Was Christopher Columbus secretly a Jew?

Today marks the 508th anniversary of the death of Christopher Columbus.

Everybody knows the story of Columbus, right? He was an Italian explorer from Genoa who set sail in 1492 to enrich the Spanish monarchs with gold and spices from the orient. Not quite.

For too long, scholars have ignored Columbus's grand passion: the quest to liberate Jerusalem from the Muslims.

During Columbus's lifetime, Jews became the target of fanatical religious persecution. On March 31, 1492, King Ferdinand and Queen Isabella proclaimed that all Jews were to be expelled from Spain. The edict especially targeted the 800,000 Jews who had never converted, and gave them four months to pack up and get out.

The Jews who were forced to renounce Judaism and embrace Catholicism were known as "Conversos," or converts. There were also those who feigned conversion, practicing Catholicism outwardly while covertly practicing Judaism, the so-called "Marranos," or swine.

Tens of thousands of Marranos were tortured by the Spanish Inquisition. They were pressured to offer names of friends and family members, who were ultimately paraded in front of crowds, tied to stakes and burned alive. Their land and personal possessions were then divvied up by the church and crown.

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Deep_Thinker

Columbus wiped out colonies (think Haiti), and killed many more Native Americans than Marranos were killed.

Estimates of Haiti's pre-Columbian population range as high as 8,000,000 people.. By 1516, thanks to the sinister Indian slave trade and labor policies initiated by Columbus, only some 12,000 remained. Fewer than 200 Indians were alive in 1542. By 1555, they were all gone.

Columbus was set out for riches, and he pillaged and raped as needed to achieve those riches.
- M Green
  
  You do realize that "Caribbean" literally means cannibal island, don't you? You want me to say "Bad Columbus" because his crew wiped them out? Not likely. He was also saddled with the crew he had from the King and Queen, and he was a terrible leader. Also, there is also no proof whatsoever that he ever raped anyone.
  - Deep_Thinker
    
    So it's ok to wipe out sovereign nations?
    
    I guess when Nazis do it it's genocide, but when Columbus does it, he's a hero?
    
    Beyond profits, Columbus sought to convert native people to Catholicism. In the prologue to his journal of the first voyage, Columbus wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella:
    
    "YOUR HIGHNESSES, as Catholic Christians and Princes who love the holy Christian faith, and the propagation of it, and who are enemies to the sect of Mahoma [Islam] and to all idolatries and heresies, resolved to send me, Cristóbal Colon, to the said parts of India to see the said princes … with a view that they might be converted to our holy faith … Thus, after having turned out all the Jews from all your kingdoms and lordships … your Highnesses gave orders to me that with a sufficient fleet I should go to the said parts of India …. I shall forget sleep, and shall work at the business of navigation, so that the service is performed."
    http://www.americanindiansource.com/columbusday.h…
- Terry
  
  Columbus was a Jew, and he had five Jews with him on his voyage. It was those five Jews that persuaded Columbus to kidnap the Indians, and use them as slaves. Columbus got into a lot of trouble for that. He received no money or anything. Ferdinand and Isabella threw the Jews out of Spain for good reason. The Jews were destroying everything. That is what Jews do. That is why they call themselves Marrano's. They take pride in calling themselves pigs. It wasn't Columbus that initiated the slave trade, it was the Jews. It is a known fact the the Jews, throughout history, were predominant in the slave trade. In fact, literally all of the slave ships were owned by Jews. Sort of like the Jews are predominant in the homosexual movement, pedophilia, and pornography. One other thing, the Indians are not native American to North America, South America, or Central America. White Europeans were. There is archeological evidence that white Europeans were in North America thousands of years before the Indians ever showed up. Columbus did not set out for riches, and he did not rape and plunder. It was the Jews that were with him that did this. That is what Jews do. That is why the Jews are God's enemies.
  - Mary
    
