bounded on the

north by Armenia; on the west, by the Tigris; on

the south, by Susiana; and on the east, by Media

and the mountains of Choatra and Zagros.

It

was

probably into this country that the captive Israelites

for the

Assyria.

most part were conducted by the kings of

(1 Chron. v. 26.)

On

the

first

occasion the

130

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

Eeubenites, the Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh

were thus exiled but afterwards the remainder of the

Ten Tribes were forced by the conqueror Shalmaneser
to follow their brethren. (2 Kings xvii. 6; xviii. 11.)
;

Now,

we compare

if

the statements in the book of

Chronicles with that in the book of Kings,

we

receive a clearer idea of the localities occupied

banished tribes.

It

that

said

is

shall

by the

Tiglath-Pileser

''brought them into Halah, and Habor, and Hara,

and

to the river

Gozan" (1 Chron.

v.

28); and that

Shalmaneser placed his captives in Halah and in

Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the
]\Iedes.

(2 Kings xvii.

comparison

we

and

6;

discover,

xviii.

11.)

By

this

as before stated, that the

same
localities and became again as one people, after an
interval of twenty years from their separation in
There is, however, a little difficulty in the
Samaria.
use of the word Hara, which occurs only in relation
captives were on each occasion conducted to the

to the first division of the captivity.

The word

is

in

were expletive, and

it is generally understood to have been added as a
gloss to indicate that the part of the country in which
the exiles dwelt was the mountainous region about
italics in

our translation, as

the Habor.
literally

thus

if it

Gesenius renders the passage clearly and

:

"

He

placed

them

in

Halah and on the

Ghabor, a river of Gozan." In our authorized translation we should understand at first sight that

Gozan was a river. We, however, have a proof in

the 2nd book of Kings (xix. 12), and also in Isaiah
(xxxvii. 12), that it was a country and not a river;
for

Sennacherib

is

represented as boasting that his

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

131

had destroyed Gozan, which certainly could

'*
The country to which the
not be said of a river.
Ten Tribes were deported is one of the most mounfathers

"

tainous in the world," says Dr. Grant.

habitants of Gozan and

or driven out,

it

is

Haran had

first

As

the in-

been destroyed

Ten

reasonable to infer that the

Tribes had entire possession

of this

region.

Its

natural strength would enable them to maintain their

It is the

position entirely distinct."

very country in

the greatest difficulties

"^hkhjiifiJLOjOOO^GTe^
Gozan was
tgjgi^d^uTe injtheir_triumph and retreat.

now known by

probably that part of Kurdistan

name

of Buhtan, or Bhutan.

in the
it

may

This transformation

name probably occurred very

by the

be, introduced

ther so or not,

it

is

early,

and was,

Whecommon

exiles themselves.

known

well

the

that the

Aramean pronunciation of the letters G-o-z-a-n would

convert them into Bhutan; for, as Gesenius shows,
the Hebrew ^, or gh^ is most frequently interchanged
with its kindred palative 6, or bh^ and the z^ named
tsade, tsad, zad, or

even dad,

any of the consonants included in

then, the conversion of the

We

interchanged with

is

its

sound.

word Gozan

Hence,

into Bhotan.

when we
people named Botans.
Tigris, named Habor,

shall see the bearing of this derivation

come

to inquire concerning the

There

is

a river, a branch of the

or Chabor,

still

running through the borders of that

name

province, and giving the

of Chabur to part of

which it runs.
Ammianus
mentions the Chebar under the name of Abor.* It

the country through

is

curious to trace this

* Am.

lib. xiv. c. iv.,

name

and note,

k2

edit.

in

Isidorus

Lud. 1693.

it

is

132

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

Hahouran

Haborras ; in Zosimus, Hahoran ; in Procopius, Uaborrhas ; in Ptolemy, Chaboras ;

in Theopliylactus Simocatus, Habboras ; and, lastly,
the Turks call it Alchabur^ which is very nearly the
;

in Strabo,

scriptural name, the al being the definite article.

The ancient geography

and the

of the Euphrates

open to much dispute, but this is the fact to

our present purpose. There is an extensive district
called Bhutan, and a river named Chebur, Chebor, or
Tigris

is

Abor, in the country where some at least of the Ten

This country of Bhutan is both
Tribes once dwelt.

mountainous and pastoral, well watered, and aboundXenophon, in his retreat with the ten
ing in grass.
thousand Greeks, passed over the Chebar, on his way

from Batrai to the plains of Zakko, or Sacho. It

must have been in these plains that the Israelites,
the sons of Isaac, mostly dwelt during their captivity.
It is here at least that Ezekiel conferred
elders.

This

name Sacho seems

discover relics of the exiled Israelites,

the

name

this

Chebur.

among

same as
If we would

to be the

Sukhi and Saakka, as already indicated.

therefore, dig

with their

we

should,

the ruins of the ancient Zacho,

of a town and a country on the banks of

Bhutan are
repay a Layard for

The mounds and ruins

numerous, and would, doubtless,

of

any amount of exploration.

There is another Bhutan at the north-east of Hindustan, and another Abor, or Chabor, immediately
adjacent; and these regions are in character very
similar to those of Kurdistan.

markable

but

it

would be

still

This

more

itself

so, if

is

re-

we could

discover traces of the Israelites in this neighbourhood

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

and

also;

this

we

shall.

But

it

will enlarge our

133

view

of the marvellous proceedings of divine Providence,

if

we endeavour

to

obtain some glimpses of their

transit to that land.

The only

distinct intimation of the

exodus of the

from Assyria which we possess, assures us

that they went out under the influence of religious
zeal, with the purpose of separating themselves from
heathenism.
AVe suppose they attempted to efifect
this distinct standino^ under a name not recoo^nised
as connecting them with Jews, and that they journeyed into the regions north-east of the Caspian,
hoping to establish themselves and their religion in
some land in that direction. They go forth in a vain
hope they depart further and further from the place
of God's manifestation to their fathers; they turn
away from Judea and Jerusalem, perhaps believing
Israelites

that

its

walls will never again be erected, or that the

glory of Jehovah will never more appear there.

The

temple was not dear to them when in their own land^

and

in their rebellion against the seed of

rejected the hopes

which the

David they

Spirit in the prophets

had associated with that royal line.* It was their

temper always to build temples at their own discretion, and to erect altars to gods of their own choosing
upon high places and in groves. As Hosea, their
especial prophet, told them, '' Because Ephraim hath
made mayiy altars to sin^ altars shall be unto him to
sM' (viii. 11). The Israelites, that is, the Ten Tribes,
* " Howbeit the Lord will not destroy the liouse of David, because of the
covenant that he made with David, and as he promised to give light to him
and his sons

for ever." (2

Chron.

xxi. 2-4.)

134

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

seem
in

have revolted in their confidence of blessing

connexion with Ephraim, hence their name,
to

Ephraimites. The birthright was Joseph's

Reuben's

"

birthright was given to Joseph.

Judah prevailed
above his brethren, and of him came the chief ruler
but the birthright was Joseph's." (1 Chron. v. 1, 2.)
The Jews, or Judeans, are first named, as distinct
from the Beni-Israel, in 2 Kings xvi. 6. What could
these accomplish, except the establishment of some

new form

of idolatry?

We

might probably, with

great propriety, adopt the description given of

by Zechariah

(v. 6),

people now.

They hide the woman within an

them

as especially applicable to this

ephali

they conceal true

under a mysterious
guise they cover her down with a weight of
religion

dis-

lead.*

Being carried away, as on the wings of a stork, by

two false forms of religion, in which the natural afifec-

and the instincts alone lift the soul up between

heaven and earth elevated by fancies, but without a
faith in which to rest
they hurry away from the Land
of Promise, burying the truth under a dull and heavy
and dead idolatry. They build temples to falsehood,
and attempt to honour God by disobedience to his law.
tions

* The

emblem

reference

to

wings reminds us of the Assyrian and Egyptian

of power and protection.

nificant, as that bird

parents.

The word

The wings

of a stork are especially sig-

was celebrated by the ancients

translated stork

means

for its afiection to its

pious, confiding, kind, loving, in

the sense in which ^/w5 was used by the Latins.

Hence the appropriateness

form of religion in which veneration and even adoration of parents constitutes a remarkable feature, as amongst the Buddhists
of China and elsewhere, for they regard their departed parents as guardian

of applying

deities to

it

to that

whom they

states that the

ephah

upon her own base

(v.

look for blessings.

shall be

11).

It

is

remarkable that the prophet

borne into the land of Shinar, and built there

135

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

law too broad and embracing for their

libertine spirits, and then wrote statutes for themselves a thousand times broader, and as formal, as false,

They

and

felt that

as useless as they

were

(Zech. v. 6-11.)

indefinite.

may

be regarded as a description of the

religion founded by the grand prophet of the Sakai
This
race, who introduced Buddhism into India.
This

religion

is

a mixture of the truths of the patriarchal

dispensation with the forms of heathenism, with which

they were familiar, and especially with the higher

idolatries of the Brahmins and of the worshippers of
the elements,

making of the mixture that form of

Buddhism now prevalent

in the East.

In the history or chronicles of Cashmir,* as recorded

by native authorities, we find that the Hindus date

the commencement of a remarkable era amongst them,
from the time when the prince Asoka abolished Brahminical

rites,

and substituted those of Jina Sassana,

Now we know

that the

new

religion of

that of the Sacas^ or Sacce; and here

religion called Sassana

so that

Asoka was

we

we have

find that

evidence

from native authority that Sassana signifies what

pertains to the Sacce and is in fact equivalent to our
^

we surmised when speaking of the

Parthian dynasty named the Sassani^ which extended
The Sacas^ then
its power so widely over India.
known as Sassani^ or Saxons, conveyed their religion

word Saxon^

as

into the country of Asoka.

able to

this

There

is

nothing insuper-

opinion in the dates that have been

hitherto established.

This Sakian era appears to have

commenced about 307 years

* Asiatic Researches,

vol. xv.

before

Paper by H.

Christ.

W.

Wilson.

The

136

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

chronology of such records

is,

however, very un-

and only to be verified by concurrent testimony. This much is, however, certain about that
time the Saca era began in India. During the reign of
Asoka that country was overrun by the Sacas, who,
certain,

according to the
successor Jaloca.

Ay in

We

Acberi, were expellee!

by

his

find that country afterwards

divided under three princes of Scythian extraction,

named in the Chronicle Hushca, Tushca, and Canishca,

who

are stated to have reigned about 150 years after

the death of Sakya-sinha^ the founder of

as

at

present

existing.

Thus we

Buddhism

learn from

the

two interesting facts first, that the Sacas

came into India and founded Buddhism; secondly,
that the Sacas were connected with Scythians, but
properly distinguished from them.
As Professor
chronicle

Wilson,

in

the article

referred to,

observes, " the

dates only corroborate the general fact, that at

some

remote period the Scythians [or rather the Sacae] did

govern Cashmir, and gave their sanction to the
gion of Buddhism."

About the year 720

reli-

a.d. Lali-

King of Cashmir, warred against his Budneighbours, and overran Nepal and Bhotan with

tdditya.

dhist

his conquering armies.

all

These

facts serve to connect

those places with the Sakai race and the Sakai

religion.

Here we might recur to the traditions of Cashmir,

from which we learn that the people of that country
suppose themselves generally to be descended from a
race who came from Turkestan, and who taught them
With this relation, however, they
their religion.
mix up the notion that Solomon, King of Israel,

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

137

and that Moses himself came amongst

them to teach them the worship of one God. All these

visited them,

remarkable traditions are easily reconciled with the

were really instructed in certain ideas

peculiar to the religion and history of the Israelites,
and that the people that thus taught them were
known under the names of Sakai, and came from
Turkestan, the country of the Sac^e. It is clear from
fact that they

King Sagara, that he drove

the M'lech'chas and Sacas into Xepal, Assam, and
Bhutan, and endeavoured to re-establish the old
Brahminical religion.
Now, it is worthy of especial
remark that this king, when he destroyed the instirecords concerning the

tutes of the APlech^chas (foreigners) in his kingdom,

ordered the
while

all

heads of the Sacas to be partly shaved,

the hair was ordered to be removed from

the heads of the Yavanas and the Camhogas^ while the

Paradas were compelled to wear beards. These were

all mixed up with the Sacas; and, though differing
somewhat in their forms of worship, they were all
If these Sacas or Sakai were Israelites,
Buddhists.
here was a literal fulfilment of prophecy with respect
Baldness and beardlessness were sio^ns of
to them.
mourning amongst the Hebrews; but the prophets
declare that, in their apostate state, to be bald and
shaven shall be the signs of their degradation.
stead of well-set hair, baldness. (Isai.
ness shall be

upon

all

their heads.

iii.

Bald-

24.)

(Ezek.

In-

vii.

18

and Amos viii. 10.) As these tyrannical orders were

endured and submitted to with a religious pride, and
as a proof of unflinching attachment to their
faith

by those subjected

to them,

we should

own

naturally

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

138

expect these peculiarities, thus at

first

despotically

enforced by this bluif Harry of the East, to be after-

marked tribes as
honourable badges of their faith; and this is precisely
what we find at the present day. The partial shaving
of the head is retained as a peculiar mark amongst
most of the Buddhists, while with many an entirely
naked head is more in honour. These peculiarities,
preserved amongst

wards

the

may

so tenaciously preserved,

hereafter aid us to

identify the existing races of the

from

whom

East with those

they derived their religious peculiari-

ties.

Probably we

shall

not experience

much

in identifying the Sacas here spoken

of,

difficulty

seeing that

have taught us to associate the

name with that nation of so-called Scythians which
classic

historians

we have endeavoured

to

show are

sprung from the house of Isaac.

likely to

have

And now

this

chronicle of Cashmir, together with the traditions of

that country, enable us to connect the Sacas at once

with Hebraism and Buddhism, and to trace them

from the north. The Yavanas may at once receive our
attention, as they appear

remarkably mixed with the

Sacas^ not only in Cashmir, but

south.

Thus, in the

much

further to the

early history of Orissa, the

records called the Panji assure us that a mighty

name Salivahana Saca Hara^*

or Saca

man

Deo Baja,

came from the north with a large army and conquered

the country of Delhi, and fixed his empire there and
;

that from this period the era

* Hara was the name of a province
ported. (1 Chron. v. 8.)

named
to

Saca^bda^ or the

which part of Israel was de-

139

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

some of these
Sacas became afterwards confounded or mixed up
with the Yavanas, and it is not unlikely that some of
the Sacas really accompanied the Yavanas in their
There can be no
inroads on the south of India.
It appears that

era of Saca, began.*

doubt that the term Yavanas was originally applied

to the troops of Alexander the Great, especially those
vetei^ns that he left to garrison the country on his

The cavalry of this conqueror

were many of them Sacs." The historians of Orissa
state that in the reign of Bajranath Deo the Yavanas
invaded that country, and that they came from Babul
Des ; that is, the country of Babylon, from which
Alexander did come. With this is mixed up a strange
story of a large army from Himarut.
These names
return to the west.

'*

were probably obtained from the Yavanas themselves,

and they at once conduct us to the kingdom of Baby-

kingdom of Armenia, with which both

the Sacas and Yavanas were familiar. Throuo^h these

lon and the

countries Alexander entered on his Eastern conquests.

The Yavanas reached Orissa through Cashmir and

Delhi.
Now, on recurring to the history of Cashmir,
we find that the M^lech^chas^ of whom the Sacas
were one class, came to that country from Scythia,
and mingled with the Yavanas,
Buchanan says f
that the Yavanas are understood to be Europeans.
The term Yavanas seems to have puzzled Oriental
scholars; but when we consider that the Yavanas
and Jabans are synonymous, we are at once conducted
to

an explanation; and turn, as a matter of course, to

*

Account of Orissa, p. 21. Asiatic Researches,

t Buchanan's Res. vol. iii. chap. xv. p. 133.

Stirling's

vol. xv.

140

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

the country of Javan or Jaban, which includes great

part of Asia Minor, the

lonia^ in

fact,

is

of Greece and

all

Ionia.

only another form of the

name
word

isles

Yavana; and thus Rawlinson, finding the

Yavana in the arrow-headed inscriptions of Behistun,

To associate
this name with the veterans of Alexander's army and
the Seleucidae is natural; and we have reason to bedoes not scruple to translate

it

lonians.

from the history of Alexander's invasion, that

troops of Sacas were in his pay and among the bravest
of his companions.
In fact, the Sacce were so well
known in Alexander's time as brave cavalry and
bowmen, that the term seems to have been adopted to
designate the best mercenary forces.
The dominion
of Seleucus Nicator, and Antiochus Soter, in Bactria,
extended over the Sacas at first, but was afterwards
destroyed by them and the Goths, who forthwith
unitedly ruled over the whole of the provinces extending from Bactria to the Indus.
The mixtures of
Sacs with Javanas is then explained. Here we cannot but observe the wonderful providence by which
it was so ordered that the descendants of Japhet,
brought ready-armed and trained by Alexander into
India, should there meet and sustain the Sacas and
MHecKchas from Scythia, and thus advance the fullieve,

filment of prophecy.

and perhaps not without importance, that the nations of India, at an early period
of their history, were accustomed to designate the
Western World by the name of Javan^ who was the
representative and grandson of Japhet, and the
founder of the race now most influential on the
It is also interesting,

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

141

It is not a slight privilege to be taught to

earth.

look for the fulfilment of Divine purpose and predic-

form of
who sees and feels

tions in all the ongoings of Providence in the

and happy

history;

that

is

man

the

Wisdom is regulating the

distribution of

with regard to glorious spiritual results.

mankind
It is the

bearing of the present on the coming world, in reference to the ultimate elevation of the whole race of

mankind
alike

to a

higher standing, that gives interest

to the records of

man and

The prophecy of Noah

God.

become

will,

the prophecies of

we

are convinced,

distinctly legible as the light of ethnology

of history

falls

on

it.

and

The merchant- princes of the

Saxon nations are the descendants both of Japhet and

of Shem, if, indeed, it be not found that a blending of
the blood of the whole family of man, in a new form,
as in England and America, be not necessary to the
production of the most energetic and the most
thoughtful, that is to say, the most inwardly devout,
people on the earth. If the views we herein advance
be correct, the descendants of Shem, religiously
trained in all the trials of faith as the true seed of

Abraham, have mingled with the hardiest and most

independent and self- relying of the ofi'spring of Japhet
to constitute the Anglo-Saxons; and it may be that
in our Western World beyond the wide Atlantic, now,
so to say, brought near to the Old World by steam and
electricity, the children of

and

Ham

have been with fraud

more daring brethren to

check the pride of Saxons, and with a burning reproach to stir them up to the greatest and noblest
of efi*orts, that thus they may practically declare, by
force enslaved

by

their

142
all

CHARACTERISTICS, TRACES, NAMES.

the self-sacrifices involved in their declaration of

belief,

that

God has indeed made

the nations of the earth, that they

of one blood all

may

dwell toge-

ther as brethren.

