Oliver Cromwell And the Restoration of Israel
Oliver Cromwell And the Restoration of Israel Video.
Israel is in the news and always will be. On May 14th 1948 Israel became a nation again. The dry bones of Ezekiel 37 lived again and the old biblical nation, that many had regarded as the stuff of story books, was restored in a day. Many people saw this as the fruit of the Zionist movement among the Jewish people who had gained the support of evangelical Christians. However, in many ways it was the other way round. Protestant Christians, particularly in the 17th century, who had rediscovered the bible, had themselves discovered the verses about the restoration of Israel and had themselves influenced the Jewish people and given them the belief that the restoration of their homeland was a real hope, not just a dream.
England was in turmoil for most of the 17th Century and at the root of this turmoil was the fact that the bible had become available in English to ordinary people. In particular the 1611 Authorised Version, which is now usually know as the King James Version, became widely available and was revered as the Word of God.
Scan of a Gustave Doré engraving "The Vision of The Valley of The Dry Bones" - 1866. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Miniature showing the expulsion of Jews following the Edict of Expulsion by Edward I of England (18 July 1290). Image shows the white double tabula that Jews in England were mandated to wear by law. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
People no longer took the teachings of the institutional church at face value but studied the scriptures for themselves. As a result a huge number of religious groups sprang up, many concerned with eschatology and the return of Christ. There was an increased interest in the Jewish people and the promises made to them in the bible. The Jews had been expelled from England in 1290 in the reign of King Edward Ist. Many Protestants, including, Oliver Cromwell, believed that the conversion of the Jews to Christianity was essential before Christ would return to reign on earth.
Even before Cromwell, a movement had started in England for the readmission of the Jews. In part this was because many believers had realised that the promises God made to the Jews were eternal. The church had taught that all God’s promises to the Jews had been appropriated by the Church and no longer applied to the Jews. People started to question this argument on the basis that God is not a man that he should lie (Numbers 23:19).
In 1621 Henry Finch published his work The World's Great Restauration, or Calling of the Jews, and with them of all Nations and Kingdoms of the Earth to the Faith of Christ. In this work Finch ascribed the writing of the Hebrew prophets to the Jews themselves rather than to the church in general. He thus started the process of restoring the Jews own bible back to them. Unfortunately for Finch he incurred the wrath of King James I by predicting the restoration of the Jews to worldwide dominion. James saw this as seditious and demanded that Finch recant on some of what he said.
Despite this the door was now open for believers to understand that God would never break his promises to the Jewish people and the admissionist movement was born whereby many Protestants in England called for the readmission of Jews to England.
The Fifth Monarchists were a Protestant sect active during the 1649 to 1660 Commonwealth of England.The group took its name from a prophecy that claimed the Four kingdoms of Daniel would precede the Fifth, which would see the establishment of the Kingship and kingdom of God on earth. They believed that the readmission of the Jews would hasten the kingdom of Christ. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
At the end of 1653 Cromwell became the Lord Protector of what was known officially as The Commonwealth of England, Scotland and Ireland. He was then in a position to act on petitions on behalf of Jewish people who wished to be allowed back into the country. A man called Menasseh ben Israel became instrumental at this point. Head been born in Lisbon in 1604, settled in Amsterdam and became a Rabbi. In 1651 he had petitioned Cromwell to allow Jewish communities to be re-established in England.
He believed this would hasten the coming of the Jewish Messiah. In September 1655 he arrived in London with a delegation and personally petitioned Cromwell for the readmission of the Jews. Cromwell met with him and it was agreed that a conference should be convened to discuss the issues. The petition requested such things as citizenship, freedom of worship, burial grounds, freedom to trade and the withdrawal of all laws against Jews.
Portrait of Menasseh Ben Israel (1604-1657) rabbi, philosopher and printer. Amsterdam. 1642. Salomo d’Italia, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
XXXVI. That to the public profession held forth none shall be compelled by penalties or otherwise; but that endeavours be used to win them by sound doctrine and the example of a good conversation.
Article 36 fromThe 1653 Instrument of Government
Cromwell had already been attempting to introduce a greater degree of religious liberty in England. The 1653 Instrument of Government had been The first detailed written constitution adopted by a modern state. Articles 35 to 37 gave greater religious freedom to all Protestant groups at least.
In December 1655 the conference met a number of times. Although there was no formal outcome it became clear that the Jews would again be tolerated in England.
