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  • From: Bruce Gardner <b.gardner AT abdn.ac.uk>
  • To: b-hebrew AT franklin.oit.unc.edu
  • Subject: The Twelve Tribes
  • Date: Sun, 04 Feb 2001 21:04:40 +0000


By the way, does anyone know what the twelve tribes were in the Hebrew Bible and in the New Testament? This is a serious question. There is an ambiguity caused by the inclusion or exclusion, respectively, of Joseph's sons, Levi and Dan. The history of Dan is particularly interesting and the fate of the tribe in the list in Revelation 7 may be linked to the parallelism with Judas in the disciples which led to a church tradition that Judas was originally descnded from Dan. In considering this, replacement of Judas by Mattathias and the conversion of Saul (Acts 1, 9) creates another tension where an Old Testament idea develops within the New.

It may be the tribes actually existed, or that they were simply districts personified, or it may also be they are cyphers for something else. Or, indeed, they may be a mixture of the above.

Bruce Gardner.
_______________________________________
Dr Bruce Gardner,
Divinity and Religious Studies
University of Aberdeen
Scotland, UK
AB24 3UB.

------------
Bruce Gardner
b.gardner AT abdn.ac.uk




  • The Twelve Tribes, Bruce Gardner, 02/04/2001

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