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PaperclipPerfector  1yr ago (text post)   31884 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of July 10, 2023

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He's not being metaphorical.

Chapter two of The Pilgrim Hypothesis is a straightforward introduction to British Israelism. He argues that the lost tribes migrated northwest into Europe where they interbred with Germanic tribes, and the introduction of Hebrew to ancient German caused the first Germanic sound shift.

Specifically, he interprets Genesis 49:22 ("Joseph is a fruitful bough, a fruitful bough by a spring; his branches run over the wall") to mean that Joseph's descendants must have come to America - 'the wall' is the Atlantic Ocean. Therefore he also wants to connect the Pilgrims to the biological descendants of Joseph. A Mormon elder argued this in the 1880s, you see, so now that needs to be justified somehow. It seems like this has been a line in Mormonism for a while? He cites another early pamphlet - it seems of a piece with Mormon pseudohistory about Native Americans. He relies heavily on this piece as well, and dodgy etymological arguments.

At times it gets rather comical. He does rely on nonsensical folk etymologies ('Saxons' as 'Isaac's sons', 'British' as 'berit', covenant, plus 'ish', man, etc.), many of which rely on outright false claims (he claims that 'angle' is Hebrew for bull, which it... isn't). There's also a lot of conspiratorial nonsense about symbols. The Great Seal of the United States has some biblical imagery on it (e.g. the stars above the eagle's head form a Star of David, surrounded by rays of light and clouds, reminiscent of Moses' trip up Sinai), which apparently proves something. British monarchs wear a crown with twelve jewels on it (do they? I can't tell which crown he's talking about, and St. Edward's Crown has a lot more than twelve stones on it) and there were twelve tribes of Israel. He mistakes the portcullis symbol of parliament for a breastplate and then says it's reminiscent of the Urim and Thummin.

It's genuinely that bizarre. I feel I need to prove I'm not just making this up:

“British history reflects the reunion of Israel,” Stephen explained. “This window is not a coincidence. Nor is it a coincidence that the sovereigns who are coroneted here are adorned with a crown—a crown with exactly twelve jewels embedded around it. Nor is it coincidence that the symbols on the Arms of Westminster are adorned with the breastplate of the high priest of Israel.”

[a picture of the breastplate worn by the priests of Israel alongside the portcullis arms of Westminster]

I had seen that familiar breastplate symbol throughout London, with its grid-like shape creating exactly twelve spaces, presumably to hold twelve jewels, one for each tribe. The breastplate symbol also included a looped chain on each side, presumably showing how easy this breastplate could be fitted onto a high priest. It was familiar to me from LDS gospel art depictions of the high priests of ancient Israel, who used the breastplate, according to scripture, as a Urim and Thummim (Exodus 28:30).

“The breastplate,” Stephen explained, “is the principal symbol of Britain’s Houses of Parliament.”

Or on the names:

Other scholars have noted the interesting construct of words like England and Anglo-Saxon. The word England might be derived from the word Angle-land—the Angles being a Germanic tribe that migrated to the British Isles during the fifth and sixth centuries BC. Angle is a Hebrew word meaning “Bull” or “Ox.” These animals are the biblical symbol for Joseph, as in, “Let the blessing come upon the head of Joseph . . . His glory is like the firstlings of his bullock” (Deuteronomy 33:16–17). Other examples of the same are also very present in the biblical account.

Saxon also has a fascinating proposed origin. Some scholars propose that it has its origins in the name Isaac. Dropping the I from Isaac (vowels are not used in Hebrew spelling) leaves us with Saac. God told Abraham: “In Isaac shall thy seed be called” (Genesis 21:12; see also Romans 9:7; Hebrews 11:18). The Israelites are called “the house of Isaac” (Amos 7:16). If the theory is correct, the Anglo-Saxons were derived from this same biblical house—they are “Isaac’s sons.” Or in Hebrew, they are “Saac’s sons”—hence the name Saxons.

Yes, he appears to have mixed up BC and AD.

It's all like this - a series of coincidences held together with thumbtacks and spit, so that he can declare that the Pilgrims' voyage and the founding of America satisfies some sort of biblical prophecy.

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