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Had anyone heard of this claim that a Jewish tribe wandered down to Zimbabwe? The claim makes its way into the following story about a possible replica of the Ark of the Covenant, located in Africa:
At the center of that research is a southern African ethnic group variously called Lemba, Remba or waLemba. Parfitt says 52 percent of them carry a Y chromosome known as the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH) ? unique to ancient priestly Jewish communities and raising the possibility they are descended from Aaron, Moses' brother. Other groups in Zimbabwe have no CMH….One says the original Ark of the Covenant may have been destroyed when the Babylonians invaded Jerusalem in 586 B.C., that several copies likely were made and that one was taken to Ethiopia by Prince Menelik, the son of Solomon and the Queen of Sheba. Another could have found its way to ancient Zimbabwe, says the exhibit.
Quote from Phid in Israel and Sheba:
What was the extent of the political or economic relationship between Israel and Ethiopian Sheba? Normally we do not think of Ethiopia as being within Western Civilization, but contact between these places suggests that there was historically some understanding between Africa (beyond communities on the Mediterranean) and the Near East.
In a word yes… your question is the answer; Discovery or History had a show about a year or so back that promoted this idea… seemed logic based.
As if Zimbabwe or other non european civilisations couldn't produce anything relevant by themselves … ? (sounds so XIXth)
They say the vessel was built almost 700 years ago from the remains of the original Ark, which the Bible says was used to store Moses' 10 Commandments.http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8522097.stm 700 years ago … and a replica … How did the original arrive there ? Should we trust 19th c. accounts about archaeological “discoveries” in Zimbabwe ?“a prehistoric race built the ruins … a northern race coming from Arabia … closely akin to the Phoenician and Egyptian … and eventually developing into the more civilized races of the ancient world.”http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/israel/zimbabwe.html Wally's picture tells.
I suppose it's possible. Although I doubt it.At the time of the Babylonian Captivity a group of Jews fled to Egypt (after assassinating the governor of Jerusalem the Babylonians installed). They took forcibly took the prophet Jemimah with them and killed him after reaching Egypt. There are also reports the Jews built a temple somewhere in (lower) Egypt (and also one in Babylon). Ethiopia has long claimed a connection to Israel; Ethiopian emperors claimed to descend from Salomon and the Queen of Sheba. At one time the Coptic Church of Ethiopia was the equal of the Roman Catholic and Eastern Orthodox churches. At the time of Christ more Jews lived outside of Israel than within its borders. Alexandria in Egypt for centuries had a huge Jewish population. They'd mostly forgotten Hebrew and for their benefit about 200 B.C. the Old Testament was translated into Greek becoming the Septuagint version of the Scriptures that New Testament writers quoted. There are some very black skinned people in Africa today who claim Jewish linage. My understanding is Israel has granted them immigrations rights without requiring them to undergo the conversion ceremony. There are many who think/speculate the Ark of the Covent was hidden in Ethiopia. So I suppose it's possible it traveled all the way to Zimbabwe, although I doubt it. But I wouldn't be surprised to learn that Zimbabwe had contact with some or all of a long list of peoples including Jews, Arabs, Phoenicians, Egyptians, and (sub continent) Indians.
Beta Israel or Falasha (Ge'ez word for “Exiles”) or the Jews of Ethiopia are Jewish communities which lived in the area of Aksumite and Ethiopian empires. There is no doubt about the links between Isreal, Sheba and Ethiopia; according to the Ethiopian “Book of the Glory of Kings”, the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba : Menelik brought the Ark of the Covenant with him in Ethiopia.However from Ethiopia (Eastern Africa) to Zimbabwe (South Africa) the distance is about 6000 Km ! I wonder about the reasons to bring the Ark of Covenant there, even if I can agree about the contacts you mentioned between Zimbabwe and other kingdoms.
yeah, the new guy is opening a thread from a few months back… ::)But I saw this browsing and I happened to see the show on the History Channel not long ago. I think they made a very strong case that some Israelites escaped from Jerusalem when it was being taken and ended up in southern Africa. The DNA tied them to a particular tribe that made it very plausible to assume that there were members of the party who were clergy at the temple in Jerusalem. The details about the object that the researcher seems to believe is based on the Ark of the Covenant are much sketchier. He was actually able to lay hands on it and get a small piece of wood, which turned out to be only around 600 years old (they tell you that last bit right as the credits are about to roll, after playing it up big time that he may have found the Ark). The object was a war drum. To their credit, they did show a short clip toward the end of another researcher (who they had interviewed and shown clips of during the show that seemed to support the theory) who looked at all the evidence and the artifact and said he thought it had no connection to the Ark. What annoyed me is that no mention was ever made of the tablets.Anyway, for the sake of completeness I thought I would post that short review of the show and add another vote to the “Possible, but I doubt it” tally.
He was actually able to lay hands on it and get a small piece of wood, which turned out to be only around 600 years old (they tell you that last bit right as the credits are about to roll, after playing it up big time that he may have found the Ark). The object was a war drum.
That figures. 😉 I've come to realize that if the finds they made on history TV shows were so great, we'd be hearing about them in the news first, or they'd publish them before “breaking” the story. These kinds of shows are still interesting to watch, though.
Yeah, several shows have people jumping to conclusions I am skeptical about, but often present good information that is interesting in its own right. For example, those “Ancient Alien” shows visit several mysterious temples, pyramids and ruins and give a lot of in depth information about the complexity involved in designing and building such structures. They also show a lot of the artwork left behind in great detail also. The wild speculation portion is only about a quarter of their air time.
Has anyone here read Immanuel Velikovsky”s Oedipus and Akhnaton in which he postulates that Hapshetsut was Sheba and many more “heretical” theories?
