The origin of the Celts and the Gauls, according to the most celebrated historians, still constitutes one of the most mysterious enigmas of all history. Dottin frankly avows that history knows nothing precise about the date of "the arrival of the Celts in Gaul" (Les Anciens peuples de l'Europe, Dottin, p. 209), and holds that they became mixed with the Ligurians so that a special ethnic name had been created, the term "Celtoligurians," to designate the inhabitants of the region extending from Marseille to the Rhone river and the Alps. Other historians, such as Thierry and Pernoud, have opinions more or less analogous. Generally, they all declare that the only thing historians and archaelogists can say with certainty, is that the Celts, at some time, occupied all the territory of Central Eruope, from the mountains of Bohemia (Czechoslovakia) to the Baltic Sea. As to the exact date of this occupation, the opinions are strongly divided, and often contradictory. Some speak of three or four thousand years ago, others say rightly that history knows nothing of what took place before the year 500 B.C. "At the time of LaTene" (a Celtic culture of about 500 B.C.), writes Pernoud, "the Celts still have no history, properly said; they did not form an empire, but a sort of aggregation of peoples who seemed to have been driven enough" (Les Gaulois, Pernoud, pp. 31-32). According to Rolleston, no geographer had used the term Celt before the year 500 B.C. (Myths and Legends of the Celtic Race, Rolleston). Consequently, the world seems to know nothing about the activities of the Gauls before their arrival in Gaul; we are told, moreover, that the Celts had previously inhabited the valley of the Danube for some time.
The Key to the Mystery
Once more, only the Bible contains the key to the mystery. The enigma ceases to be insoluble if one examines it in the light of the historical information found in the Bible. The ancients used the name "Celts," or "Celtica," without much discrimination, in that which concerns language and race, to designate the inhabitants of the countries situated in the northwest of Europe. This term, in the history of these peoples, was then geographic rather than ethnic (France, Witt, p. 16). There is one of the reasons why history finds itself in the dark. What is more, it will never come to understand the truth about the Celts as long as historians disdain the facts furnished by the Bible. It wasn't until after the Roman occupation that the term "Celt," or "Gaul," was reserved for the inhabitants of Gaul. Thus, if the name of these peoples changed following the Roman occupation, it goes without saying that neither their race nor their characteristics were changed by it. The testimony of Thierry, associating the Cimbri with the Celts, is remarkable: "It is the last of these landmarks which links the Kimmerii of the Black Sea to the Cimbri of Jutland, to the Belgians of Gaul, to the Bretons of Albion, and we go on... to recognize that in this vast people remained the nucleus of the second of the Gaulic races, and that its name, so ancient, so renowned, so well-known, was none other than the very name of this race" (Histoire des Gaulois, Thierry, p. 70, Introduction). Generally, historians agree in recognition of the traits the two peoples have in common, even though each seems to express more or less divergent points of view on the details. Hubert claims that the "Gauls gave themselves the name Kymris" ("Les Celtes," Hubert, p. 31), whereas, according to Flavius Josephus, it was Gomer, son of Japheth, grandson of Noah, who was the father of the Cimmerians, "that is to say of the Cimbri and Celtics, from which one concludes that a good part of humanity itself issued from the Celtic world," (Les Gaulois, Pernoud, pp. 31-32). Among the historians who claim to accept both the truth and the historical chronology of the Bible, the common mistake lies in their obstinacy, which is sometimes pathetic, to be always willing to research and trace the origin of people by means of mere resemblance, or by the similarity of their names with Biblical names! Guided by this reasoning, which becomes unbearable if it is not collaborated with other factors, most scholars suppose that the Cimmerians must have been the descendants of Gomer, for the two names show a striking resemblance. To draw such premature conclusions on such incomplete facts is inexcusable. To a certain degree, the Cimmerians were included in the descendants of Gomer, as the Scythians were included in the descendants of the house of Israel (by the tribe of "Sacae"). It is always altogether erroneous to make a generalization. Some descendants of Gomer joined themselves to the Cimmerians, since the Bible indicates that Israel lived among the descendants of Gomer! The prophet Hosea had received the divine order to take to himself a "wife" who was a prostitute, to symbolize the relationship and adulterous state of Israel toward the Eternal. The prostitute that the prophet married personified Israel, but was named Gomer, Hosea 1:2-3. However, we must repeat that the Cimmerians of Europe, as a whole, are not the descendants of Gomer.
