Establishment of the Church under the Seventy (No. 122D)

Introduction

The Church was told by Christ to remain at Jerusalem until Pentecost of 30 CE when they were given the Holy Spirit as we saw in Acts and as was covered in the papers Holy Spirit (No. 117); Timing of the Crucifixion and the Resurrection (No. 159); Forty Days Following Christ’s Resurrection (No.159B). We saw from this history that the entire church was present in Jerusalem up until after Pentecost. We were given, under the authority of Hippolytus assistant to Irenaeus of Lyons and later bishop of Ostia Antica, the identification of the Seventy (LXX). With their names, we were given their locations of areas of responsibilities, which are covered in the text Fate of the Twelve Apostles (No. 122B).

In that text the LXX are numbered and we will retain that numbering and identify the locations and all the apostles involved. These people and locations are verifiable independently in many other works. The work by Hippolytus at the end of the Second Century from the Quartodeciman Disputes (No. 177) is an authentic record independent of the later Roman fictions.

The Twelve Apostles and their areas

We saw from 122B regarding:

Hippolytus ON The Twelve Apostles

Where Each OF Them Preached, And Where HE Met His End.

1. Peter preached the Gospel in Pontus, and Galatia, and Cappadocia, and Betania, and Italy, and Asia, and was afterwards crucified by Nero in Rome with his head downward, as he had himself desired to suffer in that manner.

These areas are identifiable as part of the ancient Parthian Empire from what is now Turkey and Mesopotamia (now Iraq).

2. Andrew preached to the Scythians and Thracians, and was crucified, suspended on an olive tree, at Patrae, a town of Achaia; and there too he was buried.

Here we see that Andrew (brother of Peter) was preaching to the Parthians and the Scythians in the north and to the Thracians to the west. This shows a division of area working in conjunction with Peter and the other apostles

3. John, again, in Asia, was banished by Domitian the king to the isle of Patmos, in which also he wrote his Gospel and saw the apocalyptic vision; and in Trajan's time he fell asleep at Ephesus, where his remains were sought for, but could not be found.

John was also buried in the area at Ephesus where Miriam had been buried after he was given charge of her by Christ at Calvary.

4. James, his brother, when preaching in Judea, was cut off with the sword by Herod the tetrarch, and was buried there.

5. Philip preached in Phrygia, and was crucified in Hierapolis with his head downward in the time of Domitian, and was buried there.

Here we see Philip preaching adjacent to Peter and as another division of the Parthian system at the time. Note that under Domitian he and John were persecuted. He was executed and John exiled.

6. Bartholomew, again, preached to the Indians, to whom he also gave the Gospel according to Matthew, and was crucified with his head downward, and was buried in Allanum,¹⁴² a town of the great Armenia.¹⁴³

[Here we see that Bartholomew went to upper Parthia seemingly being replaced or aided by Matthew from Jerusalem and then like Thomas went East from Parthia and Persia into Bactria and its surrounds and then India. Ed.]

7. And Matthew wrote the Gospel in the Hebrew tongue,¹⁴⁴ and published it at Jerusalem, and fell asleep at Hierees, a town of Parthia.

8. And Thomas preached to the Parthians, Medes, Persians, Hyrcanians, Bactrians, and Margians,¹⁴⁵ and was thrust through in the four members of his body with a pine spears¹⁴⁶at Calamene,¹⁴⁷ the city of India, and was buried there.

9. And James the son of Alphaeus, when preaching in Jerusalem was stoned to death by the Jews, and was buried there beside the temple.

10. Jude, who is also called Lebbaeus, preached to the people of Edessa,¹⁴⁸ and to all Mesopotamia, and fell asleep at Berytus, and was buried there.

11. Simon the Zealot,¹⁴⁹ the son of Clophas, who is also called Jude, became bishop of Jerusalem after James the Just, and fell asleep and was buried there at the age of 120 years.

[James, brother of Christ, was martyred in Judea in 63 CE, at the end of the 69 weeks of years of Daniel 9:25 and succeeded by Clophas (Cleopas) and immediately afterwards by Clophas’ son Simon who then took the church to Pella where it was safe from the destruction in Jerusalem in 70 CE. The church later returned to Jerusalem. Cox. ed.]

12. And Matthias, who was one of the seventy, was numbered along with the eleven apostles, and preached in Jerusalem, and fell asleep and was buried there.

