The Thirteen Tribes of Israel

If you are like us, you have always heard of the twelve tribes of Israel. There were really thirteen, so why do we always hear of twelve tribes? Maybe it is because scripture only refers to twelve at a time. The issue is that “the list” differs a bit each time it appears in scripture. This blog post examines that question using both logic and scripture. The conclusion may be surprising.

In a recent post we wrote about how John in Revelation 7:4-8 records how the twelve tribes of Israel appear in his vision. We noted how his vision does not include the tribe of Dan and speculated about why that might be the case. We inadvertently sparked a controversy over the number of tribes of Israel, so we thought we would clear up this issue.

On a logical level, we can tell this through simple arithmetic. The names of tribes came from the names of Joseph’s brothers of which there were 11 (Genesis 35:23-26, Genesis 42:3-4). Jacob tells Joseph that his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, were to be on the same level as the 11 (Genesis 48:1-6).  11+2=13.

To be clear, the tribes all were called “tribes” and were given one and only one name, ever (with one exception noted below).  They are Judah, Reuben, Gad, Asher, Naphtali, Manasseh, Simeon, Levi, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph (Ephraim), and Benjamin. Incidentally, there is a reason John calls the tribe of Ephraim “Joseph” while still leaving the original name of his other son’s tribe Manasseh. Add the priestly tribe of Levi to this list, and one counts thirteen.

So why in the world do we call them “the twelve tribes?” There are several reasons for that. Even though Joseph’s sons Ephraim and Manasseh both have tribes named after them, some people only “count” them as one because of their father, Joseph. Despite the fact that the tribe of Dan does not appear in John’s list, some people note that John refers to the twelve tribes of Israel. Only twelve tribes received land (Joshua 13:2-13). The priestly tribe of Levi received no land (Joshua 13:14).

The number twelve was symbolic in it its use.  Throughout scripture, it was used to note “completeness.”  It was the number of sons Jacob had.  But this notation is by no means limited to the Old Testament.   Paul says that Jesus appeared to “the Twelve” in 1 Corinthians 15:5, but at that time there were only 11 apostles left (Judas had hanged himself, and Matthias had not yet been chosen as a replacement).  Only ten were in the room the first time Jesus appeared to them (John 20:24) yet they are still called “the twelve.” The same is true of the tribal count of Israel.

This may contradict what we have learned our whole lives. It should not surprise us, however. It is God’s model. Jesus is our perfect high priest (Hebrews 5:15) and replaced the need for the priests from the tribe of Levi (Hebrews 7:11). Jesus had twelve apostles, and like priests from the tribe of Levi who interceded for the twelve tribes of Israel, He intercedes for us today (Romans 8:34).