Evidence that Scots Came from Scythia

Approximate extent of Scythia and the Scythian languages (orange) in the 1st century BC

A new book provides additional evidence that the Scots of Scotland came from Scythia:

Book review: The Highland Clans, by Alistair Moffat

The Scotsman – April 26, 2010…

Not many have noted, as Moffat does, that when teams of geneticists led by Professor Bryan Sykes took DNA samples in the Celtic regions of Britain they discovered ancestries in the Caucasus, which lay within ancient Scythia, and Mediterranean Europe. If those prototypical Scotti had travelled from Scythia towards the setting sun they would most likely have journeyed over decades and centuries through the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Straits of Gibraltar…

Moffat locates the origins of the Scottish clans in bloodline and land. Around a thousand years ago extended family groups, the descendants of Picts (Clan Chattan) or Vikings (MacLeod) or Gaels (MacDonald) or Anglo-Normans (Fraser), sought to maintain their line and defend their acres. They evolved into a society which combined the ability to herd animals, grow crops, steal, trade and muster war parties from among the same modest body of men.

http://news.scotsman.com/features/Book-review-The-Highland-Clans.6223804.jp

So, why is that COG news?

Because we in the Living Church of God have long suspected that the term Scot came from Scythia and that some of the Scythians (and probably Parthians) were descended from many of the tribes of Israel.

Notice the following from Dr. D. Winnail:

Records of History

The Bible and history record that Assyrians carried the ten tribes of Israel into captivity, into what is today northern Iraq, northwestern Iran and Armenia—the area between the Black Sea and Caspian Sea. The Black Obelisk from Nineveh in ancient Assyria (now in the British Museum) refers to the Israelites as the Khumri or the people of Omri (the name of the Israelite king who built Samaria—the capital city of the northern kingdom of Israel, as noted in 1 Kings 16:21–27). The Babylonians referred to these same people as the Gimiri. Around 500bc, the Persian king Darius carved an inscription of his conquests in three different languages on a rock face at Behistun in northwestern Iran. This inscription refers to the Gimri as the Sacae (who historians also identify with the Scythians who spread over Europe). Archeologist George Rawlinson stated, “We have reasonable grounds for regarding the Gimirri, or Cimmerians… and the Sacae of the Behistun Rock… as identical with the Beth-Khumree of Samaria, or the Ten Tribes of the House of Israel” (The Story of Celto-Saxon Israel, Bennett, p. 151).
Clear historical and biblical evidence traces the ancient Israelite tribes’ migration through the lands of Armenia as well as northern Iraq and Iran. This agrees with historical records that trace the origins of people now living in Britain. The Declaration of Abroath (the “Scottish Declaration of Independence”), written in 1320ad, states that the Scots’ ancestors came from Greater Scythia (around the Black Sea) through the Mediterranean Sea to Spain and then to Britain “twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea” (Bennett, pp. 159–161). The Anglo-Saxon Chronicle, written around 800ad, traces the origins of the Saxon peoples to the region of Armenia (ibid., p. 209). In his work The Ruin of Britain, the early British writer Gildas (475–550ad) refers to the British people as Israelites. Irish legends call some of the first Irish settlers the tuatha de Danann (The Story of the Irish Race, MacManus, p. 5). Cyrus Gordon, a leading American archeologist, recognized the tuatha de Danann as the biblical tribe of Dan, and connected these Israelite peoples with Ireland and Denmark (Bennett, p. 79). These Danite peoples first arrived in Ireland around the time of the Israelites’ exodus from Egypt. It is also interesting that the Welsh refer to themselves as the Cymri or Cymru—after the Assyrian name for the people of Israel. The records of history link the national identities of England, Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Denmark with the Israelites of the Bible (Winnail D. Modern Nations and God’s Ancient Plan. Tomorrow’s World Magazine, Volume 8, Issue 4. July-August, 2006).

