In modern scholarship, there is skepticism as to whether the Twelve Tribes of Israelactually existed, with the use of "12" thought more likely tosignify a symbolic tradition as part of a national founding myth,[1] although some academics disagree with this view.[2]
Jacob, later called Israel, was the second-born son ofIsaac andRebecca, the younger twin brother ofEsau, and the grandson ofAbraham andSarah. According to biblical texts, he was chosen byGod to be the patriarch of the Israelite nation. From what is known of Jacob, he had two wives, sistersLeah andRachel, and two concubines,Bilhah andZilpah. 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]
TheIsraelites were the descendants of twelve sons of thebiblical patriarchJacob. Jacob also had at least one daughter,Dinah, whose descendants were not recognized as a tribe. The sons of Jacob were born inPadan-aram from different mothers, as follows:[4]
Jacob elevated the descendants ofEphraim andManasseh (the two sons ofJoseph and his Egyptian wifeAsenath)[5] to the status of full tribes in their own right.[6] Joseph received Reuben's birth right because of the latter's transgression with Bilhah.[7]
In the biblical narrative the period from theconquest of Canaan under the leadership ofJoshua until the formation of theUnited Kingdom of Israel passed with the tribes forming a loose confederation, described in theBook of Judges. Modern scholarship has called into question the beginning, middle, and end of this picture[8][9] and the account of the conquest under Joshua has largely been abandoned.[10][11][12] The biblical depiction of the "period of the Judges" is widely considered doubtful.[8][13][14] The extent to which a united Kingdom of Israel ever existed is also a matter of ongoing dispute.[15][16][17]
Living inexile in the sixth century BC, the prophetEzekiel has a vision for the restoration of Israel,[18] of a future in which the twelve tribes of Israel are living in their land again.[19] In its account of the completion of theSecond Temple in Jerusalem after the return of the exiles, theBook of Ezra states that the dedication of the temple was accompanied by the sacrifice of 12he-goats as asin offering for the twelve tribes.[20]
Joshua's allotment of land to the Israelite tribes according toJoshua 13–19
According toJoshua 13–19, theLand of Israel was divided by lots into twelve sections corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. There is a contractual aspect of the division of the land according to the tribes. According to theBabylonian Talmud (Baba Bathra 106b), the lots did not actually function as a legal allocation of property but only clarified the division. Rather, the legal allocation of property took effect when the tribes actually settled on the land and worked the land.
The tribes receiving land differed from the biblical tribes. For example, theTribe of Levi had no land appropriation but had sixCities of Refuge under their administration. In addition, there was no land allotment for theTribe of Joseph, but Joseph's two sons,Ephraim andManasseh, received their father's land portion.[21][22]
The Tribe of Reuben: Reuben was a member of the Northern Kingdom of Israel until the kingdom was conquered byAssyria. According to 1 Chronicles 5:26,Tiglath-Pileser III of Assyria (ruled 745–727 BC) deported the Reubenites, Gadites, and the half-tribe of Manasseh to "Halah, Habor, Hara, and the Gozan River." According to the MoabiteMesha Stele (ca. 840 BCE) the Moabites reclaimed many territories in the second part of the 9th century BCE (only recently conquered by Omri and Ahab according to the Stele). The stele does mention fighting against the tribe of Gad but not the tribe of Reuben, even though taking Nebo and Jahaz which were in the centre in their designated homeland. This would suggest that the tribe of Reuben at this time was no longer recognizable as a separate force in this area. Even if still present at the outbreak of this war, the outcome of this war would have left them without a territory of their own, just like the tribes of Simeon and Levi. This is, according to Richard Elliot Friedman inWho Wrote the Bible?, the reason why these three tribes are passed over in favour of Judah in the J-version of Jacob's deathbed blessing (composed in Judah before the fall of Israel).
The Tribe of Ephraim: As part of theKingdom of Israel, the territory of Ephraim was conquered by theAssyrians, and the tribe exiled; the manner of their exile led totheir further history being lost. However, several modern day groups claim descent, with varying levels of academic and rabbinical support. TheSamaritans claim that some of their adherents are descended from this tribe, and manyPersian Jews claim to be descendants of Ephraim. Further afield, in India theTelugu Jews claim descent from Ephraim, and call themselvesBene Ephraim, relating similar traditions to those of theMizo Jews, whom the modern state of Israel regards as descendants of Manasseh.[25]
The Tribe of Issachar: R' David Kimchi (ReDaK) to I Chronicles 9:1 expounds that there remained from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar and Zebulun in the territory of Judah after the exile of the ten tribes. This remnant returned with the tribe of Judah after the Babylonian Exile.[26]
The Tribe of Judah: returned to their original land along with what remained from the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, Issachar, and Zebulun that had not been exiled elsewhere, after the Babylonian Exile.[27]
The Tribe of Zebulun: As part of theKingdom of Israel, the territory of Zebulun was conquered by theAssyrians,and the tribe exiled; the manner of their exile led totheir further history being lost. Israeli Knesset memberAyoob Kara speculated that theDruze are descended from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, probably Zevulun. Kara stated that the Druze share many of the same beliefs as Jews, and that he has genetic evidence to prove that the Druze were descended from Jews.[28]
The Tribe of Manasseh: Part of theKingdom of Israel, the territory of Manasseh was conquered by theAssyrians, and the tribe exiled; the manner of their exile led totheir further history being lost. However, several modern day groups claim descent, with varying levels of academic and rabbinical support. Both theBnei Menashe[30] (theMizo Jews, whom the modern state of Israel regards as descendants of Manasseh)[25] and theSamaritans claim that some of their adherents are descended from this tribe.
