hen Jacob built shelters for his cattle in Jordan, he called the place "Succoth" (Heb. "Cottages" or "Huts") (Gen. 33:17). When Israel dwelt in Egypt, she named a town "Succoth" (Ex. 12:37). In Palestine, the city of "Succoth" was given to the tribe of Gad (Josh. 13:27). Later, Israel was deported to Media (2 Ki. 18:11) which is the same place that Diodorus Siculus says the "Scythians" had their origin "on the Araxes" River (2:3). Herodotus then says the Scythians moved "across the Araxes into Cimmeria" (the Crimea) (4:11). Later, Germany was known as "Scythia" (Nennius' History of the Britons 31,37 & 50). Then Scandinavia was anciently called "Scathanavia." Ireland was known as "Scotia Major" and Scotland was called "Scotia Minor" (Venerable Bede & Nennius). Strabo says, "All the nations toward the northern parts, the ancient Greek writers call Scythians" (11:507).

The following facts connect both Saxons and Scythians with Israel. Israel was to be "many days WITHOUT A KING" (Hos. 3:4) "The most ancient account of the Saxon government on the continent exists in this short but expressive passage of Bede: 'The ancient SAXON'S HAVE NO KING, but many chiefs set over their people, who, when war presses, draw lots equally, and whomsoever the chance points out, they all follow as leader, and obey during the war. The war concluded, all the chiefs become again of equal power." In the Lindenb. Gloss. 1347, the following occurs: 'TWELVE Ethelings governed over the land of the Saxons; and whenever war arose in that land, the Saxons chose one of the TWELVE to be king while the war lasted; when the war was finished, the TWELVE became alike.'" (Sharon Turner's Anglo-Saxons 1:207)

Israelites, Scythians and Saxons Had Divining Rods

The SAXON custom of DIVINING by RODS or "AUGURY by WANDS" (Tacitus' Germania 9:10) can be traced to the Israelite practice mentioned in Hosea 4:12 which says, "My people ask counsel of their STOCKS, and their STAFF declareth unto them." "They cut a small branch of a fruit-tree into TWIGS, marked them, and scattered them at random on a white vest. The priest, if it were a public COUNCIL, or the father, at a private CONSULTATION, prayed, gazed at heaven, drew each three times, and interpreted according to the mark previously impressed. Alfred also says they cast lots with TWIGS (Sharon Turner's Anglo Saxons 1:223). Herodotus says, "SCYTHIA has an abundance of soothsayers who foretell the future by means of a number of WILLOW WANDS. A large bundle of these WANDS is brought and laid on the ground. The soothsayer unties the bundle, and places each wand by itself, at the same time uttering his prophecy" (Herod. 4:67).

Israelites, Scythians and Saxons Had Similar Religions

Israelites and Scythians Had Groves But No Images

A German (Scythian) custom mentioned in Tacitus' Germania 9:10 that seems to be Israelite is as follows:"The deities of the Germans are NOT confined WITHIN WALLS, nor FASHIONED INTO any mortal SHAPES; they hallow GROVES and WOODS, and call by the name of gods that hidden presence which is felt by reverence alone." Many passages in the Bible mention "GROVES" as places of Israelite worship (1 Kings 14:15) and the biblical command to "not make unto thee any GRAVEN IMAGE or any LIKENESS of ANYTHING" is also well known. Immediately before the captivity, "Ephraim was joined to IDOLS," but neither in Scythia nor in Germany did they have IMAGES so they must have repented somewhat. Neither did they have kings for "the children of Israel shall abide many days WITHOUT A KING, and without a prince, and without a sacrifice, and WITHOUT AN IMAGE, and without an ephod, and without teraphim" (Hos. 3:4).Scythians made no idols (Herodotus 4:59).

Israelites-Scythians-Saxons Were Civilized, Wise and Unconquerable

"Round the Black Sea ... are to be found, if we EXCEPT SCYTHIA, the most uncivilized nations in the world. No one could claim that the rest have any of the arts of civilized life, or have produced any man of distinction" (Her. 4:46). Aeschylus says "The SACAE (or SCUTHS) were noted for their GOOD LAWS, and were preeminently a RIGHTEOUS people." Colossians 3:11 contrasts Barbarians with SCYTHIANS. Thucydides says, "In respect of MILITARY STRENGTH and NUMBER of SOLDIERS, NO single NATION, either in Europe or Asia, could MATCH the SCUTHS" (Thuc. 2:97 spoken about 420 B.C.). As Psalm 105:20 says, "He INCREASED his people Israel greatly, and made them STRONGER than their enemies." Herodotus adds, "They have, in one respect ... shown themselves WISER than any other nation upon the face of the earth.... Possessing no houses but waggons, and carrying these about wherever they go, accustomed, one and all, to fight on horseback with bows and arrows, and dependent for their food not upon agriculture but upon their cattle: how can they fail of being UNCONQUERABLE, and even UNASSAILABLE?" (4:46). "NO WEAPON that is formed AGAINST THEE shall PROSPER" (Isa. 54:17).

