Twelve Tribes of Israel

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The Twelve Tribes of Israel(12 tribes is a misnomer. There were actually 13 listed in the Bible, since there were two tribes from Joseph, and 1 for each of the other 11 sons of Jacob)(

founding myth,[1] although some scholars disagree with this view.[2]
Skepticism of the account given in the Torah, or Old Testament, is not new. Many Scholars, such as Francis William Newman, did not believe that the description of the Hittites in the Bible was historical, and the existence of the Hittite civilization was doubted until evidence for it was identified at the end of the 19th century.

Biblical narrative

Genealogy

Jacob, later called Israel, was the second-born son of Isaac and Rebecca, the younger twin brother of Esau, and the grandson of Abraham and Sarah. According to biblical texts, he was chosen by God to be the patriarch of the Israelite nation. From what is known of Jacob, he had two wives, sisters Leah and Rachel, and two concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah, by whom he had thirteen children. The twelve sons form the basis for the twelve tribes of Israel, listed in the order from oldest to youngest: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Jacob was known to display favoritism among his children, particularly for Joseph and Benjamin, the sons of his favorite wife, Rachel, and so the tribes themselves were not treated equally in a divine sense. Joseph, despite being the second-youngest son, received double the inheritance of his brothers, treated as if he were the firstborn son instead of Reuben, and so his tribe was later split into two tribes, named after his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh.[3]

Sons and tribes

Parentage of Jacob's twelve sons, per Genesis 35

The

Padan-aram from different mothers, as follows:[4]

Deuteronomy 27:12–13 lists the twelve tribes:

  • Reuben (Hebrew רְאוּבֵןRəʼūḇēn)
  • Simeon (שִׁמְעוֹןŠīməʻōn)
  • Levi (לֵוִיLēwī)
  • Judah (יְהוּדָהYəhūdā)
  • Issachar (יִשָּׂשכָרYīssāḵār)
  • Zebulun (זְבוּלֻןZəḇūlun)
  • Dan (דָּןDān)
  • Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִיNap̄tālī)
  • Gad (גָּדGāḏ)
  • Asher (אָשֵׁר’Āšēr)
  • Benjamin (בִּנְיָמִןBīnyāmīn)
  • Joseph (יוֹסֵףYōsēp̄), later split into two "half-tribes":
    • Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם’Ep̄rayīm)
    • Manasseh (מְנַשֶּׁהMənašše)

Jacob elevated the descendants of

double portion after Reuben lost his birth right because of his transgression with Bilhah.[6]

In the biblical narrative the period from the

conquest of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua until the formation of the United Kingdom of Israel passed with the tribes forming a loose confederation, described in the Book of Judges. Modern scholarship has called into question the beginning, middle, and end of this picture[7][8] and the account of the conquest under Joshua has largely been abandoned.[9][10][11] The Bible's depiction of the 'period of the Judges' is widely considered doubtful.[7][12][13] The extent to which a united Kingdom of Israel ever existed is also a matter of ongoing dispute.[14][15][16]

Living in exile in the sixth century BCE, the prophet Ezekiel has a vision for the restoration of Israel,[17] of a future in which the twelve tribes of Israel are living in their land again.[18]

Land allotment

Joshua's allotment of land to the Israelite tribes according to Joshua 13–19

According to Joshua 13–19, the Land of Israel was divided into twelve sections corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. However, the tribes receiving land differed from the biblical tribes. The Tribe of Levi had no land appropriation but had six Cities of Refuge under their administration as well as the Temple in Jerusalem. There was no land allotment for the Tribe of Joseph, but Joseph's two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, received their father's land portion.[19][20]

Thus the tribes receiving an allotment were:[21]

Descendants

In Christianity

The twelve tribes of Israel are referred to in the

disciples will "sit on [twelve] thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel". The Epistle of James (1:1
) addresses his audience as "the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad".

The Book of Revelation (7:1–8) gives a list of the twelve tribes. However, the Tribe of Dan is omitted while Joseph is mentioned alongside Manasseh. In the vision of the Heavenly Jerusalem, the tribes' names (the names of the twelve sons of Jacob) are written on the city gates (Ezekiel 48:30–35 & Revelation 21:12–13).

