Some Facts from the Bible
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Author Stephen Collins notes: "When describing the Sacae Scythian tribes who migrated out of Asia in the second century B.C. [previously captive Israelites—descendants of Isaac], George Rawlinson notes that the greatest tribe, the Massagetae, was also named the ‘great Jits, or Jats’ ["Jats,"
The Sixth Oriental Monarchy, 1872, Vol. 11, p. 357] . . . The term ‘Jat’ has survived as a caste-name in Northwest India [which bordered Persia and Parthia] into modern times, attesting to the ancient dominance of the Jats in that region" (
The "Lost" Tribes of Israel . . . Found, 1992, 1995, p. 343).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]This name could conceivably be a contraction of Judahite (Hebrew
Yehudi, which perhaps became
Jehuti (we’ll see more about phonetic shift in language in a moment). However, it should be pointed out that "Jat" designates the peasant caste of northern India and Pakistan ("Jat,"
Encyclopaedia Britannica, Micropaedia, 1985, Vol. 6, p. 510). Yet that could be because the Jews came to the area as slaves. Or, perhaps more likely, because later conquerors subjugated the Jats and made themselves the upper caste.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Jat may even have initially meant highborn. In a separate article, the
Encyclopaedia Britannica states: "Jati, also spelled jat, in India, a Hindu caste. The term is derived from the Sanskrit jata, ‘born’ or ‘brought into existence,’ and indicates a form of existence determined by birth. In Indian philosophy
jati (genus) describes any group of things that have generic characteristics in common. Sociologically,
jati has come to be used universally to indicate a caste group [in general] within Hindu society" ("Jati," p. 511). Perhaps the notion of Jews as nobility is where the concept of Jat as applied to birth and caste actually began.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]It is possible that these people were related to a group known as the Yueh-chih. Says the
Encyclopaedia Britannica: "Yueh-chih, also called Indo-Scyths, ancient people who ruled in Bactria (now Afghanistan) and India from c. 128 BC to c. AD 450. The Yueh-chih are first mentioned in Chinese sources at the beginning of the 2nd century BC as nomads living in . . . northwest China . . . They and related tribes are the Asi (or Asiani) and Tocharians (Tochari) of Western sources" ("Yueh-chih," Vol. 12, p. 869). And the Asi may well be the Aser of the Norse sagas (again,
see Appendix 10: "The Family of Odin").[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In the same article the
Britannica says: "The Hephthalites . . . [were] originally a Yueh-chih tribe." They were also known as the "White Huns" and their names are sometimes given as "Nephthalites" (compare "Ephthalites, or White Huns,"
Encyclopaedia Britannica, 11th Edition, on-line at 89.1911encyclopedia.org/E/EP/EPHTHALITES.htm)—likely, as Collins points out, a derivation of the Israelite tribe of Naphtali (p. 237). If the name Yueh-chih perhaps derives from Judah or Yehudah, then the description of Naphtali as a Yueh-chih tribe could possibly indicate that the Jews were dispersed throughout the other tribes as leaders in their migrations.[/FONT]
The Jutes
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Collins sees a connection between the Jats and the Jutes of Europe (p. 343), and one may well exist—particularly when we realize that a Norse equivalent for the Scythian names Geat or Goth was Jat (see the
Edda genealogy in
Appendix 10: "The Family of Odin"). But who were the Jutes? They were a tribe of people who gave their name to Jutland, the mainland peninsula of Denmark.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Furthermore, though we often think of the Angles and Saxons who settled in Britain and became the English, it is more correct to say that Britain was invaded in the fifth through seventh centuries by the Angles, Saxons
and Jutes: "Most of the country was conquered by these Teutons, of whom the principle tribes were the Angles, Saxons, and Jutes, who finally fused into one people, under the name of Anglo-Saxons, or
Angles or
English, while that portion of Britain in which they made their home was called
England" (Gene Gurney,
Kingdoms of Europe: An Illustrated Encyclopedia of Ruling Monarchs from Ancient Times to the Present, 1982, p. 129).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In fact, the Jutes actually arrived first! "The first of these Teutonic kingdoms was founded in Kent. A despairing British chieftain or king, Vortigern . . . to save his people from their northern foes . . . invited the Teutons to come to his aid. Two well-known Jutish Vikings, Hengist and Horsa, accepted the invitation with their followers, and in the year 449 landed on the island of Thanet, the southeastern extremity of the England . . . Eric, a son of Hengist, was, in 457, formally crowned king of Kent, that is, of England’s southeastern coast. He was the first of her Teutonic kings" (p. 129).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Now the critical question: Could the name Jute—and perhaps Jat—be related to Judah? Notice the following from a linguistics textbook: "The German linguist Jakob Grimm (of fairy-tale fame) . . . published a four-volume treatise (1819-1822) that specified the regular sound correspondences among Sanskrit, Greek, Latin, and the Germanic languages. It was not only the similarities that intrigued Grimm and other linguists, but the systematic nature of the differences . . . Grimm pointed out that certain phonological changes that did not take place in Sanskrit, Greek, or Latin must have occurred early in the history of the Germanic languages. Because the changes were so strikingly regular, they became known as ‘Grimm’s Law’ . . . [one example of which is] d—>t . . . voiced stops become voiceless" (Victoria Fromkin and Robert Rodman,
An Introduction to Language, Fourth Edition, 1988, p. 315).[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Thus, the people who were later known as the
Juten or
Yuten (as J is pronounced Y in German and Scandinavian languages) would originally have been known as the
Juden or
Yuden. With the Hebrew plural this would be
Judim or
Yudim—
J’hudim or
Y’hudim being the actual Hebrew for Jews. Indeed, Juden is the German word for Jews.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]Hengist and Horsa, then, were leaders of Jutes who were likely Jews. As this Jutish population expanded in southern England, it took over more and more land—the Jutes thus becoming nobles. Indeed, their early arrival ensured that they were the longest established noble families of the Anglo-Saxon population. Furthermore, Hengist and Horsa are traced in descent from Woden or Odin, making them royal descendants of Zerah and perhaps even David (see COLOR=#0000ff]Appendix 9: "The Family of Odin"[/COLOR and COLOR=#0000ff]10: "Joseph of Arimathea and the Line of Nathan"[/COLOR][/URL]). The same is true of the kings of the Angles and Saxons who soon followed.[/FONT]
[FONT=Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif]In the 800s, Danish Vikings took over the western half of England before the Anglo-Saxons repelled them. And the Danes later ruled England from 1013-1042 before it came back under Saxon sovereignty. In both instances, Danish nobility was mixed with the local Anglo-Saxon nobility. But consider that the Danish rulers were descendants from Odin—and the Danes themselves came from Jutland, thus likely ensuring that many of their nobles were of Jutish (and therefore probably Jewish) descent. This would be parallel with Ireland, where the common people were the tribe of Dan but the nobility were the Milesian Scots, who were Jews. In Denmark, the common people were again the tribe of Dan but the nobility were in all likelihood Jutes who were, yet again, Jews.[/FONT]