"Brit-Am Now"-632
Contents:
1. DAVID BEN ARIEL: The Real "9:11"
2. Gloria Bloomfield: Some Good Advice
3. Drew Thacher: Factual Correction
4. Arthur & Rosalind Eedle: "THE TIN ISLANDS"
5. Robert Jones: Tarshish
6. Yair Davidy: Clarification about false Koran quote
7. Quotation Concerning Spain and the Phoenicians
1. DAVID BEN ARIEL: The Real "9:11"
From: DAVID BEN ARIEL <davidbenariel@earthlink.net>
Subject: re: Brit Am 630
> >>The following verse is from the Koran, (the Islamic Bible)
> >>Koran (9:11) -
Shalom Yair,
I don't know if that verse is truly from the Koran, but I do know that the principle of Daniel 9:11 applies to our Jewish and Israelite peoples:
Daniel 9:11
11 All Israel has transgressed your law and turned away, refusing to obey you.
"Therefore the curses and sworn judgments written in the Law of Moses, the servant of God, have been poured out on us, because we have sinned against you.
For Zion's Sake,
David Ben-Ariel
2. Gloria Bloomfield: Some Good Advice
Subject: Re: "Brit-Am Now"-630
Shalom Yair -- By now you've probably been inundated with responses to the Iraq article. The sura 9:11 is Bogus. If ever you have a question as to the validity of an article, go to Snopes.com. Typing in a few key words or names in the search field will usually bring up an article about your item of interest. I get "tons" of emails asking for prayer for people and situations that either don't exist or the issue was resolved years ago. Anyway, it is a helpful site. Thank you for all you do, we "Joes" appreciate being reconnected with our Israelite roots. Asking the Almighty's blessings on you and yours ... --GB
3. Drew Thacher: Factual Correction
Subject: Re: "Brit-Am Now"-630
Factual problems with your message today. Koran 9:11 (at least in english) has nothing to do with "a fearsom eagle" just plain wrong. Truth be told, the word "eagle" doesn't appear anywhere in the Muslim holy book, the Qur'an. Neither, it goes without saying.
Verse 9:11 of the Qur'an is about repentance and reads as follows in three different English translations:
a.. But (even so), if they repent, establish regular prayers, and practise regular charity, they are your brethren in Faith: (thus) do We explain the Signs in detail, for those who understand.
b.. But if they repent and establish worship and pay the poor-due, then are they your brethren in religion. We detail Our revelations for a people who have knowledge.
c.. But if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, they are your brethren in faith; and We make the communications clear for a people who know.
Further the Garden of Eden location is completely unknown. Any river mentioned in Genesis would have had to been reinvented after the flood and most likely placed in different locations. Rivers after the great flood were probably unidentifiable (wouldn't you say?) I get your news letter everyday and I enjoy reading it so I hope you will be more careful of such strong errors next time.
4. Arthur & Rosalind Eedle: "THE TIN ISLANDS"
THE TIN ISLANDS
Arthur & Rosalind Eedle
Extracts Only:
Pliny (Nat. Hist. book xxxiv. Ch.47): "It (tin) is extracted with great labour in Spain and throughout all the Gallic provinces, but in Britannia it is found in the upper stratum of the earth in such abundance , that a law has been spontaneously made prohibiting anyone from working more than a certain quantity of it."
Elsewhere, Pliny mentions that a Greek named "Midacritus (the Greek name for Melkarth, about 600 B.C.) was the first who brought tin from the island called Cassiteris."(Nat.Hist. 7.197)
Now hear what Diodorus Siculus had to say about the British tin mining industry-
"Then all the rest of your voyage is eastward, thus making an obtuse angle to your former course, until you reach the headlands of the Pyrenees that abut on the ocean. The westerly parts of Britain lie opposite these headlands towards the north, and in like manner the islands called Cassiterides, situated in the open sea approximately in the latitude of Britain , lie opposite to, and north of, the Artabians. (the modern La Coruna, [Corunna] the port in NW Spain from which the Spanish Armada sailed in 1588)" (D.Sic.Book II.v.15)
"Now we shall speak something concerning the tin that is dug and gotten there. They that inhabit the British promontory of Belerium, [possibly the ancient name of Polurrion, near the Lizard in Cornwall] by reason of their converse with the merchants, are more civilised and courteous to strangers than the rest. These are the people that make the tin, which with a great deal of care and labour, they dig out of the ground, and that being rocky, the metal is mixed with some veins of earth, out of which they melt the metal and then refine it. " (D.Sic.Book V:1-4, 35)
And later in the same account he had this to say -
"Above Lusitania (a Roman province roughly equivalent to modern Portugal) there is much of this tin metal, that is, in the islands lying in the ocean over against Iberia, (the peninsula dividing Spain from Portugal by the Pyrenees) which are therefore called Cassiterides; and much of it likewise is transported out of Britain into Gaul, the opposite continent, which the merchants carry on horseback through the heart of Celtica to Massilia (Marseilles) and the city called Narbo (Narbonne)." (D.Sic.Book V.2)
The island he called Ictis is none other than St.Michael's Mount, just offshore to Marazion in Cornwall, and exactly fits Diodorus's description. In 1969, in the little harbour of the island, skin divers found a stone bowl with a handle, which was subsequently identified by the British Museum as Phoenician, - and dating as far back as 1500 B.C. When visiting Truro recently, we were able to see the massive H-shaped tin ingot that was dredged from the St Mawes harbour in 1812, weighing 158 pounds. The shape indicated that they were designed to be carried one on each side of a horse for transportation, as mentioned above.
