Israelites

For citizens of the modern State of Israel, see Israelis. For other uses of "Israelite", see Israelites (disambiguation)

"Twelve Tribes of Israel" redirects here. For the Rastafari Mansion (branch), see Twelve Tribes of Israel (Rastafari).

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

The Israelites (בני ישראל, Standard: Bnai Yisraʾel; Tiberian: Bnai Yiśrāʾēl; ISO 259-3 (Arabic: بني اسرائيل Bani Isra'il): Bnai Yiśraʾel, translated as: "Children of Israel" or "Sons of Israel") were a Semitic Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East, who inhabited part of the Land of Canaan during the tribal and monarchic periods (15th to 6th centuries BCE). The Israelites are traditionally thought to have later evolved into the Jews and Samaritans, inhabiting the territories of Judea and Galilee, and Samaria respectively. In modern Hebrew usage, an Israelite is, broadly speaking, a lay member of the Jewish ethnoreligious group, as opposed to the priestly orders of Kohanim and Levites.

The biblical term "Israelites" (also the "Twelve Tribes" or "Children of Israel") means both the direct descendants of the patriarch Jacob (Israel) as well as the historical populations of the United Kingdom of Israel and Judah. For the post-exilic period, beginning in the 5th century BCE, the remnants of the Israelite tribes came to be referred to as Jews (tribes of Judah, Simeon, Benjamin and partially Levi), named for the kingdom of Judah. This change is explicit in the Book of Esther (4th century BCE). On the other hand, Samaritans (tribes of Menasseh, Ephraim and partially Benjamin and Levi) became named for Samaria. It replaced the title Children of Israel.

Etymology

The Merneptah stele. While alternative translations exist, the majority of biblical archaeologists translate a set of hieroglyphs as "Israel", representing the first instance of the name Israel in the historical record.

The word "Israelite" comes from Greek Ισραηλίτες and derives from the Biblical Hebrew word "Yisrael"(יִשְׂרָאֵל). The name Israel first appears c. 1209 BCE, in an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah. The inscription is very brief and says simply: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not". The Hebrew Bible etymologizes the name as from yisra "to prevail over" or "to struggle/wrestle with", and el, "God, the divine". The eponymous biblical patriarch of the Israelites is Jacob, who wrestled with God who gave him a blessing and renamed him "Israel" because he had "striven with God and with men, and have prevailed". (Genesis 32:24–32) According to the Hebrew Bible, Israelites are the "chosen people" of God. The name Hebrews is sometimes used synonymously with "Israelites".

Terminology

See also: Hebrews and Who is a Jew?

According to the Hebrew Bible, prior to a meeting with his brother Esau, the biblical patriarch Jacob wrestles an angel on the shores of the Jabbok river and is given the name Israel. Throughout the rest of the Torah, Jacob is referred to at times as both Jacob and Israel.

In modern Hebrew, B'nei Yisrael ("Children of Israel") can denote the Jewish people at any time in history; it is typically used to emphasize Jewish religious identity. From the period of the Mishna (but probably used before that period) the term Yisrael ("an Israel") acquired an additional narrower meaning of Jews of legitimate birth other than Levites and Aaronite priests (kohanim). In modern Hebrew this contrasts with the term Yisraeli (English "Israeli"), a citizen of the modern State of Israel, regardless of religion or ethnicity.

The term Hebrew has Eber as an eponymous ancestor. It is used synonymously with "Israelites", or as an ethnolinguistic term for historical speakers of the Hebrew language in general.

The Greek term Ioudaios (Jews) historically refers to a member of the tribe of Judah, which formed the nucleus of the kingdom of Judah.

Ancient times

Biblical Israelites

Sources sited:

Pentateuch

The Israelite story begins with some of the culture heroes of the Jewish people, the Patriarchs.

The Torah traces the Israelites to the patriarch Jacob, grandson of Abraham, who was renamed Israel after a mysterious incident in which he wrestles all night with God or an angel. Jacob's twelve sons (in order of birth), Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin, become the ancestors of twelve tribes, with the exception of Joseph, whose two sons Mannasseh and Ephraim, who were adopted by Jacob, become tribal eponyms (Genesis 48).

