From: naturman@uctvax.uct.ac.za
Newsgroups: soc.culture.jewish
Subject: Re: Thirteen tribes :)
Date: 26 Jan 93 14:16:13 +0200
Keywords: qwerty
Organization: University of Cape Town

In article <1993Jan21.194510.16375@cbnewsl.cb.att.com>, sethr@cbnewsl.cb.att.com (seth.r.rosenthal) writes:
> In article <105949@netnews.upenn.edu>, rubinoff@linc.cis.upenn.edu (Robert Rubinoff) writes:
>> In article <1993Jan21.143431.203485@uctvax.uct.ac.za> naturman@uctvax.uct.ac.za writes:
>> >There were thirteen Israelite tribes not twelve:
>> >We all know that Judah and Benjamin were not exiled by the Assyrians, and if you
>> >check up you'll see that neither was Simeon. Also the Levites and Kohanim were
>> >not lost. This leaves only 9 "lost" tribes. :)
>> 
>> That's absolutely right.  Which just goes to show that people don't know how
>> to count.
>> 
>>    Robert
>> 
> 
> Actually, IMO, the 10 Tribes thing was a neat backdoor
> for people who wanted to claim they were really Jews,
> to say "we are the real Jews because we are descended
> from the 10 Lost Tribes".  This claim goes from the
> Black Hebrews (not the Ethiopian Jews btw) to the
> lunatic fringes of various European Christian groups.
> Hard to see how North Europeans and Southern Africans
> are related.  By now, most of the descendants of the
> 10 Tribes are probably Moslems, living in parts of Iran,
> Afghanistan, Pakistan, ...  except for the Jews
> from the same regions who are probably at least partly
> Israelite.
> 
> 
> 		Seth Rosenthal
> 
> 

Actually there were no physically lost tribes either in the sense of not
knowing where they are or in the sense of extinction or assimilation. The
term "lost tribes" in the Tanach refers to the northern tribes who were exiled 
by the Assyrians. This process of exiling consisted of the forced removal and 
relocation of the "elite" or upper class. The Assyrians left peasants,
fishermen and even artisans alone so that new nobles exiled from somewhere else 
could be brought in and the economy would still be working. 

In c. 733 Tiglath Pilessar (spelling?) incorporated the regions of Dan,
Naphtali, Issacher, Zebulun, Asher, Gad, Reuben and East Menasseh into the
Assyrian empire and exiled the upper classes and the Levites among them to
Media and the Paddan-Aram region. In c. 721, another guy (can't remember who)
incorporated West Menasseh and Ephraim in the Assyrian Empire and exiled the
nobles and Levites among them to the same regions as the previous lot. 

Of the members of the northern tribes who remained, many families knew which
tribe they belonged to well into Roman times. However, from the time of Ezra
they were not officially recognized as belonging to these tribes since they did
not have lists of ancestors going back to people known to belong to these
tribes in official records. Even some people who returned from the Babylonian
exile were from the Northern tribes. Chronicles mentions members of Ephraim and
Menasseh returning. People who did not have proof of which tribe they came from
ended up being called simply Yehudim since the land as a whole was now called 
Yehuda.  Those members of Ephariam and Menasseh who intermarried with the
people exiled to Israel by the Assyrians became the Samaritans.

The Simeonites also ended up being considered "Yehudim" and eventually so did
the Benjaminites. (In fact Simeonite land was always considered part of Judah.)

Of the nobles who were deported but didn't return, the evidence shows that they
continued living in the Paddan-Aram and Media region and spread into Persia and 
the Caucasus. During the Persian period they too became known as Yehudim.
(There is no evidence that there was any significant intermarriage with
non-Jews, despite the popular conjecture that they all assimilated into the
pagans.) These communities were still around when Jews from Babylonia and
Israel arrived in these areas during the Roman period. Jews in Georgia and
Azerbaijan still claim that they are more descended from the northern tribes
than the tribes of Judah and Benjamin.

So modern Jews are a good mix of all the tribes.


As for the number 10. The two most likely possibilities are that the Levites
among the northern tribes are being counted as "lost" or Menasseh should be
split into East and West Menasseh. (Or perhaps even Simeon was counted as lost
since they spent most of their history twiddling their thumbs way down to the
south.)

Colin