Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

by Hermon L. Hoeh and John D. Keyser

Did it ever seem strange that most of the New Testament, following the book of Acts, was written by Paul, and not by Peter?

Why, after Peter initiated the preaching of the gospel to those of the northern ten tribes at the house of Cornelius (Acts 10 and 11), did he and others of the twelve apostles suddenly vanish from view? And why only Peter and John reappear, for a fleeting moment, in Jerusalem at the inspired conference recorded in Acts 15?

We read, after Acts 15, only of Paul's ministry to the ten tribes in dispersion (known as "Gentiles" in most New Testament passages).

Why? What happened to the twelve apostles? Let's understand!

There is a reason why the journeys of the twelve apostles have been cloaked in mystery -- until now!

You probably have been told that Yeshua chose the twelve apostles, ordained them apostles, sent them, first to preach to the Judahites. When the Judahites, as a nation, rejected that message, you probably have supposed that they turned to the non-Israelite Gentiles. Nothing could be further from the truth.

The apostle Paul was called years later as a special apostle, commissioned to bear the gospel to the northern ten tribes in dispersion.

To Ananias, who was sent to baptize Paul, the Messiah gave this assurance: "Go, because this man" -- Saul, later named Paul -- "is my chosen instrument to carry my name to the Goyim [nations], even to their kings, and to the sons of Israel as well" (Acts 9:15, Jewish New Testament). Paul, said, "from now on, I will go unto the Goyim [nations]" (Acts 18:6, Jewish New Testament).

Yeshua called Paul as a special apostle to carry the Messiah's name to the nations and the gospel of salvation to the northern ten tribes in dispersion throughout the Roman world, while the original twelve had also been specially commissioned to preach to the northern ten tribes.

Then to whom -- and where -- were the twelve apostles and Paul sent?

Notice the surprising answer -- in Matthew 10:5-6: "these twelve Jesus sent forth, and commanded them, saying, Go not into the way of the Gentiles [non-Israelite peoples], and into any city of the Samaritans enter ye not: but go rather to the lost sheep of the house of Israel." Why not the cities of Samaria?

Yeshua meant what he said! He "commanded them." The twelve were forbidden to spread the gospel among the non-Israelite peoples of the ancient world. The twelve were to go to the "lost sheep of the house of Israel" -- the Lost Ten Tribes!

The Messiah sent Peter to the home of Cornelius (Acts 10 and 11) to open the gospel to those of the northern ten tribes, and Peter's life mission was to carry the gospel to "the lost sheep of the House of Israel." Peter merely opened the door, as the chief apostle, for those of the northern tribes. Paul went through that door and brought the gospel to the Israelites living in the nations abroad in Europe and the British Isles. Peter, in his capacity of chief apostle, made one trip to the "gentile" Samaritans who claimed descent from Ephraim and Manasseh, but he did not bring the gospel to them as Philip had done that previously! Peter and John merely prayed for the Samaritans that they would receive the holy spirit. (See Acts 8, verses 5, and 14 through 17.) The "Samaritans" living in the cities of Samaria at the time were descended from those the Assyrians moved into the land, while the Israelite Samaritans lived mainly in the countryside.

Many believe, based on 2 Kings 17, that the Samaritans of the Messiah's day were all non-Israelite peoples planted in Samaria to replace the Israelites of the land who were deported by the Assyrians. Jewish tradition, however, while affirming the Assyrian deportations and replacement of the Israelite inhabitants of the land with other non-Israelites, states that the Samaritans were of a different ethnic origin.

In 2 Chronicles 34:9 we find that following Samaria's destruction by the Assyrians, King Hezekiah is depicted as trying to draw the Ephraimites and Manassites close to Judah. According to Wikipedia, "Temple repairs at the time of Josiah were financed by money from all 'the remnant of Israel' in Samaria -- including from Manasseh, Ephraim, and Benjamin." Obviously, then, not all of the original Israelites of Samaria were deported by the Assyrians and many remained in the land.

The prophet Jeremiah also speaks of people from Shekhem, Shiloh, and Samaria who brought offerings of frankincense and grain to the House (Temple) of YEHOVAH in Jerusalem. The book of 2 Chronicles makes no mention of an Assyrian resettlement in the land. Apparently, a notable Israelite population remained in Samaria part of which, following the conquest of Judah, fled south and settled there as refugees.

Adds Wikipedia: "The biblical account in II Kings 17 had long been the decisive source for the formulation of historical accounts of Samaritan origins. Reconsideration of this passage, however, had led to more attention being paid to the Chronicles of the Samaritans themselves. With the publication of Chronicle II (Sefer ha-Yamim), the fullest Samaritan version of their own history became available: the Chronicles, and a variety of non-Samaritan materials. According to the former, the Samaritans are the direct descendants of the Joseph tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, and until the 17th century CE they possessed a high priesthood descending directly from Aaron through Eleazar and Phinehas."

While this may cast some doubt on the passage in 2 Kings 17, when we read verses 27 and 28 we find the following statement regarding those resettled in Samaria by the Assyrians:

"Then the king of Assyria commanded, saying, 'Send there [to Samaria] one of the priests whom you brought from there [in the deportation]; let him go and dwell there [in Samaria], and let him teach them the rituals of the God of the land.' Then one of the priests whom they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, and taught them how they should fear the LORD."

If we check these verses out in the Septuagint, we find the following rendition:

"And the king of the Assyrians commanded, saying, Bring some Israelites thence, and let them go and dwell there [in Samaria], and they shall teach them the manner of the God of the land. And they [also] brought one of the priests whom they [the Assyrians] had removed from Samaria, and he settled in Bethel, and [also] taught them how they should fear the LORD."

So these returning Israelites -- coupled with the Israelites that escaped the Assyrian deportation -- made up a sizable part of the Samaria population, and their descendants were still in the land during New Testament times. These were the Israelites of the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh that Philip carried the gospel to, and for whom Peter and John prayed that they might receive YEHOVAH's holy spirit.

Now we know to whom the twelve apostles were sent. They were not sent to the non-Israelite peoples of the Roman world, but to "the lost sheep of the House of Israel." Paul was especially called to carry out the same work.

Now to discover where Peter, Paul, and others of the twelve went after they left Palestine.

