British Israelism

Not to be confused with Israelis in the United Kingdom or British Jews.

An 1890 book advocating British Israelism. According to the doctrine, the Ten Lost tribes of Israel found their way to Western Europe and Britain, becoming the ancestors of the British and related peoples.

British Israelism (also called Anglo-Israelism) is a pseudoarchaeological belief that the people of the British Isles are "genetically, racially, and linguistically the direct descendants" of the Ten Lost Tribes of ancient Israel. With roots in the 16th century, British Israelism was inspired by several 19th-century English writings such as John Wilson's 1840 Our Israelitish Origin. Various British Israelite organisations were set up throughout the British Empire as well as in America from the 1870s; a number of these organisations are active independently as of the early 21st century. In America, the idea gave rise to the Christian Identity movement.

The central tenets of British Israelism have been refuted by evidence from modern archaeological, ethnological, genetic, and linguistic research.

History of the movement

Earliest recorded expressions

According to Brackney (2012) and Fine (2015), the French Hugenot magistrate M. le Loyer's The Ten Lost Tribes, published in 1590, provided the first expression that "Anglo-Saxon, Celtic, Scandinavian, Germanic, and associated cultures" were direct descendants of the ancient Israelites. Anglo-Israelism has also been attributed to Francis Drake and James VI and I, who believed he was the King of Israel. Adriaan van Schrieck (1560-1621), who influenced Henry Spelman (1562-1641) and John Sadler (1615-1674), wrote in the early 17th century about his ideas on the origins of the Celtic and Saxon peoples. In 1649, Sadler published The Rights of the Kingdom, "which argues for an 'Israelite genealogy for the British people'".

Aspects of British Israelism and its influences have also been traced to Richard Brothers' A Revealed Knowledge of the Prophecies and Times in 1794, John Wilson's Our Israelitish Origin (1840s), and John Pym Yeatman's The Shemetic Origin of the Nations of Western Europe (1879).

Foundation

British Israelism arose in England, then spread to the United States. British Israelists cite various medieval manuscripts to claim an older origin, but British Israelism as a distinct movement appeared in the early 1880s:

Although scattered British Israel societies are known to have existed as early as 1872, there was at first no real move to develop an organization beyond the small groups of believers which had arisen spontaneously. The beginnings of the movement as an identifiable religious force can, therefore, be more accurately placed in the 1880's, when the circumstances of the time were particularly propitious for the appearance of a movement so imperialistically-orientated.

Peak adherence, end of the 19th and early 20th centuries

William Pascoe Goard

The extent to which the clergy in Britain became aware of the movement may be gauged from the comment made by Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801–1890) when asked why he had left the Church of England in 1845 to join the Roman Catholic Church. He said that there was a very real danger that the movement "would take over the Church of England."

In the later 19th century, Edward Hine, Edward Wheeler Bird, and Herbert Aldersmith developed the British Israelite movement. Hine and Bird would achieve a degree of "doctrinal coherence" by eliminating competing forms of the ideology: in 1878 the Anglo-Ephraim Association of London, which followed Wilson in embracing the broader community of western European Germanic peoples among those they believed were favored by God, would be absorbed into Bird's Metropolitan Anglo-Israel Association, espousing the Anglo-exclusive view promoted by Hine.

By the 1890s, the "Anglo-Israel Association" had 300 members; it was based in Britain and founded in 1879 by physician George Moore. Hine later departed for the United States, where he promoted the movement.

The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia stated that British Israelism's adherents "are said to number 2,000,000 in England and the United States", an unreliable figure if association membership and journal subscription numbers are any guide, though the number of Protestants who had sympathy towards the views of the movement is almost impossible to determine.

Between 1899 and 1902, adherents of British Israelism dug up parts of the Hill of Tara in the belief that the Ark of the Covenant was buried there, doing much damage to one of Ireland's most ancient royal and archaeological sites. At the same time, British Israelism became associated with various pseudo-archaeological pyramidology theories, such as the notion that the Pyramid of Khufu contained a prophetic numerology of the British peoples.

In 1914, the thirty-fourth year of its publication, the Anglo-Israel Almanac listed details of a large number of Kingdom Identity Groups operating independently throughout the British Isles and in Australia, New Zealand, South Africa, Canada, and the United States of America.