The mothers of Jacob's sons are:

• Leah: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun
• Rachel: Joseph, Benjamin
• Bilhah (Rachel's maid): Dan, Naphtali
• Zilpah (Leah's maid): Gad, Asher (Genesis 35:22–26)

Jacob and his sons are forced by famine to go down into Egypt, although Joseph was already there, as he had been sold into slavery while young. When they arrive they and their families are 70 in number, but within four generations they have increased to 600,000 men of fighting age, and the Pharaoh of Egypt, alarmed, first enslaves them and then orders the death of all male Hebrew children. The god of Israel reveals his name to Moses, a Hebrew of the line of Levi; Moses leads the Israelites out of bondage and into the desert, where God gives them their laws and the Israelites agree to become his people. Nevertheless, the Israelites lack complete faith in God, and the generation which left Egypt is not permitted to enter the Promised Land. Those events are memorialized in the Jewish and Samaritan holiday of Passover, as well as the Jewish holiday of Shavuot.

Former Prophets

Following the death of the generation of Moses a new generation, led by Joshua, enters Canaan and takes possession of the land in accordance with the curse placed upon Canaan by Noah. Eventually the Israelites ask for a king, and God gives them Saul. David, the youngest (divinely favored) son of Jesse of Bethlehem would succeed Saul. Under David the Israelites establish the kingdom of God, and under David's son Solomon they build the Temple where God takes his earthly dwelling among them. Yet Solomon sins by allowing his foreign wives to worship their own gods, and so on his death and reign of his son, Rehoboam, the kingdom is divided in two.

The kings of the northern kingdom of Israel are uniformly bad, permitting the worship of other gods and failing to enforce the worship of God alone, and so God eventually allows them to be conquered and dispersed among the peoples of the earth; in their place strangers settle the northern land. In Judah some kings are good and enforce the worship of God alone, but many are bad and permit other gods, even in the Temple itself, and at length God allows Judah to fall to her enemies, the people taken into captivity in Babylon, the land left empty and desolate, and the Temple itself destroyed.

Ezra-Nehemiah-Chronicles

Yet despite these events God does not forget his people, but sends Cyrus, king of Persia as his messiah to deliver them from bondage. The Israelites are allowed to return to Judah and Benjamin, the Temple is rebuilt, the priestly orders restored, and the service of sacrifice resumed. Through the offices of the sage Ezra, Israel is constituted as a holy community, bound by the Law and holding itself apart from all other peoples.

 A brief History of the 12 tribes of Israel

Sources sited: Author: E. Raymond Capt, MA, AIA, FSA, Scot Missing Links Discovered In Assyrian Tablets SKU: ERC00706 Artisan Publishers Author: E. Raymond Capt, MA, AIA, FSA, Scot

The Lost Chapter Of Acts Of The Apostles Revised & Expanded Edition

Author: E. Raymond Capt, MA, AIA, FSA, Scot 

Artisan Publishers

Some scholar believe- Under the Old Testament- Israel grew, from 12 sons, to twelve tribes. Then to, a theocratic government then to, a monarch, then to an empire- and then it split -in two- under King Solomon.  It became the northern kingdom of Israel- ten and a half tribes- were assigned-to the northern kingdom of Israel. In addition, two and a half of the tribes- were assigned, to the southern kingdom of Judah. Then were destroyed and the kingdoms collapsed- and all of them went into captivity. The northern kingdom of Israel- Collapsed first- and went into Assyrian captivity- 200 years before the southern kingdom of Judah- went into captivity. after  the house of Israel‘s, captivity they ascended  over the caucus mountains  migrated ;settled ;established Europe , great Britain, Canada and America, and that is  where they our today- whom were  later   call  Caucasians. Then the southern kingdom collapsed with the last king of Judah- Zedekiah.  Jeremiah escaped with the daughters of Zedekiah, to Egypt - one of the daughter’s names was Scotia, -whom married 

In addition, out of that, ancestry Scotland came; and the European monarchs- and they mix with the house of Israel. The house of Judah-went into Babylonian captivity for 70 years-then return to the holy land-rebuilt the temple- the house of Judah became multi -cultural mix nation- and they were there until the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD-, and then they scattered through out the world. Lastly, Saxons Mean’s sons of Isaac and when Judah returned from Babylonian captivity- they shortened, there name, to Jews. One of the reasons we call white people Caucasians- because of the house of Israel ascendance- over the Caucus Mountains. This is historical, facts not made up- if any one says otherwise, is a historical revisionist scholar-Not a fair or impartial Scholar-this is- more likely - then not.

