There are a number of non-Jewish Christian groups which have developed a new theology – that Jewish people are not true descendants of the Israelites, but in fact are a “fake” offshoot. These Christians groups have a theology called “Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright.” They hold that non-Jewish white people are the true descendants of the Israelites and that they should supersede the Jews.
Not unsurprisingly, this group has become dangerous. Many people in these movements are antisemitic; some are affiliated with the violent Christian Identity and neo-Nazi movements.
History of the movement
An early book which advanced the ideas of British Israelism was ‘Lost Israel Found in the Anglo-Saxon Race’ by E.P. Ingersoll, published in 1886. This was followed in the 1920s by the writings of Howard Rand (1889–1991). Rand was a Massachusetts lawyer. He was raised as a self-claimed “British Israelite.” His father introduced him to J. H. Allen’s work “Judah’s Sceptre and Joseph’s Birthright.”
Their beliefs come from their analysis of this Biblical verse,
אֶרְאֶ֙נּוּ֙ וְלֹ֣א עַתָּ֔ה אֲשׁוּרֶ֖נּוּ וְלֹ֣א קָר֑וֹב דָּרַ֨ךְ כּוֹכָ֜ב מִֽיַּעֲקֹ֗ב וְקָ֥ם שֵׁ֙בֶט֙ מִיִּשְׂרָאֵ֔ל וּמָחַץ֙ פַּאֲתֵ֣י מוֹאָ֔ב וְקַרְקַ֖ר כׇּל־בְּנֵי־שֵֽׁת׃
What I see for them is not yet, what I behold will not be soon:
A star rises from Jacob, a scepter comes forth from Israel;
It smashes the brow of Moab, the foundation of all children of Seth.
– Numbers 24:17
Rand claimed that Jews are descended from Esau or the Canaanites rather than the tribe of Judah. Jewish people recognize this as fake history, delegitimization, and antisemitic.
Rand’s students and colleagues, as early as the 1880s, deepened their obsession with Jews; they created the “serpent seed” doctrine – the teaching that actual Jewish people are descendants of Satan
Serpent Seed doctrine
The serpent seed doctrine, aka dual-seed or two-seedline doctrine, is a fringe Christian religious belief. It supposedly explains the biblical account of the fall of man by stating that in the Garden of Eden, Eve had sex with the snake, and that they they had human-snake child together, Cain. This event resulted in the creation of two races of people: the “wicked” descendants of the snake who were destined for damnation – in their view, all Jews and black people – and “righteous” descendants of Adam, destined to have eternal life, i.e. white people.
This doctrine frames human history as a conflict between these two “seedlines.”
Elements of the teaching appears in the early Gnostic writings of Valentinus (100–160) and the Gospel of Philip (c. 350). Mainstream Christian teachers rejected the serpent seed doctrine as heresy during the gnostic period. Irenaeus (c. 180), an Early Church Father, explicitly rejected it as heresy.
During the 19th century, the serpent seed doctrine was revived by American Christian religious leaders who wanted to promote white supremacy. The modern versions of the serpent seed doctrine were developed within British Israelism by C. A. L. Totten (1851–1908) and Russel Kelso Carter (1849–1928). Daniel Parker (1781–1844) was also responsible for reviving and promoting the doctrine among Primitive Baptists.
Christian Identity, which branched off from British Israelism, preached the doctrine during the early twentieth century and promoted it within the Ku Klux Klan, Aryan Nations, the American Nazi Party and other white supremacist organizations. The belief’s adherents commonly use it to justify antisemitism and racism by claiming that Jews or members of non-white races are the descendants of Cain and the Serpent, who they variably interpret to be Satan or an intelligent non-human creature which lived before Adam and Eve.
– This section adapted from Wikipedia, Serpent Seed doctrine
What does the Biblical verse actually mean?
We may ask, what does this verse mean?
What I see for them is not yet; what I behold will not be soon:
A star rises from Jacob; A scepter comes forth from Israel;
It smashes the brow of Moab; The foundation of all children of Seth.
– Numbers 24:17
This is metonymy – a figure of speech in which a concept is referred to by the name of something associated with that concept. A scepter is metonymy for rulers and kings. Not by coincidence, this is the same word used when Yaakov blesses his son Yehudah:
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet;
So that tribute shall come to him, and the homage of peoples be his.
– Genesis 49:10
Thus this phrase means that a King will come forth from Israel who will liberate Israelites from enemy nations. In later rabbinical literature it was connected to various idea. Nahmanides says that this refers to moshiach (the messiah.) Rashi and Abraham Ibn Ezra say that this refers to King David. In the Talmud, Rabbi Akiva thought it referred to Bar Kochba.
References
Extremist Construction of Identity: How Escalating Demands for Legitimacy Shape and Define In-Group and Out-Group Dynamics, ICCT Research Paper, International Centre for Counter-Terrorism – The Hague, J.M. Berger, 4/2017
Christian Identity and the Politics of Religion, Martin Durham, Totalitarian Movements and Political Religions, Volume 9, 2008 – Issue 1
Barkun, Michael (2014). Religion and the Racist Right: The Origins of the Christian Identity Movement. University of North Carolina Press
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