Throughout the 20th century, and I suppose into the 21st, the location of the “lost ten tribes” of Israel intrigued and intrigues Latter-day Saints. Here on Keepa we’ve seen questions about the location and return of those tribes pop up in lists of questions – most recently in a post earlier this month when a missionary asked, in 1931, “Have the ten Lost Tribes been discovered and identified? Are we still expecting them to come from the north country in a group?” Similar questions were asked in letters written to Church leaders most known for their knowledge of scripture – men such as Joseph Fielding Smith and John A. Widtsoe, who responded through articles in the Improvement Era.
The identification of the “Lost Tribes of Israel” is of interest to many people beyond Mormonism: Some Ethiopian Jews, for instance, claim to be descended from the Tribe of Dan (and therefore not Jews at all); British Israelism ((I cannot mention British Israelism without noting that in the past few decades, its tenets have been adopted by some branches of the white supremacy/white nationalist/Christian Identity movements in the United States, a phenomenon apparently limited to North America and unknown in England. Be aware of that if you search for material on British Israelism, and recognize what sort of website you read. Also please be aware that Latter-day Saints in the early 20th century, most prominently Anthony W. Ivins of the First Presidency, who accepted the theories of British Israelism, long predated the perversions of the modern Christian Identity movements and were not embracing virulent white supremacy through their interest in British Israelism.)) is built on the theory that the Lost Tribes settled in Northern Europe (Scandinavia, Germany, England); there are other such claims or speculations about others. Non-Mormon editors in the 19th century, having only the barest awareness of what the Book of Mormon actually said, promoted the mistaken claim that the book taught that the Lost Tribes had migrated to the Americas and were the ancestors of the Indians.
Speculation about the Lost Tribes was/is probably most rampant among Latter-day Saints, though, or at least more spectacular.
Brief refresher course: In 722 BCE, while the old territory of Israel was divided between the Kingdom of Israel in the North and the Kingdom of Judah in the south, the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom and took the ten tribes into captivity:
“In the ninth year of Hoshea the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria, and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes.” 2 Kings 17:6
The Bible has nothing more to say about the fate of those ten tribes, although I understand that they are mentioned in the Apocrypha (II Esdras; I have not researched), and that later Jewish scholars had ideas of what had become of them and hoped for their return. But in general, the Lost Tribes are lost in the sense that those in the Kingdom of Judah did not know their history after Assyria conquered them and took them captive; they are lost to Biblical history.
Latter-day Saints have a little more, though – just enough little more to get us into trouble. We have the wonderful 1831 revelation of Joseph Smith about events connected with the second coming of Jesus Christ, including these lines:
“And they who are in the north countries shall come in remembrance before the Lord; and their prophets shall hear his voice, and shall no longer stay themselves; and they shall smite the rocks, and the ice shall flow down at their presence. And an highway shall be cast up in the midst of the great deep.” D&C 133:26-27
That’s usually all we quote, but the passage continues:
Their enemies shall become a prey unto them, and in the barren deserts there shall come forth pools of living water; and the parched ground shall no longer be a thirsty land. And they shall bring forth their rich treasures unto the children of Ephraim, my servants. And the boundaries of the everlasting hills shall tremble at their presence. And there shall they fall down and be crowned with glory, even in Zion, by the hands of the servants of the Lord, even the children of Ephraim. And they shall be filled with songs of everlasting joy. Behold, this is the blessing of the everlasting God upon the tribes of Israel, and the richer blessing upon the head of Ephraim and his fellows. And they also of the tribe of Judah, after their pain, shall be sanctified in holiness before the Lord, to dwell in his presence day and night, forever and ever.” D&C 133:28-35
If you read that passage for what it actually says, and not the way you have probably been conditioned to read it, you might note that it doesn’t specifically mention the Lost Tribes at all: Somebody comes from the north, and is crowned in Zion by Ephraim, and this (the whole event: the coming from the north, the treasures and trembling, the songs of joy) is a blessing upon Israel as a whole. But we have assumed (rightly or wrongly – I point out only that it is an assumption, not that it is right or wrong) that this refers to the Lost Tribes coming from the north countries.
