Twelve Tribes of Israel

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Mosaic depicting the twelve tribes and their Hebrew names, with symbolic images.
Asher: a tree
Dan: Scales of justice
Judah: Kinnor, cithara and crown, symbolising King David
Reuben: Mandrake (Genesis 30:14)
Joseph: Palm tree and sheaves of wheat, symbolizing his time in Egypt
Naphtali: gazelle (Genesis 49:21)
Issachar: Sun, moon and stars (1 Chronicles 12:32)
Simeon: towers and walls of the city of Shechem
Benjamin: jug, ladle and fork
Gad: tents, symbolizing their itinerancy as cattle-herders
Zebulun: ship, due to their bordering the Sea of Galilee and Mediterranean
Levi: Priestly breastplate Mosaic Tribes.jpg
Mosaic depicting the twelve tribes and their Hebrew names, with symbolic images.
Asher: a tree
Dan: Scales of justice
Judah: Kinnor, cithara and crown, symbolising King David
Reuben: Mandrake (Genesis 30:14)
Joseph: Palm tree and sheaves of wheat, symbolizing his time in Egypt
Naphtali: gazelle (Genesis 49:21)
Issachar: Sun, moon and stars (1 Chronicles 12:32)
Simeon: towers and walls of the city of Shechem
Benjamin: jug, ladle and fork
Gad: tents, symbolizing their itinerancy as cattle-herders
Zebulun: ship, due to their bordering the Sea of Galilee and Mediterranean
Levi: Priestly breastplate

The Twelve Tribes of Israel (Hebrew : שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, romanized: Šīḇṭēy Yīsrāʾēl, lit. 'Tribes of Israel') are, according to Hebrew scriptures, the descendants of the biblical patriarch Jacob (also known as Israel), who collectively form the Israelite nation. The tribes were through his twelve sons through his wives, Leah and Rachel, and his concubines, Bilhah and Zilpah. In modern scholarship, there is skepticism as to whether there ever were twelve Israelite tribes, with the use of the number 12 thought more likely to signify a symbolic tradition as part of a national founding myth, [1] although some scholars disagree with this view. [2]

Contents

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 Biblical Jacob and his 12 sons Genealogy (Family Tree).jpg
Parentage of Jacob's twelve sons, per Genesis 35

The Israelites were the descendants of twelve sons of the biblical patriarch Jacob. Jacob also had at least one daughter, Dinah, whose descendants were not recognized as a tribe. The sons of Jacob were born in 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 Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph and his Egyptian wife Asenath) [5] to the status of full tribes in their own right due to Joseph receiving a 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 12 Tribes of Israel Map.svg
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 New Testament. In the gospels of Matthew (19:28) and Luke (22:30), Jesus anticipates that in the Kingdom of God his 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) Jacob Blessing his Sons MET DP801460.jpg
The dying Jacob blesses his twelve sons (Adam van Noort)
The twelve tribes of Israel camped around the tabernacle. (Jan Luyken, 1673) Tabernakel omringd door tentenkampen van de twaalf stammen van Israel Leger-Ordening Israels volgens de meening der Joden (titel op object), RP-P-1896-A-19368-331.jpg
The twelve tribes of Israel camped around the tabernacle. (Jan Luyken, 1673)
Map of tribal territories in the Land of Israel (Charles Francois Delamarche, 1797) Charles Francois Delamarche. Carte De La Terre Hebreux ou Israelites partagee selon l'ordre de Dieu aux douze tirbus descendantes Des Douze Fils De Jacob. Paris 1797.jpg
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:

Theories of origin

Scholars such as Max Weber (in Ancient Judaism ) and Ronald M. Glassman (2017) concluded that there never was a fixed number of tribes. Instead, the idea that there were always twelve tribes should be regarded as part of the Israelite national founding myth: the number 12 was not a real number, but an ideal number, which had symbolic significance in Near Eastern cultures with duodecimal counting systems, from which, among other things, the modern 12-hour clock is derived. [1]

Biblical scholar Arthur Peake saw the tribes originating as postdiction, as eponymous metaphor giving an 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 [36] [37] in Commentary mentions "the Biblical habit of representing clans as persons. In the Bible, the twelve tribes of Israel are sons of a man called Jacob or Israel, as Edom or Esau is the brother of Jacob, and Ishmael and Isaac are the sons of Abraham. 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 Mesha Stele (carved c. 840 BCE) mentions Omri as 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 Levites (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

