INTRODUCTION
In 702 B.C. the most powerful empire in the Middle East was camped outside the gates of Jerusalem. The Assyrian Army awaited the order from King Sennacherib to attack. But, the order never came. Had the order come, Israel would have disappeared off the face of the earth, forever. Ponder that for a moment. Because, without the continuation of Judaism, then there would be no Christianity, and no Islam. The Battle-That-Never-Was would have altered world-wide human history in ways that no one can fully imagine. This is the story of how the battle didn’t happen.
ISRAEL
The Old Testament tells us that Israel achieved its greatest land mass, power, and wealth under King Solomon. But, it didn’t last long. When Solomon died, around 925 B.C., the ten northern tribes refused to submit to his son, Rehoboam. So, they revolted. For about the next two hundred years there would be two kingdoms of Hebrews; Israel (ten tribes) and their capital Samaria in the north, and Judah (which included the small priestly tribe of Levi) and their capital Jerusalem in the south.
The history of both kingdoms is basically one of endless, ineffective, disobedient, and corrupt kings. The kingdoms eventually collapse due in no small part to Israel’s geographical location with a series of various powerful Mesopotamian kingdoms in the northeast and, the powerful Egyptians in the southwest. Internally, Moab successfully revolted against Judah. Ammon successfully seceded from Israel. Within a hundred years of Solomon’s death, in the vast expanse that is the Middle East, Israel and Judah were reduced to tiny and weak states which combined were about the size of New Jersey.
ASSYRIA
Assyria was a kingdom of Semitic people which existed between the 23rd century B.C. and 608 BC. Assyria was named after the city Assur on the Tigris River in what is now modern day Iraq. But, it covered much more territory than that. (In other words, other than sounding similar, Assyria has nothing in common with modern day Syria.)
The Assyrian identity was forged in war, invasion, and conquest. Their version of one-percenters was almost entirely made up of military commanders who grew wealthy from the spoils taken in war. Their armies are generally believed to have been among the largest ever seen in the Middle East. The necessities of war caused them to invent or improve on several technological innovations; iron swords, lances, metal armor, and battering rams …. which made them almost unbeatable in battle.
The Assyrians contributed to a major innovation in weaponry, the composite bow. While the simple bow of that era could kill at up to one hundred yards, it would not penetrate even simple armor. The composite bow, with a pull of 2-3 times that of the simple bow, would easily have penetrated leather armor, and perhaps even bronze armor that was emerging at the time. The composite bow would bring the enemy under a hail of arrows from twice the distance, and with more lethality than the simple bow … even in the hands of untrained conscript archers.
The Assyrian obsession with war and conquest was responsible for a dramatic growth in science and mathematics. It was the Assyrians who first divided the circle into 360 degrees. They were among the first to invent longitude and latitude in geographical navigation. Centuries of warfare necessitated the need for advanced and sophisticated medical science.
The Assyrians kept voluminous and meticulous records. Before the Great Library of Alexandria, the Assyrian King Ashurbanipal built the Great Library of Nineveh containing the most complete knowledge of the Middle East ever assembled. To this day, 30,000 tablets still exist.
King Sennacherib made Nineveh (modern-day Mosul, Iraq) capital of his Assyrian Empire. Nineveh (along with Babylon) is never mentioned favorably in the Bible. Of course, this is expected since the Old Testament is a Jewish book, and those two nations were mortal enemies.
Nevertheless, the fact of the matter is that Nineveh would rank near the very top in Middle Eastern antiquity as ranking among the most glorious, beautiful, and powerful. The city was huge. The book of Jonah states; — “Nineveh was an exceeding great city of three days’ journey.” That’s likely an exaggeration or, a figure of speech. Nevertheless, scholars estimate the city was 1,900 acres, and had a population of up to 150,000. Sennacherib built great walls around the city with fifteen gates, created public parks and gardens, aqueducts, irrigation ditches, canals, and greatly expanded upon and improved the structures of the city. His palace had eighty rooms and he proclaimed it “the palace without rival“. The famous Hanging Gardens, which traditionally have been attributed to Babylon, are now thought by more and more scholars to have actually been Sennacherib’s creation at Nineveh. To appreciate its grandeur please take a couple minutes to watch the lovely 3D rendering below.
THE FINAL END OF THE NORTHERN KINGDOM, ISRAEL
Before we examine the Assyrian siege of Jerusalem it would be extremely beneficial to first understand the Assyrian destruction of the Northern Kingdom …. An event which occurred in the lifetime of those living in the besieged city of Jerusalem.
The utter and eternal destruction of the ten tribes of the northern kingdom, Israel, is succinctly described in 2 Kings 17:6-18. Summarizing: The Israelites worshipped other gods and customs of other people. The Lord repeatedly sends prophets warning the people to repent. They don’t listen. God becomes very angry and “removed them from His Presence; none remained except the tribe of Judah alone.”
At that time, Hoshea was king of Israel. After many years of paying a heavy tribute to the Assyrians, he decided to rebel. He was crushed by the Assyrian monarch, Sargon II, around 723 B.C.
If the Assyrians didn’t invent the policy of Dispersion Exile, they certainly perfected it. About a hundred years later the Babylonian King Nebuchadnezzar II would deport most, but not all, of Judah’s inhabitants to Babylonia. However, while in Babylon, the Jews all lived together in one place. This enabled them to continue to keep their customs, develop new customs as a group, and generally to keep their culture intact. Although captives, they flourished along the banks of the Euphrates River. When they were finally allowed to go back home, they still retained their Jewish culture. The Assyrians simply didn’t operate that way. “No flourishing for you! One millennium!”
The Assyrians would force conquered people to migrate in large numbers, often the entire population, to other areas throughout the empire, and in small numbers. Other empires of the day would allow little to no cultural contact between the conquered and the conquerors. For example, the Egyptians generally wanted nothing to do with their slave Israelites. But, the Assyrians turned the Middle East/Mesopotamia into a vast melting pot of diverse cultures, religions, and languages. The Assyrians then would send other conquered people to occupy the land they just emptied. In this case, the Assyrians would bring in an entire new population from their far flung empire into the land of Shomron, …. also known as Samaria.
This scheme essentially guaranteed the security of the empire. The empire grew in numbers and the conquered, in essence, became part of the empire. Assimilating entire cultures insured that those nations would be unable to go back and re-conquer their lost lands because within a generation, or two, even the knowledge of their previous culture would have been lost … or, assimilated. Think of the Assyrian Plan being on par with Star Trek’s Borg.
From a historical perspective, the ten tribes of Israel no longer exist. (There are very many groups claiming to be a remnant of the Lost Tribes … none of it provable.) Also, there is no interest here in the miraculous. That’s because once miracles are introduced anything goes; snakes talk, oceans cover the world’s highest mountain, the dead are raised, and the earth stops rotating. Whatever. #HistoricalAccuracyMatters. The fact of history is this; the Israelites deported by Sargon II have disappeared forever and ever, nameless and faceless, into the sands of northern Mesopotamia.
And now the remaining tribe of Judah was facing the same exact fate because, once again, the Assyrian Army was outside the gates of Jerusalem.
JERUSALEM, JUST BEFORE THE SIEGE
To appreciate the sheer terror the people of Jerusalem must have felt, one must first know a little bit about Jerusalem. Quite simply, Jerusalem was a small, rather inconsequential place …. except, of course, for the magnificent temple filled with gold, silver, and jewels. The city itself encompassed a mere 125 acres, and had a population of about 25,000. Also, the people cowering in Jerusalem certainly knew that Assyria had already conquered and destroyed 46 other walled cities throughout the land …. not to mention the Assyrians had just conquered Egypt.
And, they were next.
THE SIEGE OF LACHISH IS WHAT AWAITS JERUSALEM
Let’s quickly summarize what we know so far. Jerusalem is a rather small city both in geographical size and population. Their king has been paying a very heavy tribute for many years to the Assyrians, and the Treasury is depleted. They have no army worth mentioning. Their northern brethren have been utterly defeated and exiled throughout the Assyrian empire. Assyria is the most powerful empire of the time. They are a warrior nation who not only have mastered the art of war, but are also proficient in engineering, construction, technology, sciences, and their culture is second to none. According to the Bible, at least 185,000 Assyrian troops are camped outside the gates of Jerusalem ready to implement their siege.
Regarding the workings of an Assyrian siege, there is no better source than King Sennacherib himself. Sennacherib wrote about his siege of Lachish (a city in ancient Judah which was second in importance only to Jerusalem) in what is known as Sennacherib’s Annals. The Annals are found inscribed on three clay prisms inscribed with the same text: the Taylor Prism , the Oriental Institute Prism, and the Jerusalem Prism (pictured above). This is what he wrote;
“As to Hezekiah, the Jew, he did not submit to my yoke, I laid siege to his strong cities, walled forts, and countless small villages, and conquered them by means of well-stamped earth-ramps and battering-rams brought near the walls with an attack by foot soldiers, using mines, breeches as well as trenches. I drove out 200,150 people, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, donkeys, camels, big and small cattle beyond counting, and considered them slaves. Himself I made a prisoner in Jerusalem, his royal residence, like a bird in a cage. I surrounded him with earthwork in order to molest those who were his city’s gate. Thus I reduced his country, but I still increased the tribute and the presents to me as overlord which I imposed upon him beyond the former tribute, to be delivered annually. Hezekiah himself, did send me, later, to Nineveh, my lordly city, together with 30 talents of gold, 800 talents of silver, precious stones, antimony, large cuts of red stone, couches inlaid with ivory, nimedu-chairs inlaid with ivory, elephant-hides, ebony-wood, boxwood and all kinds of valuable treasures, his own daughters and concubines.”
Is Sennacherib engaging in braggadocio, propaganda or liberal embellishment? No. To this day, a cave near the city contains the mass grave of thousands of people slaughtered by the Assyrian army. Sennacherib’s report of taking 200,150 people prisoner as spoils of war is still considered a realistic figure today.
Also important to know is that the Assyrians enjoyed employing pure naked terror; sticking severed heads on spikes, gouging out eyes, ripping out tongues, tearing apart limbs using wild animals, and other various forms of dismemberment, including private parts. In the Battle of Elam the king wrote;
“Their testicles I cut off and tore their privates like the seeds of cucumbers in June. Then they fled from me. They held back their urine but let their dung go into their chariots. 150,000 of their warriors I cut down with the sword.”
Seriously. Bad. Assed.
JAHWEH INTERVENES
Let’s now turn to another ancient original source to see how Jerusalem survived. The liberation of Jerusalem is found in 2 Kings 18-19, 2 Chronicles 32, and Isaiah 37. Below is the story according to 2 Kings 19:32-36
“Therefore this is what the Lord says concerning the king of Assyria: ‘He will not enter this city or shoot an arrow here. He will not come before it with shield or build a siege ramp against it. By the way that he came he will return; he will not enter this city, declares the Lord. I will defend this city and save it, for my sake and for the sake of David my servant.’ That night the angel of the Lord went out and put to death a hundred and eighty-five thousand in the Assyrian camp. When the people got up the next morning—there were all the dead bodies! So Sennacherib king of Assyria broke camp and withdrew. He returned to Nineveh and stayed there.”
You might wonder why this article concerns itself with a plague since that word is not mentioned in the text. That’s because of the one doing the slaying – “the angel of the Lord”. This spiritual being appears often throughout the OT and has many functions. One of the more frequent things associated with the angel of the Lord is disease, famine, pestilence and, as is clear in Moses’ dealings with Pharaoh, plagues. (Of course, you are free to believe that this one angel was up all night stabbing Assyrians …. which, over a seven hour period, would need to occur at the rate of 440 slain soldiers per minute.)
NOTE #1: — It is important to note that both the Bible and Sennacherib’s writings agree that he besieged 46 walled cities through Judah and Israel. And while Sennacherib’s palace at Nineveh was decorated with reliefs depicting these various campaigns and victories, Jerusalem never appears among them. Therefore, one can safely deduce that something detrimental happened with the Jerusalem campaign.
NOTE #2: — You should also be aware that outside of the Hebrew Bible there is no independent corroboration that the Assyrians lost 185,000 men in a single day. That doesn’t mean it didn’t happen because the Bible does have some historical value. Nevertheless, one would expect that some extra-biblical source would exist somewhere in some Mesopotamian account of such a monumental event. Yet, no other extra-Biblical source is aware of this event, even though the Assyrians kept meticulous records.
NOTE #3: — We do know for a fact that Sennacherib never conquered Jerusalem. There are some scholars who dispute that Sennacherib left Jerusalem because of a plague. They offer the following alternative.
