The Lost Tribes of Israel: The History of a Myth

Rating:
Summary: A good new addition to lost tribes history
Review: This is the newest manifestation in writing on the Lost Tribes of Israel. When the ten northern tribes of Israel were gobbled up they became `Lost' and for more then 2000 years people have been speculating as to their whereabouts. This book traces the development of the `myth' of the Lost tribes, trying to show the various claims and hoaxes that have struggled to `discover' the tribes. Tracing this history from the New World to China, India, Africa and beyond the author shows expertly how missionaries and later Jewish researchers came to regard certain tribal peoples as descendants of the ancient Hebrews. The major flaw here is that this is a fascinating subject which this book actually makes boring. Here is a subject encompassing all the world and hundreds of interesting tribes with varying customs and traditions, many of which have been manufactured to appear Jewish in origin. Some of these tribes are practicing circumcision whereas some were shown to have merely `Jewish countenance'. This book immediately disregards that the Ten Tribes even exist, which obviously ethnically they probably do, although they probably are no longer Jewish. Who is to say the Bedouin or the Kurds are not some ethnic remnant of the Tribes of Israel? This book also makes dull a subject by focusing inordanently on the claims of various Baptist missionaries rather then going out and researching and describing the actual tribes themselves. SO while this is a great new addition to the last tribes literature it is by no means an enjoyable read.

Seth J. Frantzman