Welcome to Bible Tribes

Ever wondered what happened to the Lost Tribes of ancient Israel?

This website provides the answer.

The strategy used here is called a seal date strategy for finding the tribes. Using this strategy the tribes are identified by their own sealing of tribal documents on predicted dates given by a formula, driven by a riddle, found in the Book of Revelation.

The net result of this study is the realization that most nations of the world today are directly related to identifiable Bible Tribes.

How the Seal Date Strategy Works

Ever take a cross-country train ride? The train schedule lists off times and cities where the train will visit. While riding the train it is possible to identify the location of the train in 2 different ways. Either looking out the window at the signs hanging on train stations, or by looking at a watch and using the times listed on the schedule. The first strategy works well if you know the language used to write the signs. The second strategy works better if you have a good way of measuring time and the train stays on schedule.

Similarly, there are 2 ways of finding the Lost Tribes. The first strategy uses signs to identify tribes. This is hard, at least in the general sense, because some of the tribes appear poorly documented in the Bible. (They're not poorly documented, but finding the documentation is very hard.) The second strategy is to use a prophetic clock which identifies dates when the tribes will be putting their seal on documents of national significance. Find the indicated document on the indicated date and the indicated tribe will be signing it by placing their national seal on it.

It is this second, time based, strategy that is used here to provide the fundamental identification for each tribe. Once identified, the first strategy, by reading the signs, is used to confirm the simpler seal-date strategy.

Seal Date Math

The Bible's equivalent of the master train schedule is found in the Book of Revelation. The passage is from Revelation 7, and worth reviewing here:

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4ܘܫܡܥܬ ܡܢܝܢܐ ܕܚܬܝܡܐ ܡܐܐ ܘܐܪܒܥܝܢ ܘܐܪܒܥܐ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܡܢ ܟܠ ܫܪܒܢ ܕܐܝܤܪܐܝܠ ܀ 5ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܝܗܘܕܐ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܪܘܒܝܠ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܓܕ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܀ 6ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܐܫܝܪ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܢܦܬܠܝ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܡܢܫܐ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܀ 7ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܫܡܥܘܢ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܐܝܤܟܪ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܠܘܝ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܀ 8ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܙܒܘܠܘܢ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܝܘܤܦ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܡܢ ܫܪܒܬܗ ܕܒܢܝܡܝܢ ܬܪܥܤܪ ܐܠܦܝܢ ܚܬܝܡܐ ܀ (SYP)

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed an hundred and forty and four thousand of all the tribes of the children of Israel. 5Of the tribe of Juda were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed twelve thousand. 6Of the tribe of Aser were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed twelve thousand. 7Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed twelve thousand. 8Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed twelve thousand. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed twelve thousand. (KJV)

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4And I heard the number of them which were sealed: and there were sealed 144000 of all the tribes of the children of Israel. 5Of the tribe of Juda were sealed 12000. Of the tribe of Reuben were sealed 12000. Of the tribe of Gad were sealed 12000. 6Of the tribe of Aser were sealed 12000. Of the tribe of Nepthalim were sealed 12000. Of the tribe of Manasses were sealed 12000. 7Of the tribe of Simeon were sealed 12000. Of the tribe of Levi were sealed 12000. Of the tribe of Issachar were sealed 12000. 8Of the tribe of Zabulon were sealed 12000. Of the tribe of Joseph were sealed 12000. Of the tribe of Benjamin were sealed 12000. (KJV/NC)

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4And I heard the number of them that were sealed, a hundred and forty and four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

5Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand:

Of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand;

6Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand;

7Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand;

Of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand;

8Of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand;(ASV)

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4And I heard the number of those who were sealed; and it was a hundred and forty and four thousand, of all the tribes of the children of Israel. 5Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand; of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Gad, twelve thousand; 6Of the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Naphtali, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Manasseh, twelve thousand; 7Of the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Issachar, twelve thousand; 8Of the tribe of Zebulun, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand; of the tribe of Benjamin, twelve thousand. (LAM)

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4And I heard the number of the sealed, a hundred and forty-four thousand sealed, out of every tribe of the sons of Israel, 5twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Judah, twelve thousand of the tribe of Reuben, twelve thousand of the tribe of Gad, 6twelve thousand of the tribe of Asher, twelve thousand of the tribe of Naph'tali, twelve thousand of the tribe of Manas'seh, 7twelve thousand of the tribe of Simeon, twelve thousand of the tribe of Levi, twelve thousand of the tribe of Is'sachar, 8twelve thousand of the tribe of Zeb'ulun, twelve thousand of the tribe of Joseph, twelve thousand sealed out of the tribe of Benjamin.(RSV)

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4Then I heard the number of those who were sealed: 144,000 from all the tribes of Israel. 5From the tribe of Judah 12,000 were sealed, from the tribe of Reuben 12,000, from the tribe of Gad 12,000, 6from the tribe of Asher 12,000, from the tribe of Naphtali 12,000, from the tribe of Manasseh 12,000, 7from the tribe of Simeon 12,000, from the tribe of Levi 12,000, from the tribe of Issachar 12,000, 8from the tribe of Zebulun 12,000, from the tribe of Joseph 12,000, from the tribe of Benjamin 12,000.(NIV)

