Editing British Israelism

{{Short description|Pseudoreligious belief}}
{{Distinguish|Israelis in the United Kingdom|British Jews|Christian Zionism in the United Kingdom}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=September 2021}}
[[File:Israelinbritainb00garn 0005.jpg|thumb|''Israel in Britain'', an 1890 book advocating British Israelism. According to the doctrine, the Ten Lost tribes of Israel found their way to [[Western Europe]] and [[Great Britain|Britain]], becoming the ancestors of the [[British people|British]], the [[English people|English]], and related peoples.]]

'''British Israelism''' (also called '''Anglo-Israelism''') is a [[pseudohistory|pseudo-historical]]<ref>{{cite book |last=Cottrell-Boyce |first=Aidan |title=Israelism in Modern Britain |year=2021 |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |isbn=9781000172362 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wy3tDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22pseudo-historical+claim%22&pg=PT56}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Haynes |editor-first=Jeffrey |title=Politics of Religion: A Survey |publisher=Routledge |location=New York |year=2006 |isbn=9780429637582 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TfS2DwAAQBAJ&dq=%22british+israelism%22&pg=PT201}}</ref> belief that the people of Great Britain are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the [[Ten Lost Tribes]] of [[history of ancient Israel and Judah|ancient Israel]].<ref name="Brackney 2012">{{cite book |last1=Brackney |first1=William H. |title=Historical Dictionary of Radical Christianity |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=9780810873650 |language=en |pages=61–62 |date=3 May 2012 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=YhUvxfkWW2oC&pg=PA61 |access-date=9 April 2017}}</ref> With roots in the 16th century, British Israelism was inspired by several 19th century English writings such as [[John Wilson (historian)|John Wilson's]] 1840 ''Our Israelitish Origin''.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Eller |first1=Jack David |title=Introducing Anthropology of Religion: Culture to the Ultimate |date=2007 |isbn=978-1138024915 |page=291 |publisher=Routledge |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hMwEk45qkPsC}}</ref> From the 1870s onward, numerous independent British Israelite organizations were set up throughout the [[British Empire]] as well as in the [[United States]]; as of the early 21st century, a number of these organizations are still active. In the United States, the idea gave rise to the [[Christian Identity]] movement.

The central tenets of British Israelism have been refuted by [[archaeology|archaeological]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Melton |first1=J. Gordon |title=Encyclopedia of Protestantism |publisher=Facts on File, Inc. |isbn=978-0-8160-5456-5 |year=2005 |location=New York |page=107 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=bW3sXBjnokkC}}</ref> [[ethnology|ethnological]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=Cross |first1=Frank Leslie |last2=Livingstone |first2=Elizabeth A. |title=The Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=9780192802903 |language=en |year=2005 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fUqcAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA241}}</ref> [[genetics|genetic]],<ref name="Hale2016"/>{{rp|181}} and [[linguistics|linguistic]] research.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Shapiro |first1=Faydra L. |title=Christian Zionism: Navigating the Jewish-Christian Border |publisher=Cascade Books |location=Eugene, OR |year=2015 |page=151 |isbn=9781625642929 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=0_W7CgAAQBAJ}}</ref><ref name="Quarles"/>{{rp|33–34}}

==History==

===Earliest recorded expressions===
According to Brackney (2012) and Fine (2015), the French [[Huguenots|Huguenot]] magistrate M. le Loyer's ''The Ten Lost Tribes'', published in 1590, provided one of the earliest expressions of the belief that the [[Anglo-Saxons|Anglo-Saxon]], [[Celts|Celtic]], [[North Germanic peoples|Scandinavian]], [[Germanic peoples|Germanic]], and associated peoples are the direct descendants of the [[Old Testament]] Israelites.<ref name="Brackney 2012"/><ref name="Fine 2015">{{cite book |last1=Fine |first1=Jonathan |year=2015 |title=Political Violence in Judaism, Christianity, and Islam: From Holy War to Modern Terror |publisher=[[Rowman & Littlefield]] |isbn=978-1-4422-4756-7 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=JjXHBwAAQBAJ |access-date=6 May 2021}}</ref>{{rp|176}} Anglo-Israelism has also been attributed to King [[James VI and I]] (1566–1625),<ref name="Fine 2015"/> who is reported to have believed he was the King of Israel.<ref name="Brackney 2012"/> [[Adriaan van Schrieck]] (1560–1621), who influenced [[Henry Spelman]] (1562–1641) and [[John Sadler (Town Clerk of London)|John Sadler]] (1615–74), wrote in the early 17th century about his ideas on the origins of the Celtic and Saxon peoples. In 1649, Sadler published ''Rights of the Kingdom'',<ref>{{cite book |title=Rights of the Kingdom |last=Sadler |first=John |author-link=John Sadler (Town Clerk of London) |year=1682 |orig-year=1649 |publisher=J. Kidgell |location=London |via=Ann Arbor: [[Text Creation Partnership]] |url=https://quod.lib.umich.edu/cgi/t/text/text-idx?c=eebo;idno=A59386.0001.001 |access-date=2023-12-05}}</ref> "which argues for an 'Israelite genealogy for the British people'".<ref name="Fine 2015"/>{{rp|176}}

Aspects of British Israelism and its influences have also been traced to [[Richard Brothers]], who published ''[https://archive.org/details/bim_eighteenth-century_a-revealed-knowledge-of-_brothers-richard_1794_5 A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times]'' in 1794,<ref name="Barkun">{{cite book |last=Barkun |first=Michael |author-link=Michael Barkun |title=Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement |publisher=[[University of North Carolina Press]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-1-4696-1111-2 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qb0EAwAAQBAJ |access-date=26 January 2021}}</ref>{{rp|1}} [[John Wilson (historian)|John Wilson]]'s ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=F6SRYJwuG2EC Our Israelitish Origin]'' (1844),{{r|Barkun|p=6-9}} and [[John Pym Yeatman]]'s ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=ToEBAAAAQAAJ The Shemetic Origin of the Nations of Western Europe]'' (1879).<ref name="Kidd2006">{{cite book |last=Kidd |first=Colin |author-link=Colin Kidd |title=The Forging of Races: Race and Scripture in the Protestant Atlantic World, 1600–2000 |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |location=Cambridge |date=2006 |edition=1 |isbn=978-0-521-79729-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=aNT3q1HjY_MC |access-date=18 February 2021}}</ref>{{rp|211}}

===Foundation===
British Israelism arose in England, and then spread to the United States.<ref name=Parfitt2003>{{cite book |last1=Parfitt |first1=Tudor |title=The lost tribes of Israel: the history of a myth |date=2003 |publisher=Phoenix |location=London |isbn=978-1-842126653 |edition=1st pbk.}}</ref>{{rp|52–65}} Its adherents cite various supposedly-medieval manuscripts to claim an older origin, but British Israelism appeared as a distinct movement in the early 1880s:
{{Blockquote|Although scattered British Israel societies are known to have existed as early as 1872, there was at first no real move to develop an organization beyond the small groups of believers which had arisen spontaneously. The beginnings of the movement as an identifiable religious force can, therefore, be more accurately placed in the 1880s, when the circumstances of the time were particularly propitious for the appearance of a movement so imperialistically-orientated.<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=J. |title=British Israelism |journal=The Sociological Review |date=March 1968 |volume=16 |issue=1 |pages=41–57 |doi=10.1111/j.1467-954X.1968.tb01291.x |s2cid=220396960}}</ref>}}

