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97-639: The Ten Lost Tribes were those from the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE. They were the following: Reuben , Simeon , Dan , Naphtali , Gad , Asher , Issachar , Zebulun , Manasseh , and Ephraim —all but Judah and Benjamin , both of which were based in the neighbouring Kingdom of Judah and therefore survived until

194-713: A 14th-century treatise, the " Kebre Negest ", assert descent from a retinue of Israelites who returned with the Queen of Sheba from her visit to King Solomon in Jerusalem , by whom she had conceived the Solomonic dynasty's founder, Menelik I . Both Christian and Jewish Ethiopian tradition has it that these immigrants were mostly of the Tribes of Dan and Judah; hence the Ge'ez motto Mo`a 'Anbessa Ze'imnegede Yihuda ("The Lion of

291-470: A 17th-century French physician and Sir Francis Younghusband , who explored this region in the 1800s, commented on the similar physiognomy between Kashmiris and Jews, including "fair skin, prominent noses," and similar head shapes. Baikunth Nath Sharga argues that, despite the etymological similarities between Kashmiri and Jewish surnames, the Kashmiri Pandits are of Indo-Aryan descent while

388-528: A connection, but definitive scientific proof has never been found. Some leading Israeli anthropologists believe that, of all the many groups in the world which claim to have a connection to the 10 lost tribes, the Pashtuns, or Pathans, have the most compelling case." Some traditions of the Assyrian Jews claim that Israelites of the tribe of Benjamin first arrived in the area of modern Kurdistan after

485-585: A half; and that country is called Arzareth . Then they dwelt there until the last times; and now, when they are about to come again, the Most High will stop the channels of the river again, so that they may be able to pass over. In Second Baruch , also called the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, 77:17–78:4: But, as you asked me, I will write a letter to your brothers in Babylon, and I will send it by

582-759: A knowledge of Jesus Christ, receiving the ordinances of salvation and keeping the associated covenants, they become 'the children of the covenant' ( 3 Nephi 20:26)." The church also teaches that "The power and authority to direct the work of gathering the house of Israel was given to Joseph Smith by the prophet Moses, who appeared in 1836 in the Kirtland Temple. ... The Israelites are to be gathered spiritually first and then physically. They are gathered spiritually as they join The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and make and keep sacred covenants. ... The physical gathering of Israel means that

679-488: A messianic view that Israel's tribes will return. According to contemporary research, Transjordan and Galilee did witness large-scale deportations, and entire tribes were lost. Historians have generally concluded that the deported tribes assimilated into their new local populations. In Samaria , on the other hand, many Israelites survived the Assyrian onslaught and remained in the land, eventually coming to be known as

776-463: A more distant region, where mankind had never lived, that there at least they might keep their statutes which they had not kept in their own land. And they went in by the narrow passages of the Euphrates river. For at that time the Most High performed signs for them, and stopped the channels of the river until they had passed over. Through that region there was a long way to go, a journey of a year and

873-594: A predominantly Sunni Muslim Iranic people, native to southern Afghanistan and northwestern Pakistan , who adhere to an indigenous and pre-Islamic religious code of honor and culture, Pashtunwali . The belief that the Pashtuns are descended from the lost tribes of Israel has never been substantiated by concrete historical evidence. Many members of the Taliban hail from the Pashtun tribes and they do not necessarily disclaim their alleged Israelite descent. In Pashto ,

970-463: A united Kingdom of Israel ever existed is also a matter of ongoing dispute. Living in exile in the sixth century BC, 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. According to Joshua 13–19 , the Land of Israel was divided into twelve sections corresponding to the twelve tribes of Israel. However,

1067-459: A vision] gather to himself another multitude that was peaceable, these are the ten tribes which were led away from their own land into captivity in the days of King Hoshea, whom Shalmaneser, the king of the Assyrians, led captive; he took them across the river, and they were taken to another land. But they formed this plan for themselves, that they would leave the multitude of the nations and go to

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1164-509: A wall of fire and smoke that is impossible to pass through." To varying degrees, Apocryphal accounts concerning the Lost Tribes, based on biblical accounts, have been produced by Jews and Christians since at least the 17th century. An increased currency of tales relating to lost tribes that occurred in the 17th century was due to the confluence of several factors. According to Tudor Parfitt : As Michael Pollack shows, Menasseh's argument