    You are a terribly warped person with horrible ideas that in no way can be called authentic history. What you have is a rant you have made up in your own sick and bigoted mind.
    Are you upset that Jews are the Chosen People? Chosen by G-d!
    You are a sick person who has fabricated a complete lie due to your hatred of the Jews.
    Indeed, Columbus was a Sephardic Jew as were 2 two who served as a Navigator and Geographer/Map maker.
    This small group of people were not involved in the slave trade. That was well taken care of by the native leaders who sold their own people into slavery and those that ran the slave ships were white Europeans.
    The true history of the diaspora that occurred in Spain was due to the Catholic Church and their main boy Torquemada who instituted the Inquisition. His living representative can be found today in the current pope. He headed up the same office as did Torquemada.
    When the Jews left Spain the financial world as they knew it collapsed. The Jews have always brought financial security to the countries they lived in as well as bringing in science and the belief in charity.
    God Loves the Jews who live by his rules.
    - msjallen
      
      Mary, you are absolutely correct. Any country or nation that has gone against the Jews have declined in power. The Jews are still God's chosen people and even though they are under the 5th Cycle of Discipline sinde 70 AD God is not through with them and they will receive the entire promised covenants to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob as well at to David at our Lord's 2nd Advent.
- Esteban Cafe
  
  Sir, I think Mr. Columbus killed off indigenous peoples via western illness more so than by sword. You imply an "intent" that I do not believe existed. You may be thinking Cortez or Pizzaro.
  - Mary
    
    Esteban:
    You are far more correct than is Terry. When the Conquistadors entered the New World it was they who brought Small Pox with them and they wiped out large communities of natives found in the Caribbean islands. Jamaica was particularly hard hit.
    This continued on into So. America as you allude to. It is the old story of the cross and the sword.
  - Deep_Thinker
    
    I think you better learn some real history. Columbus didn't even discover America.
- Jeffrey
  
  You are so full of it. You better stop reading the propaganda books and learn REAL history. There is no way, absolutely NO way that the population was anywhere near 8 million. Second, and if you have any clue at all, you would understand that the slave trade was exactly that a TRADE. Slavery was not started by Europeans, but they did participate. So before you condemn anyone for anything you should get your facts right.
  - kasi
    
    yes Jeff i agree and one of the reasons is that haiti had one of the most explosive economies is the world in the 1600s 1700s 2- 3 centuries after CC "killed" everyone,their major source was sugar.The economic exspansion ended when the natives "true always been there natives" overthrew the government and have been dirt poor ever since.CC and his crew took a couple of natives hostage to lead them out of the wilderness they had a deal that the natives didnt follow through with lead them out to the wilderness and tried to leave them for dead.
  - Deep_Thinker
    
    As you see, I said "estimates range as high as".
    
    I don't care who started slavery. They still took the natives and put them to work against their will.
- keyboardshark
  
  It was mainly disease that decimated the native populations, not the sword or slave trade.
  
  "Given the fragmentary nature of the evidence, even semi-accurate pre-Columbian population figures are impossible to obtain. Estimates are made by extrapolations from small bits of data. In 1976, geographer William Denevan used the existing estimates to derive a "consensus count" of about 54 million people. Nonetheless, more recent estimates still range widely.[3]
  
  Using an estimate of approximately 30 million people in 1492 (including 15 million in the Aztec Empire and six million in the Inca Empire), the lowest estimates give a death toll due from disease of an astonishing 80% by the end of the 17th century (eight million people in 1650).[4]
  
  Nearly all scholars now believe that widespread epidemic disease, to which the natives had no prior exposure or resistance, was the overwhelming cause of the massive population decline of the Native Americans.[23] They reject both of the earliest European immigrants' explanations for the population decline of the American natives. The first explanation was the brutal practices of the Spanish conquistadores, as recorded by the Spanish themselves.
  
  Latin America would match its 15th century population early in the 20th century; it numbered 17 million in 1800, 30 million in 1850, 61 million in 1900, 105 million in 1930, 218 million in 1960, 361 million in 1980, and 563 million in 2005.[4] In the last three decades of the 16th century, the population of present-day Mexico dropped to about one million people.[4]
  
  The Maya population is today estimated at six million, which is about the same as at the end of the 15th century, according to some estimates.[4] In what is now Brazil, the indigenous population declined from a pre-Columbian high of an estimated four million to some 300,000.
  