===Peak of adherence to British Israelism – late 19th and early 20th centuries===
[[File:William Pascoe Goard.jpg|thumb|[[William Pascoe Goard]]]]
The extent to which the British clergy became aware of the existence of the movement may be gauged by the comment which [[Cardinal (Catholicism)|Cardinal]] [[John Henry Newman]] (1801–1890) made when he was asked why he had left the [[Church of England]] in 1845 in order to join the [[Catholic Church|Roman Catholic Church]]. He said that there was a very real danger that the movement "would take over the Church of England."<ref name=Strong1986>{{cite book |last=Strong |first=Patience |title=Someone had to say it |publisher=Bachman & Turner |place=London |year=1986 |isbn=978-0-85974132-3}}</ref>{{rp|86}}

In the late 19th century, [[Edward Hine]], [[Edward Wheler Bird]], and Herbert Aldersmith developed the British Israelite movement. Hine and Bird achieved a degree of "doctrinal coherence" by eliminating competing forms of the ideology: in 1878, the Anglo-Ephraim Association of London, which followed Wilson by accepting the broader community of western European Germanic peoples as fellow Israelites who were also favoured by God, was absorbed into Bird's Metropolitan Anglo-Israel Association, which espoused the Anglo-exclusive view promoted by Hine.<ref name=Kidd2006/>{{rp|209}}

By 1886, the "Anglo-Israel Association" had 27 affiliated groups throughout Britain.{{r|Barkun|p=9}} Hine later departed for the United States, where he promoted the movement.<ref name=Parfitt2003/>{{rp|56}}{{r|Fine 2015|p=176}}

The 1906 edition of the ''[[Jewish Encyclopedia]]'' stated that British Israelism's adherents "are said to number 2,000,000 in England and the United States",<ref name=TJE600>{{cite book |contribution=Anglo-Israelism |last=Jacobs |first=Joseph |title=Jewish Encyclopedia: Anglo-Israelism |editor-first1=Isidore |editor-last1=Singer |editor-link=Isidore Singer |date=1901 |publisher=[[Funk and Wagnalls]] |location=New York |page=600 |isbn=978-1-11791895-2 |url=http://d2b4hhdj1xs9hu.cloudfront.net/BJ1J6JJS.jpg}}</ref> an unreliable figure if association membership and journal subscription numbers are any guide; the number of passive Protestant sympathisers is almost impossible to determine.<ref name=Kidd2006/>{{rp|209}}

Between 1899 and 1902, members of the British-Israel Association of London dug up parts of the [[Hill of Tara]] in the belief that the [[Ark of the Covenant]] was buried there, doing much damage to one of [[Ireland]]'s most ancient royal and archaeological sites.<ref>{{cite news |title=The Ark at the seat of kings |newspaper=The Irish Times |url=https://www.irishtimes.com/news/the-ark-at-the-seat-of-kings-1.356282 |access-date=13 November 2019}}</ref> At the same time, British Israelism became associated with various pseudo-archaeological [[pyramidology]] theories, such as the notion that the [[Great Pyramid of Giza|Pyramid of Khufu]] contained a prophetic [[numerology]] of the [[British peoples]].<ref>Moshenska, G. (2008). 'The Bible in Stone': Pyramids, Lost Tribes and Alternative Archaeologies". ''Public Archaeology''. 7(1): 5–16.</ref>

In 1914, the thirty-fourth year of its publication, the ''Anglo-Israel Almanack'' listed the details of a large number of Kingdom Identity Groups which were operating independently throughout the British Isles as well as in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the United States of America.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}

In 1919, the [[British-Israel-World Federation]] (BIWF) was founded in London, and [[Covenant Publishing]] was founded in 1922. William Pascoe Goard was the first director of the publishing house. During this time, several prominent figures patronized the BIWF organization and its publisher; [[Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone]] was its Patron-in-chief prior to [[World War II]]. One of its highest-profile members was [[William Massey]], then Prime Minister of [[New Zealand]]. Due to the expansive nature of the [[British Empire]], believers in British Israelism spread worldwide and the BIWF expanded its organization to the [[British Commonwealth]]. [[Howard Rand]] promoted the teaching, and he became the National Commissioner of the [[Anglo-Saxon Federation of America]] in 1928. He published ''The Bulletin'', later renamed ''The Messenger of the Covenant''. More recently, it was renamed ''Destiny''.<ref name=Parfitt2003/>{{rp|57}}

A prolific author on British Israelism during the later 1930s and 40s was [[Alexander James Ferris]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Cottrell-Boyce |first=Aidan |title=Israelism in Modern Britain |date=2020-08-31 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-17236-2 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wy3tDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22the+idea%22+A+J+Ferris&pg=PT35}}</ref>

==Contemporary movement==
The BIWF continues to exist, with its main headquarters in [[Bishop Auckland]], [[County Durham]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Contact Us |website=The British-Israel-World Federation |url=http://www.britishisrael.co.uk/contact.php |access-date=24 August 2015}}</ref> It also has chapters in [[Australia]], [[Canada]], the [[Netherlands]], [[New Zealand]], and [[South Africa]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Other British-Israel Organisations |website=The British-Israel-World Federation |url=http://www.britishisrael.co.uk/otherbiwfs.php |access-date=24 August 2015}}</ref>

In 1968, one source estimated that there were between 3,000 and 5,000 British Israelists in Britain.<ref name=JWilson>{{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=J. |title=British Israelism: A Revitalization Movement in Contemporary Culture |journal=Archives de Sociologie des Religions |date=1 January 1968 |volume=13 |issue=26 |pages=73–80 |doi=10.3406/assr.1968.1808}}</ref> There, a few small [[Pentecostalism|Pentecostal]] churches have taught British Israelism.

The post-Imperial era brought about a change in orientation for British Israelists, reflected in a corresponding change in the social class to which their membership predominantly belonged. During the years of its initial growth, it could depend on the spread of [[Christian fundamentalism]] within the country, the emotional appeal of imperialism, and a belief in the unrivaled power of the British economy to expand a middle-class membership that viewed it as the divine duty of the nation, as God's chosen people, to rule and civilize the world. By the mid-20th century, the dissipation of these factors changed the focus of the movement to one troubled by social and moral decline, including the degradation of class distinctions and of monarchical absolutism. Societal changes were viewed as portents of a coming apocalypse and as indications that the nation was in need of redemption. A fantasized society which practiced Victorian moral rectitude and imperialism, lacked [[socialism]], bureaucrats, intellectuals, and [[income tax]], would now come to be viewed by the movement which drew its support from the well-to-do as the ideal that modern British society should emulate.<ref name=JWilson/>

==Tenets==

===Most Israelites are not Jews===
Adherents believe that the [[Twelve Tribes of Israel]] are the twelve sons of the patriarch [[Jacob]] (who was later named Israel). Jacob elevated the descendants of [[Ephraim]] and [[Manasseh (tribal patriarch)|Manasseh]] (the two sons of [[Joseph]]) to the status of full tribes in their own right, replacing the [[Tribe of Joseph]].

