In My View on Modern Israel in Bible Prophecy I hypothesized against those that casually refer to Modern Jews as if they're just Judah that if they are one of the Sothern Tribes more so then the other it's actually Benjamin due to things like Rashi via Hillel's Benjamite ancestry. And applied that equally to the Ahskenazim, Shephardi and other Jewish populations.
Still that is not 100%,. Judahite ancestry does exist among those Jewish populations and I suspect Benjamite ancestry also does among who I'll discus below. As well as the mingling into both of Levi, Simeon and the Northern Israelites who weren't deported in Western Manasseh, Asher, Issachar and Zebulun.
If that is the case however then who is Judah today? I've argued before that I think a larger percentage of 1st Century Judeans converted to Christianity then is popularly assumed after the 66-73 AD War annihilated those sects most hostile to early Christianity. So we should perhaps look for some Jewish ancestry among ancient Christian populations.
Much of this is a theory that works Ecclesiastically or Clerically rather then only Genealogically. Part of why I distinguish myself from Two House Theology is because Ezekiel 37 has Judah and Joseph both bringing companions, Gentile Believers, with them. Even The Torah allows people who don't biologically descend from Jacob or even Abraham to be adopted into Israel.
Deuteronomy 23:7 makes specific reference to allowing Mizraimites (Egyptians) and Edomites in. I note this because for most of the Divided Kingdom period it was primarily the Southern Kingdom that maintained contact and relationships with Egypt and Edom while The North traded with Syria, the Mediterranean world and eventually Assyria. So they may well be a factor in looking for Judah in Christian history.
I think the first thing we should look into is the fate of the original Jerusalem Church. It was lead by James and the other Half-Brothers and Nephews of Jesus while the Twelve and Paul inevitably left to spread The Gospel throughout the world. The Half-Siblings of Jesus were even more undeniably Judahite then Jesus was as being biological sons of Joseph probably gave them through Matthew's genealogy David's Y-Chromosome. I still believe Mary descended from Nathan Ben-David, but that line is neither directly Matrilineal or Patrilineal in my speculation so probably wasn't how her family's Tribal Identity was formally classified. I think in general New Testament era Galileans descended from Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun.
The Jewish Jerusalem Church around 70 AD moved to Pella(in modern Jordan), but some returned to remain The Church of Jerusalem until the Bar Kockhba revolt. After that I believe they fled to Syria where I agree with the theory that they became the Nazarenes known to Epiphanius and Jerome in the late 4th century located chiefly in Aleppo and Bashan, Epiphanius in Panarion even seems to admit they descend from the exiled Jerusalem Church. Jerome tells us they had a Syraic text of Matthew's Gospel.
Over the course of the 5th and early 6th Century the Chalcedonian Schism in Syria was eventually split among Linguistic lines, the Greek speakers sided with Chalcedon while the West Syraic Churches (except the Maronites) mostly took the Miaphysite position becoming part of the Oriental Orthodox Church, I suspect the Nazarenes were slowly Gentilized and mingled with other Liturgically Aramaic groups, who may have also partly descended from 1st Century Jewish Converts and became the modern Syraic Orthodox Church. The City of Damascus had a Jewish Christian population already before Paul's conversion in Acts 9.
There are also claims out there that the Jerusalem Church relocated to Edessa after the bar Kockba Revolt. Edessa like nearby Nisibis already had a significant Jewish population during the Kitos War in the reign of Trajan. And it became an important center for Syriac Orthodoxy during the 6th Century AD. It was largely during the Young Turks' persecutions that the Syriac Christians of this region were forced to move South, the seat of their Patriarch of Antioch was in nearby Mardin till 1933.
Near the Armenian Quarter of Jerusalem there is a Syriac Orthodox Monastery of St Mark which claims to be the actual site of the Upper Room of The Last Supper and Pentecost, the birth place of The Church. It is I feel much more likely to be authentic then the more well known mainstream Cenacle location south of the Zion Gate who's origins are clearly Crusader era. The Upper Room being in the house of St Mark's mother (from Acts 12:12) does fit in with common theories about who Mark is in his Gospel in chapter 14 verses 13-15. This Church is currently the seat of the Syriac Bishop of Jerusalem.
Josephus in Wars of The Jews Book VII Chapter 3 Section 3 says that the Jewish nation is widely dispersed throughout the world but particularly intermingled with Syria. Meaning he's possibly suggesting that by this point even most gentile Syrians had some Jewish ancestry. In The Hebrew Bible back in II Kings 14:28 Hamath is referred to as belonging to Judah, even though this is during the divided Kingdom and Hamath is north of the Northern Kingdom, so it seems some of the mingling was already happening back then.
There are six other Churches that make up the Oriental Orthodox Communion today. The Malankara Church is a community that was Ancient Church of The East (often misleadingly called Nestorian) until later then the Protestant Reformation, so I don't particularly feel the need to factor them into this thesis. However for the record I'll state my belief that the Saint Thomas Christians are Elamite in their Genesis 10 ancestry via the Elamo-Dravidian hypothesis.
The Coptic Church is obviously chiefly Mizraimite. Jewish Communities were established in Egypt during the time of Jeremiah including the daughters of Zedekiah and before that King Jehoahaz who was taken hostage, and at some point during this era a Jewish Temple was built on Elephantine Island which may go back to the time of King Manasseh. Then more came there after Alexander founded Alexandria, and later Onias IV set up his Temple at Leontoplis near Heliopolis. The Nubians I think also descended from sons of Mizraim, the medieval Christian Nubian Kingdoms were also mostly Oriental Orthodox.
I've argued for connecting the Armenians to Judah already in my last Lost Tribes post. The Holy See of Cilicia is also Armenian in origin from an Armenian Kingdom that existed there contemporary with the Crusades. That the Armenian quarter in Jerusalem is next to the Jewish Quarter and resides on part of what Josephus identified as Mt Zion is interesting. I also noted there the close relationship between Armenia and Georgia, the Georgian or back then Iberian Church was temporarily with the Oriental Orthodox during the 6th Century.
And the Ethiopian/Axum Church as well as Eritrea are also explained in part of my Languages of the Table of Nations post. But I can add that I still think Bob Cornuke and Graham Hancock's thesis on The Ark going to Axum via Elephantine and Tana Kirikos could be valid, even though many other theories associated with those authors I either never did or no longer support. The Ark being with Judah now would fit the typology of my Benjamin post since The Ark was in KirathJearim during the entire reign of the House of Saul.
Armenia and Ethiopia also both use Red Lions as National Symbols.
The Ghassanid Arabs of late antiquity were an Oriental Orthodox Community that is no longer around. Given where they mainly ruled and their Yemeni origins I suspect they were Edomites. And they may have descendants today mingled into various Oriental Orthodox communities in the Arab world.
This thesis also holds for the various Eastern Rite Catholic Churches that were originally part of above mentioned Oriental Orthodox Churches until schisms that started in the 1700s. In part the Catholic Church is a Christian Era manifestation of the same impulse to try and merge true YHWH worship with Idolatry and Polytheism that Israel frequently struggled with throughout the Hebrew Bible. During the divided Kingdom era those tendencies may have more consistently ruled the North but Judah was still susceptible, Jeremiah condemned worshiping the "Queen of Heaven" and then Catholics went and gave that exact same title to Mary.
I may add to this post in the future additional tidbits. But that is all the core argument.
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