I’ve mentioned this in at least one other post, but I don’t think the words “Jews” or “Israel” etc from the BoM refer to our modern usage of those words. I think they instead refer to Noldor elves, the House of Finwe, which is likely not a surprise to anyone who reads this blog (if anyone does read it). That idea comes not from me but from books written by Daymon Smith.
We have to then wonder, though, who are the millions of people who have identified as Jews in our world? And to clarify, I’m speaking of ethnic Jews rather than merely religious adherents since obviously anyone can convert to the religion of Judaism but not anyone can claim genealogical ties to the Jewish ethno-religious group. So if they aren’t really Jews or of the House of Israel, then who are they?
Two Theories I Don’t Like
THEORY 1: We could just assume they are Noldor reborn, but I think that’s probably too easy or convenient, and frankly a little lazy. After all, that would be a LOT of reborn Noldor elves over the past 3 millennia. [side note: written evidence of an Israelite nation begins around 1000 BC] I don’t now how many millions of Noldor elves that would be but it’s a lot. Maybe the same people just keep coming back? But the truth is, I just have a hard time buying this theory and I like mine (theory #3) better so maybe you will too.
THEORY 2: Another idea I sorta like but not fully is to say some Noldor elves bred with a line of men long ago and thus can somewhat rightly claim OG Jewish heritage. They have somehow managed to retain that identity throughout the generations even if they have long forgotten how they got it. I don’t like this idea either, however, because for one, Elvish-Mannish unions are by all reports extremely rare. I do know of a couple references in Daymon’s books that suggest the sons of Feanor mated with Eastern women or that some lines of men abducted Elves and forcibly mated them with their women to produce elvish heirs. I don’t have the will to dig up those references but I’m pretty sure those two ideas are in his books. If true, I suppose this theory is a possibility, but I don’t think either of those scenarios would make any such progeny *actually* of the House of Israel simply because I think the House of Israel predates Arda. Meaning, a person’s status as part of Israel is a fea/spiritual identity rather than hroa/physical one.
True, there is apparently a way to be adopted into the line of Finwe (per the Book of Mormon) but I don’t think that happens through illicit sexual relations. So for me, this theory is technically a viable explanation for the modern-day ethno-religious group known as Jews, but this origin story would make them pretenders to the true house of Israel and not actual Israelites. Much like if someone from Paris Tennessee claimed to be a Parisian. In a technical sense it might be true but the reality is that such a person would be putting on airs since everyone knows a Parisian is someone from Paris France. Other than as a jest, no one would really entertain the idea that residents from Paris Tennessee and Paris France are both truly “Parisians”. While I like this second theory a lot better than theory 1, I have another theory I like a lot better.
Gentile Kings & Queens
THEORY 3: As mentioned in a past post, I think the dwarves are the oft-cited Gentiles of scripture. I have what I think are very good reasons for believing this and I have yet to hear a good counterargument or a better alternative to who Gentiles are. And to be clear, I don’t know of anyone who agrees with this idea, but I find it difficult to abandon. My theory for how the Jews of our era came to be conflated with the true house of Israel is that the dwarves essentially organized and named some group of men in an attempt to fulfill ancient prophecies about dwarvish adoption into the House of Israel and subsequent acceptance into the kingdom of God.
As we learn in the BoM, the Gentiles have one path back to God’s kingdom and it is only by restoring the house of Israel, establishing them in their true place, and being adopted into that same house. I theorize that the dwarves had some knowledge of this from ancient prophecy and likely hated the idea, knowing, as we do, the ancient animosities and strifes between dwarves and elves. I imagine they had some knowledge of this idea from the beginning through their own seers, perhaps even one of the Durins, and I also imagine they never breathed a word of it to any man or elf because of their disdain for the idea of having to be adopted into either house of the children of Eru, but especially the house of any elves.
And yet, as the story of the world unfolded and they dwindled in influence and power, I suspect the dwarves were somewhat humbled and eventually took their own council on how to fulfill this prophecy. I also suspect their knowledge of how this would be accomplished was extremely limited. Why? Because the BoM speaks about it in such clarifying detail, explaining exactly how the Gentiles would rescue the house of Israel (by restoring the Lehites to their land of promise) and then be adopted by that specific remnant. Since the BoM was written for the Gentiles and house of Israel, we have to assume the information in it is not otherwise known, or else why bother publishing it? By bringing that adoption about, the full gathering of Israel would be kicked off and it cannot happen unless and until some group of Gentiles (dwarves) bring the Lehite restoration to pass. Jesus said so and that’s just how it is.
Why did Jesus say so? I think because He refuses to abandon the dwarves as cast offs so he prevents his own children from being restored until and unless they become united with the children of Aule (the dwarves). So the Gentile-dwarvish involvement here is not so much a prophecy from Jesus as it is a condition to restoring Israel. He will ONLY do it by the hand of the Gentile-dwarves. It’s in the BoM that we learn exactly how the dwarves will accomplish this and we learn that the BoM was written so that the Gentile-dwarves would read it and understand how to do it. So from that, I can only surmise that whatever knowledge the Gentile-dwarves had about this idea from their own sources was extremely limited.
Back to my theory, I think in the long years since the third age of this world, the dwarves took their own council and sought for a way to end their dwindling chances at redemption by attempting their own ill-thought-out redemption of “Israel”.
And as I’m typing this, I think I will call an audible and tie this theory into theory 2 above since I think it fits. My guess is they sought for any “Jew” or “Israelite” remnant on this earth because they already knew the Noldor were long gone which would mean the dwarves had no Jews to restore. Then I suppose the dwarves perhaps found some group of men with claims (whether true or not) to Noldor genealogy. This is where we could bolt on theory 2 above, which I think would make sense. These dwarves could theorize that by taking such a group under their wings, so to speak, (you know, gathering them as a chicken gathers her hens) and setting them up as a kingdom on this earth, they would be fulfilling that prophecy and opening the door for themselves to get into God’s kingdom.
