The Prophet Jeremiah in Ireland and Other Ridiculous Myths?

I just find it interesting that mainstream archaeologists and historians insist Native American Indians migrated from Asia to the Americas by way of an ancient land bridge which is now the Bearing Straights. However, if you ask the natives, they will tell you, almost every one, that they came by sea. But because there is no written record nor archaeological evidence one way or the other, the ‘experts’ choose to believe their own theories because primitive peoples couldn’t be smart enough to figure out ocean crossings. Yet the Polynesians, a primitive people by some standards, had been traversing thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean in canoes with no compasses for centuries upon centuries, long before we smart Europeans showed up. They managed to get where they wanted to go.

So when I hear the Academics disregard the oral traditions of our own Western Culture, I sit up and take notice.

I am talking of the oral traditions of the British Isles. I came across these traditions as I was doing my research into ancient Great Britain and while talking to people who lived there or served there as Missionaries. One of the legends goes like this…

Jeremiah, a prophet in the Old Testament at the time the Babylonians came conquering Judah, testified of the people’s wickedness. He told them not to trust the Egyptians, but to return and keep God’s commandments. The people were so incensed with him, they stoned him. But he did not die. Instead, he left the Middle East and took with him one of the daughters of king Zedekiah. He ended up in Ireland. There, the princess married a local king and set up a kingdom together.

There are lots of other traditions and stories about the British Isles which the Academics smile down upon with amusement. Such as, did the twelve tribes come here? Are the Tuatha de Dannan, a peoples who arrive in Ireland in the 15th Century BC, members of the Tribe of Dan? Did Jesus spend his youth in Cornwall with his Uncle, Joseph of Aramethea? Were Joseph of Aramethea and Mary, the Mother of Christ exiled from Jerusalem, only to spend the rest of their days in the area around Glastonbury?

See, there are all kinds of interesting oral traditions with no written or archaeological evidence to back them up. But I do find it interesting that Ireland is also referred to as “the land of Erin.” Hmm. Erin and Aaron – spelled differently, but sounding the same.

And capping off all this fertile oral tradition is the grand-daddy of them all – the legend of king Arthur and his noble knights. Today, novelists and movie makers make the story of Arthur and Merlin all magical and superstitious, but I believe this legend is grounded most firmly in Christianity – and – as I hope to show – not Roman Catholic Christianity, but something else. The problem is, conquerors write the histories, and Celtic Middle Eastern Style Christian Britain was conquered soundly by Roman Catholic Christianity – just as Gildas the sage, a Breton ‘monk,’ said they would be.

So, for the next few weeks, or however long it takes, I will try to peel away the Roman and get down to the ancient Britain and see what we will see.

Searching for Israel and Finding the Arthurian Legends

Some years ago, I hired a professional genealogist to do some work on the Beck line of my ancestry. A lot had been done for the Rigbys and Jacobs and Austins, etc., but not much for the Becks. The genealogist came across some interesting finds. First, my great, great, great grandfather, James Beck, joined the Mormon Church while he was working in Liverpool, England. He immigrated to Nauvoo and eventually was in the second wagon train to enter the Salt Lake Valley. His son, from an earlier marriage, John Beck, was in the first. Beck street in Salt Lake City, Utah was named for him. He left behind a handwritten little book that is in the Church History Archives, and he had a patriarchal blessing that I could arrange to get a copy of, since I was a direct descendant.

Meralee Stallings – Me
Ruth Rigby – My Mother
Alvin Beck Rigby – My Grandfather
Mary Elizabeth Beck – My Great Grandmother
Jonas Nuttal Beck – My Great, Great Grandfather
James Beck – My Great, Great, Great Grandfather.

I made the arrangements, and some weeks later got a photocopy of the hand scribed patriarchal blessing which I held on to for some months, meaning to type it up at some later time. And so there it sat.

On day, I was wandering through the Deseret Book store and picked up the title: “Whence Came They?: Israel, Britain and the Restoration,” by Vaughn E. Hansen. I was a little intrigued as I read the back cover and the inside flap, but shrugged my shoulders and put it back on the shelf.

The very next day, I decided it was time to transcribe my great, great, great grandfather James Beck’s patriarchal blessing. I sat down at my 20 MB hard drive computer, pulled up my Word Perfect 5.0 word processing program and began typing away. About one third of the way through I nearly fell off my chair. Here is what I typed.

“God hath preserved thee in the midst of the destruction which have passed through the earth, to be a Savior on Mt. Zion in the last days. & He hath appointed thee to save thy father’s house, even clear back to where they died in the gospel…”

“…where they died in the gospel…” What???? Do you mean I had ancestors, clear back in the time of the ancient apostles, who were faithful members of Christ’s true Church?

James Beck may have joined the Mormon Church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, in Liverpool, England, but he was born and raised in Dumfrieshire, Scotland. The patriarchal blessing also said, “…thou art a lawful heir to the priesthood which was sealed upon the head of Ephraim, the son of Joseph, for this is thy lineage & thy descent:…”

I went back to Deseret Book and bought “Whence Came They?”

It was a book of some interest, but it did not delve deep enough for my taste. It was like whetting my appetite, giving me a tiny taste of Swiss Chocolate from Merkurs. I wanted to indulge myself! I hit the history books. I visited libraries and book stores. I bought books. The internet was still a new thing and not everywhere, but eventually I would find that too.

And what I found was a fascinating culture emerging from the dust of obscurity, a culture so foreign to the Romans they didn’t know what to do with it but try to slaughter it. Yet, the culture would not die. Instead it created one of the greatest legends of Western Civilization:

King Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table!

Next Week: The traditions of the British Isles.