That has been one of the best-kept secrets of history! If the world had known the lands to which the twelve apostles journeyed, the House of Israel would never have been lost from view! But YEHOVAH God intended, for a special purpose, which few understand, that the identity of the House of Israel should not be revealed until this pulsating twentieth century!

From the sons of Jacob -- surnamed Israel -- sprang twelve tribes. Under David they were united as one nation -- Israel. After the death of Solomon, David's son, the twelve tribes were divided into two nations. The tribe of Judah split off from the nation Israel in order to retain the king, whom Israel had rejected. Benjamin went with Judah. The new nation thus formed, with its capital at Jerusalem, was known as the "House of Judah." Its people were called Judahites.

The northern ten tribes, who rejected Solomon's son, became known as the "House of Israel." Its capital, later, was Samaria. Whole books of the Old Testament are devoted to the power struggles between the "House of Israel" and Judah. The first time the word "Jews" (better translated "Judahites") appears in the Bible you will discover the king of Israel, allied with Syria, driving the Judahites from the Red Sea port of Elath (II Kings 16:6-7).

As we have seen, the northern ten tribes, the House of Israel, were overthrown in a three-year siege (721-718) by the mighty Assyrian Empire. Most of its people were led into captivity beyond the Tigris River and planted in Assyria and the cities of the Medes around lake Urmia, southwest of the Caspian Sea. In the now-desolate cities of the land of Samaria the Assyrians brought in Gentiles from Babylonia. However, by the time of the Messiah the remaining Israelites -- along with those brought back as teachers -- were a sizable part of the population.

The main part of the House of Israel, however, never returned to Palestine. The nation became known in history as the "Lost Ten Tribes." To them Yeshua sent the twelve apostles!

The House of Judah -- the Judahites -- remained in Palestine until the Babylonian invasion, which commenced in 604 B.C. Judah was deported to Mesopotamia. Seventy years later they returned to Palestine. In history they now became commonly known as "Israel" because they were the only sizable descendants of Jacob -- or Israel -- now living in Palestine. The ten tribes -- the House of Israel (with the exception of some of those of Ephraim and Menassah) -- became lost in the land of their exile.

Yeshua "came to his own" -- the House of Judah, the Judahites -- "and his own received him not" (John 1:11). Yeshua was of the lineage of David, of the House of Judah. When his own people -- the Judahites -- rejected him, he did not turn to the northern 10 tribes in dispersion. It was Paul and the original 12 disciples who did at the Messiah's request.

Instead, Yeshua said to the Gentile woman: "I am not sent but unto the lost sheep of the House of Israel" (Mathew 15:24).

To fulfill, later, that divine mission -- for Yeshua was soon slain on Golgotha to pay for the sins of YEHOVAH's people Israel -- he commissioned his twelve disciples. They were commanded: "Go to the lost sheep of the House of Israel." Then, later, he commissioned the apostle Paul.

They did go, but history has lost sight of where they went! Their journeys have been shrouded in mystery -- until now!

The history of the early New Testament church is preserved in the book of Acts. But have you ever noticed that Acts ends in the middle of the story? Luke doesn't even finish the life of Paul after his two-years' imprisonment in Rome ended!

Why?

You will find the answer in the Messiah's commission to Paul. Even before Paul was baptized, the Messiah had planned the future work he was to accomplish. First, Paul was to teach the Israelites in dispersion -- which he did in Cyprus, Asia Minor and Greece. Second, he was to appear before kings -- an event brought about by a two-year imprisonment at Rome. At the end of that two-year period, during which no accusers had appeared, Paul would automatically have been released according to Roman law. It is at this point that Luke strangely breaks off the story of Paul's life. See Acts 28:31.

But Paul's third mission was not yet accomplished! The Messiah had chosen Paul for a threefold purpose -- "to bear (his) name before the nations, and kings, and [preach the gospel of salvation to] the children of Israel" (Acts 9:15). There is the answer. He, too, was to end his work preaching the gospel message of salvation among the Lost Ten Tribes!

Luke was not permitted by the Messiah to include in Acts the final journeys of Paul's life. It would have revealed the whereabouts of the children of Israel!

It was not then YEHOVAH God's time to make that known. But the moment has now come, in this climactic "time of the end," to pull back the shroud of history and reveal where the twelve apostles went.

Now turn to the book of James. To whom is it addressed? Read it: "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad, greeting" (first verse).

You probably never noticed that before. This book is not addressed to the non-Israelites. It is not addressed exclusively to Judah -- the Judahites. It is addressed to all twelve tribes. To the House of Judah and to the House of Israel -- the Lost Ten Tribes.

Have you ever noticed that the letter of James, like the book of Acts, ends abruptly, without the normal salutations? Read it -- James 5:20.

Compare it with Paul's epistles. In the original Greek New Testament everyone of Paul's letters ends with an "Amen." Everyone of the four gospels ends with an "Amen." The book of Revelation ends with an "Amen."

This little word "Amen," of Hebrew derivation, signifies completion. In the Authorized Version (most modern versions are incorrect, and in several instances carelessly leave off the proper ending found in the Greek) every one of the New Testament books ends with an "Amen" except three -- Acts, James and II John. In these three, and these three only, the word "Amen" is not in the inspired original Greek. It is purposely missing. Why?

Each missing "Amen" is a special sign. It indicates YEHOVAH God wants us to understand that certain missing knowledge was not to be made known to the world -- until now, when the gospel is being sent around the world of Israel as a final witness before the end of this age.

YEHOVAH purposely excluded from the book of Acts the final chapters in the history of the early true Church. If they had been included, the identity and whereabouts of Israel and the true Church would have been revealed! It is part of YEHOVAH's plan that the House of Israel should lose its identity and think itself Gentile.

If the book of James had ended with the ordinary salutation, the nations of Israel would have been disclosed. Paul often ends his letters with names of places and people. See the last verses of Romans, Colossians, Hebrews, for example. This is the very part missing, purposely, from James!

