Where Did Jesus Die? — Page 144
? 144 possess it (II Kings 17:6, 24, and 18:10–11). This ended the Kingdom of the Ten Tribes of Israel. The greater part of the Fathers and interpreters are of the opinion that those ten exiled tribes never returned to their own country. Others, on the contrary, think that they did return, but at the same time they acknowledge that this return is not clearly made out by history (a) as was not so complete and entire, but that a great number of Israelites still remained beyond the Euphrates. 2 Alfred Edersheim, writes: (a) This thought not only has no historical proof, but it seems to be an imaginary one. Had they returned to their mother country they could have been found in a great majority at all times in Palestine which in the light of history, is not the case. A certain professor has supported this imaginary thought with the phrase of the ‘twelve tribes’ used in the N. T. But a phrase cannot alter historical facts. The various authors in their commentary on the Bible, in their note on Joshua 4:2, say:— So even when the great majority of the tribes had been lost in the cap- tivity, the Jews, as they claimed for themselves the position and prom- ises given to all Israel of old, fondly spoke of the twelve tribes, as if they still literally existed, though now represented only by themselves. The view of H. S. Kehimkar (1830–1899) in this regard in his book, The History of the Beni Israel of India, p. 6, seems to me more accurate. He says that on the fall of the kingdom of Israel the ten tribes were not driven away entirely, for according to Chron. , chap. 30, remnants here and there were still left in Palestine. In like manner 130 years later when the kingdom of Judah fell, remnants of that people were still left in Palestine. In view of those remnants the usage of the term ‘twelve tribes’ was quite right. 2. A Complete Concordance to the Holy Scripture, by Alexander Cruden, M. A. Tribe.