Israelite

Part of a series of articles on

Jews and Judaism

Who is a Jew? · Etymology · Culture

Religion God in Judaism (Names) Principles of faith · Mitzvot (613) Halakha · Shabbat · Holidays Prayer · Tzedakah Brit · Bar / Bat Mitzvah Marriage · Bereavement Philosophy · Ethics · Kabbalah Customs · Synagogue · Rabbi

Texts Tanakh (Torah · Nevi'im · Ketuvim) Targum Talmud (Mishnah · Gemara) Rabbinic (Midrash · Tosefta) Mishneh Torah · Tur Shulchan Aruch Zohar · Tanya

Ethnicities Ashkenazi · Sephardi · Mizrahi Romaniote · Italki · Yemenite African · Beta Israel · Bukharan · Georgian • Mountain · Chinese Indian · Khazars · Karaim • Samaritans • Crypto-Jews

Population Jews by country · Rabbis Population comparisons Israel · United States · Russia Iraq · Spain · Portugal · Italy Poland · Germany · Bosnia Latin America · France England  · Netherlands · Canada Australia · Hungary · India Turkey · Greece · Africa Iran · China · Pakistan · Romania · Lists of Jews

Denominations Orthodox · Conservative Reform · Reconstructionist Liberal · Karaite · Humanistic Renewal · Alternative

Languages Hebrew · Yiddish Judeo-Persian · Ladino Judeo-Aramaic · Judeo-Arabic

History Timeline · Leaders Ancient · Temple Babylonian exile Jerusalem (in Judaism · Timeline) Hasmoneans · Sanhedrin Schisms · Pharisees Jewish-Roman wars Christianity and Judaism Islam and Judaism Diaspora · Middle Ages Sabbateans · Hasidism · Haskalah Emancipation · Holocaust · Aliyah Israel (history) Arab conflict · Land of Israel Baal teshuva · Persecution Antisemitism (history)

Politics Zionism (Labor · Revisionist   Religious · General) Bundism · World Agudath Israel Jewish feminism · Israeli politics Jewish left · Jewish right

v • d • e

A reconstructed Israelite house, Monarchy period, 10th-7th BCE. Eretz Israel Museum, Tel Aviv, Israel.

In the Bible, the Israelites (sometimes referred to as "The Twelve Tribes") were the descendants of the Biblical patriarch Jacob. They were divided into twelve tribes, each descended from one of twelve sons or grandsons of Jacob.

The term Israelite is derived from Israel (Hebrew: ישראל - Standard: Yisraʾel; Tiberian: Yiśrāʾēl), the name given to Jacob after the death of Isaac. (Genesis 32:28-29). His descendants are called the House of Jacob, the Children of Israel, the People of Israel, or the Israelites.

The Hebrew Bible is mainly concerned with the Israelites. According to it, the Land of Israel was promised to them by God. Jerusalem was their capital and the site of the temple at the center of their faith.

The Israelites became a local political power with the United Monarchy of Kings Saul, David and Solomon, from c. 1025 BCE.^{[citation needed]} Zedekiah, king of Judah (597-586 BCE), is considered the last king from the House of David.

Terminology

The term Israelite in English was first used in the King James translation of the Bible to refer to those people who in the Hebrew are referred to as Bnei Yisrael (literally "Sons of Israel" or "Children of Israel"). Similarly, the singular "Israelite" is an adaptation of the adjective Yisraeli that in Biblical Hebrew refers to a member of the Bnei Yisrael (e.g. Leviticus 24:10). Other terms used to refer to the Bnei Yisrael include "House of Jacob", "House of Israel", or simply "Israel".

Mosaic of the 12 Tribes of Israel. From a synagogue wall in Jerusalem.

"Israelites" as used in the Bible refers to the descendants of Jacob. Also, in orthodox religious services, the term is used to distinguish Levis. In contrast the term Jew is used in English (though not necessarily by a Jew for self-identification) to refer to an individual of the Jewish faith, regardless of the historical period, ancestry or their turning to other faiths.