The presence of the Lost Tribes in the north seems to be chiefly a Mormon idea – Assyria was generally northward of the kingdoms of Israel and Judah, so others may assume that the Lost Tribes were exiled in that direction – “they went that-a-way” – without really knowing. That’s the whole point of their being the Lost Tribes – they were lost to history. If the Jews had been confident of their location, whether in the north or any other direction, they wouldn’t have been lost. It’s a Mormon assumption that they were and are in some northern location as a body, and we generally assume that this means “north of us” – in northern Europe or the far north of North America, rather than merely north of their original homeland in Israel.
Along with that assumed certainly of the Lost Tribes’ location in the north comes all kinds of weird speculations through the years, some so weird as to be geographically impossible, and some merely unsustainable by the extremely limited information we have.
We don’t really know what any of those indications spelled out in D&C 133:26-35 really mean. What does it mean that “ice shall flow down” or that “an highway shall be cast up”? We don’t know. We’ve never seen that, in the apocalyptic sense. Whatever we imagine is just that – imaginary. It isn’t something I’m going to lose sleep over, because even if my imagination happens to hit on absolute truth, I won’t know that. I’m content to believe that when the events happen, whatever and however they happen, whether literally or figuratively or some other -ly, we’ll all go, “Oh, so that’s what it meant.”
What I really intended to do here was to note that while we’ve all heard of the Lost Tribes, probably few of us could pick out the names of those tribes from a list with any confidence, or explain why this tribe is on the “lost” list while that tribe is on the “found” list. What follows is a widely accepted explanation, although there are variants. This is something I have taught several times in Sunday School when the topic of the lost tribes confuses people. Class members usually feel much more secure in their understanding after this explanation, drawn out on the board.
Israel (son of Isaac, grandson of Abraham, and whose original name of Jacob was changed by God) had 12 sons (and an unknown number of daughters – we know only the name of Dinah).
Reuben
Simeon
Levi
Judah
Issachar
Zebulon
Dan
Naphtali
Gad
Asher
Joseph
Benjamin
Each of these twelve sons had a large posterity – each became one of the tribes that sprang from Israel. Although through most of their history we call them the “twelve tribes of Israel,” in the beginning, and all through their stay in Egypt and through the Exodus under Moses, there were, for all intents and purposes, thirteen tribes: In order to give Joseph the double inheritance that was due to the birthright son, Israel adopted Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh, who each had equal status with the other sons of Israel. So:
Reuben
Simeon
Levi
Judah
Issachar
Zebulon
Dan
Naphtali
Gad
Asher
Joseph
Ephraim
Manasseh
Benjamin
From this early point, instead of speaking of a “tribe of Joseph,” we speak of the two tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh.
Later, when the Israelites entered the Promised Land, each tribe drew lots and was assigned a certain parcel of land.
There are important qualifications to that generality:
– First, the tribe of Levi did not inherit a block of land, but were assigned cities scattered throughout the whole land of Israel.
– Also, the land given to Manasseh was divided into two parcels – one-half on the east side of the River Jordan, and one-half on the west side of the River Jordan. Because of their two different locations, the economic and political interests of Manasseh were divided, and they are often referred to in the Old Testament as two “half-tribes” rather than as a tribe. Joshua 13:7 for examples, records that a half-tribe of Manasseh, rather than the whole tribe, took part in a certain event. Gradually the two half-tribes became considered as two distinct tribes for most purposes.
– And finally, the land assigned to the tribe of Simeon was completely surrounded by the land assigned to the tribe of Judah, and almost immediately the tribe of Simeon seems to have been assimilated by that of Judah – although the Simeonites recognized their blood lines and spiritual blessings, the Old Testament ceases to speak of a landholding tribe of Simeon.
