Question: The King Of The Ephramites

[CASteinman]

I have a feeling this is going to be a short and lonely thread.

Years ago, in an institute manual from the 1970's that had loose leaf pages in a blue binder, there was a brief article from some source that provided some historical reference to an individual and his tribe having left Israel at the 722 conquest and being later (about 300 BC? 300 AD?) found as I recall North of the Black Sea (or Caspian Sea maybe?) The individual was said to be "The King of the Ephraimites" and he was named. I think this might have been a Book of Mormon Institute Manual, but it is an old one and I do not have it any longer.

I have looked for this reference for years and cannot find it.

I know that this board may have some people with eclectic and esoteric knowledge. So I am throwing the question out there.

Does anyone have even a remote clue about anything I have jabbered about above?

Edited July 29, 2012 by CASteinman

[Calm]

In 1813 Andrew Jensen (then the Church Historian) declared:

“We are of Israel; there is no doubt of it, and we will find that when our genealogy is revealed in detail it will lead us back from America to England, from England to Scandinavia and Germany, and from there to the country lying between the Caspian and Black Sea, that part of Asia where the Ten Tribes were lost....” (Conference Reports, April 1913, pp 80-1) (not providing a link because it is a problematic site

You might scan through this paper to see if anything is familiar: http://stevenmcollins.com/Ephraim_and_Manasseh.pdf

[CASteinman]

Thank you. Although I suspect 1813 is rather too early.

I wonder if I was reading about Antenor the "Prince of the Ephraim". I thought it was some other name and a different title.

[Calm]

Antenor?

http://familytreemak...1/UHP-0612.html

add-on: I see you found the same site. The date was 1913, not 1813, but it was from a conference report which may have been quoted in the article you are looking for. No name given though.

Edited July 29, 2012 by calmoriah

[Calm]

Maybe something by Cleon Skousen?:

http://www.ldsfreedomforum.com/viewtopic.php?f=14&p=260848

[CASteinman]

Here is some interesting research. I am thinking I must have been reading about this Antenor.

http://hales.org/w2cd/c25.pdf

[CASteinman]

Tangential information. This is apparently some British Hebrew information about the 10 tribes.

http://www.hebroots.org/hebrootsarchive/0009/000930_i.html

[The Nehor]

Based on where we find the Old World Gentile Blood of Ephraim (and Manasseh) it seems that most of it went to Britain or Scandinavia with scattered other bits throughout Europe along with a smattering of the other tribes. A British Patriarch I spoke with said that most of his blessing were the sons of Joseph but that he had also been inspired to assign people to all of the Lost Tribes. Whether that is where the Savior went after speaking with the Nephites is uncertain. Some British legends make it sound like there might have been a final holdout of true believers in the Messiah there and that others may have joined them (Mary the Mother of Jesus, Joseph of Armathea, and John the Beloved are the favored characters). It is possible there is another strong bloodline somewhere else still to be found. (China? Russia? India?)

[ANACO]

No eclectic or esoteric knowledge needed.

This 1994 Ensign article may help:

Tracing the Dispersion (using linguistics)

http://www.lds.org/e...ersion?lang=eng

I like these portions of the article:

There are other peoples throughout Europe and Asia whose origins trace from this area and whose names seem to have a Hebrew root. Among these are the Galadi (the root word probably comes from the biblicalGilead, the region east of the Jordan River, pronounced Galaad in that region and in Assyria and the Celts (a Germanic pronunciation ofGaladi); the Gallii (or Gali, root word probably from the biblical Galilee), also called Gals, Gaels, and Gauls; the Sacites, or Scythians (the word comes from Assyrian captives, Esak-ska and Saka, comparable to the Hebrew Isaac); the Goths, or Getai (the root probably from the biblicalGad, pronounced Gath); the Jutes of Jutland (from the tribe of Judah); and the Parsi (from Hebrew Paras, which means “the dispersed ones”), who settled Paris and whose name in Germanic territory sound-shifted to Frisians.