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

5Of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand,

Of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand,

Of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand,

6Of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand,

Of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand,

Of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand,

7Of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand,

Of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand,

Of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand,

8Of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand,(WEB)

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4I heard the number of those who were sealed, one hundred forty-four thousand, sealed out of every tribe of the children of Israel:

5of the tribe of Judah were sealed twelve thousand,

of the tribe of Reuben twelve thousand,

of the tribe of Gad twelve thousand,

6of the tribe of Asher twelve thousand,

of the tribe of Naphtali twelve thousand,

of the tribe of Manasseh twelve thousand,

7of the tribe of Simeon twelve thousand,

of the tribe of Levi twelve thousand,

of the tribe of Issachar twelve thousand,

8of the tribe of Zebulun twelve thousand,(WEB/HNV)

66 Revelation 7:4-8 4And I heard the number of those who were sealed; and it was 144,000, of all the tribes of the children of Israel. 5Of the tribe of Judah were sealed 12,000; of the tribe of Reuben, 12,000; of the tribe of Gad, 12,000; 6Of the tribe of Asher, 12,000; of the tribe of Naphtali, 12,000; of the tribe of Manasseh, 12,000; 7Of the tribe of Simeon, 12,000; of the tribe of Levi, 12,000; of the tribe of Issachar, 12,000; 8Of the tribe of Zebulun, 12,000; of the tribe of Joseph, 12,000; of the tribe of Benjamin, 12,000. (BRB)

All counts of anything found in the Bible, no matter what else they may be, are also references to time. This is called a hermaneutic and it is established by Joseph as an interpretive rule when Joseph interprets the dreams of Pharaoh's cup bearer and his baker.

In this Revelation list each tribe is assigned 12,000 of something, and those somethings must also be a reference to time. Thus this passage in Revelation 7 is the equivalent of a prophetic train schedule.

What units are implied by Revelation's schedule?

Census counts usually run at the rate of 1 person per day and these lists of 12,000 echo the census counts of the Exodus which also clock off history at 1 person per day.

At 12,000 days per tribe the entire schedule runs across a little less than 400 total years.

This passage in Revelation is curious because 2 tribes are left off the list. Dan and Ephraim are both missing. Why?

Technically speaking the Tribe of Ephraim was a part of the Tribe of Joseph and Joseph was not a landed tribe there being no inheritance for Joseph since his inheritance was split between his 2 sons Manasseh and Ephraim. Joseph is listed, but it represents the 2 sons of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh. The document that is marked by this seal should thus be a treaty between Ephriam and Manasseh, whilte Manasseh still has his own separate seal date. This makes sense since Manasseh is the double portion holder of Abraham's covenant promises. He has 2 seal dates in keeping with that covenant promise.

Dan is harder to explain, but the answer to his ommission comes directly from the problem of measuring this schedule from a departure point. The origin, if you will, is the Mosaic Covenant, or the law and Dan means judge or the one who carries the law. His natural seal date is at the start of the 12,000 days that end with the first name on the list, or Judah.

Of course this is not a proof, the document and nation will need to be confirmed with further details, signs, that apply uniquely to that nation as per that tribe's story in the Bible.

The Dates

The next problem is to find at least 1 date where a document signing can be linked definitively to one of the tribes and the rest of the dates can be computed. Depending on what part of the world you live in, and what tribes you may be familiar with the specific dates and documents will vary. By puzzling out the problem what I came up with is the following table of dates and for the documents:

DayTribeDateDocumentModern Nation
1 Dan 6 Oct 1579 OS Union of Utrecht Netherlands
12,001 Judah 13 Aug 1612 OS Letter/Zemski Sobar/House of Romanov Russia
24,001 Reuben 21 Jun 1645 OS Treaty of Bromsebro Sweden
36,001 Gad 29 Apr 1678 OS Treaty of Nijmegen Spain
48,001 Asher 7 Mar 1710 OS Treaty of Szatmár Austria/Hungary
60,001 Naphtali 13 Jan 1743 OS Treaty of Breslau/Treaty of Berlin Germany
72,001 Manasseh 1 Dec 1776 NS US Declaration of Independence United States
84,001 Simeon 10 Oct 1809 NS Treaty of Schönbrunn France
96,001 Levi 18 Aug 1842 NS Law Change/Civil War Switzerland
108,001 Issachar 26 Jun 1875 NS Decree/Revolt/Treaty of Berlin in 1878 Serbia
120,001 Zebulun 4 May 1908 NS Agreement/Turks leave Crete, Greeks remain Greece
132,001 Joseph 12 Mar 1941 NS Lend Lease Treaty funds WWII US/UK
144,001 Benjamin 18 Jan 1974 Disengagement of Forces Agreement Israel

For each of these dates there is an important nation treaty, or other key founding document, that identifies the Lost Tribe.