Solinus (3rd Century A.D.) writing in his "Collectanea Rerum Memorabilium" states that the Tin Islands were "severed from the coast of Damnonii by a rough narrow sea." The Damnonii were the inhabitants of Devon and Cornwall. Hence Solinus seems to be referring to the Scilly Isles. Again he refers to them as follows:- "Oft the Tartessians through the well-known seas would sail for Traffic to the Oestrymnides, and Carthaginians too . . ."
And so we gather snippets of information from the past. Now we must record what the Greek geographer Strabo (B.C.63 - A.D.24) (who obtained his information concerning the location of the Cassiterides from Poseidonius,) wrote concerning the traders -
"The Cassiterides are ten in number, (was he referring to the Scilly Isles?) and lie near each other in the ocean toward the north from the haven of the Artabri (Corunna, as mentioned above.). One of them is desert, but the others are inhabited by men in black cloaks, clad in tunics reaching to the feet, girt about the breast, and walking with staves, thus resembling the furies we see in tragic representations. They subsist by their cattle, leading for the most part a wandering life. Of the metals, they have tin and lead, which, with skins, they barter with the merchants for earthenware, salt, and brasen vessels. Anciently the Phoenicians alone, from Gades (Cadiz), engrossed this market, hiding the navigation from all others. When the Romans followed a certain shipmaster, that they might discover the market, the jealous shipmaster willfully stranded his vessel on a shoal, misleading those who were tracking him, to the same destruction. Escaping from the shipwreck by means of a fragment of the ship, he was indemnified for his losses out of the public treasury. The Romans, nevertheless, by frequent efforts discovered the passage; and as soon as Publius (Licinius) Crassus, passing over to them, (about B.C. 95) perceived that the metals were dug out at a little depth, and that the men were peaceably disposed, he declared it to those who already wished to traffic in this sea for profit, although the passage was longer than that to Britain. (i.e. the Cassiterides were further removed from the coast of Spain than the rest of the southern coasts of Britain.) Thus far concerning Iberia and the adjacent islands." (Strabo. iii., v., 11)
This Phoenician ploy, we are told elsewhere, worked satisfactorily until B.C. 450, when the Carthaginian General Hamilcar sailed through the Straits of Gibraltar and northwards, thereby discovering Cornwall. With such scanty evidence, it is perhaps best to speak of the Cassiterides being TWICE discovered, with a space of 350 years between. The account of Hamilcar may be found in the writings of Rufus Festus Avienus, entitled "Ora Maritima", from which comes the following extract -
"Where the ocean flood presses in, and spreads wide the Mediterranean waters, lies the Atlantic Bay; here stands Gadira, of old Tartessus, here the Pillars of Hercules, Abyla . . . (here the record is missing). . Here rises the head of the promontory, in olden times named Oestrymnon, and below, the like-named bay and isles; wide they stretch, and are rich in metals, tin and lead. There a numerous race of men dwell, endowed with spirit, and no slight industry, busied in all the cares of trade alone. They navigate the sea on their barks, built not of pines or oak, but wondrous made of skins and leather. Two days' long is the voyage thence to the Holy Island, once so called, the dwelling of the Hibernian race (Ireland); at hand lies the Isle of Albion (mainland Britain). Of yore the trading voyages from Tartessus (Possibly the Biblical Tarshish) reached to the Oestrymnides; but the Carthaginians and their colonies near the Pillars of Hercules (The Straits of Gibraltar) navigated in this sea, which Hamilcar (or Himilco) by his own account, was upon during four months." (Extracted from A.H.L.Heeren's African Nations, 1832, Vol.i.pp.503-504)
...Dionysius of Alexandria, a Roman Catholic Bishop and theologian of the 3rd century [CE]. Only fragments of his writings remain.