And why was the short letter of III John missing an "Amen"? Let John himself tell us, "I had many things to write: but I will not with ink and pen write unto thee" (verse 13). John reveals, in the letter, a pagan conspiracy. It was a diabolical attempt by Simon Magus and his false apostles to seize the name of the Messiah, gain control of the true Church, and masquerade as "Christianity." YEHOVAH God did not permit John to make known, in plain language, the names of the leaders of that conspiracy, and the city (Rome) of their operation. That is why John cut his letter short. The missing "Amen" is to tell us to look elsewhere in the Bible for the answer. It is described, if you have eyes to see, in Revelation 17, Acts 8 and many other chapters of the Bible. The time to unmask that conspiracy is now (II Thessalonians 2), just before the return of the Messiah.

But to return, for a moment, to the letter of James.

From James 4:1 we learn that wars were being waged among the lost tribes of Israel. "From whence come wars and fightings among you?" asks James.

What wars were these? No wars existed among the Judahites until the outbreak, several years later, of the revolt against the Romans.

These wars absolutely identify the lost House of Israel -- the lands to which the twelve apostles journeyed. James wrote his book about A.D. 60 (he was martyred some years later according to Josephus). The world was temporarily at peace -- cowed by the fear of Roman military might. Just prior to A.D. 60 only two areas of the world were torn by wars and civil fightings. When you discover which areas these were, you will have located where the Lost Ten Tribes, addressed by James, were then living! All one need do is search the records of military history for the period immediately before and up to the year A.D. 60! The results will shock you! Those two lands were the British Isles (with unrest and actual fighting breaking out in A.D. 60 when the Iceni under Boudicea revolted) and the Parthian Empire!

But these were not the only lands to which the exiled House of Israel journeyed. Turn, in your Bible, to I Peter.

To whom did Peter address his letters?

Here it is. "Peter, an apostle of Jesus Christ, to the strangers scattered throughout Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia, and Bithynia" (I Peter 1:1).

These were not Gentiles. Peter was the chief apostle to the lost sheep of the House of Israel, as Paul also was but with a slightly different commission.

Notice the word "strangers." It does not mean Gentiles. The original Greek is parepidemos. It means "a resident foreigner," literally, "an alien alongside." It refers not to Gentiles, but to Israelites who dwelt among Gentiles, as foreigners and aliens. Abraham, for example, was a stranger, an alien, when he lived among the Canaanite Gentiles in Palestine.

Peter was addressing part of the lost ten tribes who dwelt among the Gentiles as aliens or strangers. He was not writing primarily to Judahites. He would not have addressed them as "strangers," for he himself was an Israelite.

Now notice the regions to which Peter addressed his letter. You may have to look at a Bible map to locate them. They are all located in the northern half of Asia Minor, modern Turkey. These lands lay immediately west of the Parthian Empire!

Paul did not preach in these districts. Paul spent his years in Asia Minor in the southern, or Greek half. "Yea, so have I strived," said Paul, "to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man's foundation" (Romans 15:20). Paul did not preach in the areas where Peter and others of the twelve apostles had carried the gospel to the Israelites.

Nowhere in your New Testament can you find Paul preaching in Pontus, or Cappadocia, or Bithynia. These regions were under the jurisdiction of Peter and certain of the twelve.

Paul did spread the gospel in the province of Asia -- but only in the southern half, in the districts around Ephesus. Paul was expressly forbidden to preach in Mysia, the northern district of the Roman province of Asia. "After they" -- Paul and his companions -- "were come to Mysia, they assayed to go into Bithynia: but the spirit suffered (permitted) them not. And they passing by Mysia came down to Troas" (Acts 16:7,8). Those were the regions in which the lost sheep of the House of Israel dwelt as strangers among the Gentiles!

Paul did preach, on his first journey, in southern Galatia, in the cities of Iconium, Lystra, Derbe (Acts 14). But nowhere in the New Testament do you find Paul journeying into northern Galatia -- the area to which Peter addresses his letter to the tribes of Israel!

Notice the historical proof -- confirming Peter's letters -- that a remnant of the House of Israel was settled on the shores of the Black Sea in northern Asia Minor in early New Testament times.

Greek writers, in the time of the Messiah, recognized that the regions of northern Asia Minor were non-Greek (except for a few Greek trading colonies in the port cities). New peoples, the Greeks tell us, were living in northern Asia Minor in New Testament times. Here is the surprising account of Diodorus of Sicily: "...many conquered peoples were removed to other homes, and two of these became very great colonies: the one was composed of Assyrians and was removed to the land between Paphlagonia and Pontus, and the other was drawn from Media and planted along the Tanais (the River Don in ancient Scythia -- the modern Ukraine, north of the Black Sea, in southern Russia)." See book II, s. 43.

Notice the areas from which these colonies came -- Assyria and Media. The very areas to which the House of Israel was taken captive! "So was Israel carried away out of their own land to Assyria unto this day" (II Kings 17:23). "The king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away into Assyria and placed them in Halah and in Habor by the River of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes" (verse 6).

The House of Israel dwelt in captivity as aliens or strangers among the Assyrians. When the Assyrians were later removed from their homeland to northern Asia Minor, part of the House of Israel migrated with them!

Here's the proof from Strabo, the geographer. Strabo named the colonists in northern Asia Minor "White Syrians" (12, 3, 9), instead of Assyrians. There were therefore, two peoples -- Assyrians and White Syrians. Who were these so-called "White Syrians"? None other than the House of Israel which had been carried into Assyrian captivity.

"Syria" was the Greek name for the whole eastern Mediterranean coastal strip north of Judea. Because the House of Israel lived in Palestine -- southern Syria in Greek terminology -- the Greeks called them "White Syrians." By contrast, the dark-complexioned Arameans remained in Syria and dwelt there to this day.

When the Assyrians were compelled to migrate to Northern Asia Minor, their former slaves -- the "White Syrians" or ten-tribed House of Israel -- migrated with them! We find them still there in New Testament times. To these people -- the lost sheep of the House of Israel -- the strangers among the Assyrians (I Peter 1:1) -- the apostle Peter addresses his first letter! Could anything be plainer? The chief apostle to the House of Israel writing to a part of the ten lost tribes dwelling among the Assyrians who originally carried then captive!

We shall see later when and where these "lost sheep" migrated from Asia Minor to Northwest Europe.

Now to draw back the curtain of history and see where each of the twelve apostles preached. You'll be amazed at the revelation.