A division occurred among the twelve tribes in the days of [[Jeroboam]] and [[Rehoboam]], with the three tribes of [[Tribe of Judah|Judah]], [[Tribe of Benjamin|Benjamin]], and, in part, [[Tribe of Levi|Levi]], forming the [[Kingdom of Judah]], and the remaining ten tribes forming the [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)]].<ref>{{cite book |title=Encyclopædia Britannica |page=vol. 15, p. 373 |edition=11th}}</ref> Thus, they argue, "the great bulk of Israelites are not the Jews".<ref name=Allen1917>{{cite book |last=Allen |first=J.H. |title=Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright |publisher=Destiny Publishers |year=1917 |edition=16 |location=Haverhill, MA}}</ref>{{rp|71}}<ref>{{cite book |title=Harmsworth's History Volume 3 |pages=1781–1782, 1784–1785}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |title=The DNA of Western European Nations |website=British Israel Basics |publisher=Canadian British-Israel Association |url=http://www.british-israel.com/dna-and-british-israel.html}}</ref> W. E. Filmer, writing in 1964, suggested that the fact that some Jews continue to search for the [[Ten Lost Tribes]] implies that their representatives are not found among modern-day [[Jewish ethnic divisions|multi-ethnic]] [[Jews]].<ref>{{cite book |last1=Filmer |first1=W. E. |title=A Synopsis of the Migrations of Israel |date=1964 |publisher=Covenant Books |isbn=978-0852050613 |page=5}}</ref> A number of British Israelites quote [[Josephus]] in order to support their claim that the lost tribes of Israel are not Jews: "the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country; wherefore there are but two tribes in [[Asia]] and [[Europe]] subject to the [[Roman Empire|Romans]], while the ten tribes are beyond the [[Euphrates]] till now, and are an immense multitude."<ref>{{cite book |last1=Josephus |first1=Flavius |title=Antiquities |page=11:133}}</ref><ref name=Allen1917/>{{rp|247}}<ref>{{cite web |title=British-Israel Answers its Critics |website=The British-Israel Church of God |url=http://www.british-israel.ca/answers.htm}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Poole |first1=William Henry |title=Anglo-Israel; Or, The British Nation the Lost Tribes of Israel |date=1879 |publisher=Bengough Bros. |isbn=978-1330950692 |page=23}}</ref>

===The British are the descendants of the Lost Tribes===
[[File:Jehu-Obelisk-cropped.jpg|thumb|[[Jehu]] kneeling at the feet of [[Shalmaneser III]] on the [[Black Obelisk]]]]
The key component of British Israelism is its representation of the migrations of the [[Ten Lost Tribes]] of Israel. Adherents suggested that the [[Scythians]], [[Cimmerians]], and [[Goths]] were representatives of these lost tribes, and the progenitors of the later invaders of Britain.<ref>{{cite book |last=Chryssides |first=George D. |title=Historical Dictionary of New Religious Movements |publisher=The Scarecros Press, Inc. |location=Lanham |year=2012 |page=65 |isbn=9780810861947}}</ref><ref name=Quarles/>{{rp|26–27}} John Wilson would argue for the inclusion of all Western European Gothic peoples among the descendants of the Israelites, but under the later influence of Edward Hine, the movement would come to view only the peoples of the British Isles as having this ancestry.<ref name=Kidd2006/>{{rp|209}}

[[Herodotus]] reported that the ancient [[Persians]] called all of the Scythians ''Sacae'', but they called themselves ''Scoloti''. However, a modern comparison of the forms which are given in other ancient languages suggests that ''Skuda'' was their name.<ref>{{cite book |last=Strassler |first=Robert |title=The Landmark Herodotus: The Histories |publisher=Anchor Books |location=New York |year=2009 |page=759}}</ref> Ancient writers, such as Josephus and [[Jerome]] would associate the Scythians with the peoples of [[Gog and Magog]],<ref>{{cite book |last1=van Donzel |first1=Emiri |last2=Schmidt |first2=Andrea |title=Gog and Magog in Early Eastern Christian and Islamic Sources: Sallam's Quest for Alexander's Wall |publisher=Brill |location=Leiden |year=2009 |pages=10–13}}</ref> but British Israelist etymologists would see in ''Sacae'' a name [[root (linguistics)|derived from]] the biblical "[[Isaac]]",<ref name=Allen1917/>{{rp|294–295}} claiming that the appearance of the Scythians where they claimed the Lost Tribes were last documented also supported a connection.<ref name=TJE600/> Further, British Israelists find support in the superficial resemblance between King [[Jehu]]'s pointed headdress and that of the captive [[Saka]] king seen to the far right on the [[Behistun Rock]].<ref name="ReferenceB">{{citation |last=Capt |first=E. Raymond |title=Missing Links Discovered in Assyrian Tablets |publisher=Artisan |year=1985 |isbn=978-0-934666-15-2}}.</ref> They continued the chain of etymological identification leading from Isaac to the ''Sacae'' to the Saxons (interpreted as "Sac's sons" – the sons of Isaac),<ref name=Allen1917/>{{rp|294–295}}<ref name=Quarles/>{{rp|21}}<ref name=Ingram>{{cite book |last=Ingram |first=William L. |contribution=God and Race: British-Israelism and Christian Identity |title=America's Alternative Religions |editor-last=Miller |editor-first=Thomas |publisher=SUNY Press |location=Albany, NY |year=1995 |pages=119–126}}</ref>{{rp|121}} who are portrayed as invading England from [[Denmark]], the 'land of the [[Tribe of Dan]]'.<ref name=TJE600/> They saw the same tribal name, left by the wanderers, in the [[Dardanelles|Dar''dan''elles]], the [[Danube|''Dan''ube]], [[Macedonia (region)|Mace''don''ia]], [[Dunkirk|''Dun''kirk]], [[Dungloe|''Dun''glow]] in Ireland, [[Dundee|''Dun''dee]] in Scotland, [[Sweden|Swe''den'']], and [[London|Lon''don'']],<ref name="Brackney 2012"/><ref>{{cite book |last=Kelly |first=Aidan A. |title=The Evangelical Christian Anti-Cult Movement: Christian Counter-Cult Literature |location=New York |publisher=Garland Publishing |year=1990 |page=86}}</ref><ref name=Spittler>{{cite book |last=Spittler |first=Russell P. |title=Cults and isms: twenty alternatives to evangelical Christianity |publisher=Baker Book House Company |location=Grand Rapids, MI |year=1963 |page=101}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Friedman |first=O. Michael |title=Origins of the British Israelites: The Lost Tribes |publisher=Mellen Research University Press |location=San Francisco |year=1993 |page=62}}</ref> and ascribed to this lost tribe the mythical Irish ''[[Tuatha Dé Danann]]''.<ref name=TJE600/> In the name of the [[Celtic Britons|British]] they see ''berith''ish, referring to the [[Covenant (biblical)|Hebrew covenant with God]].<ref name="Brackney 2012"/>

[[File:Declaration of arbroath.jpg|thumb|The 'Tyninghame' copy of the [[Declaration of Arbroath]] from 1320 AD]]
[[Bede]] (died 735) had linked the [[Picts]] to the Scythians, but British Israelists suggested that he had confused the two tribes of Scotland, and that it was the ''Scotti'' (Scots) who were one with the ''Scoloti'' (Scyths) of Herodotus.<ref name=Merrill>{{cite book |last=Merrill |first=A. H. |title=History and Geography in Late Antiquity |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=2005 |pages=284–5}}</ref> They drew particular support from the derivation of the Scots from the Scythians found in the 1320 [[Declaration of Arbroath]],<ref name=Allen1917/>{{rp|262}} reflecting a tradition related in the 9th-century ''[[Historia Brittonum]]'' that the Scots descended from the union of a Scythian exile with Scota, daughter of a [[Pharaoh]], a tale found in some form in several other early-14th-century historical and poetic sources.<ref>{{cite book |last=Broun |first=Dauvit |title=The Irish Identity of the Kingdom of the Scots in the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries |publisher=Boydell Press |location=Woodbridge, England |year=1999 |pages=78–79,119–122}}</ref> The Declaration begins:
<blockquote>"Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the [[Tyrrhenian Sea]] and the [[Pillars of Hercules]], and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today."<ref>{{cite web |title=Declaration of Arbroath – English Translation |website=Constitution Society |url=http://www.constitution.org/scot/arbroath.htm}}</ref></blockquote>