The Russian archaeologists also found mounds, or heaps of earth, dotting the landscape.²⁵These mounds, stretching across the entire region north of the Black Sea where the Hebraic inscriptions were found, turned out to be elaborate burial chambers, often containing a leader of the people with some of his possessions. Although mound building was not a typical type of burial in the Middle East, “high heaps” or “great heaps” are described as a means of burial in several Old Testament passages. (See Josh. 7:26, Josh. 8:29; 2 Sam. 18:17.) Furthermore, the people of Ephraim were commanded in the Old Testament specifically to build up “high heaps” as “waymarks” as they traveled. (See Jer. 31:21.)

As a side note, these mounds mentioned in this article could have parallels to the mounds in North America referred to by the Prophet Joseph Smith as noted in the Church's history, also built by Israelites (Nephites).

Edited July 30, 2012 by ANACO

[CASteinman]

This 1994 Ensign article may help:

http://www.lds.org/e...ersion?lang=eng

That is one of my favorite articles of all time.

I am still sort of wondering if what I read about the "King of the Ephraimites" was this Antenor fellow. I don't recall that being the name but it seems to fit. I need to see if I can find the original article. somehow in my garage.

[ANACO]

Searching for Antenor at LDS.org returned this:

http://www.lds.org/ensign/1977/01/i-have-a-question/i-have-a-question?lang=eng&query=antenor

Kind regards.

[CASteinman]

Searching for Antenor at LDS.org returned this:

http://www.lds.org/e...g&query=antenor

Kind regards.

Thanks. Had not thought of looking there. I vaguely remember reading that article.

The more I look around and search the more I am convinced that must have been the name I saw. But somehow, in my memory I thought it was a name that began with an "M" or an "R". I just do not remember though.

[CASteinman]

OK, I found another interesting reference to this Antenor. This one in a book "Temples of the Most High" by N.B. Lundwall:

A Remarkable Confirmation of An Authentic Pedigree History

By F. T. Pomeroy, of Mesa, Arizona

In the Pomeroy History, a footnote listed Richimir II as a descendant of Antenor, the King of the Cimmerians, who lived on the Black Sea, so in setting them down in my Temple Record, I left several lines between the two names and records, and the baptisms had been done for each on the 18th day of September, 1923.

Continuing my research, I wrote a second letter to Elisha Loomis, a professor of mathematics in the High School at Cleveland, Ohio, who was also a genealogist of national fame, and who had compiled and published the Loomis Genealogy, and had assisted in compiling the Pomeroy Ancestral Chart. I submitted to him some genealogy I had compiled, with some queries. On the back of one of the large sheets I had sent him, he wrote the following: "This will interest you."

He then set down my lines of ancestry, beginning with the father of Richimir II, Clodimir III who was my 49th gr. gr. parent, and continuing back with the parent, and sometimes parents, in each generation, giving the date of death where available, or living date of each name for 34 generations, to "Antenor, the King of the Cimmarians, who lived on the Black Sea, and who died 443 B.C."

He wrote he had discovered the line while doing some research work in the Harvard Library of the Harvard University earlier in the summer, in a volume by Professor James Anderson, much prized and now rare book "Royal Genealogies, 2nd Edition, 1776," of which I made a copy, and which I am now sending you."

I immediately transferred the names to my Temple Record and after some verifications by the Genealogical Society of Utah, which also had recently obtained a copy of this work, and sent them to the Salt Lake Temple, where they were baptized for on the 9th day of April, 1927. The baptisms for this royal ancestral line were performed in the Salt Lake Temple, about the same time as the completion of the Arizona Temple in April, 1927.

When the Arizona Temple was dedicated, I was called to the honorable position of Door Keeper, and was set apart with my wife, as officiators in the temple service. My brother, Talma E. Pomeroy, and his wife, were also called to the same labor. This gave us a wonderful opportunity to carry on the ordinance work for our extended and long ancestral line, most of them having been baptized for in the other temples of the church.