Why is it that almost no one has thought of it before? If multitudes of Greek Israelites in Southern Asia Minor were being converted to the Messiah by the ministry of Paul, and at the same time multitudes among the lost ten tribes of the House of Israel were being converted in northern Asia Minor, should not those Greeks have left the record of which of the twelve apostles carried the gospel there?

Consider this also. the Greeks have not lost the Greek New Testament. They have handed it down from generation to generation. Is it not just as likely that Greek scholars should have preserved the true account of the ministry of the twelve apostles?

They have done just that!

Yet almost no one has believed them!

What the Greeks report is not what most people expect to find! Some, who do not understand the difference between the House of Israel and the Judahites (House of Judah), imagine the apostles went exclusively to the Judahites. Even some of those who know where the House of Israel is today often cannot believe that several of the tribes of Israel were not, in the apostles' day, where they are today.

Scholars have long puzzled over the remarkable information which the Greeks have handed down. These historical reports of the apostles are altogether different from the spurious apocryphal literature of the early Roman Catholic Church. Greek historians, in the early Middle Ages, have left us information from original documents that apparently are no longer extant. They had firsthand sources of information not now available to the scholarly world. What do those Greek historians report?

One valuable source of information is the Greek and Latin Ecclesiasticae Historiae of Nicephorus Callistus. Another, in English, is Antiquitates Apostolicae by William Cave.

Universal Greek tradition declares that the apostles did not leave the Syro-Palestinian region until the end of twelve years' ministry. The number 12 symbolizes an organized beginning. Before those twelve years were up one of the apostles was already dead -- James, the brother of John. He had been beheaded by Herod (Acts 12). But where did the remaining apostles go?

Begin with Simon Peter. Peter was made by the Messiah the chief among the twelve apostles to coordinate their work. Of necessity Peter would be found traveling to many more regions than he would personally be ministering to. The question is where did he spend most of his time?

We know Peter was for a limited time at Babylon in Mesopotamia, from which he wrote the letters to the churches in Asia Minor (I Peter 5:13).

Babylon was the major city from which the apostles in the east worked. Similarly Paul and the evangelists under him used Antioch in Syria as their chief city (Acts 14:26). The order in which Peter, in verse one of his first epistle, named the provinces of Asia Minor -- from east to west and back -- clearly proves that the letter was sent from Babylon in the east, not Rome in the west. Rome did not become designated as "Modern Babylon" until the Messiah revealed it, much later, after Peter's death, in the book of Revelation, chapter 17.

Where did Peter spend most of his time after those first twelve years in Palestine?

Metaphrastes, the Greek historian, reports "that Peter was not only in these Western parts" -- the Western Mediterranean -- "but particularly that he was a long time" -- here we have Peter's main life work to the Lost Ten Tribes -- "...a long time in Britain, where he converted many nations to the faith." (See marginal note, p. 45, in Cave's Antiquitates Apostolicae.)

Peter preached the gospel in Great Britain, not in Rome. The true gospel had not been publicly preached in Rome before Paul arrived in A.D. 59. Paul never once mentions Peter in his epistle to the brethren in Rome, most of whom had been converted on Pentecost in 31 A.D.

Not even the Judahites at Rome had heard the gospel preached before Paul arrived!

Here is Luke's inspired account of Paul's arrival in Rome: "And it came to pass, that after three days Paul called the chief of the Jews [Judahites] together." Continuing, Acts 28:21. "And they" -- the Judahites at Rome -- "said unto him, We neither received letters out of Judaea concerning thee, neither any of the brethren that came shewed or spake any harm of thee. But we desire to hear of thee what thou thinkest: for as concerning this sect we know that everywhere it is spoken against. And when they had appointed him a day, there came many to him into his lodging; to whom he expounded and testified the kingdom of God, persuading them concerning Jesus, both out of the law of Moses, and out of the prophets, from morning till evening" (verses 21-23).

Here is absolute proof the Judahites at Rome had never heard the apostle Peter preach.

Oh yes, there had been a "Peter" in Rome -- ever since the days of Claudius Caesar. That Peter was in a high office. He was chief of the Babylonian Mysteries. His office was that of a "Peter" -- meaning an Interpreter or Opener of Secrets. The word peter, in Babylonian and Hebrew, means "opener" -- hence it is used in the original Hebrew of the Old Testament for "firstling" -- one that first opens the womb.

That Peter of Rome was named Simon, too. Simon Magus (Acts 8). He was the leading conspirator in the plot hatched by the priests of the pagan Babylonian-Samaritan mysteries.

These plotters sought to seize upon the name of the Messiah as a cloak for their diabolical religion. These conspirators became the founders of what today masquerades in the world, falsely, as the "Christian Religion" -- or the Roman Catholic Church (See III John).

Simon Peter, the Messiah's apostle, was in Britain, not Rome, preaching the gospel of the Kingdom of YEHOVAH God. The very fact that Peter preached in the British Isles is proof in itself that part of the Lost Ten-Tribed House of Israel was already there! Simon Peter was commissioned to go to the lost ten tribes.

And significantly, about A.D. 60 great wars overtook Britain. That is just what James warned of in his epistle (the fourth chapter, verse 1) to the twelve tribes of Israel! Could history be any clearer?

For centuries the Christian world has taken for granted that Peter and Paul are buried in Rome. No one, it seems, has thought to question the tradition.

Granted, Paul was brought to Rome about A.D. 67. He was beheaded, then buried on the Ostian Way. But are his remains still there?

Granted, too, that universal tradition declared the apostle Peter was also brought to Rome in Nero's reign and martyred about the same time.

Many pieces of ancient literature -- some spurious, some factual -- confirm that Simon Magus, the false apostle, who masqueraded as Peter, also died at Rome. The question is -- which Simon is buried today under the Vatican? Is there proof that the bones of the apostles Peter and Paul were moved from Rome, and are not there now?

Yes!