In 1656 Cromwell made a verbal promise, backed by the Council of State, to allow Jews to return to Britain and practise their faith freely. From this time the Jews started returning to England but it wasn’t until 1858 that the Jewish people received formal emancipation.
Anyway, the long slow process of the restoration of the Jewish people had begun. The oppressions and cruelties which had been visited upon the Jewish people for many centuries began to diminish. They did not cease but they steadily decreased in number and intensity.
If you are interested in this subject I highly recommend Grattan Guinness’s Light for the Last Days first published in 1886. This book gives an overview of the terrible sufferings undergone by the Jewish people since their exile from their homeland. It also gives details of their gradual restoration from the 17th Century onwards.
Return of the Jews to 17th Century England
The 17th Century saw the rise of a vast number of Protestant movements which separated from the Church from England. These groups, known as Dissenters, were often concerned with the Jewish people and converting them to Christianity because they saw this as a precursor to the return of Christ. However many of these groups held very exotic ideas, outside the mainstream of Christianity. Some were focussed around their particular leader, some were overly concerned with eschatology and the imminent return of Christ, some believed themselves prophets with special knowledge of God’s plans. However many were very sound in their beliefs and formed the basis of nonconformist Christianity in England.
The Church of England, as the established church, wanted complete unity of belief and worship in England and attempted to ostracise the dissenters and restrict their gatherings around the country. If you are interested in this subject I have done a video on Richard Hooker the Anglican theologian.
The Moderate[ was a newspaper published by the Levellers, a group of Dissenters, from July 1648 to September 1649.Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Title page of The Commonwealth of Oceana. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Strangely though the Jewish presence in England continued to grow from the time of Cromwell onwards despite the tumultuous arguments between Catholics and Protestants and between Protestants themselves. Studies of Hebrew had been steadily growing in England since the early 16th Century. One of the main figures in this movement was Immanuel Tremellius (c.1510-1580), a converted Jew, who became the third Regius Professor of Hebrew at Cambridge between 1549 and 1553. In the 17th Century the Jews themselves became an ever present part of English society.
Following the Whitehall Conferences with Oliver Cromwell in 1655, and Cromwell’s verbal promise that Jews could return to England, attitudes towards the Jewish people changed especially among Protestants. For example James Harrington (1611-1677) in 1656 proposed in his book Oceana, that the Jews should be allowed to settle in Ireland, to “plant it with Jews, allowing them their own Rites and Lawes”.
Reconstruction of Solomon's Temple based on Jacob Judah’s description. Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Despite all the religious arguments that were going on, the Jews always seemed to find favour with the rulers in England. Firstly with Cromwell and the Protectorate, then with Charles II. When charles was in Bruges, prior to his restoration in 1660, Dutch Jews helped him with funds and practical support to reclaim the throne. After his restoration Charles felt gratitude to the Jewish people for the support they had given him. During his reign, forty-eight Sephardic Jews were naturalised by Charles.
Bizarrely the Jews had found favour with both Cromwell and Charles II. The post restoration period saw increased social acceptance of the Jews. One interesting event was the arrival in 1674 of Jacob Jehudah Leon (1602-1675) and his model of Solomon’s Temple which toured the country. The model caught the attention of Charles II, the general public and major figures such as the Archbishop of Canterbury and Isaac Newton. Christopher Wren, a leading Freemason, arranged for the display of the model in London for the Royal Society.
Sir Solomon de Medina
In 1688 the Glorious Revolution occurred when the daughter of James II, Mary, and her Dutch husband William of Orange deposed James II after fears in England about his Catholic sympathies. Like James II, William had the backing of Jewish financiers. The Jewish banker, Francisco Lopes Suasso, lent him two million guilders. William had seen religious toleration working in the Dutch Republic and was consistently friendly towards the Jewish people.
Capitalism grew alongside the rise in Protestantism in this period and both these forces proved beneficial to the Jews. the increasing social status of the Jews was shown in 1700 when Sir Solomon de Medina, an army contractor for William III, became the first Jew to be knighted in England. An interesting statistic is that in the late 17th Century the Jews contributed contributed towards one-twelfth of England’s overseas trade (Harold Pollins, Economic History of the Jews in England, Oxford: Littman, 1982, p. 14).
The end of the 17th Century saw something of a tempering of the extreme religious fervour of earlier in the century. In its place came an increase in the belief in reason and tolerance. This too was helpful to the integration of Jews in society. It was only with the evangelical revival later in the 18th Century that the desire to evangelise the Jews was rekindled.