Twelve Tribes of Israel

Mosaic depicting the 12 tribes and their Hebrew names, with symbolic images.

The Twelve Tribes of Israel (Hebrew: שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, romanized: Šiḇṭê Yiśrāʾēl, lit. 'Staffs of Israel') are described in the Hebrew Bible as being the descendants of Jacob, a Hebrew patriarch who was a son of Isaac and thereby a grandson of Abraham. Jacob, later known as Israel, had a total of 12 sons, from whom each tribe's ancestry and namesake is derived: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, and Benjamin. Collectively known as the Israelites, they inhabited a part of Canaan—the Land of Israel—during the Iron Age. Their history, society, culture, and politics feature heavily in the Abrahamic religions, especially Judaism.

In the biblical narrative, after Moses oversaw the Israelites' departure from Egypt, he died and was succeeded by Joshua, who led the conquest of Canaan and subsequently allotted territory for all but the Tribe of Levi, which was instead dedicated 48 cities. This development culminated in the establishment of Israel and Judah, purportedly beginning with a Kingdom of Israel and Judah before splitting into the Kingdom of Israel in the north and the Kingdom of Judah in the south.

Wars with neighbouring Near Eastern powers eventually resulted in the destruction of both Israel and Judah: the Assyrian conquest of Israel resulted in the mass displacement of most of the Israelites, giving rise to the legacy of the 10 Lost Tribes; and the Babylonian conquest of Judah resulted in the mass displacement of much of the remaining Israelites, who belonged to the Tribe of Judah and the Tribe of Benjamin.

In modern scholarship, there is skepticism as to whether the Twelve Tribes of Israel actually existed, with the use of "12" thought more likely to signify a symbolic tradition as part of a national founding myth, although some academics disagree with this view.

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. 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.

Sons and tribes

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:

Deuteronomy 27:12–13 lists the twelve tribes:

  • Reuben (Hebrew רְאוּבֵן Rəʾûḇēn)
  • Simeon (שִׁמְעוֹן Šimʿôn)
  • Levi (לֵוִי Lēwî)
  • Judah (יְהוּדָה Yəhûḏâ)
  • Issachar (יִשָּׂשכָר Yiśśāḵār)
  • Zebulun (זְבוּלֻן Zəḇûlūn)
  • Dan (דָּן Dān)
  • Naphtali (נַפְתָּלִי Nap̄tālî)
  • Gad (גָּד Gāḏ)
  • Asher (אָשֵׁר ʾĀšēr)
  • Benjamin (בִּנְיָמִן Binyāmīn)
  • Joseph (יוֹסֵף Yōsēp̄), later split into two tribes:
    • Ephraim (אֶפְרַיִם ʼEp̄ráyim)
    • Manasseh (מְנַשֶּׁה Mənaššeh)

Jacob elevated the descendants of Ephraim and Manasseh (the two sons of Joseph and his Egyptian wife Asenath) to the status of full tribes in their own right. Joseph received Reuben's birthright because of the latter's transgression with Bilhah.

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 and the account of the conquest under Joshua has largely been abandoned. The biblical depiction of the "period of the Judges" is widely considered doubtful. The extent to which a united Kingdom of Israel ever existed is also a matter of ongoing dispute.

Living in exile in the sixth century BCE, the prophet Ezekiel has a vision for the restoration of Israel, of a future in which the twelve tribes of Israel are living in their land again. In its account of the completion of the Second Temple in Jerusalem after the return of the exiles, the Book of Ezra states that the dedication of the temple was accompanied by the sacrifice of 12 he-goats as a sin offering for the twelve tribes.

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 by lots into twelve sections corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. There is a contractual aspect to the division of the land according to the tribes. According to the Babylonian 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 an allotment were:

The Tribe of Levi received no land appropriation but had six Cities of Refuge under their administration.

Descendants

Symbols

Symbols have been attributed to the twelve tribes:

In the New Testament

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, which omits Dan, includes Simeon and Levi and lists Joseph (in place of Ephraim) 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).

Latter-day Saints

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.

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."

Surah 12 (Yusuf) describes the history of Joseph and mentions his brothers. Verses 3-4 say:

"When Joseph said to his father, ‘Father! I saw eleven planets (or stars), and the sun and the moon: I saw them prostrating themselves before me.’ He said, ‘My son, do not recount your dream to your brothers, lest they should devise schemes against you. Satan is indeed man’s manifest enemy."

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, 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.

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) 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 national founding myth: the number 12 was 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.

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.

Historian Immanuel Lewy 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."

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

Additionally, the Mesha Stele (carved c. 840 BCE) mentions Omri as King of Israel and also mentions "the men of Gad".