Assyrian writings of the time reveal that a new Babylonian revolt had broken out, and this news reached Sennacherib while he was camped outside Jerusalem. This certainly could have caused Sennacherib to lift his siege prematurely. The danger Babylon posed to Nineveh was certainly much more of a serious priority than dealing with yet another mostly irrelevant Judean city. So, he left Jerusalem, but not before exacting an enormous and humiliating annual payment of tribute. The Bible tells us that King Hezekiah was even forced to cut down the gold-overlaid doors and the gold-overlaid doorposts of the Temple to be paid as tribute. Contrary to 2 Kings 19:36-37, Sennacherib was not murdered immediately upon his return to Nineveh. In fact, his reign spanned another two decades. Upon his return to Nineveh he squashed the Babylonian revolt …. which leads to an obvious question, how could he have done so if he just lost 185,000 men in Jerusalem?
[Regardless of why the Assyrians failed to conquer Jerusalem, (be it mice, revolting Babylonians, or God) the overall premise of this article is still valid; that it was the Greatest Battle That Never Was in human history.]
WHAT WAS THE PLAGUE?
Again, from a historical perspective, what could the plague have been? There are two tantalizing options; one from the Bible, and the other from Herodotus.
————— –
- The Biblical account of how King Hezekiah prepared for the Assyrian onslaught is somewhat tantalizing … and points to a rather mundane cause of the plague. Contaminated water! 2 Chronicles 32:2-4 tells us;
“He took counsel with his princes and his mighty men to stop the waters of the fountains which were without the city: and they did help him. So there was gathered much people together, who stopped all the fountains, and the brook that ran through the midst of the land, saying, Why should the kings of Assyria come, and find much water?”
The reasonable possibility exists that “stopping the fountains” around Jerusalem forced the Assyrian soldiers to drink contaminated water, thus exposing them to infectious diseases.
However, I think this is the less likely of the two scenarios for three reasons.
—– First, this is not some brilliant never-before thought of strategy, especially in the dry environs of the middle east. It seems safe to assume that the Assyrians (or, other armies before and after them) faced similar tactics presented by their foes, and that they had contingency plans.
—– Second, the tunnel was deep, at least 600 feet long, and the sands beneath were rock hard. In other words it was a long and difficult project. This hardly fits with the emergency efforts required to deny the Assyrians water as described in Chronicles.
—– Third, and most importantly, the Jordan River is a mere 20 miles from Jerusalem. Surely, the Assyrians were aware of that sufficiently plentiful source of water.
————— –
- A much more likely scenario (in this author’s opinion) is recorded by Herodotus. He was born (484 BC – 425 BC) to a Greek family of nobility in a section of the Persian empire in what is today Turkey. He was a contemporary of Socrates, and Cicero was the first to refer to Herodotus as “The father of history”. Quite simply, his words carry weight. His writings indicate that the plague which killed many Assyrians may have originated in Egypt.
So, what does Egypt have to do with the siege of Jerusalem? Well, hoping that Egypt would come to Judah’s rescue, King Hezekiah entered into a military alliance with the King of Egypt. This kind of irritated Sennacherib. In his annals he referred to Egypt as “a splintered reed” which could be of no help to the city. It is reported that the people of Jerusalem were lined up along the city walls when they were addressed (in Hebrew, no less), and they heard this message; “The message is for them too. Like you, they will have to eat their own dung and drink their own urine” Hezekiah was forced to send eleven tons of silver and a ton of gold Sennacherib at Lachish. Then the Assyrian army withdrew from Jerusalem to fight the Egyptians at Eltekeh. They defeated the Egyptian forces rather easily, and then marched back to Jerusalem. However, Herodotus reports that something bad happened while the Assyrians were in Egypt.
Hopefully, you won’t be disappointed in the brevity of what he wrote. After all this detailed background, perhaps you’ll think this is anti-climactic. Well, Lincoln’s Gettysburg address was only 272 words … while the other speaker, Edward Everett (who???), used up 13,000+ words. Which one was more powerful? Which one do people remember? Which one contained more useful information?
He wrote that King Sennacherib “with a great host of Arabians and Assyrians” marched against King Sethos of Egypt. When the army was encamped at Pelusium, “a multitude of field mice swarmed over the Assyrian camp and devoured their quivers and their bows and the handles of their shields likewise, insomuch that they fled the next day unarmed and many fell.” Herodotus adds an additional detail, thus giving his writing even more legitimacy, writing that — “to his day a stone statue of the Egyptian king stands in Hephaistus’ temple, with a mouse in his hand, and an inscription to this effect: ‘Look on me, and fear the gods.“‘ Wow, eh?
And if that’s not enough, here is confirmation directly from the Bible; — (Isaiah 31:8 , Isaiah 10:5, 16)
“Assyria will fall by no human sword; … Woe to the Assyrian, the rod of my anger, in whose hand is the club of my wrath! …. therefore, the Lord, the Lord Almighty, will send a wasting disease [bubonic plague?] upon his sturdy warriors; under his pomp a fire will be kindled like a blazing flame.”
The testimony of two wildly divergent sources, Herodotus and Isaiah, seems crystal clear to me; it was the mice!
AFTERMATH: THE ASSYRIANS
Sennacherib ruled for another twenty years when he returned to Assyria … and then was murdered by his sons. As you read what’s coming up next, see if you can spot the similarities with America.
The Assyrian Empire eventually became so large that maintaining it was almost impossible. The people subject to Assyrian rule has been trying to break free for years. Assyria became involved in endless wars with Persians, Babylonians, Medes, Scythians, and lessor powers. And, even their “melting pot” of assimilated cultures would turn against them.
The empire became burdened by the expense of maintaining an army; soldiers had to be paid, massive numbers of horses had to be cared for and fed, siege engines had to be moved against rebellious cities, and despite the theft of massive amounts of silver and gold from their conquered vassals … the Treasury eventually became depleted. The economy tanked.
Eventually these empires always run out of people to conquer, and their gold to steal … or, they are conquered themselves. Eventually, tribes of an Indo-European people called Medes united under King Cyaxares. He allied his army with the Chaldeans. The Medes and Chaldeans attacked, and together they defeated the Assyrians, overrunning Nineveh in 612 BC. A community that had existed for more than two thousand years was obliterated.
Undoubtedly, Sennacherib, and the Assyrian kings before him, believed that the glory of Nineveh would last forever. Isn’t that the case for every empire … including the American one? Many battles were fought in and around Nineveh in subsequent centuries, including the Muslim conquest of 637AD. Other great cities of ancient Mesopotamia were recognizable from their ruins. But, of Nineveh, there was not a trace. The Assyrian version of a “thousand year Reich” lasted but a mere 340 years.
AFTERMATH: JUDAISM
The aftermath for Judaism was even more profound. Nothing and everything changed for Judaism.
By “nothing” I mean the truly endless wars. The Jews would be conquered and re-conquered for the next 2,500 years until their independence in 1948.
By “everything” I mean their religion. Specifically, how they viewed God to be.
Many people inside and outside of Judaism believe that the Babylonian exile gave birth to modern Judaism. This article here presents an excellent case for that. However, surviving the Assyrian attempt to destroy the remaining tribe of Judah accomplished something even more fundamental; it solidified the Jewish commitment to monotheism.
Folks read the stories of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, David, Solomon, and other heroes of the Jewish faith … and then conclude that all of ancient Israel was firmly committed to the idea of One God. Nothing could be further from the truth.
Abraham – the Father of Judaism – had a wife who took her gods and hid them under the camel’s saddle as she left Ur to go to the Promised Land. Moses was afraid the people wouldn’t believe him. Heck, God didn’t even have a name. Shortly after the Israelites miraculously escaped Egypt, they started worshipping a Golden Calf. Solomon started out good, and ended up doing evil. And so on, and so on.
In fact, the Bible lists a total of 43 kings who ruled over Israel/Judah … and 36 of them were considered evil, including every king of the ten tribes of Israel! (See the list here. ) Note that when the Bible calls a king “evil” it is always and only about one thing; that king worshiped, or tolerated, other gods. In other words, monotheism in ancient Israel consistently teetered on the edge of abandonment.
So, the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom had been completely eradicated by Assyrian King Sargon II just twenty one years prior. Now at the gates of Jerusalem are 185,000 Assyrians with bloodlust on their minds, ready to implement Phase II of their version of The Final Solution. Judaism is facing complete annihilation. The existential question of the ages they faced is this; what does this mean?? When it’s all boiled down to bare fundamentals, there are only two possibilities;
Option #1) —- It means that the God of Moses and Abraham, the God who promised a permanent inheritance of the land, is no longer able to protect his people.
Option #2) —- It means that God is using the most powerful empire on earth, evil as it might be, to punish the Israelites for their disobedience and, once they repent, God will restore the promise.
Option #1, that God failed them, is the choice made by the Northern Kingdom. One would expect Judah to make the same choice, especially when you consider that most of the Judaist population (except King Hezekiah and his prophets) probably considered option #2 as being totally ridiculous.
While Option #2 seems to be the easy and obvious choice … it is so only to the modern mind. The reason being that we moderns have been conditioned by 2,000+ years of Christianity informing us that God is good, and can do no evil. When evil does occur the only two reasons for it are either, 1) it’s the devil’s fault or, 2) it’s our fault.
But, is that the way ancients thought? No! Their version of “common sense” held that the Jewish god protected Jews, and Assyrian gods protected Assyrians, and Babylonian gods protected Babylonians, etc. etc. All gods were local. Victory and defeat depended both on local armies and the power of local rival deities. Even the Israelites could see that as the Assyrians expanded their empire, local gods died off. The defeated simply stopped worshipping their local god, and started worshipping the new god of the victors. This was the expectation, the rule of the day, the way things were. It is what the Northern Kingdom did. It is, no doubt, what the people in Jerusalem thought would happen with them. So, when King Hezekiah, in the face of annihilation, rejected option #1, and chose option #2 instead — (for example, by destroying all the “high places” in the countryside) — it was quite unique and monumental!
The three Biblical narratives which tell the story of the Assyrian defeat at Jerusalem – but, written many years after it occurred – certainly contain exaggerations at best, if not flat out inaccuracies. So what! To the ancient Jews it’s the story and the interpretation of the story that mattered. Details just weren’t that important.
The pious leaders of Jerusalem interpreted the event this way; local gods no longer mattered. That’s because only the universal power of the Lord God could explain worldwide events satisfactorily. Therefore, because their God was universal, there was no longer a need to abandon one local god for just another local tribal god. The evidence of the Assyrian retreat meant that their God was vastly more superior, not only on the local stage, but also on the world stage. This was a monumental change in Jewish thinking.
Furthermore, it was this newfound belief in the universality of God which enabled them to flourish a few decades later when the Babylonians conquered them. The Babylonian exiles even further expanded the universality of this One God. You see, Hezekiah’s attempts to reconcile with God centered around where God resided, the Temple, which was the essence and centerpiece of Jewish faith. As such, in a manner of speaking, God was still local, confined to a building. So, the exiled, and Temple-less, Jews in Babylon had their own existential question, “What does the destruction of the Temple mean?”.
And they came up with yet another unique and amazing conclusion which further cemented the Jewish commitment to monotheism. They decided that ceremonies tied to a single sacred place no longer sufficed, or even made sense, and that access to God, once limited to the Temple, is now available to anyone in any place. A truly stunning development!
You don’t have to be Jewish to appreciate the irony here. Twenty years earlier probably many of the same folks now in Babylon were trembling in fear and questioning God because of the Assyrians … and now it is the remembrance of that very same story which gave the Babylonian exiles hope, and the wisdom and strength to yet again modify their understanding of God.
Lastly, it is only by choosing option #2 that enabled Isaiah to write the words below. No longer do Jews have to ask why the Lord allows them to suffer. No longer do they need to wonder if God will keep his promises. No longer do they have to wonder how he will accomplish His purpose for them. No longer do they have to wonder if other gods would be a better choice. All these questions have become irrelevant to their faith. The fact of the matter (according to the Scripture below) is that there is a day coming – “that day”, when all will be made right again. Even the ten tribes will be reconstituted.
“In that day the Lord will reach out his hand a second time to reclaim the remnant that is left of his people from Assyria, from Lower Egypt, from Upper Egypt, from Cush, from Elam, from Babylonia, from Hamath and from the islands of the sea.” —— Isaiah 11:11
The old faith has been overhauled! This universal One God, accessible to anyone and anywhere, intervenes in history, even when it is not apparent. In fact, the worse things appear … and there was absolutely nothing more traumatic than the Temple being destroyed … the more certain they are that God is with them!! How can such faith ever be defeated? Apparently, it cannot. (Which is why arguing with a Christian that “there is no God” will fail 99% of the time!)
The Jews (and their offspring religions) can thank the near disaster of the Assyrian siege, and the actual disaster of the Babylonian conquest, for this One God who “alone is my rock and my salvation, my fortress where I will not be shaken.”
