Asher By Signs

There are two subtle ways identify Asher in the modern world. The first is by name. The second is by looking for oil. This article explores.

By Name

The scripture name Asher is very close to the modern name Austria. The A-S prefix matching the root for Asher. This is not true of all lost tribes, but it is a curious clue here. A better example is Levi.

By Looking For Oil

Moses' prophecy about Asher matters to identifying the lost tribe in the modern era.

Drilling For Oil

Many people have read this and thought there must be oil in the ancient Asher tribal zone in modern Israel. The approach makes a common mistake in thinking that modern Israel is all of ancient Israel. It completely misses the promises to Abraham, that he would inherit the entire world.

Of course major oil fields are also far larger than modern Israel itself. So if someone found oil while drilling anywhere in Israel, it would likely be found everywhere in modern Israel. This would make the claim in Deuteronomy quoted above of no significance to Asher alone. This is another reason to think this would not apply in modern Israel now.

Even with these obvious issues, there have been successful attempts raise funds from people who don't understand the text very well. Those funds were used to drill for oil in the historical locations of Asher in modern Israel. So far, this has not been particularly successful, as we would expect.

Modern Israel does have successful wells offshore. This, of course, is outside of the scope of the Deuteronomy passage quoted above, and tends to negate the promise itself if applied in modern Israel.

OPEC

But the headquarters for OPEC is located in Vienna, Austria.

This organization is the identifier, and international organization for Asher. By visiting certain buildings in Vienna it is possible to purchase supertankers of oil.

We look more closely at OPEC in the next article.