In the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, a patriarchal blessing usually contains a declaration of the lineage of the recipient of blessing in relation to the twelve tribes of Israel.[29]

In Islam

The Quran (7th century CE) states that the people of Moses were split into twelve tribes. Surah 7 (Al-A'raf) verse 160 says:

"We split them up into twelve tribal communities, and We revealed to Moses, when his people asked him for water, [saying], ‘Strike the rock with your cane,’ whereat twelve fountains gushed forth from it. Every tribe came to know its drinking-place. And We shaded them with clouds, and We sent down to them manna and quails: ‘Eat of the good things We have provided you.’ And they did not wrong Us, but they used to wrong [only] themselves."[30]

Historicity

The dying Jacob blesses his twelve sons (Adam van Noort)
The twelve tribes of Israel camped around the tabernacle. (Jan Luyken, 1673)
Map of tribal territories in the Land of Israel (Charles François Delamarche, 1797)

Scholarly examination

For thousands of years, Christians and Jews have accepted the history of the twelve tribes as fact. Since the 19th century, however, historical criticism has examined the veracity of the historical account; whether the twelve tribes ever existed as they are described, the historicity of the eponymous ancestors, and even whether the earliest version of this tradition assumes the existence of twelve tribes.[31]

Biblical lists of tribes, not all of which number 12, include the following:

  • The Blessing of Jacob (Genesis 49) directly mentions Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Zebulun, Issachar, Dan, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Joseph, and Benjamin and especially extolls Joseph over his brothers.
  • Blessing of Moses (Deuteronomy 33) mentions Benjamin, Joseph, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Reuben, Levi, and Judah, omitting Simeon.
  • Kenites, two Judahite clans.[citation needed] Ephraim and Manasseh(The two tribes of Joseph), Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Dan are mentioned, but Issachar, Reuben, Gad,(Rueben and Gad were given land east of the Jordan, which they returned to in Joshua 22) and Levi (Levi did not partake in the conquest and was spared out across the tribes) are not.[32][1]
  • the
    Song of Deborah (Judges 5:2–31), widely acknowledged as one of the oldest passages in the Bible, mentions eight of the tribes: Ephraim, Benjamin, Zebulun, Issachar, Reuben, Dan, Asher, and Naphtali. The people of the Gilead region, and Machir, a subsection of Manasseh, are also mentioned. The other five tribes (Simeon, Levi, Judah, Gad, and Joseph) are not mentioned.[33]
  • The Rechabites and the Jerahmeelites are also presented as Israelite tribes elsewhere in the Hebrew Bible, but never feature in any list of tribes of Israel.[1]

Theories of origin

Scholars such as

founding myth: the number 12 was not a real number, but an ideal number, which had symbolic significance in Near Eastern cultures[citation needed] with duodecimal counting systems, from which, among other things, the modern 12-hour clock is derived.[1]
Weber and Glassman’s theories are interesting, but it must be considered that neither of them have formal training in history, such as a master’s or doctorate degree in history. Glassman is a sociologist, and Weber received a law degree and is said to have taken some classes in history while in college.

Biblical scholar

aetiology of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation.[34]

Translator Paul Davidson argued:[35] "The stories of Jacob and his children, then, are not accounts of historical Bronze Age people. Rather, they tell us how much later Jews and Israelites understood themselves, their origins, and their relationship to the land, within the context of folktales that had evolved over time." He goes on to argue that most of the tribal names are "not personal names, but the names of ethnic groups, geographical regions, and local deities. E.g. Benjamin, meaning "son of the south" (the location of its territory relative to Samaria), or Asher, a Phoenician territory whose name may be an allusion to the goddess Asherah."[32]

Historian Immanuel Lewy

Elam and Ashur, names of two ancient nations, are sons of a man called Shem. Sidon, a Phoenician town, is the first-born of Canaan; the lands of Egypt and Abyssinia are the sons of Ham. This kind of mythological geography is widely known among all ancient peoples. Archaeology has found that many of these personal names of ancestors originally were the names of clans, tribes, localities, or nations. […] if the names of the twelve tribes of Israel are those of mythological ancestors and not of historical persons, then many stories of the patriarchal and Mosaic age lose their historic validity. They may indeed partly reflect dim reminiscences of the Hebrews' tribal past, but in their specific detail they are fiction."[38]

Norman Gottwald argued that the division into twelve tribes originated as an administrative scheme under King David.[39][40]

Additionally, the

King of Israel and also mentions "the men of Gad".[41][42]