In 1919 the British-Israel-World Federation (BIWF) was founded in London, and Covenant Publishing was founded in 1922. William Pascoe Goard was the first director of the publishing house. During this time, several prominent figures patronized the BIWF organization and its publisher; Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone was Patron-in-chief prior to World War II. One of the highest-profile members was William Massey, then Prime Minister of New Zealand. Due to the expansive nature of the British Empire, believers in British Israelism spread worldwide and the BIWF expanded its organization to the commonwealth. Howard Rand promoted the teaching, and became National Commissioner of the Anglo-Saxon Federation of America in 1928. He published The Bulletin, later renamed The Messenger of the Covenant. More recently, it has been renamed Destiny.

During its peak in the early 20th century, British Israelism was also supported by John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher. A prolific author on British Israelism during the later 1930s and 40s was Alexander James Ferris.

Contemporary movement

The BIWF continues to exist, with its main headquarters located in Bishop Auckland in County Durham. It also has chapters in Australia, Canada, The Netherlands, New Zealand and South Africa.

In 1968, one source estimated that there were between 3,000 and 5,000 British Israelites in Britain. There, the theology of British Israelism has been taught by a few small Pentecostal churches. The espousal of British Israelism by George Jeffreys, founder of the Elim Pentecostal Church, led to a schism, precipitating his 1939 resignation and the formation of the Bible-Pattern Church Fellowship, which continues to teach the doctrine.

Herbert Armstrong

The teaching of British Israelism was vigorously promoted beginning in the 1960s by Herbert W. Armstrong, founder and former Pastor General of the Worldwide Church of God. Armstrong believed that the teaching was a key to understanding biblical prophecy: "One might ask, were not biblical prophecies closed and sealed? Indeed they were—until now! And even now they can be understood only by those who possess the master key to unlock them." Armstrong believed that he was called by God to proclaim the prophecies to the Lost Tribes of Israel before the "end-times". Armstrong's belief caused his separation from the Church of God Seventh Day because of its refusal to adopt the teaching.

Armstrong created his own church, first called the "Radio Church of God" and later renamed the "Worldwide Church of God". He described British Israelism as a "central plank" of his theology.

After Armstrong's death, his former church abandoned its belief in British Israelism and changed its name to Grace Communion International (GCI) in 2009. It offers an explanation for the doctrine's origin and its abandonment by the church at its official website. Church members who disagreed with such doctrinal changes left the Worldwide Church of God/GCI to form offshoot churches. Many of these organizations still teach British Israelism, including the Philadelphia Church of God, the Living Church of God, and the United Church of God. Armstrong promoted other genealogical history theories, such as teaching the belief that modern-day Germany represents ancient Assyria, writing "The Assyrians settled in central Europe, and the Germans, undoubtedly, are, in part, the descendants of the ancient Assyrians.".

Tenets

Most Israelites are not Jews

Adherents believe the Twelve Tribes of Israel are the twelve sons of the patriarch Jacob (who was later named Israel). Jacob elevated the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph) to the status of full tribes in their own right, replacing the tribe of Joseph. A division occurred among the twelve tribes in the days of Jeroboam and Rehoboam, with the three tribes of Judah, Benjamin and partially Levi, forming the Kingdom of Judah, and the remaining ten tribes forming the Kingdom of Israel (Samaria). Thus, they argue, "the great bulk of Israelites are not the Jews". W. E. Filmer, writing in 1964, suggested that the fact that some Jews continue to search for the ten lost tribes implies that their representatives are not found among modern, historically multi-ethnic, Jews. A number of British-Israelites quote Josephus to support their claim that the lost tribes of Israel are not the Jews: "the entire body of the people of Israel remained in that country; wherefore there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond the Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude."

British descend from the Lost Tribes

Jehu kneeling at the feet of Shalmaneser III on the Black Obelisk.

The key component of British Israelism is its representation of the migrations of the Lost Tribes of Israel. Adherents suggested that the Scythians, Cimmerians and Goths were representatives of these lost tribes, and progenitors of the later invaders of Britain. John Wilson would argue for the inclusion of all Western European Gothic peoples among the descendants of the Israelites, but under the later influence of Edward Hine the movement would come to view only the peoples of the British Isles as having this ancestry.

