Leahite Lost Tribes of Israel found in Germany, Austria and Switzerland
By Mikkel S. Kragh
The ancient nation of Israel consisted of 12 Tribes. The 12 Tribes of Israel left Egypt in the Exodus and settled in the land of Canaan, which became known as the land of Israel. As we read in the books of Samuel in the Old Testament, the 12 Tribes united into one unified kingdom under King Saul, King David and King Solomon.
Because King Solomon worshipped pagan gods, the God of Israel punished Israel by letting 10 of the 12 Tribes secede from Solomon’s royal house in Jerusalem. This took place in the beginning of the reign of Solomon’s son, King Rehoboam. The 10 Tribes of Israel formed a kingdom under King Jeroboam, while King Rehoboam’s rump kingdom in Jerusalem became known as the Kingdom of Judah and consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The inhabitants of the smaller Kingdom of Judah became known as Jews.
The much larger and more populous Kingdom of Israel consistently worshipped pagan gods, and therefore, the God of Israel punished the 10 Tribes of the Kingdom of Israel by letting the Assyrian Empire deport almost all of the 10 Tribes of Israel out of the land of Israel into northern parts of the Assyrian Empire. This took place in and around 721 BC.
The 10 Tribes of Israel became lost to world history and Jewish scholars, and, therefore, became known as the so-called Lost Tribes of Israel. But many scholars have traced the migrations of the 10 Tribes of Israel from their exile in Assyria to Europe, where they created the nations of north-western Europe.
Most students of the Lost Tribes of Israel agree that the United Kingdom mainly consists of the tribe of Ephraim, the United States of America the tribe of Manasseh, Denmark the tribe of Dan, the Netherlands the tribe of Zebulon, and France the tribe of Reuben.
Students of the Lost Tribes do not agree about the tribal identities of Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Many do not even believe that Germany and Austria are Israelite nations, while most agree that Switzerland is.
But we are convinced that Germany, Austria and Switzerland are Israelite nations indeed, and that in them we find the descendants of Leah's four eldest sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi and Judah. In the predominantly Lutheran parts of northern Germany, we find descendants of the tribe of Gad and a remnant of Judah.
Reuben and the Franks
In 1931 the German historian Paul Senstius published a book entitled Die Stämme der Israeliten und Germanen (‘The Israelite and Germanic Tribes’). Senstius traced descendants of the 4 eldest sons of Leah to Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Senstius identified Reuben with central-western Germany, in particular along the Lower Rhine from where the Franks originated:
“Actually, the four tribes emigrated to Europe. The first to do so was Reuben. He re-appears on the Rhine in the year AD 451 under the name Rib-uari, whose capital was Cologne. The second part of this name is closely related to Latin and means Men. The actual name is therefore Rib = Reuben. That is the Low German name. In High German it can be seen in place names such as: Reiferscheid, Rieferath, Refrath, Rüfferscheid. Most of the names are derived from Rib. …
One of Reuben's sons was Fallu, which we find in East- and Westphalia, which is called Falahi is Old High German. … This incomplete treatment of the Germanic tribe of Reuben already shows that it spread from the Rhineland to the Elbe River, as a powerful political entity.” (Paul Senstius: Die Stämme der Israeliten und Germanen, pp. 8-9)
Senstius identifies Reuben with the Germanic tribe the Franks. The Franks were divided into two main groups: The Ribuari (or Ripuari) Franks who lived along the Lower Rhine, and the Salian Franks who moved into the Low Countries and France in the 3rd to 5th cen. AD and eventually gave name to the Frankish Kingdom, which became an empire when Charlemagne was crowned emperor by the Pope in AD 800. Charlemagne's Frankish Empire covered what today is France, Germany, the Low Countries, Switzerland, Austria and northern Italy. After Charlemagne's death in 814, the empire was divided into 3 kingdoms: 1) West Francia, which became France, 2) East Francia, which became Germany, and 3) Middle Francia, which soon disintegrated.
Most students of the Lost Tribes identify France as Reuben, so it would be logical if the Germanic tribe of the Franks, who founded France, were of Reuben as well.
The history of the Franks fits the Biblical description of Reuben. Reuben was Jacob's firstborn and was born with the birthright blessing, but lost it to Joseph. Likewise, the Frankish Empire was the first north-western European empire after the fall of the West Roman Empire. Reuben was foretold to be as “Unstable as water, thou shalt not excel” (Gen 49:3) Even though Charlemagne's Frankish Empire was impressive, it did not last long.