British-Israel Associations cite the Declaration as evidence for the link between the Scots and the Scythians, and hence the Lost Tribes,<ref>For example, {{cite book |title="Lost Israelite Identity": The Hebraic Ancestry of Celtic Races |last=Davidy |first=Yair |publisher=Brit-Am |year=1996 |pages=240–242}}, {{cite book |last1=Ogwyn |first1=John H. |title=The United States and Britain in Prophecy |pages=27–28}}</ref> as had been proposed by the early British Israelist etymologists.<ref name=Allen1917/>{{rp|285–296}}

Other Celtic invaders would be given an analogous descent. In the [[Welsh people|Welsh]] (''Cymry'') the British Israelists would see a direct connection through the [[Cimbri]] to the Cimmerians, the ''Gimirri'' of [[Neo-Assyrian Empire|Assyrian]] annals,<ref name=Pierard1996>{{cite book |last=Pierard |first=Richard V. |contribution=The Contribution of British-Israelism to anti-Semitism within conservative Protestantism |title=Holocaust and church struggle: religion, power, and the politics of resistance |editor-last=Locke |editor-first=Hubert G. |editor-last2=Littell |editor-first2=Marcia Sachs |publisher=University Press of America |year=1996 |pages=44–68}}</ref>{{rp|57}} a name sometimes also given by the ancient [[Babylonians]] to the Scythians and Saka.<ref>{{cite book |last=Gershevych |first=Ilya |title=The Cambridge History of Iran, volume 2: The Median and Achaemenian Periods |publisher=Cambridge University Press |location=Cambridge |year=1985 |page=94}}</ref> Perceived similarity between this and the name by which the Assyrian annals referred to Israel, ''Bit Khumri'', would lead the British Israelists to claim that the Welsh too were members of the Lost Tribes.<ref name=Pierard1996/>{{rp|57}}

According to the Anglo-Israelists, these claimed connections would make the British the literal descendants of the Lost Tribes, and thus inheritors of the promises made to the Israelites in the Old Testament.<ref name="Katz">{{cite book |last=Katz |first=David S. |author-link=David S. Katz |editor1-last=Fiering |editor1-first=Norman |editor1-link=Norman Fiering |editor2-last=Bernardini |editor2-first=Paolo |title=The Jews and the Expansion of Europe to the West, 1450 to 1800 |publisher=[[Berghahn Books]] |date=2001 |location=New York, NY |chapter=Chapter 5: Israel in America: The Wanderings of the Lost Ten Tribes from Mikveigh Yisrael to Timothy McVeigh |isbn=1-57181-153-2 |page=112 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=m0JAGMuePO0C |access-date=18 February 2021}}</ref>

===The British throne is a continuation of the Davidic throne===
Some adherents further claim that the [[British royal family]] is of lineal descent from the [[Davidic line|house]] of [[King David]] via a daughter of [[Zedekiah]], the last king of [[Kings of Judah|Judah]]. According to this legend, the prophet [[Book of Jeremiah|Jeremiah]], and his scribe, [[Baruch ben Neriah|Baruch]], escaped with "the king's daughters" (Jer. 41:10; 43:6) to Egypt. They later travelled to Ireland, where one of the surviving Judahite princesses, [[list of legendary kings of Britain#Tea Tephi|Tea Tephi]], married a local [[High King of Ireland]]. From this fabled union the Davidic throne was supposedly preserved, having been transferred to Ireland, then Scotland, and later England, whence the British monarchs are alleged to have descended.<ref>{{cite book |last=Hexham |first=Irving |contribution=British Israelism |title=Evangelical Dictionary of Theology |edition=2 |editor-last=Elwell |editor-first=Walter A. |publisher=Baker Book House Company |location=Grand Rapids, MI |year=2001 |page=187}}</ref> The [[Stone of Scone]], which has been used in the coronations of Scottish, English, and British monarchs for centuries, is traditionally claimed to be the [[Stone of Jacob|pillow stone]] on which the biblical patriarch, Jacob, slept, and the stone used in David's coronation.<ref name="Brackney 2012"/>

===Britain and the United States are the inheritors of Jacob's birthright===
A commonly held British-Israel doctrine is the belief that the [[Tribe of Ephraim]] and the [[Tribe of Manasseh]] can be identified as modern day Britain and the United States of America.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Ferris |first1=A. J. |title=Great Britain & The U.S.A. Revealed as Israel The New Order |date=1941}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Glover |first1=Frederick Robert Augustus |title=England, the Remnant of Judah and the Israel of Ephraim |date=1881 |publisher=Rivingtons}}</ref><ref name=ArmstrongH/>

Part of the foundation of the British-Israel doctrine is the theological claim that particular blessings were bestowed upon three of the tribes of Israel,<ref>{{cite book |last1=Wild |first1=Joseph |title=The Future of Israel and Judah: Being the Discourses on the Lost Tribes from How and when the World Will End |date=1888 |publisher=Nabu Press |isbn=9781287712565 |page=108}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |title=The Standard of Israel and journal of the Anglo-Israel association |date=1875 |page=8}}</ref><ref name=ArmstrongH>{{cite book |last1=Armstrong |first1=Herbert W. |title=The United States and Britain in Prophecy |publisher=[[Philadelphia Church of God]] |date=2007 |asin=B002ILY91A}}</ref><ref name=Allen1917/>{{rp|317}} in that the Tribe of Judah was to be the 'chief ruler' e.g. King David, and Ephraim was to receive the birthright (See [[Jacob and Esau]]). Adherents believe that these blessings have continued down through the ages to modern times, with the British Monarchy being identified as the continued blessing upon Judah, and both Britain (Ephraim) and the USA (Manasseh) as recipients of the national birthright blessing.
They cite passages such as 1 Chron 5:1–2 and Gen 48:19–20 in order to support their claim.{{citation needed|date=May 2017}}

==Claims and criticism {{anchor|Claims and criticism}}==
British Israelism has been criticized for its poor research and scholarship. In the 1910 edition of the ''Encyclopædia Britannica,'' an article which summarizes the theology of British Israelism contains the statement that: "The theory [of British-Israelism] rests on premises which are deemed by scholars—both theological and anthropological—to be utterly unsound".<ref>''The Encyclopædia Britannica''. 11th edn. 1910. Vol. II, page 31.</ref> Current scholarship is not consistent with the claims of British Israelism, with scholars drawing attention to its "historical and linguistic inaccuracies" in addition to its links to antisemitism.<ref name="Brackney 2012"/> Hale (2015) refers to "the overwhelming cultural, historical, and genetic evidence against it."<ref name="Hale2016">{{cite book |last1=Hale |first1=Amy |editor1-last=Parker |editor1-first=Joanne |title=The Harp and the Constitution: Myths of Celtic and Gothic Origin |date=2016 |publisher=Brill Academic Pub |isbn=9789004306370 |language=en |chapter=Reigning with Swords of Meteoric Iron: Archangel Michael and the British New Jerusalem}}</ref>{{rp|181}}

===Research standards===
Critics of British Israelism note that the arguments which are presented by promoters of the teaching are based on unsubstantiated and highly speculative, amateur research. [[Tudor Parfitt]], author of ''The Lost Tribes: The History of a Myth'', states that the proof cited by adherents of British Israelism is "of a feeble composition even by the low standards of the genre."<ref name=Parfitt2003/>{{rp|61}}

===Historical linguistics===
Some proponents of British Israelism have claimed that numerous links exist between [[historical linguistics]], [[Biblical Hebrew|Ancient Hebrew]], and various European place names and languages.<ref name=Parfitt2003/>{{rp|62}} This can be traced to the works of John Wilson in the 19th century. The self-trained Wilson [[pseudoscientific language comparison|looked for similarities in the sounds]] of words and argued that many Scottish, British, and Irish words stemmed from ancient Hebrew words. Wilson's publications inspired the development of British Israel language associations in Europe.<ref name="Quarles">{{cite book |last=Quarles |first=Chester L. |title=Christian Identity: The Aryan American Bloodline Religion |publisher=[[McFarland & Company]] |year=2014 |isbn=978-0-7864-8148-4 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=r5BzY2eeyngC |access-date=16 February 2021}}</ref>{{rp|33}}

