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History of the tribes:
The 12 tribes were nevertheless independent until Saul united all of them. During the time that all 12 were united, the union of the 12 was called Israel (see maps above, center and right). After the time
of Solomon (a son of David), the 12 tribes divided into two groups: one
group of 10 tribes in the north and another group of 2 tribes in the south.. The
10 to the north were still called Israel. The 2 to the south were subsequently called
Judah. The situation then looked like the map below. (Click on the map to see a
larger version of it.) Many events occurred after the kingdom was divided and before Jesus was born
centuries later. One of the
later events was that the Romans invaded and conquered all of that part of the
world. The situation after the Roman conquest looked liked the map below. (Click
on the map to see a larger version.) During the time of the Roman occupation, many of the people in the area that had formerly been called Judah were descendants of the people who had lived there after the 12 tribes split into 2 kingdoms. Few of the people who lived in the northern area, during the time of the Romans, that had been called Israel (after the split) were descendants of the people who had lived there. The reason for this situation was that almost all of the people, who had lived in the northern part of the divided kingdom (which was still called Israel after the split) had been conquered, carried away into captivity (by an invader previous to the Romans, the Assyrians), and had not ever returned. The Assyrians had left the northern portion of territory of the 10 tribes of (northern) Israel vacant. The people who lived on the coast of the Mediterranean eventually migrated eastward into the northern portion of that territory which was eventually called Galilee. The people who had been imported into the southern part were eventually called the Samaritans. The Samaritans were called that because they lived in and around the city called Samaria (see map). The Galileans were called that because they lived further north, near to the Sea of Galilee (more or less in the area where the tribes of Zebulun, Naphtali and Issachar had been, see map). The people who returned to the area formerly called Judah, after having been carried away as captives (by yet another conqueror before the Greeks and the Romans), discriminated against the Samaritans, the Galileans and everybody else outside of Judah, even if such people did obey the most high God. The Judeans discriminated because almost none of the people outside of Judah were descendents of the original people of the former northern part of the kingdom, or descendants of the original people in the area called Judah (after the split of the kingdom). That is, the people in the northern region, which had been the former northern kingdom, were no longer "children of Abraham". The people of Judah occasionally revolted against the Romans. One such revolt started in 66 A.D. and ended with the defeat of the Judeans in 73 A.D. at Masada. During the course of the war, the Romans destroyed the Temple at Jerusalem in 70 A.D. The Temple has not yet been rebuilt. The final revolt of the Judeans started in 132 A.D. and ended with their defeat by the Romans in 135 A.D. This was the final revolt because the Romans expelled nearly all of the Judeans from Judah, beginning with Jerusalem and any place from which Jerusalem could be seen. The Judeans were eventually dispersed throughout the Roman Empire, and eventually throughout the world. This dispersion could be said to be the last phase of the Diaspora which could be said to have been begun by the invaders who carried away the northern tribes into captivity. The truly worldwide extent of the Diaspora is shown by the fact that a small group of Jews (who had subsequently intermarried with the Chinese) was discovered in China during the first decade of the 20th century. [Source for this information about the Chinese Jews: http://www.haruth.com/JewsChina1907.html ] A few Judeans (or Jews, as they were later called) continued to live in Judah after 135 A.D. Their few descendents continued to live there, even after the area was conquered by the Moslems. An effort to return the Jews (and the members of other tribes) was begun by a single Jew in 1837 A.D. Some additional Jews began to organize a larger effort to return the Jews to Israel (or Palestine, as the area was by then called) in 1896 A.D. This effort resulted in the declaration of independence by the modern nation of Israel in 1948 A.D. The Temple has nevertheless not yet been rebuilt because the supposed location of the former Temple (see map) is under the control of the Moslems, as is Bethlehem, the place where Emmanuel is to come forth, as mentioned in paragraph 001 of This Good Riddle. Additional information: Image acknowledgements: |
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