Truth About The Crucifixion — Page 76
the appearance of a Messiah and the signs of his advent had been given to none but the Israelites, therefore, the men that came from the East on seeing the star must have been Israelites. It is claimed that the people of Kashmir, Afghanistan, parts of India and the surrounding lands represent the lost tribes of Israel. Let us examine whether this contention can be proved by historical and other forms of evidence. Let me begin with a quotation from the second book of Esdras: And whereas thou sawest that he gathered another peaceable multitude unto him, those are the ten tribes which were carried away prisoner out of their own land in the time of Hosea, the King, whom Shalmanesar, the King of Assyria, led away as captive, and he crossed them over the waters, as they came into another land. But they took this counsel among themselves that they would leave the multitude of the heathen and go forth into a farther country. . . that they might raise up their statues which they never kept in their own land. And they entered into the Euphrates by the narrow passage of the river, for the Most High then showed signs for them, and held still the flood till they were passed over. For through that country there was a great way to go, even for a year and a half; and the same region is called Asareth. This shows that the ten tribes had not returned to their "own land" but had left their place of captivity for a place which to them looked even farther away from their own land, i. e. further towards the East, and to a place called Asareth. The confirmation of what has been stated above is to be found in Tabaqat-i-Nasiri where it is stated: in the time of the Shansabi dynasty, a people 68