13. And Paul entered into the apostleship a year after the assumption of Christ; and beginning at Jerusalem, he advanced as far as Illyricum, and Italy, and Spain, preaching the Gospel for five-and-thirty years. And in the time of Nero he was beheaded at Rome, and was buried there.

[Note that Paul went to Rome after he was called which was a year after Pentecost in 30 CE, in 31 CE. He was called and sent into the north and established churches in Asia Minor and then went across to Rome and on into Spain. We will deal with this later; and over the reign of Claudius to the ascension of Nero.]

The Original Twelve Apostles

Simon named Peter (or Cephas),
Andrew his brother,
James,
John,
Philip,
Bartholomew,
Matthew,
Thomas,
James son of Alphaeus,
Simon the Zealot son of Clophas and cousin of Christ,
Judas brother of James named Thaddaeus,
Judas Iscariot the traitor.

Judas was replaced by Matthias determined by Lot (Acts 1:26)

(a) Thaddaeus (Matthew 10: 1-4; Mark 3:13 -19)

(b) Judas brother of James is the corresponding name in Luke’s gospel (Luke 6:12-16)

Thaddaeus is the Greek rendering of the Aramaic Thaddaios which occurs in the text in Matthew and Mark and does not appear in the text in Luke. It is taken as a rendering for Judas, brother of James. There is no deviation of the persons in the texts except for the order in which they are listed.

Of the original Twelve Apostles John, Matthew, Jude and Simon died natural deaths. The others were martyred for the faith. (122B ibid)

The locations of these ministries show that the mission of the majority of the apostles here and in the LXX below extended from Judea and Gaza south to Egypt and Africa and north to the Parthians where the Israelites were scattered after their captivity in 722 BCE north of the Araxes, and into Scythia and beyond into India. Here we see the basis of the legends of the apostles speaking to the tribes; Peter to the Anglo-Saxons and their sub groups and Andrew to the Scots (hence their cross).

After Philip had baptized the steward of Candace Queen of the Ethiopians, the steward went home and established the Abyssinian Church which spread throughout the region. From Aksum it spread south and to the Yemen and into Saba (Sheba) among the Sabaeans. In the Fourth Century Archbishop Meuses of Abyssinia took the Sabbath faith to China via India. See also below (cf. General Distribution of the Sabbath Keeping Churches (No. 122)).

We see here below that the church was established among the Seventy all over Anatolia and the Levant and from Syria into Mesopotamia and into Arabia.

Christianity spread throughout Arabia and among the Jews who became Christians, and Arabs also became Jews. By 470 CE Arabic had been developed from Eastern Aramaic and the Bible was made available in Arabic with some texts carved in stone (now on display). In 570 the prophet Qasim ibn Abdullah ibn Abdul Muttalib was born. In 590 CE the Holy Roman Empire was declared by Gregory I at Rome. In 608/9 Qasim had married a Jewish Christian named Kadijah. He embraced Christianity and her uncle taught him the Scriptures. In 611 he began to teach the Sabbatarian faith to the pagan Hubal worshippers of Becca that practiced child sacrifice to Hubal (Baal/Moloch) (cf. Introduction to the Commentary on the Koran (Q001); Summary of the Commentary on the Qur’an or Koran (QS)).

In 613 CE the First Hijrah (or Flight) led by the Prophet’s cousin Jafar occurred from Becca to the court of the Negus in Aksum in Abyssinia seeking refuge among the fellow Christian Sabbatarians of Abyssinia. The story of the First Hijrah is covered in the Commentary on the Koran: Surah 19 Maryam (Q019). See also Sabbath in the Qur’an (No. 274).

Another record of the persecution of the first four centuries of the church is mentioned in Commentary on the Koran Surah 18 (Q018).

All the Surahs are found at Commentary on the Koran at:

http://www.ccg.org/islam/quran.html.

The fate of the Family of Christ as the Desposyni is also covered in the paper The Virgin Mariam and the Family of Jesus Christ (No. 232).

We will now deal with the entire LXX and their locations and we will group them now in areas of mission and what is known of their timings from what we know of Hippolytus and other authors.

We have listed the numerical sequence of Hippolytus on The Seventy Apostles.¹⁵⁰but regrouped them in geographical locations

The Holy Land of Judea, Galilee, and surrounding lands from Syria onwards

1. James the Lord's brother,¹⁵¹ bishop of Jerusalem. He was martyred in 63/64 CE at the end of the 69 “Weeks of Years” of Daniel 9:25.