There is a reason the Vatican has been hesitant to claim the apostle Peter's tomb has been found! They know that it is Simon Magus, the false Peter, who is buried there, not Simon Peter the apostle. Here is what happened. In the year 656 Pope Vitalian decided the Catholic Church was not interested in the remains of the apostles Peter and Paul. The Pope therefore ordered them sent to Oswy, King of Britain! Here is part of his letter to the British king:

"However, we have ordered the blessed gifts of the holy martyrs, that is, the relics of the blessed apostles, Peter and Paul, and of the holy martyrs Laurentius, John, and Paul, and Gregory, and Pancratius, to be delivered to the bearers of these our letters, to be by them delivered to you" (Bede's Ecclesiastical History, bk. III, ch. 29).

Could anything be more astounding? The bones of Peter and Paul (termed "relics" in the Pope's letter) sent by the Pope from Rome to Britain -- to the land of Israel!

Bede was a very earnest adherent of the novel papal Church, introduced A.D.596, by Augustine into Britain, but the honesty and simplicity of his character has rendered his history in many respects a very inconvenient and obnoxious record to the said Church. What became of the remains of Peter and Paul? At Rome they STILL PRETEND TO EXHIBIT THEM, but Bede -- and it must be remembered he is a CANONIZED saint in the Roman calendar -- EXPRESSLY STATES that the remains of the bodies of the apostles Peter and Paul, the martyrs Lawrence, John, Gregory, and Pancras, were, at the solicitation of King Oswy to Pope Vitalian, REMOVED from Rome to ENGLAND, and deposited at CANTERBURY A.D. 656, Pope Vitalian's letter to Oswy being extant. (Bede's History, lib. iii. c. 29). THEIR REMAINS, then, REPOSE IN BRITISH SOIL."

Back in the 1980s I sent a letter to the church historian of Canterbury Cathedral, asking if they had any record of the arrival of the remains of Peter and Paul in A.D. 656. They said yes, a record was extant showing the arrival of the remains, which remained in the cathedral until the times of the Commonwealth under Oliver Cromwell when they were lost. It is unknown what happened to them.

About a century and a half earlier than Oswy, Constantius of Lyons took the relics of all the apostles and martyrs from Gaul and buried them in a special tomb at St. Albans in Britain. (Life of St. Germanus.)

Britain, after A.D. 449, was settled by hundreds of thousands of new people not there in Peter's day. History knows them as Angles and Saxons. They came originally from the shores of the Black Sea -- where the House of Israel dwelt! In A.D. 256 they began to migrate from northern Asia Minor along the shores of the Black Sea to the Cymbric Peninsula (Denmark) opposite Britain. These were the people to whose ancestors Peter wrote his epistles.

Which one of the twelve apostles preached to their ancestors -- the so-called "White Syrians" -- while they abode by the Bosporus and on the Black Sea? Listen to the answer from Greek historians:

"In this division Andrew had Scythia, and the neighboring countries primarily allotted him for his province. First then he travelled through Cappadocia, (Upper) Galatia and Bithynia, and instructed them in the faith of Christ, passing all along the Euxine Sea" -- the old name for the Black Sea! -- "...and so into the solitude of Scythia."

One early Greek author gives these journeys in special detail, just as if Luke had written an account of the other apostles as he did of Paul. Andrew "went next to Trapezus, a maritime city on the Euxine Sea, whence after many other places he came to Nice, where he stayed two years, preaching and working miracles with great success: thence to Nicomedia, and so to Chalcedon; whence sailing through the Propontis he came by the Euxine Sea to Heraclea, and from thence to Amastris....He next came to Sinope, a city situated upon the same sea,...here he met with his brother Peter, with whom he stayed a considerable time....Departing hence, he went again to Amynsus and then...he proposed to return to Jerusalem" -- the headquarters church.

"Whence after some time he betook himself...to the country of Abasgi (a land in the Caucasus)...Hence he removed into...Asiatic Scythia or Sarmatia, but finding the inhabitants very barbarous and intractable, he stayed not long among them, only at Cherson, or Chersonesus, a great and populous city within the Bosporus (this Bosporus is the modern Crimea), he continued for some time, instructing them and confirming them in the faith. Hence taking ship, he sailed across the sea to Sinope, situated in Paphlagonia..." (pp. 137-138 of Cave's Antiquitates Apostolicae.)

Here we find Andrew preaching to the very areas in Asia Minor which Paul bypassed. From this region, and from Scythia north of the Black Sea, migrated the ancestors of the Scots and Anglo-Saxons, as we have already seen. They are of the House of Israel -- or else Andrew disobeyed his commission!

And what of the modern Scottish tradition that Andrew preached to their ancestors? Significant? Indeed!

And where did Simon the Zealot carry the gospel? Here, from the Greek records, is the route of his journey:

Simon "directed his journey toward Egypt, then to Cyrene, and Africa...and throughout Mauritania and all Libya, preaching the gospel....Nor could the coldness of the climate benumb his zeal, or hinder him from shipping himself and the Christian doctrine over the Western Islands, yea, even to Britain itself. Here he preached and wrought many miracles...." Nicephorus and Dorotheus both wrote "that he went at last into Britain, and...was crucified...and buried there" (p. 203 of Cave's Antiq. Apost.).

One of the earliest historical traditions about a visit of Simon to Britain is from Dorotheus of Tyre (A.D. 255-362). It's quoted in the book, St. Paul in Britain, as follows:

"The next missionary after Joseph [of Arimathea to come to Britain] was Simon Zealots the Apostle. There can be little doubt, we think, on this point. One Menology assigns the martyrdom of Zealots to Persia in Asia, but others agree in stating he suffered in Britain. Of these the principal authority is Dorotheus, Bishop of Tyre, in the reigns of Diocletion and Constantius (A.D. 300). His testimony we consider decisive: 'Simon Zealots traversed all Mauritania, and the regions of the Africans, preaching Christ. He was at last crucified, slain, and buried in Britain. Crucifixion was a Roman penalty for runaway slaves, deserters, and rebels: it was not known to the British laws. We conclude Simon Zealots suffered in the east of Britain, perhaps, as tradition affirms, in the vicinity of Caistor, under the prefecture of Caius Decius, the officer whose atrocities were the immediate cause of the Boadicean war" (Dorotheus, Synod. de Apostol.; Synopsis ad Sim Zelot., as quoted in St. Paul in Britain, R. W. Morgan, p. 79).

