The Tutsi and Jewish Heritage

In Rwanda, Uganda or anywhere in the Great Lakes region ‘Jewish’ has mysteriously ended up becoming shorthand for ‘Tutsi’ and these people consider themselves to be Jews/Hebrews who came from Ethiopia (Cush). It’s really troubling, deceptive and hypocritical for these guys who call themselves the blood brothers of the Jewish Jesus to practice lawlessness and ignore the most basic moral behavioural standards that the Lord set for humanity.

In addition, they repeatedly abuse their power by torturing, jailing, and murdering those who disagree with them and still call themselves Jews, unless they belong to the Synagogue of Satan Jesus warned about in Revelation 2:9!!! These are people who believe in the concept of Karl Marx who believed communism would have to be imposed violently and that the proletarians would only come to power by revolution. This all is completely irreconcilable with the teachings of Jesus Christ.

The Tutsi, claim to share the story of their beginning with King Solomon who had an affair with the Queen of Sheba who converted to Judaism and was sent back with their child. However, there is absolutely no genealogical evidence of Tutsi descent from the Israelites apart from the supposed offspring of the union between Solomon and the Queen of Sheba which has become the subject of one of the most widespread and fertile cycles of legends in Africa and the Middle East.

Let’s now see what the Bible has to say about all this, starting with the Old Testament.

The Ethiopian history described in the Kebra Nagast relates that Ethiopians are descendants of Israelite tribes who came to Ethiopia with Menelik I, alleged to be the son of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba.  The legend relates that Menelik, as an adult, returned to his father in Jerusalem, and later resettled in Ethiopia. He took with him the Ark of the Covenant. In 1 Kings 10-13 and 2 Chronicles 9:1–12, we have an account of the visit in which the queen of Sheba made a long journey not just to see his wealth but to hear his wisdom.

What was the purpose of Queen Sheba’s visit?

1. The queen of Sheba came to see for herself if everything she had heard about Solomon was true. In other words, to satisfy her curiosity; she had heard of his fame, especially his wisdom, and she came to prove him, whether he was so great a man as he was reported to be. For instance, we are told that Solomon’s fleet sailed near the coast of her country, and probably it might have been put in there for fresh water and therefore she would go herself and know the truth of the report.

2. To receive instruction from him. She came to hear his wisdom, and thereby to improve her own so that she might be better able to govern her own kingdom by his maxims of policy. Our Saviour calls her the queen of the south, for Sheba, lay south of Canaan. In his public ministry, Jesus said: ‘The Queen of the South will rise at the judgment with this generation and condemn it; for she came from the ends of the earth to listen to Solomon’s wisdom, but now One greater than Solomon had come (Matthew 12:42, Luke 11). Jesus was said to be ‘filled with wisdom’ as a child (Luke 2).

3. She was religiously inclined, and had heard not only of the fame of Solomon, but concerning the name of the Lord, the great name of that God whom Solomon worshipped and from whom he received his wisdom, and with this God, she desired to be better acquainted.

4. She came to bring a noble present to Solomon of gold and spices, In Psalms 72 15: David had foretold concerning Solomon that to him should be given of the gold of Sheba, ‘Long may he live! May gold from Sheba be given him. May people ever pray for him and bless him all day long.’ The present of gold and spices which the wise men of the east brought to Christ was signified by this in Matthew 2:11. Thus she paid for the wisdom she had learned and did not think she bought it dearly.

The Bible says: ‘Now King Solomon gave to the queen of Sheba all she desired, whatever she asked, much more than she had brought to the king. So, she turned and went to her own country, she and her servants’ (1 Kings 10:13).

The Tutsi, claim Solomon had a sexual relationship with the Queen which resulted in having a baby and even the Christians in Ethiopia, to this day are confident that she came from their country, and that Candace was her successor, who is mentioned in Acts 8:27.

However, in the Bible, there is NO mention that the Queen of Sheba either married or had any sexual relations with King Solomon (although some identify her with the “black and beautiful” in Song of Songs 1:5). Rather, the narrative records that she was impressed with Solomon’s wealth and wisdom, and they exchanged royal gifts, and then she returned to rule her people in Kush. However, the “royal gifts” are interpreted by some as sexual contact. The loss of the Ark is also not mentioned in the Bible. Hezekiah later makes reference to the Ark in 2 Kings 19:15.