CONCLUSION
You now know the story of the Greatest Battle That Never Was. A battle that, had it occurred, would have resulted in the utter defeat of Jerusalem and Judah. The inhabitants would have been scattered across the vast Assyrian empire, and a new population would have been imported. The tribe of Judah, the only one left carrying on the Jewish legacy, would have disappeared into the sands of Mesopotamia, exactly as what happened to the ten tribes of Israel two decades earlier. There’s no doubt about this. The end of Judaism would have prevented the birth of Christianity and Islam. Such a thing would have altered the history of the world in ways that is difficult, if not impossible, to imagine. The fickleness of fate is phenomenal! All because of mice? Eeek! Or, because of God? Shalom!
You decide …..
.
.
Interesting……..
I will wait for the preferred commenter’s take on this, maybe RiNS, Maggie, RHS Jr or Tampa Gold can decide if this is truth or fiction with the mice.
Can’t you decide on your own?
No. B needs to be told what to think.
Rdawg, North Korea called……they want to offer you a job. Better jump on it QUICK.
As usual you make no fucking sense.
Dawg- If you didn’t get the joke, I’m not explaining it to you. Maybe someone else can help you. Trust me, it makes complete sense.
My buddy Jamie said some Vietnamese moved into their neighborhood and soon enough all the stray dogs and some not so stray disappeared.
If ratdawg is looking for a job, he need look no farther than NYC.
Let’s see if I got this straight……..the Jews, down to their last village/town in the smaller area of Judah ( since Israel and 10 of the 12 tribes are already scattered) are surrounded by massive forces bent on their utter annihilation.
Fast forward some 2700 years and………… the Assyrians are gone, the Moabites-bit the dust, Ammonites, Amalakites, Philistines, Scythians, Thracians, Ammonites, Phrygians, Phoenicians, Babylonians- etal, all in the dustbin of history….yet the Jews are living in Judah…….I’m going to have to go with a one, true living God on this one Stucky…the mice, quakes, fire and brimstone ( volcano?) also make useful tools though for the Almighty…
We had our first visitor to Narnia from parts unknown. It was my Zionist Pastor friend who informed me the most Trump will do is delay Armageddon. (She took over her husband’s congregation at his death, which is allowed as long as she covers her head, I think). She absolutely LOVES Biblical History and travels to Israel annually to be with God’s people.
I am going to share this article with her and see if she thinks you are full of shit or a real shit throwing prophet.
Mags,
Nice. Please do let me know what she thinks.
An interesting point of view, she said, when I told her what it was about. She is busy doing God’s work for the Jews, so if she doesn’t have time to actually read it, tough shit.
You might find this interesting:
HEBREW ISRAELITE OR JEW?
A Study by Frank W. Dowsett
IT will no doubt come as something of a surprise to most Christians to find that the literal word ‘JEW’ does not appear in the entire original text of the Bible, neither the Old nor the New Testaments. The original Hebrew of the Old Testament uses the word ‘Yehudim’, meaning ‘Judahite’. The original Greek of the New Testament uses the word ‘Ioudaios’, meaning ‘Judean’.
These original words were used in the earlier translations of our Bible, and only seem to have been replaced by the word ‘Jew’ in fairly relatively recent times.
Dr. Young, in his ‘Analytical Concordance of the Bible’ says of the word ‘Jew’;
“A descendant of Judah. Strictly speaking, the name is only appropriate to the subjects of the kingdom of the two tribes after the separation of the ten tribes.”
I cannot too strongly emphasise that point. The word ‘Jew’, even as it is presently used in the Bible, was only ever applicable to the southern House of Judah, and in fact, only to a small portion of even that section of the overall people of Israel. The Northern House of Israel was NEVER referred to as ‘Jews.’ In fact, the major portion of the House of Judah was also NEVER referred to as ‘Jews.’
The word ‘Jew’ was only ever used in the Bible, and then only by modern translators, in regard to the descendants of the portion of the Southern House of Judah who returned from the Babylonian captivity under Ezra and Nehemiah. The word could not have been applied to the balance of the House of Judah, nor to the Northern House of Israel, for the simple reason that they were not there! These people, who formed the major part of Israel, were in captivity to the north-west of Palestine, and included the whole of the northern ten tribes which had been previously taken into captivity, together with the major section of the southern two tribes who had subsequently been taken captive into the same regions long before the Babylonian captivity. The Apostle James was fully aware of this fact, because he addressed his epistle to, “The TWELVE tribes scattered abroad.”
It is absolutely essential for a correct understanding of the Bible that we acknowledge the difference between “The Hebrews” “The House of Israel,” “The House of Judah,” and “The Jews.”
God never ever confused these terms in the Bible. And if God considered it so necessary to make such careful distinction between them, THEN THERE IS ABSOLUTELY NO EXCUSE FOR US NOT TO DO LIKEWISE. The ‘House of Israel’ is NOT synonymous with the ‘House of Judah’. What is more important is that the terms ‘The House of Israel’ and ‘The House of Judah’ are NOT synonymous with the term ‘Jew.’ The House of Judah and some of the Jews are OF Israel, that is, descended from Jacob. But the distinction which we wish to emphasise is that whilst some Jews may be Israelites, ALL ISRAELITES ARE NOT JEWS. In a similar way, for example, all Scots are British, but all British are not Scots.
When the general blessings were apportioned by Jacob to his twelve sons just prior to his death, the dominion which was to come from the promise of the development into a Nation and Company of Nations, was given to Joseph. But the kingship over this dominion or nation, including the Great King Himself, our Lord Jesus Christ, was to come from and through Judah. Thus, the northern House of Israel, which came from Joseph, and the southern House of Judah, which came from Judah, each had their GOD-APPOINTED tasks and destinies to fulfil.
The prophets displayed meticulous care in their address to “The House of Israel”, “The House of Judah”, and “The inhabitants of Jerusalem, the Jews.”
To apply to one House a prophecy which refers to the other, only confuses both the message and its understanding.
But in regard to the “Jews”, it is essential to note that this name is used in the New Testament of those who resided in the portion of Palestine called Idumea. Thus they were, in the main, the Idumeans. It is also interesting to note that not once did our Lord ever have a good word for these people. On the contrary, He constantly referred to them as His greatest enemies.
Thus we have two distinct sections within the people of Christ’s day referred to as ‘Jews.’ There were the Galileans, who were mainly from the tribe of Benjamin (The ‘Light-bearing’ Tribe). It was from this section of people from whom came all of the disciples except Judas. These were the GOOD FIGS referred to in the 24th. chapter of Jeremiah. Most of the true descendants of Israel of the Babylonian captivity were to be found in this group. But there were also the Idumeans, comprising the ‘mixed multitude’ who came back with the others from Babylon. These also mixed with the people of the land who were NOT Israelites, and constituted the BAD figs of Jeremiah’s prophecy. It was these people who were claiming to be God’s people, and whom our Lord Jesus Christ accused of being ‘Children of their father the devil.’ The good section of these people, that is, the Galilean section, later escaped and joined up with their brethren of the twelve tribes already migrating westward.
The balance of them, the BAD FIGS, were destroyed in the destruction of Jerusalem by the Roman General Titus in A.D. 70, or dispersed among the nations of Europe, where they became a “Proverb and a taunt and a curse,” just as the Lord had spoken through Jeremiah.
We read in Jeremiah, 24:9,10:
“And I will deliver them to be removed into all the kingdoms of the earth for their hurt, to be a reproach and a proverb, a taunt and a curse, in all places whither I shall drive them. And I will send the sword, the famine, and the pestilence, among them, till they be consumed from off the land that I gave unto them and to their fathers.”
Our Lord Himself warned us in Revelation 2:9, and 3:9 about “those that call themselves Jews, (original “Judeans”) but who are not, but are of the synagogue of Satan.” He knew who His enemies were even if we don’t. This automatically presumes that there were those who called themselves “Jews” (original “Judeans”) who were descendant from Judah.
A few centuries after this final dispersion, a nation called the Khazars took over in Palestine, after officially adopting the Jewish religion of Judaism. The descendants of these people and those who escaped the final destruction of Jerusalem have become the present day Zionist Jew. These people do NOT constitute a nation. They are held together purely by, and as, a religion. They are made up of people from every nationality under the sun. THERE IS NOT AN OUNCE OF ISRAELITISH BLOOD IN THEIR VEINS.
There is absolutely no relationship between the present-day Zionist/Jew and the true Judahite of our Lord’s day. To refer to our Blessed Lord as a ‘Jew’, in the modern context and usage of the term, is an insult of the greatest magnitude to our Saviour. Most Christians believe that the occupation of the land of Palestine in 1948 by the Jews was the fulfilment of prophecy wherein Israel was prophesied to return to the land which God had promised them. Nothing could be further from the truth! Israel, that is, TRUE ISRAEL, returned to its rightful inheritance in 1917, just as the Word of God said they would. Edom/Esau, the modem Zionist/Jew and the sworn enemy of God, posing as Israel, threw them out in 1948, JUST AS THE WORD OF GOD SAID THEY WOULD. Referring to this enemy as ‘the inhabitants of Jerusalem’, (Note, NOT as Judah), the prophet Ezekiel has this to say, (Ezekiel 11:1, 5):
“Son of man, thy brethren, even thy brethren, the men of thy kindred, and ALL THE HOUSE OF ISRAEL WHOLLY, are they unto whom the Inhabitants of Jerusalem have said, ‘Get you far from the Lord: unto US is this land given in possession.”
As Christians, we are enjoined to ‘rightly divide, or understand, the Word of God.’ We will NEVER be able to do this whilst we confuse the terminology of the Bible and apply the promises of God to the wrong people.
So to summarize the position we find that neither Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob were “Jews”. They were not even “Israelites”. They were “Hebrews”, a word derived from Abraham’s forefather “Eber”. To illustrate, it would be just as foolish to refer to my own grandfather, who was of Swedish descent, as now being an Australian, based on the fact that his grandson was born as an Australian.
The word “Israel” was not even used prior to Jacob being renamed “Israel” in Genesis 32:28. His descendants were thereafter referred to as Israelites. They were not referred to as “Jews”. This word was first used in 2 Kings 16:6. As previously stated, this word in the original manuscripts was “Judahite”, or a descendant of Judah.
The relationship between Israel and Judah is clearly set forth in Psalm 114:25:
“Judah was his sanctuary, and Israel his dominion.”
Israel were to inherit the dominion of God’s Kingdom, whilst Judah, as the Lord’s sanctuary, was to provide the King over that dominion.
To misuse and wrongly apply their names and titles confounds the clearly expressed plans and purposes of God and His Kingdom, and causes a total misunderstanding of His Word.
Why would it surprise anyone that the English word “Jew” is not found in any of the original Yiddish, Aramaic or Greek texts? Or that the word, “Jew” is mostly a recent word since it has only been recently ( in historical perspective) that the biblical canon of the old and new testaments were translated for English speaking or European peoples?
Want to really focus on something odd, note that in the old testament that the Yiddish spelling of the word for Baal and Lord are spelled the same. There is a different spelling only when Adonay or Yahweh is directly used. You’d really need a strong’s concordance and some time to be sure that what you thought the prayers and supplications you were making to the “lord god” ( translated in Caananite/Phoenician as “ba’al gawd”.
Israel is useful for a single purpose, destabilization of the ME. Ashkenazim Jew are not hereditary Jews, but they are the ruling class in Israel, and Lord Rothschild was an Ashkenazim Jew. No, we shouldn’t support Israel, but it’s not very likely we would abandon an ally in the region. The only interest anyone has ever had in the region is oil, other than the fact it is Mesopotamia, and here we are 100 years later. Where do we go from here? It’s anyone’s guess. As usual, Stukfuk as written much, without saying anything, as entertaining as it is. Such is to be expected from a skeptic.
There’s a video on YT, by a Pastor Dave, Marching to Zion, which follows the same principles as Dowsett.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=typ2pl2L47k
Messenger,
If I understand you correctly, the modern inhabitants of what we call Israel should not be considered God’s people,is that correct?
If so,who has claim to the land?
If so,should we move our embassy to Jerusalem or leave it where it is?
Should we recognize Israel as a country?
The mistake was made in making Israel a country. The people that were there before Israel was re-made, the Palestinians and others peoples, should own the land, as they did before.
This happened because many Christians still think “Jews” are God’s chosen people and support them, with some Christians even performing Jewish rituals, including the idiots like Balfour that created the new Israel. But they miss the point that Jesus became the sacrificial lamb, therefore “Jewish” sacrifices were no longer needed. Jesus fulfilled the law, and the next step was to follow Jesus. So the “Jews” that became Christians became God’s chosen people. There were very few, which is why “the gate is narrow.” The “Jews” left behind were destroyed, the majority, by the Romans. Afterwards, Gentiles were converted.
