The Ten Lost Tribes were those from the Twelve Tribes of Israel that were said to have been exiled from the Kingdom of Israel after it was conquered by the Neo-Assyrian Empire around 720 BCE.Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, Book 11 chapter 12 Esdras 13:39–45 They were the following tribes: Reuben, Simeon, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Manasseh, and Ephraim – all but Judah and Benjamin, both of which were based in the neighbouring Kingdom of Judah, and therefore survived until the Babylonian siege of Jerusalem in 587 BCE. Alongside Judah and Benjamin was part of the Tribe of Levi, which was not allowed land tenure, but received dedicated cities. The exile of Israel's population, known as the Assyrian captivity, was an instance of the long-standing resettlement policy of the Neo-Assyrian Empire implemented in many subjugated territories.
The Jewish historian Josephus wrote that "there are but two tribes in Asia and Europe subject to the Romans, while the ten tribes are beyond Euphrates till now, and are an immense multitude, and not to be estimated by numbers."Josephus, The Antiquities of the Jews, Book 11 chapter 5 section 131 In the 7th and 8th centuries CE, the return of the Ten Lost Tribes was associated with the concept of the coming of the Hebrew Messiah. Claims of descent from the "lost tribes" have been proposed in relation to many groups, and some Abrahamic religions espouse a messianic view that Israel's tribes will return.
In Samaria many Israelites survived the Assyrian onslaught and remained in the land, eventually coming to be known as the Samaritan people. Persistent claims have been made that some of the lost tribes survived as distinct entities. Zvi Ben-Dor Benite, a professor of Middle Eastern history at New York University, states: "The fascination with the tribes has generated, alongside ostensibly nonfictional scholarly studies, a massive body of fictional literature and folktale." Anthropologist Shalva Weil has documented various differing tribes and peoples claiming affiliation to the Ten Lost Tribes throughout the world.Weil, S. 1991 Beyond the Sambatyon: the Myth of the Ten Lost Tribes. Tel-Aviv: Beth Hatefutsoth, the Nahum Goldman Museum of the Jewish Diaspora.
Scriptural basis
The scriptural basis for the idea of lost tribes is : "In the ninth year of Hoshea, the king of Assyria took Samaria, and carried Israel away unto Assyria, and placed them in Halah, and in Habor, on the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes."
According to the Bible, the Kingdoms of Israel and Judah were the successor states to the older United Monarchy of Israel. The Kingdom of Israel came into existence c. 930 BCE after the northern tribes of Israel rejected Solomon's son Rehoboam as their king. Ten tribes formed the Kingdom of Israel: The bible does mention that the Kingdom of Judah consisted of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. The bible does not specifically name the ten tribes but there are commentaries that say that they consisted of the tribes of Reuben, Issachar, Zebulun, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim, Simeon and Manasseh. However it is not clear how Simeon, whose territory was within the Judean territory, could ever have been a part of the northern kingdom. Additionally the territory of Asher was basically Phoenician, and that of Reuben was mostly overlapping with Moabite territory.
Members of the Tribe of Levi were located in cities in both kingdoms. According to , members of the tribes of Ephraim, Manasseh, and Simeon fled to Judah during the reign of Asa of Judah (c. 911–870 BCE).
In c. 732 BCE, the Assyrian king Tiglath-Pileser III captured Damascus and conquered and annexed Aram-Damascus, as well as the northern part of the Kingdom of Israel, while leaving a reduced Israelite kingdom centered on Samaria.
Israel Finkelstein estimated that only a fifth of the population (about 40,000) were actually resettled out of the area during the two deportation periods under Tiglath-Pileser III, Shalmaneser V, and Sargon II. Many also fled south to Jerusalem, which appears to have expanded in size fivefold during this period, requiring a new wall to be built, and a new source of water (Siloam) to be provided by King Hezekiah. Furthermore, explicitly mentions northern Israelites who had been spared by the Assyrians—in particular, members of Dan, Ephraim, Manasseh, Asher, and Zebulun—and how members of the latter three returned to worship at the Temple in Jerusalem at that time.
The New Testament identifies Anna the Prophetess, who appears in the account of the Presentation of Jesus at the Temple, as being "of the tribe of Asher."
Biblical apocrypha According to historian Zvi Ben-Dor Benite:
In Second [also called Fourth] Esdras, 13:39–47:RSV
In Second Baruch, also called the Syriac Apocalypse of Baruch, 77:17–78:4:Translated by R. H. Charles, revised L. H. Brockington, in H. F. D. Sparks, The Apocryphal Old Testament (1985, Oxford University Press) pages 888–889.
Views Judaism The Talmud debates whether or not the ten lost tribes will eventually be reunited with the Tribe of Judah; that is, with the Jewish people:
An Ashkenazi Jewish legend speaks of these tribes as , "the red Jews", who were cut off from the rest of Jewry by the legendary river Sambation, "whose foaming waters raise high up into the sky a wall of fire and smoke that is impossible to pass through."