In

this desultory chapter

we have

seen the Sacae,

whom we

have assumed to be Israelites, coming from

Bhutan, or Gozan, in Kurdistan, into the north, and

then from the north into the south, exercising influence,

religious

and

civil,

in India,

mingled with

lonians there, these Sacae being recognised as Buddhists, and,

then again scattered, some of them finding

refuge in another Bhutan. This will serve as an outline

now

to be in part filled up.

143

CHAPTER

VII.

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

We

have endeavoured to find traces of the Tribes in

the course indicated by prophecy.

We

have con-

sidered their probable position in captivity, and their

possible connexion with the Sacae of history.

We

have sought them under new names, and as professing

a

new

religion

we now

proceed, if possible, to dis-

cover evidences of their passage through the countries

they must have traversed,

if

our surmises are well

founded.

We

are attracted at once to a country of vast im-

portance in the present aspect of the East, and the

more

interesting to us, as

we

there find a people

who

profess to be the Beni-Israel, or descendants of the

Ten

Tribes, namely, Afghanistan

countries.

The mountains

and the adjacent

of the Indian Caucasus,

the mountains of Cabul, are said to be visible, in clear

weather, from a distance of two hundred and fifty
miles ; lifting their hoar heads sublimely into the clear

calm heavens,

they well represent "the terrible

crystal" of the prophet.
Roving myriads of people

have been attracted by this sight, as if to travel

onwards and upwards, in imagination, along the

mountain pathway, to the realms of glory and of

rest.

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

144

The

traditions of the

stupendous heights,

whole world celebrate these

many

of whose

light-crowned

pinnacles are supposed to stand more than twenty

thousand

common

above the

feet

level of this earth.

Their magnificence and their mystery have drawn

nations together in adoring wonder into the
so

valleys,

fruitful

around their

and

hills

and

bounteous and beautiful,

This region might well be thought

feet.

There are found specimens of

nearly every form of living thing, whether animal or
vegetable, elsewhere found in any country of Europe
or of Asia; and there, too, almost every civilized
the seat of Paradise.

nation has

its

representative.

The

oldest nations

mankind first sprang into existand that God even now there sits enthroned,

believe that thence

ence,

waiting to judge

made.

all

the

human

souls

which He has

Greeks, Romans, Hebrews, Persians, the

fol-

lowers of Buddha, of Brahma, of Mahomet, and even

believers in Jehovah, have looked

up unto these awful

and bowed in soul before their majesty,

Here was a high place (Bamah)*
thinking of God.
for the worshippers of Bamah worthy of the name,
and here the wandering tribes might believe themsolitudes,

selves in the especial presence of

heavens and the earth.

tain fastnesses

many

To

Him who made

the skirts of these

the

mounun-

of the outcast Israelites

doubtedly resorted after their escape from Assyrian

or Persian domination, and after their wanderings
in the north.

Traces of their former possession of

this neighbourhood, as well as of Bactria

and Bok-

* " Then, T said unto them, What is the high place whereunto ye go
the

name

thereof

is

called

Bamah unto

this day." (Ezek. xx. 29.)

And

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

hara, are

monuments,

extant, not only in existing

still

145

but also in the traditions of the power and majesty of a

national religion and polity once capable of awakening

the attention of

all

now lost

the East, but

in the mist of

The prominent reasons for thinking that certain

classes of the people of Bokhara and Afghanistan
ages.

are of Israelitish origin are these

sonal resemblance to the

Hebrew

1st.

family.

Wolff, the Jewish missionary, says

fully struck

Their per-

Thus Dr.

"I was wonder-

with the resemblance of the Youssouf-

szye [tribe of Joseph], and the Khybere, two of their

Jews." Moorcroft also says of the Khy-

tribes, to the

beres, "

They

and of singularly Jewish cast

2nd. They have been named by themof features."
selves Beni-Israel, children of Israel, from time immemorial. 3rd. The names of their tribes are Israelitish,
especially that of Joseph, which includes Ephraim
and Manasseh. In the Book of Revelation the tribe
of Joseph stands for Ephraim. (Rev. vii. 6, 8.)
In
Xumbers xxxvi. 5, Moses speaks of Manasseh as " the
are

tall,

tribe of the sons of Joseph;" so that

it is

clear that

both Manasseh and Ephraim were known by the

name

of the tribe

of Joseph.

names of places and persons

4th.

The Hebrew

Afghanistan are of far

greater frequency than can be accounted for through

Mahometan
existed
5th. All

association

before

the

accounts

in

names
Mahometans.

and, indeed, these

Afghans

became

agree that

they inhabited

the

mountains of Ghore from a very remote antiquity.

It is certain that the princes of Ghore belonged to the
Afghan tribe of Sooree, and that their dynasty was
allowed to be of very great antiquity even in the

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

146

eleventh century.

"

They seem

early to have pos-

sessed the mountains of Soliniaun or Solomon,* com-

prehending
istan."

all

the southern mountains of Afghan-

(Elphinstone.)

6th.

Afghan

given to their nation by others, the

their nation

man

is

is

the

name

name they

give

Pushtoon, and Drs. Carey and Marsh-

Pushtoon language has more

7th. The Afghans
Hebrew roots than any other.
are also called Botans (or, by corruption, Patans).
They account for this name by stating that they lived
as Jews until the first century of Mahometism, when
assert that the

Kaled the caliph summoned them to fight against

the infidels. Their leader, Kyse, on that occasion, was
This word is Arabic, and
styled Botan, or mast.
signifies the possession of authority, and, indeed, the

staff held in the

hand

as a sign of authority, such as

and the
term baton was derived, through the French, from
the East, during the Crusades. A staff was used as a
This
sign of authority by the ancient Israelites.
name was adopted by all the Mahometan conquerors
of India, and the present Mahometan leaders of the
Indian rebellion are proud to be called Botans, or
Patans, meaning thereby that they are the first, or
Another derivation of the
hischest caste of men.
name Botan has been already given, and the name
the marshals

staff, is

so called

by ourselves

shown to have existed in northern India before the

Mahometan incursion the modern use of the term is,
however, a consistent appropriation. The more ancient
name of Afghanistan was Cabul, and it still retains

is

* The

fact that the highest

fixes the derivation of the

peak of this range

name by which

is called

Solomon's throne

these mountains are known.

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

147

kingdom. Now it is very remarkable

that Ptolemy, in his geography of these parts, locates
the Aristophyli^ that is to say, " The Noble Tribes,''
in juxtaposition with the Caholitce ; a name which
this

name

as a

means the tribes, Cabail being the

Cabul was the name applied
tribe.

probably also

Arabic for

by Hiram

to the land of Galilee, or that part of it

Solomon gave him.

The Talmud tells us the word
(1 Kings ix. 13.)
signifies sandy and this term certainly would well

containing the

cities

which

apply to

The

much

of Afghanistan.

antiquity of the

or Cabool,

is

name

of the country Cabul,

then established; and

it

is

also

shown

that some peculiar people known as " The Tribes,''

and " The Noble Tribes," dwelt there at a very re-

mote

period.

There

is,

therefore,

good evidence that

may

be justified in
asserting that from the earliest period of history they

the present inhabitants of Cabul

and their ancestors have occupied Cabul, and that

from time- immemorial they have been known as
" The Tribes."
That is to say, Israelitish tribes,
such as they now assume themselves to be. It is no
mean argument in favour of their assumption that
their Mahometan conquerors assert by their historians, that the Afghans are Israelites, and that they
observed the
century,

the

Arab

Hebrew worship

until

the

seventh

when they were converted by the sword of

to the profession of belief in the

Prophet of

According to Sir W. Jones, the best Persian

authorities agree with them in their account of their
origin and resident and competent authorities, such

Mecca.

as Sir

John Malcolm, and the missionary Mr. ChamL 2

148

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

berlain, after full investigation, assure us that

"many

of the Afghans are undoubtedly of the seed of Abra-

One

ham."

tribe of the Afghans,

now named Door-

anneds, rules the whole nation, and at one period of

their history this tribe exercised dominion from the

Caspian Sea to the Ganges, and even as far as the

capital of the Mahrattas,

Poona.*

Thus, then, we

succeed in connecting the Israelites

the Tribes

with the Caspian Sea, and with India through Afghan-

Now we

istan.

require to proceed further,

connect these tribes with the Sacae.

once by the fact well

tribes, the

known

This

and

we do

at

that the so-called Tartar

Chozars or Kosi, were the lords otcentral

Xindia from the sixth Jo Jlie_tenth_centurj^* KT hey

came from the borders of the Caspian Sea, the seat
of the Sacae.
Gibbon states that their country was
known to the Greeks and the Arabians under the
name Kosa, that is, Cush. By this name they were
Their alliance was
also known to the Chinese.
courted by the rival empires of Persia and Rome.

The Cush, or

Cosa,

known

as Indu-Cush, belonged

and probably gave rise to their name amongst

The circumstance most
the Greeks and Arabians.
worthy of note concerning these Chozars, or Kusites,

to them,

as respects our inquiry,

the tenth century

we

is

the fact that, as early as

learn that their sovereigns

from time immemorial been Hebrews.

Israel of Malabar, also,

had

The Beni-

have a history, clearly written,

well preserved and continued to the present time, in

which

it

is

recorded that the Ten Tribes, with the

exception of colonies in Spain and India, migrated

* See Elphinstoue's Kingdom of Caboul.

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

149

towards the Caspian Sea, some on the borders of

Media and

Persia,

Chinese Tartary.

and others in the direction of

The tribes of Simeon, Ephraim,

have settled on the

north-east of the Caspian Sea, the country of the
Chozar Tartars, in a region named in the record
Makhe.* Thus we have evidence sufficient to prove

and Manasseh are represented

to

who were connected with the country of

and under Hebrew rulers, held dominion

that a people

the Sace

over Central India and Afghanistan previous to the

Mahometan

invasion.

Mr. Forster points out, as a

curious confirmation of the Malabar record of the

Ptolemy places the Tos Manassa

(^' The far-hanished ManasseK^) in the land of the
Chomari or Gomeri (the Gomer of the Bible), and to
the north of them a people called Macha-geni^ or
people of Macha.
May it not be worthy of inquiry
whether Macha-geni, as the name of a people, is not
the same as Massa-geta6?
And may not the country
Beni-Israel, that

named Mash

23) be that of the

Massa-getCB (the Goths of Masha), who dwelt about
in

Genesis

(x.

where we know
from Herodotus that Cyrus encountered them? And

the

mouth

may

of the Araxes or Kir,

not the very

name

of these people (Getae) be

derived from that of the inhabitants of Gath

n:)

Gete).

dotus

(iv.

Incidentally

94)

says

we remark

Hebrew,
that Hero(

the Getas thought themselves

immortal; not dying, but going, at their decease, to

Zalmoxis^ which Herodotus supposes to be the

name

Greek mode of spelling the

Hebrew word Zalmoth, the shadow of death. (Psalm

of a god.

Is not this a

* See Forster on Primeval Lanoruagre.

150

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

The Getse are mixed up with the Sacae as

the Gittites were with the Israelites, and by and bye
we shall see that they used the same language. The
xxiii. 4.)

Meso-Gothic of Ulphilas's New Testament, written in

the fourth century, contains Hebrew, Greek, Sanscrit,

and Tartar words. There were Gittites (GetaB), men

of Gath, amongst the body-guard of David.
It is
also worthy of note that, in the voyage of Eldad, the
seat of the three lost tribes of Simeon, Ephraim,

and

Manasseh

per-

said to be

is

Macha a name agreeing

fectly with that given in the

Malabar history as the

locality of those tribes.

Whether, with Mr. Forster,

we can find Zebulun by the Helmund^ and Issachar
by the Isagurus near Cashgar, remains to be proved.
We agree with him in believing that " by every kind
of evidence it is ascertained, and by every class of
author admitted, that a large proportion of the Chozar
Tartars were Israelites professing the Jew's religion,
and practising the rite of circumcision."* There is
a

curious

the

Kabbinical tradition

Ten Tribes passed over the

to the

eiFect

that

river Sambatioun,

which flows through the land of Gush. Now, whatever river may be meant by Sambatioun, we know
the Rabbins meant by Gush not Ethiopia or Libya,
as some Christian commentators have imagined, but
Indu-Cush, the country bordering on Bokhara and
Cabul.
Herodotus distinguishes the Ethiopians,
the Cushites
pians,

of the sun-rising, the eastern Ethio-

from those of Libya; and says they differed

from the latter by their hair being straight instead of

curly, and that they did not at all differ in appearance
* Primeval Language, part

iii.

p.

312.

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

151

Mr. Forster, by limiting the

distribution of the Ten Tribes of Israel to Afghanistan, confirms prophecy but to falsify it for prophecy

from other Indians.

declares that they " shall be swallowed

up" amongst

Not lost, indeed, but hidden, like seed,

become more. '' I will not utterly destroy

all nations.

only to

the house of Jacob, saith the Lord.

command and

For,

will sift the house of Israel

nations, like as corn

is sifted

lo,

I will

among

all

in a sieve, yet shall not

the least grain fall upon the earth.'' (Amos \\\i, 7-9.)
" Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians [Cushites]
children of Israel? saith the Lord."

unto me,

This

ix. 7.)

is

(Amos

said in relation to their position after

and we shall see in another

chapter that the religious head amongst the Sace
assumed the Ethiopian characteristics as emblems of
their captivity in Assyria,

We

his dominion.
clear

names of

find in the heathen geographer

Israelite tribes,

borders of the Caspian Sea

on the one hand, on the

on the other hand, in the

mountains of Chinese Tartary. We find the Jewish
;

account quite independently bearing ^vitness to the

emigration and settlement of the very tribes

by Ptolemy

in those very parts.

We

named

find the national

character of those wandering Israelites correspond-

and in
we find the very

ingly delineated in the accounts of the Jews,

the history of the Chozars.

And

national character of Israel, as there described, in

restlessness,

its

turbulence,

its

its

roving propensities,

war and plunder, re-appear

in all its life and reality in that of the whole Afghan
nation a people naming themselves " Beni-Israel,"
its insatiable

appetite for

and universally claiming to be the descendants of the

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

152

The nomenclature

Lost Tribes.
districts,

of those tribes and

both in ancient geography and at the present

day, confirms this universal national tradition. Lastly,

we have

the route of the Israelites from Media to

Afghanistan and India marked out by a

series

of

intermediate stations bearing the names of several of

their tribes,

and

clearly indicating the stages of their

long and arduous journey.

Sir William Jones in-

clines to the opinion that the

Ten Tribes migrated

to

Cashmir; and that opinion

In the
derives support from several circumstances.
year 1828 the following statement appeared in the
India about Tibet and

German papers

" Leipsig, June

it If
30th. After having

years past merchants from

among

the visitors at our

seen for some

and Armenia
we have had, for the

Tiflis, Persia,
fair,

two traders from Bucharia with shawls,

which are there manufactured of the finest wool of
the goats of Tibet and Cashmire, by the Jewish
\_IsraelitisK\ families^ who form a third part of the
first

time,

In Bucharia (formerly the capital of

Sogdiana) the Jews have been very numerous ever

population.

since the Babylonian captivity,

and are there

as re-

markable for their industry and manufactures as they

are in

not

England

till

last

for their

for coarse

transactions.

It

was

year that the Russian government suc-

ceeded in extending
Bucharia.

money

its

The above
and

diplomatic missions far into

traders exchanged their shawls

fine woollen cloths of such colours as

are most esteemed in the East.'*

The number
if

of these Israelites

the account be at

all

must be very

great,

correct, as to the proportion

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

153

which they bear to the whole population, this being

stated by the most accurately informed writers to be
from 15,000,000 to 18,000,000. But this information
is confirmed in
a very satisfactory manner from
With regard to the country of Bokother sources.
hara, it is worthy of remark that certain Jewish
writers have regarded it as the Hara into which some
of the Israelites were exiled

by the King of Assyria.

This country appears to have been known in India at

an early period by the name of Hara; the addition Bok, or Buck, only distinguishes it from some
As Hara is
other notable Hara (mountain range).
Hebrew, so is Bok, signifying mixed or confused.
At an early period of history the dominion of Bokhara
extended from the Caspian Sea into Khorasan and
;

when

Seleucus, after Alexander's death, took posses-

sion of those regions,

and

many Jews went

there as colo-

progeny have ever since continued

there, but kept distinct from the Beni-Israel, also
resident there in large numbers.
Yahoodeyah^ in
Merv, was probably one of their early cities. It is
nists,

their

not unlikely that the seats of early Jewish coloniza-

amongst people to whom the name of the BeniIsrael was familiar, were always known as Yahoodeyah^ and this is precisely the name by which Oude
was first known. The Jews, both of Bokhara and
Afghanistan, are kept distinct from those who call
themselves Beni-Israel. When Sir Alexander Burnes
asked Dost Mahomed Khan as to the descent of the
Afghans from the Israelites, he replied that his people
had no doubt of that, though they repudiated the
tion

idea of being Jews,

whom

they treat with hereditary

154

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

They found

contempt.
tradition,

their belief not merely

on

but on an ancient record in their possession

named Mujnoo

The Urz Bede, of Hajee

unsab.