Reuben was a tribe that was not particularly faithful. The patriarch Reuben lay with his father's wife Bilhah. When Israel was about to settle in the Promised Land, Reuben and Gad wanted a piece of land on the east side of the Jordan (Num chap. 32). Moses interpreted this as a sign of lack of faith in God's promises, because God had promised the land of Canaan on the west side of the Jordan River to Israel, but not the land on the east side of the Jordan. Moses compared the Reubenites and the Gadites to the 10 of the 12 spies he had previously sent out to spy out the land of Canaan (Num chap. 13). The 10 spies told Moses and Israel that the Canaanites were too strong for them, while the 2 spies Joshua the Ephraimite and Caleb the Judahite witnessed that Israel could take over Canaan. The Reubenites and the Gadites assured Moses that they would fight with the rest of Israel to take over the land of Canaan, and afterward they would settle on the east side of the Jordan, which they did. Thereby Reuben's and Gad's territories were, strictly speaking, outside the Promised Land. This is indicative of Reuben's desire to do something else than what God wants him to do. This is also fulfilled in a spiritual sense in the German and French Franks, in the fact that they are predominantly Roman-Catholics.
Southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland
The German dialect spoken in southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland is called High German, which in turn is divided into several sub-dialects. In Baden-Württemberg the dialects Swabian and Alemannic are spoken, in Switzerland another Alemannic dialect is spoken, while the dialect spoken in Bavaria and Austria simply is called Bavarian-Austrian German.
These regions could be where the tribes of Simeon and Levi settled.
Levi in Switzerland and Baden-Württemberg
After Jeroboam seceded from the House of David and set up the golden calves, most of the Levites left to join the House of Judah. But there must have been a smaller number of Levites that remained with the 10 Tribes and were deported by the Assyrians. These Levites may have become a part of the Swabian and Alemannic German tribes that today inhabit Switzerland and Baden-Württemberg in south-western Germany.
Since most of Levi remained with the Kingdom of Judah, and since Levi was a particularly God-fearing tribe, Levites must be presumed to have made up a significant part of the early church which was predominantly Jewish. The early predominantly Jewish church was ostracized from the Jewish synagogues after the Fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. The descendants of most of the Levites that had remained with the Kingdom of Judah after the Fall of Samaria in 721 BC are therefore to be found outside the Jewish people. These Levites became 'Gentile' Christians. Where their descendants ended up, we can only guess. But some may have ended up in southern Germany, if that was where the Holy Spirit led them to.
Southern Germany is predominantly Catholic, but still in Baden-Württemberg 33% are Protestants. Switzerland, on the other hand, was a “mountain stronghold” of Protestantism during the Reformation, even though the country was separated from the main centers of Protestantism in northern Europe. This history of standing up for Protestant Christianity in a sea of Catholicism could be explained by Levites making up a significant part of the population in those areas.
Levi was separated from the other Israelite tribes, so Levi would also have an isolationist spirit. We find this in Switzerland, which has remained neutral since 1516, with the exception of the Napoleonic Wars where Switzerland was invaded by France.
Simeon in Bavaria and Austria
Jacob basically cursed Simeon and Levi for slaying the Canaanite town of Shechem (Gen chap. 34), even though Levi was later redeemed by becoming the priestly tribe. Jacob specifically says that his “soul shall not enter into their secret”, or as the NIV puts it “Let me not enter their council, let me not join their assembly” (Gen 49:6 NIV) While Levi would be prone to follow true religion, Simeon would not.
The Reformation also gained many followers in Bavaria and Austria, but after the Counter-Reformation (ca. 1545-1648) most of Bavaria and all of Austria was reclaimed for the Catholic Church. This relative lack of adhering to the true religion could be because the tribe of Simeon settled in Bavaria and Austria.
Paul Senstius also believed that southern Germany is Simeon and Levi, but that Bavaria is of Levi and that Swabians and Alemannic Germans are of Simeon. (Paul Senstius: Die Stämme der Israeliten und Germanen, pp. 9-10)
The Norwegian ship captain and preacher Ole Jørgen Johnsen wrote the book Israel i de siste dage (‘Israel in the Last Days’, 1924) with a foreword by bishop Andreas Fleischer of the Lutheran-Evangelical Church of Norway. O.J. Johnsen wrote that Reuben was Austria, Simeon was Prussia and Levi was Germany (and the Jews were Judah).