This is a good point to bring up some things Tolkien said about the dwarves and Jews of our world.
From a letter: “I do think of the ‘Dwarves’ like Jews: at once native and alien in their habitations, speaking the languages of the country, but with an accent due to their own private tongue…”
From an interview: “The dwarves of course are quite obviously, wouldn’t you say, that in many ways they remind you of the Jews? Their words are Semitic, obviously, constructed to be Semitic.”
To the above, Tolkien apparently also said “a tremendous love of the artefact, and of course the immense warlike capacity of the Jews, which we tend to forget nowadays.” The word “artefact” implies a love of possessions, like, say money, gold, and silver. The prior was edited out by the BBC. These statements have earned Tolkien an “anti-semitic” label by, in my opinion, wildly oversensitive people. Tolkien was also famously against the Aryan purity cult of Germany as shown by his response to being quizzed about his Aryan roots, so I don’t think it’s remotely accurate or fair to think of Tolkien as anti-semitic. I think he was merely showing there is some link or connection between the dwarves and the Jews.
One could surmise Tolkien is saying the dwarves *ARE* Jews but I think rather the idea is that the Jews of our world derive from the dwarves of antiquity, meaning, they were taught by the dwarves, enriched by them, named by them. The dwarves gathered them up, named them “Israel”, established them in a “land of promise” and taught them of their ways. They were given a language with dwarvish elements. They were taught war, money, lore, etc. I think this explains the formidable Israelite nation of the Bible and in fact I think it explains the stories we have in the Bible of a rather harsh and war-like people laying claim to a land by conquest. Tolkien alludes to this in his edited comments. The dwarves, I suppose, made this possible by teaching them of conquest, giving them a lore of their own (the Pentateuch), and establishing them in what today we call Israel but anciently was likely Gondolin or Nargothrond (my money is on the latter, having been first inhabited by and later built by dwarves for Finrod).
I suspect this effort by the dwarves was their attempt to fulfill this from the words of Isaiah:
Thus saith the Lord God: Behold, I will lift up mine hand to the Gentiles, and set up my standard to the people; and they shall bring thy sons in their arms, and thy daughters shall be carried upon their shoulders.
And kings shall be thy nursing fathers, and their queens thy nursing mothers; they shall bow down to thee with their face towards the earth, and lick up the dust of thy feet; and thou shalt know that I am the Lord; for they shall not be ashamed that wait for me.
So yeah, I think the dwarf kings and queens “nursed” whatever group they plucked from history and turned them into a “chosen people”. And for awhile it worked really well, but as we know, our own attempts to fulfill God’s words will only work if they fit what He intended and so we see a long and tortured history for that group of people throughout time. Granted, they have done pretty well on the whole, having risen to prominence many times, including today. We can also point out what are often decried as antisemitic tropes by comparing the dwarvish proclivity for obtaining and keeping riches with similar tendencies in Jewish culture. I realize that’s considered “antisemitic” by some, although I don’t understand why. Yes, Jews tend to dominate banking and financial districts. They also dominate media and Hollywood. Black people dominate professional sports. Women dominate nursing. White males dominate CEO positions and Nascar. None of those statements are anti anything, they are merely observations. And I think any group that has a grip on power, does a lot of things they shouldn’t in order to maintain that power. I only mention it here to say I suspect the Jews of antiquity learned how to dominate financial instruments from the dwarves who would have taught them as a means to fulfill this prophecy. They have a knack for it and if I were in their shoes, I’d probably try to hold onto that power too.
The Jews of our world have, of course, also faced unprecedented opposition at times. I suspect the reason for that is because the dwarves’ ill-advised attempt was simply not honored by God since it was not what He intended and therefore disaster is the only eventual outcome. That’s just how this world works in its current state. See Gondolin and Nargothrond as perfect examples of this dynamic….well, all of Middle Earth and its history really.
Implications of This Theory
There are a lot of implications, too many to put on this post so I’ll take a stab at that in another one. Keep in mind, I don’t think the Jerusalem mentioned in scripture is even remotely the Jerusalem we know of today. I think William Wright (WW) aka Bill is right that the Jerusalem of scripture is probably Tirion of old, so when we read about Lehi leaving Jerusalem, it is from Tirion he and his family depart. And Bill’s theory that the Promised Land to which they sail is not North America but instead the half of Eressea that was “sunk” is also a good theory, in my view. That means the boat Nephi built was something that could withstand the “winds” of space rather than the winds of the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It also means Lehi never lived on our globe and so the story we read in the BoM didn’t occur here at all. But all of that is for another post, if I ever get consistent in writing here.
So for now, the biggest implication of my theory is that if I’m right, that means the Jews of our world are not God’s covenant people, nor are they the people who the Gentiles are meant to preach to and restore. Not that I think they are bad by any means. I just think they are misnamed and no different than any other group on this planet. No different from a group like Sunni Arabs or Uiger Muslims. Not to be lifted up as the apple of God’s eye nor to be maligned, marginalized, or harmed in any way. Hopefully that keeps me from any “anti” labels.
As always, please poke holes or if you think of something I didn’t, let me know.
WJT
If you notice or theorize anything at all about the Jews, you will be labeled antisemitic. And if you ever find yourself saying “I’m not antisemitic but,” you will *definitely* be labeled an antisemite. The best approach, I think, is just to laugh it off, treating it the same way you would treat other joke-labels like “racist” or “sexist.”