ARE "JEWS" REALLY KHAZARS?
By Rev. Ted Pike
28 Aug 13
This article is an edited transcription of my recorded Bible study under this title at Truthtellers.org. It responds broadly to unprecedented curiosity about the possible Khazar origins of European “Ashkenazim” Jewry. Such interest largely results from genetic research by Dr. Eran Elhaik, published in the prestigious scientific journal Genome Biology and Evolution last January as well as an interview by Ha’aretz with Elhaik. I also consider Texe Marrs new book on this subject and have included extensive portions of my May ’06 article, “The Khazars: Do They Destroy God’s Plan for the Jews?”
For more than a century, religious Zionists have claimed modern Jews are entitled to Palestine because they are legitimate descendants of Abraham. Devout Christians and Jews both believe the legitimacy of Israel depends on a relatively pure Jewish race.
That’s why Jewish novelist Arthur Koestler’s 1976 book, The Thirteenth Tribe, was a political and theological bombshell. Koestler reveals how the central Eurasian nation of Khazaria converted to Judaism in 740 AD. About a million Hunnish/Turkish warriors and traders became at least as devout as actual (Sephardic/Oriental) Jews today, whose genetic lines trace back to Abraham. The Khazars soon convinced themselves they were authentic Jews. Today, Koestler asserts, most “Jews” worldwide primarily descend from these ancient Turks, not Abraham!
What does this mean for millions of American Christians eager to bless the children of Abraham? Has this Khazar corruption of Jewish blood also corrupted God’s plan for the ultimate redemption of a repentant Jewish remnant?
In this special report, I conclude that the Khazar merger is a fact of history but that it didn’t destroy God’s plan for the Jews at all. Far from it! The conversion of a million Asiatic Gentiles actually helps fulfill Bible prophecy.
A Jewish Geneticist Doubts His Jewishness
Dr. Eran Elhaik is a world-class geneticist at Johns Hopkins Medical Center. His research into Jewish origins has produced an earth-shaking thesis. He solidly agrees with Koestler that the majority of Jews today can claim no ancestry to Abraham. They’re primarily descendants of the Khazars. Not since Koestler in 1976 has an academic so successfully challenged accepted “facts” about the beginnings of modern Eastern European (“Ashkenazi”) Jewry.
In an interview with Ha’aretz last December Elhaik says his genetic research reveals decisively that “Central European Jews (primarily Polish) are 38% Khazar while Eastern European Jews (primarily Russian) are 30% Khazar.” Yet he says other genetic components include those of Middle Eastern origin whose source is probably Mesopotamian, although it is possible part of that component could be attributed to Israeli Jews. (This could include authentic Jews who were transported to Babylon in the sixth century B.C.by Nebuchadnezzar and flourished there for 1600 years ). Such genetic influence, however, is not strong enough, says Elhaik, to suggest a Mideast or Israeli origin of Ashkenazim Jews. But he says there is very strong genetic evidence linking the Jews of Iran, the Caucasus, Azerbaijan, and Georgia with the European Jews, i.e., those people whose ancestors are Khazars. Elhaik rejects the “Rheinland” hypothesis that Jews from Germany and the West migrated into Poland and Eastern Europe around the 15th century A.D., creating in only five centuries a European Ashkenazi population of about 11 million. He says Khazar Ashkenazim of the East bear no genetic similarity to Sephardim of the West who were supposed to have largely helped sire them.
…among the various groups of European and non-European Jews, there are no blood or family connections.The various groups of Jews in the world today do not share a common genetic origin. We are talking here about groups which are very heterogenous and which are connected solely by religion.
He says,“The genome of European Jews is a mosaic of ancient people and its origin is largely Khazar.” Elhaik upholds the rigid separation between relatively authentic Sephardic Jews of the West and the Khazar Ashkenazim of the East . This is a distinction first emphasized by Koestler and restated in my widely distributed book Israel: Our Duty, Our Dilemma and video The Other Israel in the mid-1980s (available for $24.90 each postpaid at the Truthtellers.org Store).
Marrs’ Book Says “Jews are Khazars”
Elhaik’s work inspired my friend and Christian anti-Zionist leader Texe Marrs to write a new book, DNA Science and the Jewish Bloodline.
Thus today, when you see a “Jew,” what you are actually encountering is a Khazar who practices Judaism. The Khazar has no Israelite blood. His ancestors are not the Israelites of the Bible.”
But we should remember that, from at least the time of Solomon, Jews migrated out of Palestine. History records that after the destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A.D., dispersion of racially authentic Jews to both East and West continued for at least 1300 years, well before any possibility of significant intermarriage with Khazars. Descendants of the Jewish Diaspora, though only a minority and with varying degrees of Gentile admixture, still exist, primarily the oriental “Misrahi” Jews of Yemen, Iran, North Africa etc. and Sephardic Jews of Europe and Israel. The Sephardim alone constitute up to 16% of world Jewish population  and over half of the religious Jews in Israel today. In Israel, they compose the Shas party in Knesset and are generally Orthodox, anti-Christian and anti-Arab.