1261-473: Is a vital feature of colonial discourse throughout the long period of European overseas empires, from the beginning of the fifteenth century, until the later half of the twentieth". Along with Prester John , they formed an imaginary guide for exploration and contact with uncontacted and indigenous peoples in the Age of Discovery and colonialism . However, during his other research projects, Parfitt discovered

1358-472: Is assumed that the majority of people who survived the Assyrian invasions remained in the area. According to researchers, the Samaritan community of today, which claims to be descended from Ephraim, Manasseh, Levi , and, up until 1968, also Benjamin , does in fact predominantly derive from the tribes that continued to live in the region. It has been proposed that some Israelites joined the southern tribes in

1455-712: Is called Arzareth" ... The book of the "Vision of Ezra", or Esdras, was written in Hebrew or Aramaic by a Jew in Israel sometime before the end of the first century CE, shortly after the destruction of the temple by the Romans [in 70 CE]. It is one of a group of texts later designated as the so-called Apocrypha —pseudoepigraphal books – attached to but not included in the Hebrew biblical canon. In Second [also called Fourth] Esdras , 13:39–47: And as for your seeing him [a man seen in

1552-421: Is said: "He sent them to another land as it is this day" ( Deuteronomy 29:27 ), just as the day departs and does not return, similarly they depart and do not return – according to Rabbi Akiva . Rabbi Eliezer says: "as it is this day" – just as this day grows dark and then bright again, so too the ten tribes who have been darkened will eventually be brightened [i.e. they will return]. ... Rabbi Shimon ben Yehuda of

1649-405: Is similar to that of the shift of Afghan Jews , Persian Jews , Bene Israel , and Bnei Menashe . The community has been visited over the years by rabbis from the chief rabbinate in Israel to study their Jewish tradition and practices . They have sought recognition from many rabbis around the world, and they always practiced their own oral traditions and customs ( caviloth ), such as: burying

1746-434: 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

1843-681: The Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. Alongside Judah and Benjamin was part of the Tribe of Levi , which was not allowed land tenure, but received dedicated cities . The exile of Israel's population, known as the Assyrian captivity , occurred in line with long-standing Assyrian deportation policy , which was practiced in many subjugated territories. The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that "there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to

1940-652: The Book of Mormon one of the main tools for the spiritual gathering of Israel. Some scholars suggest that while deportations took place both before and after the destruction of Israel (722–720 BCE), they were less significant than a cursory reading of the Bible's account of them indicates. During the earlier Assyrian invasions, the Transjordan and the Galilee did witness large-scale deportations, and entire tribes were lost;

2037-781: The Israelite tribes (the Jebusites still held Jerusalem ), Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Judah's portion is described in Joshua 15 as encompassing all the Southern Land of Israel , specially the Negev , the Wilderness of Zin and Jerusalem. However, the consensus of modern scholars is that this conquest never occurred. Other scholars point to extra-biblical references to Israel and Canaan as evidence for

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2134-732: The Kingdom of Judah , however, this theory is debated. The Israelites who were deported are thought to have assimilated with the local populace. For instance, the New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia states: "In historic fact, some members of the Ten Tribes remained in the land of Israel, where apart from the Samaritans some of their descendants long preserved their identity among the Jewish population, others were assimilated, while others were presumably absorbed by

2231-535: The Levites and Kohanim were preserved, but Jerusalem became the sole place of worship and sacrifice among the returning exiles, northerners and southerners alike. According to the biblical account, at its height, the tribe of Judah was the leading tribe of the Kingdom of Judah, and occupied most of the territory of the kingdom, except for a small region in the northeast occupied by Benjamin , and an enclave towards

2328-489: The Neo-Assyrian Empire 's conquest of the Kingdom of Israel during the 8th century BCE; they were subsequently relocated to the Assyrian capital. During the first century BCE, the Assyrian royal house of Adiabene —which, according to the Jewish historian Flavius Josephus , was ethnically Assyrian and whose capital was Erbil ( Aramaic : Arbala ; Kurdish : Hewlêr )—was converted to Judaism. King Monobazes, his queen Helena, and his son and successor Izates are recorded as

2425-464: 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,

2522-579: The Romans , while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers." In the 7th and 8th centuries CE, the return of the Ten Lost Tribes was associated with the concept of the coming of the Hebrew Messiah . Claims of descent from the "lost tribes" have been proposed in relation to many groups, and some Abrahamic religions espouse

