Esau and the Edomites

Nations of Esau in Ancient Times


A Brit-Am, Lost Ten Tribes of Israel, Report

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The Nations of Esau: Ancient Times
Edomite elements were later to be found amongst colored peoples but on the whole Esau (Edom) is of Caucasian type and proud of it.
Esau was also known as Edom. He gave rise to the Edomite Nations. One of the Edomite peoples created a small kingdom to the southeast of Judah. The region known as Edom contained only a small portion of the Edomite people. There were however several Edomite polities and groups of Edomites that merged with other nations often as the military elites and aristocracy.

EDOMITES.
DUKE
MAGDIEL [Genesis 36:43] one of the early leaders of Edom was the real founder of Rome according to tradition.

Early Rulers of Edom were to be found in Mesopotamia e.g. Saul of Rehoboth on the River (Genesis 36:31-43).
A reference is made to the daughter of Edom, " You who dwell in the land of Uz".
This according to Nachmandies meant the region later known as Armenia. It is to be identified with the country referred to in Assyrian inscriptions as Idamaraz meaning Edom (Idam) Land Araz (Michael Banyai).
See:
Edom to the North of Israel

Teman was one portion of Edom 

Cf.  The extract from "Ephraim":
 TEMAN was an ethnic group once scattered here and there throughout the Middle East. The Temenu had had a centre in Gozan in northern Syria on the Khabor River. This was also the area of the Mitanni of "Indo European" culture. These polities were destroyed and their inhabitants moved elsewhere. Later the Neo Assyrians were to deport Israelites to these same areas. At all events, the Temmenu were to become an important element in ancient Mesopotamia and Babylon and are assumed to have been Aramaic in language and culture. The "Tummana" (i.e. Temeni) were located in northern Anatolia in Hittite territory whence developed a migration to Germany. The early founders of Rome traditionally came from Anatolia and in the later Roman Empire the population of Rome was largely of Syrian, Anatolian, and related Eastern origin. In the Book of Maccabees and History of Josephus it is related how both the Spartans of Greece and Romans of Republican Rome established contact with the then-independent kingdom of Judah and how both claimed to be related to the Jews through a mutual descent from Abraham. Esau and Jacob were twin-brothers sons of Isaac son of Abraham. One authority states that the Romans owe their origins to the Albanes of Latinium in Peloponesus (southern Greece) descendants of the Laconian-Spartans and Ausones migrating to Italy where they intermixed with the Sabines and Ombrians. Alexander the Great King of Macedonia and onetime conqueror of much of the then known world claimed descent from the Temenidae descendants of Temenus  one time king of Argos in Greece.
 The
Temenidae came to Macedon in ca.650 b.c.e. Amongst the Thracian (modern Romania) and Anatolian (modern Turkey) peoples were the Edoni, and Odomants. "Who cut the skin of the membrum of the Odomants?" says a passage from Aristophanes apparently referring to circumcision. The Edons and Odomants are believed to have been descendants of Edom. The "Kiasos" were a mystical dynasty of the Edones and have a name recalling that of Kas or Kos the national god of Edom. Julius Kaesar (i.e. Caesar) gave his family name to the Rulers of Rome. In his honour were retained the titles of Kaiser and Czar. Alexander the Great, Caesar, and several of the Roman Emperors are considered by some to have been truly great men who contributed to the advance of civilisation

In addition we find elements of Edom in Italy, Spain, Gaul, Britain, and elsewhere in Europe. We deal with this elsewhere. In most cases the edomites settled as a minority though they often may have reached to leadership positions.

Descendants of Esau settled in Babylon and in some of the Phoenician Cities such as Tyre. Both Babylon and Tyre in Scripture are associated with Edom.

According to Don Isaac Abarbanel (1437-1508) a tradition existed that many of the early Christians were Edomites.

