The True Story of Jesus — Page 80
as 80 as prisoners. Thus began the captivity and dispersion of the ten tribes. A few years later emperor Shalmaneser V of Assyria attacked the kingdom of Israel. King Hoshea of Israel surrendered and agreed to pay him tribute every year. But one year king Hoshea sent messengers to the king of Egypt asking for his help and stopped paying the annual tribute to Assyria. When Shalmaneser learnt this, he reacted very strongly, invaded Israel and besieged Samaria, which lasted for three years. During this time emperor Shalmaneser died. His successor Sargon II continued the attack, and in 722 BC destroyed the kingdom completely and carried almost all the remainder of the ten tribes to Assyria, Mesopotamia and parts of Media. Henceforth, these ten tribes were known as the Lost Tribes. Further dispersion of the ten tribes took place when the Babylonians destroyed the Assyrians. Later, the Persians under King Cyrus crushed the Babylonian Empire in 539 BC. The Israelites thus suffered again and were scat- tered throughout the Persian Empire which at that time extended up to Afghanistan and India. These were the lost tribes of Israel that Jesus as went in search of. Jesus as Travels to the East It appears that Jesus as left Galilee and followed the caravan route to Syria, where there was a large Jewish community settled in and around Damascus. There are indications that from Damascus Jesus as travelled to Nisibain, a city about 450 miles from Jerusalem, which is on the route from Syria to Persia. A well known Persian