The (Scattered) Hebrews: House of Judah
The House of Judah was allowed to come back to their own land after Babylonian captivity but like the Northern Kingdom, they strayed from God and were unfaithful. Violence, hostility and tension followed them through the Hellenistic Kingdom era and Judah (known as Judea by this time) were under Roman rule by the end of the Hasmonean era (73–63 BC). These attacks were nothing however compared to the siege on the Hebrews/Jews that was endured from 66–73 AD and specifically the siege on Jerusalem (in 70 AD) was especially horrific . Yeshua prophesied about the destruction of Jerusalem and the Jews being enslaved when He walked the Earth:
20 “And when you see Jerusalem surrounded by armies, then you will know that the time of its destruction has arrived. 21 Then those in Judea must flee to the hills. Those in Jerusalem must get out, and those out in the country should not return to the city.
22 For those will be days of God’s vengeance, and the prophetic words of the Scriptures will be fulfilled. 23 How terrible it will be for pregnant women and for nursing mothers in those days. For there will be disaster in the land and great anger against this people.
24 They will be killed by the sword or sent away as captives to all the nations of the world. And Jerusalem will be trampled down by the Gentiles until the period of the Gentiles comes to an end.
-Luke 21:20–24
House of Judah Exiled Into Africa
Now Yeshua walked the Earth from about 1–33 AD and He is prophesying about the future enslavement of the Jews. Josephus (Joseph Ben Matthias or Flavius Josephus, a witness at the time of the siege on Jerusalem) claims over 1.1 million people were killed during the initial siege alone, of which a majority were Jews. 97,000 Jews were captured and enslaved and others fled to Mediterranean areas and Africa for refuge. During this terrible period of suffering, there were mass starvations and some Jews even resulted to cannibalism. There were so many crucifixions in this area during this time that wood became scarce! Eusebius, a church historian that wrote in the early 300's AD quotes Josephus saying:
“..And as Titus went around and saw the trenches filled with the dead… he groaned aloud, and, raising his hands, called God to witness that this was not his doing.”
-Eusebius (Church historian, written circa 325 AD, book III chapter VI. Warning: For those willing to look up the information, this chapter was especially horrific)
So even the conqueror Titus was disturbed by what he saw, enough to proclaim that it was not his doing from the war and even refused a wreath of victory. And this coming from the same man that opted to destroy the famed temple in Jerusalem!
These events and destruction dating back to Pompey the Great resulted in multitudes of Jews fleeing Israel as well as the slave markets being flooded with Jews. It is estimated that over 1 million Jews fled into Africa during this tumultuous time period of history as we have seen so many times before when Jews have been exiled (there is more detail on this in my previous articles). Tacitus a Roman historian, even states his thoughts on the origins of the Jews to be descended from Africans:
“Others assert that in the reign of Isis the overflowing population of Egypt, led by Hierosolymus and Judas, discharged itself into the neighbouring countries. Many, again, say that they were a race of Ethiopian origin..”
-Tacitus (Roman historian, History V: Theories of Jewish Origins, written circa 105 AD)
So it makes a lot of sense that these Jews would flee to a continent where they could easily hide among Africans. But how do we know the direction of migrations of these Jews after exile? Africa is the second largest continent on Earth so there is a lot of land to choose from where they could have hid, here are some maps of Africa from the 1700s:
READ MORE: The (Scattered) Hebrews: House of Judah
http://blaksimba.com/house-of-judah/
Posted By: Dea. Ron Gray Sr.
Monday, May 4th 2020 at 8:16PM
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