Over a century after Joseph of Arimathea arrived in Glastonbury, Fagan (Phaganus) and Deruvian (Deruvianus) arrived on the Isle of Avalon in the year of 166 CE. They were official legates (holy men) that were sent at the request of Lucius, the King of the Britons by Jewish Desposyni Pope Eleutherius in Rome. While they were there, they baptized the Silurian Cymric king and his family at Glastonbury.

King Lucius (Lewer Mawr), the British ruler not only professed his faith in the Messiah but his desire to be a teaching father to the subjects of his realm. He sent two of his learned scholars, Elvanus and Medvinus to Rome in order to seek an audience with the Bishop of Rome Elutherius. He wanted to know the best ways to evangelize his own subjects. The Roman Bishop Eleutherius not only received these emissaries, but personally taught them the precepts of the Torah Law and the precepts of the New Covenant of the Jewish Nazarenes. They return back to Britain, with two Roman ambassadors, Fagan (Phaganus) and Deruvian (Deruvianus), arriving back in Britain in the year of 166 CE.

St. David’s Chapel or Abbey Church attached to the Lignea Basilica (Wooden Basilica) that covered the Vetusta Ecclesia (Ancient Synagogue) – Photo by Robert Mock

With the bishop’s emissaries was sent copies of “bothe the Oulde and Newe Testaments” (Sir W. Dethicke – “Vide Collection of Curious Discourses”, Vol II, pg 165, cited by Andres Gray, D.D., “The Origin and Early History of Christianity in Britain”, pg. 38) along with a personal letter:

Roman Bishop Elutherius – “You have received in the kingdom of Britain, by God’s mercy, both the law and faith of Christ. You have both the Old and New Testaments. Out of the same, through God’s grace, by the advice of your realme, take a law, and by the same, through God’s sufferance, rule you your kingdom of Britain, for in that kingdom you are God’s vicar.” (Prideaux’s Introduction to History. Quoted in Trelawny’s Perranzabuloe, pp. 55-57. Cited by Andres Gray, D.D., “The Origin and Early History of Christianity in Britain”, pg. 38)

Britain was the first nation on this planet whose subjects were converted to the Jewish messianic faith of the Messiah Yahshua (Jesus). It was the first country in whose king was a convert who governed as a Jewish Nazarene (later Christian) ruler. One hundred and forty six years before Rome professed her Christian faith, a ruler of the Isle of Britannia governed the entire island in the name of Yahshua HaMaschiach (Jesus the Messiah). The rule of King Lucius was a holy mission. Within two years, in the year of 168 CE, he had converted three pagan Arch-Flamins and twenty-eight Flamins and appointed them as his High Priests and Priests and then appointed three arch-temples; London, York, and Caerleon in Wales.

While exploring the island of Avalon, Fagan (Phaganus) and Deruvian (Deruvianus) examined the ancient Vetusta Ecclesia and discovered that the abandoned wattle constructed synagogue was in disrepair. They immediately set upon a reparation project to restore this “First Jewish Nazarene Synagogue in Britain” to its pristine original state. For the next nine years, they ministered on the island and from their converts selected twelve guardians who would dwell near the ancient synagogue as guardians, or anchorites, in memory of the original twelve guardians that with Joseph of Arimathea protected the sacred site in which Jesus had built, and his mother, Mary had dwelt.

Now they dwelt in twelve separate portions of the island that were designated as the original Twelve (XII) hides that were given to Joseph of Arimathea in perpetual trust without taxation. For the next four centuries, until the arrival of Patrick the Apostle to the Irish (in the early 5^th century), twelve anchorites or guardians lived near the Vetusta Ecclesia, now as the reconstructed Lignea Basilica (Wooden Basilica) as a continuous community of faithful adherents. Here the faithful Culdee Nazarene pilgrims would come from the northern parts of the island, still adhering as best as they remembered the faith of their Jewish Nazarene Refugee spiritual forefathers.

Patrick of Ireland, David of Menevia and the Sapphire Altar-Stone of Glastonbury

When Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland arrived at Glastonbury in the year of 433 CE, after 47 years in his Irish mission, Patrick set to work to enlarge the original Ealdechurche, built by Joseph of Arimathea. Attached to this most ancient sanctuary, now over four hundred years old, a new Abbey Church was built next to the ancient Vetusta Synagogue to the east. For the next 39 years, in the year of 472 CE, Patrick remained as the first Abbot at Glastonbury, when at the age of 111 years, Patrick was buried within the Vetusta Ecclesia next to the altar within on the south side. The ministry of Patrick the apostle to the Irish was continued in Glastonbury by his prominent disciple, Benignus, who first came to Glastonbury in 460 CE and then succeeded Patrick as the next abbot at Glastonbury.

Is the Stuart Sapphire on the English Crown the famous Sapphire of Glastonbury?

It was a Dewisant (David) of Menevia who arrived in Glastonbury sometime in the middle of the 6^th century CE with seven bishops with the purpose to consecrate the ancient Vetusta Ecclesia that was built on the “Glassy Isle” called Ynys Witrin (Avalon). According to tradition, David received a vision, on the night prior to the dedication, from Yahshua (Jesus) and told him that He had already dedicated this sanctuary to His mother Mary, and that he was not to dedicate that which was already dedicated. As stated in the Quendam Cancellum:

Quendam Cancellum – “He Himself had long before dedicated the church in honor of His mother and the sacrament ought not be profaned by human repetition.” (cited by E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury”, pg. 55)

David of Menevia became the first abbey of Glastonbury and within the new “Chapel of St. David” that was built resided the “Sapphire of Glastonbury. As legends are built over more ancient legends, like the legend of the Holy Grail, this magnificent altar-stone of Sapphire, that was gilded and inlaid with innumerable precious gemstones, was given as a gift by the Greek Orthodox Patriarch of Jerusalem. Like the legend of the “Great Sapphire” it was believed that this magnificent altar ascended into an ethereal plane and remained at the abbey. The physical relic of the Great Sapphire Stone is rumored today to be one of the crown jewels that is housed and protected in the Tower of London.

Today, the Stuart Sapphire is on the King George VI’s Imperial State Crown used by Queen Elizabeth II on her coronation on June 2, 1953. This crown is almost identical to the Queen Victoria’s Imperial State Crown it replaced. The Crown Jewels include; the 317.4 carat Cullinan II Diamond (Lesser Star of Africa Diamond) below the Black Prince’s Ruby (Red Spinel) with the 104 carat oval shaped, Stuart Sapphire on the reverse of the crown and crowned with the historic St. Edward the Confessor’s Sapphire on the Cross of the Crown at the top.

It is interesting that the origin of the Stuart Sapphire, felt to have been mined from the alluvial deposits in Sri Lanka on the plains of Adam’s Peak Mountain Range at the Ratnapura (City of Gems) district in south central Sri Lanka, is admittedly “not well authenticated”.

The King George VI Imperial State Crown

It is believed, according to the article titled, “Stuart Sapphire” that its first appearance was only thirty years after the Great Fire that destroyed the Glastonbury Abbey. It is also most interesting that the history of what appears to have been the “Sapphire of Glastonbury” and later was placed in the coronation crown of the Scottish King Alexander II was interwoven with the English Scottish conflict for the legendary “Stone of Scones”.

This stone of legends was reputed to have been brought to the Island of Ireland, in the 6^th century BCE, by the Prophet Jeremiah. In Jeremiah’s custody was the Princess of David Tamar Tephi, the eldest daughter of the last King of Judah Zedekiah. When Tamar Tephi became the 1^st High Queen of Ireland by her marriage with the Milesian prince, Heremon, she established her royal palace at Tara.

The Royal Palace at Tara became the site of the coronations of the High Kings of Ireland as they stood upon the Irish coronation stone. This stone was reputed to be the same stone that the Patriarch Jacob laid his head upon at Beth-el when he had the vision of the angels traveling up and down the ladder from heaven.

The Stone of Scone reputed to be the Coronation Stone of the Jewish king of Israel and according to Celtic Legend the Stone the Patriarch Jacob laid his Head upon at Beit El

Tara also became the first resting place of the famous coronation stone upon which all the kings of Judah were crowned from the days of the United Kingdom of Israel with Kings David and Solomon to King Zedekiah. The destiny of the “Stone of Scones” and the “Stuart Sapphire” appeared to follow the same geo-political pathway.

The Stuart Stone – “The stone is believed to have made its first appearance in the early 13th century, when it was set on the crown of the Scottish King Alexander II (1214-49), at his coronation in 1214. The stone was then inherited by his son Alexander III (1249-86). The death of Alexander III caused a crisis in the succession as all his heirs had predeceased him. The Scottish Lords proclaimed the infant Margaret, the grand-daughter of Alexander III, who came to be known as the Maid of Norway, the Queen of Scotland. In 1290, King Edward I (1272-1307) of England arranged for a marriage between Margaret and his son Edward, who later became King Edward II of England. However, during her voyage from Norway to England, Margaret fell ill and died.

King Edward I, made a swift move and proclaimed himself the overlord of Scotland, but was resisted by the Scots. Several claimants to the Scottish throne emerged and Edward I undertook to adjudicate on these claims, and finally in 1292 John Balliol was proclaimed the King of Scotland, by Edward I. Balliol resisted Edwards intervention in the affairs of Scotland, and eventually in 1296, Edward I attacked Scotland and forced Balliol into submission.

St. David’s Abbey Church attached to the Vetusta Culdee Ecclesia (Ancient Jewish Refugee’s Synagogue) – Photo by Robert Mock

During this campaign Edward I, captured the “Stone of Scone” also known as the Stone of Destiny, and the Stuart Sapphire belonging to the monarchy of Scotland. The “Stone of Scone”, weighing 336 pounds was a rectangular pale yellow sandstone, associated with the crowning of Scottish kings and encased in the seat of the royal coronation chair. Edward I took the symbolic “Stone of Scone” to England, where at Westminster Abbey he got a special throne constructed in 1307, called the coronation chair, with the stone fitted under it. The placing of the stone under the chair also had a symbolic meaning that the kings of England would at the same time be crowned the kings of Scotland as well.

The Glastonbury “Altar-Stone” became one of the most sacred of the treasures that was housed in the St. David’s Chapel. It was confiscated by King Henry VIII in the year of 1539 CE. The agents of the king, Pollard, Tregonwell and Petre, it was reported, seized “a super-altar garnished with silver-gilt and part gold, called the Great Sapphire of Glastonbury.” It was taken to the Royal Treasurer of Britain on the date of May 2, 1539 along with “493 ounces of gold, 16,000 ounces of gilt-plate and 28,700 ounces of parcel gilt and silver plate” (Cited by “St David in Glastonbury”)

It was also David, the Abbot, who with the addition of the Abbot Church, felt that the site of the original Ealdechurche would be lost so he erected a marker pillar that was seven feet in diameter that was discovered in 1921. There upon the pillar a brass plaque was discovered, first lost in the 17^th century, was placed. There these words were engraved upon the plaque.

The Pillar of St. David – “And lest the site or size of the earlier church should come to be forgotten by reason of such additions, this pillar is erected on a line extended southward through the two eastern angles of the said church and cutting off from it the chancel aforesaid. And its length was 60ft westward from that line; its width 26ft; the distance of the centre of this pillar from the middle point between the said angles 48ft". (Cited by “St David in Glastonbury”)

The historical testimony of the Armithean mission, the evidence that Yahshua (Jesus) and His mother, Miriam (Mary), both lived and resided on the Isle of Avalon at different times is so overwhelming that the Roman Catholic historians have been compelled to attest to their accuracy. The concerns and facts that the history of Joseph of Arimathea and his journey’s to Glastonbury would not be believable was documented by the Roman Catholic Encyclopedia called the “New Advent” when in the article titled, “Glastonbury Abbey” they wrote:

Roman Catholic New Advent quoting Professor Freeman – “The first impression produced on a modern mind by William of Malmesbury's pages is that the whole is one barefaced invention, but on this point the late Professor Freeman may be quoted as an unbiased authority (Proc. of Somerset Archæological Soc., vol. XXVI):

Professor Freeman - "We need not believe that the Glastonbury legends are facts; but the existence of those legends is a great fact.… The legends of the spot go back to the days of the Apostles. We are met at the very beginning with the names of St. Phillip and St. James, of their twelve disciples, with Joseph of Arimathea at their head,… we read the tale of Fagan and Deruvian; we read of Indractus and Gildas and Patrick and David and Columb and Bridget, all dwellers in or visitors to the first spot where the Gospel had shone in Britain. No fiction, no dream could have dared to set down the names of so many worthies of the earlier races of the British Islands in the Liber Vitæ of Durham or Peterborough.

The Thorn Tree reputed to be the Staff of Joseph of Arimathea when He First Landed on the Isle of Avalon – Photo by Robert Mock

Now I do not ask you to believe these legends; I do ask you to believe that there was some special cause why legends of this kind should grow, at all events why they should grow in such a shape and in such abundance, round Glastonbury alone of all the great monastic churches of Britain…

"The simple truth then is this, that among all the greater churches of England, Glastonbury is the only one where we may be content to lay aside the name of England and fall back on the older name of Britain,… One of these, the oldest and most venerated of all, the vetusta ecclesia or lignea basilica, was preserved, and by its survival stamped the later buildings at Glastonbury with their special character. Indeed, its successor, falsely called the Chapel of St. Joseph (actually the Chapel of St. Mary), is the chief feature and loveliest fragment in the ruins that exist today. (Professor Freeman, “Proc. of Somerset Archæological Soc., vol. XXVI) cited in the New Advent, “Glastonbury Abbey”)

The legends and myths of a forgotten era become the kernel of historical reality. They testify more to its true literal reality than the suppositions, redactions, and historical revisions that has migrated down through the ages.

Building the Great Ecclesia by Saxon King Ina of the House of Ephraim

In the year of 688 CE that the king of the kingdom of Wessex of the Tribe of the West Saxons, King Caedwalla went to Rome on a pilgrimage. While in that city he passed away and the kingdom was without a king nor an heir to the throne. The Saxon descendants who were named after their forefather, the Patriarch Isaac, were in a dilemma, who would be their new king? According to the ancient traditions, they consulted the bishops of London who gathered together for this awesome task and in prayer felt led that the man to be the new king of Wessex was named Ina. The problem existed that there was no one by the name of Ina in the city of London.

Messengers were sent throughout the kingdom. As a messenger was traveling near the region of Somerset returning back to London, they overheard a farmer calling out to his son in the fields and listened in amazement as he called out, “Ina, Ina”. Soon there appeared, according to the tale, a fair-haired lad bringing in the horses. This young lad was notified that he had been chosen to be the new king of Wessex. And so began the reign of King Ina (688-728 CE) who had an illustrious reign for thirty seven years. During those years, he led his warrior tribal kingdom in military defense against the incursion of the Danes and the Mercians.