So, the tribes tied to a geographical inheritance:
Reuben
Simeon
Levi
Judah
Issachar
Zebulon
Dan
Naphtali
Gad
Asher
Joseph
Ephraim
1/2 Manasseh
1/2 Manasseh
Benjamin
More time passes, and after the death of Solomon Israel is divided into two kingdoms. The Kingdom of Judah, in the south, consists of the lands of Judah and Benjamin (together with Simeon who has been absorbed into Judah, and whatever landless Levites are in the cities of that region). In the north, we have the remaining territories occupied by the remaining tribal groups (together with whatever landless Levites are in the cities of that region). So:
Northern Kingdom (Kingdom of Israel)
Reuben
Ephraim
Issachar
Naphtali
Gad
Asher
Dan
1/2 Manasseh
1/2 Manasseh
ZebulonSouthern Kingdom (Kingdom of Judah)
Judah
Benjamin
The northern tribes were carried away in 722 BCE by the Assyrians; the southern tribes were carried away in 586 BCE by the Babylonians. Those southern tribes were released by the Babylonians in 537 BCE and allowed to return to the Promised Land. The northern tribes never returned.
This is more than a blog exercise. It might complicate your understanding of the Lost Tribes – What’s the most common designated tribal affiliation in the Church today? Is Ephraim really lost in any meaningful sense?
It might complicate your understanding of those verses in D&C 133, too – When “they who are in the north countries” come to Zion, they will be crowned there by the “children of Ephraim.” So, Ephraim, which is it? are you in the north countries waiting to be crowned? or are you in Zion ready to do the crowning?
And now back to the beginning of this post, with those questions always being asked:
In 1938, someone asked John A. Widtsoe “if the Church has any pronouncement to make concerning the present location of the so-called lost tribes of Israel.” Elder Widtsoe’s response:
The Church offers, officially, no information concerning the “lost tribes,” beyond that contained in the scriptures. It looks forward, confidently, to the fulfillment of the prophecy contained in Section 133 of the Doctrine and Covenants [quotes scripture].
At what time and in what manner this shall be done, is in the hand of the almighty.
Modern historical research points clearly to a wide dispersion of the blood of Israel among the nations of earth, from China to Spain. This may have been permitted to bless many nations with the possession of the blood of the Lord’s chosen people, and may have come about by the migration of groups of the Babylonian captives into foreign lands.
In recent years evidence from tradition, philology and archaeological discovery has been produced by the world’s scholars to the effect that among the nations of northern Europe – Russia, Scandinavia, Northern Germany, the British isles, etc., – there is a preponderance of the blood of Israel. This is explained on the assumption that the main body of the ten tribes of Israel, traveling northward, either settled in these countries or left behind many of their numbers.
One group of earnest students within the Church holds that the prophecy above quoted is being fulfilled by the large number of British and North European people who have come into the Church. Another group as earnestly contends that the main body of the “lost tribes” of ancient Israel is in a yet undiscovered place in the Far North.
The doctrine may be accepted with some degree of certainty that remnants of the ten tribes found their way or were left in many countries, especially among the races of northern Europe. Yet it is not impossible that a body of these “lost tribes” may be hidden in the north countries. …
Concerning the hypotheses that the “lost tribes” reside on a secondary planet attached as a knob to the earth, or on a star distant in space, we can only say that such conjectures are wholly unsupported by discoveries or revelation and are not worthy of consideration. …
He concluded with a statement I think he must have repeated time and time again, in correspondence or standing before elders in conferences.
The location of the “lost tribes” of Israel is not of importance in the fulfillment of the present duties of the church. It certainly would not be profitable for Latter-day Saints to debate it. It is one of many scriptural subjects concerning the meaning of which members of the Church may entertain personal, and private opinions, until such time as the correct meaning is revealed from the Lord.
If you’ve stuck with me this long, you have earned the right to laugh, cry, criticize, ((I am not in any sense an expert on the ancient Near East and its history; correct me if you can and must, but I hope you won’t criticize me beyond my claims.)) shrug, and speculate. What do you think of the Latter-day Saints and the Lost Tribes?
The one that I keep hearing, as reported by missionaries who served in Russia or Eastern Europe, is that many patriarchal blessings from that region put people in a variety of tribes other than Ephraim.
I also knew a missionary from Argentina that was from the tribe of Naphtali.