In modern Hebrew Bnei Yisrael can denote the Jewish people at any time in history and is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity and thus does not include apostates.

From the period of Mishna (but probably used before that period) the term Yisraeli acquired an additional narrower meaning of Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites and Aaronite priests (kohanim). In modern usage, the term Yisrael ("an Israel") is used in a non-adjectival form to refer to such a person. In modern Hebrew, the term Yisraeli is used to refer to a citizen of the modern State of Israel, regardless of religion or ethnicity and is translated into English as "Israeli".

Another term sometimes used to refer to Jews is Hebrews, which was a term first used to refer to the Jews (and probably other peoples as well) by the ancient Egyptians. The term continues to be used at times to refer to Jews or things associated with them, such as "Hebrew Bible" and "Hebrew calendar".

It should be noted that these three names, "Israelites", "Hebrews", and "Jews", are historically related and often used in modern English as synonyms although there are substantial differences in meaning when applied to earlier periods of history.

History

This section uses one or more religious texts as primary sources without referring to secondary sources that critically analyze them. Please help improve this article by adding references to reliable secondary sources.

Origin

Tribes of Israel
The Tribes Reuben Simeon Levi Judah Dan Naphtali Gad Asher Issachar Zebulun Joseph Menasheh Ephraim Benjamin
Related topics Israelites Ten Lost Tribes
v • d • e

The Israelites were divided along family lines, each called a shevet or mateh in Hebrew meaning literally a "staff" or "rod". The term is conventionally translated as "tribe" in English, although the divisions were not small isolated distinct ethnic groups in the modern sense of the term.

In Egypt the house of Joseph was divided into two tribes, Ephraim and Manasseh, by virtue of Jacob's blessing. (Genesis 48:8-21)

Some English speaking Jewish groups view the pronunciation, English transcription and Hebrew spelling of the tribal names to be extremely important. The transcriptions and spellings are as follows:

Joseph contains the tribes

English	Hebrew	Standard Hebrew	Tiberian Hebrew	Samaritan	Annotation
Manasseh	מנשה	Mənašše	Mənaššeh	Manatch
Ephraim	אפרים	Efráyim	ʾEp̄ráyim / ʾEp̄rāyim	Afrime

Camps following the exodus

Following the Exodus from Egypt, the Israelites were divided into thirteen camps (Hebrew: machanot) according to importance^[1] with Levi in the center of the encampment around the Tabernacle and its furnishings surrounded by other tribes arranged in four groups: Judah, Issachar and Zebulun; Reuben, Simeon and Gad; Ephraim, Manasseh and Benjamin; Dan, Asher and Naphtali.^[2] Thus additionally Aaron and his descendants although descended from Levi were appointed as priests (kohanim) and came to be considered a separate division to the Levites.

During this period, the Kenizzites (thought by some to be identical to the Edomite clan of Kenaz ^[3]) are seen to form part of Judah. The Kenites (the Midianite clan headed by Moses' father in law, Jethro) also joined the Israelites.

Land apportionment

The tribes were assigned territories following the conquests of land under Moses and Joshua. Moses assigned territories to Reuben, Gad and a portion of Manasseh on land east of the Jordan which they had requested (Numbers 32:5). Joshua assigned territories to Judah, Ephraim and the rest of Manasseh on land west of the Jordan which they had conquered. The tribe of Manasseh thus came to be divided into two parts by the Jordan each part referred to as a half-tribe (chatzi-shevet) of Manasseh, the part lying east of the Jordan being referred to as the half-tribe of Manasseh in Gilead.

Following the conquest of the remainder of Canaan, Joshua assigned territories to Asher, Benjamin, Dan, Issacher, Naphtali, Simeon and Zebulun. The land of Judah was considered too large for that tribe alone and Simeon was assigned a portion within the land of Judah instead of its own territory in the newly conquered land. The Kenites also settled in the territory of Judah and their descendants are subsequently included with that tribe. Because the Levites, and kohanim (descendants of Aaron) played a special religious role of service at the Tabernacle to the people they were not given their own territories, but were instead assigned cities to live in within the other territories.