  While it is difficult to determine exactly how many Natives lived in North America before Columbus,[5] estimates range from a low of 2.1 million (Ubelaker 1976) to 7 million people (Russell Thornton) to a high of 18 million (Dobyns 1983).[6]
  
  Historian David Henige has argued that many population figures are the result of arbitrary formulas selectively applied to numbers from unreliable historical sources. He believes this is a weakness unrecognized by several contributors to the field, and insists there is not sufficient evidence to produce population numbers that have any real meaning. He characterizes the modern trend of high estimates as "pseudo-scientific number-crunching."
  
  Henige does not advocate a low population estimate, but argues that the scanty and unreliable nature of the evidence renders broad estimates inevitably suspect, saying "high counters" (as he calls them) have been particularly flagrant in their misuse of sources.[11] Many population studies acknowledge the inherent difficulties in producing reliable statistics, given the scarcity of hard data."
  https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Population_history_…
  - Deep_Thinker
    
    Beyond profits, Columbus sought to convert native people to Catholicism. In the prologue to his journal of the first voyage, Columbus wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella:
    
    "YOUR HIGHNESSES, as Catholic Christians and Princes who love the holy Christian faith, and the propagation of it, and who are enemies to the sect of Mahoma [Islam] and to all idolatries and heresies, resolved to send me, Cristóbal Colon, to the said parts of India to see the said princes … with a view that they might be converted to our holy faith … Thus, after having turned out all the Jews from all your kingdoms and lordships … your Highnesses gave orders to me that with a sufficient fleet I should go to the said parts of India …. I shall forget sleep, and shall work at the business of navigation, so that the service is performed." [3]
  - Deep_Thinker
    
    The Enslavement of Native People
    
    On October 12, 1492 (the first day he encountered the native people of the Americas), Columbus wrote in his journal: "They should be good servants …. I, our Lord being pleased, will take hence, at the time of my departure, six natives for your Highnesses." These captives were later paraded through the streets of Barcelona and Seville when Columbus returned to Spain. [4]
    
    From his very first contact with native people, Columbus had their domination in mind. For example, on October 14, 1492, Columbus wrote in his journal, "with fifty men they can all be subjugated and made to do what is required of them." [5] These were not mere words: after his second voyage, Columbus sent back a consignment of natives to be sold as slaves. [6]
    - keyboardshark
      
      But what does any of this have to do with the decimation of the native population by disease?
  - Deep_Thinker
    
    Yet in an April, 1493, letter to Luis de Santangel (a patron who helped fund the first voyage), Columbus made clear that the people he encountered had done nothing to deserve ill treatment. According to Columbus:
    
    "they are artless and generous with what they have, to such a degree as no one would believe but him who had seen it. Of anything they have, if it be asked for, they never say no, but do rather invite the person to accept it, and show as much lovingness as though they would give their hearts." [7]
    
    Nonetheless, later in the letter Columbus went on to say:
    
    "their Highnesses may see that I shall give them as much gold as they need …. and slaves as many as they shall order to be shipped."
  - Deep_Thinker
    
    During the following conquest there is documentation that Columbus felt required at least to inform the natives of the terms by which he would steal their lifestyle and life itself; though they could not understand a word he said: "I certify to you that, with the help of God, we shall powerfully enter into your country, and shall make war against you in all ways and manners that we can, and shall subject you to the yoke and obedience of the Church and of their highnesses; we shall take you, and your wives, and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do you all the mischief and damage that we can, as to vassals who do not obey, and refuse to receive their lord, and resist and contradict him; and we protest that the deaths and losses which shall accrue from this are your fault, and not that of their highnesses, or ours, nor of these cavaliers who come with us…"
- alan g
  
  So who did the census, Obama?
Stephen

Columbus was a catholic, a fundamental catholic. IF he actually read the Word of God and not the Apocrypha he would have known that land verse sea was not 50/50. This is just one of hundreds of things that proves that the catholic church is not Christian. If one doesn't believe me, read the Apocrypha that was written in Christopher Columbus day and it indeed does read that land verse sea is 50/50. Yet, John 17:17 still reads "Sanctify them through thy truth: thy word is truth." Proving once again that the Apocrypha has nothing to do with the Word of God.
- Eric
  