3D Ancient Nineveh – an awful lot of walls; they were RAYCISS
Kokoda, you always brighten the day with your rayciss comments. They pop up in the middle of discussion, out of the blue, and make me laugh.
That was an informative, powerful and inspiring post. Wow.
I enjoyed every aspect of it.
So Gnome, do you buy the mice story?
Stuck says: “So, the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom had been completely eradicated by Assyrian King Sargon II just twenty one years prior. He also says: “The fact of history is this; the Israelites deported by Sargon II have disappeared forever and ever, nameless and faceless, into the sands of northern Mesopotamia.”
Ummm. Bullshite. Total, unmitigated bullshite. Please refer to the records on Assyrian captivity.
Additionally, the return to Zion included the following tribes: Simeon, Benjamin, Levi, Ephraim, Manasseh.
About 40,000 of the 200,000 members of “ten lost tribes” were dispersed to Mesopotamia during the Assyrian captivity. Many remained in the northern kingdom, and many fled to Jerusalem ( the population of Jerusalem expanded 500% as a result of the migration of members of the ten tribes to Jerusalem).
So to say they were eradicated is simply untrue. Over time, they were simply absorbed into Judah.
2 Chronicles 30 references this, as does 9:3. Many historical scholars have written about this, as well.
To suggest that “Israel would have disappeared off the face of the earth, forever” is drawing a very, very long bow, given that significant numbers of Jews still lived in the northern Kingdom, and were still in Mesopotamia. Jerusalem simply did NOT hold all Jews of the world, although it was the most significant community.
Generally very nicely done, generally. Pretty good background. But some reasonably substantial literary liberties have been taken with respect to some historical facts.
“Stuck says: ‘So, the ten tribes of the Northern Kingdom had been completely eradicated by Assyrian King Sargon II just twenty one years prior.’ …… Ummm. Bullshite. Total, unmitigated bullshite. Please refer to the records on Assyrian captivity.” —— Llpoh
Ummm. This article was extremely well researched. Many hours, actually.
Before I go on, let me say that I am glad that I walked away from the computer for about an hour before responding. Calling my work “bullshite”?? That’s unkind …. and, totally untrue. I was about to unload a fusillade of unmentionable explitives your way. Really. But, then I thought – “Nah! This is a religious based article!”. And, besides, there’s always the possibility that you’re just flinging shit in order to have another epic Stucky/Llpoh shitfest. 🙂 But, I’m not biting.
Anyway, even if I am full of shit, I have a LOT of company. Here ya go …
============================================== =
1. “But the Assyrians carried the ten tribes that comprised Israel’s Northern Kingdom into captivity more than one hundred years earlier, and they seem to have vanished from memory into the mists of legend.”
http://www.jewishvoice.org/messianic-education/messianic-vision/lost-tribes-of-israel.html
——- –
2. “Following the conquest of the northern kingdom by the Assyrians in 721 AD, the 10 tribes were gradually assimilated by other peoples and thus disappeared from history.”
https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ten-Lost-Tribes-of-Israel
——- –
3. “ … SOME members of the Ten Tribes remained in Palestine, where apart from the Samaritans SOME of their descendants preserved their identity among the Jewish population, most others were assimilated, … or absorbed by the last Judean exiles who in 597-586 BC were deported … ”
Stanford M Lyman, “The Lost Tribes of Israel as a Problem in History and Sociology,” International Journal of Politics, Culture, and Society, Volume 12, Number 1 / September 1998 …. As quoted in the New Jewish Encyclopedia
——- –
4. “The armies of the Assyrians, not the prophets, are its messengers now. Israel had made itself like the nations whom God had used it to destroy, and now it shall be destroyed as they were.”
Pulpit Commentary — http://biblehub.com/commentaries/2_kings/17-6.htm
——- –
5. “When the measure of sin is filled up, the Lord will forbear no longer. The inhabitants of Samaria must have endured great affliction. Some of the poor Israelites were left in the land. Those who were carried captives to a great distance, were mostly lost among the nations.”
Matthew Henry’s Concise Commentary
——- –
6. “Sennacherib carried them, partly to replenish his own country; and partly because these places were at so great a distance from Canaan, that this would cut off all hopes and thoughts of returning to their own country.”
Matthew Poole’s Commentary
——- –
7. “In 721 B.C. Assyria swept out of the north, captured the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and took the ten tribes into captivity. From there they became lost to history.”
https://www.lds.org/manual/old-testament-student-manual-kings-malachi/enrichment-d?lang=eng
——- –
8. “The Kingdom of Israel … fell in 722 B.C.E. and its inhabitants were exiled by the Assyrians. In general, it can be said that these tribes disappeared from the stage of history.”
http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/the-ten-lost-tribes
——- –
9. “ … the passage in I Chronicles 5:26 (that the ten tribes were there “unto this day”) kept alive the belief that they had maintained a separate existence and that the time would come when they would be rejoined with their brethren … their place in history, however, is substituted by legend, and the legend of the Ten Lost Tribes is one of the most fascinating and persistent in Judaism and beyond it.” </b)
Same ref as above
——- –
10. “The following are the 10 tribes that were captured and slaved by the Assyrians by 720 BC.marking the end of the Jewish kingdom and there is no trace for them”
https://www.geni.com/projects/Where-are-The-Ten-Lost-Tribes-of-Israel/3474
============================================ =
How many more references would you like? 20? 40? Because I could go on all day.
More than being angry at your insult, I am disappointed. You have all this knowledge and training …. yet you refuse to acknowledge that there are very many extremely credible sources with a different viewpoint than the one YOU like? That’s nuts, my friend.
Stuck – you said “eradicated”. Eradicated means to destroy. They were not destroyed. It is simply untrue. There were around 200k Jews in the Northern Kingdom. 40k of them were sent off to Mesopotamia. The balance were enslaved, moved to Jerusalem, etc.
Over time, those tribes were absorbed into Judah. The Bible, as I sourced, acknowledges such. They were not eradicated.
You also said those Israelites disappeared forever. In fact, many returned when the Jews were allowed back into Zion.
Many of the sources you show above make the same point I made: That the were absorbed into Judah, that they were not moved en masse to Mesopotamia, etc. To discuss your sources point by point: 1) says they seem to have disappeared. Well, that is definitive! 2) I said the same thing. It does not say they were eradicated. Hmmm. 3) says what I said. 4) No idea what the hell that is saying. 5) Mostly lost it says. Not eradicated. And the mostly lost only applies to the minority carried away. 6) Inconclusive to me what they mean there. 7) Almost entirely incorrect. 8+9) Incorrect in its comments that the tribes were exiled. They were not. Assyrians kept them as slaves, and exiled but a small portion. 10) enslaved with no trace it says. That does not match biblical comment.
2 Chronicles 30 says : “11 Nevertheless, some from Asher, Manasseh and Zebulun humbled themselves and went to Jerusalem.” Thus those tribes were still in existence.
Chronicles 9:3 says “3 And some of the people of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh lived in Jerusalem:”. Again, it showed the tribes survived.
What fun, right?
I will match your hours of research with years of study. Just saying. Most of the serious material will not be found on line.
BTW – the new monkeys would lose there minds if they ever witness a real slugfest twixt us. Those were the days!
I thought this was great. I really like the mice angle. God uses everything to do his bidding.
When you read the Bible, it can take a while between the times you can read, and with the stories covering the same topic spread out in different books, it can be hard sometimes to make the connections, like you did here.
If I remember right, the tribes intermarried (bringing in fresh, but Hebrew blood), so in essence, the 12 tribes would have still remained regardless of whether they were totally eradicated in the north or not, because all 12 bloodlines would have run through the people of Judah. (If I’m not remembering that correctly, let me know.)
I especially like the way you described the manner in which the gods were thought of then. What you say is exactly true. In the ancient world, not only were the armies fighting, but the Gods were fighting through the armies. If you lost, your god lost and was conquered and was no more.
In the Old Testament, you’ll notice that when God sent the Hebrews to conquer the promised land, usually, when they conquered a tribe, they were allowed to keep some women and children as slaves and wives. But at other times, God told the Hebrews to destroy everyone and everything. Why is that? Because these tribes worshiped the earth and everything represented their god, so in a way, their god was unconquered in their minds. And because that type of person could turn God’s people away from the One True God, they had to be completely destroyed.
Great job, Stucky. Really puts the pieces together. I loved it.
Only 1/3 through it so far, but excellente. I’m at Wendy’s committing zero micro aggressions. A memory trick I once learned for five major empires of the Middle East prior to Christ: Eat A Big Purple Grape. Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece – in that order. Too bad the mice didn’t stop Mohammed from arising.
Should have sent in the pigs instead.
You do realise that the Old Testament is a lying crook of shit
Anonymous, as a Christian, I feel sad for you.
You may not believe in God, but he exists. And your thinking God doesn’t exist doesn’t make it so.
I grew up a Christian, but didn’t take it, shall we say, to heart because there was a lot I still didn’t understand. After my son was born, I went back to college as an older student. My Christian belief was really challenged because Humanists made some good arguments as to why religion and God are man made (sort of like climate change.). I was torn. So I read the Bible several times and bought some books on Christianity to read to see if my belief in God was warranted. In the end, I was convinced God was real and Jesus were real and my faith was restored, and I haven’t looked back. And I continue reading books to deepen my understanding .
I would be happy to recommend some books if you want to challenge your own beliefs.
No difference between Christians Jews Muslims,all brainwashed ,destroyers of indigenous cultures the world over,anybody who follows this crap should move to the Middle East.i bet God looks down on these inbreds and thinks ,not in my name .
The true Christian religion doesn’t endorse destroying, nor war. In fact, 1st and 2nd century Christians didn’t join the army and, if they were in the army, after converting, they resigned their posts. One reason is the Roman army had it’s own religion and sacrifices. The other reason is early Christians took the commandment, do not murder, to heart. As do I.
Once back home Schnecharib had written in stone something like ….”I caged Jerusalem like a bird” John
Yeah I gotta say you pounded out a nice one Stucky.
At first, I thought you said “rubbed out”.
Iska…………you’ve been quite humorous recently.
Ancient Judaism is not based on the Old testament .It is the Oral Traditions of the Rabbinic Elders written down on paper which is now called the Talmud.Christ called them the ” Commandments of Men ” or ” Traditions of the Elders ”
1) Judaism’s Strange gods by Michael A Hoffman.
2) Goy guide to World History by E . Michael Jones
3) The Talmud Unmasked : the Secret Rabbinical Teaching Concerning Christians by I.B.Pranaitis Catholic Priest.
Once again BB shows himself to be a dumbfuck.
The Talmud indeed stemmed from the oral traditions, but the Torah (ie the first five books of the Tanakh (which is roughly equivalent to the old testament), as given to Moses by God) is the basis for the Jewish religion, and everything else comes after. To suggest that the Jewish religion is based on the Talmud and not the Torah is to deny the role of Judaism’s most central figure – Moses.
The Torah records God’s law. The Talmud records man’s law. And Man’s law is one reason Jesus railed against the Jews. They were following their man-made laws and traditions but forgetting the law of Moses. But Jesus fulfilled the law.
Speaking of Moses, this may prove interesting. The Exodus Revealed:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnMwW-GAKvA
Another good one is … Freemasonry is a Jewish Luciferian Satanic Cult.- Documentary.
You can find them all on YouTube or you can just Google .Well worth you time to watch and read. There’s so much information on the Internet and in the libraries no Jew can claim innocent or ignorance of So called Judaism.Much of it written by other Jews.
Stuck!
Engineering students need the Cliff Notes!
musket – abridged edition (Stuck’s thesis, not mine, but it is a bit of fun):
Northern Kingdom Jews (the ten lost tribes of Israel) were wiped out by the Assyrians
The remaining Tribe of Judah in Jerusalem was surrounded by Assyrians and were going to be wiped out, and that would have meant no Jewish/Christian/Moslem religions as there would have been no Jews left, from which these religions sprung.
The attack was not undertaken owing to losses/illness/death caused by rodents spreading plague.
Thus, rodents can be thanked for the existence of the three religions.
There it is – the extremely abridged version.
You forgot the part about God leading the mice to their dinner — the most important part.
Stucky between masturbations please take the time to watch these videos. Michael Hoffman and E.Michael Jones are excellent Theologians / Historians.May Our Lord Jesus Christ himself bless you with wisdom so you will stop making the same mistakes about Judaism.One more thing Jesus was Not a Jew .He was a Galilean. The word Jew was invented along with Zionism in the late 1700s .It has only recently been used in the King James version .Meathead.
Once again BB shows himself to be dumbass incarnate.
What do Jews refer to themselves as? Yehudim. Tribe of Judah, from Torah book of Exodus. “Jew” sprang from the Old English around the year 1000, which itself sprang from Old French, etc., all going back to the yehudim.