Feroz, at Herat, possesses genealogies tracing their

descent from famous Israelites.

the Afghans

True, the claim of

no proof of their right to the name of

Beni-Israel but their claim, so long maintained, proves
is

this

much

at least

the

Ten Tribes must have been

famous in those parts at a very early period, or a

dominant people, despising the Jews, would not have
been proud of their assumed name for so long a period.

The

incidental evidences in favour of the descent of

the Afghans from the

them, are

First.

Ten Tribes, or from some of

They are found where the Ten

Tribes were expected to be found.

traditions

and customs.

Third.

Second. Their

The agreement

of

Mahometans, who
assert that the Israelites that came from the river
Khabor were called Khyberees, and that some of them
went to Afghanistan, or, as they more properly call
their traditions with those of other

the country, Cabul, while others went into Arabia,

and that these acknowledge

their relationship to the

Afghans.

These traditions of the Afghans

history of the tribes

who

fall

in with the

resisted the Greeks,

and

took possession of Media and Persia, and constituted

a Parthian kingdom.

When

Arsaces the Second,

Artabanus, son of the First, fought against Antiochus,

he called in the aid of the Sacae and being then at the

head of 100,000 men, Antiochus was glad to make
;

peace with him, leaving him in possession of Parthia

and Hyrcania,

in consideration of his aid in the

war

155

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

that

Bokhara
thence, however, the Sacse and

against Bactria and Aria

is

to say,

and Afghanistan;
the Goths afterwards expelled the

armies of the

The Arsacian king, Mlthridates II., called

the Great, came to terms with the Sacae, who held
dominion in Cabul. The Saka-rauU became so powerGreeks.

ful as to place a

king of kings.

ghans,

having

king on the Parthian throne called

These Saka-rauli were probably Af-

from the north-eastern

through Bactria, into the

descended

Sogdiana,

borders of

known

country then

as Ariana,

now

Afghanistan.

These are the people, the Sacse, that Alexander could

not subdue, and therefore courted as friends. From
that period to that of the last of the numerous Greeks

who assumed sovereignty over

Bactria and Cabulistan,

these people were in frequent conflict with the Greeks,

under their dominion, as we

find from their numerous coins discovered in Afghanistan (Cabulistan), on which both Greek and so-called
Arian inscriptions and devices appear.* Professor

and

as often nominally

Lassen quotes

this

passage from Strabo

"

The

Asii

or Asiani, and the Tochari and the Saca-rauli, took

The Asiani were the

Tochari and the Saca-rauli. The Asiani

Bactria from the

kings of the

were

and

I regard these

Sacas.

classes

of Saks

"h^;!^

that

distinguished
32),

Greeks."

names

recognisable in
is,

by

who

those
their

Hebrew

as

''^T^^

superintended,

armour Kinn (Ex.

and the javelin men or

Parthian " king of kings

as only different

"

slingers.f

nnn

those
xxviii.

Coins of the

have also been found in

* See Prinsep's Historical Kesults, deducible from Recent Discoveries in

Afghanistan.

f See Prinsep,

p. 82.

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

156

Afghanistan.

Professor Lassen confines the Asian

kings of the Getae to Upper Bactria and Sogdiana,

but regards the Sakas as occupying the Cabul valley

and the Punjab, having a king of their own towards
the end of the second century before Christ.
This
serves as another link between the ancient Sakas

modern Afghans, and

the

this is all

and

we wish here

to

having already shown the probability that

the Afghans are of Hebrew descent.
establish,

For the purpose of showing the connexion of the

Greek power with the Saxon, the annexed engravings
of coins found in Afghanistan are worthy of note. No.
1 is that of
(B.C. 220.)

Euthydemus BA2IAEQ2 EYGYAHMOY.

The wild horse on the obverse

is

perhaps

an emblem of Bactria, but also, certainly, of the

Saxon race.
No. 2 is that of Antimachus Nikephorus.
the

The

(155 B.C.)

word Su^

figure on the obverse, with

will be illustrated in another chapter.

Su has very much puzzled

No.

the learned.

on
one side; and the king seated on the horse on
the other, to indicate his conquest and power over
is

another of the same king, with a Victory

the nation symbolized by the horse.

sumed the

title

of Tlieus

God;

and

( ?)

This king asI

would here

observe that probably the word Su^ or Zu^

is

only

another form (Spartan) of the word Theus; adopted,

however, with particular reference to the people of

Afghanistan at the time, as will be indicated hereafter.

Nikephorus

not so applied

is

till

title

of Jupiter, but I believe

subsequent to the conquest of

Porus, or Phorus, by Alexander in India.

is

both Greek and Hebrew,

would

and

in

This word

both languages

signify the smiting of Porus, this

name Porus

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

157

Hebrew, signifpng
widely known; a title appropriate enough to the
Porus whom Alexander conquered on the banks of
the Jhilum (now Jelum), in July, 327 B.C.
On the coins found in Afghanistan, Greek legends
being a

of

title

distinction in

are continued from Seleucus Xicator (280 B.C.) to the

middle of the second century of our

era.

Having been once established by a people so

superior in art and intelligence, the Greek character
seems to have been retained on the coinage, partly

Greek power by
the successive kings, and partly because Greeks were

as expressing the retention of the

largely

mixed

as colonists with the nations over

whom

Thus we have first pure Greek coins,

next Arsacian, and then Sassanian, when the Greco-

they reigned.

Parthian dominion in Central Asia closed.

There

was, during great part of this period, an Ario-Parthian dynasty reigning over Cabul and the Punjab;

but after a.d. 80 a

name

order of coins, bearing the

with legends in corrupt Greek,

of Kanerkes,

These are

found.

is

new

ascribed to a

new

race of

who immediately succeeded those

named Kadphises, of which name three kings are
Scythian kings

recognised

them (4
his

by

their coins.

in plate) in

I here

evidence of the

present one of
fact, that

under

dominion Buddhism was recognised as the State

religion.

The
saviour,

corrupt,

Greek leo^end

Oomen

is

kino^ of

kinoes,

the orreat

Kadphises,* the letters being very

and the

z of the

Lat inscriptions being

used for that of the Greek 2.

The legend on the obverse is in the so-called Arian,
* No. 10, plate

ix.

in Prinsep's Historical Results.

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

158

which reads from right

No

to left.*

satisfactory

translation has been offered; but I transliterate the

words into modern Hebrew

Hebrew

sentence
i^b'?

TTD niK TiD

literally translated

extended

to

find this

b:i

d?

Dibt:^

lb

which

and thus

letters,

them alU

is,

ninio

b^r2::li

'2

From my glory prosperity

light extended^

but only because his

recompense was with me.

It appears that,

Buddhism was

during the reign of Kadphises,

for a time suppressed

king Nikramaditya and his successors.

by the Hindu
It was pro-

bably then that Augustus Caesar received a letter in

Greek from a king of those parts, calling himself Porus,

praying for assistance. Whether this Porus received

any aid or not

is

before us that

Roman

not

known

who

established a

Buddhism, as

will

but there

influence

the successors of Kadphises,

kings,

new

is

evidence

was extended

to

namely, the Kanerki

order,

though retaining

be pointed out in another chapter.

All these kings employed the Arian language, that

the language of Afghanistan at that time.

is,

It appears,

Buddha, or Godama, was

restored by the king whose remarkable effigies we
have before us. There is another Kadphises, on the
obverse of whose coins (5 in plate) is this remarkable
inscription in Arian letters :f Damma cacarata kiiju
lakasa saba saka Kadphises ; which, as Hebrew, I would
then, that the religion of

render, Kadphises worships according

to the

cutting off

[or covenant"] of the burning of Kash^ the seat of Saka.

* Plate

xiii. p.

14, in Prinsep's Historical Results,

Prinsep, idem, plate

ix. p.

10.

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

I \vill not here

as their

attempt an explanation of these words,

meaning

we

will appear as

identification of the
these, again,

l59

Szu Scythians with the

with the

who

Sacae,

The

proceed.
Asii,

and

took Bactria and

Afghanistan, will account for

afterwards occupied

certain coins having the name of Azes and the title

" king of kings " upon them.
This title associates

them with the kings who, up to the second century

of our era, used the same title, and held dominion
over the same country, and employed the same language, at least on their coins, and, as

bye

see, also

language

is

we

shall

by and

on their tombs. We hope to prove that this

Hebrew, and therefore that the people of

Afghanistan used Hebrew in the period extending from

commencement of the Greco-Bactrian dominion to

the commencement of the third century of our era.
the

By way

of introduction

to the next chapter, a

few remarks on

the coins before us

the

the

First,

reminds
Daniel the

same

title.

This

title

superscription

us

that

minister,

37; Ezra

suffice.

great king of kings

Nebuchadnezzar,

Jew was prime

(Dan.

will

to

whom

employed the

12; Ezek. xxvi. 7.)

was adopted by the kings who followed
ii.

vii.

Godama, or Saka, and adopted his doctrines. AVe

shall by and bye give evidence to indicate how the
monograms on, those coins came to denote the Buddhist religion and dominion. One such is seen beside
the king, who is bearded and arrayed in true Saxon
long coat, boots, and cap; and he wears the
style
royal fillet. Like a true Hebrew, he stands with head

covered before the altar of incense

for such

we

sup-

pose the stones raised four deep to signify, after the

160

THE AFGHANS AND THEIR AFFINITIES.

He

Buddhist manner.

holds the trident, the Saxon

token, in his right hand.

This was not borrowed

he

borrowed it from the Saxons but

potentiality.
in either case it means the same thing
Below his left hand is an unknown emblem, regarded

from Neptune

by some

as a club

if so,

an emblem of Hercules, the

destroyer of evil-doers and the righter of the wronged,

a figure of

whom

is

seen on

the Graeco-Arian coin

No. 4. Hence we infer that the Buddhist kings

adopted this emblem after the destruction of the
Greek power in North-western India. On the obverse,
in one case,

we have Siva

(ov Su) also holding the

emblem of Buddha's power, as indicated by the

Behind him stands the
monogram of Godama.
On the other
sacred bull Nandi honouring Buddha.
obverse we have what appears to be Hercules with his
the devices in each case being
club and lion's skin
expressive of the same power to set matters right
by main force.
Concerning one of the Kanerki kings we shall have
occasion to speak when examining the remains found
Enough has been said to indicate the
in his tomb.

connexion of Afghanistan with the Greeks, the Sacae,

and the Buddhists, and we will now proceed to consider the Sacae

and the Buddhists more

fully.

161

CHAPTER

VIII.

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

was intimated that the Israelites
might have been classed by Herodotus amongst the
tribes of Media, under the name of Buddhi a name
In a former chapter

it

that re-appears in his account of tribes of Scythia.

We now
dhists

We

proceed to show that the SacaB were Bud-

and Hebrews.
have seen, from the

known

facts already stated, that

and
Buddhii, arrived in India at a period about a hundred
years after the return of the Jews from Assyria to
These people were mixed up with the
Palestine.
Yavanas, who have been identified ^vith the Greeks
left by Alexander to garrison the banks of the Indus,
and who long occupied a naval station at the mouth
of that river, called Pattala, supposed to be the preThis took place about 325 years B.C.
sent Tatta.
We know that, by some untold circumstance, Alexander was prevented from invading the Sacae, or at
least from prevailing over them, as he did over the
Bactrians.
The Sacae were then a distinct people,
and their knowledge and influence appear to have been
employed by Alexander in his incursion into India.
It is said that certain Sacae, being famous for the use
of the bow, and also as skilful horsemen, were of great
a peculiar people,

as the Sacs, or Sakai

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

162

With

use to his army.

new

religion appears to have been introduced into

This religion has been ever since known as

India.

Buddhism,
by Sahya,
B.C.

these remarkable people a

said to be first taught, in its present form,

Now Buddha

618.*

It is

Maga

is

said to have been born

remarkable that this Buddha

is

Magian) by the Burmahs;f and, in

Burmah, Arracan, Ceylon, and Siam the sacred language of Buddhism is called the language of the
Mags or Magi J and, indeed, the priests of the Persians, Bactrians, Charasmians, Arians, and Sacae are
equally called Magi, and are described as so many
To connect the
tribes descended from the Sacas.
called

(a

Sacai of the East with those of the West,

we observe

White Island England Sacam or Saxum,

is stated in
as pronounced by our Saxon ancestors
the Purana named Varaha to have been in the
that the

possession of the Sacs (or Sacae) at an early period.

||

From

the origin of this

menced

new

religion of

Buddha com-

named

the era of the

era in the East,

Hence we infer that Sakya belonged to this

people. They proceeded from the north into Cashmir.
We have shown that a people of this name were
recognised by ancient geographers and historians as
Sacas.

a tribe of Scythians residing to the north of Cashmir,

and we have found some reasons to imagine that

these Sacas sprung from the house of Isaac a division
of the Israelites who did not return from Assyria to
;

Samaria.

We now

proceed, if possible, to discover

any additional reasons

* Asiatic Researches,
J As. Res.

xi.

76.

for

supposing these people to

f Idem,

vol. ix. p. 90.

As. Res.

xi.

SO.

||

p. 75.

As. Res.

xi.

61.

be

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

163

The Sacas must have come

into India

Israelites.

through

Cabul;

it

name may still

Afghans, a people who have

traces of their

many

some
be found amongst the

therefore probable that

is

retained their pecu-

and who, from their occupation of mountain fastnesses, and from their hardy,
independent, and warlike habits, engendered by their
position, have been able to preserve themselves from
These people have many indiforeign dominion.

liarities for

cations of a

ages,

Hebrew

origin,

or,

at least, the facts

advanced bv the Eio-ht Hon. Sir G. H. Rose and the

Rev. C. Foster, as already stated, together mth other
facts presented by preceding writers, such as Sir W.
Jones, certainly warrant the conclusion that an ex-

must have been from a

very early period exerted amongst that people and it
is by no means improbable that the purer tribes
amongst them are really descendants of the Israelites,
tensive Israelite influence

as they believe themselves to be.

however,
Sakai,

is

What we

a connexion between the

and the

Israelites,

and

word

passage

is

staff of the

Sacce^ or

that, I think,

cover in certain tribes of the Afo^hans.

The

from a letter* written by an

commander-in-chief in India.

seek,

we

dis-

folio win o^

officer

on the

It is

dated

from Head Quarters, Camp, Munikiala^ 20th January^

"Having just been through a part of
1852:

Afghanistan Proper, I cannot help writing to

how

was struck

and not only

mth

tell

you

the Jewishness of the people

their appearance, but every possible

circumstance tends to convince one that they are the

descendants of the Ten Tribes. They call themselves
* Quoted by Sir G. H. Rose

in his

m2

work ou the Afghans.

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

164

Bunnie Israeel (Bunnie being exactly synonymous

with
Mac in Scotland, and Fitz in England),
and are proud of it whereas to all other Mahometans a
more severe term of abuse cannot be applied than
Yahoodee, or Jew.
We may observe that these socalled Benee-Israel despise the Jews almost as much
as any Mahometan people can.
They pride themselves on being sons of Israel in contradistinction
from the people of Judah a strong presumptive evidence that they are really derived from the Israelites,
*

'

'

'

especially as this distinction

has been maintained

from time immemorial amongst them.

tribes that at present are giving us a

trouble,
'zie'

is

called

meaning

'

One

good deal of

Yousufzyes^^ or tribe of

'tribe;'

of the

Joseph,

and next to them are the

Izahzie^ or tribe of Isaac.''

This

is

the point to be

names of
which the Israelites were

observed, Joseph and Isaac are not properly

either of the tribes into

divided by lot in their

of those

names

own

land

affords proof that,

they adopted distinctive

descendants of Israelites,

appellations in those names, and

that the

name

of Isaac

Israelitish descent.

but the application

if the Afghans are
it is

was chosen

This

is

a point

therefore clear

mark of
which we needed
as oi^e

to establish in order to sustain the opinion that the

SacaB, or Sakai,

might have derived their name

nally from Isaac.

If the

name be adopted

origi-

to designate

might formerly more suitably have been

used to designate all the tribes, for every tribe was
equally interested in the name, the descent, and the
words of the covenant with Abraham: "i/z Isaac
one

tribe, it

shall thy seed he

called,''^

(Gen. xxi. 12.)

The

fact is

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

165

evinced in the existence of an extensive tribe actuallv

using that

name

from time
immemorial, and these are situated where we might
naturally have looked for them under the circumstances supposed.

as professed Israelites

The Hebrews

Mowr,

in

as well as

those in Bokhara, assured the Rev. J. Wolff that there

are

many

of the children of Israel of the tribes of

Naphtali and Zebulun, in the Hindu Cush,

Balkhwee, and that they lived

the excla^oation "
If the Sacas

Shama

among the
by robbery, and knew

Yisrael !"

Hear,

were of Israelitish

oriofin,

Israel.*

we

miofht

naturally expect to find some wild remains of

them
in the country through which we suppose them to
have passed and that they should retain the Israelitish passwords was likely in a country which was
probably colonized by Jews at a very early period.
;

These

facts at least serve to connect the Sacas^ or

Sakai^

whom we

Isalczie

Cashmir and Orissa, with the

of Independent Tartary and Bokhara; these
find in

countries being, in fact, precisely the

seats of the

ancient Sacce^ or at least of the people so called by

the Persians in the time of Herodotus. (Zd^ai and

Za/cac.)

4Jt

would be very strange

if,

having, from

other circumstances, been induced to believe that the

Ten Tribes went

into those regions,

mffltitude of people

we

there found a

who declared themselves

to be the

descendants of these tribes, and yet that they should

not be so.
We have supposed them to have been

named

and here, in the

we find large numbers

Sacre, or Sakai, after Isaac;

very seat of the Sacas of

old,

of people professing to be Israelites, calling themselves

* WolflTs Mission

to

Bokhara,

vol.

ii.

p.