Model of the Glastonbury Abbey with the Chapel of Dunstan (9^th century) separate to the Right. The Beginning of the Abbey Complex was the Vetusta Synagogue (1^st century) attached on the Bottom Right followed by the Addition of David (6^th century) that Connected in the Center with the Entrance into the Greater Ecclesia of Ina (8^th century) – Photo by Robert Mock

In times of peace, King Ina brought justice to the kingdom with the making of new and just laws. He was also noted as instituting the oldest written law in English at his “witan” or council that met at Somerset. According to historians, it was the laws of King Ina that became the foundation for the code of law instituted by King Alfred for the entire land of England. (Taken from the audio-tour by Alan Locke created in 1995 for the Museum of the Royal Town of Somerset)

It was in the year of 719 CE that King Ina, now in his 21^st year of rule, who built a larger and imposing basilica just to the east of the Vetusta Ecclesia (Ancient Synagogue) on the Isle of Avalon at Glastonbury. It was here that he This “Major Ecclesia of the Apostles Peter and Paul” was not a single edifice but the finishing of a series of basilicas that were documented by William of Malmesbury as follows:

William of Malmesbury – “The first and oldest – that built by the twelve disciples of St. Phillip and St. James, stood west of all the others. The second was made by St. David, in honour of the Virgin Mary, at the east part of the oldest, after he had prepared a solemn dedication by our Lord Himself. The third was built by the twelve pious men from the north part of Britain; this also stood east of the Vetusta Ecclesia. The fourth and largest was constructed by King Ina, in honour of the Saviour and the Apostels Peter and Paul, for the soul of his brother Mules; this, the Major Ecclesia stood east of all the others, while the Vetusta Ecclesia stood west of all the others.”

We must remind ourselves that in the county of Somerset were the Mendip Mines of which were specifically under the Roman jurisdiction of the Prince of David, Joseph of Arimathea to mine for tin and lead. This part of western Britain, more than any other was steeped in the traditions of Joseph of Arimathea and the young Jewish Messiah, Yahshua ben Yosef (Jesus the son of Joseph) who came with his great uncle in his business tours through the mining districts of Cornwall and Somerset.

We have to ask was the young Somerset boy Ina, like King David of old was chosen by the God of Israel for the purpose of building this Tabernacle to the Lord? Was it his ultimate purpose to preserve the mud and wattle oratory hut and later synagogue built to the specification of the Wilderness Tabernacle at Sinai? The dedication of this basilica also enhanced the traditions that both Peter and Paul came to the Isle of Britannia and ministered to the disciples of Joseph of Arimathea and the Bethany family living there.

The Chapel of Mary or Joseph that surrounded the Vetusta Ecclesia (Ancient Synagogue) – Photo by Robert Mock

Also like the first decision of the ancient Culdees (Jewish refugees), King Ina first built a school in the city of Rome to education his British subjects in the capital city of Italy. It was here that King Ina instituted the “Peter’s Pence” that was called the “King’s Alms” by the tax of one pence yearly to anyone who had a personal possession of twenty pence or greater in his home. It was paid to the Pope during the fall harvest festival of the wheat.

Here we see a mini-drama representing the “Temple Shekel Tax” upon every Jewish family for the temple of the Lord that was brought during the fall festival of Succot in Jerusalem. The monastery basilica of King Ina lasted until it was ravaged by the invasion of the Danes in the 9^th century. Yet, like Solomon, King Ina turned not to the God of Israel but sought alliances with the powers of the world. The one royal decision that King Ina made that resulted in a future catastrophe for his country was that he turned the ecclesiastical authority of the “British Culdee Church” over to the Roman Christian Church. That decision alone would seal the future events in Britain, but not for another eight hundred years.

The Abbot Dunstan and the Glastonbury Benedictine Abbey

According to the Anglo-Saxon chronicles in the year of 925 CE, the Englishman Dunstan was born near Glastonbury. There at the abbey cloister school he was educated as a Benedictine monk and later as a seminarian. Yet, his most noted works in which he excelled were in the musical arts, painting and at his goldsmith’s shop.

Irish pilgrims, as noted in the history by Dunstan’s friend the “priest B”, came to the island to worship at the tomb of the Irish Abbot Patrick. This reverence for the sages of the past was not much different than Jews have done through the centuries by traveling afar in pilgrimages to worship at the tombs of their rabbinic sages of renown. It was Dunstan, who became the Abbot of Glastonbury in the year of 943 CE by the royal order of King Edmund, the brother and successor of King Athelstan. King Edmund was a pupil of the Benedictine educational order and established the Glastonbury Monastery as the first Benedictine monastery in England.

Over the next 240 years the Glastonbury Abbey continued to be built and rebuilt under the reigns of King Edred (946-955 CE), King Edmond’s son, King Edwy, who deposed Dunstan for reproving his illegal marriage, and King Edgar (957 CE) until the Abbot Dunstan and former King’s chief minister, became the Archbishop of Canterbury. In 988 CE, Archbishop Dunstan died and was buried in Glastonbury. During the Dunstan and post-Dunstan era, the Abbey at Glastonbury prospered. Because of Dunstan’s posthumous fame, large donations and gifts flowed into the coffers of the monastery.

The simple Wattled Ecclesia that was first built by Jesus (Yahshua) the future Jewish Messiah, and later enlarged into the Jewish Nazarene Synagogue, was no doubt the first house of worship under the international administration of the Jewish Nazarene Sanhedrin in at the Jewish Nazarene Synagogue in Jerusalem. This Jewish party was ruled by the Nasi (Prince of David), Yahshua’s brother, James the Just. The Cymric synagogue, called the British Culdee Ecclesia, eventually came under the administrative skills of the Anglo-Saxon descendants of the Tribe of Ephraim and under their rule it became internationally famous. With fame came arrogance. With arrogance came corruption and now under the control of the Roman Christian Church, the simple aura of spiritual reflection became encumbered by the “idols” of Catholic ritual and the elegance of shrines, statutes, and altars.

The 11^th century Norman Glastonbury Abbey and the Rise of Roman Christian Domination

King William the Conqueror, the Duke of Normandy on the Bayeux Tapestry

One hundred years later, in the year of 1082 CE, Ailnothus (or Egelnoth) became the last of the Anglo-Saxon Abbots of the Tribe of Ephraim-Isaac (Engel-Sacae). With the successful invasion of the Norman King William the Conqueror in 1066 CE, the Saxon abbot Egelnoth was deposed and a Norman monk from Caen France, Thurstan (Turstinus) was installed, as noted in the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 1077 CE. Changes of the liturgy and the chanting in the monastery were changed. The traditional Chant of William of Fécamp was replaced by the Roman Gregorian Chant.

Extreme rebellion erupted amongst the British monks. It became so violent that in 1083 CE, armed Norman military bowsmen were called in to enforce the complicity of the British monks. Many of the monks fled into the sacred intersanctum of the Great Church at Glastonbury but there was no protection from the Norman bow and arrow sharpshooters. As the Anglo-Saxon Chronicle of 1083 CE recorded that “arrows stuck in the crucifix which stood above the altar…and then wretched monks lay around the altar and some crept under it… and blood ran on the steps.” (E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” pg. 58-59) William the Conqueror removed Thurston from his position as the Abbot, but that was short-lived for upon William I’s death, his son, King William II “Rufus” restored Thurston back to the esteemed post as Abbot.

The Normans were known for their massive building of castles and their grandiose designs for the Glastonbury Monastery were no less grand. The church building program began to construct the Great Church into a more ornate and style of grandeur under Norman appointed Abbot, Thurstan. His successor, Abbot Herlewinus, in the year of 1101 CE, dismantled most of the building program of Thurstan and began an even grander edifice that would become the recipient of even more revenues that continued to flow into this icon of ancient Britain. Yet, the Vetusta Ecclesia (Ancient Synagogue) was always kept separate from the Major Ecclesia as it reached its apogee of elegance under the rule of Henry of Blois, who was appointed Abbot of Glastonbury in the year of 1126 by his brother, King Stephen.

The Chapel of Mary to the Left leading towards the Great Ecclesia finished by Henry de Blois in the 12^th century – Photo by Robert Mock

It was the Archeologist E. Raymond Capt who recorded the words of Adam of Domerham when he wrote:

Adam of Domerham – “He built this monastery from the foundation, a bell-tower, a chapter-house, cloister, lavatory, refectory, dormitory, and infirmary with a chapel; a splendid large palace; and exterior gateway of squared stones; a large brewhouse and stabling for many horses; giving many ornaments to the Church (Church built by Abbot Herlewin).” (E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” pg. 59)

It was Henry of Blois who also discovered the famous Sapphire Altar that had been presented to David of Menevia, seven hundred years earlier, by the Patriarch of Jerusalem when Abbot David visited the city of Jerusalem during the era of the Roman Christian Crusades. This sacred altar had been secreted in a recess in the ancient Chapel of Mary (Vetusta Ecclesia) during the raids by the Danes into England. This portable Sapphire Altar was adorned with gold, silver and precious stones by the Abbot Henry prior to his death in 1071 CE. He was succeeded by Abbot Robert until King Henry II of England took control of the Glastonbury Abbey and kept its management in the hands of his own chamberlain, Peter Marci, a Cluniac monk.

The Great Fire of 1184 CE

Then disaster struck. One thousand one hundred and forty-eight years after the arrival of Joseph of Arimathea and the Jewish Refugees (Culdees), a majority of the Glastonbury Abbey complex burned to the ground including the “venerable Wattle Ecclesia”. According to the history of this event by Adam of Domerham we read:

The Golden Reliquary (Bone Relics) of Martha from Bethany whose tomb and Relics are at the Collégiale Sainte-Marthe de Tarascon along the Rhone in France – Photo by Robert Mock

Adam of Domerham – “In the following summer, that is to say St. Urban’s Day, (May 24, 1184) the whole of the Monastery, except a chamber with a chapel constructed by Abbot Robert (1178-9) which the monks afterwards betook themselves, and the Bell Tower, built by Bishop Henry, was consumed by fire…The beautiful buildings latterly erected by Henry of Blois, and the Church, a place so venerated by all, and the shelter of so many saints, are reduced to a heap of ashes! What groans, what tears, what pains arose as they (the monks) saw what had happened and pondered over the loss they had suffered. The confusion into which their relics were thrown, the loss of treasure, not only in gold and silver, but in stuffs and silks, in books, and the rest of the ornaments of the church, must even provoke to tears, and justly so, those who far away do but hear of these things.” (E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” pg. 59)

The cause of the fire was not known, but suspected that the curtains blowing during a wind storm were ignited by fire by the candles lit within the church. The greatest of the loss was not the building or the ornate ornaments, the relics of the numerous saints or the shrines within this edifice but the Great Library that was recognized as the greatest library of this era. As E. Raymond Capt wrote:

The Eglise St. Trophime where the Apostle Trophimus ministered in Arles, France with Martha of Bethany – Photo by Robert Mock

E. Raymond Capt – “The greatest loss, however, was the famous library, considered the finest collection of books of the period, including records covering a thousand years of Glastonbury Abbey history. In the years preceeding its destruction, a large number of monks were constantly employed in the Abbey cloisters illuminating missals and transcribing, not only works of theology and devotion but of classical and general literature. Many of the books were illuminated on vellum (parchment) bound in richly tooled leather and mounted with silver and gold.

Leland, who visited the library shortly before the great fire, wrote he was so overwhelmed with awe at the sight of such vast treasures of antiquity that for a time he dared not enter. Among the books and records, may have been the writings of those who had personally known Joseph and perhaps Jesus during His sojourn in Avalon before His ministry.” (E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” pg. 60)

King Henry II “Curtmantle” immediately issued a royal charter to begin the construction of a new Abbey and entrusted the rebuilding to his chamberlain, Radulphus, the son of King Stephen. The great-grandson of William the Conqueror and the first of the Plantagenet English Rulers, it also began the anti-Roman sentiment of the English crown against the domination of the English Christian Church by the death and murder of his former friend, the Archbishop of Canterbury, Thomas Becket. This crusade of religious independence would reach its fulfillment under the rule of King Henry VIII and the “Dissolution of the Monasteries” with the royal possession of all the Roman Catholic Church properties in England.

The Golden Reliquary of Mary Magdalene in the Grotto at the Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine at the French Town of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume – Photo by Robert Mock

As recorded in the book, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” by the Scottish archeologist E. Raymond Capt, we read his archeological history of the remains of this Jewish Nazarene Synagogue and the Jewish Avalon Yeshiva (Seminary) that was built on the Isle of Avalon and ministered by Joseph of Arimathea, Lazareth, the former presbyter at Bethany and the Isle of Cypress with his two sisters Mary Magdalene and Martha:

E. Raymond Capt – “Radulphus first built the Church of St. Mary, “in the place where, from the beginning, the Vetusta had stood, with squared stones of the most perfect workmanship, profusely ornamented.” The walls were supposed to have been built outside those of the earlier building so as to enclose it, and the remains of the older building were not removed until the walls of the latter were completed.

The Reliquaries of Mary Magdalene at the Basilique Sainte-Marie-Madeleine at the French Town of Saint-Maximin-la-Sainte-Baume – Photo by Robert Mock

The Church of St. Mary, (Known as Mary’s Chapel or St. Joseph’s Chapel) the most perfect of the ecclesiastical ruins of Glastonbury Abbey was built in the late transitional (Norman) style of architecture and remains to this day an admirable specimen of medieval masonry.

Ornamentation consists of wide expanses of fine ashlar masonry and running patterns of foliage and tendrils, containing painted sun and stars. The flooring was composed of encaustic tiles (color being fused on with hot irons). Three of the walls are still standing and in the north and south walls are four, round-headed richly molded windows, mullioned and rising nearly to the vaulting. A beautiful triple window at the west end, added light to the Chapel. The overall dimension of the Chapel was 55 feet in length and 24½ feet in width. The Lady Chapel was finished and dedicated on St. Barnabas’s day (June 1, 1186 CE) by Reginal, Bishop of Bath.

The Chapel was originally a detached building, with a turret at each corner. At present, two of these turrets remain. When the larger building (St. Peter and St. Paul) was built east of the Lady Chapel, a flight of stairs, extending across the building from wall to wall, was constructed to provide access to the Galilee (porch) which formed a junction between the two buildings. Two richly carved doorways occupy bays, north and south, the south door opened up to the monk’s churchyard. Over the doorway are sculptures, illustrating Biblical scenes.”

