The Twelve Tribes of Israel (Give or Take)

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Dan McClellan (1:02)

Joseph and Benjamin were the sons of Rachel. Those were the two sons of Rachel. You do have a sense that I imagine that the other ten sons of Jacob are like, Oh, you love Joseph and Benjamin more than you love us.

Hey everybody, I'm Dan McClellan.

Dan Beecher (1:23)

And I'm Dan Beecher.

Dan McClellan (1:25)

And this is Data Over Dogma where we increase public access to the academic study of the Bible and religion and we combat the spread of misinformation about the same. How are things today, Dan?

Dan Beecher (1:36)

Things are good, having a nice time and ready to talk about some interesting stuff, including, but not limited to. Our first topic for today, which is going to be a what's that and the that, maybe it's what are those. Because we're gonna be talking about the 12 tribes of Israel. Or is it 13? Or is it 14? I don't know, we'll get to that. And then, in the latter half of our show today, we're gonna talk, it's a History's Mysteries. We're gonna talk about why we can say, open up your Bible to this chapter, that verse, that. And everyone will kind of be on the same page, probably. For the most part. We'll figure out the versification and why it's there and how it got there and all that sort of stuff in the latter half of the show. But for now, let's dive into what's that?

So, 12 Tribes of Israel, what's that?

Let's start with, first of all, Israel is Jacob.

Dan McClellan (3:01)

Ostensibly. That's the claim. Okay.

That the patriarch named Jacob, so we have Abraham, Isaac and then Jacob, Abraham's grandson, had his name changed to Israel after his little rasslin match with somebody, a dude, perhaps an angel, perhaps God. Okay. Somebody.

Dan Beecher (3:27)

But it is God, right? Like, we've already done this. It's God.

Dan McClellan (3:30)

Yeah, yeah. It's God.

And God says, you know what I like to cut of your jib? So, I'm gonna change your name to Israel, the idea being that Jacob struggled, fought, wrestled, wrassled even, with God. And Israel, the idea is supposed to be that it means he who strives with God or something like that. The reality is that's not what the name Israel means. It probably means something more like El contends or God contends.

Dan Beecher (4:01)

Okay.

Dan McClellan (4:01)

But that is neither here nor is it there because yes. So, the name is changed to Israel and then Jacob has a bunch of kids, 12 sons.

And those 12 sons are the eponymous ancestors of the 12 tribes of Israel. So, basically everything fits into a nice little genealogical line. So, everybody can... Okay, great.

Dan Beecher (4:26)

Then we've solved it.

Dan McClellan (4:28)

Yeah.

Dan Beecher (4:28)

Episode over.

Dan McClellan (4:31)

What is it I supposed to say at the end of the episode? I don't even remember what I say now.

I think I just say bye everybody.

SPEAKER_6 (4:37)

But anyway, yeah, it would be terrific if it were that simple.

Dan McClellan (4:45)

But we've got a bunch of problems with that. But yeah, part of the point here is that the 12 tribes are kind of a rhetorical organization principle, a way to curate and negotiate who belongs, who is part of our group. And if you can identify the tribe you're a part of, that goes back to one of the 12 sons of Israel, that goes back to Israel, that goes back to Isaac, that goes back to Abraham. We're all offspring of Abraham in that sense, or at least anybody who identifies with one of the 12 tribes of Israel.