2619-481: The Samaritan people . However, this has not stopped various religions from asserting that some survived as distinct entities. Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, a professor of Middle Eastern history at New York University , states: "The fascination with the tribes has generated, alongside ostensibly nonfictional scholarly studies, a massive body of fictional literature and folktale." Anthropologist Shalva Weil has documented various differing tribes and peoples claiming affiliation to

2716-652: The Second Temple and they keep till this day still the Jewish Religion ;..." In 1655, he petitioned Oliver Cromwell to allow Jews to be readmitted to England following their expulsion in 1290. It can be argued that Cromwell stopped enforcing the ban on Jewish immigrants because he believed the English to be one of the ten lost tribes. According to the Book of Mormon , two families of Nephites escaped from Israel circa 600 BC shortly before

2813-554: 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

2910-575: The Tribe of Levi ) 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 arms are Western European coats of arms given retrospectively to persons real or fictitious who died before

3007-690: The sacking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar , constructed a ship, sailed across the ocean, and arrived in the Americas in the Pre-Columbian era . These Nephites are among the ancestors of Native American tribes and possibly also the Polynesians . Adherents believe the two founding tribes were called Nephites and Lamanites , that the Nephites obeyed the Law of Moses , practiced Christianity, and that

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3104-401: The "united monarchy" are exaggerated, and a minority believe that the "united monarchy" never existed at all. Disagreeing with the latter view, Old Testament scholar Walter Dietrich contends that the biblical stories of circa 10th-century BCE monarchs contain a significant historical kernel and are not simply late fictions. On the accession of Rehoboam , Solomon 's son, in c. 930 BCE,

3201-555: The 7th century to the early 20th century, but has essentially disappeared from the region due to emigration to Israel since the 1950s. According to the Encyclopaedia of Islam , the theory of Pashtun descent from Israelites can be traced to Makhzan-e-Afghani , a history book which was compiled for Khan-e-Jehan Lodhi in the reign of the Mughal Emperor Jehangir in the 17th century. The Pashtuns are

3298-579: The Assyrians—in particular, members of Dan, Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, and Zebulun—and how members of the latter three returned to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem at that time. According to historian Zvi Ben-Dor Benite: Centuries after their disappearance, the ten lost tribes sent an indirect but vital sign ... In 2 Esdras , we read about the ten tribes and "their long journey through that region, which

3395-412: 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

3492-638: The Book of Judges is a reliable historical account. The Book of Samuel describes God's repudiation of a monarchic line arising from the Southern Tribe of Benjamin due to the sinfulness of King Saul , which was then bestowed onto the tribe of Judah for all time in the person of King David . In Samuel's account, after the death of Saul, all the tribes other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul, while Judah chose David as its king. However, after

3589-432: The Church actively preached the gathering of people from the twelve tribes. "Today Israelites are found in all countries of the world. Many of these people do not know that they are descended from the ancient house of Israel," the church teaches in its basic Gospel Principles manual. "The Lord promised that His covenant people would someday be gathered .... God gathers His children through missionary work. As people come to

3686-603: 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 ". Recent studies of genetic markers within Jewish populations strongly suggest that modern Ashkenazi Levites ( Jewish males who claim patrilineal descent from

3783-449: The House of David. These tribes formed the Kingdom of Judah , which existed until Judah was conquered by Babylon in c. 586 BCE and the population was deported. When the Jews returned from Babylonian exile , residual tribal affiliations were abandoned, probably because of the impossibility of reestablishing previous tribal land holdings. However, the special religious roles decreed for

3880-533: 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. Biblical scholar Arthur Peake saw the tribes originating as postdiction , as eponymous metaphor giving an aetiology of the connectedness of

3977-517: The Jerusalem-based anthropologist Shalva Weil , who was quoted in the popular press as stating that the " Taliban may be descended from Jews". The traditions surrounding the Pashtuns being the remote descendants of the "Lost Tribes of Israel" are to be distinguished from the historical existence of the Jewish community in eastern Afghanistan or northwest Pakistan which flourished from about

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4074-450: The Jews are of Semitic descent . The Bene Ephraim, also called Telugu Jews, claim descent from the tribe of Ephraim. Since the 1980s, they have learned to practice modern Judaism. They say that they traveled from Israel through western Asia: Persia, Afghanistan, Tibet and into China for 1,600 years before arriving in southern India more than 1,000 years ago. They hold a history which they say