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)</span> Israelite kingdom in the Southern Levant

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribe of Ephraim</span> One of the two Half-Tribes of Joseph

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Ephraim was one of the tribes of Israel. The Tribe of Manasseh together with Ephraim formed the House of Joseph. It is one of the ten lost tribes. The etymology of the name is disputed.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribe of Manasseh</span> One of the two Half-Tribes of Joseph

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribe of Joseph</span> One of the twelve Tribes of Israel

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Assyrian captivity</span> Ancient Israelites relocated by the Neo-Assyrian Empire.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ezekiel 48</span> Last chapter of the Book of Ezekiel

Ezekiel 48 is the forty-eighth chapter of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible or the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. This book contains the prophecies attributed to the prophet/priest Ezekiel, and is one of the Books of the Prophets. Chapters 40-48 give the ideal picture of a new temple. The Jerusalem Bible refers to this section as "the Torah of Ezekiel".

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua 18</span> Book of Joshua, chapter 18

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua 19</span> Book of Joshua, chapter 19

Joshua 19 is the nineteenth chapter of the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible or in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. According to Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the Joshua, with additions by the high priests Eleazar and Phinehas, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in the 7th century BCE. This chapter records the further allotment of land for the tribes of Israel, especially the tribes of Simeon, Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali and Dan, as well as Joshua's Inheritance, a part of a section comprising Joshua 13:1–21:45 about the Israelites allotting the land of Canaan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Joshua 21</span> Book of Joshua, chapter 21

Joshua 21 is the twenty-first chapter of the Book of Joshua in the Hebrew Bible or in the Old Testament of the Christian Bible. According to 0Jewish tradition the book was attributed to the Joshua, with additions by the high priests Eleazar and Phinehas, but modern scholars view it as part of the Deuteronomistic History, which spans the books of Deuteronomy to 2 Kings, attributed to nationalistic and devotedly Yahwistic writers during the time of the reformer Judean king Josiah in 7th century BCE. This chapter records the designation of "Levitical cities", a part of a section comprising Joshua 13:1–21:45 about the Israelites allotting the land of Canaan.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribe of Issachar</span> One of the twelve Tribes of Israel

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Issachar was one of the twelve tribes of Israel and one of the ten lost tribes. In Jewish tradition, the descendants of Issachar were seen as being dominated by religious scholars and influential in proselytism. The sons of Issachar, ancestors of the tribe, were Tola, Phuvah, Job and Shimron.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribe of Zebulun</span> One of the twelve Tribes of Israel

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Zebulun was one of the twelve tribes of Israel. Following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes in the Book of Joshua, Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. The territory Zebulun was allocated was at the southern end of the Galilee, with its eastern border being the Sea of Galilee, the western border being the Mediterranean Sea, the south being bordered by the Tribe of Issachar, and the north by Asher on the western side and Naphtali on the eastern.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribe of Gad</span> One of the twelve Tribes of Israel

According to the Bible, the Tribe of Gad was one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel who, after the Exodus from Egypt, settled on the eastern side of the Jordan River. It is one of the ten lost tribes. The Tribe of Gad still originated from the original Hebrew Israelites.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tribe of Naphtali</span> One of the twelve tribes of Israel

The Tribe of Naphtali was one of the northernmost of the twelve tribes of Israel. It is one of the ten lost tribes.