165.

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

166

name readily converted

who habitually rendered

Sakai by the

Isakzle, a

into

Greeks,

the names of the

barbarians only into approximate sounds.

Is it pos-

account for these facts but on the supposition

that they are derived from the real Beni-Israel? Why
sible to

should these people thus

the prejudice of

name

themselves, in spite of

the nations around them against

all

everything Jewish?

Had

they not been accustomed

from a period when they

had reason, from their influence, to be proud of the
name, we can scarcely understand why they should
be proud of it now, when anything but high hopes or
noble aspirations is associated with it, even by themselves.
Now, if the Sacas, or Sakai, of Independent
Tartary and Bokhara, were the predecessors of the
so to denominate themselves

so-called Beni-Israel

now

resident in those countries,

and, if they were also called Isakzie after Isaac, then

it is

fair to infer that the

Sakai

who came

into India

through those countries were of the same origin.

Amongst the names of the six tribes into which
the inhabitants of Media are divided by Herodotus*
there ought, as already observed, to be one to represent the Israelites,
in large

history

numbers

who certainly

occupied the country

at the period referred to in his

when writing

of those inhabitants.

been a stumblingblock to

some

This has

inquirers.

But

we not expect their Hebrew origin to be disguised under some name adopted by themselves as
expressive of their condition? Whether so or not,
we find, in the enumeration of the tribes of Media
as given by Herodotus, the very name by which we
should

1.

101.

167

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

when introthat name is

believe the Sakai designated themselves

ducing

new

religion into India;

Hebrew,
signifies the detached or separated people. There are
no direct evidences that the Israelites were ever
Buddhii, or Buddhists (QH^); which,

by

so called

their

own

in

people; but yet there

is

passage in itself remarkable, as prophetically applied

under the name of Ephraim,

in which passage the word Baddhi refers to them in
some especial manner which our translators have
failed to understand.
This misunderstanding is indi-

to the children of Israel

cated by the fact that

word

the

differently in those passages

where

is
it

translated
occurs,

so

and as

make a sense not to be found by a literal rendering, or by retaining the words as terms of denomination.
The word Baddhai occurs, with the same

if to

and in Hos. xi. 6 in

the former the word is rendered lies, and in the latter
It will throw
branches, but both cannot be correct.
some light on our inquiry to reflect at full on both
those passages as denouncing a rebellious people:
*'
We have heard of the pride of Moab he is very
proud; even of his haughtiness, and his pride, and
his wrath; but his lies [Baddhai] shall not be so."
(Isai. xvi. 6.)
In Hosea xi. 5, 6, it is said of
Ephraim " He shall not return into the land of
pointing, both in Isai. xvi.

6,

Egypt, but the Assyrian shall be his king, because

they refused to return.
And the sword shall abide
on his cities, and shall consume his branches ['^''7?

Baddhai], and devour them [the Baddhai], because

of their

own

counsels."

Now, comparing the word

Baddhai, or Budii, in these passages,

it is

clear that

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

168

the reference

is

to the separate parties or divisions of

the people in connexion with cities ;

take the term in any case to

mean

even

for,

if

we

branches, yet

it

can only be

branches of the people, for they are

represented as taking counsel.
If so, then it is easy
to see that the

term was familiar

to the Israelites as

own

and
therefore it would probably be similarly employed by
them in Assyria and elsewhere; so that, speaking
signifying certain collections of their

people,

of their different portions as pertaining to the

dif-

Media and Assyria,

they inhabited, they would call them Baddhii, or the
separate parts as branches, and thus, at length, be
known as a body of people under this appellation,
ferent places or cities which, in

that

is

to say, as Buddhists.

people of the same

name

are also mentioned

by

Herodotus as amongst the Scythians, and he represents them as a great and populous nation, who had
adopted Scythian customs, and amongst whom many
Greeks had settled at an early period.*
indications

of the

Buddhii, that

is,

We

discover

presence of the Sacae and the

the Saxons and the Buddhists, in

northern India, about sixty years after the Scythians

had overrun Media and Mesopotamia.

Their incur-

sion occurred in the reign of Cyaxares,

who succeeded

Phraortes, the

bably about

first

king of Independent Media, pro-

625 years

The

were
probably still dwelling for the most part in Media at
this period.
The Scythians, who had mastered all
Their course
Asia,f were expelled about 598 B.C. J
*

iv.

108.

B.C.

Israelites

t Herodotus,
{ Volney, Chronologie d'Herodote.

i.

104.

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

is

very remarkable

rians (or

169

they were driving the Cimme-

Gomeri) before them into Asia, when they

encountered the Medes at a place inhabited by the

Massa-Getce^

or Goths of

Masha, on the right of

Mount Caucasus, between it and the Caspian Sea.

They subdued all before them until they reached
Palestine; and, as

if

their object were there accom-

plished, they then proceeded to prey

upon Assyria

for twenty- eight years. But, like the Ephraimites, they

were given to drunkenness, and their chiefs being

by Cyaxares and the Medes, they

were intoxicated and put to death. After which, the
Medes recovered their dominion, and expelled the Scythians. The Scythian invasion came in from the north
the direction whence the prophet Ezekiel, in a vision,
saw the advancing cloud, the whirlwind, and the fire
in which the Israelitish people seemed symbolically
Now, supposing the prophecy fulfilled by
involved.
invited to a feast

this incursion,

we should expect

Israelites in the

to find traces of the

north and the east after the expul-

sion of the Scythians

since

we regard

these people

and preparing a way

departure from Media and Mesopotamia.

as mingling with the Israelites

for

their

Esdras says the Ten Tribes took counsel together

and went out peaceably, crossing over the narrow

passages of the river Euphrates.
This would take
them in the course indicated, namely, through
Armenia, and between Mount Masha and the Caspian
Sea; the very course by which the Scythians had
come in. Now, we cannot discover any period, in
the history of Media and Mesopotamia, in Avhich the
great body of the Israelites could have so departed.

170

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

except that of the time when the Scythians held dominion over those countries, and were, as we supposed,
friendly to the Israelites.

It is after this that the

Sacae begin to be confounded with the

An

Scythians.

interval of nearly sixty years passes between the

expulsion of the Scythians and the appearance of the

and the Buddhii in India. They

flow in through Bokhara and Afghanistan, where we
find remnants of people still dwelling, who claim to
Sacae, the Getae,

be called children of Israel.

The Sacaa and the
Buddhii took possession of Cashmir in the year 340
B.C.,

according to the history of that country.*

now proceed

further to

We

show that the Buddhists, the

and the Geti, or Goths, who spread over India

from Cabul and Cashmir, were connected with the
house of Isaac, both in name and in language; and
Sacas,

the evidence

we

offer is the record written

on the

rock with a pen of iron.

There was, in the early part of our era, a large

Buddha establishment, and the capital of a kingdom,
named Sanchi^ on the banks of Betwa, and about
twenty miles to the north-east of Bhupal. It was
the centre of a kino-dom called Sanaka-nika. and be-

famous for the use of

This
the bow, and their entire devotion to Buddha.
kingdom was also called Sachi^ which would be the
same as Sakai, Here, then, we are at once conducted to the Saxon tribes in India; and, looking
over the account of the topes of S4chi, which were
explored by Major Cunningham,f we find some in-

longed to the Sakya

tribes, so

teresting particulars, and are presented with bas-reliefs

* As. Ees.

vol. XV. p. 112.

Now

Lieutenant- Colonel.

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THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

171

of the people themselves, in their various domestic

At the south gate

of the great tope of Sachi stands a pillar surmounted
with four lions, at the right of the entrance, and on
scenes and religious ceremonies.

that pillar a bas

relief,

which

is

represented in the

accompanying engraving, copied from that of Major

Each gateway is formed of two
Cunningham.
square pillars 2 feet 3 inches thick, and 13 feet 8
The capitals of the pillars on the
inches in height.

human

western gate are four

southern gate four lions

those of the other gateways

The
surmounted by their riders.
height of the gateway is 18 feet 2 inches, and

elephants

four
total
its

dwarfs; those of the

breadth

The inscription

is 7 feet.*

and exceedingly well preserved.

" I

says,
If,

characters,!

it

its

its

meaning.'^

be transliterated into modern Hebrew

meaning becomes evident thus

;

D^pniD

That

Major Cunningham

cannot even make a guess at

however,

conspicuous,

is

n:in

in ijidi :n^

'^wn

mn

is

Sak,

my glory,

thine image [or assimilation]

shall he for a festival, a mountain of refuge

for those who came from afar, from MaJchath,

We shall find, from numerous other inscriptions, that

by such celebrations under the
the same as Godama. Sakya seems to be

the person honoured

name oiSak is
the Sanscrit name of this individual, and his history is extensively known in Buddhistic annals as the founder of
Buddhism in its recent forms. The Chinese Buddhists J
* From Major Cunningham's Bhilsa Topes,

f The reason

p.

189.

for doing this will be seen in the next chapters.

J Fo-kwe-ki,

c.

xvii.

note 17.

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

172

say the name Saki signifies " repose or silence/'

Hebrew

it

will

admit of that meaning, but only in the

Numbers

sense of ceasing to resist, as in

''

I will

make

As

to cease from

children of Israel."

me

xvii

the murmurings of the

It is especially interesting to

discover that the invocation of

Sak was known

in

Britain at a very early period, for this fact connects

the

first

arrival of the Saki, or

Saxons, in Britain

with Buddhism as known by the Saki of India; thus

proving the similarity of their origin.

for this statement

ancient Druidical

is

My

authority

found in that singular and very

hymn known

as

Gwawd Lludd y

Mawr, or the Praise of Lludd the Great.

It is
quoted from Welsh Archaiology (p. 74), by the Rev.
E. Davies, in his work on the Mythology of the

Four short lines

are given in this poem as the prayer of five hundred
men who came in five ships. The words of this prayer
were suspected by Mr. Davies to be Hebrew, in conBritish Druids

(Appendix No. 12).

sequence of Taliesen the bard (600 a.d.)

having

declared that his lore had been delivered to

him

Hebrew

or Hebraic*

scribed the passage in

^;ir

in

Mr. Davies therefore tran-

Hebrew

jnnn 'nnni

letters thus

O-BritU Brith

oi

nn ^^ y;; i^ Nu oes nu edi

nni Tinn Brithi Brith anhai
Sych edi edi eu roi.
in ^^r\ nn yD

'':^^

"!P1

He

does not attempt to give the meaning

but, after

familiarly puzzling out ancient Buddhistic inscriptions, I

venture to give this

* His words are

Yn Efrai,

Angar Cyvyndavvd.)

literal

rendering

yni Efroeg Eilgweth

ym

rhithad.

(Talieseu's

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

And

A
I

173

have made a covenant a Heap,

home of wood is a home, my guide,
I

have made a covenant,

Sah

is

my

guide,

my

ship,

guide, he

is

my

Friend.

The Being they worshipped is also called Adonai^

the Hebrew name of the Lord Almighty.
The appeal
to the Heap is significant, as will fully appear in
another place; but even the tope or tumulus erected
over Sak at Sdchi will afford a clue to the secret since
;

such mounds were at

first

only heaps of stones, as wit-

nesses of devotion or of vows, or as memorials of the

venerated dead, and as signs of the course taken by

the Israelites, according to the prophet. (Jer. xxxi. 21.)

These uses of the heap are illustrated by many passages in the Hebrew Scripture. See, heap of witness,
Gen. xxxi. 52; Deut. xiii. 16; Josh. vii. 26; viii.
28;

2 Sam. xviii. 17.

There

an obscure passage in Job xxx. 24, which

is

these observations

may

illustrate.

In this passage

the word translated " grave" in our version

the orio;inal

"

Howbeit he

is

will not stretch

heap in
out his

though they cry in

his destruction." In Job xxi. 23 we have " Yet shall he
watch in the heap " (at the heap). The wanderings of
the sons of Isaac are to be traced, in fact, by their graves
being marked by peculiar heaps of ruin, and these are

hand

to the grave [at the heap],

erected in expression of a covenant with destruction.

The Jews

are described as

death in Isaiah xxviii. 18.

making a covenant with

The only other word to

detain us over this inscription

is

the

name

of the place

from which the worshippers are said to have come.

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

174

namely, Makheih,

This

is

confirmatory of the re-

cord preserved by the Malabar Hebrews, which states

that some of the scattered Israelites went to Makhe,

Makheth being only the full form of the

same word. Makha is named in the Behistun inscriptions. Was it Moecia?
The connexion of the
in Tartary,

Sakai, or Sachi, with Tartary will be show^n presently.

As

mountain of refuge, it is to be observed

that a mountain amongst the Hebrews was understood to be the proper place for a house of worship,
" The mountain of the Lord's house
as in Isaiah ii. 3
to the

shall be established in the top of the

The

mountains."

which the above inscription

stands represents the adoration of the relics of SakYA SiNHA, the last of the mortal Buddhas, who at
death is supposed to have attained Nirvdn^ or freedom from transmigration. This word is peculiar to
Buddhism, and is variously explained; but may it not
be a Hebrew word signifying the state of being fully
satisfied
]n')1^[?].
Major Cunningham names the
bas-relief over

scene depicted in the engraving '' The Casket Scene

" The king, with his family and miin the Palace. '^
nisters, seated in the

foreground to the

left.

In the

centre a relic-casket, with two attendants holding the

and chaori [mace] over it. To the

left a seated female is beating a drum, and a female
dancer naked to the waist, with the arms extended bechatta [umbrella]

manner still practised in India.

In the background are two male figures, and one female
figure with a round cap, similar to those worn by
the Kashmir women of the present day.
To the right
are numerous figures, all standing; two having their

fore her in a peculiar

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

175

hands joined in adoration appear to be the Raja

and his minister" (p. 213).
The figure of a head with a peculiar head-dress
lying near the relic-basket is overlooked by Major
Cunningham. The position of the head gives one
the idea that

person to

it

whom

scene

may

of a

statue

was intended to represent the dead

The whole
the relics belonged.

be intended to represent the inauguration

of Sak^ for the statue

northern entrance of this tope

no doubt that of

His assimilation to God

the last Buddha.

pressed by the erection of

shipped.

is

erected at the

his

likeness to

is

ex-

be wor-

This idea would well agree with the fore-

going translation of the inscription.

The head-dresses

of most of the figures remind us of the kerchiefs for

which were charms. The

traditional head-dress of the Jewish women in the
East is called chalebi. and consists of balls of linen rao-s
tightly compressed, over which a shawl is carefully
wound, just as we see in the engraving.* The bracelets
and anklets of gold are precisely such as were found
in the tumuli on the north of the Caucasus described
by Dr. Clarke in his Travels, and thence we suppose
As all the faces but that
these people to have come.
of the naked figure are carefully grouped and turned
towards the spectator, it would appear that they were
intended to be portraits.
Our rough sketch in the
engraving is but a rude imitation of the original.
The figure, naked, as if by way of humiliation, is probably that of the king, whose face it would not be
the head (Ezek.

xiii.

18),

lawful to represent.
* See Jews in the East, by Dr. Fraakl.

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

176

Some

of the figures in

other bas-reliefs are evi-

dently Scythian or Tartar, particularly the dancing

women.

regard the whole scene as representing

individuals of different nations under the dominion

of the Sakas.

In respect to the indirect evidence of Israelitish

origin presented

by the Sakai

Sakai topes,

pillars of these

Buddha

places call them,

as chiselled on

or, as

the

the natives in some

hitha^

in

this

place

would specify the dress of the soldiersf and the trial

of the bow.
Major Cunningham was so struck with
the peculiar and picturesque manner in which the
quiver

fastened

is

to

the

soldier's

back,

that he

reminded of the Psalmist's words concerning the children of Ephraim, who, being harnessed
and carrying hows^ turned back in the day of battle.

was

at once

The whole costume resembles that

of the Scotch Highlanders, the kilt being the marked
The ornament on the shields
part of their clothing.
(Ps. Ixxviii. 10.)

of the cavalry and foot

is

a double cross, the St.

and two
symbols of Buddhism in Chap. X.
George's, or sometimes a crescent

The
India,

trial

of the supposed founder of

Sakya^

is

shooting with a
required

See

stars.

Buddhism

in

represented as being a triumphant

bow strung by

thousand

persons

himself,

and which

to bend.

The

it

trial

begins with piercing a horse-hair by shooting at

it

under the obscurity of dense clouds, which can only

signify

subtlety in

religious discussion; a

relic

of

which accomplishment we seem to have retained in

* Hebrew

t As

house or temple.

described by Major

a pillar at Sanchi.

Cunningham, from the

(Bhilsa Topes, p. 215.)

bas-relief of a siege on

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

our habits of

hair-splitting.

In the Sakian sense the

bow and arrow are persuasive

of the bow is precisely that

When

West.

177

teaching.

The form

of the Saxons of the

Sakya's trial was accomplished, the

Sakya

tribes sent their daughters superbly decorated

to the

young

prince, with forty thousand dancing

and

All this must be figurative of the con-

singing girls.

quest of Sakya over the opposers of his religion, for

it is

said that, after having pierced seven iron targets

with his arrow,

girdle

and

of water

to

it

reached the mountains of the iron

then pierced the earthy

and caused a spring

The complete victory is foldrums and instrumental music,

gush forth.

lowed by beating of
when he mounted his horse (his horses are always
supposed to be white), and returned to his palace.
The trial of skill is with his brothers Devadatta
and Nanda ; Nanda typifying Brahminism, or the
worship of the sacred bull and Devadatta^ Davidism
;

or Judaism

both which, there

is

reason to believe,

opposed the spread of Buddhism in Central India.

