Jesus In India — Page 135
J e s u s i n I n d i a 135 Among the Afghans, as among the Jews, it is thought incumbent on the brother of the deceased to marry his widow, and it is a mortal affront to the brother for any other person to marry her without his consent. ’ Narrative of a Mission to Bokhara , in the years 1843- 1845, to ascertain the Fate of Colonel Stoddart and Captain Conolly, by the Rev. Joseph Wolff, D. D. LL. D. , Vol. 1, second edition, revised (John W. Parker, London {1845} M. DCCC. XLV. ) Page 7. ‘From various conversations with Affghauns in Khorassaun and elsewhere, I learnt that some of them are proud of an origin from the children of Israel, but I doubt the truth of that partial tradition. ’ Page 13. ‘All the Jews of T ū rkistaun assert that the T ū rkomauns are the descendants of Togarmah, one of the sons of Gomer, mentioned in Genesis x. 3. ’ Pages 14-16. ‘The Jews in Bokhara are 10,000 in number. The chief rabbi assured me that Bokhara is the Habor, and Balkh the Halah, of the 2 nd Kings, xvii. 6; but that in the reign of Genghis Khan they lost all their written accounts. At Balkh the Mussulman mullahs assured me that it was built by a son of Adam, that its first name had been Hanakh, and afterwards Halah, though later writers called it Balakh, or Balkh. The Jews, both of Balkh and Samarcand, assert that T ū rkistaun is the land of Nod, and Balkh where Nod “once stood. ”…… The tradition is an old one at Bokhara, that some of the Ten Tribes are in China. I tried the Jews here on various points of Scriptural interpretation, particularly that important one in Isaiah vii. 14 -- Virgin. They translated it as we Christians do, and they are in total ignorance of the important controversy between Jews and Christians on that point. I obtained a passport from the King after this most interesting