2. Cleopas, bishop of Jerusalem, uncle of Christ, husband of Mariah sister of Mariam, mother of Christ. He died shortly after he succeeded James brother of Christ on James’ death. He was succeeded by Simeon or Simon his son.

3. Matthias, who supplied the vacant place in the number of the twelve apostles. He served in Jerusalem where he wrote the gospel in Hebrew and then proceeded to Parthia where he died in Hierees.

4. Thaddeus, who conveyed the epistle to Augarus.

5. Ananias, who baptized Paul, and was bishop of Damascus.

6. Stephen, the first martyr.

7. Philip, who baptized the eunuch. He was later sent to Phrygia in Parthia as we see above.

8. Prochorus, bishop of Nicomedia, who also was the first that departed,¹⁵² believing together with his daughters.

9. Nicanor died when Stephen was martyred.

12. Nicolaus, bishop of Samaria.

67. Philemon, bishop of Gaza.

Africa and the Levant

14. Mark the evangelist, bishop of Alexandria.

15. Luke the evangelist.

These two belonged to the seventy disciples who were scattered¹⁵³ by the offence of the word which Christ spoke, "Except a man eat my flesh, and drink my blood, he is not worthy of me."¹⁵⁴ But the one being induced to return to the Lord by Peter's instrumentality, and the other by Paul's, they were honoured to preach that Gospel¹⁵⁵ on account of which they also suffered martyrdom, the one being burned, and the other being crucified on an olive tree.

Expansion among the Greeks, Anatolians and the Phoenician trading areas

16. Silas, bishop of Corinth.

17. Silvanus, bishop of Thessalonica.

19. Epaenetus, bishop of Carthage (area of Tunis and Algeria). Epaenetus was the first bishop of Carthage, but the Roman Church did all they could to conceal the church history there for their own purposes in Sicily and Iberia and there. The Trinitarians try to limit the first bishop to Agrippinus at the end of the Second Century which is ludicrous (cf. Encyc. Britt 11^th ed, Art. Carthage). Apparently this was to limit the Christian influence as Tertullian was writing then. He refers to the British church as long established by then. In 202-203 Perpetua and Felicitas were martyred and they claim these as their own.

Tertullian was succeeded by Cyprian (248)

Persecution of the Christians resumed under the Emperor Decius in 250.

20. Andronicus, bishop of Pannonia.

[Pannonia was a province of the Roman Empire bounded north and east by the Danube, Coterminous westward with Noricum and upper Italy, and southward with Dalmatia and upper Moesia.]

21. Amplias, bishop of Odyssus. [A major city of Macedonia]

22. Urban, bishop of Macedonia. [cf. Rom. 16:8-9, He was bishop of Macedonia (outside of the city). He and Amplias were appointed bishops by the apostle Andrew brother of Peter. Amplias was put to death by Pagans and Urban by Pagans and Jews.]

23. Stachys, bishop of Byzantium (Called “beloved friend” by Paul (Rom. 16:9-11). The area was reportedly referred to by Andrew as Constantinople. Stachys built the church at Argyropolis in Byzantium. He gathered over 2000 Christians under instruction. He served from 38-54CE when he died.

24. Barnabas, bishop of Heraclea in Asia Minor. He was allegedly followed by

28. Apelles, bishop of Smyrna.

[The Smyrna school trained Polycarp, Polycrates, Irenaeus of Lyon and Hippolytus of Lyon and Ostia Antica.

Paul says Appelles was approved of Christ (Rom. 16:10). His fidelity stood the test. He brought multitudes to the faith before he died.

Note here that Hyppolytus says he was bishop of Smyrna and established the church there and makes no mention of the church at Heraclea in place of Barnabas.

25. Phygellus, bishop of Ephesus. He was of the party also of Simon.¹⁵⁶

26. Hermogenes. He, too, was of the same mind with the former.

27. Demas, who also became a priest of idols.

This was the start of the rot at Ephesus that John had to clean out when he later presided in Ephesus. Irenaeus was a child at the feet of John and he spoke to the elders who knew Christ and learned from them before being trained at Smyrna (cf. Appendix A to Sanctification of the Simple and Erroneous (No. 291)).]