4171-543: The Lamanites were rebellious. The Book of Mormon claims that the Nephites and Lamanites were who Jesus Christ was referring to when he taught, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd. Eventually the Lamanites wiped out the Nephites around 400 CE, and they are among the ancestors of Native Americans. The Book of Mormon claims that other groups of Israelites, besides

4268-835: The Land of Israel, occupying its Southern part. Jesse and his sons, including King David , belonged to this tribe. The Tribe of Judah played a central role in the Deuteronomistic history , which encompasses the books of Deuteronomy through II Kings . After the death of King Solomon , the Tribe of Judah, along with the Tribe of Benjamin , the Tribe of Dan and the Levites formed the Southern Kingdom of Judah , with Jerusalem as its capital. The kingdom lasted until its conquest by Babylon in c. 586 BCE. The tribe's symbol

4365-609: The Lost Tribes in the New World. An English translation was published in London in 1650. In it, Menasseh argued that the native inhabitants of America which were encountered at the time of the European discovery were actually the descendants of the [lost] Ten Tribes of Israel and for the first time, he tried to gain support for the theory from European thinkers and publishers. Menasseh noted how important Montezinos' account was, for

4462-622: The Middle East. During his later genetic studies of the Bene Israel of India , the origins of whom were obscure, he also concluded that they were predominantly descended from males from the Middle East, a conclusion which was largely consistent with their oral histories of their origin. These findings subsequently led other Judaising groups, including the Gogodala tribe of Papua New Guinea , to seek help in determining their own origins. Expanded exploration and study of groups throughout

4559-459: The Nephites, were led away by God from the time of the Exodus through the reign of King Zedekiah, and that Jesus Christ also visited them after His resurrection. Latter-Day Saints believe the ancient accounts of Quetzalcoatl and Shangdi , among others, support this doctrine. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) believes in the literal gathering of Israel , and as of 2006

4656-576: The Scriptures do not tell what people first inhabited those Countries; neither was there mention of them by any, til Christop. Columbus , Americus, Vespacius [sic], Ferdinandus, Cortez [sic], the Marquesse Del Valle [sic] , and Franciscus Pizarrus [sic] went thither ... He wrote on 23 December 1649: "I think that the Ten Tribes live not only there ... but also in other lands scattered everywhere; these never did come back to

4753-753: The Second Coming of the Savior and on into the Millennium (see Joseph Smith—Matthew 1:37)." One of their main Articles of Faith , which was written by Joseph Smith, is as follows: "We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that

4850-411: The Ten Lost Tribes throughout the world. The scriptural basis for the idea of lost tribes is 2 Kings 17:6 : "In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away unto Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes." According to the Bible, the Kingdom of Israel and Kingdom of Judah were the successor states to

4947-458: The Ten Northern Tribes of Israel under the leadership of Jeroboam from the Tribe of Ephraim split from the House of David to create the Northern Kingdom in Samaria . The Book of Kings is uncompromising in its low opinion of its larger and richer neighbor to the north and understands its conquest by Assyria in 722 BCE as divine retribution for the Kingdom's return to idolatry. The Tribes of Judah, Southern Dan and Benjamin remained loyal to

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5044-406: The ancient civilizations which were involved in the construction of the mounds were linked to the Lost Tribes. The discoverers of the mounds tried to fit the new information which they acquired as the result of their archaeological findings into a biblical construct. However, the earthworks across North America have been conclusively linked to various Native groups, and today, archaeologists consider

5141-414: The area during the two deportation periods under Tiglath-Pileser III , Shalmaneser V , and Sargon II . Many also fled south to Jerusalem, which appears to have expanded in size fivefold during this period, requiring a new wall to be built, and a new source of water ( Siloam ) to be provided by King Hezekiah . Furthermore, 2 Chronicles 30:1–11 explicitly mentions northern Israelites who had been spared by

5238-634: The chief rabbi of Israel ruled that the Bnei Menashe are descended from a lost tribe. Based on the ruling, Bnei Menashe are allowed to immigrate to Israel after they formally convert to Judaism. In 2021, 4,500 Bnei Menashe had made aliyah to Israel; 6,000 Bnei Menashe in India hope to make aliyah. According to Al-Biruni , the famous 11th-century Persian Muslim scholar: "In former times the inhabitants of Kashmir used to allow one or two foreigners to enter their country, particularly Jews, but at present they do not allow any Hindus whom they do not know personally to enter, much less other people." François Bernier ,