Herodotus reported that the ancient Persians called all the Scythians Sacae, but that they called themselves Scoloti. However, a modern comparison among the forms given in other ancient languages suggests Skuda was their name. Ancient writers, such as Josephus and Jerome would associate the Scythians with the peoples of Gog and Magog, but British Israelist etymologists would see in Sacae a name derived from the biblical "Isaac", claiming that the appearance of the Scythians where they claimed the Lost Tribes were last documented also supported a connection. Further, British Israelists find support in the superficial resemblance between King Jehu's pointed headdress and that of the captive Saka king seen to the far right on the Behistun Rock. The chain of etymological identification leading from Isaac to the Sacae was continued to the Saxons (interpreted as Sac's sons - the sons of Isaac), who are portrayed as invading England from Denmark, the 'land of the Tribe of Dan'. They saw the same tribal name, left by the wanderers, in the Dardanelles, the Danube, Macedonia, Dunkirk, Dunglow in Ireland, Dundee in Scotland, and London, and ascribed to this lost tribe the mythical Irish Tuatha Dé Danann.

The 'Tyninghame' copy of the Declaration from 1320 AD

Bede (died 735) had linked the Picts to the Scythians, but British Israelists suggested that he had confused the two tribes of Scotland, and that it was the Scotti (Scots) who were one with the Scoloti (Scyths) of Herodotus. They drew particular support from the derivation of the Scots from the Scythians found in the 1320 Declaration of Arbroath, reflecting a tradition related in the 9th-century Historia Brittonum that the Scots descended from the union of a Scythian exile with Scota, daughter of a Pharaoh, a tale found in some form in several other early-14th-century historical and poetic sources. The Declaration begins:

"Most Holy Father and Lord, we know and from the chronicles and books of the ancients we find that among other famous nations our own, the Scots, has been graced with widespread renown. They journeyed from Greater Scythia by way of the Tyrrhenian Sea and the Pillars of Hercules, and dwelt for a long course of time in Spain among the most savage tribes, but nowhere could they be subdued by any race, however barbarous. Thence they came, twelve hundred years after the people of Israel crossed the Red Sea, to their home in the west where they still live today."

British-Israel Associations cite the Declaration as evidence for the link between the Scots and the Scythians, and hence the Lost Tribes, as had been proposed by the early British Israelist etymologists.

Other Celtic invaders would be given an analogous descent. In the Welsh (Cymry) the British Israelists would see a direct connection through the Cimbri to the Cimmerians, the Gimirri of Assyrian annals, a name sometimes also given by the ancient Babylonians to the Scythians and Saka. Perceived similarity between this and the name by which the Assyrian annals referred to Israel, Beth Khumbree, would lead the British Israelists to claim that the Welsh too were members of the Lost Tribes.

According to the Anglo-Israelists, these claimed connections would make the British the literal descendants of the Lost Tribes, and thus inheritors of the promises made to the Israelites in the Old Testament.

British Throne as a continuation of the Davidic Throne

Some adherents further claim the British Royal Family is of lineal descent from the house of King David via a daughter of Zedekiah, the last king of Judah. According to this legend, the prophet Jeremiah, and his scribe, Baruch, escaped with "the king's daughters" (Jer. 41:10; 43:6) to Egypt. They later travelled to Ireland, where one of the surviving Judahite princesses, Tea Tephi, married a local High King of Ireland. From this fabled union the Davidic throne was supposedly preserved, having been transferred to Ireland, then Scotland and later England from whence the British monarchs are alleged to have descended. The Stone of Scone, used in the coronations of Scottish, English and British monarchs for centuries, is claimed to be none other than the pillow stone used by the biblical patriarch, Jacob.

Britain and the United States are the inheritors of Jacob’s birthright

A commonly found British-Israel doctrine is that the Tribe of Ephraim and the Tribe of Manasseh can be identified as modern day Britain and the United States of America. British-Israel adherents cite numerous theological, semiotics, archaeological, and ethnological resources as proofs.

Part of the foundation of the British-Israel doctrine is the theological claim that particular blessings were bestowed upon three of the tribes of Israel, in that the tribe of Judah was to be the 'chief ruler' e.g. King David, and that Ephraim was to receive the birthright (See Jacob and Esau). Adherents believe that these blessings have continued down through the ages to modern times, with the British Monarchy identified as the continued blessing upon Judah, and both Britain (Ephraim) and the USA (Manasseh) as recipients of the national birthright blessing. They cite passages such as 1 Chron 5:1-2 and Gen 48:19-20 as supporting this.