30. Narcissus, bishop of Athens. Paul greets his family in Romans 16:11. He was tortured and martyred for Christ.

31. Herodion, bishop of Tarsus. (in Mersin province of now Turkey) He was a kinsman of Paul (Rom. 16:11).

32. Agabus the prophet.

33. Rufus, bishop of Thebes (in Greece) (cf. Rom. 16:13 also).

34. Asyncritus, bishop of Hyrcania (Rom. 16:14).

35. Phlegon, bishop of Marathon (Rom. 16:14).

38. Hermas, bishop of Philippi (Rom 16:14).

The distribution of Paul’s letter to the Romans was thus meant for a much wider audience than simply those at Rome. It was also meant for the bishops of Italy, Greece and their flocks and the flocks of Asia Minor. Tertius, the scribe here, must have therefore made many copies for their distribution.

Italy, Gaul, Britain and to the Balkans

13. Barnabas, bishop of Milan.

37. Patrobulus,¹⁵⁷ bishop of Puteoli (Rom. 16:14). It is a city of Naples in Italy.

18. Crisces (Crescens), bishop of Carchedon in Gaul. (Carchedon was another name for Carthage and may have originated from there) (Irenaus later became bishop of Lyons in Gaul).

29. Aristobulus, bishop of Britain.

His family was established at Rome under Linus as we see from Paul’s greetings (Rom. 16:11). There is no doubt of his establishment of the church in Britain.

39. Linus, bishop of Rome [son of Caradog of Britain (Cox ed.)].

36. Hermes, bishop of Dalmatia (Also referred to in Rom. 16:14).

59. Clement, bishop of Sardinia.

42, 43. Olympus and Rhodion were martyred in Rome.

70. Trophimus, was martyred along with Paul, who was also martyred at Rome.

So also were Caradog and Linus martyred there under Nero when Claudius was poisoned. Caradog, at what was termed House of the Britons, had the patronage of Claudius. Arviragus was also there and his grandson Meurig (aka St. Marius) married the daughter of Cyllin son of Caradog and niece to Linus. They returned to Britain as client kings of the British and developed the church there (cf. Origin of the Christian Church in Britain (No. 266)).

Prisca and Aquila also had a house church there and perhaps it was that of the House of the Britons (Rom 16:3).

The reported doctrines of the early church at Rome are recorded in The Original Doctrines of the Christian Faith (No. 088).

The British Royal family were used to establish the church in Britain, as Linus bishop of Rome was the son of Caradog (or Caracticus lat.) king of the Cantii and the Catavellauni and brother to Arviragus king of the Silurians son in law to Anna wife of Bran the Blessed and daughter of Joseph of Aramathea, metals trader in Britain. The details are given in the papers Origin of the Christian Church in Britain (No. 266). See also Hittites in the House of David (No. 067C) for the links and lineages.

Middle East

10. Timon, bishop of Bostra. [Bosra, also spelled Bostra, Busrana, Bozrah, Bozra and officially known Busra al-Sham is a town in southern Syria, administratively belonging to the Daraa District of the Daraa Governorate and geographically part of the Hauran region]

11. Parmenas, bishop of Soli.

Parmenas suffered martyrdom in 98, under the persecution of Trajan.^[1]

He was recorded as bishop of Soli. Some take this to be Soli, Cyprus,^[2] while others interpret it as Soli, Cilicia.^[3]

There are also other places named Soli in Iran and elsewhere.

40. Caius, bishop of Ephesus. (Note he succeeded Phygellus in the sequence as bishop at Ephesus.)

41. Philologus, bishop of Sinope. It is situated on the most northern edge of the Turkish side of the Black Sea coast, in the ancient region of Paphlagonia, in modern-day northern Turkey. The city serves as the capital of Sinop Province.

44. Lucius, bishop of Laodicea in Syria (now Turkey).

45. Jason, bishop of Tarsus (after 31 Heridion above). (Mersin province Turkey)

46. Sosipater, bishop of Iconium. (Now Konya in Turkey. It was the last city of ancient Phrygia. The Cimmerians overran it in 622 BCE).

47. Tertius, bishop of Iconium.

48. Erastus, bishop of Panellas. Erastus was steward at Corinth and was appointed bishop of Panellas or Banias.

Banias (Arabic:بانياس الحولة‎; Hebrew: בניאס)is the Arabic and modern Hebrew name of an ancient site that developed around a spring once associated with the Greek god Pan. It is located at the foot of Mount Hermon, north of the Golan Heights. The spring is the source of the Banias River, one of the main tributaries of the Jordan River.

50. Apollo, bishop of Caesarea. The city is located in north-central Israel.

51. Cephas.¹⁵⁸ The details of Cephas were removed leaving a lacuna in the text. Cephas or Peter went to Antioch and was recorded as appointing three successive bishops there. He was also bishop to the Hebrews as we saw above in their locations in Pontus, and Galatia, and Cappadocia, and Betania, and Italy, and Asia.