When she realised the extent of his riches and wisdom, she was overwhelmed and no longer questioned his power or wisdom. No longer a competitor, she became an admirer. In fact, her experience was repeated by many kings and foreign dignitaries who paid honour to Solomon. And kings from every nation sent their ambassadors to listen to the wisdom of Solomon (1 Kings 4:34 2 Chronicles 9:23).

What about the theory of being part of the lost ten tribes and the Ark of the Covenant thus making the Tutsi; Jews, Levites and Danites? The current tribes of Israel are Judah and Benjamin. The 10 lost tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh and Ephraim were deported from the Kingdom of Israel by the Neo-Assyrians around 722 BCE.

According to some historians, Jewish beginnings in Ethiopia started in the 15^th century which is why they claim to have descended from Israel. There are also a number of claims of descent from the ‘lost’ ten tribes by many groups including the Tutsi who trace the lineage back to the tribe of Dan which was the first of the ‘lost’ ten tribes of Israel. These ten tribes whether lost or not are NOT in any way related to the Tutsi people. Genealogical proof of Tutsi descent from the Israelites is therefore impossible to find.

Furthermore, the prophet Ezekiel was told to take two sticks and hold them in one hand, side by side. God told him to write ‘Ephraim’ on one stick (the popular name for the northern ten tribes) and ‘Judah’ on the other (the name for the two tribes in the south). Then he was instructed to hold them together in his hand so that they became one stick. This was like the miracle of Moses’ rod in Egypt. God was saying, ‘I’m going to make the two kingdoms into one people again, and I’ll be their shepherd.’ This is echoed by Jesus’ words: ‘I have other sheep that are not of this sheep pen. I must bring them also.’Egypt, Libya, Sudan and Ethiopia are all mentioned in the Bible as distinct nations with different roles in God’s redemption plan for the nations.

The Bible tells us that during one of the bleakest moments in Jeremiah’s life, God demonstrated His power by providing help from a high-ranking African Ethiopian official known as Ebed-Melech who was working Zedekiah’s court. He risked his position and perhaps his life to rescue Jeremiah from a muddy cistern when the king had heard the advice of his officials that Jeremiah must die because he was saying, the city of Jerusalem will certainly be handed over to the army of the king of Babylon:

Here is the account as recorded in Jeremiah 38:6-11:

So, the officials took Jeremiah from his cell and lowered him by ropes into an empty cistern in the prison yard. It belonged to Malkijah, a member of the royal family. There was no water in the cistern, but there was a thick layer of mud at the bottom, and Jeremiah sank down into it. But Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, an important court official, heard that Jeremiah was in the cistern. At that time the king was holding court at the Benjamin Gate, so Ebed-Melech rushed from the palace to speak with him.“My lord the king,” he said, “these men have done a very evil thing in putting Jeremiah the prophet into the cistern. He will soon die of hunger, for almost all the bread in the city is gone. “So, the king told Ebed-Melech, “Take thirty of my men with you, and pull Jeremiah out of the cistern before he dies.” So Ebed-Melech took the men with him and went to a room in the palace beneath the treasury, where he found some old rags and discarded clothing. He carried these to the cistern and lowered them to Jeremiah on a rope. Ebed-Melech called down to Jeremiah, “Put these rags under your armpits to protect you from the ropes.” Then when Jeremiah was ready, they pulled him out. So, Jeremiah was returned to the courtyard of the guard—the palace prison—where he remained.

The Ethiopian Ebed-Melech risked his life to save God’s prophet, Jeremiah. When Babylon conquered Jerusalem just as Jeremiah had prophesied, God protected Ebed-Melech from the Babylonians:

The Lord had given the following message to Jeremiah while he was still in prison: “Say to Ebed-Melech the Ethiopian, ‘This is what the Lord of Heaven’s Armies, the God of Israel, says: I will do to this city everything I have threatened. I will send disaster, not prosperity. You will see its destruction, but I will rescue you from those you fear so much. Because you trusted me, I will give you your life as a reward. I will rescue you and keep you safe. I, the Lord, have spoken!’ (Jeremiah 39:15-18).

The New Testament

In the New Testament, we are reminded that God does not limit His Kingdom to any race or group of people. He offers salvation to all people without regard to nationality. In Acts 1:8 we read, ‘You shall be my witnesses beginning in Jerusalem, Judaea and Samaria and to the uttermost parts of the earth.’ The witness for Christ starts in Jerusalem, in Chapters 1–7. Chapters 8 -10 take the witness further into Judaea and Samaria, and then finally it spreads from there to Europe and the heart of the Roman empire.