"Against the sacred Cape [Ortegal, Spain] great Europe's head,
Th' Hesperides along the ocean spread;
Whose wealthy hills with mines of tin abound,
And stout Iberians till the fertile ground."
[Note: he refers to Britain as "Th' Hesperides" and its inhabitants as "Iberians"]
In times long gone by Cornwall was literally riddled with mines. The remains of their shafts are still in evidence, and care must be taken in certain areas not to fall into these when hiking. For example, the ancient Ding Dong mine, which we visited recently, still has a deep shaft now covered over with an iron grating.
...traditions still linger with considerable strength about Joseph's involvement. The miners have always sung songs during their work underground, and the refrain has always been, "Joseph was a tin miner. Joseph was in the tin trade."
...Even in the Cornish language there are clear references to the ancient Jewish presence and trade in Cornwall. One still hears about "Jews Houses" (ancient smelting places for tin,) "Jews Pieces" (very ancient blocks of tin, "Jews Works" (very ancient stream works, which were sometimes called Attal Sarazin, or "the leavings of the Saracens",) and even "Jews Fish" (referring to the Halibut, their favourite in Cornish diet.) One remembers names like Marazion, (or Markesew) meaning "Market Jew", the ancient trading town opposite St Michael's Mount (Ictis), and Market Jew Street in the centre of Penzance.
5. Robert Jones: Tarshish
Mr. Davidiy,
There probably was a connection between the Tarshish of Spain and the Cilicia Tarsus. Possibly in the sense that you have in the US a New York and in Britain a York or New England or old England at any rate there was a definite Hebrew connection.
Tarshish Spain was probably originally named after the Japhetic tribe, but they were driven out by Hebrews and Phoenicians. The name was preserved until the Assyrians began to deport so many Hebrews to this area that it became known by its new name Iberia or Hiberia.
On the other hand, Cilicia as you have stated was originally occupied by Danites, a sea faring tribe.
The Apostle Paul, who was from Tarsus of Cilicia, was also of the tribe of Benjamin. Its possible that Benjamites migrated after the Danites to Cilicia and gave their name to this city in Southeast Turkey.
The last thing to consider about the name Tarshish, is the Benjamite clan of Tharshish. In Gaul you find the Menapii (Muppim) the Belgah or Belovacci (Bela(g)), the Namnetes (Naaman) and possibly even Tharshish, which may have merged with any of these other clans. Many of them were probably in Tarshish Spain before being driven north after their failed alliance to Carthage. At any rate, names are extremely important in the Bible, so there probably was intended purpose in the naming of one of the sons of Benjamin ...Tharshish.
Thanks,
Rob Jones
Florida
6. Yair Davidy: Clarification about false Koran quote
The Postings we send out are heavily monitored.
We try not to include offensive or false material or anything not
according to our own beliefs and/or the implied consensus of our subscribers.
Sometimes things slip by or sometimes we publish letters
that are somewhat provocative and that we do not fully agree with
but may have public interest or to generate inquisitiveness
and discussion.
Regarding the entry
"Brit-Am Now"-630
#1. The Brit-Am Importance of Iraq
someone received the item from someone else
and forwarded it to us. The note about the Koran was tagged on at
the bottom and we almost deleted it since we do not want references to
the Koran one way or the other.
Nevertheless we let it stay and it turned out
to be a bogus invention.
It was a mistake on our part to let it go through.
Nevertheless our responsibility for what is sent by others even if
we post it out on our postings is of necessity limited.
7. Quotation Concerning Spain and the Phoenicians
"During the 8th and 7th centuries [i.e. 700s and 600s BCE], the Phoenicians radically transformed the economy of Southern Spain through Gadir (Cadiz) and an extensive series of other colonies, extracting enough silver to leave 20 million tons of silver slag on the countryside (Frankenstein 1979). Copper, gold, lead, and other metals useful as currency were also exported (Aubet 2002). By-products of this extractive industry included environmental degradation, deforestation, and stratification within the local Iberian society. The Spanish hinterland was incorporated into the Phoenician extractive economy and was reorganized toward intensive mining and smelting of silver ore for export on Phoenician ships."
"The Western semiperipheral states-- Phoenician cities, the Philistine Pentapolis and some Arab tribes entering the Assyrian world-empire at the moment of the 7th century crisis…become semiperipheral agents, valued by the Assyrians for their ability to solve the core problem of securing status goods and precious metals to use as hard currency."
Mitch Allen, "POWER IS IN THE DETAILS. Administrative Technology and the Growth of Ancient Near Eastern Cores", USA, 2002.