Centuries later these peoples merged with others to become the Parthians, the scourge of the Roman Empire. For the entirety of the Roman period the Parthians effectively contained the Roman armies at the Euphrates River, keeping them from ever invading the rich Indus Valley on the Indian sub-continent.

The Parthian Empire lay in the distant east. It rivaled the Roman Empire for world hegemony at the time. Parthia included all the conquered lands of Babylon, Persia, Bactria, and many other countries on the east side of the Euphrates River. It was to these lands that the Assyrians had exiled some of the ancient house of Israel, and many of their descendants had remained in the region. The magi were from the East, a land or lands far away from the Judea of 4 BC, which refers to the Parthian Empire.

The region beyond the Euphrates all the way to India and northward to the Russian steppes was the great Parthian empire. Western education ignores the Parthian empire. The Parthians were the same Parthians that sent the Magi to Bethlehem to honor the newborn King of the Jews, the King of Israel. Parthian kings up to the Sassanids were scions of Judah. They may have even been of the house of David. An entire empire that modern education ignores was mostly Israelite. They think of them as Persians or Medes or some other people. If nothing else they were ruled by Jewish monarchs.

Remnants of the lost Ten Tribes were in the Kingdom of Parthia. Parthia was in the area of northeastern Iran. Parthia and Britain were lands where the Israelites lived. The Parthian Empire had become quite large by the time of the apostles. The Parthians appear near the Caspian Sea around 700 BC as slaves of the Assyrians. The Parthians rose to power around 250 BC in lands along the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. That was the land into which a major part of Israel was exiled. Some of the lost Ten Tribes remained in the land of their captivity until AD 226 when the Persians defeated the Parthians. The Parthian Kingdom which included remnants of the Ten Tribes possessed Assyria the best of that land and Mesopotamia during most of the New Testament period. Thomas brought the gospel to Parthia. Afterwards Thomas preached the gospel to the Medes Persians Carmans Hyrcani Bactrians and the neighboring nations. Lebbaeus had part in the ministry in Syria and Mesopotamia and those are part of Parthia. Matthew went first to Parthia and having successfully planted Christianity in those parts thence traveled into Aethiopia. Dorotheus declares that Matthew was buried at Hieropolis in Parthia. Parthia was defeated by Persia in AD 226. Expelled from Parthia the Ten Tribes and the Medes moved north to the Black Sea into Scythia. From there around AD 256 the Ten Tribes migrated from Asia Minor into northwestern Europe.