  The Apocrypha was not written during Columbus' day. What conspiracy website did you learn this from? Jerome had these books in the 5th century AD, when he was compiling Old and New Testaments. This obviously meant that they predated even him. Luther and many of the other Protestants during the Reformation thought that they should be isolated into their own section, between the testaments (which is what the Geneva and the 1611 KJ Bible did), but they didn't think they should be ignored, as most Protestants ever since have done.
  - Stephen
    
    You are missing the point. Read one that he had to use in his day and it reads that land verse sea was 50/50. Then we will see who is in conspiracy against God's Word. Your problen is, like most liberals, you are more concern about what some man tells you to believe verses what the Word of God itself reads.
    - Eric
      
      Oh, so using made-up facts to support your belief is OK then? Who's the liberal now?
      
      I have no desire to defend what the Apocrypha says. I agree with Jerome, Luther, Calvin, Knox, etc that they should be considered non-canonical books. What Columbus believed or did not believe about the water and land ratio on earth is immaterial.
      
      If he was, as you say, a Catholic (and there is good historical reasons for saying this), then why shouldn't he have believed the Apocrypha? Catholics believe these books do belong in the Bible, Protestants do not. Let's say that we throw out the Apocrypha and its 50/50 ratio. What then should Columbus have used to determine the ratio? Is there somewhere else in the Word of God where the proper ratio is stated? You and I both know the answer: No, there isn't.
      - Stephen
        
        I should reply to your comment by Tue.
      - Deep_Thinker
        
        So Columbus' own handwriting is a made up fact??
      - Eric
        
        What on earth are you talking about? Stephen made the claim that the Apocrypha was written in Columbus' day. I think he meant to say "copied" but he was certainly not clear enough about this in his original post or even his reply. This is the "made up fact" I was referring to. But I'm sure everything will become clear "by Tue." :)
      - Stephen
        
        Eric, you just enjoy playing the 3 monkeys, that's the real issue with you. And you wonder why I called you a liberal. The point was and still is, Apocrypha is a flat out lie, whether it was written the day before Columbus was born or 1,000 years before. You claim you didn't want to defend the Apocrypha but wanted to make an issue over it anyway. Therefore, who's kidding whom?
        
        You wrote:
        
        "Catholics believe these books do belong in the Bible,…"
        
        They don't know the Word of God any better than their priest does.
        
        You a wrote:
        
        "Let's say that we throw out the Apocrypha and its 50/50 ratio. What then should Columbus have used to determine the ratio?"
        
        So what are you telling me? I'm not sure of what you are trying to say. That misinformation is better than no information at all?
  - Mary
    
    Thank you for correcting 'his' misconceptions and lack of knowledge of the actual history of the time.
  - Deep_Thinker
    
    Beyond profits, Columbus sought to convert native people to Catholicism. In the prologue to his journal of the first voyage, Columbus wrote to Ferdinand and Isabella:
    
    "YOUR HIGHNESSES, as Catholic Christians and Princes who love the holy Christian faith, and the propagation of it, and who are enemies to the sect of Mahoma [Islam] and to all idolatries and heresies, resolved to send me, Cristóbal Colon, to the said parts of India to see the said princes … with a view that they might be converted to our holy faith … Thus, after having turned out all the Jews from all your kingdoms and lordships … your Highnesses gave orders to me that with a sufficient fleet I should go to the said parts of India …. I shall forget sleep, and shall work at the business of navigation, so that the service is performed."
- Mary
  
  The records that have been found show that without any doubt Columbus was a Sephardic Jew and from a well respected family that counted amongst its members several Rabbis.
  Do a little more searching using you brain not your hatred of Jews and the RC Church.
  - Stephen
    
    I don't know where you get your information that I hate the Jews. "IF" Columbus was a Jew, he at some point became a catholic or fell prey to their lies to listen to them regardless. You, like most don't know as much as you thing you do about the RCC. And, FYI: I am a former catholic.
Luis D Rey

He was an uncricumcised prick to say the least !!
- Mary
  
  I am certain you mean circumcised. As a Jew that would have been the rule for the day. Since you have no evidence otherwise I would suggest you correct your statement.
  - Deep_Thinker
    
    He was a catholic. Show some proof he was a jew. He was not.
    