Regardless of the details, southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland seem to be inhabited by descendants of Reuben, Simeon and Levi.
Northern Germany
Northern Germany is quite different than the rest of Germany. In many ways northern Germany is more akin to Scandinavia and the Netherlands than to southern Germany, Austria and Switzerland.
Until the Reformation the dialect which was spoken in northern Germany was Low German, also called Plattdeutsch. Modern written German is called Standard German and is based on the High German dialects of southern Germany and Austria. Compared to Standard German, Low German is almost a foreign language closely related to Dutch, and rather similar to Danish.
When the Angles, Saxons and Jutes invaded Britain in the 5th and 6th centuries, they came from northern Germany and Jutland. That is why modern English is closer to Low German than to modern Standard German.
The Protestant Reformation was started by Martin Luther from Wittenberg south of Berlin. The Reformation was a type of God's people Israel leaving Mystery Babylon the Great Harlot (Rev chap. 17). Such a magnificent event can only have been started by an Israelite!
When Protestantism spread across northern Europe, it came in different varieties. Northern Germany, the Nordic countries, Estonia and Latvia became Lutheran, the Netherlands, Scotland and half of Switzerland became Reformed, and England became Anglican. Northern Germany's Lutheran spiritual kinship to Scandinavia is because northern Germany is of the tribe of Gad.
The great majority of the nations and regions where the tribes of the handmaidens Dan, Naphtali, Gad and Asher settled became Lutheran.
In Israel's Tribes Today (2005) Stephen M. Collins writes that Germany as a nation is the tribe of Gad. He points out that Germany seems to fulfill Moses's and Jacob's prophecies of Gad being a warlike nation that would be overcome, and yet revive:
“And of Gad he said, Blessed be he that enlargeth Gad: he dwelleth as a lion, and teareth the arm with the crown of the head.” (Deu 33:20)
“Gad, a troop shall overcome him: but he shall overcome at the last.” (Gen 49:19)
“This prophecy indicates Gad would have a large population ('be enlarged'), and exhibit a predatory nature (a 'lion' who 'tears' at other nations). Germany is one of the largest nations of modern Europe, fulfilling the prophecy that they would 'be enlarged'. The warlike characteristics and prowess of the Germans are well-known, and they have twice fulfilled the role of a predatory lion in the modern era (World Wars I and II), attacking and 'tearing' at neighboring nations. The above, together with the fact that Genesis 49's prophecy requires that the Gadites will be 'overcome' by a troop but will recover from their defeat to 'overcome' during the latter days, clearly points to the Germans.” (Stephen M. Collins: Israel’s Tribes Today, p. 219)
A remnant of Judah revealed in northern Germany
Not only is northern Germany of the tribe of Gad, but there is also a remnant of Judah present in northern Germany. The majority of the tribe of Judah became the Jewish people. But after the Assyrian kings Shalmaneser and Sargon II had defeated and deported the 10 Tribes of Israel, King Sennacherib invaded the Kingdom of Judah and conquered all its cities, except Jerusalem. Judah was saved by a miracle when an angel killed 185,000 Assyrian soldiers who were laying siege against Jerusalem (2 Kings chap. 19). On Sennacherib's Cylinder, which today is found in the British Museum, the king wrote that he took 200,150 people of Judah captive:
“But Hezekiah, of Judah, who had not submitted to my yoke, I besieged 46 of his strong cities, fortresses, and small cities of their environs, without number, and by casting down the walls and advancing the engines, by an assault of the light-armed soldiers, by breaches, by striking, and by axes I took them; 200,150 men, young and old, male and female, horses, mules, asses, camels, oxen, and sheep without number I brought out from them, I counted them as spoil. Hezekiah as a caged bird I shut up in Jerusalem, his royal city...” (W.H. Bennett: The Story of Celto-Saxon Israel, p. 139)
The authoritative Jewish Encyclopaedia from 1901-06 affirms that a large portion of Judah was taken into exile: “Hezekiah, son of Ahaz (719), prospered as long as he deferred to the prophet Isaiah with his wise policy of 'quietness and confidence' in Yhwh. But in 701 he joined in a wide-spread insurrection against Assyria, with the result that the whole of Judah was devastated by the Assyrian king Sennacherib, many of its people were deported, and Jerusalem itself was spared only after a plague had broken out in the army of the invader.” (The Jewish Encyclopaedia, article “Kingdom of Judah”: https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8955-judah-kingdom-of, my underlining)
These 200,150 Judahites did not rejoin the Kingdom of Judah, but disappeared along with the 10 Tribes. This must have been approx. 1/10 of the tribe of Judah that was removed out of Judah. When David ordered Joab to number the 12 Tribes, Joab counted 800,000-1,100,000 adult Israelite males of the 10 Tribes and 470,000-500,000 adult Judahite males. (The numbers are different in 2 Sam 24:9 and 1 Chron 21:5.) In ancient Israel, an average family consisted of a father, a mother, and a little more than two surviving children. (The average family had many children, but the child mortality was also high. Therefore, the average family ended up with only a little more than two surviving children.) 470,000-500,000 adult Judahite males must therefore mean that the population of Judah was around 2-2.5 mil.
