Twelve tribes looking for home

Pages 22 and 23 of The Bible Atlas: A pictorial guide to the Holy Lands (text Dr. Stephen Motyer, illustrations Brian Delf) offer a spread titled “The Promised Land.”

There is an interesting set of stories: (1) Moses sees the Promised Land (remember, he wasn’t allowed to cross over Jordan and enter it because he had struck the rock to get water, whereas God had told him to speak to it: disobedience); (2) Rahab and the spies; and (3) The Fall of Jericho. There are two more stories (not numbered):  The Twelve Tribes of Israel – a small map shows the tribes and the symbols which represented them, and The campaigns of Joshua.

The River Jordan

My first reading found me curious about the River Jordan, which is shown in its length. We are told that it flows from north to south, passing through the Sea of Galilee and ending in the Dead Sea which is 1,365 feet (416 m) below sea level. I wanted more figures, so I consulted Google.

The river rises at the base of snow-capped Mount Hermon*, and it just happens upon the Sea of Galilee then travels 100 miles to the Dead Sea. 256 miles in all. It is only 1 to 2 foot deep! The Dead Sea is endorheic: a closed body of water with no outlets, the water only leaving the lake through evaporation or seepage. (Lake Eyre is an example of an endorheic body of water until it is flooded by water coming down from Queensland.)

The 12 tribes

West of the Jordan (N to S):

•                 Asher
•                  Naphtali
•                  Zebulun
•                  Issachar
•                  Manasseh
•                  Dan
•                  Ephraim
•                  Judah
•                  Benjamin
•                  Simeon

East of the Jordan:

•                  Gad
•                  Reuben

I have found it difficult to get details of the symbols shown against each tribe. This next list is from Wikipedia (Ed. This list excludes Manasseh and Ephraim but adds in Joseph and Levi.):

•        Asher: a tree
•        Naphtali: gazelle (Genesis 49:21)
•        Zebulun: ship, due to their bordering the Sea of Galilee and Mediterranean
•        Issachar: Sun, moon and stars (1 Chronicles 12:32)
•        Dan: Scales of justice
•        Judah: Kinnor, cithara, and crown, symbolising King David
•        Benjamin: jug, ladle, and fork
•        Simeon: towers and walls of the city of Shechem
•        Gad: tents, symbolizing their itinerancy as cattle-herders
•        Reuben: Mandrake (Genesis 30:14)
•        Joseph: Palm tree and sheaves of wheat, likely references to the dreams he received as a child (Genesis 37:7)
•        Levi: Priestly breastplate, symbolizing the Kohanim

It is interesting to compare these with the Glossary definitions in Science and Health with Key to the Scriptures by Mary Baker Eddy of some of the sons:

·       Asher (Jacob’s son).  Hope and faith; spiritual compensation; the ills of the flesh rebuked. (p. 581)

·       Benjamin (Jacob’s son).  A physical belief as to life, substance, and mind; human knowledge, or so-called mortal mind, devoted to matter; pride; envy; fame; illusion; a false belief; error masquerading as the possessor of life, strength, animation, and power to act.

       Renewal of affections; self-offering, an improved state of mortal mind; the introduction of a more spiritual origin; a gleam of the infinite idea of the infinite Principle; a spiritual type; that which comforts, consoles and supports. (p. 582)

·       Dan (Jacob’s son). Animal magnetism; so-called mortal mind controlling mortal mind; error, working out the designs of error; one belief preying upon another. (p. 583)

·       Gad (Jacob’s son). Science; spiritual being understood; haste towards harmony. (p. 586)

·       Judah. A corporeal material belief progressing and disappearing; the spiritual understanding of God and man appearing. (p.589)

·       Levi (Jacob’s son). A corporeal and sensual belief; mortal man; denial of the fulness of God’s creation; ecclesiastical despotism. (p. 590)

·       Reuben (Jacob’s son). Corporeality; sensuality; delusion; mortality; error. (p. 593)

Of course the Bible is the source of this knowledge. For example, Dan is, for me, a stand-out. In Genesis 49, where Jacob called his sons together, “Gather yourselves together, that I may tell you that which shall befall you in the last days,” he says of Dan: “Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward.” The horse was blamed rather than the real culprit, the adder.

There is much more on these two pages. I like the picture of the priests blowing the horns, for instance. I’ll leave it to the reader to catch up with those for themselves.**

Joyce Voysey

*Ed. Mt. Hermon is not on the map, unfortunately, but Wikipedia has a spectacular photograph and has this to say: “Mount Hermon is a mountain cluster at the southern end of the Anti-Lebanon range, straddling the borders of Syria, Lebanon, and the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights. Rising to 2,814 m (9,232 ft), it is the highest point in Syria and features the only ski resort in the region.”  A further comment notes that Mount Hermon ... is uniquely special due to its strategic military dominance, profound biblical history, and its role as the primary water source for the region. Gotquestions.org/Mount-Hermon.html is helpful.

**Ed. I also liked seeing the trumpets (horns) and the Ark of the Covenant. I gather from this account, that after 40 years in the wilderness, there was still much work to be done in this, "The Promised Land", before they could settle down and call this place home.