Where are the 12 tribes of ancient Israel today?

I have been looking for some answers without much success. Where are the 12 tribes of Israel today? I found that some are stil in Israel, one in northern India, one may have went to France, but I have been unable to find facts. Isn't there also something negative that could occur spiritually if one of the 12 bloodlines were lost?

You can be sure that God knows the bloodline decendents of the Lost tribes. Whether he acually needs them is because: Matthew 3:9
And do not think you can say to yourselves, ‘We have Abraham as our father.’ I tell you that out of these stones God can raise up children for Abraham.

But since the Bible prophecies as well that all the tribes of Israel will return to their land when Jesus reigns on earth is enough to ensure that the bloodline decendents will not be all wiped out, but merely lost to all but God.

Just Passing through but here is one instance of a map, there are plenty out there:
members.aol.com...

the records of family lines were destroyed by the romans when they took jerusalem in the 1st century. so their is NO ONE that can prove a claim to any tribe. besides , as the jews rejected jesus so jesus rejected israel, look at matthew 23: 37,38......and the tribes named in john's revelation are NOT the same 12 as in ancient times !!! read it, 2 ARE different. and as was mentioned in an earlier post, if God cares what tribe is what, He will figure it out...and to, if God wanted us to know who and where these tribes are don't you think He would let us know, as He has done about all things of importance past , present, and future ? check AMOS 3:7.....

I thought that the tribes fled over the Caucus (sp) mountains into Europe...hence the word "caucasion". Wouldn't that make Europians to be desended from the twelve tribes???

I do not have a link but I learned this from "Shepherd's Chapel"...Arnold Murray's bible teachings.

Originally posted by Cherish
I thought that the tribes fled over the Caucus (sp) mountains into Europe...hence the word "caucasion". Wouldn't that make Europians to be desended from the twelve tribes???

I do not have a link but I learned this from "Shepherd's Chapel"...Arnold Murray's bible teachings.

Never heard that one before, but it is VERY interesting.

Okay, to get things straight you understand that you should be asking where the 10 tribes are, right?

The two southern tribes of Judah and Benjamin are the current day "Jews". We know where they are...well, they are everywhere, but also in Israel. The 10 northern tribes are the ones that got lost in the diaspora.



[edit on 1-16-2005 by Valhall]

p.s.

You have the 12 tribes of the Israelites all of which were descendants of Israel (Jacob). They were all Israelites, but they were not all ultimately Jews.

The tribes of Judah and Benjamin (who lived in the southern Israelite kingdom) are the only ones who ultimately were "Jews" (Israelites of the Kingdom of Judah).

For instance, the Samaritans were Israelites (they were of the 10 northern tribes). It is all the northern tribes that are lost.

My father, a very devoted Christian said that the tribes were scattered all over the world, and had blended with the rest of the civilization.

When I was a child I remember that in sabbath school they used to tell us about the Israel tribes and how many people will be saved from the tribes, occurs been Spanish and in the new world I used to felt that we were not part of it because we were not Jews.

So my father to make my mind at ease will tell me above how the tribes scattered all over the world and mix with the regular population.

I think that was nice of my dad.

Now to tell you the truth I think it can be truth after all.

Originally posted by godservant
I have been looking for some answers without much success. Where are the 12 tribes of Israel today? I found that some are stil in Israel, one in northern India, one may have went to France, but I have been unable to find facts. Isn't there also something negative that could occur spiritually if one of the 12 bloodlines were lost?

This is a fascinating subject that I have barely scratched the surface of researching. The idea of a group of people literally forgetting "who they are" intrigues me. I think it is an indicator of one of mankinds nagging problems. We lose sight of the fact that we are all really one blood.

I found an interesting booklet on the lost tribes: www.tomorrowsworld.org...

As previously noted only 10 tribes were "missing", as the tribe of Judah and Benjamin became the Jewish nation of today.

When Moses led the Hebrews back from Egypt, he gave the tribes of Gad, Ruben and half the tribe of Manasseh the land of Gilead (west of the Jordan) captured from the Amorites. Then the combined forces of all the tribes marshalled by Joshua captured Canaan (modern day Israel) in about 1200BC. Joshua divided the lands between the remaining tribes, but due to a falling out, the Benjamites were all but destroyed when they turned against the Hebrews.

The Hebrews had many wars and eventually prospered under King David, whose son Solomon was to be the wealthiest and most powerful kind of Israel ever. Solomon however became decadent and a young Jewish foreman called Jeroboam was advised by a prophet that God would give him 10 of the 12 tribes because of Solomons decline. After Solomons death (931BC) the Hebrew empire was split between the followers of Rehoboam (son of Solomon - Judah) and the other tribes (Israel) led by Jeroboam.

In 722BC Shamaneser V of Assyria conquered the Israelites and took them away into exile into Media - Persia. Some 200 years later the Judeans fell to the armies of the Babalonian King Nebucadnezzar who destroyed Jeruselam and the whole region of Canaan lay empty for 70 years. The Jews (Judah) would return from captivity to rebuild Jerusalem, whereas the Israelites did not.