The Cliff-side Dwelling of Mary Magdalene on the Side of the Ste.-Baume Mountain Ridge – Photo by Robert Mock

The foundations of the new Major Ecclesia were laid out by Reginald, the bishop of Bath to the dimensions of 400 feet in length and 80 feet in width. According to the Glastonbury Chronicler, Adam de Domerham as he continued the histories of Glastonbury by his predecessor, William of Malmesbury to the year of 1290 CE, continues the narration when he wrote:

The Mountain Ridge of Sainte-Baume where Mary Magdalene spent her last years in Isolated Retirement – Photo by Robert Mock

Adam de Domerham – “The stones of the great palace, built by Bishop Henry, also the entire wall which surrounded the monastery were used in the foundation, and that a “great part of the Major Ecclesia (Great Church) having been built, the remainder would have been completed, had the King’s life been spared.”

The Dissolution and Destruction of the Glastonbury Abbey in 1524 CE

Yet, King Henry II died in the year of 1189 CE, only five years after the foundation of the church had been laid. His son, King Richard Coeur de Lion (Richard the Lion Hearted) was more involved in his grand crusade to the Holy Land where King Richard the Lionhearted and Saladin the Great established their fame in history, that the building of the monastery was delayed almost a hundred years before completion. Then a second catastrophe occurred, the earthquake of 1275 CE did significant damage to the walls of the Great Church.

The first millennium of the prophetic fulfillment concerning the “fullness of the gentiles” was now over. The Tribe of Ephraim as the Engle-Sacae (Anglo-Saxons) had now found its final resting place. The era of Roman domination had come, and the God of Israel would place its judgment and this era would also soon be over. Over the centuries continuous rebuilding was done to the Great Church at the Glastonbury Abbey, but it never achieved its preeminence after the God of Israel destroyed the Ancient Synagogue (Vetusta Ecclesia) by fire.

Finally in the year of 1524 CE, a great religious revolution and rift split the Roman Catholic dominated England and the newly crowned King Henry VIII. He dissolved all the monasteries and Roman Catholic Church properties in England were taken over as the property of the English Royal crown. At this same time, King Henry VIII declared that the king was now the “Supreme Head of the Church”, which it is today.

The last Abbot of Glastonbury, Richard Whiting who was appointed in the year of 1524 CE, was caught up in the great tumult of the English Royal Dissolution of the Monasteries in the year of 1535 CE. Upon Whiting’s refusal to turn over the deed of the property of the Glastonbury Abbey to the king, he was taken to the Tower of London for interrogation by Cardinal Wolsey and imprisonment. As written by E. Raymond Capt:

The Cathedral of Wells, north of Glastonbury where the “Quarters” of Glastonbury’s last Abbot, Abbot Whiting were Displayed after he was Hanged and Beheaded on Glastonbury Tor – Photo by Robert Mock

E. Raymond Capt – “While Abbot Whiting was incarcerated another examination of the monastery was made. This time a gold chalice and another plate was found hidden by the Abbot that had not been shown to the commissioners. This was considered ‘The very high and rank treasons” and the Abbot remained imprisoned until November 14^th (1524 CE) when he was taken back to Wells, Somerset for trial. Whiting was convicted with two other monks and they were sentenced to be hanged. The order, attributed to Thomas Cromwell read: “Item, the Abbott of Glaston to be tried at Glaston and also to be executed there,” (Remembrances – Cromwell) that is, re-tried. The next day, they were all drawn on hurdles to the Tor, hanged, disemboweled, beheaded, and quartered. The poor old Abbot’s white head was set over the gate, and his quarters, boiled in pitch, were displayed at Well, Bath, Lichester, and Bridgwater.

At Abbot Whiting’s death, (1539 CE), the Abbey came into the King’s possession. The lands were divided and sold; the monks and the servants dismissed; the holy relics and treasures sent in bags to the King. The buildings were then broken up and sold in pieces.”

As Raymond Capt opined in his own personal observations:

E. Raymond Capt – “While the ruthless destruction of the Abbeys is appalling and the sacredness of human life ignored; one should not lose all sense of proportion and sound judgment concerning the necessity of the Reformation. Britain had to have a man like Henry VIII because she had a king like Ina, who surrendered the Abbeys to a Roman pope. It is impossible for us to know through what persons, or in what manner, God will at any time act, though it is obvious that He is acting. Henry VIII was only a pawn in the hand of God, used to break down the old Roman Ecclesiastical order in Britain. Also, the arrogance of some of the Abbots toward the people played no small part in the suppression of the monasteries.” (E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” pg. 78)

As Rev. Lionell Smithett Lewis also wrote with great insight on Glastonbury:

Reverend Lionell Smithett Lewis – “We must come to the conclusion, while gratefully acknowledging the work of the monks here and elsewhere, so needed in their age, that had this great Abbey remained true to God and herself, had there been less quarreling, less greed, less haughtiness, and more simple religion, He would have guarded it to this day.” (E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” pg. 78)

The Roman monastic system that peaked in the 14^th and 15^th century created monastic orders that were laws unto themselves. Without taxation and always access to the royal thrones, they became rich in the abundance of worldly possession. Their monasteries and palaces were glorious in architectural splendor yet they glorified themselves and not the God of Israel. The Benedictine monks who had given allegiance to God by their poverty were now basking under condition of extreme luxury. When their day of God’s judgment had come under the rule of King Henry VIII, they had become so “drugged” with the rich poinsonous wines of enjoyment that those who had taken the vows of personal poverty and sanctification to their God, became common thieves and an element of destruction in own society. As A.B. Dodd reflected in the “Cathedral Days”:

The Ruins with the Ornate Exterior of the Chapel of Mary and Joseph at Glastonbury, England – Photo by Robert Mock

A.D. Dodd – “History pictures the shadowy aisles filled with the pomp and splendor of those bygone ceremonies with the long procession of the monks with the kingly Abbot, who as he swept in state from his monastery along the cloistered walk, could rest his eye on a fair and smiling country, which as far as he could see, was all his own. As the choir-boys’ chorals smote his ears, heaven and earth must indeed have seemed to clap their hands for joy over so royal a possession. Perhaps, if the sons of heaven had less interest in fat living and not attempted to appropriate so much of earth, the swift-footed Nemesis of the Reformation might have stayed its speed…It is a pity that these brethren could not have gone out in a greater blaze of glory.” (A.D. Doss, “Cathedral Days”, cited in E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” pg. 78)

The Rise of the British Empire and the Homeland for the Tribe of Manasseh

Religious freedom and religious toleration would suffer through many phases as the House of Ephraim settled in their homeland on the ancient Isle of Britannia. Sometimes we might consider praying not the prayers of “help me, Lord” but “let me sit (symbolically) with You upon Your Throne and view the history of the world from Your “Seven Eyes” as the Eternal One of Israel. If we had that privilege would we see that throughout all history, the finger of the Lord of hosts has been involved in the affairs of His chosen ones throughout all history? Even His “Lost Sheep” have been under the microscope of His undying love. Did He not say through the words of the Prophet Ezekiel the following?

Ezekiel 36: 22-24 – “Therefore say to the House of Israel, ‘Thus says the Lord God: ‘I do not do this for your sake, O House of Israel, but for My Holy Name’s sake, which you have profaned among the nations wherever you went. And I will sanctify My Great Name, which has been profaned among the nations, which you have profaned in the midst; and the nations shall know that I am the Lord,’ says the Lord God, ‘when I am hollowed in you before their eyes.” For I will take you from among the nations, gather you out of all countries and bring you into your own land. Then I will sprinkle clean water on you, and you shall be clean; I will cleanse you from all your filthiness and from all your idols. I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you;…and cause you to walk in My statutes, and you will keep My judgments and do them.” Then you shall dwell in the land that I gave to your fathers; you shall be My people, and I will be your God.”

It was now a heap of ashes that rested over the graves of Joseph of Arimathea and possibly the grave of Miriam, the Jewish mother of Yahshua HaMaschiach (Jesus the Messiah).

The era of the physical presence of God’s chosen ones in Britain was now over. That little wattled tabernacle first built by Yahshua and later rebuilt by Joseph of Arimathea and the Jewish Refugee “Culdees” had been reverently preserved for over eleven hundred years.

The visible signature of the “finger” of the Almighty One bringing His chosen “Culdees” to Britannia and that island called Avalon was now gone. With the destruction of the Vetusta Ecclesia (Ancient Synagogue) and what could not be seen physically would erupt into a cascade of legends on the “spiritual essence” of that literal era when the Jewish Culdees dwelt upon the Isle of Avalon. The “seeds of truth” by the “spiritual descendants” Joseph of Arimathea who were “literal Israelites” retold the story as the Druidic bards did in the mystical past. It was the story about the “Grail Kings” who preserved the small olive cup, called the Nanteos Cup that was reputedly used by Yahshua and His disciples during the “Last Supper” and later brought with Joseph of Arimathea to Wales and Glastonbury.

The Nanteos Mansion and the Nanteos Cup

One of the sacred treasures at Glastonbury was a small wooden cup reputedly made from olive wood, was preserved prior to the dissolution of the Abbey by King Henry VIII by the Prior of Glastonbury and six monks. They fled in secret over the impassable mountains into Wales. There they quietly resided at the Monastery at Strata Florida for three years until informants told them that the forces of King Henry VIII were on their way to destroy their monastery.

Again they fled, until they arrived at the Nanteos Manor near Aberystwyth along the Atlantic coastline of Wales. It was there the Lord of the Manor gave them shelter and work. As the last monk, the Prior of Glastonbury was ending his life, he told the Lord of the Manor the secret of the wooden Cup and gave him the sacred charge of keeping the Holy Cup in his family possession “until the True Church claims It her own.” It was the visible handling of this small cup by the famous composer, Richard Wagner that gave him the inspiration of writing his famous Opera, “Parsifal”, about the Holy Grail.

They recreated these realities into the legendary “Holy Grail Cup” preserved by the “Grail kings” who eventually sat around King Arthur’s “Round Table” at Winchester creating a utopian society of peace, for a moment of time, for all mankind. The truth was there hidden in the saga of the poets and troubadours.

By the 12^th century, the “hidden signature” of the God of Israel could be fully understood that He had truly transferred the western regions of the Isle of Britannia from being a mining camp for the Jews, and earlier the Danites, the Simeonites, and the Asherites to becoming the home of the “Lost Sheep of the House of Joseph” (Ephraim and Manasseh). It was they, who prophetically represented the Divine Blessings given by the Patriarch Israel (Jacob) when in a special private ceremony with his favorite son, Joseph, and his two grandsons, Ephraim and Manasseh, Israel gave the physical blessings of the “birthright” to Joseph’s younger son, Ephraim and the blessing of creating a mighty nation to Joseph’s his eldest son, Manasseh.

Genesis 48:16 – “Bless the lads; Let my name (House of Israel) be named upon them, and the name of my fathers Abraham and Isaac (Sacae, the House of Isaac); and let them grow into a multitude in the midst of the earth.”

When Joseph protested to his father, that he had blessed the wrong child, Israel (Jacob) replied:

Genesis 48:19 – “I know, my son, I know. He (Manasseh) also shall become a people, and He also shall be great, but truly his younger brother (Ephraim) shall be greater than he (Manasseh), and his descendants shall become a multitude of nations (British Empire) and thus he set Ephraim before Manasseh.”

The imperial era of the Tribe of Ephraim was about to begin and the birth of the homeland for the descendants of Manasseh was about to be created within five centuries by the messianic yearnings of the British Freemasons instilled by the corrupted messianic idealism by the false Jewish messiah, Shabbatai Tzevi in the year of 1666 CE, that flowered into the creation of the United States of America during the Masonic American Revolution of 1776 CE.

It is equally amazing that within two years after the Kabbalist Jew, Christopher Columbus in the year of 1492 CE, rediscovered the continent of the Americas, that King Henry VII in 1496 CE commissioned John Cabot to discover Asia via the Northern Atlantic that led to his landfall on the coast of Newfoundland. The “First British Empire” was officially founded by Queen Elizabeth I when she granted a patent to Humphrey Gilbert for overseas exploration and discovery. He sailed for the West Indies purposely to establish a colony in North America and by means of sea piracy, assist the crown in the financing of their new imperial quest and to demoralize their competitors, Spain and Portugal.

British colonies in North America, c. 1750. 1: Newfoundland; 2: Nova Scotia; 3: The Thirteen Colonies; 4: Bermuda; 5: Bahamas; 6: British Honduras; 7: Jamaica; 8: Lesser Antilles

The first attempt of colonization was aborted in 1578 before they started but did embark and again headed to Newfoundland whom he claimed for the Crown of England. Dying on the return trip without the establishment of an English colony, his brother, Sir Walter Raleigh took up the banner and with his own Elizabethan patent in 1584 founded the first English colony at Roanoke, North Carolina, It failed due to poor supply management. It would be in the year of 1603 CE, that King James VI of Scotland upon his ascent to the English throne ended hostilities with Spain in the Treaty of London in 1604 CE. Instead of piracy and preying on their competitors, the first of the colonies of the First British Empire began; North America with the Thirteen Original Colonies of America and the English colonies on the smaller islands in the Eastern regions of Canada, and in the Caribbean.

This imperial rule of the House of Ephraim would flourish and spread around the entire globe until the Island of Britain became the largest empire in history and as the foremost global power, by 1922, the British Empire held sway over a quarter of the world’s population (458 million people) and one fourth of the earth’s land mass (13,000,000 square miles). It truly was a fact, that under the rule of the House of Ephraim “the sun never set on the British Empire”. The end of the British Empire began in the year of 1917, when the British Prime Minister Lord Balfour made the imperial decision in the era of world nationalism that the Jewish people would need a homeland in their ancient land of Israel, called, since the fall of Jerusalem by the Roman Imperial Legions: Palestine. The 1260 year prophecy of Daniel had been fulfilled. By the 1290^th year, in the year of 1947, the Nation of Israel was approved by the United Nations and Israel officially proclaimed her independence on May 15, 1948.

The Empire of Britain collapsed upon the rise of the Nation of Israel, for the Jews had to drive the British forces out of the country for they were now appeasing the Arab nations. By the 1335^th year of Daniel’s prophecy, in the year of 1992, the “Land for Peace Process” called the Oslo Accord began, promoted by the Ten Tribes of Israel residing in the United States of America and the European Union. The time of the end had now arrived, the “fullness of the Gentiles” was almost over, and the years of the prophetic tribulation would soon set over the globe.

The Life of Joseph of Arimathea in Aristocratic Jerusalem Culture

If we could look behind the veil into the world of the divine, we could imaginably discover the Eternal One of Israel guiding the Lost Tribes of Israel to their final homes of habitation. For over seven hundred years they wandered across the landscape of EuroAsia, not knowing where they were going and where their descendants would ultimately find their own final destination and homes. Just as they were entering into the imperial realms of the Roman Empire, a prince of David was preparing the home for the House of Ephraim, called the Engel-Sacae (Anglo-Saxons) upon the western coastline of the Isle of Britannia and ancient Wales.

