Nordic Israelism orNorse Israelism is the belief thatScandinavian peoples, or theNordic countries (Sweden,Denmark,Faroe Islands (part of Denmark),Finland,Iceland andNorway) descend from theTen Lost Tribes of Israel. Although there is evidence of such a belief from literature during theEarly Modern Period, Nordic Israelism as a movement and ideology only emerged in the latter half of the 19th century among several early proponents ofBritish Israelism.
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A 15th-century Latin chronicle, "Chronicon Holsatiae vetus", found inGottfried Leibniz'sAccessiones historicae (1698), states theDanes were of theTribe of Dan, while theJutes were the Jews.[1] Later the antiquarianHenry Spelman in 1620 had further claimed that the Danes were the Israelite Tribe of Dan, based on the apparent similarity in name.[2] In the 18th century the Swedish historianOlof von Dalin believed that the ancient Finns (alongsideLapps andEstonians) who sprung from theNeuri descended ultimately from the lost tribes of Israel:
"...the Neuri seem to be remnants of the Ten Tribes of Israel which Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, brought as captives out of Canaan... [When one realises that] the language of the ancient Finns, Lapps and Estonians is similar to the Hebrew and even that this people in ancient times reckoned their year's beginning from the first of March, and Saturday as their Sabbath, then one sees that the Neuri in all probability had this origin."[3]
John Eurenius (1688–1751), a Swedish pastor in Torsåker,Angermanland, Sweden, also connected the Israelites to the Nordic countries. In hisAtlantica Orientalis (1751) he theorised that the Gods of Norse mythology were deified ancestors from the Levant, who he connected to Israel.[4]Olof Rudbeck the Younger in the 18th century also attempted to prove that the Nordic languages sprung from Hebrew.[5]
Nordic Israelism as an established movement emerged as an offshoot ofBritish Israelism in the 1850s.[6] Key British Israelite authors such asJohn Cox Gawler andJ. H. Allen first identified the Tribe of Dan with Denmark and others with different Scandinavian countries (e.g.Naphtali withNorway), while the remaining tribes they equated withBritain.[7] Other British Israelites such asEdward Hine, however, took a more particularist view, deciding that only the British nation fulfilled the prophecy for Israel and thatall the Israelites should be identified with Britain, not Scandinavia.[8] Nonetheless, Hine still believed that theTribe of Dan had at one stage been in Denmark, from which he believed the name of the country derived, but that Dan's final destined resting place (as well as the other tribes of Israel) was Britain. Other British Israelites took this view, maintaining that the Israelites migrated across Europe, having entered from Asia, leaving their name across various locations, but ultimately their final resting place was Britain.[9][10] British Israelites who did not subscribe to this more particularist view initially attacked Hine's identifications inThe Standard of Israel magazine quarterly of the "Anglo-Israel Association".[11] Later, however, most British Israelites fused their views with the Nordic-Israelism offshoot, as identity groups were set up across Scandinavia promoting the identification of certain Israelite tribes with theNordic countries and they remained closely linked to British-Israel organisations such as theBritish-Israel-World Federation.[12]
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Anna Larssen Bjørner (1875–1955) and Sigurd Bjørner (1875–1953), the founders of DanishPentecostalism and the "Apostolic Church" in Denmark, are considered to have been early pioneers in the Nordic-Israelism movement. They published from the 1920s a quarterly magazine entitledEvangeliebladet which covered identifications of theTen Lost Tribes of Israel with Denmark and other Scandinavian countries, and published some British Israelism literature.[2] They also published regular articles from other proponents of the Nordic Israel identity, including those of Ole Jørgen Johnsen, a Norwegian preacher from Hasla who authoredIsrael i de siste dage ("Israel in the Last Days") in 1924.
The renowned engineerAlbert Hiorth was a prominent Nordic Israelism proponent and author of the early 20th century.
Nordisk Israel is a Scandinavian organisation which still runs, promoting the Nordic variant ofBritish Israelism.[13]
Many of the tenets or beliefs core to Nordic Israelism cross over withBritish Israelism; however there are notable differences in the identifications of theten lost tribes.
Proponents of Nordic Israelism followJohn Cox Gawler's identification of theTribe of Dan with Denmark. However, Gawler also placed Dan inScotland andIreland, an identification British Israelites follow, but proponents of Nordic Israelism place more stress on the identification withDenmark.[14]
Finland is identified with theTribe of Issachar by Nordic Israelites. Proponents point out that in Finnish the word for Father isIsä, connecting the word toIssachar and its Hebrew etymology:
"...But one of the most convincing details comes from the Finnish word for Father, which is, Isä - almost confirming ancient Finnish ties with the Israelite tribe of Issachar. Only Finnish has such a unique word for Father.[15]
Nordisk Israel identify theTribe of Naphtali with Norway.[16]
Thepyramidologist Adam Rutherford in 1937 publishedIceland's Great Inheritance (1937) in which he connected theTribe of Benjamin to Iceland. Modern proponents of Nordic Israelism follow this identification, and articles have been published further on the identification.[17]
Thor Heyerdahl'sJakten på Odin is often cited by modern Nordic Israelites to support their theories.[18]