The Tribe of Benjamin apparently became part of the Tribe of Judah.[citation needed]
TheQuran (7th century CE) states that the people ofMoses were split into twelve tribes. Surah 7 (Al-A'raf) verse 160 says:
"We split them up into twelve tribal communities, and We revealed toMoses, 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."[33]
For thousands of years, Christians and Jews have accepted the history of the twelve tribes as fact. Since the 19th century,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.[34]
Biblical lists of tribes, not all of which number 12, include the following:
TheBlessing of Jacob (Genesis 49) 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.
Judges 1 describes the conquest of Canaan; Benjamin and Simeon are mentioned in the section about Judah's exploits, and are listed alongside the Calebites and theKenites,two Judahite clans.[citation needed] Joseph, Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulun, Asher, Naphtali and Dan are mentioned, but Issachar, Reuben, Levi and Gad are not.[35][1]
theSong of Deborah (Judges 5:2–31), widely considered 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, andMachir, a subsection of Manasseh, are also mentioned. The other five tribes (Simeon, Levi, Judah, Gad, and Joseph) are not mentioned.[36]
Scholars such asMax Weber (inAncient Judaism) and Ronald M. Glassman (2017) argued that there never was a fixed number of tribes and instead regarded the idea that there were always twelve tribes as part of the Israelite nationalfounding myth: thenumber 12 was an ideal number, which had symbolic significance in Near Eastern cultures withduodecimal counting systems, from which, among other things, the modern12-hour clock is derived.[1]
Translator Paul Davidson argued:[38] "The stories of Jacob and his children, then, are not accounts of historicalBronze Age people. Rather, they tell us how much later Jews andIsraelites 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 toSamaria), orAsher, aPhoenician territory whose name may be an allusion to the goddessAsherah."[35]
Historian Immanuel Lewy[39][40] inCommentary mentions "the Biblical habit of representing clans as persons. In the Bible, the twelve tribes of Israel are sons of a man calledJacob or Israel, asEdom or Esau is the brother of Jacob, andIshmael andIsaac are the sons ofAbraham.Elam andAshur, names of two ancient nations, are sons of a man calledShem.Sidon, a Phoenician town, is the first-born ofCanaan; the lands of Egypt and Abyssinia are the sons ofHam. 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 thepatriarchal andMosaic 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."[41]
Norman Gottwald argued that the division into twelve tribes originated as an administrative scheme under King David.[42][43]
Recent studies of genetic markers within Jewish populations strongly suggest that modernAshkenaziLevites (Jewish males who claimpatrilineal descent from theTribe of Levi) are descendants of a single Levite ancestor who came to Europe from the Middle East roughly 1,750 years ago.[46] 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.[46]
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 PortugueseThesouro de Nobreza, 1675
^ab"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.ISBN978-0-664-22265-9.
^"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.ISBN978-0-8010-2871-7.
^"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.ISBN90-04-11554-4.
^"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 ofsome 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.ISBN978-0-19-939387-9.
^"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.ISBN978-1-58983-912-0.
^"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.ISBN978-0-8042-3107-7.
^"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.ISBN978-1-134-94215-2.
^"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.ISBN978-1-317-49031-9.
^abcdefghLaing, Yehezkel (18 December 2024)."Did Archaeologists Discover an Ancient Seal of the Twelve Tribes?".Aish.com. Retrieved19 December 2024.... symbols ... used by Jacob, just before his death, in his blessing to his sons in Genesis 49: Reuben is likened to water, Yehuda a lion, Zevulun a ship, Dan a snake and Naphtali a deer. Three other symbols match those used by Moses in his blessings to the tribes, just before his death, in Deuteronomy 33: Joseph is likened to a bull, Benjamin to two hills and Asher to oil or an olive tree. Of the remaining four tribal symbols, some can be found in other ancient Jewish sources. For example, the Midrash says Shimon's symbol was the gates to the city of Shechem (Midrash BaMidbar Rabbah 2:7).
^"Patriarchal Blessings".Gospel Topics. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved9 February 2022.
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