Their oaths were accompanied by CEREMONIES IDENTICAL WITH those of the MEDES; they used skulls as drinking cups, like the Northmen of later years; their weapons were the spear, the battle-axe and the bow; they made BOOTHES like the Israelites; they had fables of GRIFFINS, the representations of which on the Scythian tombs are almost exactly like the WINGED LIONS of the Assyrians.

Israelites and Scythians Boiled Meat By Burning Bones

Describing their sacrifices, Herodotus says, "After flaying the beasts, they take out all the bones, and put the flesh into BOILERS or cauldrons of a large size, then placing the BONES of the animals beneath the cauldron, they set them ALIGHT, and so BOIL the meat." (Her. 4:61) In Ezekiel 24:5 we read, "take the choice of the flock, and BURN also the BONES under it, and make it BOIL well." Professor Rawlinson thinks both these passages refer to the same custom.

Israelites and Scythians Didn't Eat Pigs

Finally Herodotus says regarding sacrifices,"they NEVER USE SWINE; nor, indeed, is it their wont to breed them in any part of their country" (Her. 4:63). Yes "the SWINE ... IS UNCLEAN to you" (Lev. 11:7). Strabo says of the Dacians "that the care of WORSHIPPING the Supreme Being is GREAT among this nation, is not to be doubted, after what Posidonius has related, 'and they even ABSTAIN FROM ANIMAL FOOD from religious motives,' as likewise on account of the testimony of other historians" (Strabo 7:3:4).

Israelites and Scythians Dwelt in Caves Without Flax

Herodotus says, "HEMP groweth abundantly in this land of Scythia, and of this the people MAKE GARMENTS that are very like to garments made of FLAX. These people possess neither houses, cities, nor cultivated land: but lived in waggons and on the produce of their cattle." This reminds us of Hosea 2:2-14 which says, "Plead with your mother, plead ... Lest I strip her naked, and set her as in the day that she was born, and make her as a wilderness, and set her like a DRY LAND, and slay her with thirst ... For she said, I will go after my lovers, that give me my bread and water, my wool and my flax, mine oil and my drink ... For she did not know that I gave her corn, ands wine, and oil, and multiplied her silver and gold, which they prepared for Baal. Therefore will I return, and take away my corn in the time thereof, and My wine in the season thereof, and will RECOVER my wool and MY FLAXgiven to cover her nakedness." Israel dwelt among the monuments -- the BARROWS and MOUNDS of Southern Russia, the CAVES in which the Getae lived in memory of that to which Zalmoxis retired -- and ate unclean food. Therefore Isaiah 65:4 says Israelites "remain among the GRAVES, and lodge in the MONUMENTS; that eat swine's flesh, and broth of abominable things is in their vessels." Plint N.H. 4:12 calls them "CAVE-DWELLERS."

Reuben, Gad and half-Manasseh were placed by Tiglath-Pileser in the mountain district of Great MEDIA, a region expressly called HARA (1 Chr. 5:26; Ar being a mountain). In fact all ten tribes of Israel were placed in the "cities of the MEDES" (2 Ki. 17:6). Herodotus 7:62 says, "The Medes were once universally known as ARIANS." HARA was named ARIA, ARIANA and ARACHOSIA by the Greeks (see Ptolemy). It contains the city of HARAT. According to the black obelisk discovered in the ruins of the palace of Nimrod which is now in the British Museum, the people or leader of the ARIANS was called ESAKSKA (Isaac) and their principal cities were "Beth-Telabon, Beth-Everak and Beth-Tsida" in 670 B.C. This information connects the Israelites with the ARIANS. These ARIANS must have migrated to Thrace because, according to Stephanus, Thrace was called ARIA. From Thrace they migrated to Germany since Tacitus mentions the HARII there in SE Germany (Ger.43). The Thracian SCYTHIANS pricked and stained their bodies (Herod. 5); so did the ARII of Germany (Tacitus); the BELGAE of Britain (Caesar de Bell. Gall.), and the PIKS of Norway and Scotland (Herodian; Claudian).

According to Herodotus 1:110, the Magi lived next to the Budii in MEDIA. Daniel was made "Rab-Mag" by Nebuchadnezzar (Dan. 2:48). The name "Mag" in Pehlvi denotes "Priest." The Magi of MEDIA visited the child Jesus because they were Israelites..

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