If you study the list given above, in some cases, the document is a letter that triggers war or revolt or that eventually causes a treaty or other national agreement. Full details are on the specific tribe pages.

The Signs

The other strategy for identifying the tribes, finding and using the Bible's signs, takes up the majority of the text on this website. There are several systems where raw data is gathered from the Bible in order to fully understand how the Patriarchs eventually became these core nations and all of their affiliated nations around the world.

This second strategy is far more robust and provides considerable text for understanding the characteristics of each of the nations that make up the Lost Tribes of ancient Israel. To understand the scope, consider the following, which are the sources of raw text that describe each tribe.

  1. Birth Narratives are provided for the tribes. These narratives establish the meaning of each tribal name and often provide additional details needed for understanding the tribes.

  2. Ad-hoc Stories are spread across the Bible. These stories include, for example, Joseph's time as Prime Minister of Egypt. Dan's story of taking his seacoast land. Judah and Tamar and Judah's war against Benjamin. These stories pattern future events in the national histories of these nations.

  3. Jacob's Blessings are recorded in Genesis and they involve a prophetic pronouncement over each tribe that apply in the last days. Since history is now in the last days, these pronouncements apply in our generation.

  4. Moses' Blessings provide details similar to Jacob's blessings that help to understand each tribe.

  5. Psalms Dates weave into the Seal Dates described above. The Seal Dates described above are spread appart through time with 1 seal every 12,000 days. The Psalms weave into the same system, in the same order, but with 1 Psalm every 1,000 days. This means that Pslam 1 maps to Dan, Psalm 13 maps to Judah and so on through the rest of the tribes.

    This weaving provides an internal cross-check from the tribes listed in the Seal Date list to additional narrative in the Psalms. These 13 of the Pslams can be shown to describe known features of the tribes.

    This series also provides an extensive additional date list where prophetic headlines are expected to follow the stories of each Psalm.

  6. The Book of Mark is organized around a map to the 7 days of creation. The first day of creation, when the Spirit of God hovered over the waters, maps to the first section of Mark, where Jesus is baptized and the Spirit of God poured out on Him. Similarly, the other creation days map to additional Mark sections.

    Within each section are 12 hours or a series of prophetic stories that map to each of the tribes. These parables provide additional stories about each tribe in the same order as the Seal Dates. By including Mark a much broader understanding of the Tribes develops.

  7. Disciple-to-Tribe Map is provided by Matthew. This list is also given in the same order as the Seal Dates. It provides the definitive map between each of Jesus' Disciples and the tribes which they will eventually judge.

  8. The Book of Revelation is another book that bears directly on the tribes. John was told to "Eat the scroll and prophesy again about peoples, nations, languages and kings."

    This is the context quote for the entire book. John had been prophesying about these things, and would do so for the rest of the book too.

    There is a gridding process that draws out the material of Revelation and maps it to the various tribes. This process provides a considerable amount of additional material that explains the national history of each of the central nations in the Seal Date list.

These fundamental sources of materials are written up in articles in this section, with links on the left. They are referenced in the sections that write up each tribe. In those articles the material is simply used to explain what can be seen in the national history and character of each tribe.

Why Now?

Or asked a different way, Why haven't you heard about this before?

The identification of the tribes has been deliberately sealed by God himself. Hiding of the tribes is the first of the document related seals placed over the Bible itself in Revelation chapter 5.

Not knowing the identification of the Lost Tribes means that readers of the Bible cannot apply the Bible to the nations of the modern world. The nations appear random or at least unexplainable.

This was by design.

The world was allowed to develop into its modern, complete, form without anyone able to understand the fundamental design of what God was doing in the nations of the world.

Of course this matters little to individuals living out their own lives of faith. I trust you have a walk of faith. If you don't much of this website will not make much sense.

But, identifying tribes matters immensely if the world is approaching a time when Jesus will return to rule over those same nations that he himself has formed. There actually is a documented design and reason for each nation, and there is an explanation as to why they acted in history as they did.

Christians are adopted sons of Abraham and the promise to Abraham was that his descendants would eventually inherit the entire world. The story of the Lost Tribes is a story that shows how Abraham's offspring ended up inheriting planet earth.

Finally, the Lost Tribes story provides an auditable, verifiable, pinning between a range of Bible stories and a range of modern historical events. Understanding of how the Bible links to the world has been lost and many Christian communities do not know how the Bible links to the world. This website provides an introduction to this entire theological space.

Website Organization

The website has a section devoted to each tribe. The Home section includes summary articles that cover some topic that spans across all of the tribes. These articles are listed in left menu.

There is a lot of material, and getting a grip on all of it is hard. I welcome feedback and questions so that I can improve this site.

This website is still very much under construction. It is a spinoff from the Bible Time website. Hopefully this site will get more attention by early 2008.

Phil Stone
Updated October 20, 2007
Online January 1, 2007

File http://bibletribes.org/home/intro/
Revision: 1.5 Last modified: 2007-11-15 at 05:29:53 GMT

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