Bnei Menashe

I have heard you talk about the fact that there are no “lost tribes of Israel”. What do you make of this story: “The Bnei Menashe are descendants of the tribe of Menashe, one of the ten “lost tribes” exiled from the land of Israel some 2,700 years ago.

Q. I have heard you talk about the fact that there are no “lost tribes of Israel”. What do you make of this story: “The Bnei Menashe are descendants of the tribe of Menashe, one of the ten “lost tribes” exiled from the land of Israel some 2,700 years ago. They wandered through the Far East, finally settling in a remote area of northeast India along the border with Myanmar and Bangladesh. Miraculously, despite the extended passage of time and their isolation, they in recent years have returned to their Jewish roots – and with this has come a profound longing to return to their ancient homeland, Israel.”

A. Components of Israel’s diaspora may turn up in various places through out the world, but that doesn’t mean that the tribe(s) from which they come were previously lost. God has always preserved a remnant of His people. The term “lost tribes” is an invention of man’s to describe the defeat of the Northern Kingdom in 721 BC. But 2 Chron 11:16 tells us that the faithful of every tribe had moved to the South over 100 years earlier, so you won’t hear God referencing His people that way. The return of the Bnei Menashe (Sons of Manasseh) is simply another indication that the regathering that officially began in 1948 continues.