But Jew is simply the translation through Aramaic, Koine Greek, etc. of the Jewish name for themselves – Yehudim.
Great research work, Llpoh.
He may want to include in his reading the works of Benjamin H. Freedman and Dr. Ashraf Ezzat and Sholmo Sand to name a few more.
You mean to tell me the old testament isn’t Gospel! gotcha…..
Gospel means “good news” and the “good news” that Jesus has risen didn’t come until the New Testament, so the Old Testament, no, not the Gospel. But the foundations of the Gospel.
Llpoh,
I don’t think we knew you knew stuff like that. Running a manufacturing company, sure. Emigrating to Australia, sure. Eating pan bread, sure. Bible stuff – I was unawares. This is a great place.
Iska – I know more, or at least knew more at one time, about this stuff than anyone who posts on TBP, with no disrespect intended to Stuck, who does a great job.
I have read tens of thousands of pages of scholarly work on this, averaging around 600+ pages a week for years. I studied under some of the world’s foremost Judaic and Ancient Near East scholars, was fortunate enough to have read their own translations of the Dead Sea Scrolls, etc., and generally do not comment on this stuff because I grew sick to death of it. Plus, who can really discuss this in depth other than scholars and folks such as Stuck who are afficionados? Most folks are clueless, or have ridiculous positions a.k.a. those espoused by BB, and nothing you say can convince them of anything.
Yes, TBP is a great place. People know a lot about many things. Too bad there are also some few that think they know, and know not.
You’re an enigma llpoh, which is why you’re one of my favorite posters.
I never would have put this together about your life, had you not shared it with us.
Very interesting. Thanks for sharing.
Thanks Tim.
Llpoh, have you ever thought of writing a book, or at least have it ghostwritten? I would love to plumb the depth of your knowledge.
Make a deal with you. If you don’t want to write a book, make recordings of what you know and I’ll transcribe them for a book for you. This knowledge, to me, at least, would be priceless.
I’ve read there are thousands upon thousands of first and second century Christian writings at the Vatican that haven’t even been translated yet. I know you studied Judaism, but do you know anything about that? Have you looked into it?
If you’re interested in a book, you can probably get my email address from Admin. If not, just ask and I’ll give it to you.
Vic – there are untold manuscripts in the Vatican and elsewhere. And many I suspect are hidden intentionally.
Thanks for the offer. I think I will try to explain why I am an enigma ometime soon. I am a man of vast conflicting backgrounds, cultures, family, etc. I sit uncomfortably in most worlds, but am most comfortable with country folk.
Well, the Bible says Christians are separate from this world, and Jesus said his kingdom is not of this world, so I hope that thought will help. Although it may seem superficial, it can be interpreted as a caring wish for you.
I, myself, am 1/4 eastern Cherokee out of North Carolina. My grandmother was full Cherokee. I wish I was old enough to talk to her when she was alive, but she died when I was small. Though I’m a Christian, I really like some of the ideas about the world that the Cherokee had.
Nice and interesting article, Stucky. Now if we could just find a multitude of mice to eat Islam …
The majority of religions worshiped in this day and age do not encouraged violence. They did in the past, and though they were called religions, in today’s terms, they would be called a “cult.” (I know there’s a bigger definition of “cult,” but I’m just talking about the way the word is used nowadays.) It seems to me Islam is not a religion but an ideology. Am I wrong to think this? Therefore, should there be religious freedom for Muslims? Just a thought.
Hey Vic! Speaking of Islam, here is how I currently describe it to my acquaintances: “Islam is not a religion. Islam is a religion PLUS a form of government.” That PLUS is what makes the big difference…
One of the advances of Christianity is that it moved the focus of religion from the external to the internal. The important thing is not that you pray loudly but that you pray sincerely. The important thing is not the size of your offering, but is your desire to give. This change in religious emphasis from external to internal allowed the West to divide religious life from secular life, and led to our view that while we may hold our own religious beliefs, our government could be a separate and SECULAR institution.
Certainly there are Muslims who have incorporated that change into their religion — but they have done so at the expense of ignoring certain parts of the Koran. One could say something similar about the Jews and the Old Testament, although I think far fewer Jews support a theocracy. Unfortunately, the percentage of Muslims who still hold to the old idea that government is merely a branch of religion is far too high to allow unrestricted entry of Muslims into the US. As long as Islam incorporates the idea that religion and government are the same, it will be totally incompatible with Western culture.
Actually, muslim theoreticians themselves have said that Islam is not a religion. The Islamic scholar Abdul Maududi has said, as recently as 1980:
“But the truth is that Islam is not the name of a religion, nor is Muslim the title of a nation. In reality Islam is a revolutionary ideology and programme which seeks to alter the social order of the whole world and rebuild it in conformity with its own tenets and ideals.” (Jihad in Islam, Holy Qur’an Publishing House, Beirut Lebanon, 1980.)
That “revolutionary ideology” was, and still is, couched in religious terms to give it greater authenticity and acceptance in the minds of the primitive peoples to whom it was originally exposed and promulgated.
That’s very true. Few people seem to remember that Christianity was a movement OUTSIDE of government. In fact, they were persecuted by their government in the early days. Christians are supposed to follow man’s law as long as it doesn’t interfere with God’s law. If it does, then you follow God’s law and take whatever consequences, including death. And that is how early Christians lived their lives.
And what you say about prayer is true. And doesn’t the Bible teach that we pray in private and not a make a show of it?
We should tolerate any religion that doesn’t intrinsically require its adherents – by its immutable founding document(s) – to subjugate non-adherents and that doesn’t manifestly violate the human rights of those who by virtue of their age or inculcation are members of that religion without having freely chosen it.
This makes me think of the phrases the best laid plans of mice and men “oft go agley” and when man makes plans, God laughs.
Stucky, for someone who claims to lean deiest, you sure seem to wrestle with Yahweh as much, if not more, than did Jacob at Peniel.
I found both your post, and the video of Nineveh, to be very enjoyable and thought provoking.
Thanks, Uncola.
Insightful of you to make the “Jacob at Peniel” connection.
I will be truthful with you. There are still days when I truly miss being a Believer. The feeling that there is Something Greater than me out there … who loves and cares about me … who will ultimately make all things good again … who, after death, will unite me with people I love (like you, lol!) …. who has my back ….. well, you just can’t beat that warm and fuzzy feeling.
It is in times like that when I choke …..
It is often hard here to skirt the theological. For many, it is one bridge too far. I believe ALL debates are rooted in theology and this may be the “movie” Scott Adams says we all have in our minds.
As for me, I try to keep an open mind and an appreciation for that which no one on this blue marble can fully understand.
If I were one beggar telling another where to get bread, I would refer you to Mark 9:24.
We can ask, seek and knock and often not get answers. In the interem, I, personally, consider “wrestling” to be worthwhile.
I would like to write a C.S. Lewis comparison (Screwtape Letters) piece that would paint the MSM as “Wormwood”, but it probably wouldn’t find an audience in the circles I run in now.
It reminds me of the little kid who asked his priest what the birds ate on Noah’s ark since there were only two worms.
Maybe someday we’ll have the answers. I’d like to think so. Until then, I’ll just hope to know one day and call this “faith”.
Remember, Noah had to pack up dried seeds and dried fruit for food and to plant after the flood. There didn’t seem to be a limit on dried fruits and veggies. I’m sure that the birds were allowed to eat some of those before the worms reproduced, repeatedly.
And don’t forget the woman whose oil and flour replenished itself each day when she only had enough to share for one day. Could be the same principle.
OK, don’t say anything about my belief in miracles!!! I’m sure you’ve heard that every child born is a miracle. When I was pregnant and started reading all the literature about what to do, what not to do while pregnant, and the many things that could go wrong, I can tell you, after all that, we’re lucky kids are born at all!
Speaking of miracles and Noah’s Ark, it’s been found, on Mount Judy in the Ararat Mountains. (Notice the Bible reference says “in” the Ararat Mountains not “on” Mount Ararat.)
Mark 9:24 is a powerful prayer. If you really want to know God, he will lead you. I’m still on my own journey.
“To suggest that ‘Israel would have disappeared off the face of the earth, forever’ is drawing a very, very long bow, given that significant numbers of Jews still lived in the northern Kingdom, and were still in Mesopotamia.”
——— Llpoh
OK. Maybe I employed some literary license. Is that so wrong?
You are absolutely correct that the Assyrians did not deport ALL of the Northern Kingdom’s inhabitants …. and that some moved to Judah. However, further research tells me that the Assyrians probably deported all the intelligentsia, aristocrats, the wealthy …. pretty much anybody who could cause problems down the line. They life behind the poor illiterate farmers. And how can you maintain a religion with farmers? (No offense to hardscrabble farmer!)
I don’t think I draw a “very, very long bow” at all.
What happened to the Amorites? The Moabites? The Hittites … which were much more powerful and numerous than the Israelites? And countless other ME/Mesopotamian nations and peoples? Gone. Gone. Gone.
So, why is unfathomable the same could have happened with Judaism had the Assyrians conquered Jerusalem?
If the Assyrians won that battle, then about 20 years later, Judah would not have made another alliance with Egypt. And without the Egyptian alliance, there would have been no need for Nebuchadnezzar to invade Judah, and take them back to Babylon. And even most Jewish scholars acknowledge the profound changes made to the religion while in Babylon. Heck, even the Pentateuch’s final editing was done either in Babylon, or shortly after they returned from there. And, without those significant changes, Judaism might not have survived anyway in its previous form. Which could have resulted in them Gone, just as countless others before them.
Yeah …. it’s all pure speculation.
But, the Battle That Never Was is not speculation. That’s fact. And it’s truly amazing how throughout the history of warfare that it is the teeny tiny unexpected thing that affects the outcome …. rather than some grand master strategy formulated by the Generals.
For example, I have a book on several actual battles in the Civil War that could have easily resulted in a total Confederate victory … and in almost all cases the “thing” that could have changed the outcome is, just like Sennacherib’s mice, very minor and seemingly inconsequential. One of these days I might do a summary on that.
Anyway, thank you for the compliment you gave me at the end. It is appreciated.
Stuck – I said it was generally good. What more do you want? That is high praise.
The reality is there is but one guy around here who can pick nits on this stuff, and that is me. Do you want just a series of “Gee, Stuck, that sure is some great stuff there!!!”, or do you want something a bit more in depth?
It is a very good thing you have done. You have spun a wonderful tale. But I cannot let it go to your head. And fact is, you embellished, damn it, and had a couple rushes of blood. And I spotted it.
You are right – I did it just to stir you. Someone has to.
BTW – it was better than generally good. 🙂
I’ll be glad to pit a nit. How about the use of the term, “figure of speech”. Look up E.W. Bullinger. There’s a few others, but why cast pearls before swine? I agree with LL, it’s generally good.
Even so, the article only further establishes Stukfuk’s willful ignorance. I see little has changed in my exile.
Please do a summary of the civil war bit. I would be interested.
“For example, I have a book on several actual battles in the Civil War that could have easily resulted in a total Confederate victory … and in almost all cases the “thing” that could have changed the outcome is, just like Sennacherib’s mice, very minor and seemingly inconsequential.”
For a more recent example consider the Battle of Midway. Absolutely pivotal in the Pacific War. It ended Japanese offensive conquest just 6 months after the U.S. entered the war and they were long odds indeed against American victory.
History is full is full of examples. For want of a nail the kingdom was lost.
So, another teaching from the secular bibliologist.
According to God, the Angel of the Lord killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers overnight before they could lay siege to Jerusalem. This is similar to the night of the passover when the firstborn was slain of every Egyptian or household that did not have the blood of a lamb on the the doorposts. I’ll have to check back on Stucky’s blasphemic summary of Exodus to see if that was also caused by mice.
As to the assertion that the ten tribes of Israel no longer exist (“From a historical perspective, the ten tribes of Israel no longer exist. “The fact of history is this; the Israelites deported by Sargon II have disappeared forever and ever, nameless and faceless, into the sands of northern Mesopotamia.”) I beg to differ.
In the first place, if that were so, then the blessings given the sons of Joseph (Mannassah and Ephriam) by Jacob (Israel) could never come to pass making the promises God gave to Abraham, Isaac, jacob, and now Joseph via Jacob null and void. God doesn’t do null and void.
