School children in Israel learn an ancient Jewish tradition about the disappearance of the Lost Tribes who crossed a mysterious river named Sambatyon. But, if in old times and if they ask where that river may be, their teachers could not tell them.  It is not on any map, until now.  Prior to the Noahtic flood, the Black Sea was NOT connected to the Sea of Marmara, or the Mediterranean Sea. its location might help in the search for the Tribe of Ephraim. This strait is the result of the Great Flood receding. The Black Sea was once fresh water sea about 400 feet below its current sea level.

A.   Jewish  religious tradition 

          The tradition about the Sambatyon goes back to sacred Jewish texts. According to these it is a very unusual river.  For example Rabbi Akiva is reported to have said that  “. . .  the river Sambat­yon carries stones the whole week but allows them to rest on the Sabbath”.  Rabbi Nachmanides wrote: ” . . .  it is called Sabbatyon because of its rest on the Sabbath.” More star­tling, if less consistent, details are given in classical sources, as well as in medieval writings.

          Certainly, there are rivers which stop when they dry up in summer; but such changes are season­al, not weekly. At most river mouths the incoming tide may block the out-flowing waters; but such interruptions occur roughly twice a day. What sort of a river would stop once a week?  It has eluded the efforts of rabbis and other explorers to find a river with anything remote­ly resembling the peculiarities described per the Sabbatyon and the Bosphorus. Today the quest continues but is assumed it to be the mysterious Bosphorus Strait. Note: sometimes spelled Bosporus.

         There is a body of water with unusual characteristics. The Cimmerians are a group of migrants connected with the Assyrian dispersion of the northern ten tribes of Israel. It is the Bosphorus. For it is the only route by which the Lydians could have driven the Cimmerians out of Asia Minor. The Lydian Empire had reached its maximum dimensions by then. Covering western Asia Minor, its eastern boundary simply led to other countries in Asia Minor, while its other boundaries were all maritime. The only nearby land outside the region was Thrace, just across the Bosphorus. Further evidence for this point of exit may be seen in the fact that the next stage in Cimmerian history occurred in southeast Eu­rope. Might one conclude that this is also the hinterlands to where the Assyrians drove some of the conquered Northern Tribes of Israel?

B.     How the Bosphorus stops flowing weekly 

          The Bos­phorus is the strait through which the waters of the Black Sea rush past Istanbul toward the Aegean Sea. About once a week the current slows down drastically, stops or even reverses; the inter­rup­tion may last for a day or more. It is a real hazard for sailors, as can be seen in the pilot’s hand­book put out by the British Admiralty for this area.

          The phenomenon was known to navigators in classical times.  Strabo mentioned it: “. . . the strait at Byzantium [the Bosphorus] . . . as Hipparchus reports, it even stands still sometimes.”  (Strabo, Geography 1.3.12) 

          It must have been on the basis of this knowledge that the Greeks were able to sail into the Black Sea for trade and coloniza­tion.  Further back in history during the 400 years of Egyptian captivity, the captive Tribe of Dan was their trade-by-sea crews. Danites [Tribe of Dan] had established trading posts for Egypt along the coast of the Black Sea. Since the Bosphorus current averages about three miles an hour, it would have been close to impossible to navigate up the Bos­phorus most days. It is supposed that Greek ships would wait at the southern end — for days at a time if necessary — until the current stopped or reversed. Then sail up it to the Black Sea in just a few hours.

          These water flow effects do not recur on any fixed day of the week, but they do happen about once a week. One series of observations during a period from April through September yielded an average of 4.8 days per month. In other words during that particular half-year they occurred on average every 6 days and 8 hours. In different seasons the average might be once a week.

          These characteristics of the Bosphorus are rather like those of the legendary Sambatyon, without being exactly the same.  In both cases the current stops, it also reverses.  In both cases the periodicity is approximately weekly; but in the second one it is exactly so and occurs always on the same day of the week (Bosphorus).

          The significance of this simi­larity can best be evaluated considering another point found in tradition. 