Modern scholarly linguistic analysis conclusively shows that the languages of the British Isles ([[English Language|English]], [[Welsh language|Welsh]], and [[Goidelic languages|Gaelic]]) belong in the [[Indo-European languages|Indo-European]] language family, while Hebrew belongs in the [[Semitic languages|Semitic]] branch of the [[Afroasiatic languages|Afro-Asiatic]] language family.<ref>{{cite book |last=Warf |first=Barney |title=Encyclopedia of Human Geography |article=Language, Geography of |year=2006 |location=Thousand Oaks CA |publisher=SAGE Publications |pages=270–275}}</ref> In 1906, T. R. Lounsbury stated that "no trace of the slightest real connection can be discovered" between English and ancient Hebrew,<ref>{{cite book |last=Lounsbury |first=T |title=History of the English Language |year=1906 |pages=1, 12–13}}</ref> while in 1993 Michael Friedman refuted claims that Hebrew was closely related to [[Celtic languages|Celtic]] and [[Old English|Anglo-Saxon]] when he wrote that "the actual evidence could hardly be any weaker".<ref name=Quarles/>{{rp|33}}

Others have addressed the specific word relationships proposed. Russell Spittler (1973) says of the "disputable" etymological claims made by the British Israelists that they "have no ample basis in linguistic scholarship and are based on coincidences only."<ref name=Spittler/> William Ingram (1995) would present arguments made by British Israelism as examples of "tortured etymology".<ref name=Ingram/>{{rp|121}}

===Scriptural interpretation===
Adherents of British Israelism cite various scriptures in support of the argument that the "lost" Northern Israelite Tribes migrated through Europe to end up in Britain.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cottrell-Boyce |first=Aidan |title=Israelism in Modern Britain |date=2020-08-31 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-17236-2 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wy3tDwAAQBAJ&dq=British+people%2C+according+to+this+theory%2C+are+descendants&pg=PT30}}</ref> Dimont (1933) argues that British Israelists misunderstand and misinterpret the meaning of these scriptures.<ref name=Dimont1933>{{cite book |last1=Dimont |first1=Charles T. |title=The legend of British-Israel |publisher=Society For Promoting Christian Knowledge |location=London |year=1933 |language=en}}</ref>{{rp|5–7}}

One such case is the distinction that British Israelists make between the "Jews" of the Southern Kingdom and the "[[Israelites]]" of the Northern Kingdom. They believe that the [[Bible]] consistently distinguishes the two groups.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} Dimont says that many of these scriptures are misinterpreted because after the captivities, the distinction between "Jews" and "Israelites" was lost over time.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}

British Israelists believe that the Northern Tribes of Israel lost their identity after the [[Assyrian captivity|captivity in Assyria]] and that this is reflected in the Bible.{{citation needed|date=April 2017}} Dimont disagrees with this assertion and argues that only higher-ranking Israelites were deported from Israel and many Israelites remained.<ref name=Dimont1933/>{{rp|5}} He cites examples after the Assyrian captivity, such as [[Josiah]], King of Judah, who received money from the tribes of ''"Manasseh, and Ephraim, and all the remnant of Israel"'' (2 Chronicles 34:9), and Hezekiah, who sent invitations not only to Judah, but also to northern Israel for the attendance of a [[Passover]] in [[Jerusalem]]. (2 Chronicles 30);<ref name=Dimont1933/>{{rp|6}} British Israelites interpret 2 Chronicles 34:9 as referring to "Scythians".{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}

Dimont is also critical of the interpretations of biblical prophecy embraced by the movement, saying, "Texts are torn from their context, and misapplied without the slightest regard to their original meaning."<ref name=Dimont1933/>{{rp|18}}

===Historical speculation===
British Israelism rests on linking different ancient populations. This includes linking the "lost" tribes of Israel with the Scythians, Cimmerians, Celts, and modern [[Western Europe]]ans such as the British. To support these links, some adherents believe that similarities exist between various cultural aspects of these population groups, and they argue that these links demonstrate the migration of the "lost" Israelites in a westerly direction. Examples given include [[burial]] customs, metalwork, clothing, dietary customs, and more.<ref>{{cite web |publisher=UCG |title=The United States and Britain in Bible Prophecy |url=http://www.ucg.org/booklets/US/archaelogical.htm |access-date=14 January 2009 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20081205163627/http://www.ucg.org/booklets/us/archaelogical.htm |archive-date=5 December 2008}}</ref> Dimont argues that the customs of the Scythians and the Cimmerians are in contrast to those of the Ancient Israelites,<ref name=Dimont1933/>{{rp|7–10}} and he further dismisses the connection between these populations and the Saxons and Celts, particularly criticizing the then-current formulations of British Israelism that would interject Semites between the closely related English and Germans.<ref name=Dimont1933/>{{rp|10–11}}

The Scythian origin of the Scots has been referred to as mythical.<ref name=Todd1848>{{cite book |last=Todd |first=James Henthorn |title=The Irish Version of the Historia Britonum of Nennius |year=1848 |publisher=Irish Archæological Society |location=Dublin |page=xcvii |chapter=Editor's Preface |chapter-url=https://archive.org/details/irishversionhis00socigoog}}</ref><ref name=Klieforth>{{cite book |last1=Klieforth |first1=Alexander Leslie |last2=Munro |first2=Robert John |title=The Scottish invention of America, Democracy and Human Rights: A History of Liberty and Freedom from the Ancient Celts to the New Millennium |publisher=University Press of America, Inc. |location=Dallas |year=2004 |page=5 |isbn=978-0761827917}}</ref> Algernon Herbert, writing in 1848, characterized the linguistic derivation of Scots from ''Scoloti'' as "strictly impossible",<ref name=Todd1848/> and Merrill (2005) referred to it as [[false etymology]].<ref name=Merrill/>

Addressing their view on the fate of the exiled tribes, Frank Boys said of their voluminous output, "All the effort to write these volumes might well have been saved on the premise that 'they were never lost,' which we believe to be the correct one."<ref name=Spittler/>

===Ideology===

[[Tudor Parfitt|Parfitt]] suggests that the creation of British Israelism was inspired by numerous ideological factors, which included: a desire of its adherents, many of whom were from ordinary backgrounds, to prove that they had a glorious ancient past; emerging pride in Western [[imperialism]] and [[colonialism]], and a belief in the "racial superiority of [[white Anglo-Saxon Protestants]]".<ref name=Parfitt2003/>{{rp|62}} Aikau characterized the movement as being "fundamentally about providing a rationale for Anglo-Saxon superiority."<ref>{{cite book |last=Aikau |first=Hokulani K. |title=A Chosen People, a Promised Land: Mormonism and Race in Hawai'i |publisher=University of Minnesota Press |location=Minneapolis |year=2012 |page=38 |isbn=978-0-8166-7462-6}}</ref> To [[Colin Kidd|Kidd]], its theology represents a "quasi-[[heresy]]", which serves to "blunt the universalist message apparent in the [[New Testament]]."<ref name=Kidd2006/>{{rp|204}} Its role in fostering [[antisemitism in Christianity|antisemitism]] in conservative [[Protestantism|Protestant]] [[Christianity]] has been noted by historians,<ref name=Pierard1996/>{{rp|57}} along with its role in fostering a feeling of "racial [[chauvinism]]" which is "not always covert".<ref name=Ingram/>{{rp|121–122}}