Historical Israelites

Sources sited: Author: E. Raymond Capt, MA, AIA, FSA, Scot Missing Links Discovered In Assyrian Tablets SKU: ERC00706 Artisan Publishers Author: E. Raymond Capt, MA, AIA, FSA, Scot

The Lost Chapter Of Acts Of The Apostles Revised & Expanded Edition

Author: E. Raymond Capt, MA, AIA, FSA, Scot 

Artisan Publishers: Some scholars, believes- Under the Old Testament- Israel grew, from 12 sons, to twelve tribes. Then to, a theocratic government then to, a monarch, then to an empire- and then it split -in two- under King Solomon. It became the northern kingdom of Israel- ten and a half tribes- were assigned-to the northern kingdom of Israel. In addition, two and a half of the tribes- were assigned, to the southern kingdom of Judah. Then were destroyed and the kingdoms collapsed- and all of them went into captivity. The northern kingdom of Israel- Collapsed first- and went into Assyrian captivity- 200 years before the southern kingdom of Judah- went into captivity. after the house of Israel‘s, captivity they ascended over the caucus mountains migrated ;settled ;established Europe , great Britain, Canada and America, and that is where they our today- whom were later call Caucasians. Then the southern kingdom collapsed with the last king of Judah- Zedekiah. Jeremiah escaped with the daughters of Zedekiah, to Egypt - one of the daughter’s names was Scotia, -whom married

In addition, out of that, ancestry Scotland came; and the European monarchs- and they mix with the house of Israel. The house of Judah-went into Babylonian captivity for 70 years-then return to the holy land-rebuilt the temple- the house of Judah became multi -cultural mix nation- and they were there until the destruction of the temple and Jerusalem in 70 AD-, and then they scattered through out the world. Lastly, Saxons Mean’s sons of Isaac and when Judah returned from Babylonian captivity- they shortened, there name, to Jews. One of The reasons we call white people Caucasians- because of the house of Israel ascendance- over the Caucus Mountains. This is historical, facts not made up- if any one says otherwise, is a historical revisionist scholar-Not a fair or impartial Scholar- this is more likely true.

The prevailing opinion today is that the Israelites, who eventually evolved into modern Jews and Samaritans, are an outgrowth of the indigenous Canaanites who had resided in the area since the 8th millennium BCE. The name Israel first appears c. 1209 BCE, at the end of the Late Bronze Age and the very beginning of the period archaeologists and historians call Iron Age I, in an inscription of the Egyptian pharaoh Merneptah. The inscription is very brief and says simply: "Israel is laid waste and his seed is not". The hieroglyph accompanying the name "Israel" indicates that it refers to a people, most probably located in the highlands of Samaria. Over the next two hundred years (the period of Iron Age I) the number of highland villages increased from 25 to over 300 and the settled population doubled to 40,000. There is general agreement that the majority of the population living in these villages was of Canaanite origin. By the 10th century BCE a rudimentary state had emerged in the north-central highlands, and in the 9th century this became a kingdom. The kingdom was sometimes called Israel by its neighbours, but more frequently it was known as the "House (or Land) of Omri." Settlement in the southern highlands was minimal from the 12th through the 10th centuries BCE, but a state began to emerge there in the 9th century, and from 850 BCE onwards a series of inscriptions are evidence of a kingdom which its neighbours refer to as the "House of David."

See also

• Bani Israel
• Bible
• Gentile
• Half Jewish
• Israeli Jews
• Israelis
• Kingdom of Israel (united monarchy)
• Noahides
• Shavei Israel
• Tribal allotments of Israel
• Kaifeng Jews
• Lachish relief

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