I’ve occassionaly heard people respond that if we knew where they were, they’d be the ten found tribes. I’ve always understood “half-tribe” to be a reference to being half of the tribe of Joseph. I’ll have to keep this corrected understanding in mind as I read the text.
It’s not uncommon even today to read synopses of the Book of Mormon claiming that it describes the lost tribes or one of them, in the Americas. Then these people copy what someone else said, having only read other reviews of the Book of Mormon, not the Book of Mormon itself. The title of Southerton’s book “Losing a Lost Tribe” feeds into this, though I suspect he knows better and is using “lost tribe” in a generic sense, rather than referring to one of THE lost tribes. The Book of Mormon explicitly references the lost tribes as being other than the Lehites.
Mormons are generally very surprised to learn that Ephraim is one of the ten.
I’m guessing that a lot of the continued Mormon interest in the lost tribes stems from their mention in the Articles of Faith.
I have always thought of the “lost tribes” in the sense that they were lost to Biblical history, not physically lost, as the Lord certainly knows where all his children are.
As a matter of pure hearsay, one of the patriarchs that I used to know in younger days mentioned once in a Sunday School class that he had given patriarchal blessings to individuals from each of the 12 tribes. At the time, I thought that was interesting, but it has never been so,thing over which I lost any sleep.
All my life I have heard people marvel that patriarchs have given blessings naming all tribes every time we enter a new region, with the implication that we are just on the verge of discovering the lost tribes. I heard that most recently taught in a Sunday School class in a previous iteration of my current ward. I have no doubt that such designations are and have always been given, and that there is nothing new about them. But it does indicate a fascination with the lost tribes, doesn’t it, and helps to explain why this question comes up.
Left Field, I’ll bet that you HAVE heard references to “half tribes” related to Joseph, perhaps by non-Mormons or those whose training was primarily from general Christianity. Ephraim and Manasseh are, in a sense, each half of Joseph. But since each received a land inheritance equal to any of their uncles’ descendants, they each count as a tribe in most reckonings. If it comes up again sometime, the context will probably suggest how the teacher is using it, maybe.
I like the surprised response of classes to learning that Ephraim — and therefore themselves — are lost! I hope that helps allay any puzzled wondering over the tribes living in a hollow earth with an entrance to the surface somewhere near the North Pole …
I know exactly where the lost ten tribes are. They are in the same place that the socks that make a pair that you can’t find when you do laundry.
Then they are well and truly lost, john willis.
What! You mean my high school seminary teacher was wrong! The lost tribes aren’t in the Hollow Earth preparing to exit one day from the North Pole?! … 🙂
I hate to break it to ya, Gary …
A pet peeve of mine is that the bit in Ezekiel 37 about writing on two sticks and holding them together is pretty transparently a Babylonian-exile-era prophecy about the Israelites from the Northern Kingdom (Joseph/Ephraim) and from the Southern Kingdom (Judah) being restored to the land of Israel and reunited under one king — and we miss it entirely because we took one thing about “the record of the stick of Ephraim” and blew it *way* out of proportion to say “the sticks are records!”
It’s not a mystery; Ezekiel is told right there in the chapter to write on two sticks and hold them together, and then explain it when it confuses people. It’s hardly the first time Ezekiel was told to prophesy by doing some confusing weird thing (I always want to ask the people who make multi-grain “Ezekiel” bread what kind of dung they used to bake it).
At any rate, I assume that this bit in Ezekiel is why Joseph Smith could write to a non-Mormon newspaper editor about “the restoration of the Ten Tribes” without any further explanation. It becomes an eschatological thing for Christians who expect the king that reunifies the tribes to be Christ at his second coming, but I expect that the Babylonian Jews at the time understood it in more immediate terms. I’m surprised to learn that there’s Talmudic discussion about if the ten tribes would ever return, and some theories where they are — the Mormons who expect the lost tribes to return from some secret, possibly mystical location have some good rabbinic company
Still, it’s been a couple millennia since Ezekiel — I’ve always assumed that by now the 10 tribes are either everywhere or nowhere, without having migrated to discrete regions that would put Dan in England, Gad in Russia, or Zebulun in Zanzibar. It always seems weird when people try to put together this sort of geography from patriarchal blessing rumors. At this point, if you’re descended from any of Jacob’s sons, you’re probably descended from all of them, and what the patriarch says about it has more to do with having a role in the restored house of Israel than with regions where different tribes went.