    Why is it Jews have to make everything about them? It's time they get over themselves.
Evermyrtle

This wonderful news. The Jews or Israelites are GOD'S chosen people.

Hebrews 8: 8-10
8. For finding fault with them, he said, behold, the days come, said the LORD, when I will make a new covenant wit the house of Israel and with the house of Judah:
9.Not according to the covenant that I made with their fathers in the day when I took them by the hand to lead them out of the land of Egypt; because they continued not in my covenant and regarded them not. said the LORD.
10. For this is the covenant that I will make with the house of Israel after those days, said the LORD; I will put m laws into their mind, and write them in their hearts: and I will be to them a GOD and they shall be to me a people.
- Deep_Thinker
  
  They were..
- http://www.missiontoisrael.org Ted R. Weiland
  
  "Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a 'Jew' or to call a contemporary Jew an 'Israelite' or a 'Hebrew.' (Richard Siegel and Carl Rheins, eds., “Identity Crisis,” The Jewish Almanac (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1980) p. 3.)
  - Greg Kasper
    
    The Northern Israelist Nations were taken out of their homeland, leaving 3 remaining tribes in the Israel area…at the return of Christ.
    
    The Governing Roman Empire simply labeled them all as "Jews".
    
    I read some time ago, that Christopher Colmbus was his latest name that he used. His original name was Christopher Colon.
    - http://www.missiontoisrael.org Ted R. Weiland
      
      They were already know as Jews (poor translation, better Judahites) because they were descended from the house of Judah. Whereas the house of Judah are identified as both Israelites or Judahites, the house of Israel was never known as Jews or Judahites.
- Chris from Sydney
  
  Does that include the decendants of the Edomites who were converted at sword point by John Hyrcannus around 134BC ? What about the decendents of the Hussites who converted after the Catholic church executed John Huss for his uprising against Catholicism ?
  The 'Jews' are a mixed people today having accepted and intermarried with converts for centuries, I wonder if I associate myself with the followers of the Talmud (written in Babylon) am I able to be God's choosen ?
  What point then in the sacrifice of Christ,if to be God's chosen all one need be is be a Jew ?
  
  Serious question guys,any thoughts ?
  - http://www.missiontoisrael.org Ted R. Weiland
    
    Great questions!
- Greg the Electrician
  
  N.T. Christians are "Grafted into Israel as a Wild Branch"
  
  The only "Apostle" that was not Jewish was Luke. Technically, he was not an Apostle.
  - http://www.missiontoisrael.org Ted R. Weiland
    
    Because most people misidentify the Jews/Judahites as representing all twelve tribes of Israel instead of only the descendants of the southern two-tribed house of Judah and because they also identify the ethne (poorly translated "Gentiles," even the capitalization is incorrect; the word simply means nations) as non-Israelites, it is often missed that Romans 11 is the thrilling fulfillment of Ezekiel's two-stick prophecy in the second half of Ezekiel 37.
    - http://www.missiontoisrael.org Ted R. Weiland
      
      For more, see "The Mystery of the Gentiles: Who Are They and Where Are They Now?" at http://www.missiontoisrael.org/mystery-of-gentile….
Marilyn Smith

This was a great article. I hope and pray that it was true.
Martha

So, what difference does it make who Columbus is, Italian or Jew. People should not hate the Jews, after all, we pray to a Jew. Our God is a Jew and I love Him, He is our Savior. Please, stop hating the Jews, they have not hurt us at all.

Thank you, MV
- http://www.missiontoisrael.org Ted R. Weiland
  
  Christ was a Judahite, unrelated to today's Jews:
  
  "Strictly speaking, it is incorrect to call an ancient Israelite a 'Jew' or to call a contemporary Jew an 'Israelite' or a 'Hebrew.' (Richard Siegel and Carl Rheins, eds., “Identity Crisis,” The Jewish Almanac (New York, NY: Bantam Books, 1980) p. 3.)
  - Evermyrtle
    
    I would not argue, I'll allow GOD to take care of it. "
    HE knows without a shadow of a doubt, who is who and who is not"
- Wayne
  
  Exactly, I still cannot understand the thinking of people who hate the Jewish people.
  