Joshua had made a pact with the Canaanite inhabitants of Gibeon who instead of being conquered in battle became a further division of the Jewish people called the Nethinim being given the role of maintenance of the tabernacle and in later centuries the Temple.

Dan had originally been assigned territory lying between Ephraim and Manasseh but during the period of the Judges they were displaced by a war with the Amorites and subsequently settled in territory to the north of Naphtali.

Israelite confederation

From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first Kingdom of Israel in c. 1050 BCE, the Israelite tribes formed a loose confederation. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges. (see the Book of Judges) With the growth of the threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes decided to form a strong centralised monarchy to meet the challenge. The first king of this new entity was Saul, who came from the Tribe of Benjamin, (1 Samuel 9:1-2) which at the time was the smallest of the tribes.

United monarchy

The Israelites united in about 1050 BCE to form the united Kingdom of Israel under Saul. At this time the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh in Gilead expanded their territory eastwards, conquering and absorbing the Hagrites (the people of Jetur, Naphish, and Nodab who were an offshoot of the Ishmaelites). Under Solomon the remaining Canaanites in the land became the division known as the Avdei Shlomo (Servants of Solomon) and were counted as part of the Nethinim.

During David's and Solomon's reigns, the Kingdom of Israel is considered to have reached the limits of the borders of the Land of Israel promised to Abraham's, Isaac's, and Jacob's descendants in Genesis; however, David and Solomon maintained actual government jurisdiction only over the Israelite tribes, although they received tribute from the vaster region defined by these borders.

Northern and southern kingdoms

The Kingdom of Israel split in c. 930 BCE to form the southern Kingdom of Judah and the northern Kingdom of Israel:

• The southern Kingdom of Judah comprised the tribes of Judah, Simeon and Benjamin together with the Aaronite kohanim, Levites and Nethinim who lived amongst them.
• The northern Kingdom of Israel comprised the tribes of Reuben, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, both divisions of Manasseh and the remainder of the Levites.

The territory of Simeon had from the start fallen within the territory of Judah (see above) and with inclusion of Benjamin in the southern kingdom the designation "Judah" came to include Benjamin as well.

As the Levites and kohanim did not have their own territories, the Book of Kings describes the southern kingdom as consisting of one tribe (i.e. Judah, but including Simeon and Benjamin) and the northern kingdom as consisting of ten tribes (i.e. Reuben, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Ephraim, (western) Manasseh and (eastern) Manasseh in Gilead).

Later after Jeroboam attempted to establish rival centers of worship to Jerusalem with lay priests, the Levites of the northern kingdom abandoned the northern kingdom and came to Judah (2 Chr. 11:14).

Falls

Northern kingdom

The Assyrian king Tiglath-Pilesar attacked the northern kingdom of Israel, driving the tribes of Reuben, Gad and Manasseh in Gilead out of the desert outposts of Jetur, Naphish and Nodab and conquering their territories. People from these tribes, including the Reubenite leader, were taken captive and resettled in the region of the Habor river system. Tiglath-Pilesar also captured the territory of Naphtali and the city of Janoah in Ephraim, and an Assyrian governor was placed over the region of Naphtali.

The remainder of the northern kingdom was conquered by Sargon II, who captured the capital city Samaria in the territory of Ephraim. He took 27,290 people captive from the city of Samaria resettling some with the Israelites in the Habor region and the rest in the land of the Medes thus establishing Israelite communities in Ecbatana and Rages.

The Book of Tobit additionally records that Sargon had taken other captives from the northern kingdom to the Assyrian capital of Nineveh, in particular Tobit from the town of Thisbe in Naphtali.

