Nadene Goldfoot
Let's look at the way Abraham had chosen a wife. He married his niece. That kept his possessions in the family. He could trust family members not to kill him. This was the way of the land of Ur, evidently, the most civilized place on the earth in those days. Abraham and Isaac and Jacob were an endogamous people and Jews would continue to be for a long time.
There weren't many people to choose from for a mate as it was, and one certainly didn't desire to marry into some clan or tribe of people that you had no idea of their behaviors which might have been shocking. People in those days believed in cannibalism, sacrificing their own children to appease the gods, and to Abraham, who had already decided that there was only one source of power in the world, one G-d, these people were savage.
He had already passed on his beliefs to his descendants by leaving Mesopotamia's city of Ur of the Chaldees with its polytheism and unacceptable cultural beliefs for the territory of Canaan, a less populated area. These were monotheistic people whom the Egyptians captured as slaves who had entered the Egyptian lands. They no doubt kept to the practice of marriage of relatives whether they knew of the relationship of their connection or not. Cousins were marrying cousins. They had no choice most of the time. They were an interrelated clan, though occasionally men married someone from a neighboring group distantly related to them. Mesopotamia was a special place. "Mesopotamia is the site of the earliest developments of the Neolithic Revolution from around 10,000 BCE. It has been identified as having "inspired some of the most important developments in human history, including the invention of the wheel, the planting of the first cereal crops, and the development of cursive script, mathematics, astronomy, and agriculture". It is here that man first became farmers after being hunters/gatherers. Can I
then expect that their people had well-endowed intelligence by the time of Abram?
The 600,000 some slaves held by the Egyptians of about 1579 BCE who were the descendants of Jacob and his family, son of Isaac, son of Abraham, were the ideal group of Homo Sapiens to be created into a new group of people, people who would bring light of understanding into the world. If brought to a land they had first settled in, they would have a chance to be selective in their choices of procreation by staying together for this molding of a people with a certain job to do.
During the 40 year march away from Egypt, Moses had a chance to start changing their behaviors with rules given to him by Ha Shem (The Word-God). If anyone deviated by wanting to be with those they passed by, they were destroyed. The group was left pristine when they had entered Canaan.
During the march, they kept an order. This was the encampment as told in Numbers 2:1-3:39. .
Reuben Simeon Judah Dan Naphtali Gad
Asher Issachar Zebulun Ephraim Manasseh Benjamin
The Merarites were one of the four main divisions among the Levites in Biblical times. The Bible claims that the Merarites were all descended from the eponymous Merari, a son of Levi, although some .. biblical scholars regard this as a postdictional metaphor, providing an origin myth of the connectedness of the clan to others in the Israelite confederation;
The Gershonites were one of the four main divisions among the Levites in Biblical times. The Bible claims that the Gershonites were all descended from the eponymous Gershon, a son of Moses and gransdson .of Levi, although some biblical scholars regard this as a postdictional metaphor providing an aetiology of the connectedness of the clan to others in the Israelite confederation.
The Kohathites were one of the four main divisions among the Levites in biblical times, the other three being the Gershonites, the Merarites, and the Aaronites. The Bible claims that the Kohathites were all descended from the eponymous Kohath, a son of Levi.
'The Encampment of Israel'
ccording to the Writings of Moses there were about 600,000 men and also women and children who left Egypt at the exodus. They came out of Egypt in rank and in file and as they journeyed in the wilderness the tribes would camp around the Tabernacle in God-specified locations.
Exod 12:37-38 Then the children of Israel journeyed from Rameses to Succoth, about six hundred thousand men on foot, besides children. A mixed multitude went up with them also, and flocks and herds-- a great deal of livestock.
The Twelve Tribes
Each of the twelve tribes had a specific area of the camp to live in. When their forefathers had moved south to Egypt approximately 400 years earlier they had done so as a family of twelve households, each headed by one of the sons of Jacob, who was renamed Israel by God. While they were slaves in Egypt they preserved their family divisions and over the years the families of the twelve sons had developed into tribal families or tribes. A good example is in Joshua:
Josh 7:14 'In the morning therefore you shall be brought according to your tribes. And it shall be that the tribe which the LORD takes shall come according to families; and the family which the LORD takes shall come by households; and the household which the LORD takes shall come man by man.
Their Positions
The twelve tribes, in groups of three, were divinely situated at a certain distance around the tabernacle. Four of the tribes, Judah, Reuben, Ephraim and Dan were recognized as tribal leaders. Each had its own standard or banner identifying it as a tribal head while the other tribes had ensigns, a lesser type of banner.
It is important to note that Jacob (the father of the 12 tribes) had prophesied that the senior position in his family would belong to the people of Judah:
Family groups were identified by the men. Abraham and his brother were Levites, descendants of Jacob who had 12 sons. We presume that they had the DNA haplogroup of J1, unknown to them, of course. Moses was a direct descendant of Abraham, and his two sons would not produce children as they were killed while teenagers, but Aaron, brother of Moses, was to have many children. This line from Aaron would have the very same J1 and be called the Cohen line by the year 2000 CE, for the men would be priests like Aaron and had certain responsibilities in the synagogue that was to come in the future. Those other Levites not connected to Aaron directly would be the Levites, the 2nd most responsible men in the synagogue and with the Jewish people. They were to be the teachers of their religious beliefs.