Ancient Tin Mines in Central Cornwall – Photo by Robert Mock

The Prince of David, Joseph of Arimathea came from the most notable family of the Jews; the royal House of Kings David and Solomon. Born to a nasi, a Prince of Israel, his father, Prince Mattathias (Mattat ben Levi) was already a member of Judea’s most famous aristocratic family. Not only that, Prince Mattathias was notable for his marriage to three of the notable ladies of Jerusalem high society; Elizabeth of Jerusalem better known later in classical Jewish history as the Hasmonean Queen Alexandra II the parents of the Biblical Heli, Prince Alexander II Helios, the young Davidian princess, Rachel of Arimathea, Joseph of Arimathea’s mother, and Salome of Jerusalem who was called the “Proselyte”, the mother of Prince Gjor.

Prince Alexander II Helios’ family, as we have seen, had the mining contract interests for tin and lead upon the Cornwall coastline of Britain. This contract was now under the Roman government control and King Herod the Great was put in charge by the Caesar of Rome for its management and security of these strategic military metals. The reason was The Tower of David that this same area had been mined for almost a thousand years by the Tribes of Dan, Simeon, Asher, and now the Princes of David from the House of Judah.

The Tower of David called the “Citadel” first built in the First Temple Period (960-586 BCE), rebuilt in the Hasmonean Period (1^st century BCE) and the base of the tower built by Herod the Great (37-34 BCE)

The aunt of Joseph of Arimathea and the mother of his older brother, the Biblical Heli was Elizabeth of Jerusalem, a Hasmonean Princess. She was betrothed at a young age to this noted Prince of David, and they became the parents of his brother Heli. When she became older, Elizabeth of Jerusalem remarried before the year of 49 BCE into a dynastic Hasmonean marriage for the second time to her royal cousin, King Alexander II and now became the Hasmonean Queen of Judea, Queen Alexandra II. Her life story was recounted in the BibleSearcher’s subtitled article titled, “The Ascendency of the Idumeans (47 BCE) – Antipater the Governor and Herod the Great”.

Elizabeth of Jerusalem was the daughter of King Hyracanus II who was the 7^th Jewish Maccabee King (63-49 BCE), the 6^th Maccabee Priest-King and the 55^th High Priest of Israel for the 2^nd time between the years of 63-40 BCE. He was executed in 30 BCE by King Herod the Great on charges of sedition for plotting with the Nabataeans for the assassination of King Herod.

As we can see Joseph’s aunt, Queen Alexandra II was a formidable figure in Jewish society. She first married the Prince of David Mattathias the son of Levi, was taken from him and remarried to her cousin, King Alexander II who was later executed by Pompey in 49 BCE. This is the reason we know that she was married to him before that date. Dynastic marriages were arranged marriages, and Elizabeth, now Queen Alexandra II was married the third time to King Alexander II’s brother, King Antigonas, who was deposed by King Herod the Great in 37 BCE and beheaded by the Roman Triumvirate Mark Anthony in 36 BCE.

During this same era, Prince Mattathias (Mattat ben Levi) was remarried in a Davidian dynastic marriage with the widow and mother of three, Davidian Princess Rachael of Arimathea. Out of this union, between the years of before 48 BCE and 35 BCE, Prince Matthias had his second son, Old City, The Tower of David Joseph of Arimathea. What happened to Rachael of Arimathea, history is silent, but before the year of 23 BCE, Prince Mattathias was married to his third wife, Salome the Proselyte, of whom they had a son, Prince Gjor, a later anti-king in Judea who was executed in the year of 45-46 CE. Prince Gjor’s son, Simon V Bar Gjora, Yahshua’s (Jesus’) cousin, was the last King of the Jews. It was he, who after the destruction of the city of Jerusalem was paraded through the streets of Rome naked and executed on a cross outside of Rome in the year of 73 CE.

The Tower of David at the Citadel at Nighttime

As the fates of the royal families of Judea, Queen Alexandra II became the defacto last ruler of Judea and Jerusalem when upon the execution of her cousin and 3^rd husband, King Antigonas she presided over the royal city and palace in Jerusalem for the last year in the year of 36 BCE until it fell to the Roman backed forces of the future King Herod the Great. There in her Hasmonean palace at Jericho, she was imprisoned by King Herod.

Queen Alexandra II would continue to be a force in Jewish society. Mark Anthony, who had decapitated the head of her last husband became the suitor of Alexandra II’s best friend, the Queen of Egypt Cleopatra VII. Many royal intrigues in Jerusalem society were contrived between these two until the year of 30 BCE when the fateful war between Octavian and Mark Anthony who was now allied with the Egyptian Pharoah Cleopatra VII. This led to both of their deaths by suicide in 30 BCE. Upon that war’s end that spelled out the imperial future of the Caesars of Rome, a young princess from Egypt, Cleopatra of Jerusalem, the posthumous daughter of Queen Cleopatra VII and the Roman dictator Julius Caesar arrived into the aristocratic social circles of Jerusalem as the new bride of the Patriarch of Jerusalem Jacob ben Matthan, the father of Prince Joseph the Carpenter. Within three years, in the year of 27 BCE, Queen Alexandra II would be charged with sedition against the throne of Herod the Great and was summarily executed.

The veteran researcher Robert Killian of Monaco wrote in the fall of 2007 a summary of this era using his historical data base on his research on the lineal sequence of the History of the Hebrews since the birth of Adam. His indefatigable research for the traces of Joseph of Arimathea, Lazarus, Mary Magdalene and Martha in the region in the Southern Provencal Region of France surrounding Marseilles, France gave us new insight into that amazing International Jewish industrialist, Joseph of Arimathea.

Robert Killian of Monaco – “Rachel of Arimathea was a "Jewish Princess" who at a very young age was "given to" Matthat-Thrice as his second wife, with the intent of interweaving the various Jewish blood-lines so that more males would be born into each line. This policy was instigated by John Hyrcanus (Yohanan I Hyrcanus) before 104 BC. Since he was High-Priest as well as "King", which was not accepted by many, he did set (religious and political) policy for the "major part" of the Jewish culture of that era!

Matthat-Thrice's first wife was, as many claim, the mother of Heli (“The Sun”). Her name was Alexandra II, the "future" wife of Alexander II who was King and High-priest at that time in the John Hyrcanus "line" of kings that followed the death in 67 BC of Queen Alexandra I.

It was Heli that was killed in 17 BC, probably for sedition, (in the eyes of Herod the Great because Herod "saw" that the major Jewish bloodlines were not in support of His being King. Heli was quite a bit older than Joseph of Arimathea. Joseph, being versed in the transport of metal from the British Isles was put into his older brother’s position as “Nobilis Decurio” and was expected not to betray Herod. The "sedition" probably involved duplicity in the transport of metals and war supplies that were so 'controlled' at that time.

Perhaps, Joseph was not a partner in the normal sense of that word. (for us today) but, there is not much doubt that the High Jewish families did control, under Herod’s watch the supply lines of his kingdom, as much as he could.”

The Megalithic Hewn Foundation Stones on the Temple Mount Walls – Photo by Robert Mock

Joseph’s mother, Rachel of Arimathea was already a widow with three children; Joshua (Yehoshua), JoNathan, and JoAnna when she married Joseph and Heli’s father, Prince Mattathias ben Levi sometime before 49 BCE when Elizabeth of Jerusalem was noted in history as being Queen Alexandra II, the wife of King Alexander II, her cousin. Rachel of Arimathea’s family’s inheritance and estate was about five miles north of Jerusalem in Arimathea, the trade crossroads to the world from the city of Jerusalem. Out of this second marriage for Matthias, sometime after the year of 49 BCE, Joseph of Arimathea was born. Yet, the date for his birth has been elusive, but sometime between the years of 49 and 25 BCE.

The Emerging Davidian Struggle of Joseph of Arimathea in a Decaying World of Jewish Culture

The life of Joseph of Arimathea was played out on the geo-political stage of one of the most controlling and corrupt periods of Jewish life. The Romans had total control over Judea for the rule of King Herod the Great was ruthless. This was especially true for any Prince of David that gave a hint of being a potential aspirant to the throne of King David in which King Herod usurped. Joseph was sharp but also wary for his life was marked if he made any moves that appeared that he had any political motivation to the throne of King David.

Is it any wonder that Joseph of Arimathea spent most of his life outside of Jerusalem and Judea as far as he could live from either Rome or King Herod in Jerusalem? As heir to the lead and tin mines that had been under Jewish control for centuries, He no doubt kept true to the legacy of his inheritance as a Prince of David. Joseph actually inherited the family business from his older brother, Prince Heli, who died about the year of 17 BCE. If he was older than twenty at the time of his brother’s death, Joseph of Arimathea could have been born sometime prior to the years of 40-37 BCE about ten years younger than his older brother, Prince Heli.

Joseph of Arimathea disappears from Jewish social history and only reemerges about 30 CE at the death of his nephew Yahshua (Jesus). Yet, as the history and the legends documented earlier in this series, Joseph of Arimathea would eventually become the guardian of his young nephew, Prince Yahshua, and his young but older cousin, Princess Miriam, for by tradition, Yahshua’s foster father, Joseph the Carpenter met an early death. So, the traditions that Jesus and even later his mother, Mary traveled to the Isle of Britannia to live has every bit of historical credence.

Orthodox Jews Praying at the Temple Mount – Photo by Robert Mock

What we do know was that Joseph’s brother, Prince Heli, was married to the youngest daughter, H(Anna)h of the High Priest of Israel, Yahshua III and by this union came a beautiful young Princess of David whom they called Miriam who was born between the years of 20-19 BCE. Miriam would become the most famous and revered woman in the history of the world, for she was the mother of the future Jewish Messiah Yahshua HaNotzri (Jesus the Nazarene).

Yahshua III the high priest of Jerusalem’s reign began in the year of 36 BCE until Yahshua III was deposed by King Herod in order to elevate his cousin, Simon IV Boethus, to the office of the high priest. Why? So that King Herod could marry Simon IV’s daughter, Mariamme II whom Herod was madly in love with in the year of 23 BCE.

This was a pivotal year for, it is believed by the Biblical researcher David Hughes that both the High Priest of Israel, Yahshua III and the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Jacob ben Matthan were executed in that same year for being in collusion with their near relatives and cousins the Zealots in Galilee for sedition against Rome and the throne of King Herod. By the year of 17 BCE, Joseph of Arimathea’s brother, Prince Alexander II Helios was executed for the same charges.

It would be assumed that Hannah, the youngest daughter of the High Priest would have been betrothed to Prince Helios the Hasmonean heir apparent before the year of the High Priest’s death in 23 BCE. If Hannah was betrothed at the age of 12 years of age then the year of birth of Hannah, the mother of Princess Miriam, and the grandmother of Jesus (Yahshua) would have been the year of 35 BCE, one year after his ascension to the High Priest Throne in Jerusalem.

Within three years, about the year of 20 BCE, Prince Heli and his wife, the daughter of the high priest, Hannah, would have become the parents of a beautiful young Davidian princess, whom they called Miriam. It would be as early as 17 BCE, when Princess Miriam was only three years of age that Prince Alexander II Helios was executed.

Prince Heli was already born before 49 BCE, for that was the date of the execution and death of King Alexander II of Israel of whom Queen Alexandra II (aka, Elizabeth of Jerusalem) had married. How many years they were married was not known but the historical facts still exists with their limitations on the life of their son, Prince Alexander II Helios. Heli was later married to his wife, Hannah, the daughter of the High Priest Yahshua III who did not receive his high priest commission from King Herod until 35 BCE and from all appearance was executed by King Herod in 23 BCE.

Yet the marriage of Heli and Hannah had to occur after 36 BCE, for the marriage between the daughters of the high priest were contingent upon marriages between Jewish aristocrats of high estate between the high priesthood, the princes of the House of David, and the princes and princesses of the Herodian royal house of King Herod. When Yahshua III became the high priest of Israel, this mark of distinction permitted him to marry his three daughters to two Princes of David and a noted priest of the House of Abijah.

The Encased Golden Menorah prepared for a New Temple near the Roman Columns in the Ancient Jerusalem Cardo – Photo by Robert Mock

Hannah (Apocryphal biblical Anna) was the third and youngest daughter and by the year of 20-19 BCE, she was pregnant with the future Messiah’s mother, Miriam. Prince Heli was born before 49 BCE and if he was married at the latest about 24-23 BCE, he would have been older than 25 years old. Since Joseph of Arimathea now had one younger half brother, Prince Gjor, born before Mattathia’s death in 23 BCE, it would assume that Rachel of Arimathea would have been deceased and Prince Mattathia’s the marriage to Salome the Proselyte consummated sometime in the mid-20s BCE. Joseph of Arimathea’s birth would therefore have been between the twenty five year span between the years of 49 BCE and 25 BCE. If Hannah, the mother of Miriam was born at the latest at 35 BCE, when her father ascended to the throne of the high priest, and married before 23 BCE, the date of the presumed execution of the High Priest Yahshua III, for he disappears from Jewish society, then the young Princess Miriam would have been born sometime about 20-19 BCE. Twelve years later, she would be “blessed from the Highest” and her womb would become the prenatal home of the future Jewish messiah.

It is possible that Joseph of Arimathea could have been born as late as 25 BCE. It is traditionally felt that Prince Joseph of Arimathea was quite a bit younger than his brother, Prince Heli. As we have documented, that fact no doubt was true. If he was born as late as 25 BCE, he could have been only five years older but more than likely, he was about the age of his sister in law, Miriam’s mother, Hannah, who was born to the Yahshua the high priest sometime before the year of 35 BCE

Jewish society in the fifty years before the birth of Yahshua was crumbling into political and moral decay. The Hasmonean rulers of the priestly family of the Maccabees were on the last years on their royal throne until they were exiled or executed by King Herod the Great. They had usurped the throne of King David away from the legitimate rulers, the Princes of David as decreed by the Eternal One of Israel. They also usurped the throne of the High Priest away from the priestly family of the House of Zadok, as decreed to King David also by the Lord of hosts. The Pharisees were in disarray, for the Pharisee disciples of Shammai had taken control of the Pharisee’s educational control of Jewish education and the Jewish synagogue services. The disciples of Hillel by the year of Miriam’s birth in 20 BCE had fled Jerusalem with the disciples of Menahem the Essene. The oppositional high priestly services were instituted by the secretive sect of the Essenes and highlighted the increasing obvious fact; Jewish cultural and religious life had degraded to the 49^th level of Tuma, with 50 as the level of the worse degradation against the God of Israel. It was time for the arrival of a Messiah.

Joseph of Arimathea, the Jewish Prince Extraordinaire

Traditions on Joseph of Arimathea have focused a lot on his role and relationships with the Roman government, as a Roman appointed position as a “Noblis Decurion” or minister of mining for the Roman government. He was also in the Roman military which led to his appointment as a member of the Roman Provincial Government of Judea headed by the Roman governor, Pontius Pilate. Traditions also hold that Joseph was well known with the Cymric Silurian Royalty in the southern region of Wales and his wife was probably born and raised on the Island of Britannia of Welch or Cornwall descent of either Jewish or one of the Lost Tribes of Ephraim, Asher, Simeon, or Dan.