In medieval Rabbinic stories, the concept of the ten tribes who were taken away from the House of David (who continued the rule of the southern kingdom of Judah) becomes confounded with accounts of the Assyrian deportations, leading to the teaching of the "Ten Lost Tribes". The recorded history differs from this teaching: No record exists of the Assyrians having exiled people from Dan, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, or western Manasseh. Descriptions of the deportation of people from Reuben, Gad, Manasseh in Gilead, Ephraim, and Naphtali indicate that only a portion of these tribes were deported, and the places to which they were deported are known locations given in the accounts. The deported communities are mentioned as still existing at the time of the composition of the books of Kings and Chronicles and did not disappear by assimilation. 2 Chr 30:1-11 explicitly mentions northern Israelites who had been spared by the Assyrians, in particular the people of Dan, Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, and Zebulun, and how members of the latter three tribes returned to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem during the reign of Hezekiah.

With the Kingdom of Judah remaining as the sole Israelite kingdom, the term Yehudi (Jew), originally the adjective of the name Yehudah (Judah), came to include all the Israelite people.

Southern kingdom

In 597 BCE the Babylonian king Nebuchanezzar sacked Jerusalem and exiled 3,023 Jews to Babylon (Jer 52:28). He additionally exiled many (non-Jewish) workers, taking a total of around 10,000 people captive (2 Ki 24:14).

In 586 BCE he conquered the southern kingdom, deposing the king, destroyed the Temple and left Jerusalem in ruins. He took a further 832 Jews captive from Jerusalem (Jer 52:29). Although ending the kingdom he allowed Judah a measure of self rule, appointing Gedaliah as Jewish governor of the region.

Gedaliah was later assassinated by members of the royal family who saw him as a usurper, which resulted in punitive action by Nebuchadnezzar in which a further 745 Jews were exiled to Babylon. In total 4600 Jews had been exiled to Babylon (Jer 52:30).

Towns in Judah from which people had fled or been taken captive during the invasions of the Babylonians were resettled by Jews from the former northern kingdom of Israel, as well as Levites, Aaronite kohanim and Nethinim (1 Chr 9:2). Jerusalem was resettled by members of the tribes of Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and Manasseh (1 Chr 9:3).

Second Temple period

The exiles were allowed to return in 538 BCE, after the fall of Babylon to the Persians and Medes. Substantial returns of descendants of exiles took place in 444 BCE under Nehemiah and in c. 400 BCE under Ezra.

Genealogy after the exile

As a result of the Assyrian and Babylonian invasions most Israelites lost written records tracing their ancestry. Those who could still prove their ancestry included Levites, Aaronite kohanim, Nethinim including Avdei Shlomo and members of clans that had been part of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. With time, knowledge of descent from these clans of Judah and Benjamin was also lost although there are descendants of the royal House of David (part of Judah) who have maintained knowledge of their ancestry to modern times.

The Jewish community following the Babylonian captivity was divided into ten lineages and Ezra established strict rules concerning permissible marriages between the lineages:

Kohanim, Levites and Israelites were allowed to intermarry. Levites, Israelites, chalalim, proselytes and freedmen were allowed to intermarry. Mamzerim, Nethinim, shetukim and foundlings were allowed to intermarry. In the case of intermarriage between kohanim, Levites and Israelites, the children took the father's lineage, more complex rules governed the lineage of other intermarriages. With time some of these lineages disappeared: for example the descendants of the original freedmen became part of the other lineages according to the rules of intermarriage; the Nethinim are no longer found after the persecutions and massacres carried out by the Seleucid king Antiochus IV Epiphanes.

Loss of proof of descent also affected neighbouring peoples, such as the Moabites and Ammonites, and resulted in renunciation of the ancient prohibitions on the conversions of these people to Judaism as well as of the Edomites. Under the Hasmonean dynasty all were forcibly converted to Judaism. Arabian (Nabatean) groups, such as the Zabadeans and Itureans, were also conquered and forcefully converted, as were the mixed peoples of the former Philistine cities. Under the Hasmonean kings, the Israelites were reunited with their closest relatives, the remnants of the Moabites, Ammonites and Edomites after thousands of years of separation.

The large proselyte groups were assimilated into the Israelite lineage by the second half of the second century CE. The chalalim, mamzerim, shetukim, and foundlings were by their nature small groups of people. The major divisions thus became:

• Kohanim
• Levites
• Israelites

This threefold division of the Jewish people persists to this day. To avoid confusion with the broader use of the term Israelite or the modern term Israeli, a member of the Israelite, as opposed to Levite or Aaronite, lineage is usually referred to as a Yisrael (an Israel) and not a Yisraeli (which could mean Israelite in the broader sense or in modern Hebrew, an Israeli).

