The True Story of Jesus — Page 78
as 78 Israel. In order to evade arrest he had to move away from the dan- ger. Both the Jews and the Roman authorities were his enemies. He thus followed the same ancient route which was taken by the Jews during their historic dispersion. Lost Tribes of Israel If we glance at the history of Jews, we find that they were divided into twelve tribes. All of them lived peacefully under Hazrat Dawood as (David) and after his death under Hazrat Sulaimaan as (Solomon) who were both prophets of God as well as their kings. According to the Bible, their kingdom included all the nations from the river Euphrates to as far west as the city of Gaza in Philistia and the Egyptian border. After the death of King Solomon in 931 BC, his son Rehoboam succeeded him as king. He was very cruel so the people rebelled against him and his kingdom was reduced to the territory of Judah. Jerusalem was the capital of this southern kingdom. Only two tribes, Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to Rehoboam. The remaining ten tribes formed the northern kingdom of Israel, with its capital at SAMARIA and made Jeroboam as their king. There was continual warfare between the two kingdoms. Jeroboam, according to the Bible, was an official in Solomon’s kingdom. He revolted against King Solomon and in order to avoid his wrath escaped to Egypt and stayed there until Solomon’s death. About two hundred years later Assyrians under king Tiglath Pilser III (745–727 BC. ) attacked the northern kingdom of Israel and captured many cities and took their people to Assyria