WHY THERE IS NO TRIBE OF JOSEPH, LOST TRIBES AND OTHER MYSTERIES
Genesis > Exodus
WARNING: Sketchy math, identity theft, sexual misconduct with Dad’s concubine, mass murder
CONTEXT: ~ 1600 – 200 BCE The confusion begins in Genesis as Jacob splits a tribe due to his son’s sexual misbehavior and continues as the Assyrians deport the northern tribes into oblivion.
Like the seven dwarves, most people can name several Israelite tribes but very few can name all of them. Likewise, it is generally understood that there are twelve tribes, but that assumption isn’t really accurate. There are actually thirteen tribes of Israel. This is not an alternative interpretation or conspiracy, it’s right there in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament).
Eleven of the tribes are named after sons of Jacob/Israel born of four different women (two wives, two concubines), as follows in order of birth:
Reuben (Leah)
Simeon (Leah)
Levi (Leah)
Judah (Leah)
Dan (Bilhah)
Naphtali (Bilhah)
Gad (Zilpah)
Asher (Zilpah)
Issachar (Leah)
Zebulon (Leah)
Benjamin (Rachel)
Joseph is missing
Where is Joseph, firstborn of Rachel, Jacob’s favorite and long time Viceroy of Egypt (he also had to work fourteen years to earn his second wife Rachel, but that’s a different story.1)? You’d think he would get his own tribe.
Yet there is no tribe of Joseph.
Instead, the twelfth and thirteen tribes are the descendants of Joseph’s two sons: Ephraim and Manasseh. Just as the Messiah’s genealogy is tainted with Canaanite and Moabite blood (see The Savior’s Shocking Lineage, Part II)), it is also of interest that the two Israelite tribes descended from Joseph are half Egyptian. As Viceroy of the Nile empire, Jacob’s youngest was a high official in the Pharaoh’s court and was married to Asenath, daughter of the Egyptian high priest. Joseph was even mummified and given a royal Egyptian burial, as was Jacob. Although his comments are not recorded, this rarely mentioned detail could not have pleased YHWH.2
Joseph’s sons’ offspring are referred to as half tribes, which is a bit misleading – especially considering Manasseh had by far the largest land portion granted from YHWH. The origin of the geographic tribal distribution is seen in the inheritances assigned by Jacob/Israel on his death bed. According to tradition, first born Reuben should have been awarded a “double portion,” but Jacob revoked his inheritance because of his bad habit of doing the horizontal bop with Dad’s concubine Bilhah (she was also birth mother to his brothers Dan and Napthali). As a consequence, Reuben’s extra share of the estate was given to Joseph’s sons instead. They are listed as full tribes and receive land allotments in the Book of Joshua. That’s thirteen tribes, not twelve.
There is a slightly amusing passage in Gen. 48 which describes the blessing scene.
“And Joseph brought them out from between his knees, and he bowed himself with his face to the earth. And Joseph took them both, Ephraim in his right hand toward Israel’s left hand, and Manasseh in his left hand toward Israel’s right hand, and brought them near unto him. – Genesis 48:12-13 [KJV]
Basic Bible math shows that the two “boys” were at least twenty years old and probably older, so sitting between Joseph’s knees would have been awkward.3
The thirteenth tribe is descended from Levi, father of the Levites, Moses’s clan. If Judah is the tribe with the highest profile historically and geographically, then the Levites have to be a close second, scripturally speaking. As the priestly group, they did not get a land allotment, but instead got dinner. As the officials in charge of sacrifices and – by extension – the economic benefits of the Tabernacle/Temple, they were on the receiving end of continuous animal barbeques, shew bread and grain offerings. If you have ever wondered about the absurdly high standards specified for sacrificial offering ingredients found in Exodus, Leviticus and elsewhere, think about who wrote the scripture and who benefitted.
Although God assigned the Levites to the priesthood, it was certainly not because of their moral standards. Levi himself was one of the ringleaders of a horrible, sneaky and otherwise reprehensible massacre of recently circumcised men of Shechem in Ex. 34 (see Fun Bible Story: The Massacre of Shechem). Later in Ex. 32, when Moses calls for men to execute the attendees of the raucous golden calf soiree it is the Levite family who answer the call. That’s three thousand YHWH-sanctioned murders about ten minutes after the sixth commandment got inscribed on the tablet.
