The Migrations, Alliances, and Power of Israel in Western Europe and Central Asia: A Latter-day Saint Perspective on the Lost Tribes

Questions concerning the Lost Tribes of Israel have exercised biblical students and scholars for centuries and produced a variety of theories about where the tribes might be and what they are doing. Some of the theories are absurd such as the suggestion that the Lost Tribes have taken refuge in a hollow spot under the North Pole or that they were carried off somehow to another planet. This book attempts to synthesize information from many earlier studies to support the idea that the Lord did not abandon his Chosen People (despite their repudiation of him), but that He had a hand in their dispersion, and in the mixing and migrations of peoples. The Lost tribes have always been more lost figuratively than literally, in the sense that they were spiritually wandering for Classical and biblical writers seemed to know exactly where they were and what they were doing. The Allegory of the Olive Tree in the Book of Mormon tells the story of the Lost Tribes very clearly as a spiritual metaphor rather than a scholarly academic treatise. Chapter 2 lays the groundwork for our story by reviewing the history of the House of Israel. Chapters 3,4, and 5 follow these Israelite people into captivity wit h other groups and migrated from place to place,. Chapter 6 concerns the Parthian Empire, which was the continuation of the Persian Empire. Chapter 7 discusses a number of prophecies concerning the character and identity of Israelite people after they were sifted among the gentiles. Chapter 8 Follows the mixes and migrations of the Pontic Greeks, Jazyges, Cossack, and the Armenians. Chapter 9 picks up the migration of Israelite peoples east and west out of Central Asia. Chapter 10 is about the collapse of the Parthian Empire to set the stage for the spread of Christianity in Europe. Finally, Chapter 11 concerns later developments in the Middle East as the Israelite who emained were forced to convert to Islam.