He was afterwards crucified by Nero in Rome with his head downward, as he had himself desired to suffer in that manner. [It is probable that event took place on his later mission to Italy (122B ed).].

Anatolia, the Levant, Thrace and the Balkans

52. Sosthenes, bishop of Colophonia. (An ancient city in Ionia located between Lebedos and Ephesus.)

53. Tychicus, bishop of Colophonia.

54. Epaphroditus, bishop of Andriace. A port city on the Southern coast of Turkey in what was ancient Lycia.

55. Caesar, bishop of Dyrrachium (a city of what is now Albania).

56. Mark, cousin to Barnabas, bishop of Apollonia. Apollonia was founded in 588 BCE by Greek colonists from Corfu and Corinth, on a site where native Illyrian tribes lived, and was perhaps the most important of the several classical towns known as “Apollonia”.

57. Justus, bishop of Eleutheropolis. Eleutheropolis (Greek, Ελευθερόπολις, "Free City") was a Roman and Byzantine city in Syria Palaestina, some 53 km southwest of Jerusalem. Its remains still straddle the ancient road connecting Jerusalem to Gaza and are now located within the Beit Guvrin National Park.

58. Artemas, bishop of Lystra. Lystra (Ancient Greek: Λύστρα) was a city in central Anatolia, now part of present-day Turkey. It is mentioned five times in the NT. Lystra was visited several times by Paul along with Barnabus or Silas. There Paul met Timothy.It is 30 km south of Tarsus or Konya.

60. Onesiphorus, bishop of Corone. Corone or Korone (Ancient Greek: Κορώνη) was a town of ancient Messenia, situated upon the western side of the Messenian Gulf, in Peloponnesian Greece.

61. Tychicus, bishop of Chalcedon. Chalcedon was an ancient maritime town of Bithynia, in Asia Minor. It was located almost directly opposite Byzantium, south of Scutari (modern Üsküdar).

49. Quartus, bishop of Berytus. [then]

62. Carpus, bishop of Berytus in Thrace.

63. Evodus, bishop of Antioch [appointed by Cephas].

64. Aristarchus, bishop of Apamea. Located on the right bank of the Orontes River in Syria.

65. Mark, who is also John, bishop of Bibloupolis.

66. Zenas, bishop of Diospolis. (In Lydia Anatolia (another was in Thrace, now Bulgaria).

68, 69. Aristarchus and Pudes.

Note the extensive missions of Peter from the Bible texts and other records. He was not bishop of Rome but was responsible for the ten tribes of Israel through Parthia and the north and from Antioch.

However we know from Hippolytus that Peter was in Italy as a minor part of his mission and it is possible that he was never in Rome. His major mission was from Antioch to Parthia and the tribes of the dispersion into the Caucasus (see the paper The Fate of the Twelve Apostles (No. 122B)).

It is of significance to note that Irenaeus from his exposure to John and to Polycarp and those at Ephesus and Smyrna held that Psalm 82:1 referred to the theoi or gods (elohim) which included the elect, namely those of the adoption (Against Heresies, Bk. 3, Ch. 6, Ante-Nicene Fathers, Vol. 1, p. 419) (cf. Deity of Christ (No 147)).

Appendix A to 122D

After the Fall of Parthia in the Second Century, the horde moved into NW Europe where the Celts had spread as the Hyperborean Celts after the fall of Troy to the Greeks in 1054 BCE at the time of Eli, judge in Israel (cf. MacGeoghegan below). The Parthians also took with them the calendar as we see with the Angles and Saxons. Their calendar, called the Almanac, which is Aramaic and Arabic for “The Counting,” was a bimonthly calendar based on the conjunction of the new moon spanning 59 days. A copy is in Cambridge University library.

The Anglo-Saxons also contained a significant number of Hg I (AS). They were divided into eight sub-clades and these are thought to represent the tribes there with the Hg I (Isles) among the British Celts from the Tuatha De Danaan of Ireland.

Their New Year was on 25 March which was the date of the Equinox on the formation of the Northern Kingdom in Samaria after the death of Solomon. They retained this date until 1752 CE when they adopted the Roman system based on the god Janus following the Solstice at Christmas (cf. Origins of Christmas and Easter (No. 235)).

The Horde moved into NW Europe under the Judge Odin and the nations were formed there from the sub-tribes. They split up from their occupation of NW Europe as follows.