Hence, history shows some of the travels of the tribes of Israel. (Note: For more on the Scottish people, please see an article by Rod King titled Who Are the Scots?).

Notice additional information from Dr. Winnail:

Though many modern scholars have lost track of the Israelite tribes, the identity and location of the tribes of Israel have not really been lost!…Josephus, a Jew writing in the first century ad, recorded that “the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude” (Antiquities of the Jews, 11:5:2). The phrase “beyond the Euphrates” reveals that the ten tribes were in Parthia—an area south of the Caspian Sea—where the Israelites had gone into captivity centuries earlier. Oxford Professor George Rawlinson noted that the Parthians were part of the Scythians, that their name “Parthi” meant “exiles” and that they had been under the dominion of the Assyrians and the Medes (The Sixth Great Oriental Monarchy, pp. 19, 26)—a description that fits the Israelites! Parthians heard Peter speak in Jerusalem on Pentecost (Acts 2:9). The early church historian Eusebius (263–339ad) relates that Christ’s disciple Andrew went to Scythia, and that Thomas went to Parthia (The History of the Church, 3:1:1). Early traditions also link Bartholomew and Philip with these same areas—which shows that the Apostles knew the location of the Israelite tribes in their day.

Historians connect the Scythians with a people called the Sacae. In his translation of Herodotus’ The Histories, Rawlinson connected the Sacae—mentioned in inscriptions that Darius commissioned ca. 500bc on the Behistun Rock in northwestern Iran—“with the Beth-Khumree of Samaria, or the Ten Tribes of the House of Israel” (p. 378). In the Apocrypha, the book of 2 Esdras states that (after the fall of the Assyrian empire) “the ten tribes… took this counsel among themselves… [to] go forth into a further country… and they entered into the Euphrates by the narrow passages of the river” (2 Esdras 13:40–45)—they headed north through the gorges to the Crimea. Nineteenth century London historian Sharon Turner wrote, “The emigrating Scythians crossed the Araxes [a river between the Black and Caspian Sea], passed out of Asia, and invading the Kimmerians, suddenly appeared in Europe, in the seventh century before the Christian era” (The History of the Anglo-Saxons, vol. 1, p. 98). Turner also described how the Scythians and a related people, the Kimmerians (Kimbri or Kumri or Cymry), eventually reached Britain, and that “The Welsh, who are their descendants, have always called themselves Cymry” (ibid., p. 34)—indeed, that name is on their postcards today!…

Prophetic Significance

But why is it important, today, to know the identity and location of the tribes of Israel? Bible prophecies record traits of the tribes of Israel that will become obvious and recognizable “in the last days” (Genesis 49:1). Moses prophesied that the descendants of the Israelites would become utterly corrupt and face difficult times “in the latter days” (Deuteronomy 4:27–30; 28:26–29). Jeremiah warns of a coming period of tribulation and chastisement for sinful Israelite nations that he calls a time of “Jacob’s trouble” (Jeremiah 30:1–15). God’s servants have the duty to warn His people of dangers that lie ahead (Isaiah 58:1; Amos 3:7). Understanding the location and identity of modern Israelite nations is a key to understanding Bible prophecies about their future, and it helps to target our message as these prophecies come alive today! (Winnail D. Finding the “Lost” Tribes of Israel. Tomorrow’s World magazine, Nov-Dec 2008, pp. 14-15)

We in the Living Church of God believe that the descendants of “lost tribes” of Israel ended up in Europe. And some further migrated to places such as the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and elsewhere.

An article of possibly related interest may include:

Anglo – America in Prophecy & the Lost Tribes of Israel Are the Americans, Canadians, British, Scottish, Welsh, Australians, Anglo-Southern Africans, and New Zealanders descendants of Joseph? Where are the lost ten-tribes of Israel? Who are the lost tribes of Israel? Will God punish the U.S.A., Canada, United Kingdom, and other Anglo nations? Why might God allow them to be punished first?