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Understanding The 13 Tribes

To understand who the 13th Tribe is, we have to understand who the 12 Tribes are!

Genesis 49, we read who the 12 tribes of Israel exactly are…

  1. Reuben (Verse 3) &  (Revelation 7:5)
  2. Simeon & Levi (Verse 5) If you keep reading Jacob actually prophecies that they will be scattered across Israel in Verse 7, which is what happens later on during the Life of Moses.  In verse 3 we see that these two are brothers, but they get put together as one tribe. Here is the weird part in Revelation 7:7 there is a Tribe of Simeon, so now we are missing two tribes in Revelation 7. Genesis 49 puts them together, Revelation 7 separates them into two different tribes. 
  3. Judah (Verse 8) & (Revelation 7:5)
  4. Zebulun (Verse 13) & (Revelation 7:8)
  5. Issachar (Verse 14) & (Revelation 7:7)
  6. Dan (Verse 16) &  Not Listed in Revelation 7 as one of the 12 tribes
  7. Gad (Verse 19) & (Revelation 7:5)
  8. Asher (Verse 20) & (Revelation 7:6)
  9. Naphtali (Verse 21) & (Revelation 7:6)
  10. Joseph (Verse 22) & (Revelations 7:8)
  11. Benjamin (Verse 27) & (Revelations 7:8) 

After Jacob listed these tribes and he gives prophetic meaning to each other them, verse 28 says “All These are the twelve tribes of Israel”. There is one problem, well, actually two problems, in Revelation 7 the Tribe of Dan is not listed, but it does list the Tribe of Manasseh, the Tribe of Manasseh? Who is Manasseh? Where did Dan go?

Well first Manasseh was the son of Joseph, Joseph had two sons Manasseh and Ephraim, they both became Tribes. The Tribe of Manasseh makes it into the 12 tribes of Revelation 7. So what happened with Ephraim? The story of these two brothers? Well, we read about an interesting story in Genesis 48. Right before Jacob dies he blessing Ephraim, the younger brother, and says he will be like his older brother Manasseh, he will be a group of nations. Not a Great Nation, a GROUP OF NATIONS! This is happening in Genesis 48:19-20. This naturally makes me want to see what Tribe Jesus is from and we see he came from the line of Judah. Which means nothing, that is for right now. So where is the Tribe of Ephraim? Where is the Group of Nations? Who is the Group of Nations? Honestly, didn’t expect this to go this deep. 

Little more about these two tribes. All the way in Joshua 14:3-4 we learn about how the tribe of Levi wasn’t given land, because Joseph’s two sons became two tribes. Then in Joshua 16, we learn about the Allotment for both Ephraim and Manasseh. 

So who & where is this Group of Nations called Tribe of Ephraim. They’re the Northern Kingdom of Israel, which was overtaken by the Assyrians in 722 BC. Judah is the Southern Kingdom which got overtaken by the Babylonians nearly 140 years later (586 BC). When Israel went into a civil war, they divided between the north and the south. Just like the United States. The United States also had 13 colonies. And I am proving how Israel had 13 tribes. 

Now, remember, I was looking at where Jesus came from? He came from the Tribe of Judah, the Southern Kingdom. In Revelations 7:5, the tribe of Judah is listed and in Revelations 7:6 the Tribe of Manasseh is listed. If we go back to Joshua 16:4 & 16:9, it puts the two tribes together. As if they both are living together with each other, sharing the land. Both tribes are in the Northern Kingdom. So we are looking at a two tribe one tribe set up. Like if a whole tribe is being hidden. Kind of weird. 

What about the Tribe of Dan? It doesn’t show up in the 12 Tribes in the list of Revelation 7?

The Tribe of Dan sinned against God in many very different ways and they pretty much rejected God and kept worshipping man-made gods. So it’s possible they got excluded from the 12 Tribes of Revelation 7. 

So there you have it, the 13 tribes, one tribe is excluded most likely because they rejected God for false gods and they did a lot of other things too, like killing entire groups of people to take their land because the land God gave them was “unacceptable” in their own view.