Separately, the mythology of British Israelism has been characterized as fostering "nationalistic bellicosity" by historians.<ref>{{cite book |last=Pearse |first=Meic |title=The Gods of War: Is Religion the Primary cause of Violent Conflict? |publisher=[[InterVarsity Press]] |year=2007 |pages=[https://archive.org/details/godsofwarisrelig00pear/page/104 104–105] |isbn=978-0830834907 |url=https://archive.org/details/godsofwarisrelig00pear/page/104 |url-access=registration}}</ref> To some adherents, British Israelism served as a justification for [[British Empire|British imperialism]] and American settler colonialism ([[manifest destiny]]), along with the [[forced displacement|displacement]] of [[indigenous peoples]] which subsequently followed them.<ref name=Kidd2006/>{{rp|212–213}}

==Influences on other movements==

===Mormonism===
{{See also|Mormon teachings on skin color}}

British Israelism was rapidly growing in England when the United States-based [[Latter Day Saint movement]] sent its first missionaries to England. British Israelist ideas clearly influenced [[Mormons|Mormon]] thought by the 1850s, and by the 1870s, Mormon periodicals published in Britain were citing British Israelist proponents to promote the belief that most Mormons were of Anglo-Saxon and Israelite descent, concepts that would subsequently be synthesized into general Mormon discourse.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Mauss |first=Armand L. |title=Mormonism's Worldwide Aspirations and its Changing Conceptions of Race and Lineage |journal=[[Dialogue: A Journal of Mormon Thought]] |volume=34 |year=2001 |issue=3/4 |pages=1003=133 at 108–109 |jstor=45226793 |doi=10.2307/45226793 |doi-access=free |s2cid=254314903}}</ref><ref name="Mauss 2003">{{cite book |title=All Abraham's Children: Changing Mormon Conceptions of Race and Lineage |last=Mauss |first=Armand L. |publisher=[[University of Illinois Press]] |year=2003 |isbn=0-252-02803-1 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7lXq9JfR_EYC}}</ref>{{rp|18, 35–36}}<ref>{{cite journal |last=Green |first=Arnold H. |title=Gathering and Election: Israelite Descent and Universalism in Mormon Discourse |date=1999 |journal=[[Journal of Mormon History]] |volume=25 |issue=1 |pages=211–213, 226 |jstor=23287743 |issn=0094-7342 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/23287743}}</ref>

===Pentecostalism===
Several individuals who were influential in the founding of [[Pentecostalism]] embraced the tenets of British Israelism. The British-Israel-inspired self-identification of Anglo-Saxon peoples with the Jewish nation and the promises which were made to them by their god would significantly contribute to the belief that they would play a central role in the [[Christian eschatology|end times]], a belief which was adhered to by several prominent proto- and early-pentecostals. Notable among them was [[John Alexander Dowie]], who spoke about Anglo-Saxon Christians' plans to take control of Jerusalem in order to prepare for the [[Second Coming]]. This legacy was continued by [[Charles Fox Parham]], but he believed that the Lost Tribes would join their Jewish brethren in order to reestablish the nation of Israel. His view of the Lost Tribes was more expansive than Dowie's view (see [[Nordic Israelism]]) , in addition to encompassing Anglo-Saxons, it also encompassed [[Scandinavia]]ns, [[Danes]], [[High German languages|High Germans]], and even [[Hinduism|Hindus]] and [[Japanese people|Japanese]] (see [[Japanese-Jewish common ancestry theory]]), who, according to Parham, had acquired the blood of Abraham through intermarriage and were hence eligible to take part in his end-time drama. British-Israelist beliefs would soon be marginalized in the movement, but their influences could still be seen in the teachings of several key leaders in the mid-20th-century.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Williams |first=Joseph |title=Pentecostals, Israel, and the Prophetic Politics of Dominion |journal=Religion and American Culture |volume=30 |pages=426–473 |year=2021 |issue=3 |doi=10.1017/rac.2020.16 |s2cid=231736073}}</ref>

Noted Christian Identity minister [[Wesley A. Swift]] was first introduced to British Israelism via [[Pentecostalism]] in the early 1930s. Swift was a student at [[L.I.F.E. Bible College]] at the [[Angelus Temple]], [[Aimee Semple McPherson]]'s Pentecostal [[The Foursquare Church|Foursquare Church]], during the 1930s. Swift later served as a minister at the Angelus Temple during the 1930s and 1940s. This teaching was brought by [[Gerald Burton Winrod]], an evangelist from Kansas, who was a speaker at Angelus Temple. Swift was a student of Rev. Philip Monson's Kingdom Bible School during the 1930s; Monson taught British Israelism and some of the racial teachings which Swift would later reformulate into Christian Identity theology. Swift was also exposed to [[Charles Parham]]'s British Israel teachings at the Angelus Temple.

In Britain, the espousal of British Israelism by [[George Jeffreys (pastor)|George Jeffreys]], founder of the [[Elim Pentecostal Church]], led to a [[schism]] which precipitated his resignation in 1939 and led to the formation of the [[Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship]],<ref name=Anderson>{{cite book |last=Anderson |first=Allan Heaton |title=An Introduction to Pentecostalism: Global Charismatic Christianity |edition=2nd |year=2014 |location=Cambridge |publisher=Cambridge University Press |pages=101–102}}</ref> which continues to teach the doctrine.<ref>{{cite book |last=Wilson |first=B. R. |title=Contagious Conflict: The Impact of American Dissent on European Life |article=American Religion: Its Impact on Britain |editor-last=den Hollander |editor-first=A. N. J. |year=1973 |location=Leiden |publisher=E. J. Brill |page=244}}</ref>

===Herbert W. Armstrong===
Beginning in the 1960s, [[Herbert W. Armstrong]],<ref name=Parfitt2003/>{{rp|57}} founder and Pastor General of the [[Grace Communion International#Worldwide Church of God|Worldwide Church of God]], vigorously promoted the teaching of British Israelism. Armstrong believed that the teaching was a key to understanding [[biblical prophecy]]: "One might ask, were not biblical prophecies closed and sealed? Indeed they were—until now! And even now they can be understood only by those who possess the master key to unlock them."<ref>{{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Herbert |title=The United States and Britain in Prophecy |year=1967 |page=5}}</ref> Armstrong believed that God commanded him to proclaim the prophecies to the [[Ten Lost Tribes|Lost Tribes]] of Israel before the "[[Christian eschatology|end-times]]".<ref name="ReferenceA">{{citation |last=Orr |first=R |title=How Anglo-Israelism Entered Seventh-day Churches of God: A history of the doctrine from John Wilson to Joseph W. Tkach |year=1999 |url=https://archive.gci.org/articles/anglo-israelism-and-the-united-states-britain-in-prophecy/ |access-date=19 July 2007}}.</ref>{{unreliable source?|date=May 2019}} Armstrong's belief caused his separation from the [[Church of God (Seventh Day)|Church of God Seventh Day]] because of its refusal to adopt the teaching.