Yet Marrs gives the overriding impression that Jews as a whole are Khazars and Elhaik proves this. Actually, Elhaik only claims that European Ashkenazim, which comprise 83-85% of world Jewry , are predominantly Khazar. The fact that nearly 3 million authentic Jews exist today contradicts the general impression Marrs gives that racially authentic Jews are virtually extinct and that all Jews today are Gentile.
Do the Khazars Destroy Bible Prophecy?
How then does Elhaik’s thesis that most Jews today are Jewish/Khazar hybrids impact the Bible’s oft-repeated prediction that Christ will redeem a repentant remnant of Jews at His Second Coming? It confirms the Bible. Although an eschatological surprise of great magnitude, the Khazar infusion into Judaism does no violence to God’s overall long-term plan for ultimate judgment upon and redemption of a minority of repentant Jews.
As the Hebrews approached the Promised Land 3500 years ago, God warned them that they had a choice: Obey God and be blessed and dwell in the land, or disobey Him and be cursed and exiled. One of many ways God said He will curse a disobedient Jewish nation is by keeping them very small. “Then you shall be left few in number, whereas you were as the stars of heaven for multitude, because you did not obey the Lord your God.” (Deut. 28:62)
Israel did not obey God. She crucified her Lord and spiritual husband, Jesus Christ, screaming, “His blood be upon us and upon our children!” For their disobedience, the Jews incurred the curse of remaining small in number. This curse remains in effect today.
During the Exodus, the Hebrew population was about 2 million , swelling to about 5-1/2 million in the time of David, 500 years later. What is the population of Jews descended from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin today? 2,950,000 . Incredibly, after three and a half millennia, authentic Jews number only 950,000 more than when Moses led them out of Egypt! That's a gain of less than 300 new people per year.
Contrast such anemic population growth with the posterity of another descendant of Abraham: Ishmael. The father of the Arab world was the offspring of Abraham’s union with Sarah’s maid, an Egyptian of Hamitic not Semitic stock. In contrast to the racially authentic yet rebellious descendants of Judah, God said He would magnify the descendants of the half-breed, Ishmael. “…I will multiply thy seed exceedingly that it shall not be numbered for multitude.” (Gen 16:10) What’s the population of the Arab world today? Between 200 and 300 million ! At 250 million, that is an increase of 62,500 per year! Truly, God’s promise of blessing and cursing could not be more powerfully fulfilled.
The curse of smallness that clings to racially authentic Jewry today is not a hereditary weakness. Exodus records that when God had "respect" for the Hebrews they enjoyed prolific powers of reproduction. They increased from several hundred to several million 400 years later.
Israel to be Oppressed
God also threatened that “aliens” would perpetually rule Israel if she did not obey. “The alien who is among you shall rise above you higher and higher, but you shall go down lower and lower. He shall lend to you but you shall not lend to him: He shall be the head and you shall be the tail.” (Deut. 28:43-44)
In 740 AD (or, as some experts contend, about a century later), Khazar “aliens” invaded Judaism in a bizarre twist of divine judgment. They did not do so territorially but spiritually and genetically. The Khazars appropriated the Talmud and Cabala (Zohar), the promises of Abraham, and even the name “Jew.” Swelling into a world population now estimated at 11.2 million , modern Ashkenazim, the primary force behind 20th century Zionism, dominate the government, military, economic, and religious authority of Israel. The 950,000 authentic (Sephardic) Jews in Israel , outnumbered 3 to 1, are largely excluded and discriminated against by the Khazar ruling majority, which totals about 3.7 million. Friction smolders between both groups .
The Khazars Make Possible Jewish World Control
Thus, we have an enigma within Holy Scripture which is solved by the Khazar infusion: God warns that the Jews will become the smallest of peoples because of their disobedience. Scripture also prophesies rebellious Jews will bring into existence Babylon the Great, Jewish world control, a feat far beyond the abilities of the present Sephardic/Oriental minority. (See 'Babylon the Great' is Israel)
Clearly, God decided to allow the very gifted and prolific Khazar proselytes of Poland and Russia to become the most passionate advocates of Judaism, developing Cabala, creating Free Masonry, socialism, and world revolution. They now carry the bulk of the burden of corrupting and destroying civilization so a Jewish new world order under Israel’s false messiah, anti-Christ, might be established. The Jewish Bolsheviks who spawned Communism and liberalism were Ashkenazi. (See Jewish Activists Created Communism)All the Jewish media moguls of Hollywood corrupting America and the world are Ashkenazim (see Jews Confirm Big Media is Jewish), as are those who control Wall Street and the Federal Reserve, dominate Congress, and circle Obama and the White House. Thus, from Khazar Poland, the Jewish Talmud and Kabbalah’s dream of revolution and world control flooded the nations.