The drums

music^

and mounting

the

symbolize religious conquest, the religion

white
itself

horse

being

symbolized by a spring of water supplying wells built

for the supply of travellers.*
It is quite a

matter of dispute when the Saca era

began in India but the probability

;

more than one such

era,

is

that there

was

the earliest being that of the

amongst the Sakya, or Saxon

tribes, in the sixth century B.C., and the last when
the Scythian Sakas, or SacaB, came again under the

rise of Sakya's religion

* See Fo-kwe-ki,
p.

804.

c. xxii.

note 7, and Turnour in Prinsep's Journal,

vii.

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

178

dominion of a king of their own, who governed the

whole of Khorasan, Afghanistan, the Punjab, and
nearly

all

India, (b.c. 78.)

For the present it is enough to prove the existence

of a Saxon kingdom extending its dominion through
its religious teachers throughout the East and over
half mankind.
We have sought a peculiar people of
Saxon name, and found them. We supposed these
people were known in Assyria and Media as Sakai
and Buddhii. We supposed them to have gone into
the north and mingled with the Scythian tribes and
;

here, in Central India,

we

we

find a people precisely of

under various designations,

but always bearing the same marks, being peculiar
The Tribes is
alike in religious and secular habits.
Ptolemy calls them the Noble
their earliest name.
Tribes the Buddhist annals acknowledge them as the
Sakya Tribes, their kingdom is Saka-nika^ and their
religious dominion is felt from Persia to China, and
from Ceylon to the centre of Mongolia. They seem
to belong to the same race as the various tribes of
Afghans, but are separated from them by the religious
creed and denomination known as that of the Buddhii
and the Pali, As Buddhii we looked for them, because
the term in their tongue we believed to indicate their
separation but the term Pali, as applied to this sepathe character

seek,

rated people,
that in

which
rated^

is difficult

Hebrew

to explain, until

we remember

the term exactly expresses the fact

upon them for, as Buddhii means sepaso Pali means set apart and peculiar: both

fixes

it

terms alike indicating

regarded themselves as

how

completely these people

the chosen.

As Buddhii

sig-

THE BUDDHISTS AND THE SAKAI.

nifies

179

branches or separate divisions of people, the

have been equivalent to tribes and

possibly the term Pali^ or Phali^ was not adopted
by the Sacae until the Greeks came amongst them for
the Greeks would call the tribes Phyli; which word a

term might

at first

own sense of it
adding, it may be, some
ennobling designation; and hence perhaps the name
conferred by Ptolemy on the people who dwelt in or
near the region now spoken of the Noble Tribes

Hebrew people would adopt

set apart or distinguished

in their

Their central land was called Maqadha^

Aristophyli,

Their name as a

which, in Hebrew, means nohle.

whole was

more

Sacae, Sakai, Sassani,

interesting to us,

name

or Saxons; a

and the most

aristocratic in

the world.

At

a period perhaps 500 years before our era

we

find these people represented in a bas-relief at the

entrance to a Biiddha-bitha^ a house of the holy one,

whose synonyme

named

is

They

Light.*

are here seen in a

and in the act of worshipping the relics of a prophet who came to them in
and over their heads is inscribed
their own name

place

after themselves,

the record that they

owned

this

man

tain of refuo^e after their wanderinojs

the place of

affliction,

that

is,

as their

from

from Makhe

moun-

from
HDD), and

afar,

gathered together to hold regular festivals in his

honour.

We

will

now proceed

to consider

some of

the doctrines of Buddhism.

*

A large

tope at Sachi

is

dedicated to the Supreme

n2

Buddha

as Light.

180

CHAPTER

IX.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

It

is

related in the Buddhistic Scriptures of Tibet

Supreme God
(^Ad\on]i-Buddha ?), were adopted and taught by Sakya

that the doctrines of Adi-Buddha^ the

in consequence of instructions he received

King of Sambhala^ a fabulous

of the Jaxartes,^

This king

is

from the

place on the

north

said to have visited

Sakya at Cuttack, in Orissa. This tradition is probably founded on the fact that Sakya derived his doctrines from the Sacas ; some tribes of whom, at the
first promulgation of Sakya's Buddhism, certainly
dwelt in the neighbourhood of the Jaxartes, for that
river arises in the land of those Sacae

the progress of Alexander's

It

army

who

arrested

in that direction.

appears that the future coming of the Lord of the

world, who, destroying the serpent, should bring peace,

and who should spring from the Sakian

race,

was the

doctrine especially connected with the

name

of Adi-

Buddha^ whom Buddhists now regard as the Intellectual Being (or Essence) by whom all things were
This is but another form of the Hebrew
created.
prophecy handed down from the first man, concerning the coming of a Divine Man who should trample
on the serpent's head and restore man to his lost
* See Csoma de Koros' Tibetan Grammar.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

As

Paradise.

this

181

prophecy advanced towards

fulfil-

ment the intimations concerning the Messiah's character and advent became more and more distinct, as
portrayed in the language of inspiration;

but the

very calling of Abraham as the father and founder

of the families and the hopes of Israel, was immediately connected with the promise of that Son of

whom

was the type

Man

and so from the day

that Abraham's faith foresaw the coming of Messiah
as the conqueror of Death, the word was spread
abroad by his people that the promised Saviour should
spring from the seed of Isaac. Here, then, we see the
connexion between the predicted Messiah and Sakya's
announcement of the future coming of the Lord of
the world, springing from the Sakian race and bearing
in his hand the symbol of his creative and protecting
power in the restoration of man to Paradise. The
unopened lotus, so frequently seen in Buddhistic
temples and even in the hand of Godama himself,
of

Isaac

Buddha
As stated

points to this final

the present one.

lotus

was

held,

as foretold

by Godama

in our Introduction, the

even by the Egyptians, as an emblem

power protecting man. Hence we see

that in the celebrated Zodiac on the ceiling of the
temple of Tentyris, the Virgin Mother appears sustained by a lotus.
The Buddhists of China have the
same symbol, and the title of the Queen of Heaven is
applied almost with as much devotion as if it were
adopted from the creed of Rome.
The opening
of the Divine

flower, together with the fruit of the pomegranate,

like

and flowers in the tabernacle (Ex.

&c.), and in the cedar mouldings of Solo-

the knops

xxxvii. 19,

182

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

mon's temple (1 Kings

were symbols of the

nation in respect to the promises amongst the earlyBuddhists as amongst the Israelites. The moulding
vi. 18),

of the fresco representing the Buddhas springing from

the lotus in the cave-temple of Ajanta, has precisely
this

form of " knops and flowers,"

the flowers being lotuses, or

lilies,*

And, as if to show the allembracing and purifying brotherhood of the Divine Man, the Ethiopian, or negro,
is also here seen standing on the lotus, and covered
with an ample white robe, and having a glory round
his woolly head a lesson which the Western Saxons
thus.

are but slowly learning.f

Buddha himself is

also fre-

quently represented as a negro.

"We must not forget the probability that Sakya

himself was of the Sacian, or Saxon race, though, per-

had been separated from his people, or pertained to a tribe that was the first to penetrate into
India, and encounter the pride and cruelty of caste
with ideas derived from the knowledge of a law that
declared all men equal in the sight of their Maker,
and required the neighbour to be loved as oneself.
The Sacian strangers that poured into Orissa from the
north and the west were sojourners with the Ethiopians of Indu-Cush, but they were no barbarians, for
they brought with them a religion vastly superior to
that prevailing through India. The doctrines of Sakya
were a refinement upon the worship of the elements,
Paramath, and the hosts of heaven, to which the
haps, he

Persians and some of the corrupted

Israelites are

* See Bird's Historical Researches, plate 20.

f Idem, plate 3.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

known

to

have been addicted;

183

neither did Sakya

honour the hereditary priesthood of the Brahmins,

who, as we learn from the Vedas, sacrificed animals in
a manner not unlike that of the Hebrews. Neither did
he sympathize with their opponents, the Swastikas^
who promised man nothing but annihilation at last.

But he blended the Brahminical notion of the transmigration of souls and ultimate immortality with the
idea that the spirit's return to

Him who

gave

union with God, was the highest state of man.

he reconciled the creed of the rationalistic

who

said

"so be

it,"

atheistic indifi*erence,

it,

or

Thus

fatalists,

with a morality that forbade

while

encouraged the sup-

it

pression of merely selfish desires as alike inconsistent

with the good of society and the souFs final emancipation from sin and suflFering.

I will not repeat

what, on doubtful authority and contradictory record,

has been stated concerning the faith of Sakya, as

hope to quote his creed from the rock-records of the

period immediately succeeding that of his teaching.
I

It will be

interesting to observe the similarity be-

tween some of the doctrines of Buddha and those of

Anaxagoras and Pythagoras; a similarity that has
been skilfully pointed out by Major Cunningham,*
and for which the intimacy of the Greeks with the

Buddhism at an early period will

account.
The point of especial interest

seat of

sufficiently
is

the fact

that Sakya becomes a real anti-Christ, or substitute

for Christ, verily representing

continuing to

sit

himself as God, and

permanently in God's temple as the

only object of worship.

* Bhilsa Topes,

p. 33.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

184

Of

discord as
all

many

course, amidst so

elements of religious

must have existed amongst converts from

of creed

varieties

in

India,

dissension

rapidly

sprung up after the decease of the authoritative

teacher whose inspiration was devoutly believed by
all his disciples.
The man who, during forty years'
preaching, had overturned

many tyrannies

inculcated

charity and chastity where both had been

unknown

declared perfect equality between high caste and low,

and founded hospitals

for the halt, the blind,

and the

destitute, placing a trained physician at stated intervals, for the

who had

help of the

afflicted,

along the highways

sent out his missionaries, fired with his

own

and enlightened by his intelligence, to teach

kindness everywhere, and the performance of a
zeal

thoughtful devotion as the means of delivering the

soul from evil

the man

right place, at the side

man

that had not only

woman to her
and in the heart of man the
erected a new system of relithat had raised

gion upon thought concerning the perishable and the

promoted and enforced the

highest moral reform known in the world before
Christianity appeared
the man that had remodelled
the language as well as the ideas of the people over
everlasting, but also thus

whom

he reigned by directing the compilation of

grammars* the man qualified

to accomplish such things was a man likely to be
missed and not one amongst his chief disciples was
likely to be better fitted to fill his throne than were
any of the Seleucidae to succeed Alexander the Great.

new

Sanskrit and Pali

His doctrines were not,

like

Mahomet^s, to be carried

* Probably with a view to the incorporation of Hebrew in a Pali form.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

out

b}'

185

presenting the sword in one hand and a Koran

in the other;

but by inviting both

man and woman

equally to consider the best use and highest end of

this
it;

life.

His successors needed mind, and they had

but they also needed unity, and had

rule of

many minds,

it

not.

The

instead of that of the one master

mind, soon followed; and by and bye sjmods were

invented as a substitute for the centralization of a

and a purpose; but this invention was but a

Three exti^ordinary assemblies of
feeble substitute.
this kind were summoned under the auspices of the
will

learned fraternities that continued heartily to propa-

gate the doctrines of Godama.

We

go into
the consideration of all their discussions about what
was allowable, or what not, but at once run on to
the year 270 B.C., when Asoka^ formerly surnamed
the Furious^ but, since conversion to Buddhism,

known

will not

began to perceive the necessity

of clearing his country of heretical sects. Alas, eight
sects were found amongst the monkish priests alone,
and sixty thousand of them were stripped of their
gowns. Here, by way of note, it is worthy of remark
that this Asoka, King of Magadha, is said, in the
annals of Cashmir (of very early date), to have been
as the Pious^

converted to the religion of the Sakai, or Saks; so

was then understood that the Sacas, who overran the land, were all Buddhists. Asoka was assisted

that

it

by a thousand Arhats, or religious counsellors, who

assembled with him at Pataliputra; and who, when
they had disposed of the heretics, sat for nine months
rehearsing the doctrines and praises of Sakya-Godama
and then,

at the conclusion of the synod,

sent out

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA BUDDHA.

186

a number of authentic teachers to

folio win of

the

Cashmir and Peshdwar.

2.
The
country about the Narbada. 3. Mewar and Bundi.
4. Northern Sind.*
5. The Maharatta country.
6.
The Greek province of Cabul, Arachosia. 7. The
country of the Himdlayas.
8. Ava, or Siam
that
is, the golden land, Aurea Regio^ or the Aurea Chersonesus,
The narrative of
9. Lanka^ or Ceylon.
countries:

1.

these missions

sacred books

is

preserved entire in the Singalese

Dipawanso and Mahawanso,

show that
Cabul Proper, and that part of the Punjab which we
have supposed the Sacas to have occupied, had no
I

have referred to these missions

occasion

for missionaries, being,

as

to

we may

infer,

already Buddhists, and that because they were Sacae.

As we may have

reason to recur to Asoka, some of

the incidents of his zeal

may

not be uninteresting in

this place, as elucidating the doctrines of

When

Sakya and

Sakya introduced his

novelties of doctrine and modes of worship he was
stoutly resisted by the adherents to the old form of
things, and especially by the priests.
But such a
man was not to be put down; he knew his mission.
What was it to him that the Dewadatha and his
kindred disapproved? In courtesy he acknowledged
their good intentions, but begged to convince them
that the claims of Heaven were superior to theirs.
Had he not seen angels, and talked with the dead,
their

origin.

first

who bade him remodel

former self-reformed?

the world's ideas like a re-

Had

it

not been written on

the tables of his heart that the scholar must sacrifice

* The missionary here was a

G.-eek,

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

187

himself and expiate his errors with his bodily life?

He was

ready to suffer anything in defence of the

faith he was called to preach, and so he defied all

and

opposers,

so he conquered them.

Nevertheless,

and Sakya, though he defied the

sorceries of the Turs and the fire-worshippers, could
not suppress the schisms amongst those who prothere was division

fessed

to

be his followers.*

sumed authority
ration;

for,

as

in

he

It

is

he

true

consequence of direct

told

his

disciples,

as-

inspi-

a thousand

had been kindled by his angel upon his body

to purify him from his former sins, and the doctrines
of truth had been written on his own body with a
pen formed out of his own bones, and dipped in his
lights

own blood instead of ink. They accepted all

and many volumes of experiences besides; but
they held their own opinion about forms and
monies,

if

not about faith and acceptance.

this,
still

cereIt is

evident that they appealed to pre-existing usages and

written authorities preceding the

and endeavoured

new assumption,

to reconcile their belief in Sakya's

calling with the truth of former prophets.

Sakya's

life his

authority checked divisions

his death disputes speedily spread discord in

During
but after

Magadha,

where the new Buddhism was first set up. The earlier
divisions were settled by synods, and within a century
after Sakya's death two remarkable synods were held, in
both of which the written laws in relation to religious
usages and assemblies were appealed to, and the
schismatics judged accordingly.
The English reader
* The Turs, or Turi, were a sort of wandering friars, so called evidently
''"11/1, signifying those who go about to spy out a country.

from

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

188

would be struck with the resemblance which the

synod bears to that of a trial by jury, in which we
have the hearing of both parties in reply

to questions,

the retirement of the jury to consider their verdict,

and the sentence of the judge according to law;* a

mode of proceeding vastly different from the usual
judicature of the East.

On

a future occasion,

when

the dissentients became too numerous to be dealt

with by synod, a readier mode was adopted.

was the

state of things in the

reign of Asoha.

Such

commencement of the
He was surnamed the

(274 B.C.)
Furious ; and when he was converted to Buddhism,
he carried his fury into his religion, and in four
years compelled "the whole of Northern India, from
mountains of Kashmir to the banks of the
Narbadda, and from the mouths of the Indus to the

the

Bay

of Bengal,"

to receive his

own

views.

The

schism then seems to have been settled by the pre-

dominant party appealing to the king, who, of course,

employed his only authority, that of the sword, and,
as usual, effectually proved where the heresy lay, by
threatening, like other defenders of the faith, death
to all

who

did not believe as he did.

receivers of the

new

religion

were so

The orthodox
strict in their

ideas that they contended that acceptable worship

could only be offered up by ordained men, or ap-

pointed priests, and that only in places especially

The higher order of

priests in the kingdom of Asoka were also so strict
that they deemed it a sin of the first magnitude to
worship in the company of any that did not submit
consecrated for the purpose.

* See Major Cunningham's account, Bhilsa Topes,

p.

77.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

in all things to their orders.
that, since

Hence

it

189

happened

they could not obtain consecrated places,

nor contrive to exclude from their assemblies

all

doubtful characters, they had resolved to confine

all

the benefits of worship to themselves and the few

introduced to their private

assemblies

servance of especial and purifying

by the

rites.

ob-

In this

exclusiveness they persisted for seven years,

when

the king Asoha^ being scandalized that public worship should have been suppressed for so long a period

by these sanctimonious
end

priests, resolved to

to their exclusiveness,

to persuade

them

and sent

to submission

This led to a fine scene.

put an

his chief minister

as best he might.

The heads

of the establish-

ment, or monastery, a school of the prophets, in which

these rigid priests were congregated, refused to sub-

mit to the dictation of the king.

come

They would not

forth from their

convent to conduct public

worship in places where heretics of all kinds were

Thereupon the king's minister ordered

several of them to be beheaded on the spot, in the
order in which they sat at worship.
The king^s
brother was among the recusants, and he placed himself on the seat to which the executioner first came,
and held out his head for decapitation. This was a
martyrdom not expected and not to be desired. The
king was referred to; but, instead of following out his
own orders, he saw that he had proceeded already too
far; he therefore humbled himself, and begged absolution from the holy brotherhood.
Thereupon a
convocation was commanded, and the Buddhist
church was forthwith purified by the expulsion of

admitted.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

190

60,000 heretical priests

what was their heresy?

So says the record

It

Now,

appears that there were

adherents to the old written laws amongst them.

These appear to have been mixed with fire-wor>

shippers

in short, the circumstances altogether

seem

Hebrews somewhat corwith the Magi of Persia, and

to indicate that they were

rupted by association

willing to connive at certain accommodations to the

heathenish taste of those about them for the sake of

maintaining their influence.