I suppose that the location of the Ten Tribes is one of the most popular conjectural subjects for Mormons, because similar to Book of Mormon geography, there is so little evidence (and much of that contradictory) that the issue can be debated infinitely while never settled definitively.
(As one example of a paradox: If they are scattered, how can they come as a group, with their prophets and sacred writings? If they are a group, how can they still be hidden?)
My personal belief is allied with Elder Widtsoe’s view that they are the ancestors of the Northern Europeans. This view is supported tangentially by 2nd Esdras, referenced in the OP. It states the ten tribes were last seen headed north out of Assyria, which puts them in the Caucasus mountains, ancestral homeland and namesake of Caucasians.
Given today’s racial climate, any discussion of a chosen or favored people is problematic, especially considering the problematic history of the Church with race, the white supremacist-tinge of British Israelism, and any notion of white superiority. I, for one, am thankful today’s General Authorities avoid the topic, as it would be a political minefield.
Mike, Dan’s in Denmark, Reuben’s in Russia. Ephraim is in England. Sheesh!
And while I’m setting the record straight, Eliza R. Snow, Brigham Young, and Wilford Woodruff were all firm believers in the “reside on a secondary planet” theory, so if that’s your belief, perhaps you’re in good company. (Cowley’s bio of Wilford Woodruff mentions this briefly, and quotes a poem Snow wrote about it. She evidently has a poem for every occasion…)
This is written tongue-in-cheek, if that wasn’t quite obvious already.
TOC, of course I should have inferred that Reuben was in Russia from the use of Russian dressing on Reuben sandwiches! It’s so obvious now!
If I understand what genetics is telling us, pretty much every person on earth is descended from every one of the sons of Jacob (and a whole host of other non-Jacobites). So I’m not really sure what to make of the whole lineage thing that Mormons have concocted.
I’m partial to turkey reuben sandwiches, so there must be a remnant of Reuben in Turkey too.
Wally, I think we’ve always had some confusion over just how to understand the designations — not that individuals haven’t been absolutely certain of their own interpretations, but thay we’ve had so many different interpretations: literal, figurative, adoption, purging of non-Israelite blood at baptism, and other permutations. My takeaway — not that you asked — is that whatever the truth, whatever personal understanding, the point is that God made promises to his children in the dim past, and he keeps his promises, and we’re all part of the eternal family of God so those promises can be signified through a family relationship.
And the rest of you have made me hungry. Reubens are my favorite sandwich.
Also fond of reubens.
“Some Ethiopian Jews, for instance, claim to be descended from the Tribe of Dan (and therefore not Jews at all);”
This is a good example of the idiosyncratic definition of “Jew” used by Mormons. To actual Jews, any matrilineal descendant of Jacob is a Jew, as are Jewish converts, minus former Jews who convert to Christianity. Certainly the Cohen, who are families claiming descent from Aaron, and the Levi, who are families claiming descent from Levi, are regarded as Jews by Jews.
It matters because any Jew is entitled to automatic citizenship in Israel, and Ethiopian Jews have sometimes emigrated to Israel on that basis. This has caused occasional friction, but over whether the Ethiopian Jews are really descendants of Dan, not over whether a descendant of Dan would actually be a Jew.
My husband is of eastern European Jewish descent. He joined the church in 2015 and got his patriarchal blessing last summer. His blessing indicates that his blessings come through Naphtali. The patriarch was visibly moved after the blessing and talked with him for a while about how unusual that was. We’ve since heard that some people believe (speculate) that the tribe of Naphtali eventually settled in the Black Sea region. Which is definitely where my husband’s ancestors are from.
Gary and must have had the same seminary teacher…at the time I thought it was nonsense, and about ten years ago I started wondering if that FPR got started back when that one guy was traveling around the US trying to raise money for an expedition that would find the northern entrance to the inside of the earth. A lot of people took him quite seriously.