"Twelve Tribes"



According to the genealogical records of the Old Testament, the Israelites trace their lineage back to one founding father, Abraham. He was famously called by God, who promised to make his descendants as numerous as the stars. Abraham had a son called Isaac, who in turn had a son named Jacob (also known as Israel). Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are traditionally called the 'Patriarchs'.

It was Jacob who became the father of twelve sons: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph and Benjamin, as well as one daughter, Dinah. Jacob's twelve sons were the eponymous ancestors of the Twelve Tribes (that is, they gave their names to their descendants), and so for example the name 'Reuben' can refer either to the man Reuben or the tribe Reuben that he founded.

Many modern biblical scholars do not believe that these 'founding fathers' were actual individuals, and instead suggest that the whole story is an aetiology (that is, a tale that explains the origin or cause of some current situation, phenomenon, custom, or ritual). Some people have suggested that the number twelve was chosen specifically to correspond with the twelve signs of the zodiac, or the twelve months of the year. Numbers in ancient religion were often symbolic. Twelve recurs in many key biblical passages, notably in Revelation 7:4 and 14:1-3; here, the number is squared by itself and multiplied by ten, which seems to have been the ultimate form of symbolic emphasis, to give a total of 144,000.

In religious tradition (especially outside of Judaism), the historical reality of the origins of the Twelve Tribes is usually of little consequence. The original paradigm of twelve blood-related kinship groups has been adapted in some interesting figuritive ways.

The notion that Jesus' sacrificial death opened up God's salvation (previously limited to the Jews) to all nations implied that every Christian could claim to be part of Israel in a wider spiritual sense, and so the Christian Church has become known as the 'Spiritual Israel'. Hence, the 144,000 people (12,000 from each of the twelve tribes) who are 'sealed' for heaven in Revelation 7:4 are often interpreted in terms of the 'spiritual Israel'. Indeed, some Christian theologians have claimed that God has actually rejected his original 'Chosen People', the literal Israel, in favour of the Christian Church.

More recently, the story of the twelve tribes became the inspiration behind one of the more structured branches of the Rastafarian movement. Founded by the 'Prophet Gad' (also known as Dr. Vernon Carrington) in Jamaica in 1968, the Twelve Tribes of Israel (often abbreviated to TTOI) similarly is based on an extended spiritual rather than literal meaning of the term 'Israel'. The symbolism is strengthened by the parallel between the Jewish Diaspora and the Black African Diaspora, though today many members of TTOI are neither Black nor African. The establishment of TTOI may therefore be seen to correspond to the prophecied restoration of Israel.

Characteristics of the TTOI usually include an emphasis on reading the Bible 'a chapter a day', a close adherence to scripture, a denial of the worship of Haile Selassie, and the symbolic number twelve. Each member is named and classified as belonging to one of the twelve tribes, depending on his or her month of birth; hence, there are close links with the ancient practice and science of astronomy-astrology, and different character traits may be attributed to different tribes.

Some of the best known and loved reggae artists and groups have been members of the Twelve Tribes: Dennis Brown, Bob Marley and Israel Vibration to name but a few.



Back to 'Key Biblical Concepts In Rasta Reggae Lyrics' page