Looking over the Kidron Valley towards the Temple Mount – Photo by Robert Mock

What it does appear, Joseph was a Jewish prince extraordinaire. As exclusive as the conservative and anti-Roman Shammaite Pharisees were, Joseph was of the opposite political and religious spectrum. He would have been comfortable and may have been an Essene and thereby a disciple of the Pharisee Nasi, Hillel the Great and his Vice-President of the Sanhedrin, Menahem the Essene. As such, Joseph was able to walk in and out of Jewish, Roman, Gaul, and British Cymric cultures seamlessly. He was the Carnegie of 1^st century Judea with one difference, he apparently kept true to his orthodox Torah observing Jewish roots. As such, he was blessed by the God of Israel to become the protector, guardian or Paranymphos of the Messiah’s mother, and the fledgling messianic Jewish Nazarene sect that would later be ruled and governed by Yahshua’s brother, James the Just (Tzaddik) and later his half-brother or cousin, Simeon ben Cleopas, whose father was the younger twin brother of Joseph the Carpenter.

He watched with amazement with the growth and development of the young prodigy student of the Torah. Here was a mind that seemed to reach into the heavens. The young Yahshua could strip the volumes of Torah arguments into two or three sublime principles of truth that were profound in their own simplicity. Throughout the years, Joseph was the one male guardian who watched and protected this One destined to be sent from the “Father in heaven” for a mission to find the “Lost Sheep of the House of Israel”. Such was the purpose of His upbringing when Yahshua’s uncle, Joseph of Arimathea took him to the Isle of Britannia and there stayed for an indeterminate period of time in study, meditation, reflection, teaching, learning and listening to the Arch-druid leadership that represented the most pure faith of druidic knowledge.

When Yahshua returned to Galilee, He returned as one not recognized by His own people. His ministry erupted and quickly made Yahshua one of the most popular and despised rabbis in Judea. His spiritual messages of peace became one of the most politically potent forces of resistance in Jewish society for He spoke against every form of power, greed, and control that brought humans in direct conflict with His Father in heaven. On the other hand, His magnetic attraction appealed to the simplest of minds, for in Him they could perceive a connection with the Divine. And Yahshua’s uncle watched silently from behind.

He was there when “The Jews”, the temple leadership from the High Priest family of the House of Hanan (Ananias the Elder), with the Sadducee elders, and the Pharisees of the School of Shammai plotted to destroy this messiah. His populous appeal and spiritual message of dependence only upon His Father in heaven circumvented all the roads to the Temple in Jerusalem that had become a “den of thieves”. His taught His followers how to follow a Torah filled life, by living it above and beyond the letter of the law. He also taught His followers that by heeding his command to “Follow Me” He would lead them to the throne; the pasture of His Father’s House.

And then the day arrived, where destiny would stamp its divine judgment and the Son of the Father that came down as that one Messiah. He was executed upon a tree on the Mount of Offense as one accursed of the Eternal One of Israel. It was even predetermined by “The Jews” in power in Jerusalem that His accursed body would be cast into the refuse pits in the Kidron Valley. It was only by the personal intervention of the “Rich Man of Jerusalem” was the body of the young slain messiah lain a newly hewn family tomb. Within three and a half days, the body disappeared and rumors of a heavenly visitation raced through the streets of Jerusalem. At that moment of time, a new world age had begun.

Within weeks, after the Pentecost miraculous Spirit manifestations of the Divine, Joseph returned to his professional duties along the coastline of Cornwall and Wales. He was there as the first witness outside of Jerusalem for the risen Messiah. From a silent observer and protector, Joseph now became the most famous emissary for the Nazarene. It would be his mission to prepare a home for the incoming Lost Tribes of Israel as they were entering the European continent. The new messianic era of Pisces had just arrived.

The Last Days and Legacy of the Decurion

Upon the beautiful peninsula of Cornwall and the marshy islands surrounding Glastonbury, the presence of Prince Joseph of Arimathea, the Roman decurion was an ever present figure. Larger than life, he was instrumental in sparing the lives of twelve refugees that were cast off the coastline of Caesarea to their fate in a boat without oars, sails, or rudder. No doubt by the protective hand of the Almighty Providence but also with the maritime skills of an expert who had spent his life traveling the seas, Joseph and his band of Culdees (refugees) eventually made their landfall near the beaches south of Marseilles on the coastline of southern Gaul in the modern day region of Provence, France. Here is where their past life ended and their future life as emissaries of the Messiah began. The news of their arrival swiftly traveled to Britannia. Soon an invitation from King Arviragus was sent for them to come to the further isles of the west. Upon the Isle of Avalon they arrived and the rest is history.

St George flag by Elsie esq..

The Flag of St. George, the Patron Saint of England that was given as a Military Flag of Resistance by Joseph of Arimathea to Arviragus the King of this Realm

There standing on the island that was to be their new homeland, the king of this region, Arviragus gave the Prince of David, Joseph of Arimathea 12 (XII) hides of land (160 acres per hide). Joseph in return gave the king a flag as his coat of arms that was to be the symbol of his realm; a white flag with a red cross. This was the first historical reference that a cross was used as a national emblem. Known today as the St. George’s Cross that is imbedded on the national flag of the United Kingdom, this flag first came from Joseph of Arimathea to King Arviragus. It was to be a symbol of the cross bar on the “Tree” when the Jewish Messiah and the Passover Lamb both shed their blood at the same time when type met anti-type and the divine conquered sin and death.

It was the power of this messianic symbol that the early Cymric warrior of Britain used to fight to retain their freedom from Roman oppression. We see this early documentation of the conversion of Arviragus by Joseph of Arimathea as recorded in the ancient Hardynge’s British Chronicles which we quote:

The Union Jack flying over Buckingham Palace centered with the Cross of St. George

John Hardynge’s British “Chronicles” –

“Joseph converted this King Arviragus by his prechying to know ye laws divine,

And baptized him as write hath Nennius the chronicler in Brytain tongue full fyne,

And to Christian laws made hym inclyne

And gave him then a shield of silver white, a crosse and long, and overthwart full perfete

These armies were used throughout all Brytain for a common syne,

Each man to know his nacion and thus his armes by Joseph Creacion

Full longafore Saint George was generate were worshipt here of mykell elderdate.”

(John Hardynge’s “Chronicle”, cited by George F. Jowett, “The Drama of the Lost Disciples, pg. 83))

There the Jewish Culdees (refugees) constructed their first homes out of wattled branches into round huts, just like the native populations of the regions. There they lived in isolation and in community, with one exception, they encircled their residences around the simple sanctuary hut that Joseph and Yahshua built decades before when Yahshua was a student sojourner upon this isle like Abraham his forefather upon entering the land of Canaan. A certain reverence hovered over this isle, for outside of Galilee and Jerusalem; there was not a place on this planet that held more the intimacy of the presence of the Messiah than the “Glassy Isle” called Avalon.

It was there on the Isle of Avalon where the Culdee refugees lived, preached, and taught in the Jewish Nazarene Yeshiva. From there, “streams of light” began to spread out over the entire land of Gaul, for Jewish converts to the messianic Torah lifestyles to the Jewish Sect of the Nazarene were bitten with the messianic zeal with the reality that salvation had come and the bonds of sin had been broken forever. So potent was this force upon the lives of the newly arriving “Lost 10-Tribers” coming into Gaul that it gave them the fire of resistance against the oppression and domination of the Roman Empire. So Jewish was this resistance as perceived by the Roman legions upon pagan appearing forces in the dark forests of central and northern Gaul that Claudius Caesar sent the largest invasion of Roman legions in the history of Rome. Where was this invasion sent? To the Isle of Britannia! Five of Rome’s best generals, each with their own legions invaded the Isle of Britannia on five different beachheads in the year of 43 CE. Was it a coincidence that in that same year, Claudius Caesar expelled the Jews from the capital city of Rome? The Jews, the Nazarenes, and the Druids were all on the extermination list of the Emperor of Rome.

The Glastonbury Abbey Ruins destroyed during the Cromwell Puritan Revolution – Photo by Robert Mock

For the next fifteen years the entire island of Britain suffered under the oppression of the invasion by the globalist forces of Rome. Try as hard as they could, the forces of Rome could not penetrate the inner sanctum of the British resistance. The zeal of defense came from the messianic stronghold upon the Isle of Avalon where Joseph of Arimathea and the twelve Culdees (Refugees) lived. The place that was Ground Zero for the resistance forces of Europe, against the legions of Rome, was the Isle of Avalon and the Jewish Nazarene Yeshiva. It was their triumphant message of salvation that produced an impenetrable wall of resistance by the fearsome forces of the Cymric Pendragon, Caradoc from Siluria. Though initially not a convert of “The Way”, it was the Nazarene faith that endued that messianic zeal of resistance against the evil of the forces of totalitarianism.

Unknown to British forces of the Pendragon, they were playing out a mini-drama of what would occur at the time of the end, when the global forces of the Anti-Messiah could control the whole earth. The future yet stubborn messianic resistance will not just come from the Jews, but from the believers of the Christians and the Muslims who along with the rise of Jewish Messianism will form global resistance forces against total world domination by earthly emissaries representing the Dark Forces of Evil. In the ancient days, the central forces of resistance came by the ministry of one man, the Prince of David, Joseph of Arimathea.

These traditions on the life of the Arimathean began to make a permanent place as the living oral traditions were put to the pen and became a part of the archives of history over one thousand years later. It was William of Malmesbury, whose historical acumen has held up to the scrutiny of his peers and later historians as an exacting scholar, who was invited by the Abbot of Glastonbury in the early 12^th century CE to have open access to all the ancient manuscripts in the famous library of the Abbey. His commission was to give a “faithful history” of the Glastonbury Abbey; its history and its spiritual roots. In the year of 1121 CE, he finished his manuscript called “The Antiquity of Glastonbury”. One of the collaborating documents in which he discovered and referred to was the 183 CE document called the “Eleutherian Mission of Glastonbury” in which he quoted:

The Glastonbury Tor, and Ancient Druid Gorsedd near the Home of the Jewish Culdees– Photo by Robert Mock

Eleutherian Mission of Glastonbury – “They also found the whole story in ancient writings how the holy apostles, have been scattered throughout the world, St. Philip the Apostle coming from France with a host of disciples, sent twelve of them into Britain to preach, and that – taught by revelation – constructed the said chapel which the Son of God afterwards dedicated to the honour of His Mother. Their leader, it is said, was Phillip’s dearest friend, Joseph of Arimathea, who buried our Lord.” (George F. Jowett, “The Drama of the Lost Disciples”, pg. 230)

It was later when the Glastonbury born Jesuit, William Goode, who received his education at Glastonbury, wrote, during the reign of King Henry VIII a confirming note on the history of Joseph of Arimathea. As written:

Jesuit William Goode – “There was in existence at Glastonia inscribed tablets to perpetuate St. Joseph’s memory, chapels, crypts, crosses, arms, and the observation of the feast of St. Joseph for six days at the Kalends of August, as long as the Monks enjoyed most securely the King’s charters.” (George F. Jowett, The Drama of the Lost Disciples”, pg. 231)

There were additional observations mentioned by the noted Jesuit that his testimony collaborated with other writers over the centuries. There at the Abbey was a large brass plate made during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I which was engraved with a fallen cross. His writings speak of the arrival upon the Isle of Britannia with the Bethany family, the offering of the gift of the VII Hides of land by the royalty of the western regions of Britain, the silver cruets which held the tears and blood of the Jewish messiah Yahshua, the dimensions of the ancient wattled Vetusta Ecclesia (Ancient Synagogue), the memorial stone imbedded on the side of the Stoned Miriam’s Chapel upon which was engraved the enigmatic words, “Jesvs-Mariam”, the description of the coat-of-arms of the Abbey and the evidence of the burial of Britain’s most famous ancient resident, Joseph of Arimathea. (George F. Jowett, The Drama of the Lost Disciples”, pg. 231)

Today, as a pilgrim in search of the earliest evidence of the planetary mission of the Messiah Yahshua to “search for the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel”, one is amazed and stunned by the overwhelming synchronization of the ancient testimonies that collaborate that such an event did occur; the arrival of the Prince of David Joseph of Arimathea who became the first apostolic emissary to the Island of Britain. The air of the entire landscape carries a sacred aura similar to walking the streets of Old Jerusalem and Galilee. For he was the first apostle followed by the Bethany family, who were accompanied with a total of “twelve refugees” plus the “Nobles Decurion” fleeing from Judea to a safe haven for their sacred habitation.

Here upon the Isle of Avalon, arose the first sanctuary chapel reputedly built by the “hands” of the youth Messiah Yahshua. It was later enlarged into a model Sanctuary, according to dimensions, of the ancient Wilderness Tabernacle by Joseph of Arimathea and preserved with great diligence for over eleven hundred years: first covered with wood, later, recovered again with lead, and then enclosed with a stone masonry basilica that held the revered burial site of the Princess Miriam, who was blessed of YHVH to carry the Messiah child in her womb. Throughout the centuries, the common traditions all confirmed the long-held belief that beneath the foundation flooring of the Chapel of Mary and Joseph were the tombs of the Davidian Princess Miriam the mother of Yahshua, and the His uncle, the Rich Man of Jerusalem, Joseph of Arimathea.

The Tower of St. Michael’s on Top of the Glastonbury Druidic Gorsedd Tor where the last Abbot of Glastonbury, Abbot Whiting was Hanged, Beheaded and Quartered – Photo by Robert Mock

Following in the historical traditions of the Glastonbury historian, William of Malmesbury, at the end of the 19^th century and at the turn of the 20^th century, Reverend Lionel Smithett Lewis, the Vicor of Glastonbury, spent a majority of his eighty-six years researching the ancient documents housed in the Museum Archives that included; ancient manuscripts and tomes, official government documents and dusty archives. With this testimony, he wrote:

Rev. Lionell Smithett Lewis – “The body of St. Joseph, whose burial at the wattle church of St. Mary was recorded by Maelgwyn of Avalon, writing about A.D. 450, lay undisturbed till the year of 1345, when Edward III gave his license to John Bloom of London to dig for the body, if the Abbot and monks permitted, and just as the discovery of the bones of King Arthur of Glastonbury in 1190 were recorded in a far-away monastery in 1367 we find a monk recording that ‘the bodies of Joseph of Arimathea and his companions were found at Glastonbury.’

The remains of St. Joseph were put in a silver casket which could be raised at will from a stone sarcophagus; the base of a shrine to which the frequent pilgrimage was made. This stone altar tomb, the base of the shrine, like the Holy Thorn, survived the Reformation.”