Archeological record

Archeological record of Israelites is usually sought in the hill country of Israel/Palestine, in strata corresponding to the Iron Age I (Judges, 1200 - 1000 BCE), Iron Age IIA (United Monarchy, 1000-925 BCE) and Iron Age IIB-C (Divided Monarchy, 925-586 BCE). See Archeology of Israel

The first appearance of the name Israel in archeological records as a personal name is in Ebla and Ugarit (c. 2500 BCE). It appears on the Merneptah stele (c. 1200 BCE). A group of eight records dated between c. 850-722 BCE mentions a kingdom in the same area called variously Israel or, and more frequently, either Beit Omri or Humri ("House of Omri") or Samaria, the three clearly referring to the same political entity. One of these makes reference to "Ahab the Israelite", the only occurrence of this form of the word in the ancient epigraphy. The name is found again on 1st and 2nd century CE coins from the Jewish revolts against the Romans.

A number of elements of material culture has been linked to the Israelites, notably a type of collar-rimmed storage jar (pithos), the four room house, the absence of pig bones and the use of the Hebrew language.^[4][5][6][7]

The Hebrew Bible is largely regarded as reflecting the actual history of the Israelites, albeit from the perspective of religious writers^{[8] [9]} (the Biblical maximalist view). A minority of scholars known as Biblical minimalists reject its usage as an historical document when not corroborated by archaelogical evidence.^[10] See The Bible and history

Jews

Jews (Hebrew: יְהוּדִים‎, Yehudim), also known as the Jewish people, are an ethnoreligious group originating in the Israelites or Hebrews of the Ancient Near East. The Jewish ethnicity, nationality, and religion are strongly interrelated, as Judaism is the traditional faith of the Jewish nation. Converts to Judaism, whose status as Jews within the Jewish ethnos is equal to those born into it, have been absorbed into the Jewish people throughout the millennia. There are distinct ethnic divisions among Jews, most of which are primarily the result of geographic branching from an originating Israelite population, and subsequent independent evolutions.

Ashkenazi Jews

Ashkenazim are the descendants of Jews who migrated into northern France and Germany around 800-1000 AD, and later into Eastern Europe. Ashkenazim comprise the overwhelming majority of Jews, with approximately 80 percent of the Jewish total (prior to the Holocaust, they were an even greater percentage of world Jewry).

Sephardic Jews

Sephardim are Jews whose ancestors lived in Spain or Portugal, where they lived for possibly as much as two millennia before being expelled in 1492 by the Catholic Monarchs (see Alhambra decree); they subsequently migrated to the Islamic North African Maghreb and Ottoman Empire (both at the time considered safe havens for Jews). In the Ottoman Empire the Sephardim mostly settled in the European portion of the Empire, and mainly in the major cities such as: Constantinople, Thessaloniki and Bursa. Thessaloniki, which today is to be found in modern-day Greece, had a large and flourishing Sephardic community as was the community of Maltese Jews in Malta. Others settled in Italy and the Netherlands, and Latin America. Among those who settled in the Netherlands, some would again relocate to the United States, establishing the countries first organized community of Jews and erecting the United States' first synagogue. Other Sephardim remained in Spain and Portugal as anusim (forced converts to Catholicism), which would also be the fate for those who had migrated to Spanish and Portuguese ruled Latin America.

Mizrachi Jews

Mizrahim are Jews descended from the Jewish communities of the Middle East, Central Asia and the Caucasus. The term Mizrahi is used in Israel in the language of politics, media and some social scientists for Jews from the Arab world and adjacent, primarily Muslim-majority countries. This includes Iraqi Jews, Syrian Jews, Lebanese Jews, Yemenite Jews, Persian Jews, Afghan Jews, Bukharian Jews, Maghrebi Jews, Berber Jews, Kurdish Jews, Mountain Jews, Georgian Jews and Ethiopian Jews.

