By Steven M. Collins
Let us consider an aspect
of Jewish history which is sometimes controversial. This is the history of the
Khazar kingdom, whose later monarchs adopted Judaism.
Some maintain that the
Khazars were non-Israelites who, en masse, accepted Judaism and became the
forebears of the Ashkenazi Jews of Europe. This viewpoint tends to
disenfranchise Ashkenazi Jews as “legitimate” Jews from the tribe of Judah, and
it is historically inaccurate. This viewpoint assumes: (A) all Khazars were
gentile, (B) all Khazars accepted Judaism and (C) no members of the house of Judah
were already living among the Khazars.
It is well-documented that
numerous Jews lived in the Parthian Empire and many of them accompanied the
migrating Parthians toward Europe through the Caucasus Mountains and into
territory north of the Black Sea. Other Jewish migrations to the region of
Khazaria occurred in the centuries prior to the fall of Parthia, as we shall
soon document. This region (the Transcaucasus and north of the Black Sea),
through which hordes of Israelites and Jews passed on their way to Europe, was
the homeland of the Khazars. How could the Khazars all be gentiles when their
homeland had been the main expressway for the tribes of Israel as they left
Parthia and Scythia? The Khazar region also included the former kingdom of
Iberia, which had borne a Hebrew name since its founding soon after the fall of
the Israelite capital of Samaria. Iberia had also been ruled by kings with the
root-word “Phares” in their names, confirming their descent from King David of
Israel. Surely, there were still Israelites left in this region when the Khazars
came to power there in later centuries.
There is considerable
evidence that the Khazars were a mixture of races and ethnic groups. The
Encyclopaedia Britannica records that some “Khazars” were first noticed in
Armenia in 198 A.D.(1) This was 28 years before Parthia fell. When Parthia
collapsed, millions of Semitic people from Parthia poured through the region
later to be called “Khazaria” like a tidal wave on their way to Europe. During
the centuries of the great migrations of Parthian and Scythian refugees through
the Transcaucasian region, the descendants of the ten tribes of Israel were
dominant in the region which later became Khazaria. The Khazar rulers did not
adopt Judaism until the year 740 A.D. or even later. Let us consider how many
waves of Jewish refugees entered Khazaria before that event occurred.
Large numbers of Jewish
refugees had settled in what became Khazaria long before the Khazars were even a
recognizable people. It is recorded in The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia that:
The Jews had seen the
Caucasus region as a hospitable refuge for centuries, and they went there in
large numbers. Why shouldn’t they? From 700 B.C, until at least the 5th
century A.D., it was inhabited by many descendants of the ten tribes of Israel
(called Scythians, Iberians, Sacae, Goths, etc.), and many of the Israelite
kings were Jewish, descendants of King David’s dynasty. The Persian King, Sapor
II, was from the Persian Sassanian kingdom that had driven the Parthians out of
Asia. There had to be an immense number of Jews in the Transcaucasus region for
him to take over 75,000 Jews captive in a single raid in that area! That they
were descended from Jews who had originally migrated there from Palestine
confirms they were racial members of the tribe of Judah! The Universal Jewish
Encyclopedia continues:
Many people from the tribe
of Judah migrated to the Caucasus from the former region of Parthia because of
Sassanian persecution. By the time the final waves of “Parthian” Jews entered
the Transcaucasus, the descendants of the Parthians and Scythians were already
occupying new homelands in Europe. For many centuries before Khazar rulers
adopted Judaism, there had been numerous migrations of the tribe of Judah (Jews)
into the region later called Khazaria. There would have been some remnants of
the ten tribes of Israel in that region as well. Indeed, Jewish sources claim
that there were identifiable remnants from the tribes of Issachar, Manasseh, and
Simeon living in Khazar regions, and that their archaic Hebrew names and the
lack of any Levites among them supported the conclusion that they were not Jews,
but Israelites from the ten tribes of Israel.(6) Since huge numbers of people from
the ten tribes of Israel had lived in or passed through this region from the 8th
century B.C. until at least the 5th century A.D., some remnants of
Israel’s ten tribes should be expected there. However, this region had many
non-Israelites as well. The Encyclopaedia Britannica states that:
The Transcaucasus were
getting crowded. Not only had numerous Jews lived in this region for centuries
(coming from Palestine and Parthia), but there were Turks, other races and even
residual Israelites from the ten tribes whose main body had migrated through
this region on the way to Europe. Khazaria came to include not only portions of
the Transcaucasus, but also part of the steppes north of the Black Sea.