Relation to Christian Identity

Early British Israelites such as Edward Hine and John Wilson were philo-semites. British Israelism itself had several Jewish members and it received support from rabbis throughout the 19th century. Within British politics, the movement supported Benjamin Disraeli, who was descended from Sephardi Jews, while they also favoured Theodor Herzl in his advocacy of Zionism. Still, below the surface there had existed an anti-semitic strain such as in the scientific racialism that led Wilson to deny the 'racial purity' of modern Jews, leading to the view more broadly within the movement that modern Jews were 'un-Semitic impostors'. Some American adherents of British Israelism would adopt a racialized, strongly anti-Semitic theology that became known as Christian Identity, which has at its core the belief that non-Caucasian people have no souls and therefore cannot be saved. Emerging in the 1920s, Christian Identity began teaching that the Jews are not descended from the tribe of Judah (as British Israelites maintain) at all, but are instead descended from Satan & Lilith or from Edomite-Khazars. The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as an 'ugly turn':

Once on American shores, British-Israelism began to evolve. Originally, believers viewed contemporary Jews as descendants of those ancient Israelites who had never been "lost." They might be seen critically but, given their significant role in the British-Israel genealogical scheme, not usually with animosity. By the 1930s, however, in the U.S., a strain of antisemitism started to permeate the movement (though some maintained traditional beliefs—and a small number of traditionalists still exist in the U.S.)

Another source describes the emergence of Christian Identity from British Israelism as a paradoxical "remarkable transition" from their philo-semitic origins to antisemitism and racism. Their adoption of the British Israelist belief that the Israelite-derived Anglo-Saxons had been favored by God over the 'impure' modern Jews meant that a reluctantly anti-Semitic Klansman "could now maintain his anti-Semitism and at the same time revere a Bible cleansed of its Jewish taint."

Claims and criticism

British Israelism has been criticized for poor research and scholarship. The Encyclopedia Britannica summarises in 1910 that: "The theory [of British-Israelism] rests on premises which are deemed by scholars - both theological and anthropological - to be utterly unsound". Current scholarship is not consistent with the claims of British Israelism, with scholars drawing attention to its "historical and linguistic inaccuracies" in addition to its links to antisemitism. Hale (2015) refers to "the overwhelming cultural, historical and genetic evidence against it."

Research standards

Critics of British Israelism note that the arguments presented by promoters of the teaching are based on unsubstantiated and highly speculative amateur research. Tudor Parfitt, author of The Lost Tribes: The History of a Myth, states that the proof cited by adherents of British Israelism is "of a feeble composition even by the low standards of the genre."

Historical linguistics

Some proponents of British Israelism have claimed numerous links in historical linguistics between ancient Hebrew and various European place names and languages. This can be traced to the works of John Wilson in the 19th century. Wilson, who was self-trained, looked for similarities in the sounds of words and argued that many Scottish, British and Irish words stemmed from ancient Hebrew. Wilson's publications inspired the development of British Israel language associations in Europe.

Modern scholarly linguistic analysis shows conclusively that the languages of the British Isles (English, Welsh, and Gaelic) belong to the Indo-European language family, while Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. In 1906, T. R. Lounsbury stated that “no trace of the slightest real connection can be discovered” between English and ancient Hebrew, while Michael Friedman in 1993 wrote of the claims that Hebrew was closely related to Celtic and Anglo-Saxon that "the actual evidence could hardly be any weaker".

Others have addressed the specific word relationships proposed. Russell Spittler (1973) says of the "disputable" etymological claims made by the British Israelists that they "have no ample basis in linguistic scholarship and are based on coincidences only." William Ingram (1995) would present arguments made by British Israelism as examples of "tortured etymology".

Scriptural interpretation

Adherents of British Israelism cite various scriptures in support of the argument that the "lost" Northern Israelite Tribes migrated through Europe to end up in Britain. Dimont (1933) argues that British Israelists misunderstand and misinterpret the meaning of these scriptures.

One such case is the distinction that British Israelists make between the “Jews” of the Southern Kingdom and the “Israelites” of the Northern Kingdom. They believe that the Bible consistently distinguishes the two groups. Dimont says that many of these scriptures are misinterpreted because the distinction between “Jews” and “Israelites” was lost over time after the captivities.