Holinshed, in his ‘Chronicle’, A.D. 1577, speaks of St. Joseph’s sepulcher as being still at Glastonbury, and the learned John Ray in his ”itinerary” records that on June 2, 1662, “We saw Joseph of Arimathea’s tomb at the chapel at the end of the church”. As we have seen, the Holy Thorn was cut down in the Great Rebellion. The aftermath of the same period saw the altar tomb of St. Joseph leave its shrine. During the Commonwealth a Nonconformist divine was put in as incumbent of the Parish Church. In 1662 this interloper was turned out and a Church-man instituted. It was that very same year, in which by God’s Providence John Ray came to Glastonbury and saw the tomb in the ruined chapel.

Later in the year, tradition, from fear of Puritanical fanaticism like that which destroyed the Holy Thorn, silently, hastily at night, the altar tomb was removed from the ruined shrine in St. Mary’s Chapel at the Abbey, and placed in the churchyard of the Parish Church for protection outside of the East end of St. Mary’s Chapel in that church. There it remained till the autumn of 1928, when loving hands brought it reverently into the Church, and placed it in the ancient St. Katherine’s chapel, the North Transept. Moreover, there is in a plinth inside to receive the silver ark with the Saint’s remains. A glass top was put on the tomb that all generation might see what was found.” (George F. Jowett, “The Drama of the Lost Disciples”, pg. 233-234)

The Interior of the Chapel of Mary and Joseph at Glastonbury - The Crypt is Below where the Sarcophagi of the “Joseph” and later “Saints” were Laid and the Upper Level where the Wattled Vetusta Ecclesia (Ancient Synagogue) was first Enclosed with Wood (Linea Basilica) and later Covered with Lead and then Enclosed with an Exterior of Masonry Blocks – Photo by Robert Mock

The day would come when this Prince of David would complete his mission. He had watched blood staining the land of Britain as they fought for their freedom to worship the Jewish Messiah as the Celtic tribes were slaughtered to bring the last resistance under the Roman banner of world authority. Joseph also lived to see all but one of the original Apostles of Yahshua gave their lives in defense of the “The Way”. James the brother of John, an emissary to the Jews and Lost 10 Tribers in Spain was beheaded. The Apostle Paul was beheaded in the Coliseum of Rome, soon to be followed by the execution of the Apostle Peter on a cross upside down. James the brother of Jesus (Yahshua) was bludgeoned to death and thrown over the walls of the temple to the Kidron Valley below. Only John the Revelator lived to a ripe age of over 100 years until Joseph of Arimathea closed his eyes in rest. According to tradition, fifty two years after he placed the body of his nephew, Yahshua, in the family tomb, he laid down his mantle and destiny given to him on July 27, 82 CE According to Hugh Paulinus de Cressy in the “Church History of Brittany, he wrote:

Hugh Paulinus de Cressy – “Joseph was buried near the little wattle church he built.”

Beside the grave of Miriam the Madonna whom he cared and guarded for fifteen years, Joseph was laid to rest in a grave beneath the flooring of the Ancient Synagogue. Across the stone lid of his sarcophagus, where his bones were buried, it was recorded the immortal testimony:

“Ad Brittanos veni post Christum Sepelivi. Docui, Quievi.”

(To the Britons I came after I buried the Christ. I taught, I have entered by rest.)

Almost four hundred years later, Maelgwyn of Avalon wrote, about the year of 450 CE, about the place of the burial of this Roman decurion.

Maelgwyn of Avalon – “The Isle of Avalon greedy of burials…received thousands of sleepers, among whom Joseph de Marmore of Aramathea by name entered his perpetual sleep. And he lies in a bifurcated line next to the southern angle of the oratory (Oratorio) made of circular wattles by 13 inhabitants of the pale over the powerful adorable Virgin. Joseph had with him moreover in his sarcophagus, two white and silver cruets filled with the blood and sweat of Jesus. When his sarcophagus shall be opened it will be seen whole, and untouched in the future, and will be open to the whole world. From then neither water, nor dew from heaven, shall fail those inhabiting this most noble island. For much time before the Day of Judgment these things shall be open in Josaphat and declared to the Living.” (Maelgwyn of Avalon cited by E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” pg. 51 and George F. Jowett, “The Drama of the Saints” pg 236)

Lazarus Sent as a Nazarene Emissary to Marseilles

The Apostle Lazarus was first the Jewish Nazarene priest of Bethany, where their home was a “House of Prayer”. He later went as the commissioned apostle to Cyprus. After his teaching ministry at Avalon, near Glastonbury, Britain Lazarus was one of the first emissaries to be sent back to Gaul, as the commissioned Apostle to Marseilles, France. The facts that he was even identified prior with Britain comes from his imprint with the Celtic manuscripts in the section called “The Triads of Lazarus”. These are still intact as part of the ancient Celtic archives to this very day. Here were recorded the laws (triads) or rules of living for the life as a Gentile Nazarene in fellowship with the Nazarene Messianic Jews. The identity of the “Triads” with the British Isles is strong and compelling as the word “Triad” was never used elsewhere except upon the notable isles to the far west.

The Carving reputed to be of the Nazarene Priest and Apostle Lazarus of Bethany upon a Pillar support in the Grotto of Lazarus upon the foundation of the Abbaye-St-Vicor at Marseilles – Photo by Robert Mock

According to the historical documentation, Lazarus returned to the great metropolitan city of Marseilles where he and his two sisters landed on the beach near that city with Joseph and other exiled Jewish Culdees (Refugees). Here the 12^th English chronicler, Roger of Hoveden wrote of the city of Marseilles when he visited the city with King Richard of England during the Third Crusade in August, 1190 CE:

Roger if Hoveden – “Marseilles is an Episcopal city under the domination of the King of Aragon. Here are the relics (bones) of St. Lazarus, the brother of St Mary Magdalene and Martha, who held the Bishopric for seven years.” (George F. Jowett, “The Drama of the Saints” pg 164)

This fact was also confirmed in the ancient Jewish Nazarene Synagogue records in Lyon;

Records of the Lyon Nazarene Ecclesia – “Lazarus returned to Gaul from Britain to Marseilles, taking with him Mary Magdalene and Martha. He was the first appointed bishop. He died there seven years later.” (George F. Jowett, “The Drama of the Saints” pg 164)

Nighttime Lights Highlighting the Abbaye-St-Victor at Marseilles, France that sets over the Original Grotto where Lazarus lived and Ministered in the 1^st Century CE

According to the Nazarene testimony in Gaul, Lazarus built the first ecclesia (synagogue) in Marseilles upon the site where the ancient 4^th century Cassian Monastery was located.

This monastery abbey was later rebuilt into the larger Abbaye-St-Victor in the 11^th century after the older 4^th century Constantine styled basilica was destroyed by the Muslim invaders into Spain and southern France. The impression of Lazarus upon the inhabitants of Gaul (ancient France) was that he was zealous in his preaching but very kind and tender in his demeanor. The traditions and legends of Lazarus upon the southern coastlines of France are so strong that the reputation of Lazarus was more noted than the Apostle Philip.

The Fortified Towers of the 11^th century, Abbaye-St-Victor where on this Site in the 1^st Century, Lazarus, as a Nazarene Priest, ministered to the Citizen of Marseilles – Photo by Robert Mock

There were many who proclaimed that Lazarus was also the Apostle to Gaul. The popularity of Lazarus in traditional folklore was evidence of how widespread his reputed to be relics (pieces of the bones or personal objects) were spread between the cities at Marseilles, Lyons, Aix, St. Maximin, and La Sainte Baume. The legends, memorials, monuments and liturgies all attest to his historical reality.

Looking down over the Oldest Harbor (Quai de Rive Neuve) from the Abbey of St. Victor on the Hill overlooking Marseilles and the Mediterranean Sea beyond – Photo by Robert Mock

There in that great Roman cosmopolitan city along the Mediterranean coast, today high upon a mount above the city is the Abbaye-St-Victor. It has the appearance more of a fortress or an old dungeon than an edifice of religious enlightenment. Perched on the eminence, it looks down upon the oldest quai de Rive Neuve (harbor of boats) connecting to the ancient harbor of Marseilles.

One can almost imagine that here was the entry into the city for the Jewish refugees. This probably was the major harbor where Joseph of Arimathea’s fleet of boats transported ingots of lead and tin from Gaul to the rest of the Roman Empire.

Beneath the 4^th century church built by the Cassianite monks is an older grotto or natural cave beneath. Here in the depths beneath the Church of St. Victor are the archeological remains of a still older and more primitive subterranean ecclesia (church) that served as the 1^st century Jewish Nazarene Ecclesia of Marseilles. Here was the dwelling place of Lazarus, the 1^st bishop of Marseilles, and the one friend of Yahshua HaMaschiach (Jesus the Messiah) upon whom He revealed His divinity by becoming a conduit of the life giving powers of recreation as Lazarus arose from the tomb.

4^th century Vine Leaf carvings by the Cassianite monks in the Grotto of the Lazarus, the Jewish Nazarene Priest that Ministered in Marseilles for Seven Years – Photo by Robert Mock

Near to the entrance of the grotto are carvings of vine leaves dating also to the 4^th century. Nearby are chapels dedicated to St. Cassian, St. Victor, and others. Scattered within the basilica complex are still intact Constantine styled round pillars that have been supporting the roof above. The impression is that all of this construction was meant to preserve, out of devotion and reverence to the Jewish Nazarene priest that served that 1^st century Nazarene Synagogue. This dates only a few years after the construction of the Jewish Nazarene Synagogue on the Isle of Avalon in Britannia and the gentle saint that gave his life for these people in southern Gaul.

The Interior of the 11^th century Abbey Basilica dedicated to a Local Saint, St. Vicar, dedicated by Pope Benedict IX in 1040 CE, rebuilt in 1200 CE – Photo by Robert Mock

On his last trip to Gaul, after years of evangelism on the European continent, Lazarus was accompanied by the Roman pro-consul Sergius Paulus, whose life and remains are dedicated at the Cathedral of St. Serge in Narbonne, France. (Jowett pg 164)

Here again the biblical testimony of the Brit Hadassah (New Testament) provides critical historical documentation of the far reaching power of the Jewish mission of the Jewish Sanhedrin Nasi, Hillel the Great that Jesus the Nazarene (Yahshua HaNotzri) accomplished by taking the faith of the Jews to the Gentiles, hence began the great mission to find the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel.

In the year of 1877, an inscription was discovered that identified that gave historical verification of a Sergius Paulus and his family who had large land holdings in the area of Pisidian Antioch. Later in 1887, a memorial stone in Rome was discovered documenting the identity of a Sergius Paulus who was appointed in the year of 47 CE as one of the keepers of the banks and the channel of the river of Tiber. He held this office after he returned from a three year appointment as the Governor of the Island of Cyprus.

Front and Rear of the 4^th century Monastery built over the 2^nd century Grotto and Jewish Nazarene Synagogue of the Nazarene Priest, Lazarus by the Cassian Monks about 410 CE – Photo by Robert Mock

Connecting the dots, we can now trace a historical thread. Lazarus, now the former 1^st Nazarene priest of Cyprus arrives back to Judea just about the time to have been taken hostage by the temple security under orders of the High Priest Jonathan, the son of the former high priest, Ananus the Elder. Lazarus was then cast with the eleven apostles of Jesus into the religious and political conflict between the Prince of David, Joseph of Arimathea and the Sadducee supporters of the High Priest family of Ananias the Elder and his son-in-law Caiaphas the High Priest, who were known by the Jewish peasants as “The Jews”.

They were thrown into a boat without sail or rudder and cast adrift into the Mediterranean Sea to their supposed death. With the guidance of Divine Providence, the angelic forces steered the currents to their favor, eventually they arrived on the beachhead near Marseilles about the year of 36 CE.

We then discover the evidence that they headed across mainland France to the Cornwall Peninsula of Britain by the invitation of a Silurian King called Arviragus and then on to the Isle of Avalon before the years of 36 – 37 CE. Lazarus testified as being one of the builders of the Avalon University along with Mary Magdalene and Martha.

Multi-storied layering of the 11^th century Abbaye-St-Vicor built over the 4^th century Cassian Monastery Basilica, over the Jewish Nazarene Synagogue and the Crypt of Lazarus – Photo by Robert Mock

We then find Lazarus taking an early and possibly first commission by Joseph of Arimathea to return to the city of Marseille in southern France and evangelize that city. This was done in order to establish a permanent beachhead for the hundreds of Nazarene converts that would soon flow from Avalon to Gaul and the reverse of those sent to Avalon to be trained by the Jewish Nazarene educators at the Avalon Jewish Nazarene Yeshiva (Seminary) where they were trained and prepared to spread the “Good News” to the arriving Lost Sheep of the House of Israel coming from the plains of Scythia into the central regions upon the continent of Europe. Sergius Paulus was a personal friend and possibly disciple of Lazarus, that accompanied this former Priest of Cyprus to the city of Marseilles about the years of 37-38 CE.

Lazarus remained in the city and surrounding districts of Marseilles. For the next seven years, he preached, evangelized and set up a Jewish Nazarene ecclesia upon the stony escarpment overlooking the harbor of Marseille. There he remained and lived on that mountain prominence in the most humble of dwellings, a cave as his home, now entombed within a 1^st century chapel beneath the Abbaye-St-Victor of Marseilles.

A Roman Styled Sarcophagus in and Arched Recess, in the Crypt of Lazarus, that has the appearance of a Torah Receptacle in a Jewish Synagogue – Photo by Robert Mock

According to traditions, during the persecution of the Jews by Claudius Caesar, between the years of 41-54 CE, Lazarus hid in the Crypt that is now identified with his life. It was also during these years that the Jews were exiled from Rome. The largest Roman expedition of five Roman generals and their legions was sent to the Isle of Britannia. It was their mission to exterminate the bastion of the ancient Hebrew Druids, the protected sanctuary of the Jewish Nazarene Culdees and bring the resistant and resilient Cymric tribes led by the Silurian Cymric Pendragon Caractacus to defeat and under Roman dominion. The God of Israel had a different plan.

It was also there at the protected Isle of Avalon that Joseph of Arimathea, Lazarus, Mary of Magdala and her sister Martha all helped to built and taught as Jewish Nazarene professors in the Jewish Culdee (Refugees) Torah Yeshiva. Lazarus, as we have studied, later returned as a missionary or emissary for the Jewish Nazarenes to the region of Provence France. Lazarus remained at the cosmopolitan city of Marseille, and there established a Jewish Nazarene Synagogue.