C.    How the huge stones were stilled 

          According to Jewish tradition stones come to rest in the “Sambatyon” on the Sabbath.   A parallel may be seen in the Greek legend of the Argonauts i.e., Minyans. In those days such legends were part of every-day conversation. This is the best-known tradition about the Bosphorus. Anyone crossing it would be likely to hear the story referred to by boatmen and other local inhabitants.

          An important feature of the story is a pair of giant rocks at the entrance to the strait from the Black Sea. Today they are still a peril to shipping. According to the tradition, they were so loosely emplaced that they would on occasion strike each other; hence their name — Sym­plegadae (means Clashers). Boats attempting to sail between them might be smashed to pieces.

          It had been prophesied that the rocks would come to rest only if and when heroes would successfully pass through them. This condition was fortunately fulfilled when Jason and his Argonauts passed through in search of the Golden Fleece.  Their ship, the “Argo”, sustained only slight damage; and the rocks are said then to have become sta­tionary. According to the legend, the water link between the Black Sea and the Aegean Sea was thereby opened to naviga­tors from that time forth.

          In this case a connection appears between the religious tradition about the Sambatyon and the Greek legend about the Bosphorus. What they have in common is the concept of rocks coming to rest. 

 D.   The location was forgotten until now

          If the body of water in question is now known as the Bosphorus, how did it lose the name of Sambatyon? The probable answer is that Bosphorus — a word with Greek roots — was applied to the strait by Greek traders and colonists, who began to penetrate the area in the *7^th century. Their presence then increased only gradually. The Cimmerians must have crossed late in the 7^th or early in the 6^th century B.C. Accordingly, they are likely to have heard from the local inhabitants an older pre-Greek name — Sambatyon.

*This coincides remarkably well with the 722 B.C. first dispersions of the northern ten Tribes of Israel by the Assyrians. Many fled the invasion of the Assyrians.

          When information about the scrabbling Israeli crossing reached Jerusalem [Juda], no one there may have known where it was.  Neither Sambatyon nor Bosphorus are mentioned in the Old Testament.  After all, it is more than 500 miles away to the northwest. But why was its loca­tion not found out through inquiry?

          One reason could be the state of weakness and confusion then reigning in Jerusalem.  The date when the Cimmerians crossed coincided approximately with the deportations to Babylon in the 6^th century of the norther tribes of Israel. The First Temple was destroyed. In these terrible circum­stances information coming from any group of exiles from the northern kingdom, lacked unity or desire to get help Judah. The Babylonian exile would have taken priority in the minds of the people of the south­ern kingdom of Judah. The northern ten Tribes of Israel were already dispersed by the Assyrians. Thousands of these people fled north of the northern Kingdom to escape the Assyrian brutalities. By the time of the return from Babylon, led by Ezra and Nehemiah, Greek influence and, with it, Greek names were spreading throughout the east Mediterranean area.  This would include the Greeks calling the Sambatyon by its Greek name … Bosphorus.

          Meanwhile, the Ephraimite escapees too were losing contact with their old home. Some escaped Assyrian deportations by fleeing toward what eventually became known as S.E. Europe. On the other side of the Bos­phorus they were entering a different world of Celtic and other tribes.  From there very little news about them reached Israel. The Sam­batyon — wherever it might be — came to be known in Jerusalem as an unknown place the escapees had last been heard from before tribal Israeli contacts faded out. This is when the northern Israelite Tribes began to lose connection with their native tribal names.

          Confirmation of this identification of the Sambatyon can be found in a Christian source a thousand years later. *Jerome, died in Bethlehem. He recorded a local tradition that some of the lost tribes were at the Bosphorus.  * Born  around 347 current era in Stridon, Dalmatia and died on September 30, 420 in Bethlehem, Palestine.

          Certainly, there is a differ­ence between a river that stops on average about once a week and one that does so exactly on the Sabbath. Nevertheless, so far as the frequency of stop­ping is concerned, they are much more similar to each other than to any other known rivers or straits. After all, how many rivers or straits are there in the world that stop anywhere close to once a week?

          Not only can the remarkable behavior of the strait current be explained, but also the movement of the stones. And the disap­pearance of the name can be ac­counted for too.  

Ahabiblemoments – 2024