Yemenite Jews

Temanim are Oriental Jews whose geographic and social isolation from the rest of the Jewish community allowed them to develop a liturgy and set of practices that are significantly distinct from other Oriental Jewish groups; they themselves comprise three distinctly different groups, though the distinction is one of religious law and liturgy rather than of ethnicity.

Karaite Jews

Karaim are Jews living mostly in Egypt, Iraq, Crimea and Israel. They are distinguished by the form of Judaism they observe. Rabbinic Jews of varying ethnicities have affiliated with the Karaite community throughout the millennia. As such, Karaite Jews are less a Jewish ethnic division, than they are members of a particular branch of Judaism. Karaite Judaism recognizes the Tanakh as the single religious authority of the Jewish people. Linguistic principles and contextual exegesis are used in arriving at the correct meaning of the Torah. Karaite Jews strive to adhere to the plain or most obvious understanding of the text when interpreting the Tanakh. By contrast, Rabbinical Judaism regards an Oral Law (codified and recorded in the Mishnah and Talmuds) as being equally binding on Jews, and mandated by God. In Rabbinical Judaism, the Oral Law forms the basis of religion, morality, and Jewish life. Karaite Jews rely on the use of sound reasoning and the application of linguistic tools to determine the correct meaning of the Tanakh; while Rabbinical Judaism looks toward the Oral law codified in the Talmud, to provide the Jewish community with an acurate understanding of the Hebrew Scriptures.

There are approximately 50,000 adherents of Karaite Judaism, most of whom live in Israel, but exact numbers are not known, as most Karaites have not participated in any religious censuses. The differences between Karaite and Rabbinic Judaism go back more than a thousand years. Rabbinical Judaism originates from the Pharisees of the Second Temple period. Karaite Judaism may have its origins in the Sadducees of the same era. Unlike the Sadducees who recognized only the Torah as binding, Karaite Jews hold the entire Hebrew Bible to be a religious authority. As such, the vast majority of Karaites believe in the resurrection of the dead.^[11] Karaite Jews are widely regarded as being halachically Jewish by the Orthodox Rabbinate. Similarly, members of the rabbinic community are considered to be Jews by the Moetzet Hakhamim, if they are patrilineally Jewish.^{[citation needed]}

Other groups claiming Israelite descent

Samaritans

The Samaritans, who were once a comparatively large group but are now a very small ethnic and religious group of not more than about 700 people^[12] who live in Israel and the West Bank, regard themselves as descendants of the tribes of Ephraim (named by them as Aphrime) and Manasseh (named by them as Manatch). Samaritans adhere to a version of the Torah, known as the Samaritan Pentateuch, which differs in some respects from the Masoretic text, sometimes in important ways, and less so from the Septuagint.

Samaritans do not regard the Tanakh as an accurate or truthful history, and regard only Moses as a prophet. They have their own version of Hebrew and their own script for writing Hebrew, which, in actuality, is descended directly from the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet, unlike the Jewish script for writing Hebrew which is a stylized form of the Aramaic alphabet the Jews adopted during their captivity in Babylonia (prior to this, the Jewish Torah was written in the same script as the Samaritan Torah).

The Samaritans consider themselves Bnei Yisrael ("Children of Israel" or "Israelites"), but do not regard themselves to be Yehudim (Jews). They view this term "Jews" as a designation for followers of Judaism, which they assert is a related but altered and amended religion brought back by the exiled Israelite returnees which is not the true religion of the ancient Israelites, which according to them, Samaritanism is.