5335-480: The covenant people will be 'gathered home to the lands of their inheritance, and shall be established in all their lands of promise' (2 Nephi 9:2). The tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh will be gathered in the Americas. The tribe of Judah will return to the city of Jerusalem and the area surrounding it. The ten lost tribes will receive from the tribe of Ephraim their promised blessings (see D&C 133:26–34). ... The physical gathering of Israel will not be complete until

5432-527: The dead; marrying under a chuppah ; observing Shabbat and other Jewish festivals, and maintaining a beit din . However, they adopted some aspects of Christianity after the arrival of British Baptist missionaries during the early 19th century although nominally practicing Judaism. Because of the long period in which the people were not practicing Judaism, they did not develop any distinctly identifiable Judæo-Telugu language as other groups did . Twelve Tribes of Israel Jacob, later called Israel,

5529-403: The death of Ish-bosheth , Saul's son and successor to the throne of Israel, all the other Israelite tribes made David, who was then the King of Judah, king of a single Re-United Kingdom of Israel. The Book of Kings follows the expansion and unparalleled glory of the United Monarchy under King Solomon . A majority of scholars believe that the accounts concerning David and Solomon's territory in

5626-419: The destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in 586 BCE. Many more Jews migrated to Babylon in CE 135 after the Bar Kokhba revolt and in the centuries after. The triumph or victory of "the Lion of the Tribe of Judah", who is able to open the scroll and its seven seals , forms part of the vision of the writer of the Book of Revelation in the New Testament. Ethiopia 's traditions, recorded and elaborated in

5723-512: The earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory." (LDS Articles of Faith #10) Regarding the Ezekiel 37 prophecy, the church teaches that the Book of Mormon is the stick of Ephraim (or Joseph) mentioned and that the Bible is the stick of Judah, thus comprising two witnesses for Jesus Christ. The church believes the Book of Mormon to be a collection of records by prophets of the ancient Americas, written on plates of gold and translated by Joseph Smith c. 1830. The church considers

5820-428: 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: 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

5917-507: The first proselytes . The Bene Israel are a community of Jews in the Indian state of Maharashtra, residing particularly in the Konkan region. Since the formation of the State of Israel, thousands of Bene Israelis have made aliyah , although large numbers still remain in India. Since the late 20th century, some tribes in the Indian North-Eastern states of Mizoram and Manipur have been claiming that they are Lost Israelites and they have also been studying Hebrew and Judaism. In 2005,

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6014-411: 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 Bible's depiction of the 'period of the Judges' is widely considered doubtful. The extent to which

6111-400: The good things We have provided you.' And they did not wrong Us, but they used to wrong [only] themselves." 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

6208-409: The hands of men; and I will write also a similar letter to the nine and a half tribes, and send it by means of a bird. And on the twenty-first day of the eighth month, I, Baruch, came and sat down under the oak in the shade of its branches, and no one was with me – I was alone. And I wrote two letters: one I sent by eagle to the nine and a half tribes; and the other I sent to those that were in Babylon by

6305-402: The hands of three men. And I called the eagle and said to it, 'The Most High created you to be the king of all the birds. Go now: stop nowhere on your journey: neither look for any roosting place, not settle on any tree, till you have crossed the broad waters of the river Euphrates, ands come to the people who dwell there, and laid this letter at their feet.' [....] This is the letter that Baruch,

6402-488: 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. 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

6499-444: The king, particularly Hezekiah . After the Assyrians destroyed their cities, survivors fled to Jerusalem and fully assimilated with the inhabitants by 538 BC, when the Babylonian exiles returned to Jerusalem. Many of the Jewish leaders and prophets of the Hebrew Bible claimed membership in the tribe of Judah. For example, the literary prophets Isaiah , Amos , Joel , Micah , Obadiah , Zechariah , and Zephaniah , all belonged to

6596-411: The last Judean exiles who in 597–586 BCE were deported to Assyria ... Unlike the Judeans of the southern Kingdom, who survived a similar fate 135 years later, they soon assimilated ..." The enduring mysteries which surround the disappearance of the tribes later became sources of numerous (largely mythological) narratives in recent centuries, with historian Tudor Parfitt arguing that "this myth

6693-408: The older United Monarchy of Israel . The Kingdom of Israel came into existence c. 930 BCE after the northern tribes of Israel rejected Solomon's son Rehoboam as their king. Ten tribes formed the Kingdom of Israel: the tribes of Reuben , Issachar , Zebulun , Dan , Naphtali , Gad , Asher , Ephraim , Tribe of Simeon and Manasseh . However it is not clear how Simeon, whose territory

