Israelites

Israelites in Biblical times

In biblical times, Israelites were the descendents of the children of Jacob, later known as Israel. His 12 male children were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Gad, Napthali, Asher, Joseph, and Benjamin. The Israelites were the progenitors of rabbinic Judaism, and today are known as Jews.

Articles on the individual tribes of Israel

Twelve tribes of Israel were noted in the Jewish and Christian Bible:

Tribe of Asher
Tribe of Benjamin
Tribe of Dan
Tribe of Joseph which was taken over by those of his sons:
- Tribe of Ephraim
- Tribe of Manasseh
Tribe of Gad
Tribe of Issachar
Tribe of Judah or Tribe of Yehuda
Tribe of Naphtali
Tribe of Reuben or Tribe of Reuven
Tribe of Simeon or Tribe of Shimon
Tribe of Zebulun or Tribe of Zevulun

A special case:

Tribe of Levi

The lost tribes of Israel

The lost tribes of Israel are the tribes of the northern kingdom of Israel deported by the Assyrians in the 8th century B.C. They are presumed to have mixed with the surrounding population, and are lost to history.

Various unorthodox views exist which continue the history of the lost tribes of Israel beyond this period, placing them variously in England or America. These viewpoints include those of the LDS church and the highly eccentric so-called British Israelism of Herbert W. Armstrong and others. British Israelitism was not originally anti-Semitic, even though its successor ideology today forms the basis of Christian Identity. In some sense, early British Israelites could be regarded as philo-Semitic, and even today, other, similar ideologies are at least neutral.

See below for a discussion of anti-Semitic movements based on "Israelism".

The myth of the ten lost tribes

There is a common belief, among both Jews and Christians, that there are ten lost tribes of Israel, but this isn't quite accurate. To understand the issue, one must first note that there is no tribe of Joseph. Instead, in the Bible we read that Isaac gave a blessing such that their would be an inheritance for Joseph's sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. But note the math:

12 - 1 (Joseph) + 2 (Ephraim and Manasseh) = 13.

The people today known as Jews are descended from those who lived in the southern half of ancient Israel. Most people mistakenly think that the southern Kingdom was only populated by those Jews from the tribe of Judah and Benjamin, but this is not exactly so.

In Biblical times, Israel was originally one country. Eventually, it suffered a tragic civil war which split it into two parts. This happened in 922 BCE. Jeroboam led the revolt of the northern tribes and established the (northern) Kingdom of Israel. It consisted of nine landed tribes: Zebulun, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, Dan, Manasseh, Ephraim, Reuben and Gad, and some of Levi [which had no land allocation]. This makes ten tribes, which later became known as "the lost ten tribes". However, Manasseh and Ephraim technically count as just one full tribe, so there were really eight full landed tribes, and part of one tribe without land. Samaria was its capital.

Judah, the southern Kingdom, has Jerusalem as its capital and was led by King Rehoboam. It is populated by the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, and Simeon (and also some of Levi). Simeon and Judah later merged together, and Simeon lost its separate identity.

In 722 BCE the Assyrians, under Shalmaneser, and then under Sargon, conquered Israel (the northern Kingdom), destroyed its capital Samaria, and sent the Israelites into exile and captivity. Much of the nine landed tribes of the northern kingdom become 'lost'. However, what is less commonly know is that many people from the conquered northern kingdom fled south to safety in Judea, the Southern Kingdom, which maintained its independence.

So Judah then was populated with Israelites from Judah, Benjamin, Shimeon, some of Levi, and many from all of the other tribes as well.

Non-Jewish descendants of the Israelites

There are of course descendants of the Israelites who are not Jewish; over the last two millennia the Jewish kingdom of Israel was destroyed, and hundreds of thousands of its citizens were taken away into slavery or killed. The survivors assimilated into their surrounding cultures, and became lost to the Jewish people.

Anti-semitic pseudo-Israelite religions and cults

Ironically, there are many anti-semitic groups which claim to be only "true" Israelites. One examples of these anti-semitic groups is the British Israelites; another example is the Black Israelites of New York City, who preach racist hate-speech towards Jews in particular, and towards all white people in general, in Manhattan. Perhaps the most brazenly anti-semitic of these groups is the neo-Nazi inspired Christian Identity movement.

There are a small number of other religious groups that do not claim to be Jews, but nonetheless claim the mantle of being "spiritual Israelites" as they have faith in the God of Israel. Some of these groups are openly hostile to Judaism, as they see themselves as the "true" Jews; while others are friendly to Judaism.

The general pattern among most of these groups is that they believe the Jewish people who exist today are at best only a small percent of the actual descendants of the Israelites, and at worst are demonic imposters who mislead the world about the word of God. Each of these groups independently sees themselves as the true descendants of Jacob, and claim the mantle of being an Israelite for themselves alone. None of these groups recognizes the validity of the other groups.