The Pomeroy family responded nobly to the temple ordinance work, and by November 2, 1927, we were ready for the sealing for time and all eternity as husband and wife, Richimir II and his wife, Nastilla.

Long lines of pedigreed ancestry with proven identifying data, necessary before the work could be done in the Temples, were rare in the Church; in fact, this line to Richimir II, and back to Antenor, who died in 443 B.C., was the most extended ancestral line yet presented to the temple. Naturally, many questioned its accuracy, and it was the subject of many wise-cracks, "there was no way of knowing these were real people or just simply a list of names." I was satisfied in my own mind, since the authorities were given in the Pomeroy Ancestral Chart for every name back to 350 A.D. But now we had added an ancestral line running back 793 years farther, with Richimir II as the "key man."

I had been praying that in some way a confirmation, or otherwise, might be manifested, that I might be assured that the work done in this line, and to be done, would not be in vain.

I was officiating that day and was not prepared to act as proxy, and Brother Samuel Weston of Logan, Utah, and Sister Hayne of Douglas, Arizona, volunteered to stand as proxy for the royal couple. President James W. LeSueur officiated. I sat in a chair facing the door of the sealing room, acting as one of the witnesses.

When the ceremony commenced my head was bowed in prayer. Suddenly I received the impression that something extraordinary was happening. I looked up and to my surprise and joy, I visualized standing just inside the door and gazing directly at me the dim form and smiling countenance of a personage. He was tall and brawny. He had piercing eyes, and heavy eye-brows, and rather high cheek bones. The lower part of his face was covered by a gray beard which hung well down upon his breast. I was impressed that he was the personage for whom the ceremony was being performed. I was nearly overcome, but said nothing about it at the time. After the ceremony Brother Weston asked for information concerning Richimir II, and I gave him such information as I had.

I thought over and treasured the visitation, as one given to me, and intended to say nothing about it. The next morning Brother Weston came to me and said: "Brother Pomeroy, I expect you are wondering why I was so anxious to obtain information concerning the man for whom I stood as proxy yesterday. I wanted to write about him in my diary, for they were present and witnessed the ceremony, for I felt their presence." "I am glad to hear you say that," I replied, "as I also know they were there, for I visualized his countenance and will know him when I meet him on the other side." Sister Hayne testified to the same thing and President LaSueur also testified he was impressed with their presence while the ceremony was in progress. This manifestation cleared up all of my misgivings and fears concerning this ancestral line, and since we have completed all of the ordinances of the Gospel for the entire line of 83 generations back, including the father and mother of Antenor Aesyeges and Cleomaestra, his wife.

[ANACO]

I don't know if one could logically tie together these two paragraphs from the two articles:

Herodotus identified the first of the mound builders in the Black Sea area as Kimmerioi;²⁷the Romans referred to them as Cimmerii, from which we have the name Cimmerians. They called themselves Khumri, which refers to “the Dynasty of King Omri.” Omri was king of northern Israel about 900 B.C. He founded Samaria and established the capital of Israel there. His mode of government made him popular throughout the Middle East, and northern Israel came to be known by his name, politically, from that time on. http://www.lds.org/e...ersion?lang=eng

“In my family records I found an interesting genealogy that ties us into one line of European royalty going through Charlemagne back to one Antenor, King of the Cimmerians, then to Judah, and thence through Abraham and Noah to Adam. Can you tell me how reliable lineages such as these are?”

http://www.lds.org/e...g&query=antenor

If Antenor was considered a King of the Cimmerians, the Cimmerians of the Black Sea area, it should correctly reinforce what you recall.

Regards

[CASteinman]

Maybe what I remember as "King of the Ephraimites" was "Prince of the Ephraimites". If so, then Antenor is almost certainly the man.