Christianity To varying degrees, Apocryphal accounts concerning the Lost Tribes, based on biblical accounts, have been produced by Jews and Christians since at least the 17th century. An increased currency of tales relating to lost tribes that occurred in the 17th century was due to the confluence of several factors. According to Tudor Parfitt:
In 1649, Menasseh ben Israel published his book, The Hope of Israel, in Spanish and Latin in Amsterdam; it included Antonio de Montezinos' account of the Lost Tribes in the New World. An English translation was published in London in 1650. In it, Menasseh argued that the native inhabitants of America which were encountered at the time of the European discovery were actually the descendants of the [lost] Ten Tribes of Israel and for the first time, he tried to gain support for the theory from European thinkers and publishers.Méchoulan, Henry, and Nahon, Gérard (eds.), Menasseh Ben Israel. The Hope of Israel, Oxford University Press, Oxford, 1987, , p. 101 and passim. Menasseh noted how important Montezinos' account was,
He wrote on 23 December 1649: "I think that the Ten Tribes live not only there ... but also in other lands scattered everywhere; these never did come back to the Second Temple and they keep till this day still the Jewish Religion ..."
Latter-day Saint Movement
According to the Book of Mormon, two families of Nephites escaped from Israel circa 600 BC shortly before the sacking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, constructed a ship, sailed across the ocean, and arrived in the Americas in the Pre-Columbian era. These Nephites are among the ancestors of Native American tribes and possibly also the Polynesians. Adherents believe the two founding tribes were called Nephites and Lamanites, that the Nephites obeyed the Law of Moses, practiced Christianity, and that the Lamanites were rebellious. The Book of Mormon claims that the Nephites and Lamanites were who Jesus Christ was referring to when he taught, "And other sheep I have, which are not of this fold: them also I must bring, and they shall hear my voice; and there shall be one fold, and one shepherd."John 10:16. Eventually the Lamanites wiped out the Nephites around 400 CE, and they are among the ancestors of Native Americans. The Book of Mormon claims that other groups of Israelites, besides the Nephites, were led away by God from the time of the Exodus through the reign of King Zedekiah, and that Jesus Christ also visited them after His resurrection.Book of Mormon, 3 Nephi 16:1–3. Some Latter-day Saints believe the ancient accounts of Quetzalcoatl and Shangdi, among others, support this doctrine.
The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (LDS Church) believes in the literal gathering of Israel, and as of 2006 the Church actively preached the gathering of people from the twelve tribes. "Today Israelites are found in all countries of the world. Many of these people do not know that they are descended from the ancient house of Israel," the church teaches in its basic Gospel Principles manual. "The Lord promised that His covenant people would someday be gathered ... God gathers His children through missionary work. As people come to a knowledge of Jesus Christ, receiving the ordinances of salvation and keeping the associated covenants, they become 'the children of the covenant' (3 Nephi 20:26)."
The church also teaches that
The tenth Article of Faith, written by Joseph Smith, states: "We believe in the literal gathering of Israel and in the restoration of the Ten Tribes; that Zion (the New Jerusalem) will be built upon the American continent; that Christ will reign personally upon the earth; and, that the earth will be renewed and receive its paradisiacal glory." (LDS Articles of Faith #10)
In Ezekiel 37 15-19 he is told to take two sticks, one for Judah and one for Ephraim (or Joseph), and join the two sticks together. The church teaches that the Book of Mormon is the stick of Ephraim (or Joseph) mentioned and that the Bible is the stick of Judah, thus comprising two witnesses for Jesus Christ. The church considers the Book of Mormon one of the main tools for the spiritual gathering of Israel.
Historical view The Samaritans constitute a distinct surviving tradition of ancient Israel, with their own Torah, holy mountain at Mount Gerizim, priesthood, ancestry traditions, and claims to the twelve tribes.
It has been proposed that some Israelites joined the southern tribes in the Kingdom of Judah; however, this theory is debated. The Israelites who were deported are thought to have assimilated with the local populace.
For instance, the New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia states: "In historic fact, some members of the Ten Tribes remained in the land of Israel, where apart from the Samaritans some of their descendants long preserved their identity among the Jewish population, others were assimilated, while others were presumably absorbed by the last Judean exiles who in 597–586 BCE were deported to Assyria ... Unlike the Judeans of the southern Kingdom, who survived a similar fate 135 years later, they soon assimilated".
Search The enduring mysteries which surround the disappearance of the tribes later became sources of numerous (largely mythological) narratives in recent centuries, with historian Tudor Parfitt arguing that "this myth is a vital feature of colonial discourse throughout the long period of European overseas empires, from the beginning of the fifteenth century, until the later half of the twentieth". Along with Prester John, they formed an imaginary guide for exploration and contact with uncontacted and indigenous peoples in the Age of Discovery and colonialism.
However, during his other research projects, Parfitt discovered the possible existence of some ethnic links between several older Jewish Diaspora communities in Asia, Africa and the Middle East, especially in those Jewish communities which were established in pre-colonial times. For example, in his Y-DNA studies of males from the Lemba people of Southern Africa, Parfitt found a high proportion of paternal Semitic ancestry, DNA that is common to both Arabs and Jews from the Middle East.