  I know that God promised the Jews (Israelites) would go through severe sufferings if they did not follow him. It is seen in Deuteronomy and Joshua where Moses and Joshua both explain to the Jewish people what their future sufferings would be if they fell away from God. I believe God is using them to show that his promises are absolutely 100% reliable. What other Nation in the world has been pulled completely apart and separated all over the earth, then reunited in their original homeland and begun again as a new nation? Answer is none. The Jewish people ARE God's chosen people to enlighten the world. If anyone takes the time to read the Bible and study history, it is easily seen that God uses the Jewish people to point the rest of the world to himself and his truths. Jewish people ARE the chosen ones to light the way for the rest of the world to God.
  - http://dl.dropbox.com/u/22306708/Jn6.37.png Despeville
    
    "The Jewish people ARE God's chosen people to enlighten the world. "
    
    Really? So Matthew 5:13 was only for Jews despite the fact that they rejected the Messiah and the Gospel?
    
    So what have happened to the rest of the Bible in your Zionism?
- msjallen
  
  John 16:23 In that day you will not question Me about anything. Truly, truly, I say to you, if you ask the Father for anything in My name, He will give it to you.
  Ephesians 5:20 “…always giving thanks for all things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ to God, even the Father”
  Only pray to God the Father…
  Hebrews 7:25 He receives intercessory prayers from Jesus Christ
  Romans 8:26-27 He receives intercessory prayers from the Holy Spirit
  Hebrews 4:16 He receives prayers from the Royal Family of God – all believers
  The only prayer that God can hear from an unbeliever is the expression of faith in Jesus Christ as his personal Savior.
  Jesus, in His humanity as the God-man was a Jew, not God the Father or God the Holy Spirit.
Luis D Rey

He was a Marrano and at the same time A EUNUCH !!
- Mary
  
  You are nothing more than a perverted liar who knows nothing of history.
  As to being a Eunuch how did he have seven children? Perhaps you are confusing him with yourself a person of little balls or none at all.
CHRISTOPHER

Query? Was Columbus circumcised?
- Evermyrtle
  
  Who cares???I certainly don't!!
- Mary
  
  As a practicing Jew and a man who had uncles who were Rabbi's he was undoubtedly circumcised by a Mohl.
Byron

Frankly, I dont care if C.C. was a Jew, I can care less. That salior did not discover America, DID NOT!!!!
- Deep_Thinker
  
  At least 15 other people had already discovered America before him.
Wally

After much deep research, including info from the "dungeons" of restricted library areas in a few Ivy League libraries … I CAN TELL YOU … Columbus was never a Jew. (No problem, I love Jews — they ARE God's chosen). His name means Christ-bearer … and he took that seriously … wanting to spread the faith to new lands. His bad leadership and greed really messed up his life, and many natives, to say the least (although the "wiping out" was largely from disease from Europeans). Still, he messed up back. That is why he ended up in chains before Isabella later (though released to go back even later). I'm amazed at the amount of rewriting of history.
- John
  
  My studies of Chris show the same things. People need somebody to blame for everything and historical;l figures are easy….their families aren't around to exact revenge, (hehehe)
Davidmgus

This article further points out how we love to label people, putting them in religious boxes so we can better judge their worthiness. How sad that we feel such a need to separate ourselves from each other. I had never heard before that Columbus was a Jew. I don't really care. It doesn't matter at all. What matters is that we're all connected by the Divine Source that inhabits us all. If we were to dwell on that concept it's quite feasible to think of a world where we actually all got along…but then maybe that would get boring…
- John
  
  divine source….what religion is that ?
Evermyrtle

Yes, that is a form of judgment. We who do this are so righteous in our own minds, we know where every person fits, never taking a good look at our selves to see exactly where we fit. I am afraid when we get face to face with the Savior, many of us are in fora shock.
http://twitter.com/lambsev11 @lambsev11

Let's get a life folks. http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=Matth…