6790-402: 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

6887-423: The possible existence of some ethnic links between several older Jewish Diaspora communities in Asia , Africa and the Middle East, especially in those Jewish communities which were established in pre-colonial times. For example, in his Y-DNA studies of males from the Lemba people of Southern Africa , Parfitt found a high proportion of paternal Semitic ancestry, DNA that is common to both Arabs and Jews from

6984-615: The potential historicity of the conquest. In the opening words of the Book of Judges , following the death of Joshua , the Israelites "asked the Lord" which tribe should be first to go to occupy its allotted territory, and the Tribe of Judah was identified as the first tribe. According to the narrative in the Book of Judges, the Tribe of Judah invited the Tribe of Simeon to fight with them in alliance to secure each of their allotted territories. However, many scholars do not believe that

7081-553: The region surrounding the Khabur River . Tiglath-Pilesar also captured the territory of Naphtali and the city of Janoah in Ephraim , and an Assyrian governor was placed over the region of Naphtali . According to 2 Kings 16:9 and 15:29 , the population of Aram and the annexed part of Israel was deported to Assyria. Israel Finkelstein estimated that only a fifth of the population (about 40,000) were actually resettled out of

7178-399: The son of Neriah, sent to the nine and a half tribes, which were across the river Euphrates, in which these things were written. 'Baruch, the son of Neriah, to his brothers in captivity, Mercy and peace to you. I can never forget, my brothers, the love of him who created us, who loved us from the beginning and never hated us, but rather subjected us to discipline. Nor can I forget that all we of

7275-500: The south-west which was occupied by Simeon . Bethlehem and Hebron were initially the main cities within the territory of the tribe. The size of the territory of the tribe of Judah meant that in practice it had four distinct regions: According to the Torah , the Tribe consisted of Descendants of Judah , the fourth son of Jacob and of Leah . Some biblical scholars view this as an etiological myth created in hindsight to explain

7372-594: The southern kingdom being too far away to be involved in the battle, but Israel Finkelstein et al. claim the alternative explanation that the southern kingdom was simply an insignificant rural backwater at the time the poem was written. Professor Aaron Demsky argues that the genealogical record of Shelah and his sons was an allegory of the history of Shelanite clans in Shephelah (i.e. Judean foothills). These clans established cities such as Lecah (or Lachish ) and Mareshah . They also worked as potters and craftsmen for

7469-612: The start of the age of heraldry in the latter half of the 12th century. Attributed arms of the Twelve Tribes from the Portuguese Thesouro de Nobreza , 1675 Tribe of Judah According to the Hebrew Bible , the tribe of Judah ( שֵׁבֶט יְהוּדָה ‎, Shevet Yehudah ) was one of the twelve Tribes of Israel , named after Judah , the son of Jacob . Judah was the first tribe to take its place in

7566-482: The theory of non-Native origin pseudo-scientific . Among the Pashtuns , there is a tradition of being descended from the exiled lost tribes of Israel. This tradition was referenced in 19th century western scholarship and it was also incorporated in the "Lost Tribes" literature which was popular at that time (notably George Moore 's The Lost Tribes of 1861). Recently (2000s), interest in the topic has been revived by

7663-492: The tribal name ' Yusef Zai ' means the "sons of Joseph". A number of genetic studies on Jews refute the possibility of a connection, whereas others maintain a link. In 2010, The Guardian reported that the Israeli government was planning to fund a genetic study to test the veracity of a genetic link between the Pashtuns and the lost tribes of Israel. The article stated that "Historical and anecdotal evidence strongly suggests

7760-533: 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 ." Historian Immanuel Lewy in Commentary mentions "the Biblical habit of representing clans as persons. In

7857-412: The tribe to others in the Israelite confederation. Translator Paul Davidson argued: "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

7954-429: The tribe's name and connect it to the other tribes in the Israelite confederation. With Leah as a matriarch, biblical scholars regard the tribe as having been believed by the text's authors to have been part of the original Israelite confederation. Like the other tribes of the Kingdom of Judah, the Tribe of Judah is entirely absent from the ancient Song of Deborah . Traditionally, this has been explained as being due to