Lazarus was later captured in Marseille, imprisoned and later beheaded during the Claudian persecution on the spot known today as the “prison of Saint Lazarus”. He became a martyr for his Master, the Jewish Davidian Prince, Yahshua HaMaschiach (Jesus the Messiah)

Crypt of Lazarus (See Carving of Lazarus to the Right) the Jewish Nazarene Priest where he Hid and later Martyred for his Faith for the Jewish Messiah during the Jewish-British Druidic Persecutions of Claudius Caesar (41-54 CE) – Photo by Robert Mock

During these years, Lazarus returned to the Isle of Avalon near Glastonbury. He came to report on his mission to Marseilles and to take his two sisters, Mary Magdalene and Martha, to assist with his divine mission to the southern regions of France surrounding the city of Marseilles before prematurely dying as a martyr about the year of 44-45 CE.

This fact is testified in the historical early Jewish Nazarene records of Lyon, France that Lazarus took with himself to southern Gaul his two sisters where they lived out the remaining parts of their lives within fifteen to forty miles of each other near to the Marseilles region of Provence, France.

Martha, his sister went to Avignon and Arles France and became famous for her good works in ministry with the people in that region with her Jewish male guardian, Trophimus, a Greek convert of the Jewish Messiah, was exiled as a Culdee refugee in the boat to Marseilles and later one of the traveling companions of the Apostle Paul in Macedonia and Greece. It was Trophimus who in Jerusalem was responsible for the riots and imprisonment of the Apostle Paul.

The “Hidden Black Madonna” of the Cult of Mary Magdalene, in the Crypt of Lazarus, her brother, worshipped by the Dispossessed in the Crypts and Basements of the Large Cathedrals in Europe – Photo by Robert Mock

Their mission was headquartered in Arles, Tarascon and Avignon. Nearby at Montemajeur (4 miles from Arles) is the Hermitage of St. Trophimus that is a series of four small chambers with a chapel nearby. In the larger chamber, Trophime lived for 10 years during his ministry. Martha, of whom he was her guardian, lived nearby in Tarascon, where the prayerful Jewish Nazarene, Martha of Bethany, rescued the town by legend by taming the Tarasque, a man eating monster like a crocodile; half armadillo and half lion.

Mary Magdalene ministered in the Provence region near the town of Maximin, where the Basilica St. Maximin-la-Ste-Baume, named for her Jewish male guardian, the reputed “Rich Young Ruler”, lies at the foot of the St-Baume Mastiff mountain range. Mary later retired to a safe secluded cliff side grotto where she had a commanding view of the entire vineyard studded valley in the Provencal countryside. .

Sergius Paulus inscription from Antioch Sergius Paulus on the other hand was identified sometime between the years of 42/43 to 46/47 CE where he was appointed to a Roman assignment to be the Governor or Pro-Consul to the Island of Cyprus. While serving as governor on this island he befriended his later mentor, Lazarus, who was presiding over the establishment of the first Jewish Nazarene Ecclesia on the Island of Cyprus after the death of Yahshua Ha Maschiach (Jesus the Messiah) between the years of 30 CE and 35 CE. Six years after leaving his spiritual mentor, Lazarus, at Marseilles, (38 CE), Sergius became the official representative of Rome on the Island of Cyprus between the years of 43-46 CE.

Memorial Stone in Rome citing the Name of the Roman governor (pro-Consul) Sergius Paulus formerly on the Island of Cyrus – Yalvac Museum in Turkey – Photo by Holy Land Photos

It was during those three years that three Jewish itinerant Nazarene missionaries arrived on the island of Cyprus. There this Roman governor, the Pro-Consul Sergius Paulus met the Apostles Paul, Barnabus and John Mark when they arrived at Paphos. They sought to sway him to the faith of the Messiah Yahshua in opposition to a Jewish sorcerer, Elymas, who was called Bar-Jesus. (Acts 13:6-12) After a three year appointment, Sergius Paulus returned back to Rome where in the year of 47 CE, where he was appointed as the Keeper of the banks and the channel of the Tiber River.

Lazarus may have been the first missionary to be sent back to Gaul from the Glastonbury-Avalon Jewish Nazarene Yeshiva (Seminary) as the Apostle to the great cosmopolitan city of Marseilles, France. There were more to follow. Soon British and Irish natives, converted and taught the ways of Torah living by following in the footsteps of their Master, the Jewish Messiah Yahshua (Jesus) were moving to Gaul on the European continent.

Jews as Emissaries of the Messiah

The Jewish people today are proud of the fact that they are not a proselytizing faith. The fact that they were covenanted to protect and to preserve the Torah and the Oracles of God, is a fact that has kept Judaism in its purity as a covenanted faith. As the remnant of the ancient Israelites, the Jew’s pathway has been rocky and tortuous filled with exiles and redemptions for their lack of following their covenant with the God of their forefathers; Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. Yet, unlike their northern tribesmen cousins, they never lost their way and always in the history of the Jews a remnant existed that kept their covenant with God.

Inside the Hermitage of the Jewish Nazarene Apostle Trophimus, once known as the “Rich Young Ruler” – Photo by Robert Mock

Preserving the covenant has been the lifeline in why the Jewish people are the only race upon this earth that has survived as a national people over the last 3,500 years with their history intact through ten imperial ages; Egypt, Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Greece, Rome, the Holy Roman Empire, the Islamic Caliphate, the British Empire, and the final imperial age known as the “Harlot and the Beast". They are also the only race upon this planet that was given their identity before they existed, the history before they ever live it, the fruits of the culture before they ever created it, and their spiritual identity and essence before they even met their God face to face. Yet, something different happened in the 1^st century CE, for in the waning years of Jewish culture in Judea, they were given a Messiah that profoundly affected the matrix of their soul.

As history does attest, before their last temple was destroyed (70 CE), the spiritual essence of Judaism was imbedded with the concept of the messiah. Those Jewish Nazarenes that were bitten by the 1^st century Messiah, within one generation, spread the word called “The Way” to every nation and continent on this planet earth. Christianity was not a product or born out of the life and ministry of the 1^st century Jewish Messiah called Yahshua HaNotzri (Jesus the Messiah); Jewish Nazarene faith was! Christianity was an apostate offshoot of the Jewish Nazarene Ecclesia in Rome.

The Roman Christian Church tried to divorce herself of her Jewish identity so that they would not be persecuted by Imperial Rome. They took the Hebrew-Judaic rituals, their symbolisms, their concepts of God, their festivals and many facets of their temple worship, divorced them from their Hebrew philosophical foundation, and placed them upon a Greco-Roman (Hellenistic) philosophical foundation. Out of the roots of this apostasy there arose the Roman Christian faith; the foundational faith of the Roman Catholic Church and all the daughters of Rome called the Protestant denominations.

Some Protestant faiths have recovered and recaptured the essence of Seventh-day Sabbath worship, clean meats, and festival celebrations, but they pick and choose what they wish to believe instead of what the God of Israel asks them to believe. Many Protestant denominations still reject the Torah, the prophecies by the prophets, and even the judgments of the Lord of hosts. Many think that they are “Spiritual Israelites” but in reality they are “Literal Lost Israelites”. If they wanted truly to replace the Jewish people, they should call themselves “Spiritual Jews”. Many Protestants ignore the Jews as though they are a non-entity in biblical prophesy or a political nuisance.

The Hermitage where the Oratory Cell Dwelling of Trophimus, the Rich Young Ruler, once Stood – Photo by Robert Mock

The same is true of Islam. The Islamic faith was not a descendant of Judaism nor were they a new revealed religion. Actually the Islamic faith was an offshoot of the Jewish Nazarene faith that spread throughout the Fertile Crescent. They captured the messianic idealism of the Jewish Nazarenes, rewrote biblical history with the descendants of Ishmael as the chosen ones and reject the repeated covenants of the God of Israel with Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. These are the facts of history.

The Corridor of the Hermitage of the Jewish Nazarene Apostle Trophimus, who once known as the “Rich Young Ruler” – Photo by Robert Mock

There is something different when messianic idealism is imbedded and becomes an indelible part of one’s existence. That difference is that you want to tell someone else about it. The “truths” and the “historical facts” are so alive, that you want to share the “Good News”. The real commission of the Jewish Messiah was that proselytizing and evangelizing was not an event for masses of people but a personal, individual relationship between master and disciple. When Yahshua, as the Master to his talmidin (disciples) told His disciples to “Follow Me”, He actually was telling them to follow His example in lifestyle, purpose, principle, and action. They were to make disciples, not churches, to teach them over a long period of time how to live the life of Torah (revelations of God). This was not a business or enterprise but a commitment between teacher and student until they were mature in the ways of following the God of Israel.

The Story of Joseph of Aramathea moving to Avalon or Glastonbury has become one of the most revered stories in Christian and Nazarene history. Here was a cool, calm and calculating businessman who recognized, when He finally accepted the messianic mission of his nephew, Yahshua HaNotzri (Jesus the Nazarene) that he was to become the first apostle to take the Apostolic Commission to the Isles of the European continent. It was his mission to take the “Good News” of the death and resurrection of the Messiah to the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel.

Here was the “insider’s news” of the redemption of the House of Israel. When the Lost 10 Tribers of Israel were redeemed the whole pathway of redemption would opened up to all men, Gentiles included. Joseph used his personal assets and attributes to touch, teach, and protect hundreds of lives through the stormy years of the Roman persecutions that not only targeted the Jewish people, but also targeted for extinction the Druids of Britain and the messianic followers of the Jewish Nazarene Messiah.

The famed Roman to Medieval Neocropolis called the Alyscamps – Photo by Robert Mock

The fact that Joseph and many of his followers were cast off into the Mediterranean in a boat without sail or rudder to their supposed demise was only the setting of what happened afterwards. Everyone around Joseph knew very well that these were historic years. According to the historical records of the Nazarenes in Gaul led to one conclusion; before Joseph and his Culdee (refugees) landed on a beachhead near Marseilles France, there were already many converts by Joseph of Arimathea to the faith of his Messiah that were there before he and his Culdee (Refugee) followers arrived. They were excited, enthusiastic, and eager to begin telling the story of the risen Jewish Messiah and “The Way” in which He transformed lives. Little did they know that they were establishing a beachhead for the soon to arrive Lost Tribes of Israel that had for over six centuries gradually migrated to their new homelands in Europe.

The mentor and personal friend of Joseph of Arimathea was Phillip the Apostle. At the time of their expulsion and exile from Israel, they were staying in Philip’s home in Caesarea as a “safe house” from the Sadducee temple leaders who were called “The Jews”.

Known as the “Abode of the Blessed”, the Alyscamps was revered also by the Jewish Nazarenes – Photo by Robert Mock

Philip was one of the original twelve disciples, but there were 70 other disciples in the first wave of evangelism to Gaul in the region of France and surrounding lands on the continent of Europe. Later there would arrive a second wave of 120 disciples. Joseph was not counted with any of these discipleships, for he was to become their mentor. As the uncle of the Messiah and an heir to the throne of King David, the Prince of David Joseph of Arimathea had more insight into the life and spirit of this Jewish messiah than any other person on earth. Can you imagine, at the Jewish Nazarene Yeshiva training seminars on the Island of Avalon, what would it be like to sit in a class tutored and presided over by the uncle of Jesus the Messiah. Here was the “Prince” who essentially raised this orphaned young Messiah through His childhood, youth, and early manhood?

The Apostle Philip was the first to commission Joseph of Arimathea to a specific mission; Apostle to the British and to the Druids on the Isle of Britannia. He was to return to the area of his business and there establish a university (yeshiva or seminary) in the heartland of the ancient Druidic faith.

The Tomb Monument and Chapel in the Alyscamps - Photo by Robert Mock

Who then was this Apostle Philip? Born in the city of Bethsaide in the region of Galilee today, he was the first to take his commission to the Roman provinces of Gaul. His life ministry was known as having the Apostolic Authority for ancient Gaul and Europe. This was his lifelong mission as the emissary for his Master. In the 7^th century, his life story was recorded by Isidore, the Archbishop of Seville (600-636 CE) as written in his “Historia”:

Isidore, the Archbishop of Seville – “Philip of the city of Bethsaida, whence also came Peter, preaching Christ to the Gauls, and brought barbarous and neighbouring nations, seated in darkness and close to the swelling ocean to the light of knowledge and port of faith. Afterwards he was stoned and crucified and died in Hierapolis, a city of Phrygia, and having been buried with his corpse upright along with his daughters rests there.” (Cited by George F. Jowett, “The Drama of the Lost Disciples” pg. 65)

In the mind of the Apostle Philip, Joseph was not to go to Britain just to hide and to preserve the lives of the occupants of his boat of refuge, but he was to go to evangelize and to train others to become emissaries of the Jewish Messiah. Out of his seminary would stream hundreds of converts and students transformed by Jewish messianic idealism with the “Good News” of salvation to the incoming tribes of Israel that were arriving upon the continent of Europe.

The Romans feared Death so the Christians were able to Worship without Fear in the Alyscamps after Darkness – Photo by Robert Mock

From manuscripts quoted by John of Glastonbury, William of Malmesbury and Capgrave, we learn on one occasion that Joseph and his son, Josephes, went to visit with Philip in Gaul. On the return trip, Philip sent Josephes to Britain with his father and with them ten other disciples to be taught and trained. There would be more, as reported,

George F. Jowett - “Evidently, the saints arrived in Britain in groups. It is ultimately stated that one hundred and sixty had been sent to Britain at various intervals by St. Philip to serve Joseph in his evangelizing mission.”

Being appointed by a Jewish messiah was not a static experience, but one that would inflame ones entire life. And so it was with Joseph of Arimathea. It started by planting the seeds of Torah in fertile young minds, teaching them how to live a “life of Torah”, and imbedding in their lives the faith and hope of the prophets that there will one day be a day of redemption when the Lost Tribes of Israel would be redeemed and restored with their cousins the Jews, in full union with the Messiah, no matter where they were planted on this earth. This was the summation of the all the prophets of Israel and Judah.

Four Jewish Messianic Nazarene Emissaries to Roman Gaul

Beatus the Noble Briton

Lake Thun Swiss

The last Resting Place of Beatus, the British Convert of Joseph of Arimathea near Lake Thun in Switzerland near Interlaken

One of the earliest converts of Joseph of Arimathea was a noble Briton, whose name was Suetonius. Tradition stated that he was converted to the Nazarene faith by the Apostle Barnabus, the brother of the Apostle Aristobulus, both of whom were siblings to the Apostle Peter’s wife living in Capernaum in Northern Galilee. Suetonius was converted and his baptismal name became “Beatus”.

