Deuteronomy 28:68 is often used as proof text to infer that African Americans must be the true Israelites. Is this true or is it a case of mistaken identity?

 

Show Notes

 

The Lord will take you back in ships to Egypt by a route that I said you would never see again. There you will sell yourselves to your enemies as male and female slaves, but no one will buy you.” -- Deuteronomy 28:68

 Reasons why it is wrong

1. Evidence this was fulfilled during the Jewish Roman wars.
2. Incoherence when trying to tie this event to the Transatlantic Slave Trade

 Prophecy already fulfilled

• Evidence this was fulfilled by Roman invasion when the second temple was destroyed.

 Daniel's Dream (Human kingdoms come to an end)Daniel Chapter 2

• Head of Gold = Babylon
• Breast of Silver = Medo-Persia
• Thighs of Brass = Greece
• Legs of Iron = Rome
• Feet of Clay & Iron = Divided kingdoms
• The last kingdom, is not by human hands (Daniel 45) is setup by God Himself. It will bring an end to all human kingdoms.

 Timeline

1. Rules → Babylonian, Medo-Persian → Jews able to return to Jerusalem due to Cyrus(dispersion), Greeks conquer, then Romans.
2. Roman Jewish Wars; Jerusalem toppled → temple destroyed

 The actual Promised Land

8 On that day the Lord made a covenant with Abram, saying, “I give this land to your offspring, from the Brook of Egypt to the great river, the Euphrates River: 19 the land of the Kenites, Kenizzites, Kadmonites, 20 Hethites, Perizzites, Rephaim, 21 Amorites, Canaanites, Girgashites, and Jebusites. -- Genesis 15:18-21

 

 

Josephus captures the event of the Israelites being taken to EgyptJosephus on Egypt (After the fall of the 2nd Temple)

“Because the soldiers were now growing weary of bloodshed, and survivors appeared constantly, Caesar orders to kill only those who offered armed resistance and to take alive all the rest. (415) The troops, in addition to those covered by their orders, slaughtered the aged and infirm; people to their prime who might be useful they herded into the Temple area and shut up in the Court of the Women (lcl. (416) Caesar appointed one of his freedmen as their guard, his friend Fronto, to decide the fate appropriate to each. (417) All those who had taken part in sedition and brigandage (they informed against other) he executed. He picked out the tallest and handsomest of the lot and reserved them for the Triumph (418). Of the rest, those who were over seventeen he put in chains and sent to hard labor in Egypt while great numbers were presented by Titus to the provinces to perish in the theaters by sword or by wild beasts; those under seventeen were sold”. Josephus, “The Jewish Wars”; Book vi 9:2.

 Chittim

• Plural form of Kittim - descendants of Javan, the "son" of Japheth (See Genesis 10:4)
• Oracle of Balaam

4 Ships will come from the coast of Kittim; they will carry out raids against Asshur and Eber, but they too will come to destruction. -- Numbers 24:24

• Predicted in Daniel 11

30 Ships of Kittim will come against him, and being intimidated, he will withdraw. Then he will rage against the holy covenant and take action. On his return, he will favor those who abandon the holy covenant. 31 His forces will rise up and desecrate the temple fortress. They will abolish the regular sacrifice and set up the abomination of desolation. -- Daniel 11:30-31

• Location of Chittim is Rome; originally Cyprus under the Greeks;