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Israelite

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Tribes of Israel
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"The Twelve Tribes" redirects here. For , see .
For the song by Desmond Dekker see Israelites (song).
An Israelite is a member of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, descended from the twelve sons of the Biblical patriarch Jacob who was renamed Israel by God in the book of Genesis, 32:28. The Israelites were a group of Hebrews, as described in the Hebrew Bible. There are modern historical debates about the origins of the Hebrews/Israelites.

The English word Israelite derives from ישראל ("Upright (with) God", Standard Hebrew Yisraʾel, Tiberian Hebrew Yiśrāʾēl); see the article Israel for details on the word's definition.

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Contents

Israelites in Biblical times

According to the Hebrew Bible, the Israelites were the descendants of the children of Jacob, later known as Israel. His twelve male children were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Gad, Naphtali, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin. Twelve tribes of Israel are listed in the Tanakh (Hebrew Bible, Old Testament).

1759 map of the tribal allotments of Israel
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1759 map of the tribal allotments of Israel

The Northern Kingdom of Israel and the Ten Lost Tribes

According to the Hebrew Bible, after the civil war in the time of Solomon's son Rehoboam, ten tribes split off the United Monarchy to create the northern kingdom of Israel.

These were the nine landed tribes Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, Dan, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben and Gad, and some of Levi which had no land allocation. The Bible makes no reference at this point to the tribe of Simeon, and we might conjecture the author had in mind that that tribe had already disappeared due to the curse of Jacob.

Judah, the southern kingdom, had Jerusalem as its capital and was led by King Rehoboam. It was populated by the tribes of Judah and Benjamin (and also some of Levi and remnants of Simeon).

In 722 BCE the Assyrians under Shalmaneser V and then under Sargon II conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel, destroyed its capital Samaria and sent the Israelites into exile and captivity in Khorason, now part of eastern Iran and western Afghanistan. The Ten Lost Tribes are those who were deported. In Jewish popular culture, the ten tribes disappeared from history, leaving only the tribes of Benjamin and Judah and the Levi who evolved into the modern day Jews. See also Bnai Israel.

Babylonian captivity

In 586 BCE the nation of Judah was conquered by Babylon. About 50 years later, in 539 BCE, the Persians (who had recently conquered Babylon) allowed Jews to return to Jerusalem and rebuild the Temple. By the end of this era, members of the tribes seem to have abandoned their individual identities in favor of a common one.

Jews as Israelites

Whatever the historical origin of the Israelite tribes, each tribe had a distinct identity inherited from one's father as recently as 722 BCE, when the Assyrians conquered the northern Kingdom of Israel and sent its populace into exile. Individual tribes intermarried extensively throughout history. Many Israelites from the northern kingdom fled to the Southern Kingdom of Judah. At this point in time the tribes living in the Kingdom of Judah melded into a single people from all the Israelite tribes. In 586 BCE the nation of Judah was conquered by Babylon. About 50 years later, in 539 BCE the Persians (who conquered Babylon) allowed Jews to move back to Jerusalem. By the end of this era, members of the tribes seem to have abandoned their individual identities.

Jewish religious texts from the first century BCE to the present time consistently refer to Jews as "Yisrael", or "Israelites", rather than "Yehudi", the more specific Hebrew term for "Jew". This usage was adopted in secular Jewish writing of Hungary in the 1920s and 1930s; Stephen Roth writes, "The word 'Israelite' denoted only religious affiliation and was free from the ethnic or national conotation attached to the word 'Jew', which Jews in Hungary therefore regarded almost as a derogatory term."Roth, 1992, 132

Today's Jews are mostly descended from the Hebrews of the Kingdom of Judah, as well as those who joined them via religious conversion to Judaism and married with the descendants of the Judaic Hebrews.

\"Israelite\" traditions outside mainstream Judaism

Some modern religions maintain that its followers are "Israelites" or "Jews" although the meaning of these claims differs widely.

Some outside traditional practice of the Law of Moses believe themselves to be the modern descendants of the Israelites. Such groups include the Latter-day Saints, adherents of British Israelism, the Two House Movement, and even some anti-semitic groups, denying the Jewish people their ancestry. See also supersessionism.