Recapitulation of the History of the Israelites
To review, the Israelites were taken into captivity about the year 718 B.C., and their conquerors, the Assyrians, called them "Bit Khumri" or the "house of Omri," from the name of the king of Israel. In less than a hundred years, the Assyrian Empire crumbled; the captive nations revolted, and immediately afterwards history notes the appearance, around the Black and Caspian Seas, of nomadic peoples of which the most important tribe was called "Cymrri" — or "Kimrri." This people, the Cimmerians, as we have already indicated, had the same ancestors as the "Sacae," or the Scythians, who appeared later in northwest Europe, in the British Isles, and who carried the name "Saxons." Following the invasion of the non-Israelite Scythians, the tribe of the Cimmerians was quickly forced to retire to the northwest of Europe, where it was known under the name "Kymry" or "Khumri," the name which the Assyrians had given previously to the Israelites. In the years that passed these same peoples adopted the name "Celtae" or "Galli"; the latter was given them later by the Romans. Thus, in an unexpected and very curious manner, the prophecy came to pass that Israel, during the last times, would be found "to the north" and "to the west" of Palestine!
The Neighbors of the Gauls
If our efforts in this work tend rather to determining the origin of the French, to neglect the racial affinity between them and their neighbors would be to lose sight of the object we have followed, since most of the inhabitants of northwest Europe are of the Celtic Race, and thus are part of the tribes of Israel, "in dispersion." Indeed, the Belgians, the people of Holland, the Swiss, and the Scandinavians belong to the same race as the French, the English, the Americans, and the Canadians, since, as a whole, these people are descendants of the Celts. They all have a common ancestor: Jacob, whose name was changed to Israel! As for the Belgians and the Swiss, inhabitants of countries which in part speak the French language, history has had no difficulty establishing their direct parentage with the Celts (Histoire des Gaulois, Thierry, p. 36). This same parentage extends to the people of the British Isles, as Thierry affirms: "There was among the ancients an opinion, or better said, a fact accepted as nearly incontestable, that the inhabitants of the British Archipelago and Gaul were peoples originating from the same race" (Histoire des Gaulois, Thierry, p. 8). Hipparque attests, in turn, that the inhabitants of the British Isles and Eire (known today as Ireland) were Celtic.
The Celtic League
As we are about to see, the Celts formed a league. For centuries, before the Roman conquest, this league was so powerful that even Alexander the Great (about 330 B.C.), carried away by his ambition to conquer the world, did not dare challenge it. Instead of entering into a war with it, he chose the method of conferring with their ambassadors, in order to sign a treaty of peace between the two powers (Legends of the Celtic Race, p. 23). As it always is, by the time of the Roman conquest (58-51 B.C.), the power of the Celts had greatly diminished because of internal corruption, rather social than political. The Celts could only bow before and yield to the attacks of Caesar. They had lost their power. This internal corruption is moreover recognized by historians. At the apex of their glory, the fifth century B.C., the Celts, according to Hellenicus of Lebos, still practiced "justice and integrity." A century later, the customs were already confounded with those of the Greeks. And, at the time of Plato, "their great attributes were nothing but drinking and fighting" (Legends of the Celtic Race, p. 17). Caton himself says the Gauls had but two passions: fighting and talking! (The Origins, Brentano, p. 53). The Celtic League extended to Britain, since Caesar found in Britain the same religion as in Gaul and "also a general resemblance in the mores and social conditions," (Histoire des Gaulois, Thierry, p. 81). Tacitus, a Roman historian, had no doubt about this similarity; he even declares that it is evident even in the idioms of the language. We can thus conclude that history has sufficient proofs, both to establish the racial affinity between the peoples who lived in Gaul and the British Isles, and to recognize the direct parentage of these peoples, and their common families which were established previously — before the migration of the Celts. In his work on the history of France, Thierry concludes the subject by stating that the British Isles were populated by the Gaulic family, and that there, as in Gaul, this family found itself split in two branches, the one indigenous, that is to say, established from time immemorial, the other transplanted from Gaul to Britain, during historic times (Histoire des Gaulois, Thierry, Conclusion). As we just seen, most of these "natives" spoken of by Thierry were descended from Israelite colonies which arrived previously to settle permanently. The migration of these colonies had taken pace in the time of Solomon, who had allied himself with the Phoenicians.