According to various dictionaries, a tribe is a group of people that includes multiple families and generations; they share the same language and, more importantly, have a shared ancestry. They’re related by a long bloodline tracing back to an original ancestor.
What Does the Bible Mean by Tribe?
The Bible uses the word tribe to describe the families that originated from the patriarch Abraham through his grandson, Jacob. Jacob’s father, Isaac, was the son of Abraham, the father of the Jewish people.
All ethnically Jewish people have been descendants of one of Jacob’s 12 sons. Jacob’s sons were Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin.
Who Are the Tribes of Israel?
At one point, the Lord changed Jacob’s name to Israel, and Israel’s 12 sons became heads of what the Bible calls the 12 Tribes of Israel, with a couple of exceptions. The list of Israel’s 12 sons differs from the 12 Tribes of Israel in that Levi and Joseph are missing from what we know as the Tribes of Israel. Here’s why.
While Joseph was in Egypt, he had two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. Joseph brought his father and the entire family – by then a clan of 70 sons and grandchildren – to save them from famine. Jacob reunited with his long-lost son and essentially adopted Joseph’s sons as his own. After the Israelites had left Egypt in the Exodus and 40 years later entered the Promised Land, each tribe received a land inheritance except for Joseph and Levi. The Tribe of Levi received no geographical inheritance because serving every tribe as Israel’s priests required that they live throughout the entire nation of Israel. Joseph’s inheritance went to his two sons. Thus, Joseph’s descendants, through Ephraim and Manasseh, took the places of Joseph and Levi among the 12 Tribes of Israel.
Therefore, the 12 Tribes of Israel are Reuben, Simeon, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Benjamin, Ephraim, and Manasseh.
The Tribes of Israel Today
The Bible traces Jesus’ ancestry through the Tribe of Judah. Barnabas, the Son of Encouragement who traveled with the apostle Paul, was an ancestor of Jacob’s son Levi. Paul was of the Tribe of Benjamin.
To this day, every Jewish person has DNA that goes back to one of the sons or Tribes of Israel. Many do not know which tribe they originated from, but many do. While current DNA does not provide specific Israelite tribal lineage, sometimes, a surname provide a clue about family ancestry. Names like Aaronson, Cohen, or Levin suggest a lineage from the priestly line of Levi. Benenson and Benowitz families may be from the Tribe of Benjamin. The oral history of many of Ethiopia’s Jewish people describes them as from the Tribe of Dan. DNA testing of the Lemba Jewish people in Zimbabwe shows them to be related to the Levites.
So, regarding what tribe means in the Bible, it’s used in line with the word’s commonly understood definition – a multi-generational group of people with a common ancestor. In this case, the Tribes of Israel share ancestry with one of the 12 sons of Jacob, who is a patriarch of Judaism.
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