Think of it. Another of the twelve apostles is found preaching to the Lost Tribes of Israel in Britain and the West. But what is Simon the Zealot doing in North Africa? Were remnants of the House of Israel there, too? Had some fled westward in 721 B.C. at the time of the Assyrian conquest of Palestine?

Here is Geoffrey of Monmouth's answer: "The Saxons...went unto Gormund, King of the Africans, in Ireland, wherein, adventuring thither with a vast fleet, he had conquered the folk of the country. Thereupon, by the treachery of the Saxons, he sailed across with a hundred and sixty thousand Africans into Britain...(and) laid waste, as hath been said, well-nigh the whole island with his countless thousands of Africans" (bk. xi, sect. 8, 19).

These countless thousands were not Negroes, or Arabs. They were whites -- Nordics -- who came from North Africa and Mauritania, where Simon preached. These Nordica, declares the Universal History (1748 -- Vol. xviii, p. 194), "gave out, that their ancestors were driven out of Asia by a powerful enemy, and pursued into Greece; from whence they made their escape" to North Africa. "But this...was to be understood only of the white nations inhabiting some parts of western Barbary and Numidia."

What white nation was driven from the western shores of western Asia? The House of Israel! Their powerful enemy? The Assyrians!

For almost three centuries after the time of Simon Zealots they remained in Mauritania. But they are not in North Africa today. They arrived in Britain shortly after A.D. 449 at the time of the Anglo-Saxon invasion.

In A.D. 598, when the bishop of Rome sent Augustine to bring Catholicism to England he found the inhabitants were already professing Christians! Their ancestors had already heard the message from one of the twelve apostles!

Another of the apostles sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel was James, the son of Alphaeus. Some early writers were confused by the fact that two of the twelve apostles were named James. James, son of Alphaeus, was the one who left Palestine after the first twelve years. The deeds of this apostle are sometimes mistakenly assigned to James, John's brother. But that James was already martyred by Herod (Acts 12:2).

Where did James, son of Alphaeus, preach?

"The Spanish writers generally contend, after the death of Stephen he came to these Western parts, and particularly into Spain (some add Britain and Ireland) where he planted Christianity" (p. 148 of Cave's work).

Note it. Yet another apostle sent to the lost sheep of the House of Israel ends in the British Isles -- in Ireland as well as in Britain!

Eusebius, in his third book of Evangelical Demonstrations, chapter 7, admitted that the apostles "passed over to those which are called the British Isles." Again he wrote: "Some of the Apostles preached the Gospel in the British Isles." Could anything be plainer?

Even in Spain James spent some time. Why Spain? From ancient times Spain was the high road of migration from the eastern Mediterranean Sea to the British Isles. The ancient royal House of Ireland for a time dwelt in Spain. Even today a vital part of the Iberian Peninsula -- Gibraltar -- belongs to the birthright tribe of Ephraim -- the British!

Turn , now, to added proof of the apostles' mission to the lost sheep of the House of Israel in the British Isles. From an old volume, published in 1674, by William Camden, we read: "The true Christian Religion was planted here most anciently by Joseph of Arimathea, Simon Zealotes, Aristobulus, by St. Peter, and St. Paul, as may be proved by Dorotheus, Theodoretus and Sophronius." (Remains of Britain, page 5.)

Paul is now included! Had Paul planned to go from Italy into Spain and then Britain?...Here is his answer: "...I will come by you into Spain" (Romans 15:28). Clement of Rome, in his letter to the Corinthians, confirms Paul's journey to the West. But did that include Britain?

Listen to the words of the Greek church historian Theodoret. He reports: "That St. Paul brought salvation to the isles that lie in the ocean" (book 1, on Psalm cxvi. p. 870). The British Isles!

But was that to preach to the Gentiles? Not at all. Remember that the third and last part of Paul's commission, after he revealed the name of the Messiah to the kings and rulers at Rome, was to bear the name of Yeshua and bring salvation to the "children of Israel" (Acts 9:15) -- the Lost Ten Tribes. This is not a prophecy concerning Judahites, whom Paul had previously reached in the Greek world of the eastern Mediterranean. This is a prophecy of Paul's mission to the British Isles! Could anything be more astounding?

The Sonnini Manuscript, an original manuscript found in the archives of Constantinople and translated from the Greek by C. S. Sonnini, was presented to him by the Sultan Abdoul Achmet. Sonnini was traveling in the Middle East during the reign of Louis XVI -- who held the French throne from 1774 to 1793. He published his travels, in French, between those two dates and after his discovery of the manuscript. The manuscript itself was translated into English and published sometime late in 1799 and was available -- at the earliest -- sometime around 1800.The manuscript was found interleaved in a copy of Sonnini's Travels in Turkey and Greece, and purchased at the sale of the library and effects of the late Right Hon. Sir John Newport, in Ireland, whose family arms are engraved on the cover of the book. This book had been in the possession of the family for more than thirty years -- along with a copy of the firman of the Sultan of Turkey, granting to C. S. Sonnini permission to travel in all parts of the Ottoman dominions.

The following is the contents of the title page of Sonnini's work, in which the English translation of the document was found: "Travels in Turkey and Greece undertaken by order of Louis XVI, and with the authority of the Ottoman Court, by C. S. Sonnini, member of several scientific or literary societies of the Society of Agriculture of Paris, and of the Observers of Men. 'Mores multorum videt et ubes.' -- Hor., London: Printed for T. N. Longman and O. Rees, Paternoster Row, 1801."

Verse 1: And Paul, full of the blessings of Christ, and abounding in the spirit, departed out of Rome, determining to go into Spain, for he had a long time purposed to journey thitherward, and was minded also to go from thence into Britain.

Verse 2: For he had heard in Phoenicia that certain of the children of Israel, about the time of the Assyrian captivity, had escaped by sea to "the isles afar off," as spoken by the prophet, and called by the Romans Britain.

Verse 3: And the Lord commanded the gospel to be preached far hence to the Gentiles, and to the lost sheep of the House of Israel.

Verse 4: And no man hindered Paul; for he testified boldly of Jesus before the tribunes and among the people; and he took with him certain of the brethren which abode with him at Rome, and they took shipping at Ostium, and having the winds fair were brought safely into an haven of Spain.

Verse 5: And much people were gathered together from the towns and villages, and the hill country: for they had heard of the conversion of the apostle, and the many miracles which he had wrought.