Armstrong founded his own church, first named the "Radio Church of God" and later renamed the "Worldwide Church of God".<ref name="ReferenceA"/> He described British Israelism as a "central plank" of his theology.<ref>[[Joseph Tkach, Jr.|Joseph Tkach]], [https://www.gci.org/aboutus/truth "Transformed by Truth: The Worldwide Church of God Rejects the Teachings of Founder Herbert W Armstrong and Embraces Historic Christianity. This is the Inside Story"]</ref>

After Armstrong's death, his former church abandoned its belief in British Israelism and in 2009, it changed its name to [[Grace Communion International]] (GCI). It offers an explanation for the doctrine's origin as well as an explanation for the church's renunciation of the doctrine on its official website.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> Church members who refused to accept these doctrinal changes left the Worldwide Church of God/GCI and founded their own offshoot churches. Many of these organizations still teach British Israelism, among them are the [[Philadelphia Church of God]], the [[Living Church of God]], and the [[United Church of God]]. Armstrong promoted other genealogical history theories, such as the belief that modern-day [[Germany]] represents ancient [[Assyria]] (see [[Assyria and Germany in Anglo-Israelism]]), writing, "The Assyrians settled in [[central Europe]], and the [[Germans]], undoubtedly, are, in part, the descendants of the ancient [[Assyrian people|Assyrians]].".<ref>{{cite book |last=Armstrong |first=Herbert |title=Mystery of the Ages |year=1985 |page=183}}</ref>

===Christian Identity===
{{Main|Christian Identity}}
While early British Israelites such as Edward Hine and John Wilson were generally [[philosemitism|philosemites]],<ref name="Gardell">{{cite book |last=Gardell |first=Mattias |title=Gods of the Blood: The Pagan Revival and White Separatism |publisher=Duke University Press |location=Durham, NC |year=2003 |page=372}}</ref><ref name="Quarles"/>{{rp|33}} an [[antisemitism|antisemitic]] strain also existed within the movement, such as the [[scientific racism|scientific racialism]] that led Wilson to deny the "racial purity" of modern-day Jews, leading some within the movement to adopt the belief that modern-day Jews were "un-Semitic impostors".{{r|Kidd2006|p=206–210}} Some American adherents of British Israelism would later adopt a racialized, strongly antisemitic theology that became known as [[Christian Identity]],<ref name="Barkun"/>{{rp|xii}} which has at its core the belief that non-[[Caucasian race|Caucasian people]] have no [[soul]]s and therefore cannot be [[salvation in Christianity|saved]].<ref name=Quarles/>{{rp|68}} Since its emergence in the 1920s, Christian Identity has taught the belief that Jews are not descended from the [[Tribe of Judah]]. Instead, some Christian Identity adherents believe that Jews are descended from [[Satan]] and [[Lilith]] (see [[Serpent seed]]) while others believe that Jews are descended from [[Edom]]ites or [[Khazars]] (see [[Khazar hypothesis of Ashkenazi ancestry]]). Their adoption of the British Israelist belief that the Israelite-derived Anglo-Saxons had been favoured by God over the 'impure' modern Jews meant that a reluctantly antisemitic [[Ku Klux Klan|Klansman]] "could now maintain his anti-Semitism and at the same time revere a Bible cleansed of its Jewish taint."<ref>{{cite book |last=Phillips |first=Michael |title=White Metropolis: Race, Ethnicity, and Religion in Dallas, 1841–2001 |publisher=University of Texas Press |location=Austin |year=2006 |page=95}}</ref> The arrival of British Israelism in the United States contributed to the transmission of antisemitic notions into the Christian Identity movement. One of the leading proponents of the movement after [[World War II]] was Reverend [[Wesley A. Swift]]. For several years during the 1930s and 1940s, Swift was a student and a minister at [[Aimee Semple McPherson]]'s Pentecostal [[The Foursquare Church|Foursquare Church]].<ref name="wbhr">{{cite web |title=Wesley A. Swift |publisher=William Branham Historical Research |url=https://william-branham.org/site/research/people/wesley_a._swift |access-date=2022-05-16}}</ref>{{r|Barkun|pp=58-61|quote=Notwithstanding his strong [[Methodism|Methodist]] connections, he left the church in his youth, a move which his widow attributed to his distaste for the [[reformism]] of the [[Social Gospel]]. In California, he maintained his ties with Amy{{sic}} Semple McPherson's [[The Foursquare Church|Foursquare Church]] in [[Los Angeles]], he was never able to make much of a success out of his doctrine, but it attracted several people who became central to what was later named "Christian Identity": San Jacinto Capt, [[William Potter Gale]], and [[Richard Butler (white supremacist)|Richard Girnt Butler]].}} Swift went from leading several [[Los Angeles]] Anglo-Israelite institutions to founding the Anglo-Saxon Christian Congregation, later renamed the [[Church of Jesus Christ–Christian]] in about 1948, which became Christian Identity's main mouthpiece.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Bochicchio |first=Ana |year=2021 |title=Justification by Race: Wesley Swift's White Supremacy and Anti-Semitic Theological Views in His Christian Identity Sermons |journal=Journal of Hate Studies |volume=17 |pages=35–51 |number=1 |doi=10.33972/jhs.183 |doi-access=free |hdl=11336/145441 |hdl-access=free |s2cid=241056514}}</ref> British Israelism and Christian Identity have both been branded as intrinsicly "racial chauvinist" doctrines, but while the Jews are protagonists of the apocalypse in British-Israelism, they are antagonists of the apocalypse in Christian Identity [[eschatology]].<ref>{{cite book |last=Miller |first=Timothy |title=America's Alternative Religions |date=1995-07-01 |publisher=State University of New York Press |isbn=978-1-4384-1311-2 |pages=121 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H1JBfY1zjGIC&dq=%22british+israelism%22+%22supremacist%22&pg=PA123}}</ref> Christian identity members, as well as individuals such as [[Jacob Thorkelson]] and Charles Ashton, perceived British Israelism as a platform to "facilitate a Jewish monopoly on global power." Converserly, the [[British-Israel-World Federation]] denounced through the ''BIFW Newsletter'' in January 2007 the rise of antisemitic groups within British-Israelist circles in the US.<ref>{{cite book |last=Cottrell-Boyce |first=Aidan |title=Israelism in Modern Britain |date=2020-08-31 |publisher=Routledge |isbn=978-1-000-17236-2 |language=en |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Wy3tDwAAQBAJ&dq=%22british+israelism%22+%22supremacist%22&pg=PT75}}</ref>