After his training at the Avalon Jewish Nazarene Yeshiva, Beatus was commissioned to take the “Good News” to the lake regions of the Alps in Switzerland. There he lived and witnessed at Vnterseen, three miles from Interlaken on Lake Thun in Switzerland. For the pilgrim looking for the first footprints of the Jewish Nazarenes in Europe can visit a rock cave cell where Mansuetus lived and witnessed. There he died as an elderly man in the year of 96 CE and commemorated in the Roman Martyrology. (Theat. Magn. Brit., Lib., vi, p. 9; cited by Lionel Smithett Lewis, St. Joseph of Arimathea of Glastonbury, pg. 127)

The Irish Mansuetus to Alsace-Lorraine, France and Illyria in the Balkans

Map of Alsace-Lorraine in France

Mansuetus, on the other hand was of Irish noble birth who also was converted, baptized, according to Arnold Mirmannus, by immersion in the year of 40 CE by Joseph of Arimathea. He then was trained at the Avalon Jewish Nazarene Yeshiva (Seminary) by the Bethany three. It was stated in early Christian history that he become a disciple of the Apostle Peter after he met Peter when he visited Jerusalem with Clement of Rome who came to worship and celebrate during the festivals of the Lord. It was Clement, another apostolic convert of Joseph of Arimathea in Briton, who later became the third (3^rd) bishop of Rome.

BibleSearchers documented the arrival of Clement of Rome to Caesarea when Joseph of Arimathea was staying at the home of the Apostle Philip during the spring festival season at Passover. This event occurred prior to the expulsion of Joseph, the Bethany family and other disciples of Yahshua. At this visit, it was Clement of Rome’s first contact to meet the apostle he most admired, the Apostle Peter. It is doubtful that Mansuetus was traveling with Clement from Rome to Jerusalem on this first visit prior to the year of 35 CE but suggests that he came a few years later.

Chateau View by master voo. It does give historical credence that Clement, the 3^rd Bishop of Rome, was a practicing orthodox Jew. As all orthodox and covenanted members of the Jewish Nazarene Ecclesia and Synagogue in Jerusalem, they returned for festivals of the Lord at least every Sabbatical Week of Years (every 7 years). One of these later years, it is probable that Clement of Rome brought with him, Mansuetus and introduced him to his favorite apostolic teacher, the Apostle Peter.

View of Alsace-Lorraine, France as Seen from a Chateau

After Joseph of Arimathea and the Eleven arrived on the Isle of Avalon where Glastonbury, England is today, and after they built their residences, their wattle and mud ecclesia, and opened a Jewish Nazarene Yeshiva on British soil, Mansuetus become a disciple in training. He later became a disciple and an assistant to the Av Bet Din of the Jewish Nazarene Sanhedrin, the Apostle Peter.

Mansuetus returned to Gaul and there effectively lived, ministered and evangelized in the regions of modern day France. According to Alford, (Alford, Reg. Fid. Brit (pg. 28-29 cited by Lionel Smithett Lewis, St. Joseph of Arimathea of Glastonbury, pg. 127) Mansuetus was appointed as the Priest to the Lotharingians in Middle Francia before 49 CE. There he founded the Jewish Nazarene Ecclesia in the Lotharingian region of Alsace-Lorraine in France. He later traveled into Eastern Europe in the region of Illyria, across the Adriatic Sea from Italy in the region of the Balkans, where we last hear of this intrepid disciple for there he was martyred in the year of either 89 or 110 CE. (“Mersaeus de Sanctis Germaniae,” Guilliman Helvet, Histories, Lib. 1, Cap. 15. Hen Pantaleon de Viris illus. Germ., Part 1, “L’Apostolat de S. Manouel” by L’Abbe Guillaume, p. 22, cited by Lionel Smithett Lewis, St. Joseph of Arimathea of Glastonbury, pg. 127)

The British Marcellus to Treves, France

The French Valley of Treves

Marcellus was a British of noble birth whose training from Britain was after the death of Joseph of Arimathea, but may have been a student of Josephes, the son of Joseph of Arimathea at the Jewish Avalon Nazarene Yeshiva, who followed in his father’s footsteps.

According to the histories, Marcellus became the 3^rd Nazarene Priest of Tongres, now in Belgium and founded the Archbishopric at Treves that for centuries was the dominate ecclesia in the early Gallican Church. This was truly a British mission for most of the early Archbishops of Treves were British. According to Marsaeus, Marcellus died as a martyr for his faith in the year 166 CE. (Marsaeus, De Archiepiscopis Treviensium, and Pantalion, De Viis Illus. Germaniae, Part I; cited by Lionel Smithett Lewis, St. Joseph of Arimathea of Glastonbury, pg. 127)

The Irish Cathaldus (Cataldo) to Tarentum, Italy

Another illustrious Jewish Nazarene British trained missionary, Cataldo, was later sainted by the Roman Catholic Church as Saint Cataldus (Catalogue of the Saints in the Vatican - 1642 CE.) He was not a Roman Catholic but a Jewish Nazarene, as all the early Nazarene Priests of Rome.

Lismore Castle in Waterford County, Ireland

Map Of Ireland Showing Waterford Born in Munster, Ireland, Cataldo, as he was known in Britain was a trainee of the British Culdee Nazarene Seminary who first became the 2^nd headmaster of the Nazarene school at Lismore in Waterford after its founder, Carthage died. He later went to Jerusalem to celebrate the festivals of the Lord (called a pilgrimage to the Holy Land by the Roman Catholic Church) and upon returning was shipwrecked at Taranto in southern Italy. The people in that city chose him to be their Nazarene priest.

Lismore, in Waterford County, Ireland

cemetery As strange as it may seem, an Irishman, whom we know today to be Nazarene trained and Jewish observant priest would be so honored throughout Italy, Malta, and France, yet so little known in his homeland. Today he is the titular of the Taranto Cathedral. He is the principle patron of the Catholic diocese there.

The Cemetery of Shanrahan, the Site of Cataldo’s Monastery

According to an epitaph noted under an image of Saint Catald in Rome, we read the following:

Me tulit Hiberne, Solyme traxere, Tarentum Nunc tenet: huic ritus, dogmata, jura dedi.

“Hibernia gave me birth; thence wafted over, I sought the sacred Solymean shore. To thee Tarentum, holy rites I gave, Precepts divine; and thou to me a grave.

Such is the stuff of rewriting history. According to British history, Lionel Smithett Lewis the late Vicar of Glastonbury on the former Isle of Avalon noted that Cataldo was an Irishman who ended up being the Jewish Nazarene bishop of Tarentum, Italy about the year of 170 CE. At that time the “bishopric” was still under Jewish Nazarene leadership and Roman Catholic hegemony over the Early Christian Church was not existent until over a century and a half later. He founded the Jewish Nazarene Ecclesia that was called the Moronus de Ecclesia of Tarentina. As their priest, Cataldo did not give them “holy rites” but taught them how to live the life of Torah as taught by the apostolic leadership of the Jerusalem Jewish Nazarene Ecclesia in Jerusalem.

Roman Catholic statue of St. Cathaldus with Bishops Miter and Staff

The Roman Catholic Church did not even know that he was of Irish descent until the 11^th century when on May 10, 1017 CE, his grave was discovered and his relics recovered during the renovation of the Cathedral of Taranto after its destruction by the Islamic invasion by the Saracens in the year of 971 CE.

Wow! Outdid themselves! With his bones was discovered a pastoral staff or a small golden cross of Irish craftsmanship that was dated to 7^th to 8^th century with the name, Cathaldus Rachau. In reality, these artifacts might have been much older and closer to the 2^nd century, if they were originally his, and the British version of history was recognized as true. The veneration of this Jewish Nazarene priest swept the continent but especially in Southern Italy after that date.

The Cathedral of St. Cataldo in Taranto, Italy

As such, St. Cathaldus was more popular in Southern Italy than St. Patrick is in Ireland. In that country where the Vatican and Rome resided, the Cathedral of Tarentina was dedicated to this Irish convert to Judaism. Over one hundred and fifty churches were dedicated to Cataldo in Italy. The Cathedral – Basilica of Taranto carries Cathaldus’ name with distinction. He is the Saint Protector of Corato, known as Bari, in Gangi, known as Palermo and even a Sicilian town is called San Cataldo.

Albion’s Culdee Priests Herald the Coming of the Lost Israelites

Over Two Thousand nine hundred years ago, one of the last of the apostles of Yahshua HaMaschiach (Jesus the Messiah) was laid to rest. His life was one of legends and his name will forever remain in the archives as the “Hidden Disciple” who arose to fame in the moment of time right after the crucifixion of the Messiah and then disappeared from biblical history. He would be the instrument of the Eternal One of Israel to prepare a homeland for the Tribe of Ephraim of the House of Joseph. He would be destined to carry the mantle as the Chief Tribe of the Lost Sheep of the House of Israel. As the Engel-Sacai, known as the Anglo-Saxons arrived upon the Isle of Brittany in the 5^th century the history of the Jewish Culdees, famed in the biblical gospel stories, were now refugees upon this land. It would become a sacred land of traditions and legends. Its imprint upon the Anglo-Saxon mind would eventually sweep this tiny island into an imperial quest that became the most far reaching empire in world history. It would be destined to become the imperial nation that would set the stage for the return of the Jews to their homeland in Israel. Now it is almost time for the House of Ephraim to bring her tribal cousins back to the land of their tribal inheritance.

As a Bud is Destined to Open into a Flower so the Lost Tribes of the House of Israel are Destined to Return to their Homeland – Photo taken at Luckman Park Manor by Robert Mock

Zechariah 10:6-8, 10,12 – “I will strengthen the House of Judah, and I will save the House of Joseph. I will bring them back, because I have mercy on them. They shall be as though I had not cast them aside; for I am the Lord their God, and I will hear them.

Those of Ephraim shall be like a mighty man, and their heart shall rejoice as if with wine…I will whistle for them and gather them, for I will redeem them; and they shall increase as they once increased…I will bring them into the land of Gilead and Lebanon, until no more room is found for them.”

The first of the converts of the Culdees or the “Judean refugees” as they were known were the Druids of the Island of Britain. Taking a serious look at their high culture of education and spiritual elevating theology, its remarkable affinity with Hebrew-Judaic faith of the Jewish emissaries now living on the island was so amazing that there is no wonder that they, the Druids, were able to reconcile the spiritual teachings of the Culdees (Refugees) with their own religious teachings about the Unknown God of the Universes, resurrection and the inheritance of the life to come. The words the Druids used to describe the Supreme God were words such as, “Governor”, “Distributer”, “The Wonderful”, the “Ancient of Days” and descriptive references that could have been lifted out of the TaNaKh (Old Testament). (E. Raymond Capt, “The Traditions of Glastonbury” pg. 51)

Luckman Park Manor near Historic Wales, Cornwall, Wells, Bath, and Glastonbury – Photo by Robert Mock

This name for the Jewish refugees with Joseph of Arimathea, the Culdees, became such a reference point to the Early British converts to “The Way” that the British Christian Church was actually called the British Culdee Church. Its reference to the early Josephan Jewish mission to Britain would only be eclipsed by the Roman Christian Church after the 8^th century, an event that was finalized by the Norman Invasion in 1066 CE by William the Conqueror. In fact British church authorities as late as 939 CE in St. Peter’s at York were still recording in their church documents the references to the Culdee Church.

Other church authorities claim that the Canons of York were called “Culdees” up to the reign of King Henry II of England in the years of 1133-1189 CE. Even the country of Ireland was named the “Culdee” and the Scottish Church was persistent in their use of the name of “Culdee” or “Culdish” until centuries later. The heritage of the priesthood of the Jews clung tenaciously to these ancient traditions as noted in the Scottish poem.

“The Pure Culdees

Were Alby’s (Albion) earliest priests of God,

Ere yet an island of her seas

By Foot of Saxon monk was trod.”

(Reullura by Campbell cited by Capt, pg 46)

It was time for the tribal invasion of the Lost Tribes of Israel to finally arrive in mass to their final domicile. The “Fullness of the Gentiles” was now to begin. It would be a process that would take almost two millenniums as the oppression of the Roman Christian Church would first corrupt the identity of the Jewish Messiah and lead the Lost Tribes of Israel in Europe into the “Dark Ages” while their Jewish cousins were basking in the Golden Age of the Islam. Then Europe would erupt into the Renaissance and the Protestant Revolt that led to French Revolution, the American Revolution and the Great Awakening. The days of Redemption were about to begin. Yet, the question lingers, how did the Israelites get lost, and where did they go?

Go to Section Seven

“The Exile of the Ten Tribes of Israel”

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Kol Ha Tor, the Voice of the Turtledove,

As a Reception from the House of Judah is forming to await the returning House of Israel

We are Associated Supporters of the Kol HaTor Vision

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Go to Part Eleven

The Jewish Mission to Prepare the Homeland for the Return of Ephraim and the Lost Tribes of Israel

Go to Section One –

“Joseph of Arimathea, the Jewish Metal Merchant and Apostle to Britannia”

Go to Section Two –

“The Jewish Nazarene Refugees Flee to the Isle of Avalon”

Go to Section Three –

“The Jewish Nazarene Culdee Yeshiva and the British Cymric Druids”

Go to Section Four –

“The Early Formative and Lost Years of Jesus”

Go to Section Five –

“The Vetusta Ecclesia – The Ancient Synagogue built by the Hand of God’s Messiah”

Go to Section Six –

“The History of the Vetusta Nazarene Synagogue (Ancient Ecclesia)”

The Divine Mission to Restore the Lost Sheep (Tribes) of the House of Israel

Go to Section Seven –

“The Exile of the Ten Tribes of Israel”

Go to Section Eight –

“The Early Israelite Migrations”

Go to Section Nine –

“God’s Battle-Axe – Mystery of the Pashtun Israelites of Afghanistan”

Go to Section Ten –

“The Durrani Pashtun Afghan Bani-Israel Empire and its Legacy –

the Islamic Messiah, the Mahdi and the anti-Messiah, the Dajjal”

Go to Section Eleven –

“The Israelite-Scythian Migration to Europe”

Go to Section Twelve –

“Finding a New Home for the Lost Tribes of Israel”

Go to Section Thirteen –

“Rothschild Sabbatean Zionist State of Israel preparing the Future Home for the Returning Ten Tribes of the House of Israel”

Go to Section Fourteen –

“The Final Days of the Labor Zionist State of Israel as the

Messiah calls the Lost Tribes of Israel to come Home”

Message from BibleSearchers

BibleSearchers scans the world for information that has relevance on the time of the end. It is our prayer that this will allow the believers in the Almighty One of Israel to “watch and be ready”. Our readiness has nothing to do trying to halt the progression of evil on our planet earth. In our readiness, we seek to be prepared for the coming of the Messiah of Israel so that goodness and evil will be manifested in its fullest. Our preparation is a pathway of spiritual readiness for a world of peace. Our defender is the Lord of hosts. The time of the end suggests that the Eternal One of Israel’s intent is to close out this chapter of earth’s history so that the perpetrators of evil, those that seek power, greed and control, will be eliminated from this planet earth. The wars of the heavens are being played out on this planet earth and humans will live through it to testify of the might, power, justice and the love of the God of Israel. In a world of corruption and disinformation, we cannot always know what the historical truth is and who is promoting evil or mis-information. We cannot guarantee our sources but we will always seek to portray trends that can be validated in the Torah and the testimony of the prophets of the Old and the New Testament.

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