They were, however,

unwilling or unable to observe the severe discipline

which Sakya-Sinha, or -Godama, had imposed on

them, or perhaps they conscientiously adhered to

But the main dispute was concerning

the propriety of continuing to sacrifice animals. The
Buddhic religion, as propounded by Sakya, forbade
older ideas.

the shedding of blood; but the religion of Sakya's

kinsmen, and, therefore, probably the religion whicli

Sakya himself professed before he became inspired

with

his

new

ideas,

required that

clean

should be offered up as an atonement for

animals

These
Turs also admitted outer-court worshippers. Another
point of contention was concerning vestments, as
we learn, from the annals of Buddhism, that the
sin.

were expelled were clothed in white

garments, which were prescribed for sacrificing
Whether these vestpriests under the Mosaic law.
ments were adopted by themselves or forced upon
them amounts to the same thing, they were insisted
priests

that

on as the proper habiliments of those who sacrificed

animal life.
The new doctrines of Buddha were evidently de-

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

191

livered as a refinement of the old system, whatever

Sakya had declared that God did not

demand atonement by the shedding of blood as the

that was.

up of

to his service, but

he
Thus men addict themdemanded self-dedication.
selves to conceits until no longer perceiving any truth
The laws of their own folly
in the words of Heaven.
sign of yielding

life

thus supersede the laws of eternal wisdom, and, instead of a gospel, or God's news, concerning a salvation perfected, they produce a prescription of

by following which some

incongruities

may

perchance be gained,

Thus

trouble.

He

it

He

own

ten

takes hold of

He

all

the

first

Do

kill.

not commit impurity.

4.

5.
8.

Do
Do

not

1.

lie.

ten

laws of

elements of

commandments

that is, they are so far like God's laws.

not

says:

be worth the

it

laws for the

morality indeed, and therefore his

are so far good

Heaven

was with the inventor of Buddhism.

substituted his

Moses.

indeed,

if,

sort of

rugged

6.

not covet.

Do
9.

2.

Do

Do

not

steal.

3.

Do

not bear false witness.

not swear.

7.

Shun

Seek not revenge.

10.

scandal.

Be not

These laws are the foundation of the religion taught by the inventor of Buddhism,* and many
nominal Christians would be the better for observinsr
bigoted.

them.

but

all

They commend themselves to the conscience,

reference to the love of God as the Creator is

avoided.

Sakya, indeed, was not an idolater;

he

worshipped one supreme God, and exhorted others to

do the same but his system necessarily led to idolatry
;

manner

which the attributes

of Divinity were figuratively associated by him with

in consequence of the

in

* Klaproth's Leben des Buddha.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

192

The Divine

their manifestations in created things.

authority

is

overlooked, or only implied, and his

authority, on the

ground of a new

tuted and enforced.

Author of

as the

life,

revelation,

is

own

substi-

The devotion

of the

in gratitude,

and the thorough

life

to God,

yielding of the mind, heart, and soul in love to

because of his infinite goodness,

Him

not in his practice

is

overlooked but then the whole economy of salvation

;

from

sin is

founded on mercy alone, and

yet,

with an

by no means uncommon, that mercy is

be secured by horrible penances and by re-

inconsistency
said to

fusing to enjoy the riches of God's providence.

In

the Pali work, styled Oossathaka Lankara, or Orna-

ment

of the Devout,

Sakya,

Gaudama, or Gotama,

also called

represented as undergoing, for forty-nine

is

days, the impregnation that rendered

him a Boodh,

each change, or advancement towards perfection, oc-

cupying seven ;* that

is

to say, he

was engaged

in his

during a week of
weeks a very Hebraic mode of expressing the comThe corpleteness of his endeavour after holiness.
spiritual struggle for regeneration

ruption of

human

nature

is

implied in the fact that

Sakya, though tracing his origin to the kingdom of

God, owns that he derived a sinful disposition through

his birth from an earthly mother. After a long series
of

trials,

and

after

having sought diligently the means

of living in obedience to the laws of God, and in har-

mony

with nature and mankind, he

apprehend and appreciate the

rality.

sinners

He
is

ten first

is

enabled to

laws of mo-

then perceives that the death due to

vaster than

all

the planetary worlds, and

* See Bengal As. Journal,

vol. xiii. p. 573.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

193

not to be atoned for by any abundance of

bloodshedding, even though it should fill the channels
that sin

is

of all the rivers and

all

the seas.

Enlightened, as he

by the teaching Spirit, he informs us that he at

length obtained a knowledge of his wickedness, and
says,

But, unhappily, together with

abhorred himself.*
this
sin,

awful Job-like apprehension of the heinousness of

he does not, like Job, obtain a just conception of

the Divine character.

He

repents, indeed, in dust

and ashes but he seems never to get out of the dust

and ashes until his metamorphosis in death, the
;

death he sought being the annihilation of desires.

He entreats the instructing Spirit to submit him to
every proof by which the sincerity of his repentance
may be tested, he pleads his having forsaken his king-

dom and

his throne in evidence of the strength of his

convictions; but, in order to avert the consequences of

under a consciousness of which he

was labouring in despair, he begs to be tortured suffiThus, on his entreaty, his teacher laid him
ciently.
his former sins,

down and covered

body with lighted tapers.

This, however, he found was not sufficient for his
purification, and all he learnt from the process was,
he tells us, summed up in these four sentences
his

" All treasures

must be emptied.
All loftiness must fall.
All earthly union must be broken.
All that lives must die."

We

cannot but perceive a profound idea in these

sentences.
They seem to teach the insufficiency of

all

sacrifice to

make atonement

for sin;

and

* " UUigerim Dalai," quoted by Klaproth in Asia Poljglotta.

that,

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

194

in order to be restored to purity

first

of

all essential

all self-reliance, all

love of this

life

that a

man

and heaven,

it

is

should be emptied of

pride, all earthly attachment, all

merely for

its

own

It appears

sake.

that this degree of knowledge only augmented his

day and night, he

could not rest.
He was saved from despair only by
understanding the necessity of renouncing all he
valued in this life for the sake of a higher life but
still he thought to expiate his offences by sufi'ering,
and therefore, in vision, he thought himself pierced
as by a thousand nails, under the hand of his angel
The result of this process was a new amount
guide.
of conviction, expressed in these words
avidity for holy doctrine, so that,

"

The

And

visible

must

perish,

must mourn.
Faith has a kingdom yet unseen;
The real is in the mind."
Still,

not

all

things born

satisfied,

in order to this,

it

he entreats for further

light,

and,

appears necessary that he should

be subjected to deeper

sufi'ering still,

and then, with

the poetry of a true seer, he seems to enter into a

heated furnace, the flames of which reach up to

heaven, but in which the angelic instructor

him wisdom,
the refreshing dew of

attends to teach

while, to

sufifering,

flowers

him from the hands of a thousand

learns these sentences

"

is

angels.

still

soothe his

shed over

Hence he

The strength of mercy is firmer than a rock.

Faith in unbounded mercy is the rule.
The path to holiness, the way to heaven.*'

There

is

something beautiful in

this,

and, as a Chris-

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

195

Truth and beauty are really

one, and hence " a thing of beauty is a joy for ever."
So Sakya says he was perfectly possessed by this idea
of infinite mercy, and that it filled him with unutterable joy.
He went forth inspired by this thought,
and it is no wonder his eloquence prevailed with
kinoes and heroes and all that suflfered with a strong
tian sees,

it is

true.

will.

were touched with holy fire, and at his

words Magi and Brahmins, and Shiva and the Sungods began to disappear. He preached repentance,
pardon, self-negation, and regeneration in dark sayings truly, but with faith in the Spirit of Mercy and
hence, his doctrines meeting in some measure the
wants of man's soul, his disciples grew by millions.
Now, where can we discover any source from whence
such a conception of mercy as the essential perfection
His

lips

of Divinity could be derived but in the

Hebrew Bible ?

was in reflection on the three epochs of religion

which had preceded him, and after he had meditated
on the ten commandments first given unto men, and
on the ways of God to man, that Sakya obtained his
It

doctrines.

This

is

stated as his

own account

of the

But when we add that Sakya's baptism of

sufi^ering was represented by himself very nearly in
the words of Isaiah, as the means by which he was

matter.

and carry the sorrows of

others, so as to heal them by his stripes while he
bore the government on his shoulders, the source of
qualified to bear the sins

his

ideas

can scarcely be doubted.

Buddhistic creed

is

The

ancient

probably concealed in a great

degree by the comments and expositions of compara-

o2

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

196

modern Buddhistic writers but, if we carefully

examine the Buddhist coins and medals that have

tively

been preserved, we

shall,

with the help of the learned

explanations afforded us by Palic scholars, discover

much

of

Thus, with a drawing of a

before us (see plate), we may

mystery.

its

Buddhist medal now

learn several particulars of great interest.

represents a tsedya, or small

pagoda

Fig.

(tl'^n^

1, ,

[?])>

some
sacred relic, with the volumes of the sacred law
This object is usually seen in Budcalled " Tdra."
dhist coins. The rolls of the law were deposited, with
in

which

are

supposed

to

be

deposited

sacred relics also, in the ark of the Israelites.

It

appears the more remarkable from the fact that the

sacred law

is

named

" Tara,"

and that

represented by ten upright glyphs,

rolls,

this

law

is

or pillars.

two tables of Moses has

also this name, in Hebrew, Torah ; and it also consists
of ten divisions, which some of the Rabbi regard
as consisting of three orders of commandments,
On
divided, as in this case, three, three, and four.
either side of the recess, or ark, in which the law is

The law contained

in the

deposited, the head of a cobra capella erects

itself.

Here we recognise the serpent as represented on

Egyptian monuments in connexion with the tree of
life.

We

know

that

all

Semitic nations

at least

associate the serpent with the introduction of sin.

Would

not this signify that the temptation ever

stands beside the law, and that the law is given,

as St. Paul says, because of transgression, but that
the fulfilment of

and moon are

it

is

life.

Above the law the sun

seen, representing the heavenly souroes

l0

3;^

^
^

>
^L

c
(^

<x

O
^
hft

3
o

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THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

197

of light and intelligence ruling the day and the night.

On

the

left side

of the law

we have

the triglyph, the

usual emblem of the Buddhist Triad, representing

the embodiment of the Divine nature in the
that

is

to say, the manifestation of

in the law,

God

God

When

in the Church.

in

Buddha,

we

say,

in Messiah, in the law,

and

and in the congregation

the manifestation of

Buddha;

or, as

these are joined together to

represent the essential attributes in Trinity, called

Thdrdnd Goon^ the triglyph is united into the form of

a trident, the summit being crowned with the ancient
symbol of Deity, consisting of three yods^ and being
the letter

J, or

T,

of the ancient Palic alphabet.

was the emblem of the Supreme

amongst the ancient Hebrews, and is equivalent to
the same symbol in Hieratic Egyptian and Coptic,
implying potentiality. In Arabic, the word Allah^
God, is also expressed by three upright strokes united
This, as before stated,

At

at the base.
rests

The cross is a
device with the Buddhas, and, when stand-

upon a

favourite

ing alone,

the lower part the united triglyph

it

cross,

or swastika.

resembles that of the Manicheans, and

placed on a kind of Calvary, as

among

It simifies the tree of life

Catholics.

the

is

Roman

and knowledofe,

putting forth leaves, flowers, and fruits, and, being

placed in the terrestrial Paradise, it is there productive

good and desirable.* Thus, the essential

attributes of the Trinity are represented in the form
of a trident, having the emblem of Deity on its summit
and the cross at its base the Divine Manhood, the
law, and the Church, being united into one between
of all that

is

* See As. Res.

vol. x. p.

123.

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDiDHA.

198

the cross as the tree of

life,

and the Godhead above

and through all. The other parts of this emblematic medal are equally expressive. Thus we have on

all,

the obverse (Fig.

2) the architectural symbols re-

presenting the handiwork of the Great Architect or

The two symbols

united represent the letters P and M, meaning their
law.
They are surrounded by the twenty-eight chaGeometrician of the universe.

racteristics

of the

Maha-gahba

the

grand period

(Heb.), of which this present world (dispensation [?])

is the last number but the whole period is itself repre;

sented by the five Boodhs, or embodiments of Deity,

placed above these emblems of creative power.

The

circumstances altogether clearly indicate the Israelitish origin of this earliest

three epochs of religion are indicated in

Bible

the

early

The
the Hebrew

form of Buddhism.

patriarchal,

the

Abrahamic,

the

Mosaic; and mercy was the essential quality of each

advance in revelation, from the first promise to the

penitents in Eden, until Moses summed up the law as
love to

God and our neighbour

to

God

as Himself

the perfect One, and to man, as God's image; the

coming of the Saviour-God, born of woman, being

associated with all the epochs, as it was also with
those of Sakya.

remembered that Buddhism as it now

exists in India, Ceylon, and the Indo-Chinese territories, does not fairly represent that form of it which
originated with Sakya.
It has been corrupted by
various pagan additions, and has assumed shapes acIt should be

cording to the idolatries

length but

little

it

has encountered, until at

of the original creed appears in

its

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

For

pure form.

199

instance, the celibacy of the priests

Buddha is now universal, and yet, according to

their own records, it appears that Sakya himself was
of

married tmce, and that he gave his disciples precepts

concerning the qualities which should determine their

Most

choice of a wife.*

of the countries professing

Buddhism have corrupted the doctrines of GodamaBuddha; but still the complete equality of men and
women has been produced by Buddhism in Burmah
and Siam and Father Bigaudetf says that " women
;

are in those countries really the companions, and not

the slaves of the

men

a high proof of

tendency, notwithstanding

Burmah has been

its civilizing

Though

its absurdities."

forced into

war with

yet the

us,

priests protested against the war, as contrary to the

doctrines of

war and

all

bloodshed

ance and submission;

folly

The pure Buddhists repudiate

Godama.

and pride of

their doctrine

is

non-resist-

they also declare against the

caste,

and while preaching the ne-

cessity of yielding to law, assert the equality of all

mankind

as subject alike to sin

and ruin, and

alike to

be elevated only by truth and benevolence.

It is curious that this

new

the north-west into the

religion introduced

furthest borders

from

of India

should have led even the priests of the ghastly Jagan-

nath to put something like a spiritual construction

upon

They say, " Hear, now,

Darn Avatdr. [An Avatar is a new

their hideous worship.

the truth of the

manifestation of the Deity.]

What

part of the uni-

verse does not the Divine Spirit pervade?

* Vide Lalita Vistara, chap. xii.
t Quoted by Sir J. Bowring.

He

sports

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

200

In the heaven of Brahma he

in different forms.

Brahma
is

in the

found in

another/*
Spirit, is

They

all

upper world he

is

is

Indra on earth he
;

the Khetris, here in one shape, there in

The Brahmins say the Sri Yeo^ the Holy

worshipped by them at Arka, in Kanarah.*

are very accommodating, and, like pantheists

everywhere, philosophically contrive to countenance

all

forms of idolatry, by allowing every one to dress

own mind and worship it at

provided he declares himself moved by a
This reference to a Darn Avatar reminds

up any deformity of
his liking,

Sri Yeo.

his

us of the decree addressed by Nebuchadnezzar the

king unto all people, and nations, and languages

(Dan.

iv.),

and which

for a time probably modified

and restrained idolatrous ideas in all the East, as far

as the Indus at least, and thus far fulfilled the purpose for which that strange king was raised up by
Providence, namely, to tell all
" Most High, a King of heaven,
truth,
It

and

may

to our

his

men
all

that there

is

whose works are

ways judgment." (Dan.

iv.

37.)

not be uninteresting, nor without advantage

argument, here to introduce a brief notice of

the oldest mythological compositions extant in India

those marvellous poems, the Purdnds, the Mahabarata and the

Ramayana.

From

these

works we

obtain the earliest notice to be found of the ancient

history

of

India,

especially

struggles of religious systems.

to relate circumstances

ancient periods;

but

extreme antiquity

is

it

in

relation

The

the

writers affect

as occurring at
is

to

immensely

evident that this air of

only assumed for the sake of

* Asiat. Res.

vol. xv. p. 318, &c.

201

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

adding a venerable mystery to the stirring incidents

and grandeur of the scenes depicted. The style of

composition proves these works to be of comparatively
modern production, and can scarcely be referred to
any period much anterior to the Christian era.
The Ramayana^ as shadowing forth the remotest
known conditions of the two typical stocks and
national religions of India, is most to our present
It is written after the Homeric manner,
purpose.
and betrays many indications that mingled Greek and
Hebrew ideas pervaded the minds of the writers.

The

subject

is

the hero divinity of the

first

dynasty

of the kings of Oude^ which arose before any other of

were conquered by the

bearded race.
The countries and races with whom
this hero carried on a successful warfare are per-

the sovereignties of India

Rama

sonified as giants.

The

is

name

the

point most worthy of remark

to be the son of

Now,

is,

of this hero.

that he

Buddha and the grandson

is

stated

of Meru.

as the whole story personifies nations or people

as individuals,

people

that

we must understand Rama

is

to say, an exalted nation.

to

mean

What, then,

by this nation being the ofi*spring of

Buddha and Meru? Buddha means separated, and

is

signified

Meru

his rebellion,

that

is

to

say, that the nation

mentioned became exalted in consequence of a separation that arose from rebellion.

The original abode
of this
is

Rama

agrees well with this derivation, for

it

stated that he dwelt at first in the holy mountains

of the West.

Another hero, or nation, is associated

with Rama^ denominated Bali-Rama (high lord), who
is represented as the oflFspring of Des-Aratha (the

202

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

country of Armenia).