The Norwegians, Danes and Swedes settled after the Great Migration period in the three areas. The Norwegian area sub tribe was distinct from the Danes and Swedes in that they are significantly R1a whereas the Danes and Swedes are R1b but both groups contain Hebrew Hg I.

Some of the Original Danes came from the Irish Tuatha de Danaan (Hg I (Isles) who went there and returned as is also explained in the early chapters of The History of Ireland by Abbe MacGeoghegan (Sadlier NY, 1868).

The Anglo-Saxons (with some remaining in what is now Saxony) went to Britain following the Jutes, after the Jutes were invited in by Vortigern. The Jutes settled in what is now Kent and Hereford. The Angles settled in the East and the Saxons in the South from Essex to Sussex and Wessex. The Trojan Celts were in Wales, Cornwell and the Dumnoniae in Devon and to the North. The Parisii were settled north of what became Anglia.

The Danes and Scandinavians settled later (10^th century) in York and Mercia. They and the Saxons pushed the Trojan Britons into Wales, with the Milesian Brigantes in Lancaster. The Picts were in the north. The Scythian Scots had not yet come in to Scotland via Ireland. They were preached to by Andrew in Scythia (cf. above) and hence the patron saint of the Scots.

The British Celtic Church was in Britain from 30 CE under Aristobulus Bishop of Britain with the support of the British Royal Family and of Linus at Rome.

The Burgundians and Francs then came into Gaul from the East. The Francs were derived from what was viewed as the Cimmerian Horde. The line of the French kings is derived from Antenor I king of the Cimmerians. Antenor the ancestor was a Hittite fighting at Troy as we are told by Homer in the Iliad.

The Fris (who spoke a form of ancient Anglo-Saxon) remained in what is termed Frisland. The Dutch were a sub tribe of the Germans that moved into Holland later. They claim descent from Issachar.

The Lombards were a sub-tribe of the Anglo-Saxons and went south to Milan. The Heruli moved into Dalmatia. They were followed by the Hravtski or Croats from the area of northern Parthia in the East adjacent to Persia. They have a large element (ca. 40%) of Hg I Hebrew YDNA also.

The Suevi moved into Iberia and settled into what became Portugal, with the Vandals who settled in what is now Spain; they were also followed by the Alans into Europe.

The Guti (from the Massagetae) followed them in from Northern Parthia into Italy as Ostro (Eastern) Goths and into Spain as Visigoths or Western Goths. The Visigoths displaced the Vandals into Africa by Roman invitation and supplanted them over the Iberian Celts (Basques and Phoenicans) that had long preceded them.

The Goths in Scythia had been exposed to Andrew and certainly by the time they got to Pannonia. They were Unitarian Sabbath-keepers who practiced adult baptism and they constructed their baptismal baths in Italy. Their creed regarding the faith was published by Ulfilas, bishop of the Goths, and is recorded and examined in the text of the Pre-existence of Christ (No. 243).

It is also important to see the distribution of the Tribes in Europe as outlined in the paper The Unitarian/Trinitarian Wars (No. 268).

The Swiss were comprised of the Alemanni or “all men” and were part of all the tribes.

The Parthians were all a combination of the Hebrew Israelites and the Northern Hittite Celts. After the fall of Troy the Celts moved into Europe. The Greeks called the Trojans Keltoi in the Iliad.

Some of the Francs or Cimmerians also moved back into Galatia and stayed there until Parthia fell. Then the Francs came into the West as the Salien and Riphathian Francs.

It is now impossible to separate the Hittites from the Israelite Hebrews, except by YDNA, but they are racially intermarried and the MTDNA is generally distributed among them.

The establishment of the churches among the nations is covered in the papers General Distribution of the Sabbath-keeping Churches (No. 122) and Role of the Fourth Commandment in the Sabbath-keeping Churches of God (No 170).

Twelve Tribes

In allocating the people to the Twelve Tribes we look as follows:

The 144,000 are allocated to the tribes upon their conversion by God from the First Resurrection. As we see from Revelation 7 Joseph becomes comprised of Dan and Ephraim for the purposes of Twelve Tribes of the 144,000 so Levi can take its portion. Dan however holds its place in the structure and judges Israel as its birthright and takes its share of the Great Multitude as does Ephraim.

The Great Multitude is also allocated to the nations by God for purposes of government. They are also part of the Twelve Tribes as spiritual Israel.

To be a part of the Body of Christ we must become spiritual Israel. Christ was allocated Israel as his inheritance (Deut. 32:8-9).