But God will be true to His promise, abundantly recorded in Scripture, to chastise apostate Israel, including their Khazar converts. The Antichrist will turn on the great harlot Israel, destroying Zionist world control. He will ruthlessly persecute all Jews, racially pure and otherwise, with the greatest suffering in the history of mankind. A minority of Jews will repent out of the Great Tribulation and turn to Christ at His second coming. God is very specific that at that time the honor of serving Jesus as priests in His millennial kingdom will go not just to authentic descendants of Judah, the Sephardim, but, as He promises in Ezekiel 47:22, “to the strangers that sojourn among you [the Khazar Ashkenazim], which shall beget children among you: and they shall be unto you as born in the country among the children of Israel; they shall have inheritance with you among the tribes of Israel.”
God is Not Finished with the Jews
Why does Marrs fail to emphasize the existence of nearly 3 million genetically authentic Jews? It’s because he wants to remove obligation to Jews as a factor in Christian thinking. As an anti-Zionist and advocate of replacement theology, he views continuing, almost worshipful veneration of Jews and Israel by Christians as the primary reason for ascent of Jewish supremacist power in the world today. He believes that abandonment of any covenant between God and the Jews and instead, giving such covenant blessings to the church, (as he claims Gal. 3 encourages) is the healthiest, most direct way to scale down Zionist influence over evangelicals and the western world.
But the existence of Sephardic/Oriental Jews, perfectly fulfilling God’s curse of smallness and oppression by the Ashkenazi Khazars, is vitally important. It reminds us that God is not done with the Jews in a racial, national, and covenantal sense. Although God has spiritually engrafted Gentiles who believe in Christ into His spiritual olive tree, the apostle Paul warns Christians not to “boast against the [Jewish] branches,” (Rom. 11:18) saying that everyone who accepts Christ inherits all of God’s new covenant blessings and He has utterly abandoned His covenant promises with the Jews as a race – if they will repent. Instead, Paul quotes Isaiah 59:20, saying “So all Israel shall be saved: as it is written, there shall come out of Sion the Deliverer and shall turn away ungodliness from Jacob.” (Rom. 11:26) This and hundreds of Old Testament scriptures predict national Jewish repentance at “the day of the Lord” Christ’s second coming. Clearly, neither history or genetic admixture has extincted the Jewish race. Neither should displacement theology extinct God’s promise to “turn ungodliness from Jacob” as a nation.
This is why it so important that Christians, contemplating the dry and whitened bones of Jewish unbelief, not conclude that all hope of a national revival of faith in Jesus among them is impossible. Instead, as God said to the valley of dry bones, “Live!” and they came to life (Ezekiel 37), He has promised to bring life and hope in Jesus to a nation of repentant Sephardic Jews and their Khazar converts. This will happen when at last the true Messiah of Israel comes in glory and judgment and finishes His great controversy with Zion.
- The Y chromosome in males and mitochondrial DNA in females never changes. Consequently, despite the genetic shuffle of the centuries, it is possible to identify the general genetic make-up of the founders of an ethnic group.
At least three major genetic studies, Hammer et al. (2000), Goldstein et al. (2002), and Behar et al. (2004), attempted to determine Jewish origins. Their results are sometimes contradictory and puzzling even to geneticists. Yet Goldstein and Behar agree on one thing: the founding mothers of Sephardim were very different from those of Ashkenazim. All agree that it is "likely" that the male founding ancestors of Ashkenazim were largely of Mid-East origins - more so than the ancestors of Caucasian Europeans.
This suggests a plausible scenario explaining the presence of Mideast genes within the European Ashkenazim.
With conversion of the Khazars, history records an intense demand by the Khazarians themselves for Rabbinic teachers to instruct them in the requirements of a very complex religion.
Twelfth century Sephardic writer Yehuda HaLevi said the Khazars were "eager to learn the Jewish law… They sent to various countries for scholars and books and studied the Torah… They also honored and cherished the Israelites who lived among them." (The Kuzari: The Book of Proof and Argument in Defense of the Despised Faith, HaLevi)
"Rabbis were then invited to come and teach Jewish laws and customs to the Jewish Khazars. During the 200 years of the existence of this Jewish kingdom, most of the Khazars had learned the Jewish religion and were living in accordance with its laws."(Mordecai Soloff, How the Jewish People Grew Up, Cincinnati, Ohio, The Union of American-Hebrew Congregations 1936, p. 219-221)
It is inconceivable that the transformation of possibly a million idolatrous Khazars into zealous Jewish proselytes could be facilitated and sustained for two centuries without thousands of Rabbinic teachers. Such must have consisted primarily of the priestly class, the "Kohanim." These teachers were highly intelligent Talmudists. They were by definition male and most likely single, being visitors from distant lands such as Spain and Babylon. Khazarian women were famous for their beauty, prized as wives by Byzantine nobility. This was a perfect setting for pairing of Semitic genes with Gentile.