Let’s review the blessing: Genesis 48:14-20
And Israel stretched out his right hand, and laid it upon Ephraim’s head, who was the younger, and his left hand upon Manasseh’s head, guiding his hands wittingly; for Manasseh was the firstborn. And he blessed Joseph, and said, God, before whom my fathers Abraham and Isaac did walk, the God which fed me all my life long unto this day, The Angel which redeemed me from all evil, bless the lads; and let my name be named on them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac; and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth. And when Joseph saw that his father laid his right hand upon the head of Ephraim, it displeased him: and he held up his father’s hand, to remove it from Ephraim’s head unto Manasseh’s head. And Joseph said unto his father, Not so, my father: for this is the firstborn; put thy right hand upon his head. And his father refused, and said, I know it, my son, I know it: he also shall become a people, and he also shall be great: but truly his younger brother shall be greater than he, and his seed shall become a multitude of nations. And he blessed them that day, saying, In thee shall Israel bless, saying, God make thee as Ephraim and as Manasseh: and he set Ephraim before Manasseh.
It wasn’t until Layard uncovered the Assyrian palace at Nineveh and its library containing over 23, 000 clay tablets that the trail of the “lost ten tribes” would be discovered. The Assyrian text of 1471 tablets (letters) was published by R.F. Harper but was not translated into English until 1930. The “letters” covering the sweep of the Assyrian empire in the seventh century, B.C. contained references to the captive Israelites. It was later learned that the Assyrians had different names for the Israelites that were overlooked by previous translators. They were known as Gimera (son’s of Omri) and also Iskuza (sons of Isaac).
“It can now be truly said – archeology has solved two great mysteries, both occuring at the same time in history:
1. What happened to the countless thousands of Israelites that “disappeared” into Assyrian captivity?
2. Where did the countless thousands of Scythians and Cimmerians come from?
Both mysteries no longer exist. The so called “lost tribes” of Israel were never really lost. They only lost their identity during their captivity in Assyria.” – E. Raymond Capt Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets.
If you want to know what happened to Israel, look no further than the British Isles (and their multitude of nations) (Ephriam) and the United States (Manasseh). Where British Israelism got it wrong was that they thought they would receive tickets to heaven based upon their heritage. That was never the promise. Britain became a mighty multitude of nations and the USA, a great nation just like God promised. Interesting, though, that these were the great Protestant nations that brought the good news of the gospel of Jesus Christ to the rest of the world.
Just wondering, did you get that from “Willmington’s Guide to the Bible?” If so, it’s inaccurate.
No, I did not use a bible commentary but did reference the archaeology info. What did you find that was in error?
I’ve seen too many of these maps showing where the lost tribes of Israel have turned up. They all contradict each other. You have to be very careful of your sources. Many are trying to prove their version of the coming Apocalypse.
And I should say, I am a Post Millennialist. I don’t believe in an Apocalypse. I believe Revelations depicts, not an Apocalypse, but what happened when the Roman army destroyed Jerusalem in 70 A..D., as Jesus said it would.
Why did the priests of the Middle Ages talk about Judgment Day and not the Apocalypse or the “Tribulation?” Something to think about. The “Apocalypse” is a modern-day interpretation of Revelations.
1. My use of “lads” was part of a direct quote from the KJV of Genesis.
2. If you believe that God’s wrath depicted in Revelation was fulfilled in 70 AD that is a concept concocted by Jesuits (in an attempt to take the pressure of the Reformation off of Rome.)
3. The “narrow gate” is likely narrow because most Christians, although they believe, fail to keep the commandments as Jesus taught throughout the gospels as well as in His Revelation. “Here is the patience of the saints: here are they that keep the commandments of God, and the faith of Jesus.”
4. The “lost tribes” may be lost to us but archaeology proves they stuck together and migrated out of Mesopotamia in large waves. God knows where they are and He has plans for them that we may not understand. It is relevant to us as Christians because God made end time promises to both the House of Israel and the House of Judah. God is always faithful to His Word. Ignore the ten tribes if you will but don’t let secular humanists like Schmucky convince you that a promise of God is anything but a future reality.
5. Nice comment on spiritual swords. Words lost, however, on those who deny God, His Word, and who blaspheme His character.
First, you quote me (emphasis mine) —- “From a historical perspective, the ten tribes of Israel no longer exist.”
Then you say — “I beg to differ.”
Then you launch into a Bible study!
What’s the word I’m looking for? Ironic? Funny? Crazy?
———-
I did NOT write a Bible Study article. I kept the number of Scriptures quoted here at a minimum …. just enough to tell the story.
You obviously don’t understand “historical”. It means ‘from history’. Stuff that actually happened, and can actually be verified OUTSIDE of the bible. I made it pretty clear, at least twice, that I have no interest in the miracle aspects.
—-
But, you have your own agenda. I won’t debate your bible study conclusions … except to say the following for the benefit of those not knowledgeable in such obscure stuff.
Yes, there are many who believe the 10 Tribes are not lost. Yes, there are even many who believe they can identify the current whereabouts of the 10 Tribes. Yes, some believe they are found in England. But, why stop there? I think the Mormons believe it’s the American Indian. Some believe they reside in Ethiopia. There are even those who believe they are in Japan. Really.
In other words, there’s no shortage of fucken crazy ideas regarding the 10 tribes. Google “books on lost ten tribes of Israel”. Wow, you’ll find enough reading material to last you a year or more. ALL of it, imho, a bunch of fantasy.
Again, my article isn’t about fantasy. Or, a bible study. I tried to keep it about history.
============
Finally and lastly. Well, ditchner, since you actually believe an angel killed 185,000 soldiers in one evening ….. since angels are spirit, did the angel use a spirit sword or physical sword? Wouldn’t a spirit sword just go THROUGH a physical body? After killing about 400 soldiers per minute, didn’t his arms get tired? And, with all those dead bodies laying around, was there any spirit cooking afterwards? TIA.
When you write an article, historical or otherwise, of an event described in the bible you would be a fool not to expect a believer to comment on it, using scripture, particularly if it is in disagreement with God’s Word, would you not? You even preface your version of history with an introduction of biblical material (“The Old Testament tells us that Israel achieved its greatest land mass, power, and wealth under King Solomon…”)
It is true that I supplied a biblical quote for the purpose of showing how your conclusion of history indirectly contradicts the Word of God. Here is another for your edification:
Hosea 1 …4. Then the Lord said to Hosea, “Call him Jezreel, because I will soon punish the house of Jehu for the massacre at Jezreel, and I will put an end to the kingdom of Israel. 5 In that day I will break Israel’s bow in the Valley of Jezreel.”
Hosea 1 …10. “Yet the Israelites will be like the sand on the seashore, which cannot be measured or counted. In the place where it was said to them, ‘You are not my people,’ they will be called ‘children of the living God.’”
Therefore, oh historical one, according to the bible, God (speaking through his prophet, Hosea, promised to destroy the kingdom of Israel but also, at a later time, to restore it. Therefore, either God lied or you and your historical sources got it wrong. I’m betting on God as I always do.
In addition to relevant bible verses I provided archeological evidence that refutes your version of history, or did you miss that?
The history of the Scythians and Cimmerians is well known. Their migrations lead across Asia and Europe and end in the British Isles and NW Europe. Logically, that is the place to look for the remnants of the lost tribes. By observing the heraldry of these same nations, you will notice that they match up nicely with the standards of the ancient Israelites.
You claim I don’t know the meaning of blasphemy. “You see, you don’t even know the meaning of the word ‘blasphemy’. No, not at all. So, you are an idiot. Literally.” If that were true, it would make me ignorant, not an idiot. But since I do know the meaning (Webster: the act of insulting or showing contempt or lack of reverence for God) i see it applies perfectly to the contempt you show for God’s Word and His abilities to perform miracles. I also recognize that blasphemy in the bible has a narrower meaning as one who assumes to be God or to take on some power, such as the forgiving of sins, that belongs to God alone. So, to be clear, what you do in your articles is to misrepresent the character of God (such as unbelief if His power to work miracles) which is the same as taking His Name in Vain, the third commandment, often associated with blasphemy.
My observation of your posts and behavior here leads me to conclude that your ornery nature is only exceeded by your pride and arrogance. No wonder that God’s Holy Spirit finds no home you and by default you work for the opposition (much to the delight of the readership which also is not unnoticed.) Your use of “IMHO” (in my humble opinion) makes little sense as humility does not appear to be a part of your nature. Your byline, “I’m right, you’re wrong. Deal with it.” says it all.
I swear on my soul … Satan’s honor … that I do NOT read ANY of your posts that are longer than a short paragraph. Say, three or four sentences.
Sometimes I scan the longer ones REAL QUICK … so as to not get infected by whatever brainfuk disease you have, cuz it might be contagious.
So whatever the fuck you’re babbling about above, I truly have no damned clue. I won’t read it. Cuz you bore to fucken tears me with your Canned Crapola Cliches.
I’m just trying to save you some time. So, you should thank me for this post.
Excellent reply Stucky.
I read Ditch’s post so maybe I can help out. He thinks himself one of the Priests in the Temple. He alone gets to play the guitar. All the rest of us are expected to sit in quiet reverence, for the words and interpretations that flow thru him and him alone. It is for him to decide what is right and what is wrong.
You Stucky are the interloper, the false prophet as far as he is concerned. He would like no more than nail you to a cross!
He is one of the Priests shreiking in the Temple of Syrinx
His Bible is just,
Another toy will help destroy
The elder race of man
Forget about your silly whim
It doesn’t fit the plan.
This world needs a shout out to the solar Federation
to assume control.
That way People can sing songs
that are their own.
The music man.
“This world needs a shout out to the solar Federation to assume control.”
So, Rins, you’re a Canadian sun worshiper? No wonder you suck up to Sucky.
No ditch you fucktard I like the song.
The stoopid burns deep in you.
Calling me a Sun Whoreshopper
Keep beliefing in Horus.
http://www.near-death.com/reincarnation/jesus/horus.html
[img[/img]
It doesn’t matter where the lost tribes ended up, as far as Christianity is concerned. Their relevance no longer matters. Christianity replaced the Jewish nation as the chosen people after Jesus is resurrected. The Jewish nation is no longer relevant in the Bible.
If you’ll remember, during the Middle Ages, Jews were despised. They were accused of being the killers of Christ. Jews did not gain respect until the Rothchilds started loaning money to monarchs during the 17th century. Isn’t that odd?
True. In God’s word, Judaism is dead…destroyed along with the second temple.There will be no third.
Flash- How can you say there will be no third temple with such certainty? You better let Da Joos in on it.
I really am a bad typist and a lazy writer, so just watch the vid I posted explaining it all..but watch this one first.
Flash- I will have to watch the Jeebus films later, some of us Niggahs still work. My blood sucking CPA wants me to get my shit done so he can work on it. I fukkin hate tax crap and tax time. There is no peace from this hell until we go to be with Jeebus. 🙂
No offense, Stucky, but spiritual swords don’t even need seconds. It’s allegory for God’s hand. Doesn’t matter how.
First off, you used the word “lad.” No further comment required on that one.
Interesting Schtuppy, but I dont know what to believe about any of it. My mother told me when I was a small boy that the 10 lost tribes were the British people and Queen Elizabeth could trace her ancestry back to King David, like Jesus, so I kind of just believed it. I just thought they should be darker complexion then. I probably also believed it because of the creation, close relations, and protection of Israel with the UK and US because a lot of them like to believe it. I long ago even heard that the US had 13 stripes and stars because it was the 13th tribe, Manasses. Now I think about it, that makes no fucking sense.
Big Injun Chief of the Highest Cloud ,Watch those Documentaries on Judaism and their history.Judaism is based on the Talmud.The old testament so called Jews were Israelites or Hebrews.The old testament is the history of redemption through the covenants God Made with Himself and Man.Judaism and the Old testament are completely different . Christ said several times that the old testament was about Him. Revealed Him.
As the great Lon Solomon says at the end of his sermons….
“Sooooo What!!”
Excellent work Stuck. Very informative and entertaining; achieving both in an historical research piece can be very difficult.
Thank you for the time and effort you put in.
Did I miss something?
I thought that Abraham’s son with the servant girl was the father of Islam.
Wasn’t that way before this?If so,why was Islam saved by the battle not being fought?
What a pathetic (and long-winded) example of Yidcuck!
Reject the desert demon yahweh and his fictitious son.
Why did you waste your time reading it? Please, don’t waste any more of it here with us deserted monkeys hoping for some manna.
First of all, let me tell you I have NOT read the article in its entirety, just skimmed through for familiar names and faces.
I taught a Sunday School class in a megachurch when the young man was but a tot. They bought these little booklets that had a “teaching guide” intended to help a volunteer teacher like myself introduce the stories of the Bible to a dozen or more tiny tots being indoctrinated into believing their natures were completely sinful and wicked if they didn’t sit quietly learning the stories.
