Re: OT: Jewish Tribes

At 1:29 pm -0400 17/9/00, Steg Belsky wrote:
[...]
>
>The two most probable explanations for what happened to the
>Nine-And-A-Half Tribes are:
>
>1. they assimilated into the general middle-eastern population and lost
>their jewish/israelite identiy.
>2. they assimilated back into the post-exile jewish population of
>babylonia and lost their tribal affiliations.
I agree.  I'd guess that (1) was the lot of most.  But didn't some drift
back to the Holy Land, giving rise, in part at least, to the Samaritans who
claimed, I believe, to preserve more ancient traditions that the Jews
returning from exile in Babylon?

Ray.

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A mind which thinks at its own expense
will always interfere with language.
                   [J.G. Hamann 1760]
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