Levite Y-chromosome studies

Recent studies of genetic markers within Jewish populations strongly suggest that modern Ashkenazi

Jewish males who claim patrilineal descent from the Tribe of Levi) are descendants of a single Levite ancestor who came to Europe from the Middle East roughly 1,750 years ago.[43] The growth of this specific lineage aligns with the expansion patterns seen in other founding groups of Ashkenazi Jews. This means that a relatively small number of original ancestors have had a large impact on the genetic makeup of today's Ashkenazi population.[43]

Attributed coats of arms

Attributed arms are Western European coats of arms given retrospectively to persons real or fictitious who died before the start of the age of heraldry in the latter half of the 12th century.[citation needed]

Attributed arms of the Twelve Tribes from the Portuguese Thesouro de Nobreza [pt], 1675

  • Asher
    Asher
  • Benjamin
    Benjamin
  • Dan
    Dan
  • Ephraim
    Ephraim
  • Gad
    Gad
  • Issachar
    Issachar
  • Judah
    Judah
  • Manasseh
    Manasseh
  • Naphtali
    Naphtali
  • Reuben
    Reuben
  • Simeon
    Simeon
  • Zebulun
    Zebulun

See also

References

  1. ^ . Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  2. .
  3. ^ "The King James Bible" – via Wikisource.
  4. ^ Genesis 35:23–26
  5. ^ Genesis 41:50
  6. ^ Genesis 35:22; 1 Chronicles 5:1,2; Genesis 48:5
  7. ^ .
  8. .
  9. ^ "Besides the rejection of the Albrightian ‘conquest' model, the general consensus among OT scholars is that the Book of Joshua has no value in the historical reconstruction. They see the book as an ideological retrojection from a later period — either as early as the reign of Josiah or as late as the Hasmonean period." K. Lawson Younger Jr. (1 October 2004). "Early Israel in Recent Biblical Scholarship". In David W. Baker; Bill T. Arnold (eds.). The Face of Old Testament Studies: A Survey of Contemporary Approaches. Baker Academic. p. 200. .
  10. .
  11. .
  12. .
  13. .
  14. .
  15. .
  16. .
  17. ^ Ezekiel 47:13
  18. .
  19. ^ Genesis 48:5
  20. ^ Joshua 14:14
  21. ^ "The Twelve Tribes of Israel". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  22. ^ "Simeon, Tribe of" (Jewish Encyclopedia 1906)
  23. ^ a b ‘Lost tribe of Israel’ found in southern India, Canadian Jewish News, 7 October 2010
  24. ^ The Tribe of Issachar
  25. ^ The Tribe of Issachar
  26. ^ Lev, David (25 October 2010). "MK Kara: Druze are Descended from Jews". Israel National News. Arutz Sheva. Retrieved 13 April 2011.
  27. . p. 2
  28. ^ "India: Lost tribe of Menashe celebrates Sukkot". Israel365 News | Latest News. Biblical Perspective. September 20, 2021.
  29. ^ "Patriarchal Blessings". Gospel Topics. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  30. ^ al-quran.info/#7:160/1
  31. ^ "Did Israel Always Have Twelve Tribes?". www.thetorah.com.
  32. ^ a b D, Paul (July 9, 2014). "The Twelve (or So) Tribes of Israel".
  33. JSTOR 1518497
    – via JSTOR.
  34. ^ Peake's commentary on the Bible (1962) by Matthew Black, Harold Henry Rowley, and Arthur Samuel Peake - Thomas Nelson (publisher)
  35. ^ "Is the NIV a deliberate mistranslation? | Psephizo". July 16, 2015.
  36. ^ "The Birth of the Bible, by Immanuel Lewy". July 1, 1951.
  37. ^ "Immanuel Lewy b. 19 Sep 1884 Berlin, Germany d. 2 Feb 1970 New York, NY, USA: Blank Family". blankgenealogy.com.
  38. ^ "The Study of Man: Archaeology and the Bible's Historical Truth". Commentary Magazine. May 1, 1954.
  39. – via Google Books.
  40. .
  41. ^ "The Tribe of Gad and The Mesha Stele – TheTorah.com". www.thetorah.com.
  42. ^ "Newly deciphered Moabite inscription may be first use of written word 'Hebrews'". Times of Israel.
  43. ^
    PMID 29097670
    .

External links