Was there a thirteenth tribe of Israel?

Answer 1

A:The names of the tribes vary somewhat through the Old Testament narrative, but the number of tribes usually remains at twelve, with some exceptions.

Deuteronomy 33 lists eleven tribes: Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph (with both Ephraim and Manasseh named), Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, and Asher.

Genesis 49 lists twelve: Reuben, Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Joseph, Zebulun, Issachar, Gad, Dan, Naphtali, Asher and Simeon.

Judah and its subgroup Simeon are largely missing from the stories of the early judges, but Judah is prominent in the stories set at the end of the period.

The Book of Judges preserves an ancient poem from the late second millennium, usually called the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:2-31), in a section of which the poet honours those tribes of Israel that joined in battle against a Canaanite coalition and castigates those that held back. The ten named tribes are: Reuben, Benjamin, Ephraim, Manasseh, Zebulon, Issachar, Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Gilead, to which we should add Levi. This list notably omits Judah, as well as Simeon and Gad, but has Gilead. This alone would give us a total over time of fourteen tribes.

Answer 2

Biblical tradition says that there were just twelve tribes of Israel. Some say that this arose because there are twelve constellations of the zodiac.