Western missionaries invented Burmese Jewish ancestry before real Jews ever settled Myanmar

Evidence

In his detailed and carefully researched work Merker believed that he had found significant parallels between the Masais’ myths and customs and those of the biblical Hebrews. Merker discovered parallels between the beliefs and customs of the ancient Jews including: similarities in the names of God; in circumcision; in a belief in the figure of Moses (whom Merker identified with the Masai Marumi or Musana); and in a variety of legends that included the stories of the creation of the world, Adam and Eve and the fall of man, the story of the flood, the theft of the birthright, the bronze serpent, and the ten commandments. He concluded that both the Masai and the “oldest” Hebrews originated from the same people. — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 338 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

John Colenso, a Cambridge-educated mathematician who was ordained bishop of Natal in 1853, was convinced that the two Zulu names for God embraced perfectly the notions of the divine “contained in the Hebrew words Elohim and Jehovah.” So close indeed were the resemblances, according to Colenso, that frequently the point was made that anyone who really wanted to understand the Bible had best study Zulu customs. Zulu “habits and even the nature of their country so nearly correspond to those of the ancient Israelites, that the very scenes are brought continually, as it were, before their eyes, and vividly realized in a practical point of view.” Practically everything about the Zulus from their lunar calendar to the order of religious feasts seemed to reflect an Israelite past. “The Zulu keeps his annual feasts, and observes the New Moons as the old Hebrew did. The very Zulus have their festivals at the beginning of the Southern Spring and at the end of their Autumn, corresponding to the ‘feast of the first fruits’ and the ‘feast of the ingathering’ of the ancient Hebrews.” — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 333 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Colonial discourse projected an invented Jewish identity onto unknown peoples worldwide; Colonial missionaries mapped Zulu religion onto ancient Israelite customs — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 333; A biblical template of Jews explained unknown peoples and served colonial rule (+2 more)

Broader Connections

• Colonial missionaries mapped Zulu religion onto ancient Israelite customs #exemplifies (0.92) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 333
• Colonial scholars mapped biblical Hebrew traits onto African peoples like the Masai #exemplifies (0.92) — Ivan Davidson Kalmar, Derek Penslar, Orientalism and the Jews, 338