British Israelists believe that the Northern Tribes of Israel lost their identity after the captivity in Assyria and that this is reflected in the Bible. Dimont disagrees with this assertion and argues that only higher-ranking Israelites were deported from Israel and many Israelites remained. He cites examples after the Assyrian captivity, such as Josiah, King of Judah, who received money from the tribes of “Manasseh, and Ephraim and all the remnant of Israel” (2 Chronicles 34:9), and Hezekiah, who sent invitations not only to Judah, but also to northern Israel for the attendance of a Passover in Jerusalem. (2 Chronicles 30); British Israelites interpret 2 Chronicles 34:9 as referring to "Scythians".

Dimont is also critical of the interpretations of biblical prophecy embraced by the movement, saying, "Texts are torn from their context, and misapplied without the slightest regard to their original meaning."

Historical speculation

British Israelism rests on linking different ancient populations. This includes linking the "lost" tribes of Israel with the Scythians, Cimmerians, Celts, and modern Western Europeans such as the British. To support these links, some adherents believe that similarities exist between various cultural aspects of these population groups, and they argue that these links demonstrate the migration of the "lost" Israelites in a westerly direction. Examples given include burial customs, metalwork, clothing, dietary customs, and more. Dimont argues that the customs of the Scythians and the Cimmerians are in contrast with those of the Ancient Israelites, and he further dismisses the connection between these populations and the Saxons and Celts, particularly criticing then-current formulations of British Israelism that would interject Semites between the closely related English and Germans.

The Scythian origin of the Scots has been referred to as mythical. Algernon Herbert, writing in 1848, characterized the linguistic derivation of Scots from Scoloti as "strictly impossible", and Merrill (2005) referred to it as false etymology.

Addressing their view on the fate of the exiled tribes, Frank Boys said of their voluminous output, "All the effort to write these volumes might well have been saved on the premise that 'they were never lost,' which we believe to be the correct one."

Ideology

Parfitt suggests that the idea of British Israelism was inspired by numerous ideological factors, such as the desire for ordinary people to have a glorious ancestral past, pride in the British Empire, and the belief in the "racial superiority of white Anglo-Saxon Protestants", and Aikau characterized the movement as "fundamentally about providing a rationale for Anglo-Saxon superiority." To Kidd, its theology represents a "quasi-heresy", serving to "blunt the universalist message apparent in the New Testament". Its role in fostering anti-semitism in conservative Protestant Christianity has been highlighted, as has a "racial chauvinism" that is "not always covert".

Separately, the mythology of British Israelism has been cited as fostering "nationalistic bellicosity". To some adherents, British Israelism served as a justification for British colonialism and imperialism, and perhaps even genocide, while also feeding American Manifest Destiny.

Notable adherents

Poole, WH, Anglo-Israel

• Richard Brothers (1757–1824), early believer and teacher/promoter of this teaching
• John Wilson (1799–1870) published a series of his lectures in a book, Our Israelitish Origin (1840)
• Archbishop William Bennett Bond (1815–1906), Primate of the Anglican Church of Canada
• Charles Piazzi Smyth (1819–1900), pyramidologist and Astronomer Royal for Scotland
• William H. Poole (1820–1896), Methodist minister, known for his book Anglo-Israel, or the British Nation the Lost Tribes of Israel (1889)
• Mary Baker Eddy (1821-1910), praised C.A.L. Totten's works and wrote a poem praising "Anglo-Israel". Her renegade student Augusta Emma Stetson promoted racial theories based on British-Israelism in radio broadcasts in the 1920s.
• Edward Wheeler Bird (1823–1903), Anglo-Indian judge and British-Israel author
• Edward Hine (1825–1891), artist, historian, author of Forty-Seven Identifications of the British Nation with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel
• John Cox Gawler (1830–1882) was a Keeper of the Jewel House and a British Israelite author.
• Elieser Bassin (1840–1898), a Russian-Jewish convert to Christianity
• John Fisher, 1st Baron Fisher (1841–1920), Admiral of the Fleet
• Richard Reader Harris (KC) (1847–1909), founder of the Pentecostal League of Prayer movement in London
• John Harden Allen (1847–1930), an American Holiness minister, wrote Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright
• C. A. L. Totten (1851–1908), Professor of Military Tactics at Yale University, wrote countless articles and books advocating British Israelism, including a 26-volume series entitled Our Race
• Charles Fox Parham (1873–1929), American preacher, instrumental in the formation of Pentecostalism
• William Comyns Beaumont (1873–1956), British journalist, author, and lecturer
• William John "Billy" Cameron (1878-1955), publicist for Henry Ford, advocated British-Israelism in Ford-sponsored publications.
• William Aberhart (1878–1943), a Social Credit premier of Alberta from 1935 to 1943
• Princess Alice, Countess of Athlone (1883–1981), a patron of the British-Israel-World Federation
• David Davidson (1884–1956), Scottish structural engineer and pyramidologist
• George Jeffreys (1889–1962), Welsh minister and evangelist who founded the Elim Pentecostal Church
• Herbert W. Armstrong (1892–1986), American founder of the Worldwide Church of God
• Boake Carter (1903–1944), British-educated American radio news commentator
• Patience Strong (1907–1990), poet
• Alexander James Ferris, a prolific author on British Israelism.
• Garner Ted Armstrong (1930–2003), Church of God International (United States)
• Robert Bradford (1941–1981), Methodist minister and Ulster Unionist politician
• Alan Campbell (1949-2017), former Pentecostal pastor from Northern Ireland
• Nelson McCausland (born 1951), Democratic Unionist politician