This hero crosses the Indus

and Punjab with a large army, distinguished by the

names of wild beasts, probably their ensigns and he
founds a kingdom in AyodKya^ now known as Oude.
Ay'odh^ya, as Hebrew, would mean " the praising of
God." It would be highly interesting if it could be
shown that the people of Oude, with whom we have had
so deadly a quarrel, are of Jewish origin, inheriting
the treachery of Judah.
This hero, Bali- Rama, with
his brother, Krisma, an Indian ally, vanquishes Java
Saudha^ King of Bahar, and afterwards goes forth to
conquer other countries, and wars with giants in
Ceylon.
This war of races and religions is terminated by the return of the conqueror to Ayodhya^
where he reigns in piety and peace. This country
was at one time the centre of Buddhism.
In the Mahaharata Ave find mythological circumstances parallel with those of Egypt, Greece, and
Rome, and the warfare is between the tribes who ad
here to the Arkite lunar doctrine, and those who wor;

ship the sun.

By

the former, the

moon

is

adored as

a representative of the ark, in which the parents of

a

new world were

preserved from the deluge.

some of the mythical

tales

we

find

In

conflicts deli-

neated with the extravagance of Eastern romance, in

which the tribes of Yadhu (n"* his hand [ ?]) are broken
and scattered. They are described as departing with
1 Chron. viii. 3 ) to
Ardjoon ( ]V1'ltk fugitives
unknown regions. In other descriptions the Ashurs
(people from Assyria [ ?] ) are spoken of as an eminently

and virtuous people until, being induced to

adopt the new tenets of Buddha, as more humane,

religious

203

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

and forsaking those of their old books, they are said

to fall away from the true religion.
These Ashurs may be the same as the Hasaures^ or
Asii^ of Indo-German history and if so, they are pro;

bably identical with the Sacce. However that may

be, the period of their first appearance in India is
tolerably well marked, since they are said to have

adopted Buddhism in

its earliest

establishment.

It

worthy of remark that these Ashurs are described

as the sons or people of Kasyapa^ a name similar to
that of the country to which Ezra sent for ministers
for the house of God, on the return of the Jews to
Judea (Ezra viii. 17). Kasyapa is identified with
Cashmir by Orientalists. May not this name be traced
back to the Caucasus?
Diodorus Siculus informs
us that the Scythians transplanted a Median colony
into Sarmatia this was in the seventh century B.C., according to Klaproth. In the year 948 a.d. remains of
these Median colonists of Sarmatia lived on the northern side of the Caucasus and north of Kasachia'
These people called themselves As and Ashurs. They
is

are also associated with Kasog, Kasacks, or Cossacks

(all Sacae), in

the Russian chronicles.

ants of those colonists

now

The descend-

existing in the Caucasus

speak an Arian dialect, though surrounded by people

of a far different language.* Were not these Medians
Asheri, or people of the tribe of Asher,

who accom-

panied the Scythians into the country of the Massagetae, when they were expelled from Media?
In addition to these observations on the doctrines
of Buddhism,

we remark

that indications of

* See Miiller on the Languages,

&c., p. 35.

Hebrew

204

THE DOCTRINES OP SAKYA-BUDDHA.

influence on India appear in the following circum-

stances:

The laws of Menu

1.

those of Moses.

2.

When

strikingly resemble

the people of Ceylon were

subdued by Buddhist invaders, they were

the Israelites, to

When

make

forced, like

bricks for their masters.

3.

the Great Dagoba, the Euanwelle^ at Anaraja-

poora^ was built

( B.C.

161), the materials were pre-

pared at a distance, as in the building of Solomon's

temple. (Mahawanso, xxvii.)

Red Sea has

Gaja Bahu

4.

The parting

of the

counterpart in the exploit of the king

its

109); who, in bringing back the

Singalese from captivity in Sollee, smote the waters
(a.d.

army marched through

of the sea, so that he and his

without wetting the soles of their

King Maba Sen (a.d. 275) received

mantle from Heaven, and Buddha, in designating

cari^ p. 50.)

his

(Rajaratna-

feet.

5.

his successor, is said to

have transmitted his robe, as

Elijah did to Elisha. (Eajavali^ p. 238.) 6.

Singalese king
sky, received
translation.

practice of

was dying, a
his spirit;

7.

8.

descending from the

reminding us of Elijah's

Constant allusion

is

made

to the

kings washing the feet of priests and

anointing them with

XXX.)

car,

When the

oil.

{Mahawanso^ chap, xxv.-

In consonance with the Hebrew doctrine,

the sins of the fathers are said to have been visited

on their children. {Rajavali^ pp. 174-178). 9. The

story of Bel and the Dragon has a close resemblance
to that of

King Batiya

Tissa,

who by

entered the Ruanwelle Dagoba.

guishable fire on the altar of

like

the

Buddha.

10.

The

God (Lev.

inextin-

vi.

13)

is

honour

of

The preparation of the high road

for

perpetually-burning
11.

a secret passage

lamp

in

THE DOCTRINES OF SAKYA-BUDDHA.

205

march of the
king, reminds us of Isai. xl. 3.
12. The prophecy of
the kingdom of peace by Isaiah, in which the difthe procession of the Bo-tree, and the

ferent animals

the

state

of

(peoples) repose together, resembles

things predicted to arise under the

Buddha. (Mahaicanso, v. 22.) 13. The

judgment of Solomon has its parallel in a story in
religion of

the PansyiapanaS'jataha,^
* See Tennent's Cejlon,

vol.

i.

p.

525

and Roberts's Illustrations.

206

CHAPTER

X.

BUDDHISTIC SYIVIBOLS: THEIH ORIGIN AND

SIGNIFICANCE.

FEW

observations on certain points in the rise of

the Sacian Buddhism, and on the nature of the symbols most reverenced

by the learned devotees of that

religion, will prepare us

the better to interpret the

ancient Buddhistic inscriptions, and to demonstrate

their origin.
It

is

possible that, although Sakya, the supposed

founder of modern Buddhism, be a real personage,

yet the incidents of his early

life

might afford ground

for a mythical storj^, expressive of circumstances in

relation to the people

much

that

is

whom

he represented

at least,

him may be made to

a history of the rise and progress

written concerning

resolve itself into

who prois Hebrew

of the Buddhistic religion, or of the people

fessed
noti^,

The name Sakya, or

it.

and

it

appears amongst the Benjamite " heads

of the fathers " in

give

it

Sachia,

Chron.

as if derived from a

wander;" but

it

may mean

viii.

10.

word that

Our

lexicons

signifies

'*

to

repose in the sense of ces-

and so may approximate closely

to the sense attributed by the Chinese traveller already mentioned to the name of the city or kingdom
sation, rest as arrest,

207

BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS.
Sachi.

Sakya

is

said to be the son of

Maya^ by

Suddhodana^ Raja of Kapila, Maya signifies delusion in Sanscrit, but in Hebrew it means anything as
a judgment from God; but let us transliterate the

words thus, tib^2 yi T^TlM^ rT'D we get the sentence,

" there were destruction and judgment from God He
Sakya's original
divided the government in two."
name is said to have been Siddharta^ which is a Chaldee
word signifying an effort made for oneself, or independence.
He is said to have descended on his
father's side from Iksliwdku^ of the Suryavansa race,
Nt:r:inm::r-iDnit:^p^
" they were ensnared and smitten
God became an enemy, and carried [them] away." At
the age of sixteen Sakya is said to have been united
to Yasodard, also called Subhaddachhdnd n"iT-(^)*);:;^
n^n 11 ti2W that is, "' her race was saved the afilicted,
repenting, found mercy." These words, no doubt, approximate in sound to Sanscrit, and may in that language, or in Pali, have a meaning, on principles to be
shown in another chapter; but this hidden Hebrew
sense appears also to belong to them; and it is
so remarkably applicable to the people indoctrinated
ty Sakya, the last mortal Buddha, that, to suppose it
quite accidental, is to imagine it possible to form ex:

by a chance disposal of
Sakya is almost expressed

pressive sentences

The

origin

of

letters.

in the

legends concerning his contests with the e\dl beings

called

Ashurs (Assyrians),

the use of the

whom

he conquered by

bow when known under

This name,

the

name

of

remembered, is that by
which we concluded that the Sacae were known on
the banks of the Ghebar, in Assyria.
It is curious

Sakko,

it

will be

BUDDHISTIC symbols:

208

that the legend should add that Sakya had previously

driven out the Ashurs from the land of the Devadas,

the

name by which

Palestine

believe the Sacae designated

the land of those who obeyed the successors

of David, and whose religion I suppose to have been

by the Sacae under the name Dewadatta^

The name of this great teacher is that
or Davidism.
amongst the
of one of " the heads of the fathers
personified

*'

Israelites

with whom,

destruction,

things

and

certainly, Divine

judgment,

and a divided rule were no unknown

it

equally evident that the calamity of

is

from an attempt at independency, and

that they were entrapped and smitten and forsaken
After
of God, and carried away, are historical facts.
the alliance with another people, success and prosperity
Israel arose

follow

and

use of the

this prosperity

we

bow

manner of the Sakai and

after the

find attributed to the

At twenty-nine

the Ephraimites.

years of age, after

an abundant experience of the joys and sorrows of

He is relife, Sakya takes his standing as a teacher.
presented as being converted thus he is proceeding,
:

as usual, to his pleasure-garden,

drawn by

his four

white steeds, when, encountering a decrepit old man,

he at once

reflects

Four months

upon decay.

later he meets,

under

like circum-

stances, a squalid wretch afflicted with disease^

on that.
Four months later he meets a corpse.

and

reflects

He

then

on death.
Four months later he noticed a healthy, well-clad
person, wearing the robe of one devoted to religion,
reflects

and the prince resolves at once to secure health of

body and cheerfulness of mind by religion.

THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE.

209

Such are "the four predictive signs/' or marks,

which all who would be perfect in the worship of Buddha must observe.
In short, the prevalence of decay^ disease^ and
death renders

it

essential that a people should secure

in religious faith

and

practice the expectation of a

deliverance from suffering, and of an entrance into

the joys of a higher

life,

when death

liberates the

body and

soul from the thraldom of the

this is pre-

what Sakya taught when preaching the eflScacy

of Damma as both faith and works, in charity,
abstinence, and reverence for life.*
If it be objected that those words which I have pointed out
as possibly of Hebrew origin have also a Pali or
Sanscrit signification, I reply that, though in general
the words peculiarly related to Buddhism and its
founder have some sacred and secondary meaning
attached to them as Pali words, vet that meaninof is
always conventional and that in many instances the
meaning of such words is Avholly inexplicable and
unknown to the most learned amongst the Buddhists
of the present day and that many of those words are
explained on insufficient grounds from comparison
with Sanscrit words having only some approximate
cisely

similarity to them.

Thus Sakya,

acquired

alms-pilgrimage,

from

in

pursuing his

certain

priests

knowledge of Samdpatti. Now, this word is supposed

to be the same as the Sanscrit SamddhL meaninsr
silent abstraction.

mean

the

matter.

So, again,

Padhan

is

supposed to

same as Pradhdn^ nature or

But,

if

we remember

* See Tumour's Mahaicanso, and

concrete

that Samdpatti was a

extracts

from the Attakatthaf.

BUDDHISTIC symbols:

210

mode

of religious mortification by which he hoped in

vain to perfect himself,

ness

and

we may

force of the

my

desolation is

word

see the appropriate-

as

or

foolishness

Mahd padhan

deception.

sakes this starving, self-afflicting

of

Hebrew
mode

^J13

HDt^

He

for-

for the study

waiting for redemp-

(pS) nriD,

and ultimately he finds the way to perfection

in using proper food and proper exercise, while observing all that was essential to the propagation of
While under the Bodhi tree
charity and religion.
assailed by the terrors or
it is said that he was
tion),

demon

Damma

of

but

death,

he

acquired

calmness

in

Now, the words

supposed to mean the Demon of Death are NamuchiMara, which being Hebrew HID Trb^, mean rather
Of
the removal or wiping away of bitterness.
and

in

Damma much
clearly
fully

the

hope of Nirvana,^

will be said hereafter;

Hebrew word

satisfied

or

but Nirvana

njm")J, signifying

Bodhi

prosperous.

is

to be

means,

in

Hebrew, solitary ; and in this state of solitary meditation, under difi*erent trees, during a week of weeks, he
obtained the state called Bodhi-juydn, by which BudThe
dhists are said to understand supreme wisdom.
werds in Hebrew

may mean

individual derivation,

Vi''-n2, as if to signify that the

souVs rest was to

be found only in understanding its own nature.

This meaning of the word is quite in keeping with
the Buddhistic doctrine that a priestly assumption of
mediation between a man and his Maker is impious,

and that the soul's perfection is to be at one with

Sakya divided his doctrines
God, through Buddha.
* Tumour's

extracts inPrinsep's Journal, p. 811.

THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE.

211

into three classes adapted to the comprehension of

three kinds of hearers:

monalty;

2,

Bindya^

1,

for the

com-

Sutra, or the principles of faith fitted

for peculiar intellects; and, 3,

Abhi-damma, or the

supreme law of worship imparted only to Bodhisatwas.

divisions
1,

Now we
when we

Bindya,

can perceive the fitness of such

find that these terms are

the discerning

criminating, or severing

damma (ddi
esoteric
7^^rWJ^11,

Uh^),

doctrine,

he

who

the

asunder

father

only

fit

God;

of

2,

(int:^)

Sutra, dis;

of worship,
for

the

Hebrew
3,

Ahhi-

i.e.,

some

Bodhi-satwa,

drinks in the doctrine alone, as

in the experience of solitary meditation

if

the actual

experimental religionist.
It is not intended to

deny that such a religion was

propounded by an individual to whom the name of

Sakya was given, but only to show the probability of
his being himself one of the Sakian race, as well as

taught by Buddhists,

who were

that this race was Israelitish.

and
The father of Sakya

also of that race,

have been Raja of Kapila. Now, this place

was situated between Oude and Gorakhpur, and the
Sdki dwelt there, and there they built a BuddhaBitha over the relics of Sakya immediately after
his death, said to have taken place 543 B.C.*
If
Sakya derived his religion from an Israelitish source,
or was influenced by Hebrew ideas, we may expect to find the fact confirmed by the symbols of his
religion, as found in all Buddhist temples, but espe-

is

said to

cially at the topes of Sachi, or Sanchi, dedicated to

Buddha, and described by Major Cunningham, whose

* See Tumour's

extracts, Prinsep's Journal, vol. vii. p. 1013.

p2

212

BUDDHISTIC symbols:

antiquarian labours, both in his research and in his

writings, are

The

worthy of the greatest

praise.

topes at Sachi are themselves Sakian works,

and symbols of the religion of the people of that

place as existing 300 years B.C. They are but slight
refinements upon the mounds of stones erected over
the remains of the remarkable dead amongst Buddhists in other regions, and common in the early
ages of the Hebrew people of Palestine.
Greek art
was evidently employed on the sculptured pillars by
these topes; but the topes themselves are the most
simple and unadorned structures imaginable, being
formed to represent a hemisphere. I will not now
dwell on these strange buildings, but come at once to
that most interesting symbol of Buddhism, the wheel.
As to the meaning of this symbol we need not go
beyond the traditions of the Buddhists but, in reference to an observation of Major Cunningham that it
symbolizes the sun-worship as well as that of Buddha,
or Buddha himself,* I would remark that the figure
of the wheels at Sachi is precisely that of the wheel
described in 1 Kings vii. 33 (1012 B.C.), which had
axletree, nave, felloe, and spokes just like a chariot
wheel, so that it would appear to symbolize the revolutions of Providence as a distributive power by
which all things are fitly framed together to proceed
That such a meaning was assoin regular cycles.
ciated with the wheel by the Buddhists is evident;
;

for their traditions say that, after the revolution of

four thousand years of man, the King of the Golden

This person is born in a royal
Wheel appears.
*

* The Bhilsa Topes,

p. 352.

THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE.

family,

and

attains

213

supreme dignity on being baptized

But this is the part

of the tradition to which I would direct especial
attention " If the king would proceed towards the
east, the wheel turns
in that direction, and the
Before
king, accompanied by his troops, follows.

in the water of the four oceans.

the

wheel are four

who

spirits,

serve

as

guides.

Wherever it stops there does the king in like manner

stop.
The same thing takes place in the direction of
wherever the
the south, the west, and the north
wheel leads, the king follows and where it halts, he

In the four continents he directs the

does the same.

ways"* (that is, to

commandments.) " He is called the

people to follow the ten right

keep the ten

King of the Golden Wheel, or the Holy King turning

the golden wheel."
The wheel turns and traverses
''

the universe, according to the thoughts of the king."

This

is

the symbol adopted by Sakya to represent to

his people the fact that

directed

him

to

God had

illuminated and

go forth teaching and governing the

four quarters of the world.

Therefore his people

must have been familiar with the symbol. It was

while amongst those people that the Chinese traveller
learnt this tradition of the Wheel King. Now, where
shall we turn to discover any possible origin of such
a wonderful symbol?
The prophet whom the elders
of Israel consulted by the river Chebar, presented to
them precisely such a symbol in these words " Now
:

as I beheld the living creatures, behold one

wheel

upon the earth by the living creatures, with his four

faces.
The appearance of the wheels and their work
* From Fo-kwe-ki,

c. xviii.

note 12, quoted in the " Bhilsa Topes," p. 309.

214

BUDDHISTIO SYMBOLS:

was like unto the colour of a beryl; and they four

had one likeness; and their appearance and their
work was as it were a wheel in the middle of a wheel.
When they went, they went upon their four sides;
they turned not when they went.
rings,

and

As

for their

they were so high that they were dreadful;

were

their rings

And when

four.

full of

eyes round about

them

the living creatures went,

the

and when the living creatures

were lifted up from the earth, the wheels were lifted
up.
Whithersoever the spirit was to go, they went,
thither was their spirit to go; and the wheels were
lifted up over against them; for the spirit of the
living creatures was in the wheels. When they went,
^A^5^ went; and when those stood still, fAes^ stood;
and when those were lifted up from the earth, the
wheels were lifted up over against them; for the
spirit of the living creature was in the wheels."
wheels went by them

(Ezek.

i.