Furthermore, we can find Levites behaving very badly in at least two other stories in Judges (See Fun Bible Story: Carving Up the Concubine). So their appointment to the Hebrew priesthood must have been yet another component of YHWH’s inscrutable plan.
The Ten (or Nine) Lost Tribes of Israel
According to the Hebrew Bible and supported by actual history, the Assyrians deported the population of Israel – the Northern Kingdom – in 722 BCE. At this point in the Iron Age, the Northern Kingdom (which was Samaria) and the Southern Kingdom (which was Judea) were separate and politically estranged nation states.
Warrior king Sargon II annexed Samaria to the Neo-Assyrian Empire. The scattering of the population was a tragedy certainly, but entirely consistent with the martial protocols of the time. The mass deportation policy was intended to minimize revolts in conquered regions.
Traditionally the number of “lost tribes” is ten, but to be consistent with the scriptures the number should only be nine. As noted, there were twelve land allotments in total. The tribes of Benjamin and Simeon were part of Judea, the territory of Judah. That leaves nine tribes to be deported from their YHWH-assigned districts. There were also Levites scattered throughout the tribal regions fulfilling priestly roles. Some were likely deported, while others migrated south to Judea.
To be clear, the Assyrians didn’t care what tribes they were exporting because they didn’t know they were biblically chosen, so we don’t have the benefit of a Chaldean perspective.
None of this has dampened thousands of years of conspiracy theories.
Could Sting be Jewish?
In terms of lost tribe lore, a somewhat credible narrative has the deported Jews migrating northward, where they evolved into the Scythians, an Iranian horse warrior clan who may have eventually become Crimeans. There are some suggestions that Scythian is the etymological root of Ashkenazi. There also are those who insist the deported Northern Kingdom tribes hooked up with the Goths and eventually evolved into the Anglo-Saxons who settled Great Britain. This seems doubtful.
A belief system known as British Israelism claims they have proof that the British Royal family is descended from the lost tribes. As a matter of policy, FBS maintains an open mind about this theory, which is more than I can say for the Encyclopædia Britannica. An entry in the 1910 edition says:
“The theory of British-Israelism rests on premises which are deemed by scholars—both theological and anthropological—to be utterly unsound.”
Even less likely is an ambitious scenario from Israel United in Christ, which posits that the various tribes are the forebears of a wide range of ethnicities: Simeon became black Dominicans, Judah became American Blacks, Benjamin became West Indians, Levi became Haitians, Ephraim became Puerto Ricans and Napthali became Argentines. Mention these theories to any of the ethnic groups as a conversation starter.
Mormons – who seem so sane but are actually as bat shit crazy as any chemtrail proponent – believe that Native Americans were derived from the deported Israelites. The angel Moroni discovered them in 421 CE. LDS also believe good Mormons get their own planet and wear magic underwear, so factor that into your personal assessment of this theory.
Others claim the Japanese and other peoples in Africa and Asia are the lost Israelites. But chances are they are wrong.
The ancient peoples of Judah and Israel are less likely to be the offspring of a legendary Bible patriarch and more likely to be a key component of the Hebrew origin myth. These geographic regions were historically parts of Canaan, and the individual tribes were players in the assimilation process that followed the Late Bronze Age Collapse (LBAC) around 1100 BCE.
The umbrella tribe of Judah (Judah, Benjamin and Simeon plus left over Levites) hung on in the south until the Babylonians had enough of them. In 586 BCE King Nebuchadnezzar sent the elites of the three tribes into exile six hundred miles away into far eastern Iraq: Babylon.
Upon their return, this region of the southeastern Mediterranean coast became the Persian / Greek / Roman province of Judea.
Others claim the Japanese and other peoples in Africa and Asia are the lost Israelites…But chances are they are wrong.
NOTES:
- Which means Rachel would have been pushing thirty at that point, a matronly age in that era. Jacob, on the other hand, was about 77. Both Leah and Rachel were his first cousins, of the same generation. Make of that what you will.
- For reference, these tales are set about four centuries before the Exodus narrative. At this point, Egypt was apparently an OK place.
- Rembrandt did not do the math when he painted this portrait.
- Shew Bread: or bread of the faces. Refers to cakes or loaves of bread that were always to be placed on a special holy table in the Temple. The strong implication is that they were there in case YHWH came by and needed a snack, but most people don’t put it that way.
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