Since 539 BCE, when Jews began returning from Babylonian captivity, many Jews have rejected the Samaritan claim of descent from the Israelite tribes, though some regard them as a sect of Judaism.^{[citation needed]}

Beta Israel

The Beta Israel, otherwise known as the Falasha, is a group from Ethiopia, most of whom now live in Israel. They have a tradition of descent from the lost tribe of Dan. They have a long history of practicing such Jewish traditions as kashrut, Shabbat and Passover. For this reason, their Jewishness was accepted by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel and the Israeli government in 1975. They emigrated to Israel en masse during the 1980s and 1990s, as Jews, under the Law of Return. Some who claim to be Beta Israel still live in Ethiopia. Their claims were formally accepted by the Chief Rabbinate of Israel, and, accordingly, they are generally regarded as Jews.^{[citation needed]}

Bnei Menashe

The Bnei Menashe is a group of people in India who claim to be descendants of the half-tribe of Menashe. As of 2005, members who have studied Hebrew, observe the Sabbath, and adhere to other Jewish laws, received the support of the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Israel in arranging formal conversion to Judaism. Some have converted and emigrated to Israel under the Law of Return.^{[citation needed]}

Hebrew Israelites

The Hebrew Israelites, or Black Hebrews, believe that the biblical Israelites were actually of a dark skin, and that they are their ethnic descendants. They also believe that modern Jews are actually descendants of both the Edomites and Khazarians intermarriages. The Hebrew Israelites claim that the word "Jewish" merely pertains to Judah and that the use of the term is the result of a mistranslation of "Judah" in the King James Bible.^{[citation needed]}

The presumption that the Israelites were black is based on a historical ethnic view of Egyptians. It is based on the premise that ancient Egyptians were a dark skinned people, and asserts that Moses and Joseph must have been dark-skinned because they were mistaken for Egyptians. Commentators^[who?] have noted, however, that contemporary ancient Egyptian iconography (for example, the images on the thrones of Tutankhamen and grave images) shows a people of olive brown complexions and Hamito-Semitic features.^{[citation needed]}

Ancient historians disputed the origin of the Israelites. The ancient Roman historian, Tacitus, wrote in Book 5 of his Histories, "Some say that the Jews were fugitives from the island of Crete, who settled on the nearest coast of Africa.... There is a famous mountain in Crete called Ida; the neighboring tribe, the Idaei, came to be called Judeaia by a ... lengthening of the name. Others assert that the overflowing population of Egypt ... discharged itself into the neighboring countries.... Many, again, say that [the Israelites] were a race of Ethiopian origin.... Others describe them as an Assyrian horde who, not having sufficient territory, took possession of part of Egypt and founded cities of their own ... on the borders of Syria.... Others, again, [allege] that they were the Solymi, a nation celebrated in the poems of Homer, who called the city which they founded Hierosolyma after their own name.” (Histories (Tacitus), Book 5, Paragraph 2).^[13]

Rastafari

This section needs additional citations for verification. Please help improve this article by adding reliable references. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (March 2009)

Some Rastas believe that the black races are the lost Israelites – literally or spiritually^[14]. They interpret the Bible as implying that Haile Selassie was the returned Messiah, who would lead the world's peoples of African descent into a promised land of full emancipation and divine justice. There are some Rastafarians that believe they are Jews by descent through Ras Tafari, Ras Tafari being a descendant of King Solomon and the Queen of Sheba via Menelik I. One Rastafari order named The Twelve Tribes of Israel, imposes a metaphysical astrology whereby Aries is Reuben, Aquarius is Joseph, etc. The Twelve Tribes of Israel differ from most Rastafari Mansions (sects) because they believe that Jesus Christ is their Lord and Savior, while other Mansions claim that Haile Selassie I is the true God. With his famous early reggae song The Israelites, Desmond Dekker immortalised the Rastafari concept of themselves as the Lost Children of Israel. However, sometimes people native to Africa are identified with descendants of Ham, whereas the Old Testament of the Bible states that Abraham is descended from Shem.

Bnai Israel

There is an ethnic-religious group in Pakistan and Afghanistan which refers to itself as the Bnai Israel, House of Israel, or Beit Israel. In English, the group is called the Pashtuns. Some Pashtuns claim to be the patriarchal historical descendants of the "ten lost tribes" of the northern Kingdom of Israel which were taken into captivity by Assyria.^{[citation needed]}

Additionally, certain groups of Jews in other^[which?] parts of South Asia are sometimes referred to as Benai Israel.