References

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  2. Blum, Erhard (2020). "The Israelite Tribal System: Literary Fiction or Social Reality?". In Krause, Joachim J.; Sergi, Omer; Weingart, Kristin (eds.). Saul, Benjamin, and the Emergence of Monarchy in Israel: Biblical and Archaeological Perspectives. SBL Press. p. 213. ISBN   978-0-88414-451-9.
  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. 1 2 "In any case, it is now widely agreed that the so-called 'patriarchal/ancestral period' is a later 'literary' construct, not a period in the actual history of the ancient world. The same is the case for the 'exodus' and the 'wilderness period', and more and more widely for the 'period of the Judges.'" Paula M. McNutt (1 January 1999). Reconstructing the Society of Ancient Israel . Westminster John Knox Press. p.  42. ISBN   978-0-664-22265-9.
  8. Alan T. Levenson (16 August 2011). The Making of the Modern Jewish Bible: How Scholars in Germany, Israel, and America Transformed an Ancient Text. Rowman & Littlefield Publishers. p. 202. ISBN   978-1-4422-0518-5.
  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. ISBN   978-0-8010-2871-7.
  10. "It behooves us to ask, in spite of the fact that the overwhelming consensus of modern scholarship is that Joshua is a pious fiction composed by the deuteronomistic school, how does and how has the Jewish community dealt with these foundational narratives, saturated as they are with acts of violence against others?" Carl S. Ehrlich (1999). "Joshua, Judaism and Genocide". Jewish Studies at the Turn of the Twentieth Century, Volume 1: Biblical, Rabbinical, and Medieval Studies. BRILL. p. 117. ISBN   90-04-11554-4.
  11. "Recent decades, for example, have seen a remarkable reevaluation of evidence concerning the conquest of the land of Canaan by Joshua. As more sites have been excavated, there has been a growing consensus that the main story of Joshua, that of a speedy and complete conquest (e.g. Joshua 11:23: 'Thus Joshua conquered the whole country, just as the LORD had promised Moses') is contradicted by the archaeological record, though there are indications of some destruction and conquest at the appropriate time. Adele Berlin; Marc Zvi Brettler (17 October 2014). The Jewish Study Bible (Second ed.). Oxford University Press. p. 951. ISBN   978-0-19-939387-9.
  12. "The biblical text does not shed light on the history of the highlands in the early Iron I. The conquest and part of the period of the judges narratives should be seen, first and foremost, as a Deuteronomist construct that used myths, tales, and etiological traditions in order to convey the theology and territorial ideology of the late monarchic author(s) (e.g., Nelson 1981; Van Seters 1990; Finkelstein and Silberman 2001, 72–79, Römer 2007, 83–90)." Israel Finkelstein (2013). The Forgotten Kingdom: The Archaeology and History of Northern Israel (PDF). Society of Biblical Literature. p. 24. ISBN   978-1-58983-912-0.
  13. "In short, the so-called ‘period of the judges’ was probably the creation of a person or persons known as the deuteronomistic historian."J. Clinton McCann (2002). Judges. Westminster John Knox Press. p. 5. ISBN   978-0-8042-3107-7.
  14. "Although most scholars accept the historicity of the united monarchy (although not in the scale and form described in the Bible; see Dever 1996; Na'aman 1996; Fritz 1996, and bibliography there), its existence has been questioned by other scholars (see Whitelam 1996b; see also Grabbe 1997, and bibliography there). The scenario described below suggests that some important changes did take place at the time." Avraham Faust (1 April 2016). Israel's Ethnogenesis: Settlement, Interaction, Expansion and Resistance. Routledge. p. 172. ISBN   978-1-134-94215-2.
  15. "In some sense most scholars today agree on a 'minimalist' point of view in this regard. It does not seem reasonable any longer to claim that the united monarchy ruled over most of Palestine and Syria." Gunnar Lebmann (2003). Andrew G. Vaughn; Ann E. Killebrew (eds.). Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period. Society of Biblical Lit. p. 156. ISBN   978-1-58983-066-0.
  16. "There seems to be a consensus that the power and size of the kingdom of Solomon, if it ever existed, has been hugely exaggerated." Philip R. Davies (18 December 2014). "Why do we Know about Amos?". In Diana Vikander Edelman; Ehud Ben Zvi (eds.). The Production of Prophecy: Constructing Prophecy and Prophets in Yehud. Routledge. p. 71. ISBN   978-1-317-49031-9.
  17. Ezekiel 47:13
  18. Michael Chyutin (1 January 2006). Architecture and Utopia in the Temple Era. A&C Black. p. 170. ISBN   978-0-567-03054-2.
  19. Genesis 48:5
  20. Joshua 14:14
  21. "The Twelve Tribes of Israel". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
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  23. 1 2 ‘Lost tribe of Israel’ found in southern India, Canadian Jewish News, 7 October 2010
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  25. The Tribe of Issachar
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  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
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  32. 1 2 D, Paul (July 9, 2014). "The Twelve (or So) Tribes of Israel".
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  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.
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