ISBN: 965-90501-0-0
Origin, by Yair Davidiy, is an early work in the Messianic/Hebrew Roots movement that tries to give the ten tribes some identity and their claims to being from Israel legitimacy. Davidiy traces the path of the Israeli exiles into Babylon and Assyria and then makes the connecting linkages to places like Spain, Germany, and Ireland.
Of interest was how many captives were used as a kind of “human shield” for the Assyrian borders, and how many of these empires colluded to make sure that Israel stayed broken up by re-routing their people to far-flung locations. Sometimes, instead, skilled Israeli outcasts were used in positions in the armies of these nations, like the Calvary, and in a few instances, argues Davidiy, such as in the instance of the Scythians, might have actually performed uprisings and gained dominance such that new cultures developed and became the Celts.
Davidiy often moves into deep levels of etiology of words and their analysis, and it can be difficult at times to keep track of who is attacking who and what piece is Israeli remnant and what piece is not. The usual suspects of America and Britain being outcast Israel are also proffered, along with genetic lineage tracing with names of the children of Israel in some cases that sound suspiciously similar to location names.
Many location names, Davidiy maintains, have double meanings and often mean two places at once since they have a cultural connection as well as deeper meanings in terms of where the ten tribes were outcast. Part of the tribe might have ended up in one place, and another part somewhere else, and so the names used in Hebrew might reflect this state.
Davidiy lit a spark of desire for many people in these far-flung places to identify as being from Israel, which caused some problems for Israel later since the definition of what it means to be Jewish is defined modernly by blood relation to a close relative. Many of these tribes will have been gone for a long, long time, and might not have an immediate connection in the manner Israel would prefer in order to grant citizenship.
Indeed, when we recall that Noah was the reason that the world were peopled at all, then it stands to reason we are going to find connections to Israel everywhere in one way or another. While some of those connections might be from lost tribes, it can also be the case that they are the fingerprints of the cause of why the world was peopled with those it is peopled, and why their existence continues forward. Being Israeli is a tricky concept since the identity of what that means has been judged more than once by YHVH on account of Israel not being Israel in terms of fulfilling their agreements with the Most High. It is not strictly a blood quantity that defines this identity, but seems to be more defined as fulfilling the Covenants which were made. But, as a country, how do you go about testing that in terms of citizenship granting?
What is certain is that the tribes that were left in Israel, namely Judah, are going to have some explaining to do when these exiles eventually do return in full force since probably some of them all ready tried to come back “home” only to be rejected and told they were not “Jewish”.
Davidiy provides the groundwork for a case to be made that these outcasts are, in fact, “Israeli” whether or not they are as a point of interest, “Jewish”. For the land of Israel that wants everything to be in a tidy box, the complications introduced are many and varied. In the present time, there is no plan in Israel that has been announced for where all the ten tribes would go should they return. The Biblical precept is that they will go back to their ancestral lands, but would Israel the country, allow that today? It is hard to see how they might, but then, the hand of God has worked in more mysterious ways to open that which was otherwise closed. It is after all, His country and His plan, not everyone else’s. It is doubtful anyone else is going to be able to challenge Him for the title to the work He is performing in His land, via His Will.
So, one can find in Davidiy’s work compelling arguments for who and what Israel is, but we can also find the seeds for discontent since that definition is not easily tested or quantified. For those who have been born again, having your identity challenged is nothing new. Davidiy simply reminds all those Israel-anons out there, though, of who they are, and what they need to keep in mind moving forward.