Jesus In India — Page 111
J e s u s i n I n d i a 111 they had consistently held fast to the Jewish faith. In appearance, the Afghans resemble the Jews in all respects. Like them, the younger brother marries the widow of the elder brother. A French traveller, Ferrier by name, who passed through Herat, states that Israelites are found in large numbers in that territory, and that they have full liberty in the practice of their religion. 59 The Rabbi Bin Yamin of Toledo, Spain in the twelfth century A. D. ventured out in search of the lost tribes. He states that these Jews are settled in China, Iran and Tibet. Josephus, who wrote the ancient history of the Jews in 93 A. D. , in the course of his account of the Jews who escaped from bondage along with the Prophet Ezra, states in his eleventh book that the ten tribes were settled beyond the Euphrates even at that time, and that their numbers were uncountable. 60 By ‘beyond the Euphrates’ he meant Persia and the eastern territories. St. Jerome who lived in the fifth century A. D. , writing about Prophet Hosea says in the margin, in support of his thesis, that since that day the ten tribes (of the Israelites) have been under king Parthya or Paras, and have not been released from bondage. In the first volume of the same book, it is stated that Count Juan Steram testifies on page 233-34 of his book that the Afghans admit that Nebuchadnezzar, after the destruction of the Temple at Jerusalem, exiled them to the territory of Bamiyan (which is adjacent to Ghor, in Afghanistan). On page 166 of the book, A Narrative of a Visit to Ghuzni, Kabul and Afghanistan by G. T. Vigne, F. G. S. (1840), it is 59 See Appendix, extract 13,14,15. (Translator) 60 See Appendix, extract 16. (Translator)