We all know there are 12 tribes of Israel, and that 2-1/2 tribes settled east of the Jordan, while the remaining 9-1/2 tribes settled in what was then Canaan. Later, under Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, the kingdom was split into two: Judah and Benjamin in the South (Judea) and the remaining tribes in the North (Shomron, also called Israel).

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Assyria, under Tiglath Pilesar III, destroyed the tribes of Gad, Reuben, and half of Manasseh who were living in the lands of Og and Sichon (east of the Jordan) sometime around 733 BCE. Later, in or around 722 BCE, Assyria also conquered the Northern kingdom of Shomron, dispersing the remaining 7-1/2 tribes throughout the world.

The remaining tribes of Judah and Benjamin, by now almost totally absorbed by Judah, remained in the Southern Kingdom until they were also conquered and displaced by Nebuchadnezzar II in 587 BCE.

After Babylon destroyed the temple in Jerusalem, which is where the records of the tribal lineages were kept, from that time on no knows which tribe they belong to. This is devastating because, for one thing, God commanded that only the descendants of the tribe of Levi may serve him in the office of Cohen (Numbers 3:5-10), and only the direct descendants of Aaron may be Cohen HaGadol (High Priest).

Another issue is when Messiah returns and the people are regathered, who is to live where? If we don’t know which tribe we are from, then we can’t live in our ancestral location, based on where Joshua assigned land to each tribe (Joshua 18:10).

Fortunately, God has done something to at least allow us to identify the descendants of Levi.

In 1997, a professor named Karl Skorecki (working with others in Haifa) found that within Jewish Cohanim, there appeared to be a different distribution of two specific “Y” chromosomes (which are passed down only through the father) from the rest of the Jewish male population, which are named YAP and DYS19. Later, in a 1998 study, they tested a total of six genetic markers and found a clear difference between the Cohanim population and the general Jewish population. They named this pattern the Kohen Modal Haplotype.

Of course, since this is science, there are those who refute the validity of their findings, but I believe when God, who created DNA, decided to separate the tribe of Levi for himself, he made sure that there would be more than just lineage records to identify his chosen priests. Now, science has finally caught up to God and discovered his genetic marker for Levites.

Many think that when Messiah returns and is king over the earth, that he will serve as king and high priest, but even if that is true, there will still need to be those to serve as subordinate priests, just as Moses had subordinates under him.

“Yo, wait a minute, Steve- that’s fine for the priests, but what about the ancestral home thing? How will that be resolved in the afterlife?“

That’s a good question, and my answer is that I don’t know. Based on the Bible telling us that there will be only a remnant who will be saved, and we know that this remnant will be composed of both Jews and Gentiles who have received salvation through their faith in Messiah Yeshua, perhaps the distribution of the land in the new earth will be done all over again? Maybe at that time, needing to know which tribe we are from, other than the Levites, won’t be necessary? To me, it doesn’t really matter that much: all I am concerned with is being on the winning side. Wherever I live in the afterlife, as long as I am in the presence of the Almighty, I am OK with it.

I have heard different theories about the lost tribes, that some Native American tribes are from Israel (due to the similarity in the religious beliefs), that the Danes are actually the tribe of Dan, and other such theories. Since the Diaspora is so large an area, who can really know? Jews are pretty much either Ashkenazi or Sephardic (European or Hispanic), so that might help to break-down the distribution of which tribes went where, but- again- really, who knows?

I don’t think it matters because there is only one tribe, Levi, which was specified by God to perform a specific service for him, and now we know how he has made sure we can know who they are.

I do know one thing for certain, and that is that I will be in the service of the Almighty because I have the genetic marker of a Levite.

Thank you for being here, and until next time, L’hitraot and Baruch HaShem!