The late Pastor Alan Campbell of Northern Ireland pointed out the fact that a remnant of Judah was among the 10 Tribes in the lecture The Remnant of Judah Revealed in Germany, by showing how the British Royal Family is of German origin. In 1714 Prince Georg of Hanover in northern Germany became King of England, and the name of their house was the House of Saxo-Coburg-Gotha. In 1917, at the height of World War I, they anglicized their name to the House of Windsor. (Alan Campbell: “The Remnant of Judah Revealed in Germany (1)”: https://ensignmessage.com/articles/the-remnant-of-judah-revealed-in-germany-1-3/)
In fact, most of the royal families are of German origin, including the Royal House of Denmark, which traces its immediate origins to Christian IX of the House of Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg in northern Germany, who became King of Denmark in 1863.
Another remnant of Judah ended up on the Jutland Peninsula in Denmark. Before Denmark became a unified kingdom, the Jutes were often viewed as closer to the Saxons than to the Danes of the Danish islands and the southern part of the Scandinavian Peninsula.
Some students of the Lost Tribes believe that Germany in its entirety is Judah and that there is, at the most, a remnant of Judah in the modern Jewish people. It is in fact the other way around. The House of Judah is the modern Jewish people, while remnants of Judah are dispersed among the 10 Tribes, such as in northern Germany, Jutland and in the Royal Houses of Europe.
The 'Germany is Assyria Myth' debunked
Among students of the Lost Tribes there are some who believe that Germany is Assyria. They claim that Assyrians migrated along with the Israelite tribes, and that the former ended up in Germany.
This erroneous hypothesis started with the 2nd generation of British-Israelites. The 1st generation of British-Israelites, starting with John Wilson in the 1830s, viewed Germans as Israelite kinsmen of the British. But around the time of the unification of Germany in 1871, when the German Empire became a competitor to the British Empire, British-Israelite attitudes changed and most no longer viewed Germany as Israelite but rather as Assyrian.
When Herbert W. Armstrong started the World-Wide Church of God in the 1930s, he taught a variant of British-Israelism but also claimed that Germany was Assyria.
The proponents of the supposed Assyrian connection to Germany provide no credible evidence of any Assyrian migration to Germany. The entire hypothesis is on based a spiritual comparison of the hostility between Britain and Germany in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and the hostility between Israel and Assyria in the 8th cen. BC.
What they fail to realize is that hostility between one Israelite nation and another nation does not mean the other nation is non-Israelite. The Old Testament is full of examples of Israelite tribes fighting against each other. The 11 tribes almost exterminated Benjamin (Judg chap. 19-21). After the death of Solomon, the Kingdom of Israel and the Kingdom of Judah were fighting against each other as often as they were fighting against outside kingdoms.
The true Assyrians today
The Assyrian people were, of course, the nucleus of the Assyrian Empire which deported the 10 Tribes of Israel. The Assyrian Empire ended 614-609 BC when it was defeated and conquered by the Babylonians and Medes. The ethnic Assyrian people, however, lived on as an ethnic minority in northern Mesopotamia.
In the 1st to 3rd centuries AD the ethnic Assyrians were one of the first peoples to convert to Christianity. Despite the Muslim conquest of their homeland, the Assyrians remained Christians.
The Assyrians lived under Muslim rule for more than 1,200 years but remained Christians. From the 17th to the 19th centuries, they suffered many massacres at the hands of Ottoman Turks and Kurds. It culminated in the Assyrian Genocide during World War I where Ottoman Turks and Kurds killed approx. 300,000 Assyrians – 2/3 of all Assyrians - and deported many others from their homelands.
