TRIBES 0-ijmn, no= ; cbaal, tribus) is the name of the great groups of families into which the Israelitish nation, like other Oriental races, was divided. Tbe modern Arabs, the Bedouins, and the Berbers, and also the Moors on the northern shores of Africa, are still divided into tribes. The clans in Scotland are also analogous to the tribes of the ancient Israelites. The division of a nation into tribes differs from a division into castes, since one is a division merely according to descent, and the other superadds a necessity of similar occupa tions being prevalent among persons connected by consanguinity. There occurs, however, among the Israelites a caste also—viz. that of the Levites. In Gen. xlix. the tribes are enumerated according to their progenitors—viz. I. REUBEN, the first-born ; 2. SIMEON, and 3. LEVI, instruments of cruelty ; 4. jUDAH, whom his brethren shall praise ; 5. ZABULON, dwelling at the haven of the sea ; 6. ISSACHAR, the strong ; 7. DAN, the judge ; 8. GAD, whom a troop shall overcome, but who shall vanquish at last ; 9. ASHER, whose bread shall be fat ; ro. NAPHTALI, giving goodly words ; JosEPH, the fruitful bough ; 12. BENJAMIN, the wolf—all these were originally the twelve tribcs of Israel. In this enumeration it is remarkable that the subsequent division of the tribe of Joseph into the two branches of Ephraim and Manasseh is not yet alluded to. After this later division of the very numerous tribe of Joseph into the two branches of Ephraim and Manasseh had taken place, there were, strictly speaking, thirteen tribes. It was, however, usual to view them as comprehended. under the number twelve, which was the more natural, since one of them—viz. the caste of the Levites—dicl not live within such exclusive geogra phical limits as were assigned to the others after they exchanged their nomadic migrations for settled habitations, but dwelt in towns scattered through all the other twelve tribes. It is also remarkable that the Ishmaelites as well as the Israelites were divided into twelve tribes ; and that the Persians also, according to Xenophon (Cyroperdia, i. 2, 4, seg.), were similarly divided. Among other na tions also occur ethnological and geographical divisions, according to the ntunber twelve. From this we infer that the number twelve was held in so much favour that, when possible, doubtful cases were adapted to it. An analogous case we find even at a later period, when the spiritual pro genitors of the Christian SwaexcicbuXop, or the apo stles. who wcrc, after the death of Judas, the elec.
tion of Matthias, and the vocation of Paul, really thirteen in number, but were nevertheless habitu ally viewed as twelve ; so that wherever, during the middle ages, any division was made with refer ence to the apostles, the number twelve, and not thirteen, was adopted, whether applied to the halls of theological libraries, or to the great barrels of costly wines in the cellar of the civic authorities at Bremen. Concerning the arrangement of these tribes on their march through the wilderness, in their encampments around the ark, and in their occupation of the land of Canaan, see the cognate articles, such as EXODUS, ENCAMPMENT, GENE ALOGIES, LEVITES, WANDERING, and the names of the several tribes. We confine ourselves here
to a few words about that inexhaustible source of theologico-historical charlatanism, the LOST TRIBES, on which there have been written so many volumes that it would be difficult to condense the contra dictory opinions advanced in them within the limits of a moderate article. Suffice it to say, that there is scarcely any human race so abject, forlorn, and dwindling, located anywhere between the Chinese and the American Indians, who have not been stated to be the ten tribes which disappeared from history during and after the Babylonian cap tivity.
The truth of the matter seems rather to be as follows. After the division of the Israelities under Jeroboam and Rehoboam into the two kingdoms of Judah and Israel, the believers in whom the feelings of ancient theocratic legitimacy and nationality pre dominated, and especially the priests and Levites, who were connected by many ties with the sanctuary at Jerusalem, had a tendency to migrate towards the visible centre of their devotions ; whilst those members of the tribes of Judah and Benjamin who had an individual hankering after the foreign fashions adoptcd in Samaria, and the whole king dom of Israel, had a tendency externally to unite themselves to a state of things corresponding with their individuality. After the political fall of both kingdoms, when all the principal families connected with the possession of the soil had been compelled to emigrate, most Israelites, who had previously little feeling for theocratic nationality, gradually amalgamated by marriages and other connections with the nations by which they were surrounded ; while the former inhabitants of the kingdom of Judah felt their nationality revived by the very de privation of public worship which they suffered in foreign lands. Many of the pious members of those tribes which had formerly constituted the kingdom of Israel undoubtedly joined the return ing colonies which proceeded by the permission of the Persian monarchs to the land of their fathers. However, these former members of the other tribes formed so decidedly a minority among the members of the tribe of Judah that henceforth all believers and worshippers of Jehovah were called COW', qouSaioe, JuDiEt, Jews. Thus it came to pass that the best, although smaller, portion of the ten tribes amalgamated with the Jews, some of whom pre served their genealogies till after the destruction of Jerusalem ; while the larger proportion of the ten tribes amalgamated with the Gentiles of Central Asia, to whom they probably imparted some of their notions and customs, which again were, in a state more or less pure, propagated to distant regions by the great national migrations proceeding from Central Asia. We are glad to find that this our historical conviction has also been adopted by the most learned among the Jews themselves. We may refer to Allgemeine Geschichte des Israelitischen Volkes, by Dr. J. M. Jost, Berlin 1832, vol. i. p. 4.07 seq., 416 seq.
That the name of THE JEws became general for all Israelites who were anxious to preserve their theocratic nationality was the more natural, since the political independence of the ten tribes was de stroyed long before that of the kingdom of Judah. —C. H. F. B.