==Notable adherents==
{{More citations needed section|date=April 2017}}
[[File:Anglo-Israel.jpg|thumb|{{citation |title=Anglo-Israel |last=Poole|first=WH}}]]
<!---ORDERED BY BIRTH DATE, OR, IF NO BIRTH DATE, ORDERED BY NOTABLE PUBLICATION--->
* [[Richard Brothers]] (1757–1824), an early believer and teacher/promoter of this teaching
* [[John Wilson (historian)|John Wilson]] (1799–1870) published a series of his lectures in a book, ''Our Israelitish Origin'' (1840)
* Archbishop [[William Bond (bishop)|William Bennett Bond]] (1815–1906), Primate of the [[Anglican Church of Canada]]
* [[Charles Piazzi Smyth]] (1819–1900), [[pyramidology|pyramidologist]] and [[Astronomer Royal for Scotland]]
* [[William H. Poole (writer)|William H. Poole]] (1820–1896), [[Methodism|Methodist]] minister, known for his book ''Anglo-Israel, or the British Nation the Lost Tribes of Israel'' (1889)
* [[Edward Wheler Bird]] (1823–1903), Anglo-Indian judge and British-Israel author
* [[Edward Hine]] (1825–1891), artist, historian, author of ''Forty-Seven Identifications of the British Nation with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel''
* [[Thomas Rosling Howlett]] (1827–1898), Baptist pastor who authored ''Anglo-Israel, the Jewish problem'' (1892).
* [[John Cox Gawler]] (1830–1882) was a Keeper of the Jewel House and a British Israelite author
* [[Elieser Bassin]] (1840–1898), a Russian-Jewish convert to Christianity
* [[John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher]] (1841–1920), Admiral of the Fleet<ref name="Fisher">{{cite book |author=John Arbuthnot Fisher Baron Fisher |title=Records by Admiral of the Fleet, Lord Fisher |date=1919 |publisher=Hodder & Stoughton |location=London |page=226 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=VNfFAAAAMAAJ}}</ref>
* [[John Alexander Dowie]] (1847–1907), Scottish-born American evangelist, faith healer and forerunner of Pentecostalism
* [[Richard Reader Harris (KC)]] (1847–1909), founder of the Pentecostal League of Prayer movement in London
* [[Mabel Bent]] (1847–1929) (widow of [[Theodore Bent|J. Theodore Bent]]), British explorer and author of ''Anglo-Saxons from Palestine'' (1908).<ref>[https://archive.org/details/anglosaxonsfromp00bent/page/n7/mode/2up Anglo-Saxons from Palestine, or, The imperial mystery of the lost tribes] (1908, London: Sherrat & Hughes).</ref>
* [[J. H. Allen|John Harden Allen]] (1847–1930), an American [[Holiness movement|Holiness]] minister, wrote ''Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright''
* [[C. A. L. Totten]] (1851–1908), Professor of Military Tactics at [[Yale University]], wrote countless articles and books advocating British Israelism, including a 26-volume series entitled ''Our Race''
* [[Sibyl Marvin Huse]] (1866-1939), American author of religious books and teacher/Reader of Christian Science
* [[Charles Fox Parham]] (1873–1929), American preacher, instrumental in the formation of Pentecostalism
* [[William Comyns Beaumont]] (1873–1956), British journalist, author, and lecturer{{citation needed|date=April 2017}}
* [[William J. Cameron]] (1878–1955), publicist for [[Henry Ford]], advocated British-Israelism in Ford-sponsored publications
* [[William Aberhart]] (1878–1943), a [[Alberta Social Credit Party|Social Credit]] premier of [[Alberta]] from 1935 to 1943
* [[Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone]] (1883–1981), a patron of the British-Israel-World Federation<ref name="Stanley">{{cite book |author=Brian Stanley |title=Christianity in the Twentieth Century: A World History |page=24 |publisher=Princeton University Press |date=2018 |isbn=9781400890316 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=mJ9HDwAAQBAJ}}</ref>
* [[George Jeffreys (pastor)|George Jeffreys]] (1889–1962), Welsh minister and evangelist who founded the [[Elim Pentecostal Church]]<ref name=Anderson/>
* [[Herbert W. Armstrong]] (1892–1986), American evangelist who founded the [[Grace Communion International|Worldwide Church of God]]
* [[Boake Carter]] (1903–1944), British-educated American radio news commentator
* [[Patience Strong]] (1907–1990), poet<ref name=Strong1986/>
* [[Alexander James Ferris]], a prolific author on British Israelism
* [[Garner Ted Armstrong]] (1930–2003), the son of Herbert W. Armstrong and the founder of the [[Church of God International (United States)]]
* [[Gerald Flurry]] (born 1935), pastor general of the Philadelphia Church of God and editor-in-chief of '[[The Philadelphia Trumpet]]' magazine
* [[Robert Bradford (Northern Irish politician)|Robert Bradford]] (1941–1981), Methodist minister and [[Unionism in Ireland|Ulster Unionist]] politician
* [[Alan Campbell (pastor)|Alan Campbell]] (1949–2017), former Pentecostal pastor from [[Northern Ireland]]<ref>{{cite web |title=The poison at the heart of the Orange Order |date=8 July 2000 |website=Theguardian.com |via=The Guardian |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2000/jul/09/northernireland.comment |access-date=1 August 2017}}</ref>
* [[Nelson McCausland]] (born 1951), Democratic Unionist politician<ref>{{cite news |last1=McDonald |first1=Henry |title=Northern Ireland minister calls on Ulster Museum to promote creationism |work=The Guardian |date=26 May 2010 |url=https://www.theguardian.com/uk/2010/may/26/northern-ireland-ulster-museum-creationism}}</ref>

==See also==
* ''[[And did those feet in ancient time]]'', the poem written by [[William Blake]] that is popularly titled "Jerusalem"
* [[Anglo-Saxonism in the 19th century]]
* [[Assyria and Germany in Anglo-Israelism]]
* [[Black Hebrew Israelites]]
* [[Christian observances of Jewish holidays]]
* [[Christian Zionism]]
* [[Christianity and Judaism]]
* [[Cultural appropriation]]
* [[French Israelism]]
* [[Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites]]
* [[German Templer colonies]]
* [[Jews as the chosen people]]
* [[Supersessionism]]

==References==
{{Reflist}}

==Further reading==
* {{citation |last=Baron |first=David |author-link=David Baron (Jewish Christian) |title=The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes: Anglo-Israelism Examined |title-link=s:The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes |year=1915}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Darms |first1=Anton |title=The Delusion of British Israelism: A comprehensive Treatise |publisher=Loiseaux Brothers, Bible Truth Depot |date=1945 |asin=B01NBNXA8N}}
* {{cite book |last1=Jowett |first1=George F |title=The Drama of the Lost Disciples |place=London |publisher=[[Covenant Publishing Company Ltd.]] |year=1980 |orig-year=1961 |asin=B003VP662W}}. A work of theoretical history which covers many relevant themes of Biblical and British connections.
* {{citation |last=Kellogg |first=Howard |title=British-Israel Identity |publisher=American Prophetic League |place=Los Angeles}}.
* {{citation |last=Kossy |first=Donna |contribution=The Anglo-Israelites |title=Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief |place=Los Angeles |publisher=[[Feral House]] |year=2001 |edition=2nd exp. |orig-year=1994 |isbn=978-0-922915-67-5 |title-link=Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief}}.
* {{citation |last=May |first=HG |title=The Ten Lost Tribes |date=16 September 1943 |journal=[[Biblical Archaeologist]] |volume=16 |pages=55–60 |jstor=3209244 |doi=10.2307/3209244 |s2cid=165468310}}.
* {{citation |last=McQuaid |first=Elwood |date=December 1977 – January 1978 |title=Who Is a Jew? British-Israelism versus the Bible |journal=Israel My Glory |page=35}}.
* {{cite book |last1=Michell |first1=John |title=Eccentric lives and peculiar notions: with 56 illustrations |date=1999 |publisher=Adventures Unlimited Press |location=Kempton, Ill. |isbn=978-0932813671 |edition=Paperback/electronic |chapter=Jews, Britons and the Lost Tribes of Israel}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Reisenauer |first1=Eric Michael |title=Anti-Jewish Philosemitism: British and Hebrew Affinity and Nineteenth Century British Antisemitism |journal=British Scholar |date=September 2008 |volume=1 |issue=1 |pages=79–104 |doi=10.3366/brs.2008.0006}}
* {{cite journal |last1=Wilson |first1=John |title=The Relation between Ideology and Organization in a Small Religious Group: The British Israelites |journal=Review of Religious Research |date=1 January 1968 |volume=10 |issue=1 |pages=51–60 |jstor=3510673 |doi=10.2307/3510673}}

==External links==
* [http://olivercowdery.com/texts/1650hope.htm#pg10a Menassah ben Israel, ''The Hope of Israel'' (London, 1650, English translation)], scanned text online at Oliver's Bookshelf
* [https://www.orthodoxchurch.nl/tag/british-israelism/ British Israelism Research Texts, St Andrew's OCC] Studies made available by the Orthodox Celtic Church
* {{citation |title=Anglo-Israelism and British Israelism |last=Robinson |first=BA |publisher=Religious Tolerance |url=http://www.religioustolerance.org/anglo_is.htm}}.
* {{citation |contribution-url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=1524&letter=A |title=Jewish Encyclopedia |contribution=Anglo-Israelism}}.

{{Christianity and Judaism}}
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[[Category:British Israelism| ]]
[[Category:Christianity and race]]
[[Category:Groups claiming Israelite descent]]
[[Category:Protestantism and antisemitism]]
[[Category:Pseudoarchaeology]]
[[Category:Pseudohistory]]
[[Category:Religion and race]]