Rome as Ephraim

It’s interesting how Rome is the one nation left out of attempts to say Western Nations come from the Lost Tribes.  The Lost Tribes get identified with people in Greece, and then associated with people west and north of Rome, yet Rome itself in-between them is not.  Troy is often made a stepping stone in this process yet Rome was the first to claim descent from Tory, all the others were just copying Rome, and Britan's claimed Trojan connection is deliberately derivative of Rome as it also comes via Aeneas.  Since I no longer so strongly think Rome is Edom, I’m interested in exploring this possibility.

Now I have already talked about how some myths of Troy make it perhaps the same place as Joppa, though I also now think Homer wrote the Iliad under the pretense of Iion being Pergamon.

Some things about the myths of Romulus might first make one look to Benjamin to be the Israelite Tribe they're connected to, first the Wolf association (Genesis 49), then how the story of the Rape of the Sabine Women echos Judges 21.  But those could both be about this Tribe’s relationship with Benjamin as opposed to Rome being Benjamin.  Judges 21 also involved Ephraim.  And being nursed by a She-Wolf could be a Prophecy that it would be a Benjamite who’d bring The Gospel to Rome, in the apocryphal Acts of Paul when he’s beheaded in Rome milk rather then blood spills from his wounds.  Actually in 1 Corinthians 3 and 1 Thessalonians 2:7 Paul does use the imagery of a mother nursing her children with Milk to describe his nurturing of young Gentile believers.

My most recent speculations on the Fourth Beast of Daniel argue for it being Joseph who is a Bullock and a Calf and a “Unicorn”, the Ten Horns being Ephraim and the Little Horn Manasseh.  Ephraim is foretold to become the Fullness of the Gentiles in Genesis 48, and Paul uses that term in his Epistle to the Romans.  And I’ve also argued for Ephraim being the Horse Rider which can be interesting for the Troy connection.

In Greek Mythology the ultimate progenitor of the Trojans and Dardanians is Dardanus.  Attempts to give him an Israelite origin suggest Dan, as well as Dara son of Zerah in 1 Chronicles 2:6 aka Darda of 1 Kings 4:31.  Those names are evidence the name is Semitic in origin regardless of if he can be identified with a specific Biblical figure.  Maybe Dardan means “Pearl of Dan/Judgment” like how Darda means “Pearl of Wisdom”, a fitting title perhaps for the Shrine the Ephraimite King Jeroboam built at Dan.

Dardanus is sometimes said to have his origins in Arcadia, which when comparing Pelops to Jehu I argue is sometimes code for Samaria, Micah 1 used an Eagle as a symbol of Samaria which became a symbol of Rome.  Later Roman writers would however attempt to say Dardanus came from Italy.

Iasus is a name that pops up in Greek Mythology multiple times.  While Iesous is how Joshua is transliterated into Koine Greek, Iasus could be a much more ancient Greek form of that name (just look at the difference between Iapetos and how Japheth is rendered in the LXX). Dardanus had a relative named Iasus, Dionysius of Halicarnassus said Iasus was his older brother but Virgl in the Aeneid (3.163f) seems to make Iasus his father.  But it’s also easy to look at the biography of Dardanus and see him as partly based on Joshua himself.  The Mountains of Ida could be Girezim & Ebal in this analogy, the city of Dardanus founded at the foot of Ida could then be Shechem or Shiloh.  Analogies that also work for seeing Dardanus as Jeroboam.  Or you could look at Dardania’s placement in Anatolia as making it the northernmost key city of the Trojan Empire which would again make it Dan in the sense of Dan’s importance to Jeroboam.  Which would then perhaps make Ilion/Pergamos equal Bethel.

The Ephraimites carried away by Assyria I still believe were settled east of the Euphrates.  Of those left after the captivity, the ones who rejected Hezekiah’s Passover Invitation I think mingled with gentiles to become the Samaritans.  But some did accept the invitation.  1 Chronicles 9:3 says Jerusalem’s population included people form the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh.  Joel 3 says the Philistines and Tyrians sold as slaves to the Ionian Greeks people of Judah and Jerusalem.  Some Ionians and Greeks colonized southern Italy possibly before Rome was founded.

The Roman Republic was founded around 508-504 BC, but since 244 years seems too long a time for only 7 kings, the traditional 752 BC date for the founding of the city may have been exaggerated.  Meaning Rome could have been founded after the Northern Kingdom fell.  Joel is traditionally a contemporary of Jeroboam II.

The name Rome could have a Semitic origin in Strongs Numbers 7312-7319.  Remus the brother of Romulus could come from Reem the Hebrew word translated Unicorn in Moses blessing on Joseph in Deuteronomy 33.

So adjusting something I argued before about Native Americans and the Lost Tribes.   I think the Many Nations from Ephraim are the Latin Nations, the Iberian Penensula, Italy & Corsica, Mesoamerica and the Philippines.  While Manasseh is the United States.