Since I was also taking some pretty rigorous academic classes at the time, I attacked the SS (interesting acronym for Sunday School… I smell conspiracy and masonry – the bricklaying kind) problem with the same devotion to learning. I figured that just like anything I’d been trying to learn after a dozen years just having the time of my life in jet jammies, I would need to research it. So, instead of just reading the lesson aloud and doing the nonsensical “learning activities” (Is coloring a picture of Jesus really the way to understand Him?), I decided that I would devote a few hours studying the Bible each Saturday at the end of my busy week cramming a full load of classes into one day and a night so my baby didn’t have to be at a DAYCARE (shudder) with those other icky kids.
One Sunday, I remember explaining how Samuel got dumped off by his mother and telling the horrified kids that “no, he didn’t get lonely and cry at night for his mommy” and that the Lord spoke to Samuel in a still small voice (or was that Elijah?) and made him happy to have been abandoned to an old guy who couldn’t hear the Lord.
I may have shared how my decision to present EACH commandment to the kids in a way that made sense to 3-to-5 year old kids who were really pretending to listen so they could get a cookie when I finished. Well, after trying to convince them that “You shall not misuse the name of the Lord your God, for the Lord will not hold anyone guiltless who misuses his name, ” had nothing to do with potty mouths and I tried hard to convince them that had something to do with trying to force God to do bad things to people you wanted bad things to happen to (avoiding the word “curse” at all possible costs). Within a few minutes, I had a dozen or more eager tots ready to blurt out and teach one another every filthy word they’d ever heard. When the pastor’s granddaughter was trying to ascertain the correct pronunciation of “Motherfucker” from that little black kid who came about once a month with his granny and I was explaining to another brat that just because little Johnie’s mother wasn’t married did not make him a Bastard, I decided that class had ended. I told the kids it was time to watch Veggie Tales and play because the rest of the commandments were overrated. I also told the pastor’s granddaughter that if Grampy asked, her class just had a playday and we didn’t do SHIT. I may have used that word.
I went home and had a bottle of wine with lunch that day. I needed it because I’d just taught about 15 kids every swear word the children of good Christian people needed to know. I knew some of them as teenagers growing up in school with my son. Only a couple ended up in juvenile court.
Supposedly, our species isn’t capable of learning our lessons.
Apparently, when you invade and conquer a place, you need to eliminate everyone and everything that might try to take it back someday. You don’t hand out consolation prizes (or land or restitution or restore their relics to them or anything. You came, you won and to the victor goes the spoils!) to the descendants of a conquered peoples. Agamemnon knew that when he threw the babies off the walls of Troy. But, for some reason when you tell a pack of 3-to-5 year old humans just able to absorb words and turn them into meaning and put their pure childlike intellect to work on the information that God wanted every single man, woman and child killed for His beloved Israel to inherit the Promised Land, almost every single one of them will say something along the lines of what Joey said when I practiced my reasoning for the mass murder of innocents to him that Sunday on the way to church. “That doesn’t seem like a very Christian thing to do.”
My answer? “God is not a Christian.”
It was a profound moment.
A story that left me smiling.
Hey, you could have used me as a helper. Not for the bible stories. You got that covered well enough.
But because you’re a midwest gal and there’s no way that you can correctly pronounce “motherfucker” like a Jersey boy can … who also learned that word before even first grade. Hell, you can’t even spell it right! It’s muthafucka.
Stucky Sunday School (SSS) lesson is now over.
By the way, the granddaughter grew up to be a Miss Oklahoma Outstanding Teen in 2011. I saw her shortly afterward and she remembered me. She remembered that class too.
Miss Oklahoma Outstanding Teen – I think they award that to every virgin in the state when they turn 15? Most years no award, by memory.
“I’ll have to check back on Stucky’s blasphemic summary of Exodus to see if that was also caused by mice. ” ——- bitchner
You’re an idiot. Not because you didn’t like my Exodus post … because I couldn’t live a mouse’s ass. But, because my summary was only …well, a SUMMARY. There were only about 200 words of commentary (in a 6,000 word SUMMARY), and even then it was only for clarification … NOT opinion.
You see, you don’t even know the meaning of the word ‘blasphemy’. No, not at all. So, you are an idiot. Literally.
Call it what you will, you’re still a skeptic of the truth of God’s word. I suppose by definition, then, enslaved. Poor misbegotten soul.
And just a couple of days ago you were crying about not offering anything of value or something to that effect.
That took me two days to read through, I had a hard time with it in the first attempt but I wanted to give it a fair shake.
A couple of thoughts: If more people took this kind of analytical approach to the Bible instead of allowing other people to tell them what’s in it there’d be a lot of people who were far better informed about what they believe. I’m becoming convinced that one of the most important traits of a true believer (in anything, whether political ideology, religion or creed) is a lack of knowledge. These are faith based belief systems and those depend on emotions rather than facts. The more you analyze the factual data and the meat of each story the more you come away with that eyeballs looking for the exits kind of look on your face. You do a real service with these breakdowns although most folks who need to read them are the least likely to.
The comments are always off in left field with your posts, but one thing that always seems to happen is that by digging into the topic the people you’d least expect to hear say it come out with the “there must be something more” kind of response. The exact opposite of what you’d expect. You’re a kind of epistemological prophet to the right-hand side of the Bell Curve.
Very interesting stuff. I especially liked the part about the guys crapping in their chariots, that was especially funny and not a line you’ll likely encounter in a modern church.
Ha! I said something like “I inspire no one here and without my jokes I’m nothing more than just another asshole commentator”
I meant it at the time. I was really down in the dumps. Not just stuff going on here on TBP, but some personal stuff.
A number of my friends here set me straight. But, you especially gave me a stern talk. I needed it to get out of my pity party. You and others did what friends do, — help each other out. Again, I am appreciative of you and others more than you know.
“Certainly there are Muslims who have incorporated that change into their religion — but they have done so at the expense of ignoring certain parts of the Koran.” ——– Jason Calley
What do you call a Muslim who “incorporates that change”? A: A DEAD Muslim who tried to incorporate change. Seriously. Actually, there have been several Muslims who could have been the Islamic version of Luther. But, it never takes. Fatwas are issued promptly to ANY poor sap who wants to change Islam …. even minor attempts at modernization result in calls for “off with his head!!”.
That’s why I estimate with 99% certainty that Islam will never change. Their shitty 7th century beliefs will always be at odds with Western ways. That’s why I would eagerly support a near 100% ban on their entrance into the United States.
Great post and thoughts, Jason.
(BTW, I often (not always) enter responses at the end so that people who don’t use the Dashboard to read posts won’t have to scroll through the entire thread sequence to find new posts.)
The worst parts of Islam are in the Koran. It’s unreformable.
You’re an asshole, stukfuk, nothing more, nothing less, and never will be anything else out of willful ignorance.
The 185,000 were killed during the siege at Libnah, which was a fortified city between Lakish and Jerusalem. Sennacherib had to eliminate that fortified city in order to protect his flank and supply lines for the final conquest of the capital of Judah.
These were his assault troops, but were likely less than half of the total army. This explains how he had the wherewithal to put down the Babylonian insurrection. How the Angel of the Lord accomplished the overnight slaughter at Libnah is not recorded. The hearsay of Herodotus is just that, long after the event.
But the prophecy that Sennacherib would not fire a single arrow at Jerusalem was fulfilled with his abrupt departure back to Nineveh.
Good comment.
Velikovsky-Worlds in Collision-comet/planet Venus-plagues of Egypt. Talk about divine intervention!
Stucky-
Look, there are no lack of stories about Da Joos and divine intervention because “They are the chosen people”. Angels pouring out plagues, mice chewing up arrows………whatever. Stories that tell of 100 Joos holding off 50,000 of the enemy for months with no food and water etc. are to prove their declaration of being God’s chosen. The Black Nobility and Da Joos wrote the book, so no surprise.
The debate as to where the tribes have gone…….why should we care? They are everywhere, usually located in a bank or stock exchange, or the halls of gooberment. Why keep asking? Why do YOU care?
Also, the posts by the preferred was riveting, experts and storytellers alike. But hey, they toe the line and carry the water.
“Why keep asking?” —– Bea
Keep? I don’t recall ever asking the question before.
“Why do YOU care?” —— Bea
Actually, I don’t care about the Ten Tribes at all.
This started out to be strictly a military article. My alternate title was “The Greatest Battle Never Fought”. I was reading a book at B&N … something about Strange Military Battles …. and the book focused on the very very odd and strange things that altered some of history’s greatest battles. Things having nothing to do with grand strategies from brilliant minds. Things like weather, carrier pigeons that flew to the wrong place, etc., and, yes, plagues.
The Sennacherib story got a brief mention. But, it left out very much detail. I started this over a month ago. I didn’t work on in every day … and, only in about one hour spurts. My first draft was less than 500 words. It only focused on the lack-of water theme and the words from Herodotus. But, then I decided I needed to fill-in-the-gaps. And before you know it … it’s a 5,000 word post!
Glad you liked it.
It was a great article. Really stirred debate.
Not sure where this came from, but it reminded me of some of the TBP readers replies to Stucky’s masterful post.
A congressman was seated next to a little girl on an airplane. He turned to her and said, “Do you want to talk? Flights go quicker if you strike up a conversation with your fellow passenger.”
The little girl, who had just started to read her book, replied, “What do you want to talk about?”
“Oh, I don’t know,” said the congressman. He smiled smugly. “How about a guy named Stucky’s commentary about the Lost Tribes of Israel?
“OK,” she said. “Those could be an interesting topic. But let me ask you a question first.”
“What’s that?”
“A horse, a cow, and a deer all eat the same stuff—grass. Yet a deer excretes little pellets, while a cow turns out a flat patty, and a horse produces clumps. Why do you suppose that is?” the girl asked.
The congressman, visibly surprised by the little girl’s intelligence, thought about it. “Hmmm, I have no idea,” he said.
To which the little girl replied, “Do you really feel qualified to discuss Stucky’s take on the Jews when you don’t know shit?”
To which I add ….. ain’t that the truth!
LMFAO!
LMFAO!
Really …. I’m LMFAO!!!
You tell ’em pal!!!!!!!!!
I am in prayerful repose these days, Stucky, with some serious shit hitting the fan here. Nothing we can’t handle, but little time to blog with you monkeys.
However, I do want to mention that my Turf-building Chubby Bunny Pellets are superior to either cow or horse shit for garden plotting.
As for Israel? Holy Cow.
CountZero,
Now that was a clever little ditty joke.
& *Stucky, your work is appreciated, and your cleverness as well.
I know God exists because he visited me once and talked to me.
It was very scary at the time. God is the power of Good, or call
it loving/accepting oneself and treating others with kindness
and acceptance. Period. That’s all.
The Bible and all the stories/history/fables and so on are man
made and political. Jesus? A Gandhi, a good man. Son of God?
I don’t think so. Just an opinion here, and a note of appreciation
for you. It is very difficult growing older, and taking care of fragile
parents. Take heart, hug your lovely wife. Life is short, we do our best.
Love,
Suzanna
@Susy: Right on nice lady…
Thanks Suzanna. You’re one of the sweetest ladies ever on TBP, not just to me, but to many.
First off, Stuck, right or wrong, believable or not, you just wrote one of the best pieces ever posted on TBP about the biblical origin of the Jews and Israel’s continuing trials and tribulations with the Mooslims I ever read.
It may be a well interpreted history extracted from the bible and other sources and it may be as accurate as anything I’ve read on the subject. And it may not, but I really don’t care.
You did all of us at TBP a big favor doing the work, research and writing and posting it here.. Killed damn near a whole day for me between reading, re-reading and thinking about what you wrote. Not too shabby for a piss-ant web site like TBP..
Thank you. Down the road friend..
Ho Lee Kow.
There are compliments. Then there are Muck Compliments! I am humbled by your most kind words. Thank You.
==============
I would have responded sooner but I had my regular Tuesday trip to the hospital with mom … now going into it’s 3rd or 4th month. But, good news!! The open ulcerated wound on her calf is starting to heal! Last week they started on some new experimental treatment … even needed specific permission from the insurance company … and it’s starting to take hold. We’re all elated in the Stucky household cuz things were starting to look really quite grim.
Thanks, again.
PS. I hope you and SSS have a chance to meet and have a beer.
I keep thinking about this post, Stuck so, I will give you a little (unnecessary) boost here towards 100. Maybe even 150, or 200 comments? 🙂
What is also bizarre is how the Levant of ISIL / ISIS so closely matches the ancient Assyrian Empire’s territory:
[img[/img]
Which, in turn, overlaps the land that God promised Abraham (via Jacob / Israel) in the Bible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Promised_Land
Some people believe there will be peace. I say, no flippin’ way. In this Fourth Turning, look for financial chaos and war over the next 7 – 8 years.
For cascading financial chaos, watch Japan. For ever-increasing crescendos of war, watch Israel.
It’s just beginning people. Hold on tight.
