101 Myths of the Bible: how ancient scribes - Conscious Evolution TV

110 101 Myths of the Bible
The first four children born, sons of Leah, correspond to the four southernmost
tribes in the full Israelite confederation. Reuben lay at the southern portion of the Jordanian
side and Simeon encompassed the southern portion of the Canaanite side.
Judah stood on the northern boundary of Simeon and became the political center of
the united monarchy and later of the southern kingdom of Judah. Levi, although distributed
throughout the other territories, had its political center within Judah at
Jerusalem (after Judah took Jerusalem away from Benjamin).
Rachel had only two children, Joseph and Benjamin. The tribe of Joseph’s separated
into two parts, one for each of his sons, Ephraim and Manasseh. The territory of
Ephraim led the opposition against Judah’s domination over Israel and, after
Solomon’s death, it became the political center of the northern kingdom of Israel.
Manasseh became the largest territory in the kingdom, part in Canaan and part in Jordan.
The Bible often describes each of the two pieces as the half-tribe of Manasseh.
Benjamin, Rachel’s other son, held the territory between Judah and Ephraim and
included the city of Jerusalem. Saul, the first king of the united monarchy, came
from Benjamin.
Together, the Rachel tribes correspond geographically to the central portion of the
House of Israel and the southern half of the northern kingdom. At some point,
Jerusalem became the capital of Judah and the physical status of Benjamin became
ambiguous, probably because Judah obliterated it.
The organization of the main Leah tribes in the south and the Rachel tribes in the
center reflects the later political divisions between the kingdoms of Israel and Judah.
Five of the six remaining lesser tribes—Dan, Naphtali, Asher, Issachar, and Zebulun—occupied
the northern portion of Canaan, above the Rachel tribes. The sixth—
Gad—occupied the central portion of Jordan, between Reuben and Manasseh.
Curiously, the Bible provides little anecdotal information about the sons of
Jacob. With the exception of Joseph and Leah’s four oldest children, we have little
more than a birth order and a couple of blessings describing their nature. For Leah’s
first four children, the few stories we have are mostly brief and negative, reflecting
the later political factionalism between Judah and Israel. Only for Joseph do we have
a full-blown epic.