Thus, Luke is seen to be demonstrating how Jesus’ words at the beginning had been fulfilled by the end of the book, as the gospel reaches Rome with Paul, the witness of Christ to the Emperor himself. The only hint of expansion to the south is the conversion of the Ethiopian on his way home when Philip was transported to preach to him. He was reading the book of Isaiah 53 when Philip met him and it would seem a curious incident to include, were it not for Luke’s purpose of showing how the gospel spread. This is how the gospel first came to Ethiopia, brought by that Ethiopian eunuch, the first African convert.

Ethiopia known as Cush was located in Africa south of Egypt. As we’ve mentioned above through the story of Ebed-Melech, the Jews had had contact with Ethiopia in ancient days. The Psalmist says: Let Egypt come with gifts of precious metals; let Ethiopia bring tribute to God (Psalm 68:31; Jeremiah 38:7), so this Eunuch may have been a Gentile convert to Judaism and that’s why he was reading aloud from the Book of Isaiah. Because he was in charge of the treasury of Ethiopia, his conversion brought Christianity into the power structures of another government. This is the beginning of the witness ‘to the ends of the earth’ (Acts 1:8).

The Jews were and are still proud of the fact that their heritage came from Isaac whose mother was Sarah (Abraham’s legitimate wife), rather than Ishmael, whose mother was Hagar (Sarah’s servant). Nevertheless, Paul asserts that no one claim to be chosen by God because of his or her heritage or good deeds. God freely chooses to offer salvation by His sovereign goodness and mercy, and not because of our own merit.

Paul tells us that NOT everyone who claims to be a Jew is truly so before God. The upshot of this quote (Rom. 2:25-29) is quite simple: A true Jew according to Apostle Paul is one who has both the circumcision of the flesh and the circumcision of the heart, commanded in Deuteronomy 10:16. Not of the flesh only and conversely not of the heart only! Both are needed simultaneously. The other nations, if obedient to all the teachings of Jesus designed for non-Israelites, are considered just as righteous as Jews obedient to their covenant before God. Paul repeats the same argument later in Romans 9, where he will argue that not all descendants of Israel constitute the true Israel:

Not all who are descended from Israel are the true Israel, and they are not all the children of Abraham because they are his descendants by blood, but the promise was: “Your descendants will be named through Isaac” That is, it is not the children of the body Abraham’s natural descendants who are God’s children, but it is the children of the promise who are counted as Abraham’s true descendants (Romans 9: 6-8).

God is not the God of the Jews only, but the God of the entire world. God’s justice, like everything else, applies to both Jews and Gentiles alike. The law has been made known to all, including Gentiles, either by external providence or by internal conscience, and, as a result, God shall judge each person’s sinfulness against the law, the example and standard for which has been set in Jesus Christ (Romans 2:12-16).

Understand that God shows no partiality and is no respecter of persons, but in every nation, he who venerates and has a reverential fear for God, treating Him with worshipful obedience and living uprightly, is acceptable to Him and sure of being received and welcomed by Him (Acts10:34-35). He asserts that salvation for both the Jew and Gentile is through faith in Jesus Christ and as far His descent is concerned Jesus Christ, was not just a Hebrew descendant of Abraham but a Judean in the direct royal line of David!

While many points could be offered to refute the idea that the Tutsi are part of the lost tribes, the Bible teaches that descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, who are scattered all over the earth, will be regathered in their ancient homeland in the end-times.

Moreover, in Revelation 7:4-7, we see 144,000 Jewish men singled out for special ministry and protection, 12,000 from each of the twelve tribes, including the so-called ten lost tribes. While many have tried to spiritualize this prophecy and make it a reference to the church, the clear and literal meaning in its context is that these are literally the twelve tribal bloodlines of Israel.

The ten tribes are not in any way related to the Tutsi people, or part of the ten lost tribes of Israel, nor the tribe of Dan or Manasseh. Israel is still Israel and will fulfil its central role in the events of the end times, just as the Bible predicts. Having said that, Paul urged us to avoid foolish and ill-informed and stupid controversies and genealogies and dissensions and quarrels about the Law, for they are unprofitable and useless (Titus 3:9).