Both the land of Canaan AND the greater promise, that is. To the Euphrates. Is it over? I guess it depends if God is still a raging Zionist, or not. We may soon find out.
1oo.
@Unavoidable: I’m afraid you are absolutely 100% correct.. We’re climbing the rapidly rising slope toward the peak of the 4th Turning and it will be erratically down the shoot from here to the valley of despair death and destruction and despair, far, far, below.
It won’t be even, it won’t be constant, a lot of people will manage to live through it with a minimum of disturbance – we still have the Atlantic and Pacific to shield us from hoards.. Europe, the Middle East and Asia are not so lucky.
Ah, but the nukes… Not a respecter of oceans or distances at all. Those will turn parts of the world into green glass sheets. (Ever been to Trinity Site on the White Sands Range? I have and the green glass made from a nuke and sand is real!).
Thanks for the comment..
Thanks Muck! It appears just like Abraham to the land of Ur, you have been called to your own new land; the land of AZ. I wish you safe travels:
May the road rise to meet you.
May the wind be always at your back.
May the sun shine warm upon your face.
And until you post again,
I will just read what Admin and the other contributors post here until you get back online.
🙂
Godspeed Old Muck
Unaccountable, Abram left the land of Ur. AZ certainly would resemble Canaan but not the part Muck is going to, that place is cool due to the higher elevation.
And even tho Muck is almost as old as Abram was then, I doubt Miss Annette is ready to be a mom again.
Good catch. The “to” should have been “from”.
Yeah, well, your still barking up the wrong tree with the godspeed and biblical analogy since Muck is a true-blue die-hard atheist.
Not like these bandwagon atheists Rob and Rawdawg who will be on their knees in prayer at the drop of a lightning bolt.
EC
I’m thinking about using “Unforgiven” as my new name. Un’s are so common around TBP now, I could blend in and my sins will will be washed away.
EC,
I like it in your head; it’s nice and roomy.
Nah
I have been doing some reading. It seems after some investigation that Jesus was an impostor. A wannabe Eygptian God. ANYHOO… I’m going with Horus these days. He seems to have his shit together.
Jesus was just a guy.
Bea, you’ll have to annotate like DC Sunsets: Unforgiven (fomerly B Lever).
Ratdawg, I like you, otherwise I wouldn’t even mention you or my buddy Rob. Ask him if I ever dissed him, no I didn’t. He’s a cool dude, a little crude but cool. I think he’s the guy that says he’s into that Olympic sport, curling. I wonder if bowling is also an Olympic grade sport?
Hey quit dissing curling. A great sport with epic stragedy. I am having a fantastic week. My team won Monday Night. Brings to mind a classic piece of Comedy.
https://youtu.be/Fg-xnnShJlk
Now that’s a scary thought.
Stucky- I gotsta know……..do you believe the mice part of the story?
I read this article twice and YES I liked it but I was not referring only to you as to why (We) keep asking as to where the tribes may be. At this point in time/history we should know they will FIND us so (we) have no need to look for them. THEY are not lost, trust me.
Shalomo 🙂
“Stucky- I gotsta know……..do you believe the mice part of the story?”
———– Bea Lever
Absolutely. Because both sources are credible.
1. I already showed that the “angel of the Lord” is associated with bringing disease and plague. Isaiah tells us that God will afflict the Assyrians with a “wasting disease”. So, either some spirit being angel physically killed Assyrians, or a plague caused by mice killed them. I’m going with mice.
2. More importantly is the testimony of Herodotus. Because, motive. What possible motive would he have for lying about the Assyrian army being overrun with rodents? I can’t think of one.
====================
3. The scenario in the “Jahweh Intervenes” section … Note 3 is also quite reasonable. That’s where Sennacherib abandons Jerusalem and returns to Nineveh to address various uprisings … including a Babylonian rebellion. He gets involved in various campaigns, such as against Anatolia, almost immediately upon his return. He even eventually destroys Babylon. Yup, the political strife back home was much more serious than some Jewish backwater hole in the ground.
4. I give ZERO credibility to some angel killing 185,000 soldiers in one evening. You know why people believe that story? Because it’s in the Bible and no other reason …… no other proofs necessary, park you logic brain at the door, and stop asking stoopid questions, Stucky …. thank you very much.
6 Genuine Questions For 185k Believers
1. An angel kills 185K soldiers …. but not their leader? They let Sennacherib go?? . Does that make any sense? Nope!
2. Why did God send an angel? He could have just said “Drop dead”. Really, he could have. I mean, anyone who says “Let there be light” …. and that results in every fucken star in the universe being created …. surly can muster up dead bodies by telling them to drop dead! Why all the dramatics with this angel?
3. Judges 12:6 says Jephthah slaughtered 42,000 from the tribe of Ephraim. But, Numbers 26 says Ephraim only numbered 32,500. How is that possible?
4. 1 Kgs. 20:30 says that 27,000 Syrians were killed when a wall fell on them. Dats a big wall !!!! Can you do the math for me …. how big would a wall need to be to kill 27 THOUSAND humans?
5. 1 Chron. 21:5 says there were 1,570,000 fighting men in Israel. 1.5 MILLION. This is more than currently active in the USA military.
6. Questions 3, 4, and 5 have to do with a real problem occurring throughout the Bible. The problem of Exaggerated Numbers. Are you familiar with that concept? Or, do you just blindly believe whatever they throw your way? ….. like that army of 200 MILLION?
TIA
I tend to trust the accounts of Herodotus Stuck. There are airborne, deadly diseases spread by mice which can kill within 24 hours….so not impossible.
A great Article! Thanks Stucky!
I do love history. Learning something new helps me make the world make sense. The settling of scores is still a major driver of politics in that part of world today. So it might be that rodents, small furry mammals, were responsible for saving the God of Abraham from the dustbin of history! Evolution does have irony built into DNA!
[img[/img]
All Hail the Saviour of the Lawd!
[img[/img]
I have always loved cheese and now know why. These days though, I am finding it more palatable spiced up with jalapenos and spread with a knife.
Sorry…
…..Scripture is NOT a “jewish” Book, Abraham, Isaac, nor Jacob were “jewish”, and the letter “j” did not exist until the 1770s…
…..The “jews” are of Esau, the Israelites are the Caucasian race; this entire article is predicated upon FALSE assumptions…
“… the letter “j” did not exist until the 1770s…” —– Patrick the Putz
So, you’re saying that in 1769 I wouldn’t have been able to call you a Jackass Jerkoff Jizz-swallower? That’s a shame.
Thanks for the informative and entertaining history lesson, Stuck. +1000 It was the mice.
Stuck , a friend quips that of course the Jews were God’s chosen people.They wrote the bible.
That said. Is there any concrete evidence that Jews where ever slaves in Egypt? I’ve read that it is entirely possible that the Jews were never slaves but conquerors (Hyksos) instead whose later defeat by Pharaoh Ahmose led to a great exodus which could account for the stories of Egyptian army pursuit in book of Exodus.
http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/.premium-1.584911
An ancient memory of expulsion
The most logical possibility is that the Exodus tale is actually an ancient memory of the Egyptians overthrowing and expelling the ancient Semitic rulers of the Nile Delta – known as the Hyksos.
This theory was initially proposed by Egyptologist Prof. Donald Redford in a 1987 paper entitled “An Egyptological Perspective on the Exodus Narrative.”
This theory makes sense to anyone following the more than 40-year-old excavations at Tel El Dab’a by Prof. Manfred Bietak. The wealth of knowledge attained from that site has been incredible.
Most importantly it uncovered an enormous amount of physical evidence of a Semitic people called the Hyksos, or ‘Rulers of Foreign Lands,’ by the Egyptians.
Though their origin remains mysterious, it is known that the Hyksos arrived in Egypt from Canaan and lived among the Egyptians for some time, at least from the 12th Dynasty, before their ultimate rise to power. They reigned over Lower Egypt from the 15th to the 17th Dynasty (1630–1523 BCE).
The Hyksos’ connection to Canaan or the Levant is proven by a wealth of archaeological, textual and artistic remains found throughout Egypt, most notably in the ancient city of Avaris, known to archaeologists as Tel el Dab’a. These people left a strong mark on the Egyptians, most readily seen in the adoption of a Levantine goddess who was absorbed into the goddess Hathor.
Read here how a Canaanite goddess conquered ancient Egypt
The Hyksos were defeated and expelled from Egypt by the 18th Dynasty pharaoh Ahmose. The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, dated to around 1650 BC, tells that Ahmose conquered Tjaru before attacking the Hyksos’ capital in Egypt, Avaris. In fact recent excavations at Tel Habuwa, which is associated with the site of ancient Tjaru, found archaeological evidence of Ahmose’s campaign. There is even ancient Egyptian wall art showing Ahmose defeating the Hyksos (see herein).
read more: http://www.haaretz.com/jewish/archaeology/.premium-1.584911
“That said. Is there any concrete evidence that Jews where ever slaves in Egypt?” ——– flash
There is SOME evidence — and, it is scant — of SOME Israelites who at one time lived on the edge of the empire. In other words, even if they lived there, it was nowhere close to the numbers recorded in the Pentateuch. And they sure as hell did NOT build any pyramids!
but wut about #MuhExodus ? …same as hearing the Hollywood Sodomites tell it , the poor Jews were the only people who suffered holocaustnty during WWII.
[I]”a friend quips that of course the Jews were God’s chosen people. They wrote the bible.”[/I]
All hogwash…
…..Part & parcel of the great deception; when the Pharisees declared that they had NEVER been enslaved, Our Christ told them they testified against themselves that they were the sons of those who MURDERED the prophets…
…..Just read John, 8:44 to see what Our Christ called them, (and NO, Our Christ was NOT “jewish”)…
Have you tried Midol ? I hear it helps.
Flash- We/ Stucky should take a poll as to how many here believe that Exodus is a fable. Does anybody believe that tripe ?
EDIT: There is another UBI news story up at Drudge today, says UBI for the whole planet.
While the evidence of a exodus does seem dubious, I’m no denier. I’m merely a hardened skeptic.
We can do a simple poll though.
Thumbs up if you believe the Hebrew bible story of the mass Israelite exodus out of Egypt, the parting of the Red Sea and lost tribes bumbling around in the desert for 40 years. Truth be told I think Stevie Wonder could have found his way out of one desert in less time, but that’s the story.
Thumbs down if you think the Hebrew bible story of the mass exodus out of Egypt to be pure fiction staring Charlton Heston and Yule Brenner.
May the most thumbs win.
A book I once read says they had to wander in the desert 40 years because the majority of the Israelites were snowflakes. They yearned to return to Egypt and their slavery. They complained to no end. They continually disobeyed God and whined about everything, even after witnessing miracles. God did not allow that generation to enter the Promised Land. When the Israelites entered the Promised Land, they would be required to fight for it. Snowflakes don’t make good fighters. The next generation was trained to fight and followed God’s law and they took the fight to the enemy.
For some reason, the thumbs up/down aren’t appearing on this article. All the other articles I read displayed it. Don’t know what’s wrong with that. So I can’t thumbs up/down anything and I can’t see if any of my comments where liked or hated.
Is it too early to call it for the unbelievers ?
UBI = Slave token, and one must have the chip.
#2 – exodus is a fable. It must be a metaphor.
B,
Do not change your name please. You already got rid
of e & a. 🙂
Patdick – just read Matthew 1:1 for proof Jesus was a Jew. Your interpretation of Jhn 8:44 is bullshit.
Narrow minded assholes that believe they are Christians are a disgrace.
It was a good article. Thought provoking, and I seem to remember something about the mice.. The history I enj0yed. I have been spending a lot of time on prophecy lately. Damascus is almost a ruinous heap. I feel sorry for people that haven’t grasped the idea that none of this life is ever in vain. I wonder how many people will see later in life that it was all put together for one specific purpose, to make them exactly who they are. I wonder if their life has been dotted with absolute miracles that they missed. Will they get a big revelation, near death experience, light at the end of the tunnel. How about a miracle that noone can see but them. These things do happen, I have seen a couple. Hey Donald Trump just shut out “h’, now if we can see a conviction for treason, I would consider that divine intervention on my part, and my incessant prayers would have been answered. I regret that I have been away from here so long. This website would never load from my previous location. My GOD is the truth the light and the life, abundantly, if that is what makes me a madman, I will accept that. I am still trying to figure out how to give more of it away. Keep the powder dry and swords sharp
How do I love thee Suzanna, let me count the ways…………
I shall keep my name for now. The downers are winning so far in the poll but it is early in the voting.
Now what asswipe would down me for being nice to Suzanna? Maybe it is a pro- Exodus maroon that is upset that the downers are winning the poll?
For those interested in the meaning behind the Exodus, I highly recommend reading Gary North’s book, “Moses and Pharaoh.” It’s a real eye opener.