Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 158
? 158 (2) Israel Joseph Benjamin II, who has also written an account of the Beni-Israel in his work entitled Eight Years in Asia and Africa from 1846–1855, which was published in Hanover in 1859, has almost entirely followed Dr. Wilson. He not only owns that the Beni-Israel are real Jews, but says likewise that they are the lineal descendants of the ten tribes, who in the time of Hosea, the last King of Israel, were carried away by the Assyrians. Then the author starts with the earlier history of the Beni-Israel, and says that after the fall of the kingdom of Israel, and the fall of the kingdom of Judah remnants of that people were left in Palestine. ‘A few of the dispersed Hebrews’, according to Dr. Issac M. Wise, ‘found their way into Ethiopia, Arabia, India and China. Still the bulk of Hebrews of the two former Kingdoms of Israel and Judah, inhabited the Medo-Persian Empire. . . . Among the dispersed Hebrews that found their way into India at this time are to be included, we believe, their ancestors of that part of the Jewish Community now found inhabiting the Malabar Coast, who since the arrival of “White Jews” have been known as “Black Jews”. ’ After discussing the Jewish customs and feasts, etc. , held by the Beni-Israel of Bombay Presidency, the author says:— We have stated above our firm conviction that the ances- tors of the Beni-Israel came directly from Palestine about 175 years before the Christian Era. Now if the ancestors of the Beni-Israel had come to India from Yemen or from any other place 1200 years or thereabouts ago, as suggested, they would previously have