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 hereditary male Jewish lineage of Levitical priests) are descendants of a single Levite ancestor who came to Europe from the Middle East roughly 1,750 years ago. 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.

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, 1675

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 Glassman, Ronald M. (2017). The Origins of Democracy in Tribes, City-States and Nation-States. Cham: Springer. p. 632. doi:10.1007/978-3-319-51695-0_60. ISBN 978-3-319-51695-0. Retrieved 25 May 2021.
  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 48:5
  7. ↑ Genesis 35:22; 1 Chronicles 5:1,2
  8. 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.
  9. ↑ 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.
  10. ↑ "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.
  11. ↑ "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.
  12. ↑ "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.
  13. ↑ "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.
  14. ↑ "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.
  15. ↑ "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.
  16. ↑ "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.
  17. ↑ "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.
  18. ↑ Ezekiel 47:13
  19. ↑ Michael Chyutin (1 January 2006). Architecture and Utopia in the Temple Era. A&C Black. p. 170. ISBN 978-0-567-03054-2.
  20. ↑ Ezra 6:17: Revised Standard Version
  21. ↑ "The Twelve Tribes of Israel". www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org.
  22. ↑ Genesis 48:5
  23. ↑ Joshua 14:4
  24. ↑ "Simeon, Tribe of" (Jewish Encyclopedia 1906)
  25. 1 2 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. ↑ From Tragedy to Triumph: The Politics Behind the Rescue of Ethiopian Jewry, Mitchell Geoffrey Bard. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. ISBN 0-275-97000-0, ISBN 978-0-275-97000-0. p. 2
  28. 1 2 'Lost tribe of Israel' found in southern India, Canadian Jewish News, 7 October 2010
  29. ↑ "India: Lost tribe of Menashe celebrates Sukkot". Israel365 News | Latest News. Biblical Perspective. September 20, 2021.
  30. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Laing, Yehezkel (18 December 2024). "Did Archaeologists Discover an Ancient Seal of the Twelve Tribes?". Aish.com. Retrieved 19 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).
  31. ↑ "Patriarchal Blessings". Gospel Topics. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Retrieved 9 February 2022.
  32. ↑ al-quran.info/#7:160/1
  33. ↑ "The Quran". The Quran. Retrieved 2026-10-02.
  34. ↑ "Did Israel Always Have Twelve Tribes?". www.thetorah.com.
  35. ↑ D, Paul (July 9, 2014). "The Twelve (or So) Tribes of Israel".
  36. ↑ De Moor, Johannes C. (1993). "The Twelve Tribes in the Song of Deborah". Vetus Testamentum. 43 (4): 483–494. doi:10.2307/1518497. JSTOR 1518497.
  37. ↑ Peake's commentary on the Bible (1962) by Matthew Black, Harold Henry Rowley, and Arthur Samuel Peake – Thomas Nelson (publisher)
  38. ↑ "The Birth of the Bible, by Immanuel Lewy". July 1, 1951.
  39. ↑ "Immanuel Lewy b. 19 Sep 1884 Berlin, Germany d. 2 Feb 1970 New York, NY, USA: Blank Family". blankgenealogy.com.
  40. ↑ "The Study of Man: Archaeology and the Bible's Historical Truth". Commentary Magazine. May 1, 1954.
  41. ↑ Gottwald, Norman (October 1, 1999). Tribes of Yahweh: A Sociology of the Religion of Liberated Israel, 1250–1050 BCE. A&C Black. ISBN 9781841270265 – via Google Books.
  42. ↑ Weingart, Kristin (March 1, 2019). ""All These Are the Twelve Tribes of Israel": The Origins of Israel's Kinship Identity". Near Eastern Archaeology. 82 (1): 24–31. doi:10.1086/703323. S2CID 167013727.
  43. ↑ "The Tribe of Gad and The Mesha Stele – TheTorah.com". thetorah.com.
  44. ↑ "Newly deciphered Moabite inscription may be first use of written word 'Hebrews'". Times of Israel.
  45. 1 2 Behar, Doron M.; Saag, Lauri; Karmin, Monika; Gover, Meir G.; Wexler, Jeffrey D.; Sanchez, Luisa Fernanda; Greenspan, Elliott; Kushniarevich, Alena; Davydenko, Oleg; Sahakyan, Hovhannes; Yepiskoposyan, Levon; Boattini, Alessio; Sarno, Stefania; Pagani, Luca; Carmi, Shai (2017-11-02). "The genetic variation in the R1a clade among the Ashkenazi Levites' Y chromosome". Scientific Reports. 7 (1): 14969. Bibcode:2017NatSR...714969B. doi:10.1038/s41598-017-14761-7. ISSN 2045-2322. PMC 5668307. PMID 29097670.