The
Lost Tribes of Israel
Brief History of Tribes
From
1000 BC to today
Israel becomes defined as a kingdom
In the line to King David
there was Rahab the Canaanite and Ruth the Moabite. David's wife, Bathsheba,
was the wife of a Hittite, and their son, Solomon, had wives from other
nations round about Israel. Over time it became clear that those who
joined Israel were also to be accounted as Israel, so eventually Israel
ceased being exclusively the physical descendants of Jacob.
These undescended Israelites were religious and political prosylites,
but they became an equal partner with the physically descended Israelites.
Under the great King David (of the tribe of Judah) the tribes were unified,
and it was David who was able to totally subject all the previous occupants
to Israel's rule. This Israel became defined as a kingdom. Up to that
point, all twelve tribes of Israel (plus the priestly tribe of Levi)
had been united under the monarchies of Saul, David, and Solomon.
Israel divides into
two kingdoms
Around 926 B.C after King Solomon died the Kingdom of Israel split in
two divided by political and religious differences into two kingdoms.
But when Solomon's son Rehoboam ascended to the throne, the ten Northern
tribes rebelled and seceded from the union and formed the northern kingdom,
which retained the title of Israel. They were ruled by a succession
of monarchies. The northern Kingdom of Israel was also called Ephraim,
because the tribe of Joshua was the largest and most powerful tribe
of the northern kingdom. Ephraim was known for excellence in battle,
but it also was jealous of the primary role of Judah as the ruling tribe.
Judah and Benjamin, (plus much of Levi) in the south remained loyal
to the Davidic house, under the control of the king in Jerusalem and
became known as Judah the most prominent tribe, but it included Benjamin
and much of Levi. The coalition was natural between them, because Jerusalem,
the capitol, was in Benjamin's land, and Judah had the ordained line
of kings that ruled there, and Levi was assigned to attend to the Holy
Temple that was built there.
From that time on, the tribes were divided into two nations, which came
to be called the House of Israel (the Northern ten tribes) and the House
of Judah (the Southern two tribes).
The two kingdoms of Ephraim-Israel and Judah-Israel lived in disharmony
for most of the next 200 years until around 723 B.C the northern tribes
of Israel (Ephraim) were carried off by conquering Assyria.
To keep conquered nations in subjection, it was Assyrian policy to break
them up by deporting their native populations to other areas and resettling
the land with newcomers.
"In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria captured Samaria
and he carried them away to Assyria and placed them in Halah, and on
the Habor, the river of Gozan, and in the cities of Medes."
The northern ten
tribes disappear
In the years 722-721 BC, the Ten Tribes who comprised the northern Kingdom
of Israel disappeared as they were deported to other areas. Conquered
by the Assyrian King Shalmaneser V, they were exiled to upper Mesopotamia
and Medes, today modern Syria and Iraq. They were replaced by settlers
from locations in or near Babylon and Syria.
These settlers intermarried, together with the remaining Israelites,
and became the Samaritans mentioned in the New Testament (a few hundred
of whom still survive today.) The Israelites who had been deported also
intermarried with the peoples of the places where they had been resettled.
They eventually lost their distinct identity, disappeared, and their
culture was lost to history. Some refer to them as "the lost tribes
of Israel." Historians trace the remnants of these ten tribes of
the Northern Kingdom as concentrated in the European nations and British
Isles and Kashmir. Some scholars have traced these two half tribes of
Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, to having reincarnated in the British
Isles, the United States and English speaking countries.
Southern Tribes form
into Jewish nation
A hundred years later, most of Judah also was carried off to Babylon
and began to be called "Jews" there. During this time they
grew in prominence and many other peoples became Jews with them. Seventy
years later Judah returned to the land of Israel to reform their kingdom,
but it was only as a political protectorate under various world empires.
Since the captivity no descendant of David has ruled as king.
In 168 B.C.(E.) Hasmonaen Jews, called Macabbees, overthrew the Greeks
and their descendants ruled the land until Rome took complete control
in about 45 B.C.(E.). They put the Edomite Herod (called the "great")
on the throne. By the time of Yeshua, Israel was split by Rome into
political regions known as Judah, Samaria and Galilee. After this, in
the year 70, the Temple was destroyed and wars with Rome ensued until
about the year 120, when Emporer Hadrian totally destroyed Jerusalem
and dispursed all the Jews from the land of Israel. He gave the land
of Israel the name Palestine, named after the Philistines who were ancient
antagonists of Israel.
For the 2000 years since then a few Jewish people were able to remain
in the land, but it was not under Jewish control again until 1948, when
the Jewish State of Israel was born.
The tribes of Judah and Benjamin and some Levites make up the "people
of Judah," who also reincarnated in Europe and America. Both peoples
eventually migrated and reincarnated throughout the world. Generally,
the ten lost tribes reincarnated among the Gentiles, while the tribes
of Judah and Benjamin are the modern-day Jews.
In the Tree of Life Page Directory
Copyright
© 2007 Shangra-la Mission, Inc |