Samaritans

Samaritans are a very small ethnic group (not more than about 700 persons) and religious sect living in the State of Israel and the West Bank with many beliefs in common with Judaism. They accept the canonization of the five books of the Torah and the Book of Joshua (but no other books), and that the only prophet is Moses. They also preserve their own unique form of Hebrew, and regard themselves as the descendants of Aphrime (Ephraim) and Manatch (Manasseh). Many regard them as a sect of Judaism, but they regard themselves as distinct from Jews, and do not refer to themselves as Jews.

Messianic Judaism

Messianic Judaism has many sects, some of which accept the core doctrines of Christianity (doctrines disputed within Christianity itself) and some which do not or in degrees. Adherence to the precepts of the Torah, the foundation of Judaism, is also variable depending on the group. It is frequently spear-headed by Ethnic Jews, but many non-Jews are flocking to their synagogues or meeting places, especially those embracing the Two House Movement. Many of its non-Jewish converts believe they have been "grafted in" to the tribes of Israel, thus, believing they are "Jewish" and/or "Israelite", in a similar way Caleb and Ruth (great grandmother of King David), both non-Jews, joined themselves to ancient Israel.

The Southern Baptist Convention and the Assemblies of God movement actively participate in establishing Messianic congregations as part of their efforts to evangelize the Jewish people.

Karaite Judaism

Karaite Judaism, relies on the Tanakh as the sole scripture and rejects the Oral Law (the Mishnah and the Talmuds). It does not require its adherents to wear Tefillin in any form, wear Tzitzit, etc. There are approximately 50,000 adherents of Karaite Judaism, most of whom reside in Israel. However, exact numbers are not known, as most Karaites have not participated in any religious censuses. Like the Samaritans, the division goes back many hundreds of years.

Latter-day Saints

The Latter Day Saint movement (Mormons) consists of a group of religious denominations derived from that started by Joseph Smith, Jr., of which the largest by far is the LDS Church of nearly 12 million members. Almost half of all Latter-day Saints — those in the LDS Church — live in the United States, and the rest are scattered in countries on every continent all over the world. They believe that through baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, they become "regathered" Israelites, either as recovered from the scattered seed of Israel, or as Gentiles adopted and grafted into Israel, and thus becoming part of the chosen people of God. LDS Israelite belief is not strictly ethnic, and as such, Latter-day Saints do not consider themselves to be Jews, but rather as "Israelites" of many different cultures occasionally including Jews. They believe that the House of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) takes a prominent role in the spread of the gospel to all of scattered Israel in the last days as a fulfillment of many Old Testament prophecies, and that the House of Judah has a prominent role in the last days and during the Millennium. (Isaiah 2:2-4, Isaiah 11:10-13) (For more details, see Mormonism and Judaism and this [guide to LDS scriptural references on Israel].)

"Gentile" is sometimes used informally by Mormons to refer to non-Mormons.

Rastafarians

Rastafarians believe that the black races are the true Children of Israel, or Israelites, as they like to call themselves. Using the Bible they also conclude that Haile Selassie of Ethiopia is the returned messiah who will lead the world's peoples of African descent into a promised land of full emancipation and divine justice.

One Rasta sect, called the Twelve Tribes of Israel, imposes an metaphysical system whereby Aries is Reuben, Aquarius is Joseph, etc. With his famous early reggae song The Israelites Desmond Dekker immortalised the Rastafarian concept of themselves as the Children of Israel.

Anti-Semitic Groups

A number of anti-semitic groups claim to be the only "true Israelites". Such groups generally do not recognize the validity of Jews or any other group that claims Israelite descent. Mainstream historians, as well as religious and secular authorities, dismiss such claims since these groups are openly hostile to Jews and Judaism in their attempts to supersede them. See British-Israel-World Federation.

See also

References

  • Roth, Stephen, "Memories of Hungary", in Riff, Michael, The Face of Survival: Jewish Life in Eastern Europe Past and Present. Valentine Mithcell, London, 1992, 125-141, ISBN 0853032203.

External links

  • [[Wikisource:Bible, English, King James, Documentary Hypothesis, Priestly source, Census|The Israelite census, of the book of numbers, in isolation, at wikisource]]

 

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