See also

• And did those feet in ancient time, the poem written by William Blake which is popularly known as "Jerusalem"
• Armstrongism
• Assyria and Germany in Anglo-Israelism
• Destiny Publishers
• Groups claiming affiliation with Israelites
• House of Joseph (LDS Church)
• Nordic Israelism
• Supersessionism
• Two House theology

Further reading

• Baron, David (1915), The History of the Ten "Lost" Tribes: Anglo-Israelism Examined .
• Darms, Anton (1945). The Delusion of British Israelism: A comprehensive Treatise. Loiseaux Brothers, Bible Truth Depot. ASIN B01NBNXA8N.
• Jowett, George F (1980) [1961]. The Drama of the Lost Disciples. London: Covenant Publishing Company Ltd. ASIN B003VP662W.. A work of theoretical history which covers many relevant themes of Biblical and British connections.
• Kellogg, Howard, British-Israel Identity, Los Angeles: American Prophetic League.
• Kossy, Donna (2001) [1994], "The Anglo-Israelites", Kooks: A Guide to the Outer Limits of Human Belief (2nd exp. ed.), Los Angeles: Feral House, ISBN 978-0-922915-67-5.
• May, HG (16 September 1943), "The Ten Lost Tribes", Biblical Archaeologist, 16: 55–60.
• McQuaid, Elwood (Dec./Jan. 1977–78), "Who Is a Jew? British-Israelism versus the Bible", Israel My Glory: 35.
• Michell, John (1999). "Jews, Britons and the Lost Tribes of Israel". Eccentric lives and peculiar notions : with 56 illustrations (Paperback/electronic ed.). Kempton, Ill.: Adventures Unlimited Press. ISBN 978-0932813671.
• Reisenauer, Eric Michael (September 2008). "Anti-Jewish Philosemitism: British and Hebrew Affinity and Nineteenth Century British Antisemitism". British Scholar. 1 (1): 79–104. doi:10.3366/brs.2008.0006.
• Wilson, John (1 January 1968). "The Relation between Ideology and Organization in a Small Religious Group: The British Israelites". Review of Religious Research. 10 (1): 51–60. doi:10.2307/3510673. JSTOR 3510673.

External links

• Brit Am Israel
• British-Israel basics
• Christian, Messianic, and Jewish research on the Ten Lost Tribes
• Literature on the Lost Tribes of Israel from Destiny Publishers
• Menassah ben Israel, The Hope of Israel (London, 1650, English translation), scanned text online at Oliver's Bookshelf
• Beliefs of the British-Israel World Federation
• Beliefs of the British-Israel Bible Truth Fellowship
• British-Israel, Fact or Fiction? by Alan Campbell
• The Ensign Message magazine of The Ensign Trust (UK)
• British-Israelism Debunked blog
• Robinson, BA, Anglo-Israelism and British Israelism, Religious Tolerance.
• "Anglo-Israelism", Jewish Encyclopedia.