Verse 6: And Paul preached mightily in Spain, and great multitudes believed and were converted, for they perceived he was an apostle sent from God.

Verse 7: And they departed out of Spain, and Paul and his company finding a ship in Armorica sailing unto Britain, they went therein, and passing along the South coast they reached a port called Raphinus.

Verse 8: Now when it was noised abroad that the apostle had landed on their coast, great multitudes of the inhabitants met him, and they treated Paul courteously, and he entered in at the east gate of their city, and lodged in the house of an Hebrew and one of his own nation.

Verse 9: And on the morrow he came and stood upon Mount Lud; and the people thronged at the gate, and assembled in the Broadway, and he preached Christ unto them, and many believed the word and the testimony of Jesus.

Verse 10: And at even the Holy Ghost fell upon Paul, and he prophesied, saying, Behold in the last days the God of Peace shall dwell in the cities, and the inhabitants thereof shall be numbered; and in the seventh numbering of the people, their eyes shall be opened, and the glory of their inheritance shine forth before them. And nations shall come up to worship on the Mount that testifieth of the patience and long suffering of a servant of the Lord.

Verse 11: And in the latter days new tidings of the Gospel shall issue forth out of Jerusalem, and behold, fountains shall be opened, and there shall be no more plague.

Verse 12: In those days there shall be wars and rumours of wars; and a king shall rise up, and his sword shall be for the healing of the nations, and his peacemaking shall abide, and the glory of his kingdom a wonder among princes.

Verse 13: And it came to pass that certain of the Druids came unto Paul privately, and showed by their rites and ceremonies they were descended from the Jews which escaped from bondage in the land of Egypt, and the apostle believed these things, and he gave them the kiss of peace.

Verse 14: And Paul abode in his lodgings three months, confirming in the faith and preaching Christ continually.

Verse 15: And after these things Paul and his brethren departed from Raphinus, and sailed unto Atium in Gaul.

Verse 16: And Paul preached in the Roman garrisons and among the people, exhorting all men to repent and confess their sins.

Verse 17: And there came to him certain of the Belgae to enquire of him of the new doctrine, and of the man Jesus; and Paul opened his heart unto them, and told them all things that had befallen him, how be it that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; and they departed, pondering among themselves upon the things which they had heard.

Verse 18: And after much preaching and toil Paul and his fellow labourers passed into Helvetia, and came unto Mount Pontius Pilate, where he who condemned the Lord Jesus dashed himself down headlong, and so miserably perished.

Verse 19: And immediately a torrent gushed out of the mountain and washed his body broken in pieces into a lake.

Verse 20: And Paul stretched forth his hands upon the water, and prayed unto the Lord, saying, O Lord God give a sign unto all nations that here Pontius Pilate, which condemned thine only-begotten Son, plunged down headlong into the pit.

Verse21: And while Paul was yet speaking, behold there came a great earthquake, and the face of the waters was changed, and the form of the lake like unto the Son of Man hanging in an agony upon the cross.

Verse 22: And a voice came out of heaven saying, Even Pilate hath escaped the wrath to come, for he washed his hands before the multitude at the blood-shedding of the Lord Jesus.

Verse23: When, therefore, Paul and those that were with him saw the earthquake, and heard the voice of the angel, they glorified God, and were mightily strengthened in the spirit.

Verse 24: And they journeyed and came to Mount Julius, where stood two pillars, one on the right hand and one on the left hand, erected by Caesar Augustus.

Verse 25: And Paul, filled with the Holy Ghost, stood up between the two pillars, saying, Men and brethren, these stones which ye see this day shall testify of my journey hence; and verily I say, they shall remain until the outpouring of the spirit upon all nations, neither shall the way be hindered throughout all generations.

Verse 26: And they went forth and came unto Illyricum, intending to go by Macedonia into Asia, and grace was found in all the churches; and they prospered and had peace. Amen.

In their visits to Gaul and Britain, the apostles and early disciples followed long-established trade-routes from Palestine westwards -- Cyrene, Crete, the Aegean, Syracuse, Rome, Marseilles, and from here on to Britain by the way of the ancient tin-traders, as described by Diodorus Siculus. There is much evidence and traditions of Joseph of Arimathea, Zaccheus, and other early men of YEHOVAH God having sojourned at places along this route -- Marseilles, Rocamadour, Limoges. Thus, as mentioned by author J. W. Taylor in his fascinating book, The Coming of the Saints, this ancient trade route became the "pilgrims' way" of the earliest gospel period.

Paul obviously made use of this great trade route -- as well as the comprehensive network of Roman roads throughout the Empire. In his Epistle to the Romans (15:24) he promised to call at Rome when on his way to Spain. According to Strabo, the term Spain (Iberia) formerly included territory as far east as the Rhone River. A strong Israelite colony had existed in Spain for many centuries prior to the Christian era.

James referred to Israel as scattered abroad. we have found them in Northwest Europe. And in North Africa, from whence they migrated into Britain in the fifth century. And in northern Asia Minor, associated with the Assyrians. In 256 they began to migrate from the regions of the Black Sea to Denmark, thence into the British Isles in 449 A.D.

But remnants of the Ten Lost Tribes were yet in another vast region beyond the confines of the Roman Empire. That region was known as the Kingdom of Parthia.

Who the Parthians were has long remained a mystery. They suddenly appear near the Caspian Sea around 700 B.C. as slaves of the Assyrians. "According to Diodorus, who probably followed Ctesias, they passed from the dominion of the Assyrians to that of the Medes, and from dependence upon the Medes to a similar position under the Persians." (Rawlinson's Monarchies, vol. IV, p. 26, quoted from Diod. Sic., ii 2, 3; 34, 1 and 6.)

The Parthians rose to power around 250 B.C. in the lands along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. That was the very land into which Israel was exiled! What puzzles historians is that the Parthians were neither Persians, nor Medes, nor Assyrians or any other known people. Even their name breathes mystery -- until you understand the Bible.

The word Parthian means exile! (See Rawlinson's The Sixth Monarchy, page 19.) The only exiles in this land were the ten tribes of Israel! The Parthians included none other than the exiled Lost Ten Tribes who remained in the land of their captivity until A.D. 226. That's when the Persians drove them into Europe.