(based on "the Antiquities of the Jews" by Flavius Josephus)

The Israelites slowly migrated north and west across Europe, initially known as the Scythians or Cimmerians. The Tribal distribution is listed as follows

Gad - becomes Goth who end up in Scandinavia, predominantly in Sweden.
Reuben/Half Menasseh - becomes Franks in Flanders, Lorraine & France
Dan - becomes Danish, hence European names such as the Danube
Naphtali - mix with the Hun then later Viking - Norwegian
Simeon - Become Simeni, Silures or Celts, later Welsh.
Levi - become Lombards, Northern Italian, Swiss
Asher - becomes Vandals and finally Scots
Issachar - Burgundians then Swiss, Austrian.
Zebulon - to Holland, the Netherlands, Dutch.
Joseph (Ephraim/Menasseh) - Angles/Saxons becomes English

This represents a very brief account summarised from Jewish Scholar Yair Davidy in his historical research of "The Tribes - Israelite Origins of Western Peoples"

P.S. The Samaritans weren't Hebrews.

Thank you, Flange Gasket. Those were the answers I was specifically looking for. Guess that means that most of us have Jewish blood in us. So who are the gentiles now?

It depends on what point of view you are looking for... Gasket presents very clearly the Rabbinic point of view. The traditional view is that today's Jews are either "foreign" people converted to Judaism (like most of the Ashkenazis) or trace their roots to Jude and Benjamin. Some ancient Rabbinic families even trace their descent from the tribe of Levi... this is very important in the traditional view that only this very tribe can supply the Temple's priests and clerics. Should the Temple ever be rebuilt, only those claiming a Levitic heritage would be allowed to serve it. There's one big issue, however: the Ethiopian Jews (Falashà). While their true origins are lost in the mists of time, they claim to descend from the lovechild of King Salomon and the Queen of Sheeba. This view is very important, since they are one of the very few people to claim direct descent (albeit illegittimate) from Israel's royal family. Historians usually consider the "Jewish heritage" of the European nations a later false, to transfer the legitimacy of the "God's People" title from the Jews to the Christians... few can argue against it. Too little is know about the Scythians to argue about their origins, and even less is known about the origins of the German tribes that settled in Europe during the later days of the Roman Empire. It would be interesting to know how Yair Davidy reached these conclusions...

I think that the tribes of Judah and Benjamin remained more intact than the others. Because when the nation split, and the ten northern tribes cut off from Judah and Benjamin, forming the northern kingdom of Israel and the southern kingdom of Judah, Israel was eventually destroyed and the Hebrews of those tribes ended up spread out over many lands. The other two tribes were spread out as well but remained pretty much in the Middle East.

Originally posted by godservant
I have been looking for some answers without much success. Where are the 12 tribes of Israel today? I found that some are stil in Israel, one in northern India, one may have went to France, but I have been unable to find facts. Isn't there also something negative that could occur spiritually if one of the 12 bloodlines were lost?

12 tribes is symbolically implying something other than what you think because the body of this world is being decieved so.

Originally posted by dougreed
the records of family lines were destroyed by the romans when they took jerusalem in the 1st century. so their is NO ONE that can prove a claim to any tribe.

The tribes were 'lost' long before this tho.

Wouldn't that make Europians to be desended from the twelve tribes???

Since people inhabited europe before this event it wouldn't. There are lots of ideas as to where the lost tribes went. Some say india, where there is a group of people who have some customs and names that seem jewish or something. The mormons, if i understand correctly, think that the lost tribes traveled to america. Supposedly there is a village/sanctuary in north africa that has a group of people claiming to be cohenen or some such, a preistly tribe i think.

The most likely idea is that, if they even existed in the first place, that they were dispersed thruought the asyrian kingdom. This was something the assyrians did when they took a place, like israel and judea, over, uproot the people and send them to a different location. No homeland, no familiar neighbhors, no resistance. Thats the answer given for the north indian / kashmiri people claiming to be jews. There are also groups of muslims in afghanistan apparently that claim to be descendants of the lost tribe, who later coverted to islam. And of course there are jews in iraq, old babylon/assyria, to this day, perhaps some of them could be considered as such.

But outside of the bible there isn't really anything to back up their existence anyways.

marg
occurs been Spanish and in the new world I used to felt that we were not part of it because we were not Jews

Interesting side note here. When the Iberian Spainish kicked the jews out, many converted to christianty, but only publically. Many also moved out to the new world holdings of spain apparently too. THe result is that there are lots of people of spanish descent, in europe and latin america, who are christian, catholic of course, but who have strange traditions, like eating by candlelight only as a family on certain nights, and other strange things, that are very similar to jewish customs. Turns out, these people are often "crypto-jews", jews who converted because of the persecution, but still kept the old ways. THey can be identified by genetic testing too.

Apparently, there is a preist in mexico who is one such crypto-jew, he just found out the results recently! He wears a star of david on his cross now!

Googling 'crypto-jew' and 'preist' will give a number of results.

[edit on 19-1-2005 by Nygdan]

I'm inclined to beleive the Rabbinic position tempered with idea that the Jews intermingled with other races along the way. As previously stated, there were already people in Europe prior to the Persian Exodus...

With DNA testing it may be possible in the future to identify common ancesters amongst european descendants.

The twelve tribes of israel have recently banded together to by a two block strip in (ironically enough) the catherdral city area of palm springs. This massive two block strip mall is bound to bring the world together as the twelve tribes themselves unite.

We can all look forward to The Massada:A place for books. Twelve tribes from Sicily and of course Jonah's seafood and waffles.

Just kidding, I have no idea where the twelve tribes have got to.

It would be my guess that considering the twelve tribes is somewhat of a creation myth we are all in someway a member of one of the twelve tribes.

Basically they went everywhere and eventually became everyone.

Just my opinion of course.

Spiderj

i was wondering is there any things mention on all books about the lost tribes scattering around asia?

You know I wonder if the Israelis will know about the missing tribes after all is part of their heritage and history.

Perhaps is some accounts by them on where their tribes went.