Loony myth behind 'Jerusalem': Letter

Sir: I read with interest the Rev Keith C Blackburn's letter on the "Jerusalem" debate (4 May).

Further to his point that the answer to the first verse is an emphatic "no", it should be pointed out that the reason for that is that the whole of the first verse of this "hymn" is based on the British Israelite myth. According to this myth all the (Protestant) British are descended from the ten lost tribes of Israel (who according to the Bible weren't lost anyway) and the Queen and Royal Family are the descendants of King David via Jesus Christ. Likewise according to this myth those professing the faith of Judaism are not really biblical Jews but are crypto-Jews of East European origin.

So not only is "Jerusalem" xenophobic by omission of the Scots, the Irish and the Welsh; it is blatantly anti-Semitic, based on "no warrant of Holy Scripture" and totally loony.

James Samuel Cole

London SE18