The persecution and deportation continued under the Islamic State in 2014 and onwards. This means that many Assyrians now live in a Diaspora outside the Middle East. As a twist of fate, most of the fleeing Assyrians are now living in nations descended from the 10 Tribes of Israel, whom the Assyrian Empire themselves deported. There are approx. 600,000 Assyrians living in the U.S., 150,000 in Sweden and 100,000 in Germany.
When God executes judgement upon a people, He makes the punishment fit the crime. The history of the ethnic Assyrians for the last 2,600 years seems like a just punishment that is similar to what the Assyrians did when they deported the 10 Tribes of Israel.
In Isaiah there is an apparently obscure prophecy which seems to say that one day Assyria and Egypt will become a part of God's people alongside Israel: “In that day shall Israel be the third with Egypt and with Assyria, even a blessing in the midst of the land: Whom the LORD of hosts shall bless, saying, Blessed be Egypt my people, and Assyria the work of my hands, and Israel mine inheritance.” (Isa 19:23-24)
This prophecy was fulfilled when the Egyptians and ethnic Assyrians converted to Christianity in the first centuries AD, and the Lost Tribes of Israel in Europe became Christians in the following centuries.
The 'Germany is Edom Myth' debunked
Yair Davidiy – whom I otherwise have great respect for when it comes to his research into the Lost 10 Tribes - believes that Germany is Edom. This erroneous hypothesis is, like the 'Germany is Assyria Myth', based on a spiritual symbolism which has been turned into a belief in fleshly ancestry. It is based on no credible historical evidence.
In Judaism it is a common belief that Rome is Edom. This identification started during the reign of Herod the Great, who was a Roman puppet king of Edomite ancestry. When the ancient Jews in code language referred to the Romans as 'Edom', they could avoid persecution from the Roman authorities. This led to Edom becoming a symbol of Rome in the Talmud and in Jewish understanding. Originally, the Jewish connection between Edom and Rome was purely symbolic, but eventually some Jews began to think that the Romans were indeed fleshly descendants of Edom. This view is wide-spread among Jews today. But it is backed up by no historical evidence whatsoever.
Unlike the fate of the 10 Tribes of Israel, the fate of Edom is not a mystery. All historians, Jewish as well as non-Jewish, agree that the people of Edom became a part of the Jewish people when John Hyrcanus converted the Edomites to Judaism by force in the 2nd cen. BC. Today the fleshly descendants of Edom are a minority of the Jewish people. They are not found in Rome or Germany.
The homeland of the Leahite tribes
We thereby see that not only is Germany inhabited by descendants of some of the tribes that were of Leah's sons. But in fact, all the tribes of Leah's sons are either in Germany or have, in one way or another, come from Germany.
Reuben ended up among the Germanic Franks in the Rhineland, and later founded France.
Simeon ended up among southern German tribes and became the Austrians and Bavarians.
The remnant of Levi, which did not remain within the Jewish people, ended up in Switzerland, which remained a part of the Holy German-Roman Empire until 1648, and in Baden-Württemberg.
A remnant of the tribe of Judah ended up in northern Germany.
The tribe of Zebulon ended up in the Netherlands, which was a part of the Holy German-Roman Empire until 1648. The English name for their nationality Dutch is even related to the German name for German: Deutsch.
The tribe of Issachar ended up in South Africa as the Afrikaners, who were descended from Dutch, German and French settlers. One Afrikaner-German connection can be seen in the biggest Afrikaans church, the Nederduitse Gereformeerde Kerk (the NG Kerk), which literally means the Low German Reformed Church. The reason that it is called this name is because in old Dutch, “Nederduits” (“Low German”) was a name for the Dutch language. (Not to be confused with the German dialect Plattdeutsch or “Low German” spoken in northern Germany, which is a distinct language.)
We therefore see that not only is Germany a part of the Israelite family of nations, but it is also the home of most of the tribes of Leah, one half of the tribes of Israel.
Bibliography:
W.H. Bennett: The Story of Celto-Saxon Israel (Windsor, Canada: CBIA, 2002)
Alan Campbell: “The Remnant of Judah Revealed in Germany (1)”: https://ensignmessage.com/articles/the-remnant-of-judah-revealed-in-germany-1-3/
Stephen M. Collins: Israel’s Tribes Today (Royal Oak, MI, USA: Bible Blessings, 2005)
Paul Senstius: Die Stämme der Israeliten und Germanen (Leipzig, Germany: Eduard Pfeiffer Verlag, 1931)
The Jewish Encyclopaedia, article “Kingdom of Judah”: https://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/8955-judah-kingdom-of