8051-460: The tribe. The genealogies given in Matthew 1:1–6 and Luke 3:23–34 in the New Testament describe Jesus as a Descendant of David, Matthew through Solomon and Luke through Nathan . As part of the Kingdom of Judah, the tribe of Judah survived the destruction of Israel by the Assyrians , and instead was subjected to the Babylonian captivity ; when the captivity ended, the distinction between

8148-502: The tribes of Reuben , Gad , Dan , and Naphtali are never mentioned again. The region of Samaria , on the other hand, was larger and more populous. Two of the region's largest cities, Samaria and Megiddo , were mostly left intact, and the rural communities were generally left alone. Additionally, according to the Book of Chronicles , King Hezekiah of Judah invited the survivors of Ephraim , Zebulun , Asher , Issachar and Manasseh to Jerusalem to celebrate Passover. Therefore, it

8245-483: The tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon fled to Judah during the reign of Asa of Judah (c. 911–870 BCE). In c. 732 BCE, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III sacked Damascus and Israel, annexing Aramea and territory of the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh in Gilead including the desert outposts of Jetur , Naphish , and Nodab . People from these tribes were taken captive and resettled in

8342-495: 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. Thus the tribes receiving an allotment were: The twelve tribes of Israel are referred to in

8439-573: The tribes were lost in favour of a common identity. Since Simeon and Benjamin had been very much the junior partners in the Kingdom of Judah, it was Judah that gave its name to the identity—that of the Jews . After the fall of Jerusalem, Babylonia (modern-day Iraq), would become the focus of Judaism for 1,000 years. The first Jewish communities in Babylonia started with the exile of the tribe of Judah to Babylon by Jehoiachin in 597 BCE as well as after

8536-587: The twelve tribes are united by a common bond, inasmuch as we are descended from a single father. [....]' The story of Anna on the occasion of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple in the New Testament names her as being of the (lost) tribe of Asher (Luke 2:36). The Talmud debates whether or not the ten lost tribes will eventually be reunited with the Tribe of Judah ; that is, with the Jewish people: The ten tribes will not eventually return, as

8633-498: The twelve tribes of Israel. 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

8730-415: The twelve tribes: 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 due to Joseph receiving a double portion after Reuben lost his birth right because of his transgression with Bilhah. In the biblical narrative the period from the conquest of Canaan under the leadership of Joshua until

8827-401: The village of Akko says in the name of Rabbi Shimon: If their deeds remain "as this day" [i.e. they continue to sin], they will not return; otherwise they shall return. An Ashkenazi Jewish legend speaks of these tribes as Die Roite Yiddelech , "the little red Jews ", who were cut off from the rest of Jewry by the legendary river Sambation , "whose foaming waters raise high up into the sky

8924-531: The world through archaeology and the new field of anthropology in the late 19th century led to a revival or a reworking of accounts of the Lost Tribes. For instance, because the construction of the Mississippian culture 's complex earthwork mounds seemed to be beyond the skills of the Native American cultures which European Americans knew about when they discovered them, it was theorized that

9021-487: The worship of Yahweh featured prominently in the Deuteronomistic history , encompassing the books of Deuteronomy through II Kings , which most scholars agree was reduced to written form, although subject to exilic and post-exilic alterations and emendations, during the reign of the Judahite reformer Josiah from 641–609 BCE. According to the account in the Book of Joshua , following a partial conquest of Canaan by

9118-546: Was based on "three separate and seemingly unrelated sources: a verse from the book of Isaiah, Matteo Ricci 's discovery of an old Jewish community in the heart of China and Antonio Montezinos' reported encounter with members of the Lost Tribes in the wilds of South America". In 1649, Menasseh ben Israel published his book, The Hope of Israel , in Spanish and Latin in Amsterdam; it included Antonio de Montezinos ' account of

9215-415: Was the lion, and it was often represented in Jewish art. After the Babylonian captivity , the distinction between the Tribes was largely lost, but the term "Judah" gave rise to the word " Jews " In later traditions, including Christianity and Ethiopian Judaism, the " Lion of the Tribe of Judah " became a messianic symbol. The tribe of Judah, its conquests, and the centrality of its capital in Jerusalem for

9312-418: 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

9409-480: Was within the Judean territory, could ever have been a part of the northern kingdom. Also the territory of Asher was basically Phoenician and Reuben was mostly overlapping with Moabite territory. The tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained loyal to Rehoboam, and formed the Kingdom of Judah. In addition, members of the Tribe of Levi were located in cities in both kingdoms. According to 2 Chronicles 15:9 , members of

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