15-21.)

^'And the likeness of the firmament upon the

heads of the living creature was as the colour of the
and under the firmament were
terrible crystal
their wings straight, the one towards the other,
every one had two." {Ibid, vers. 22, 23.) It can
.

scarcely be necessary to prove that the resemblances

here cannot be merely the accidental result of two

minds thinking about a wheel and therefore, instead

of commenting on the remarkable and coincident
ideas contained in these two passages from such
;

widely different sources,

I point the reader to the at-

tached engraving, which presents certain symbols of

Buddha

as the

Supreme

Intelligence.

They are taken

FROM

BAS-RELIEFS AT SANCHI

THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE.

215

from Major Cunningham's interesting work on " the

Bhilsa Topes," and faithfully copied from the gates
of the square enclosures of those topes.
Figs. 1

and 2 present the wheel above four living

creatures, or, as the

word

is

often translated, beasts.

These are supposed and understood by Buddhists to

signify people brought into obedience to the ten com-

mandments

of

Buddha

the elephants are the people

of India, the lions are doubtful, but I believe they

here represent the tribes of

Dan and Gad,

to the prophecy and blessing of Moses:

dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the

crown of the head."

xxxiii. 20, 22.)

a wheel

is

"Dan

according

Gad

"he

arm with

the

a lion's whelp." (Deut.

is

Now, though but one wheel

appears,

understood to turn towards each quarter of

the heavens, as the living creatures stand.

Figs.

and 4 represent the frequent form of this symbol of

Buddha; that is, wheels within wheels, united in a
fourfold manner by a cross, to signify their straightforward course towards each quarter of the heavens,
the legend of the Golden

or, as

Wheel renders

it,

and north that is, in the course

of the sun.
There is no turning back; thus intimating that the ways of God are in unerring wisdom. When Buddhists would speak of the Unerring
east, south, west,

Intelligence ruling the universe, they

name Buddha

King who hath turned the Golden Wheel,

and by the Great King they mean God as embodied
or manifested in Godama, or Sakya, the last Buddha.
as the Great

combines the name of Godama with the

wheel of the Great King and the open lotus, also

Fig.

called the precious

gem.

The

topes, or relic-tumuli,

BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS:

216

are built in a perfectly circular form, circle within

circle at the base

and

in their elevation they contain

a sphere, in the centre of which the relics are

a chamber of a square form

(fig.

5);

that

is

laid, in

to say,

pointing to the north, east, south, and west, precisely

in

directions of the four gates

the

enclosure,

which

is

laid out in exact correspondence

This union of four-

with the four cardinal points.

sided with

of the outside

circular

figures

constantly repeated

is

in these and other Buddhistic

us of the wheels and

symbols,

and

rings

the

reminding
four faces,

four sides, and fourfold character of the symbols of

Ezekiel's vision.

At the base

of the pillar on which

the fourfold living creatures and the wheels are

" lifted up " we see a square enclosure, each side

having four divisions, and each division divided into

Here we have the four-square and the
three parts.

Hebrew mind would

community and their perfect

twelve divisions, which to the

signify the
equality.

Israelitish

Thus the symbol

is

used in the book of

Revelation

in relation to the heavenly Jerusalem.

The square

railing

equality of

all

trine.
tail of

At each

around all the topes signifies the

men, according to Buddhistic docside of the base of the column, the

the Tibetan yak, or bullock {Bos grunniens)^

seen bound together with three bands

which

is

may

here incidentally state, I believe signifies the Scythian

nation subdued to Buddha.

Two

worshippers, male

and female, ascend the steps above this yak's tail, in

the act of perambulating around the object of worship, or going up the steps, and as if passing round
the tope to

its

summit.

This

is

a proof of the re-

THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE.

217

verence in which the wheel symbol was held; but, as

the early Buddhists were forbidden to worship images,

we must understand

the real object of worship to be

by

the Supreme Intelligence Himself as expressed

the wheel of his providence.

The female holds

in her

hand an object which I take to be similar to the cone

which worshippers hold in their hands in the Nineveh
She holds it
above her head. It may represent an unexpanded
lotus, or sacred lily, a symbol elsewhere considered,
in relation to Buddhism and Israel.
A similar object
stands on either side of the capital, with what I suppose to be the conventional representation of wings (or
sculptures,

sign of w?2fruitfulness.

wreaths), two on each side, depending from

it,

perhaps

meaning divine protection. These wings, two on each

side, form the canopy* above the wheel, with stars above,
enclosed in circles or wheels indicating the firmament
of heaven above, and the rule of the Supreme Intellio^ence there in

the other worlds of

lio-ht.

Around

the wheel appear objects which, as Buddhist symbols,

mean

divine watchfulness and protection, for they

seem to be chattas and topes. The latter, when dedicated to Buddha, are said to be inhabited by light, and
symbolically they are represented with eyes.

sacred

cliatta^

or umbrella,

The

signifying protection,

is

usually seen surmounting sacred Buddhist buildings.

These together, then, are equivalent to the eyes in the

wheels of the prophet's vision. f It is worthy of note
* This word canopy seems

to be derived

from the Hebrew word meaning

covering or wing.

t Dr.

Adam

the wheel.

Clarke says, the eyes are the nails that fasten the spokes of

218

BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS:

that the capitals, or chapiters, are adorned with pahn

leaves, as in the

Temple of Solomon, where

also the

wreaths about the chapiters are especially marked.

These symbols, adopted by Sakya, together with what

is said of the Holy King of the Golden and other
wheels, aflford a demonstration that Buddhism is indebted to Ezekiel for some of its grandest ideas and
;

would suggest the possibility that the prophet of Buddhism might even have conversed with the prophet of
If
Jehovah, whose glory he imitates and assumes.
the date of Sakya's birth be correctly given
B.C.),

(623

he was contemporary with Ezekiel, and cer-

was not beyond the reach of his prophecies.

According to our Bibles, his vision was imparted B.C.

tainly

but other chronologies place it considerably

earlier. The four thousand years of the legend of the
Golden Wheel are completed by the appearance of a
595;

man. The completion of the four thousand

years from the origin of man corresponds with the
period when the Israelites and other nations were expecting the Messiah and it was then the Saviour
divine

The golden wheel

actually came.
East,

and

it

is first

seen in the

advances to the place where the

born of royal race who

is

to

assume

all

man

power stands.

we find a star in the wheel in

Would not this accord with the lanthe firmament.
guage of the Magi who came to see Him who was
In the symbol,

fig.

1,

born King of the Jews, and to whom they ofi*ered

Their reason for
their precious things as unto God?
going up to Jerusalem they stated to

have seen his

mise

star

expressed in

in the

Easf^

be

" We

Is not the sur-

former chapter a reasonable

THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE.

219

surmise; namely, that those Magi were Israelites?

and is not the additional fact concerning the Golden

Wheel coming from the East, connected as the wheel
an indication
that the Magi who came to Jerusalem were Buddhists, seeing also that they occupied so long as a
year and a half in coming? The advent oi Krishnu^
in India, which is generally supposed to be founded
in Buddhist symbol, with a star,

is,

on a rumour of Chrisfs mission, corresponds with the

time of that mission and that of the visit of the Magi

and we know from Indian history, that both Buddha

and Krishnu, though introduced by heretics, were
artfully adopted by the Brahmins to stand amongst
their gods, in conformity to a popular impulse, which
they could not otherwise resist or compromise.

The

pillar inscription,

when written

in

Hebrew

reads

letters,

nyi

'n-D ":)m n3''V''n-D

T

rhiys

That is, " And his passing away was as a lamentation,

and my beauty and my grace are as lamentation,
Judges."*

As

in Ezekiel, so with the symbols

of Buddha,
as, for

we

around the tope

man

find the figure of a

pre-eminent

instance, that erected on the polished pillar

on

the north of the grand tope at Sachi,

He

stands above the remarkable symbol of the

twelve squares, which in this case

is

at the top of the

pillar instead of the base, as in that just

to.

The man,

then, seems to be represented as ruling

over these twelve divisions.

These square divisions

* This tope is dedicated to the four Buddhas,

Godama, whose departure is lamented.

chief being

now referred

also called

Judges, the

220

BUDDHISTIC symbols:

remind us

also of the breastplate

of

gems on the

breast of the high priest, which represented the whole

house of
linen,

The man

Israel.

is

but otherwise naked, though a nimbus, or glory,

rays forth from his head.

point to the Divine
as

girt about the loins with

Man

All these

peculiarities

of the Buddhistic creed

possessing characteristics prefigured in Ezekiel.

whatever colours might originally

have been painted on these symbols are now lost, but
Unfortunately,

we

find the limbs

and face of Godama, or Sakya, the

mortal Buddha, always represented as bright as gold

laid

upon vermilion can make them, and he

seated on a throne ; therefore, so

this

description

" And

far, in

is

usually

keeping with

above the firmament [ex-

panse] that was over their heads was the likeness of

a throne, as the appearance of a sapphire-stone

and

was the likeness as

And I saw
the appearance of a man above upon it.

upon the

likeness of the throne

as the colour of amber, as the appearance of fire

from the appearance of his

loins even upward, and from the appearance of his
loins even downward, I saw as it were the appearance of fire, and it [he] had brightness [a nimbus]

round about within

it,

round about. As the appearance of the bow that is in

the cloud in the day of rain, so was the appearance of
This was the
the brightness [nimbus] round about.
appearance of the likeness of the glory of the Lord."
(Ezek.

i.

26-28.)

In enumerating the symbols of Buddhism

we must

not overlook the prominence given to the man, the

lion,

and the ox,

all

of which are erected on pillars at

the topes of Sanchi and Sonari.

These,

together

THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE.

with the eagle, are mentioned by
eagle, however,

221

EzekieL

The

seems to be wanting in the Buddhist

symbols; and, instead, we have, in some places, the

horse,

and

in

The horse

others the elephant.

bably stood for the Gothic

tribes,

pro-

and the elephant

The architraves over the chief

Grand Tope at Sachi are surmounted

for those of India.

entrance of the

by winged

lions,

and the bell-shaped

capitals of the

pillars of a palace represented in the bas-relief at the

eastern gateway are surmounted

by recumbent winged

Whatever these might symbolize, the fact of

their being winged conducts the mind to their comparison with the winged figures of the Nineveh and
other Assyrian sculptures, and also to the winged
horses.

living creatures

(or beasts) of Ezekiel's vision; in

both which the straightforward progress or determinate purpose of the powers signified appear to be
symbolized. (Ezek.

i.

9.)

That both winged

and winged horses are found together

lions

in so promi-

nent a situation, implies that the nations thus symbolically represented

Buddha.

were united

in the worship of

In the opening chapter of this volume

the lion, the ox, the man, and

plained as the standards and

of the hosts of Israel.

We

the

eagle

are

ex-

emblems of the leaders

have, then, three of these

symbolized as in connexion with Buddha; the wheel,

the symbol of Buddha's supremacy, being lifted up

over them, in sign of their subjugation to his doctrines.

In addition,

we have

the obedient tribes

by the elephartt, and those of

Gothland by the recumbent horse. The eagle, the
emblem of the leader Dan, and his three associate
of India symbolized

BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS:

222
tribes

forming his host,

is

wanting

but possibly the

wings themselves may be significant of the eaglepower being incorporated with the lion and the horse
and, if I mistake not, the inscriptions to which attention will hereafter be directed, will show that the
dominant people of Saka in India were themselves
Danites or Danes so that the eagle symbol may be
superseded by that which represents potentiality,
which will be found united with the wheel and the
;

wings in the monogram of Godama^ to be explained

in a future chapter.

The two magnificent polished pillars reared before

the Great Tope of Buddha at Sanchi, remind us of
the two pillars erected by Solomon before the house
of the Lord. (2 Chron.

iii.

15.)

It

is

remarkable

that all the old Buddhist pillars were highly polished^

after the

Hebrew manner.

The

pillars at

Sanchi,

from the base to the crown of the capital, were fortyfive feet and a half high, and those of Solomon were
thirty- five cubits

which, at fifteen inches the cubit,

is

about the same. The shaft was in one piece, thirty-two

The bell-shaped capital, adorned with
feet in height.

an imitation of palm leaves (as in plate), is also Jewish

(1 Kings vi. 29) and the two wreaths hanging over the
capital may, perhaps, give us some idea of the meaning
of the words, " And the two wreaths [were] to cover
the two pommels of the chapiters which were on the
;

pillars."

(2 Chron.

iv.

12.)

In further illustration of the Israelitish origin of

the wheels, oxen, and lions, in their fourfold connexion, we may refer to 1 Kings vii., xx., xxxii.,
xxxvi.,

where they are

all

particularized:

"And

THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE.

223

under the borders were four wheels; and the axletrees of the wheels were joined to the base," or, rather,
fixed together see figs. 3 and 4 of plate. The pecu;

liar significance of the

four-square divisions enclosing

and always seen as the railing around ancient Buddhist topes and all sacred
objects, is intimated by the direction given by Solomon, that the gravings around the borders were to
be "four-square, and not round" (ver. 31). The
height of the wheel was to be a cubit and a half.
The pillars on each of the gateways of the topes
the base of the

pillar,

resemble those at the gates of the Temple, which

Ezekiel describes as facing towards the cardinal points,
as in the Buddhist topes.

From

(Ezek. xl.)

coins discovered in those countries in

Buddhism

which

appears that the Sakas

held dominion over the whole of Khorasan, Afofhanistan,

first prevailed,

it

Sindh, and the Punjab

up

to the year 80 B.C.

few years later the Sakas seem to have been dispossessed of their conquests in Afghanistan and the
Western Punjab by the Yuchi or Tochaoi Scythians
(Goths [?] ). But the remarkable feature of this supposed conquest

is

the fact that these conquering

Yuchi and their leader were at once converted to

Buddhism. Is it not more probable that these people

were incorporated with the Sakas in a friendly manner as Buddhists, until the time of Vikramaditya^
surnamed Sdkdn^ the foe of the Sakas, who drove
them into Khorasan ; the south-west parts of which
were hence called Sdkdstan or Saea^tene^ now named
Sistan.

But, as these points

considered,

we

may

incidentally be re-

hasten over them now, in order to

224

BUDDHISTIC symbols:

examine a few of the oldest Buddhistic inscriptions,

which may throw farther light on this mysterious religion and its originators.
Yet we must first direct
attention especially to thdse symbols which, adopted
by the Sacee and the Buddhists, have been received
by ourselves, and remain with us as national emblems and marks of our origin from those Saxons of
Amongst the emblems seen on the coins
the East.
of Buddhist kings the trident has been mentioned.
This

is

now

peculiar to English coins; but the shield

and the lion at her feet, are also Buddhist and ancient Saxon symbols (see plate at end of
Our banner of union, with the cross
this chapter).
of St. George on it, may be seen engraved on the
of Britannia,

gates of the large tope at Sanchi or Sachi

it

is

re-

markable that the star banner is also there. The

lion and unicorn (or their prototypes) may be seen
crouching in peace at the feet of Buddha, as he sits
on his marble throne at the entrance of the vast
The creature we vulgarly
rock temple of Ajanta.
for
call a unicorn is more naturally portrayed there
;

the people
dral

knew

who
its

chiselled out

that cavernous cathe-

nature better than to present but one

though they well knew, as we know from

Assyrian monuments, that it was often conventionally
Our unicorn is a strange anomaly, a
so represented.
bizarre, un-English beast, and yet not a mere heraldic
it combines somewhat of the figure of a
invention
horse with the foot and leg of an antelope, and in fact,
it orio^inated in the desire to combine two creatures in
These were both
one, the antelope and the horse.
emblems of the Saxon race, but are found separate in
horn,

THEIR ORIGIN AND SIGNIFICANCE.

the Buddhistic

of the unicorn
totle,

which

is

monuments
is

of India.

The

225
original

probably the Hippelaphus of Aris-

the Equicervus^ or Horse-stag^ of Cuvier.*

This creature being usually sculptured in profile on

the bas-reliefs,

its

two

erect horns of course appear

Ignorant sculptors would suppose this

as one.

characteristic,

and represent

it

its

in all positions as one-

Hence the traditionary heraldic emblem

horned.

There is, however, a large Tibetan goat

the horns of which grow so closely together as
to be almost united, and even recent travellers
in the neighbourhood of Tibet have assured us
In the woodcut
that they have seen a live unicorn.
on the next pagef it will be observed that the antea unicorn.

lope has

much

large antelope

of the outline of the horse.

common

It is the

in the former country of the

It has been affirmed that

and in Tibet.
it is sometimes seen with but one horn, but this
arises from the two horns appearing as one when seen

Sacae

in profile.

This antelope

emblem of a Budunknown but we are told

is

the

whose history is
that it is the symbol of the tribes descended from
Joseph, who by the prophet is described as '' an
antelope at a spring, and his hinds go up towards
the ambuscade, and the archers harass him and shoot
dhist hero

at him." (Gen. xlix.

22; see Heb.)J

However we

* Regne Animal,

ii. 2, 3, 4.
and the antelope are copied from Dr. Bird's Historical Researches on the Buddha and Jain religions.
* The above seems to be the more correct translation of the passage.

t The

There

lion

is

a curious scene depicted in the frescoes of Ajanta (plate 22

of Bird's Researches), which seems like a picture of this prophecy concern-

ing Joseph.

The antelope and

his hinds are represented as surprised

by a

226

may

BUDDHISTIC SYMBOLS.
explain the symbol,

we here

royal arms, together with

see the origin of our

the source

of the flag

more than two thousand years has braved

the battle and the breeze, and which will brave them

that for

still.

number

of hunters, while the lion

scene represents, as
is

is

is

seen roaring on a distant

hill.

If this

supposed, some former transmigration of Buddha,

not unlikely that his transmigrations will be found very

semble the history of our Old Testament patriarchs.

much

it

to re-