Your hear or read a lot about the lost Tribes os Israel. On this subject I have many questions:

-- What were the ten Tribes thar were "lost"? The members of such Tribes simply disappeared or were just dispersed?

-- At Jesus times were members of these Tribes still living in Palestine?

-- Where in today's world can one or more of these tribes be found?

-- Do the Jewish families today keep a record of what Tribe they belong to?

I find this topic highly interesting.

Thank you in advance for your answers.

Enrique

-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), January 07, 2004

Answers

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-- Enrique Ortiz (eaortiz@yahoo.com), January 07, 2004.

Instead of listing the lost ten, I will list the two that were not. Benjamin and Judah (from which we get words like Judaism and Jew).

The tribes were 'lost' when they were conquered by the Assyrians.

At the time of Jesus the Tribes were already lost. But we need to be careful. When we say the Tribe was lost that does not mean every individual memeber of the tribe. There were, most likely, a few members of most of the tribes in Palestine at the time of Jesus. Most importantly, the tribe of Levi. The temple was up and running in the day of Jesus, and the temple is run by the Levites. There were definately Levites in Palestine in Jesus' day.

Today there are dozens of groups that claim to be the descendants of the lost tribes. On the most part they have absolutely no evidence to back this up. There are, however, a couple of groups that seem to have some rudimentary claim. Scholars in the Jewish world are looking into it. Off the top of my head I cannot think of where these are located. (Sorry). As a side point we know for a fact that the Mormon claim that the NA Indians are the lost tribes of Israel is totally false.

As far as I know Jewish families do not keep track of this. The only exception is the Levites. The Jews know who is a Levite as well as who is a descendant of Aaron (a Levite, but also the line of High Priests). If the temple were rebuilt today they would know who to get as priests.

Dano

-- Dan Garon (boethius61@yahoo.com), January 07, 2004.

I beleive there is a large Jewish population somewhere in Africa who most scholars accept to be descended from one of the tribes. There are Jews in Afghanistan who claim to be descended from another tribe. There is an ethnic group in Central Asia who claim to be one of the ten tribes. There are other groups who claim to be the tribes in India, China, Pakistan, Japan, and even Cambodia. The topic fascinates me as well.

-- Anti-bush (Comrade_bleh@hotmail.com), January 08, 2004.

The confusion Enrique about 10 tribes comes from the prophecy given that Jeroboam , later King of Northern Israel will get 10 tribes and Rehoboam of Judah 2 about 923 BC.

1Ki 11:31 And he said to Jeroboam, Take thee ten pieces: for thus saith the LORD, the God of Israel, Behold, I will rend the kingdom out of the hand of Solomon, and will give ten tribes to thee:

Yet, geographically and historically these tribes, descendants of Jacob's 12 sons were inside Judah's kingdom: Judah, Levi, Benjamin, Reuben, and Simeon.

Northern Israel was exiled in about 723 BC.

2Ki 18:9 And it came to pass in the fourth year of king Hezekiah, which [was] the seventh year of Hoshea son of Elah king of Israel, [that] Shalmaneser king of Assyria came up against Samaria, and besieged it. 2Ki 18:10 And at the end of three years they took it: [even] in the sixth year of Hezekiah, that [is] the ninth year of Hoshea king of Israel, Samaria was taken. 2Ki 18:11 And the king of Assyria did carry away Israel unto Assyria, and put them in Halah and in Habor [by] the river of Gozan, and in the cities of the Medes:

So no mention of 10 tribes being exiled.

The Man of Yahweh

-- Elpidio Gonzalez (egonzalez@srla.org), January 12, 2004.

pbs.org has some interesting reading concerning an African people who claim to be decendants of one of the lost tribes. Genetic tests have proven they are correct.

-- Mark Advent (adventm5477@earthlink.net), February 03, 2004.