One authority who dealt with this matter Ernest L. Martin, 1932-2002. Martin claimed ("The People That History Forgot", 1993, USA) that most of the Edomites from Edom (southeast of Judah) and many from Tyre went to the West (Italy, etc) where they became Christian. Martin admittedly had an agenda. He was making an historical-cultural point rather than a racial one. His book says that Non-Israelite Samaritans (originally from Cutha in Babylon) along with other Middle Eastern peoples (such as the Edomites) migrated en masse to western regions of the Roman Empire. They became Christian but retained something of their previous practices and influenced early Christainity with their pagan traditions Martin belonged to a group that considered most other forms of Christianity to be paganised whereas they themselves were on the right track.
Despite his ideaological prejudices his work on this matter is of interest and worth considering.

Below is an extract:


The People That History Forgot: Martin
http://www.askelm.com/people/peo020.htm

This was only intensified at the end of the Bar Kohkba period in 135 C.E. with the final defeat of the Jews. The area of Judaea, along with the other areas contiguous to it, were turned into a desert type of economy. Peoples left the areas by the droves and most went north or into the west.

For all practical purposes the nationalities of the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites (Idumaeans), ceased to be reckoned as distinct peoples any longer in the Middle East. Their areas were, as we have explained earlier, reverted into a type of desert environment and peoples from the peripheral lands (the desert Arabs) came into these unpopulated regions. This is when the Idumaeans and other nations around Palestine disappear from history and become a part of that group of races who blended in with The People That History Forgot.

That does not end the matter, however, especially with the Idumaeans (or Edomites). This is because the Jewish authorities kept up with the migrations of their brethren the Edomites (Edom or Esau was a twin brother to Jacob and their descendants were kin to the Jews). The Jews reckoned that many of the Edomites migrated west, even into North Africa and Rome.

To understand this matter from the Jewish point of view, a few historical indications have to be taken into account. It was reckoned that in early times, even before the time of David, descendants of the Edomites (or a portion of them) moved from their area south and east of Jerusalem into the northern coastal towns of Sidon, and then to Tyre where they made their northern capital. Early history shows that the original city of Tyre was formerly located on an island just off the coast, until Alexander created a causeway to it, turning the island into a peninsula.

The city of Tyre was colonized by a king with the name of "Erythras" (meaning "King Red") who came from an area on the Red Sea. Indeed, even the "Red Sea" itself which included all of what we call the Indian Ocean today (and the Persian Gulf too) was named after this "King Erythras." This "King Red" (or in Hebrew, "Edom") was supposed to be the first to sail rafts on the waters of the Red Sea for trading purposes. The first references to him show him in the Persian Gulf part of the "Red Sea." Justin Martyr, however, in his garnering of early Tyrian historical events (Justin Martyr, Dialogues with Trypho, xviii.3) said that the original Tyrians came to Tyre from the "Assyrian Sea" (which many actually feel was the Dead Sea). This, indeed, was the original territory where Edom first resided. But Edom expanded. Trading colonies were established on the Mediterranean coast, in the Red Sea at Akaba and on the Persian Gulf. These people were the first "Phoenicians" (the word also meaning "Red") and in Roman times the name became "Punic."

One of the chief gods of the early Phoenicians, according to Sanchaniathon who was the first historian to write about them, was "Ousoos," who is clearly identified with Esau, whose other name was "Edom" ("Red"). These people were called "Red" after their first king who was probably red-headed (not because they had red in their complexions). They established trading colonies all along the North African coast and in several areas of Spain. Strabo said that the chief city of Spain called "Gades" (the Holy), or Cadiz today, was established by the first king "Erythra" ("Red") (Geography, III.5,4). They also built the famous Carthage that gave rise to Hannibal who gave the early Latins such trouble. To the Jews, they reckoned that these Phoenicians (or Tyrians) were descendants of Esau (or Edom). Rashi in his commentary on Genesis 25:23 states that "Tyre was colonized by Esau." There is the prophetic statement by the prophet Amos which seems to show a strong affinity between Tyre and Edom (Amos 1:9-10).


We see that in Ancient times Edom was to be found amongst several Ancient Peoples. Other sources show Edomite elements in China (as claimed recently by an erudite Chinese scholar) and possibly also Japan. Edom on the whole may well have had a major civilizing influence amongst many of the world populations. We deal more with this matter in our articles on Edom amongst Israelite Nations, Esau in Europe, and Esau in Germany.





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The name "Ephraim" in Hebrew Letters as Seen
by Satellite in the Hills of Ephraim

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