Now consider this. James addressed his letter to the twelve tribes of Israel scattered abroad. He warns the Israelites against the wars being waged among themselves. When James wrote his letter about A.D.60 the world was at peace except for two regions -- Britain and Parthia! There is no mistaking this. Parthia and Britain were Israelite.

Which of the twelve apostles carried the gospel to the Parthian Israelites?

The Greek historians reveal that Thomas brought the gospel to "Parthia, after which Sophornius and others inform us, that he preached the gospel to the Israelites in the lands of the Medes, Persians, Carmans, Hyrcani, Bactrians, and the neighbor nations" (Cave's Antiq. Apost., p. 189).

These strange sounding names are the lands we know today as Iran (or Persia) and Afghanistan. In apostolic days the whole region was subject to the Parthians.

Though many Israelites had left the region already, multitudes remained behind, spread over adjoining territory. They lost their identity and became identified with the names of the districts in which they lived.

Josephus, the Judahite historian, was familiar with Parthia as a major dwelling place of the Ten Tribes. He declares: "But then the entire body of the people of Israel (the Ten Tribes) remained in that country (they did not return to Palestine); wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers" (Antiq. of the Jews, bk. xi, ch. v, 2).

There it is! the very area to which Thomas sojourned was, reports Josephus, filled with uncounted multitudes of the Ten Tribes! Josephus was, apparently, unaware of those who had already migrated westward. But he does make it plain that only the main part of the House of Judah ever returned to Palestine. The House of Israel was "beyond Euphrates till now"!

Parthia was defeated by Persia in 226 A.D. Expelled from Parthia, the Ten Tribes and the Medes moved north of the Black Sea, into Scythia. (See R. G. Latham's The Native Races of the Russian Empire, page 216.) From there, around A.D. 256, the Ten Tribes migrated with their brethren from Asia Minor into Northwest Europe. This migration was occasioned by a concerted Roman attack in the east. It backfired on the Romans, for hordes of Israelites and Assyrians suddenly broke through the Roman defenses in the West that same year!

Thomas also journeyed into Northwest India, east of Persia, where the "White Indians" dwelt. These "White Indians" -- that is, whites living in India -- were also known as Nephthalite Huns, in later Greek records. Any connection with the tribe of Naphtali? They were overthrown in the sixth century and migrated into Scandinavia. The archaeology of Scandinavia confirms this event.

Bartholomew shared, with Thomas, the same vast plains, according to Nicephorus. Bartholomew also spent part of his time in neighboring Armenia and a portion of Upper Phrygia in Asia Minor. Nicephorus termed the area, in his history, the "Western and Northern parts of Asia," by which he meant Upper Asia Minor, modern Turkey today. This was the same district to which Andrew carried the gospel, and to which Peter sent two of his letters.

Jude, also named Libbaeus Thaddaeus, had part in the ministry to the Israelites in Assyria and Mesopotamia. That is part of Parthia which Josephus designated as still inhabited by the Ten Tribes. The Parthian kingdom, which was composed of the Ten Tribes ruling over Gentiles, possessed Assyria and Mesopotamia during most of the New Testament period. From the famous city Babylon, in Mesopotamia, Peter directed the work of all the apostles in the East (Parthia).

Scythia and Upper Asia (meaning Asia Minor) were the regions assigned to Philip. (See Cave's Antiq. Apost., p. 168.) Scythia was the name of the vast plain north of the Black and the Caspian Seas. To this region a great colony of Israelites migrated after the fall of the Persian Empire in 331. From Scythia migrated the Scots. The word Scot is derived from the word Scyth. It means an inhabitant of Scythia. The Scots are part of the House of Israel.

Interestingly, the word Scythia, in Celtic, has the same meaning that Hebrew does in the Semitic language -- a migrant or wanderer!

Matthew, Metaphrastes tells us, "went first into Parthia, and having successfully planted Christianity in those parts, thence travelled to Aethiopia, that is, the Asiatic Aethiopia, lying near India."

For some centuries this region of the Hindu Kush, bordering on Scythia and Parthia, was known as "White India." It lies slightly east of the area where the Assyrians settled the Israelite captives. A natural process of growth led the House of Israel to these sparsely populated regions. From there they migrated to Northwest Europe in the sixth century, long after the Apostles' time. Dorotheus declares Matthew was buried at Hierapolis in Parthia.

The Parthian kingdom was, in fact, a loose union of those lost tribes of Israel who dwelt in Central Asia during this period. The Persians finally drove them all out. Whenever Parthia prospered, other nations prospered. Whenever the Parthians suffered reverses, other nations suffered. Remember the Scripture: "And I will bless them that bless thee, and curse him that curseth thee" (Genesis 12:3).

According to Anna Jameson in Sacred and Legendary Art (pp. 142-143),

"It is related in the Perfetto Legendario, that, after the dispersion of the Apostles, he [Matthew] travelled into Egypt and Ethiopia, preaching the Gospel; and having arrived in the capital of Ethiopia, he lodged in the house of the eunuch who had been baptized by Philip, and who entertained him with great honor...Matthew remained twenty-three years in Egypt and Ethiopia, and it is said that he perished in the ninetieth year of our era, under Domitian; but the manner of his death is uncertain; according to Greek legend he died in peace, but according to the tradition of the Western Church he suffered martyrdom either by the sword or the spear."

Ethiopic and Greek sources designate Dacia (modern Romania) and Macedonia, north of Greece, as part of the ministry of Matthias. Dacia was the extreme western part of Scythia. From Dacia came the Normans who ultimately settled in France and Britain.

The French tradition that Mary, the mother of Messiah, journeyed into Gaul (modern France) lends heavy weight to John's having been in Gaul in his earlier years. It was to John that Yeshua committed Mary's care. She would be where he was working. Paul knew Gaul to be an area settled by the House of Israel. He bypassed Gaul on his way from Italy to Spain (Romans 15:24, 28). Gaul must have been reached by one of the twelve.

How plain! How can any misunderstand! Here is historic proof to confirm, absolutely, the identity and location of "the House of Israel." The identity of Israel, from secular sources, is itself also independent and absolute proof of where the twelve apostles carried out YEHOVAH God's work.

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