Christian theology

Latter-day Saints

The Latter Day Saint movement (commonly termed Mormons), believe that through baptism and receiving the Gift of the Holy Ghost, they become "regathered" as Israelites, either as recovered from the scattered tribes of Israel, or as Gentiles adopted and grafted into Israel, thus becoming part of the chosen people of God^[15]. These religious denominations derive from a movement started by Joseph Smith, Jr., and almost half of all members live in the United States; the movement does not strictly believe that they are ethnic Jews as such, but rather that Israelites can refer to many different cultures, on occasion including Jews^[16]. They believe that certain Old Testament passages^[17] are prophecies implying that the tribe of Joseph (Ephraim and Manasseh) will take a prominent role in the spread of the gospel to all scattered Israelites in the last days, and that the tribe of Judah (ie. Judah) also has a prominent role in the last days and during the Millennium^[18].

Christian Identity

^{[citation needed]}

The Christian Identity movement comprises a number of groups with a racialized theology. They claim to be the only true Israelites on the basis that white Europeans are, in their belief, the literal descendants of the Israelites through the ten tribes, and who are, accordingly, still God's Chosen People. These groups generally claim that present-day Jews are not descended from the Israelites nor from the Hebrews (who were in Egypt and the Exodus), but are instead descended from Turco-Mongolian blood, or Khazars, and of the Biblical Esau. Esau was also referred to as Edom, who traded his birthright for a bowl of lentil soup.(Genesis 25:29-34)[1]

New Israel

Based on passages in the New Testament, some Christians believe that Christians are the "new Israel" that replaced the "Children of Israel" after the Jews rejected Jesus. This view is called Supersessionism. Many European settlers in the New World saw themselves as the heirs of those ancient tribes, hence the reason why they named their children and many towns they settled with names connected to the figures in the Bible.^{[citation needed]}

On the other hand, other Christians believe that the Jews are still the original children of Israel, and that Christians are adopted children of God but are not the new Israel. This view is a part of dispensationalist theology.^{[citation needed]}

Islamic theology

In the Qur'an there are forty-three references to "Banū Isrāʾīl", the Islamic term for the Israelites, which means "Children of Israel".^[19] There is a Surah (chapter) in the Qur'an titled Bani Israel (Arabic: بني اسرائيل, "The Children of Israel"), which is also known as Al-Isra (Arabic: سورة الإسراء, "The Night Journey").^[20] This Surah was revealed in the year before Hijrah and takes its name from Surah 17:4. Also, starting from verse 40 in Surah Al-Baqara^[21] (Arabic: سورة البقرة, "The Cow") is the story of Bani Israel. Finally, there is a Qur'an, verse in which Moses addresses his followers as "Muslims" (Arabic: مُّسۡلِمِينَ Muslimïn)^[22] meaning, in English, "those who submit to God".^[23]

In Surah Al-Araf Verses 158 and 159, there was also mention of the twelve tribes: (158) "And of Moses' folk there is a community who lead with truth and establish justice therewith." (159) "We divided them into twelve tribes, nations; and We inspired Moses, when his people asked him for water, saying: Smite with thy staff the rock! And there gushed forth therefrom twelve springs, so that each tribe knew their drinking-place. And we caused the white cloud to overshadow them and sent down for them the manna and the quails (saying): Eat of the good things wherewith we have provided you. They wronged Us not, but they were wont to wrong themselves."^[24][25]

See also

• Archaeology of Israel
• Biblical archeology
• The Bible and history
• Who is a Jew?
• Groups claiming an affiliation with the ancient Israelites
• Shavei Israel
• Kingdom of Israel
• Kingdom of Judah
• Noahides
• History of ancient Israel and Judah
• House of Israel (Ghana)
• Gentile
• British Israelism
• Bible and The Bible and history.
• Israelis
• Anusim
• Half Jewish
• Tribal allotments of Israel

References and notes

External links

• The Israelite census, from the book of Numbers at wikisource
• PROLADES study of the Asociación Evangélica de la Misión Israelita
• The Song of Deborah-Why Some Tribes Answered the Call and Others Did Not Biblical Archaeology Review