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Monday, August 27, 2012

How Afghana Came From the Benjamin Tribe and King Saul Part II


Nadene Goldfoot
Abiel, b 12th century BCE was the son of Zeror of the tribe of Benjamin.  He was the father of Kish and also the father of King Saul and of Ner, father of Abner.  He was also called Jehiel.  He lived in Gibeon and his wife was Maachah.

Afghana , born around 1,000 BCE, was the grandson of King Saul (Talut) of the 11th century BCE.  .  His father was Saul’s son Irmia (Jeremiah).   King Saul’s father was Kish of the tribe of Benjamin. Benjamin’s father was Jacob and his mother was Rachel, Jacob’s first love.   The prophet Samuel had selected Saul to be king.  At the time there was a  military threat from the Philistines and Ammonites.  Saul organized a trained army at once and defeated the enemy in battles.  The lineage about Afghana is according to Pashtun records.  I have not found him in Jewish records nor the son “Irmia (Jeremiah). Here we have King Saul referred to in Pashto as Talut.

However, once the tribes had been exiled and removed out of the country, children would have been born and the tribes of Judah and Benjamin would have been cut off from learning about them.  There is also a difference in languages spoken.  For instance, we refer to Hadassah as Queen Esther.  King Ahashueros of Persia that is written in Esther’s book was known there by another name.  There must be a “strong imprint of this occurrence in the cultural memory.  Something must have happened to give rise to the story.”  “It’s kernel might represent something that happened in reality.”  So much of our Jewish genealogy is written in our Torah.  It even lists the genealogy of Esau’s family.  from Abraham and down to the descendants.

Following the tribe of Benjamin from Jewish records were 11 sons.  Bela, Becher, Ashbel, Gera, Naaman, Ehi, Rosh, Muppim, Huppim and Ard.  This is listed in the Tanakh, the Stone Edition.

According to Jewish records, Saul’s sons were Jonathan and Ishbosheth, Abinadab, Milchishua and a daughter, Merab.  He had 12 children though usually 3 were spoken about.  Eshbaal was another son of Saul who Abner sided with and crowned king at Mahanaim   It was when the Philistines launched a united attack that Saul was only able to fight defensively and fell with his 3 sons including Jonathan in the battle on Mt. Gilboa.  Ishbosheth survived and became his successor over part of the country.

They had a terrific victory at Michmash which stopped the Philistine danger.  Then they went after the Moabites, Ammonites and Arameans.  He purified Judaism by eliminating witchcraft.  Somehow, he made Samuel the prophet angry and Samuel appointed David as the successor. David had been Saul’s armor-bearer and was a friend of his son, Jonathan.  He became the husband of Saul’s daughter, Michal.  Saul became very jealous of David, so David went to live with Achish, king of Gath.  He then returned to Israel after Saul and 3 of his sons had been defeated and killed at the battle of Mt. Gilboa.  He settled in Hebron and declared himself king of Judah.

Not only the Pathans, but also the Afghan Royal family has a very well-known tradition placing its origin as coming from the tribe of Benjamin.  This was first found in a book called Mahsan-I-Afghani first published in 1635.  According to this tradition, King Saul had a son called Jeremiah who had a son called Afghana.  Jeremiah died at about the time of King Saul’s death and Afghana was raised by King David and remained in the royal court during King Solomon’s reign.  So the Afghan Royal Family says they came from Benjamin's tribe of the southern kingdom of Judah.

Another important person whose ancestor was the tribe of Benjamin was Mordechai, son of Jair, the uncle of Queen Esther (Hadassah) of Persia.

The Tribes of Joseph

The tribes of Joseph are the tribes of his 2 sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.  They are also considered to be part of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel.  They call themselves Bani-Israel, meaning “children of Israel.”  Their tradition is that they were carried away from their ancient homeland.  Formerly they were shepherds in search of pasture but they gave up their nomadic life and settled into village communities.

Resource:  http://wiki.answers.com/Q/What_were_the_names_of_King_Saul's_children
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theory_of_Pashtun_descent_from_Israelites
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mordecai
http://books.google.com/books?id=ULLDDnK0MsQC&pg=PA401&lpg=PA401&dq=kish+and+his+descendants&source=bl&ots=0oHcHLuhyZ&sig=SBIlnY-Kt68VI3DySFcODGuv9M0&hl=en#v=onepage&q=kish%20and%20his%20descendants&f=false
http://www.2think.org/hundredsheep/bible/library/hushim.shtml
Arif
Asher
Tanakh, Stone Edition
Update 11/1/14 http://www.shavei.org/category/communities/other_communities/asia/afghanistan/?lang=en

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