The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel

Andrew Tobolowsky is Assistant Professor of Religious Studies at the College of William and Mary. An acknowledged expert on the tradition and on Israelite history, he is the author of The Sons of Jacob and the Sons of Herakles (2017),and numerous articles on the history of the twelve tribes of Israel tradition and the value of thinking through cross-cultural comparisons.

"His father's stolen blessing in hand, the young Jacob, not yet a patriarch, lights out for the territories. His flight rewinds history, retracing the thread of family destiny back to Harran, where once his grandfather Abraham heard the voice of a new god speaking: lech lecha, take yourself and go. This time, it is the voice of his mother Rebekah that Jacob heard, telling him "look, Esau your brother is consoling himself by plotting to kill you" (Gen. 27:42). He chooses the better part of valor and his life not only begins, but, happily for him, continues. In Harran, in the home of his uncle Laban, Jacob will marry, not once but twice, and become the father of thirteen children-one daughter, and twelve sons (Gen. 29-30). After fourteen years, Jacob and his family return to Canaan, and near the end of his life, travel from Canaan to Egypt (Gen. 46). In Egypt, in the fullness of time, the descendants of Jacob's twelve sons become the twelve tribes of Israel, a populous and powerful nation. From the book of Exodus on, the myth of the twelve tribes of Israel is the beating heart of the story the Bible tells. It is the tribes that Moses leads out of Egypt, into the wilderness"--

1. Judah's Israels: The twelve tribes of Israel in the Hebrew Bible; 2. The tribes that were not lost: The Samaritans; 3. Across the River Sambatyon: The lost tribes of Israel in medieval legends; 4. Becoming Israel in America: The Mormons and the new Jerusalem; 5. A lost tribe returns: The beta Israel in Ethiopia and Israel.