There is evidence that most
Khazars were of the Caucasian race. The Encyclopaedia Britannica states that the
Khazars were part of the “white race of the steppe,” (8) and adds that the Khazars,
in response to being threatened by other Turkic tribes (such as the Petchenegs),
built a stone fortress with the help of the Byzantines. The Britannica adds:
The Khazars were known by
their contemporaries as a white Caucasian race, and they built a great fortress
to protect themselves from marauding Turkic tribes. Yet some of the Khazars
were, themselves, called Turks. They were capitalists known for “good faith,”
and practiced religious tolerance. In doing so, they perpetuated Parthian
traditions, for the Parthians were famous for honest dealings and religious
tolerance. It is also evident that the entire nation of the Khazars did not
adopt Judaism. The “dynasty” (the ruling class) adopted Judaism while the
commoners still practiced their own faiths of Judaism, Christianity or Islam.
The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia adds this comment on the Khazar conversion:
The Universal Jewish
Encyclopedia also states that the conversion of the Khazar “Kahan” and his court
may not have occurred until between 786 and 809 A.D. (12) It further records how
few people actually converted to Judaism as a result of their monarch’s
conversion. It states regarding the Khazar King’s conversion:
The Khazars also included
Turks (descended from Esau, also called Edom). The Edomites were fellow-Semites
as their forefather, Esau, was a son of Isaac. The Israelites had been commanded
by God in Deuteronomy 23:7:
There isn’t space to fully
discuss the Edomites, but Esau gave birth to many tribes of his own, each headed
by a “Duke” (see Genesis 36). Genesis 36:15 lists the first (and likely
foremost) “duke” of Edom as “Duke Teman.” The consonants of Teman are T-M-N,
which were the same consonants of the Ottoman Empire, which eventually came to
be called “Turkey.” The second Edomite Duke was named “Omar,” and another name
for the famous “Dome of the Rock” in Jerusalem is “the mosque of Omar,” named
after a powerful Islamic Caliph.
When word spread on the
trade routes that Khazaria had adopted Judaism, Jews from the Diaspora would
surely have migrated to Khazaria to seek refuge there. According to The
Universal Jewish Encyclopedia: “the report of the marvelous conversion [of the
Khazar rulers] spread throughout the Jewish world.” (15)
Khazaria’s Jews eventually
became known as “Ashkenazi” Jews. Some mistakenly link this name to a son of
Gomer (Genesis 10:3). The name actually has Parthian origins. The Encyclopedia
Britannica (1943 Ed., Vol. 17, pp. 576-577) records that the name “Ashkanians”
was a Persian/Arabic name for the Parthians. The derivation of “Ashken-azi” from
“Ashkan-ian” is easy to see. Therefore, the term “Ashkenazi Jews” actually
proclaims and ancestry among the “Parthian Jews.” This is very consistent with
the historical record which confirms many Jews lived in Parthia and that they
migrated out of Parthia into the Transcaucasus and the Black Sea regions.
In conclusion, the
historical record indicates that the Khazarian Jews were, for the most part,
refugees from the tribe of Judah who had settled in that region. There were
converts to Judaism from other races as well, but God’s assimilation laws
defined their offspring to be “fully Jewish” within a few generations. The
Ashkenazi Jews are part of the modern Tribe of Judah. God himself has made that
clear in our modern time as he directed many Ashkenazi Jews to help found and
settle the modern Israeli state, fulfilling the prophecy in Zephaniah 2 that
“Judah” would again inhabit its old homeland in the Mideast.
Submitted by: Steve Collins
ENDNOTES