Question: I need help with a math problem! In 1 Kings 11: 32 and 36, as well as in 12:20, ten tribes of Israel are torn from Solomon’s house and end up going north. I thought there were 12 tribes. When Rehoboam musters Judah and Benjamin in 12:21, that makes two, not one, in the south. How do you explain this?

Thanks!

Paige

Answer: Dear Paige,

First – it is important to note that the tribes are given slightly differing enumerations in the Bible. Compare three listings in Genesis 46, Numbers 26 and Revelation 7. In Genesis 46 the "original" twelve tribes are listed. However, two chapters later, Jacob, the father of the twelve sons, gives a double portion of inheritance to the two sons of Joseph, Mannaseh and Ephraim.

In Numbers 26 we find Joseph accounted for by his two sons, but there are still 12 tribes because Levi was not included, probably because this listing describes the dividing of the land, and by this time the tribe of Levi had been appointed to function as priests within all tribes.

In Revelation 7 Dan is omitted, Levi included, and Manasseh is mentioned with Joseph (but not Ephraim). Explanation – Revelation could be commenting on the fact that Dan led Israel as the first tribe to go into idolatry, as well as the fact that Dan was unique in taking their inheritance by force. Levi may once again be included as their role as priests was over, given the high priesthood of Jesus Christ (see Hebrews), and Joseph may have been mentioned instead of Ephraim as the two names (Joseph and Ephraim) had become interchangeable (Jacob put Ephraim ahead of Manasseh when he blessed them, even though Manasseh was the firstborn. See Genesis 48:13-14 and verse 20.) Manasseh was never considered to be one and the same as Joseph as Ephraim was.

It might seem to our non-Hebrew, twenty-first-century Western mind that the Bible stretches to ensure that the listing always remains at 12.

Then the incident to which you refer – the dividing of the kingdoms, with Jeroboam and Rehoboam. A Bible map showing the locations of the twelve tribes (as per Numbers 26) might be helpful, as this division in 1 Kings 11 and 12 is often referred to as the division between the northern and southern tribes. Judah was the tribe in which Jerusalem was located, with Benjamin immediately to the north of Judah, and Simeon immediately to the south.

The "ten" to which you refer may actually have been nine, according to some Bible maps, with Manasseh counted as two, with portions on the eastern and the western side of the Jordan River. Manasseh is referred to as "half-tribes" in Numbers 32:33, 34:14, Joshua 4:12 and 13:7, among other references. The "one" of 1 Kings 11:36, to which you refer actually became the three of Judah, Benjamin and Simeon.

12:20 says that "only the tribe of Judah remained loyal to the house of David" – yet, as you note, verse 21 includes Benjamin. Some feel that the tribe of Benjamin had conflicting loyalties, and that the northern part of Benjamin actually was a part of the northern "10" – with the southern part of Benjamin being a part of the "one" tribe of the south – Judah. Some feel that Simeon became absorbed into Judah, and thus the "one" of Judah was actually Judah, some of Benjamin and Simeon.

By the New Testament, after the Diaspora (scattering, dispersion) of the tribes after conquests by Assyria and Babylon, apart from the apocalyptic reference in Revelation 7 which appears to infer some sort of judgment, the tribes became generically referred to as Israel and Judah, and, of course, as Jews – which is how history/historians has referred to them since (see James 1:1, Galatians 6:16). Judah (and occasionally Israel) became the name by which all tribes were known – both in the Bible and in history – given the many precedents the Bible itself provides of different listings, and combinations of enumeration’s (such as the one about which you ask).

It seems that math problems are never simple!

In Christ,å

Greg Albrecht