Constantine Akropolites (1250-1324) revealed that Khazars and Jews of the East may have freely intermarried. Jewish Khazars of Constantinople did intermarry and become fully integrated into the Jewish district, in contrast to Sephardim in the west. See The Legend of St. Zotikos according to N. Constantine Akropolite, ed. Timothy S. Miller, 1994, p.339-376.
Goldstein’s 2002 study of the origins of Ashkenazi women indicated they had many founding mothers and such possessed widely diversed genes. This harmonizes with the fact that Khazar women, living in a major international trading center, lacked any tradition of racial exclusivity.
The Khazarians would also have received Hebrew DNA from another major source. Surrounding the period of initial Khazar conversion, large populations of Jews were expelled from Asia Minor and the Byzantine empire. They took refuge in their new "promised land," Khazaria.
- Medieval Rabbinic authorities of the Sephardim in Toledo, Spain, were aware of the Khazars and made it clear that they did not grant equality to them. They discouraged intermarriage. Such geographic, cultural and spiritual separation is revealed in the following statement to me by Khazar authority Muhammad Rafik: "The medieval German (and in fact all western European) Jews were not in contact with eastern European "Jewry." This can be easily demonstrated by the medieval synod of France, where the leading rabbis of Europe would congregate… Of over 100 attending rabbis at the 11th and 12th century synod, not one was from eastern Europe or even Poland. They all came from Germany, Italy, France, Spain, the Netherlands, and England."
Yet in The Jews of Khazaria, Khazar expert Kevin Alan Brook expands our awareness of how small numbers of Jews entered medieval eastern Europe, largely from southern lands and as a result of persecution under the Crusades and Inquisition. They found relative safety in the more tolerant Slavic countries of eastern Europe. However, he agrees with many authorities that such numbers of authentic Jews vastly swelled as German Sephardim migrated into Khazar-dominated Poland in the 15th and 16th centuries. Partly as a result of the more permissive intermarriage practices allowed by Maimonides, authentic and Polish Khazar Jewry at last significantly melded. In time, such Khazar-Sephardim radiated westward, creating the stereotypic "German Jews," often resented by Sephardim of the west for their aggressiveness.
In Khazar-dominated countries of eastern Europe outside Poland, the genes of the founding Khazars remained much less diluted. Around the turn of the last century, such Khazar Ashkenazim joined a horde of European Jewish immigrants to America.
- Shelf 3D.com, “Sephardic Jews”.
- Wikipedia, “Ashkenazim”.
- Motivated by military considerations, Moses' census, Num. 1:46, records 603,550 "sons of Israel… from 20 years old and upward, whoever was able to go out to war in Israel." Add an equal number of women of that age (603,550) plus young people under the age of 20 (perhaps 500,000) plus elderly and infirm over 60 (250,000). Total: 1, 957,100. The number of Hebrews in the exodus, not counting a "mixed multitude" (Ex. 12:38) of Gentiles surely totaled about several million.
- Encyclopedia of the Orient, “Sephardi”
- Wikipedia, “Arab”.
- Wikipedia, “Ashkenazi”.
- Encyclopedia of the Orient, “Sephardi”.
- The Christian Science Monitor reports, "…years of discrimination against Sephardic Jews in education, jobs, housing, and other areas by Israel's mostly Ashkenazi, or European Jewish elite." (Jen Lynfield, "The Shahs of Israel Rise to Prominence," April 4, 2000.
Similarly, "In Israel, political tensions continue to persist because of feelings on the part of many Sephardim that they have been discriminated against and still don't get the respect they deserve. Historically, political elite of the nation have been Ashkenazim… Jewish Virtual Library, "Ashkenazim," by Shira Schoenberg, p. 3, 2006.
Despite recent increase in voting power provided by the powerful Sephardic Shahs party, an angry Sephardic cries out, "They gave us homes, they gave us the dirty work; they gave us education, and they took away our self-respect. What did they bring my parents to Israel for? …Wasn't it to do your dirty work? You didn't have Arabs then, so you needed our parents to do your cleaning and be your servants and laborers… You exploited and disgraced us for thirty years. You brought a million donkeys to ride on." (Beyond the Promised Land, Glen Frankel, p. 143)
Rev. Ted Pike is director of the National Prayer Network, a Christian/conservative
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