All the while, the DNA of the Jewish men was building up strengths of certain areas. In our cells of our bodies, all mankind has 23 chromosomes where blocks or segments of DNA sit. Scientists can compare DNA with 2 people to see if they are related by seeing if they both carry the very same segments on the very same chromosome.
Y-chromosomal Aaron is the name given to the hypothesized most recent common ancestor of the patrilineal Jewish priestly caste known as Kohanim (singular "Kohen", also spelled "Cohen"). According to the Hebrew Bible, this ancestor was Aaron, the brother of Moses.
The original scientific research was based on the hypothesis that a majority of present-day Jewish Kohanim share a pattern of values for six Y-STR markers, which researchers named the Cohen Modal Haplotype (CMH). Subsequent research using twelve Y-STR markers indicated that about half of contemporary Jewish Kohanim shared Y-chromosomal J1 M267, (specifically haplogroup J-P58, also called J1c3), while other Kohanim share a different ancestry, such as haplogroup J2a (J-M410).
Molecular phylogenetics research published in 2013, 2016, and 2020 for haplogroup J1 (J-M267) places the Y-chromosomal Aaron within subhaplogroup Z18271, age estimate 2,638–3,280 years Before Present (yBP)
Due to the importance of Torah learning in the Jewish tradition, genealogical records of rabbis and Hasidic rebbes are carefully recorded and readily available. Some Jewish families have preserved traditions relating to their tribal affiliation, based on partial genealogical records passed down generation after generation. In Yemen, for example, some Jews trace their lineage to Judah, others to Benjamin, while yet others to Levi and Reuben. Some Ashkenazi Jews have "Levi" and/or "Cohen" as surnames, probably because their ancestors were levites/cohanim. Of particular interest is one distinguished Jewish family of Yemen who traced their lineage to Bonai, one of the sons of Peretz, the son of Judah. Today with the use of DNA, families can now find out more about their history.
The genealogy of the family was kept by everyone. It was important to have it written down to present to the Sanhedrin court system if one had aspirations to be a part of the court.
"The Sanhedrin were assemblies of either twenty-three or seventy-one elders, who were appointed to sit as a tribunal in every city in the ancient Land of Israel. There were two classes of Jewish courts which were called Sanhedrin, the Great Sanhedrin and the Lesser Sanhedrin." In the Hebrew Bible (Exodus 18:21–22, Numbers 11:16–17, 11:24–25; Deuteronomy 1:15–18, 17:9–12) Moses and the Israelites were commanded by God to establish courts of judges who were given full authority over the people of Israel, who were commanded by God through Moses to obey the judgments made by the courts and every Torah-abiding law they established. Judges in ancient Israel were the religious leaders and teachers of the nation of Israel. The Mishnah (Sanhedrin 1:6) arrives at the number twenty-three based on an exegetical derivation: it must be possible for a "community" to vote for both conviction and exoneration (Numbers 35:24–5). The minimum size of a "community" is 10 men,[2] thus 10 vs 10. One more is required to achieve a majority (11 vs 10), but a simple majority cannot convict (Exodus 23:2), and so an additional judge is required (12 vs 10). Finally, a court should not have an even number of judges to prevent deadlocks; thus 23 (12 vs 10 and 1). This court dealt with only religious matters.
Before 191 BCE the High Priest acted as the ex officio head of the Sanhedrin, but in 191 BCE, when the Sanhedrin lost confidence in the High Priest, the office of Nasi was created. The Sanhedrin was headed by the chief scholars of the great Talmudic Academies in the Land of Israel, and with the decline of the Sanhedrin, their spiritual and legal authority was generally accepted, the institution itself being supported by voluntary contributions by Jews throughout the ancient world. Being a member of the house of Hillel and thus a descendant of King David, the Patriarch, known in Hebrew as the Nasi (prince), enjoyed almost royal authority. Their functions were political rather than religious, though their influence was not limited to the secular realm. The Patriarchate attained its zenith under Judah ha-Nasi who compiled the Mishnah, a compendium of views from Judean thought leaders of Judaism other than the Torah.
The Davidic line or House of David refers to the lineage of King David through the texts in the ... One of the most notable of those was Hillel the Elder, who moved to Judea ... Several Ashkenazi scholars also claimed descent from King David. The House of Hillel (Beit Hillel) and House of Shammai (Beit Shammai) were, among Jewish scholars, two schools of thought during the period of tannaim, named after the sages Hillel and Shammai (of the last century BCE and the early 1st century CE) who founded them. These two schools had vigorous debates on matters of ritual practice, ethics, and theology which were critical for the shaping of the Oral Law and Judaism as it is today. The 1st Hillel was a descendant of King David, and the ancestor of a dynasty of patriarchs which held office until the 5th century. He was of Judah, but born in Babylonia (ancestors taken there in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE, but was of the group that was able to return to Jerusalem in 538 BCE. He became president of the Sanhedrin.
As all the nations around Judea made common cause with the Romans, the Zealots were naturally inflamed against every one of them; and therefore the Shammaites proposed to prevent all communication between Jew and Gentile, by prohibiting the Jews from buying any article of food or drink from their heathen neighbors. The Hillelites, still moderate in their religious and political views, would not agree to such sharply defined exclusiveness; but when the Sanhedrin was called together to consider the propriety of such measures, the Shammaites, with the aid of the Zealots, gained the day. Eleazar ben Ananias invited the disciples of both schools to meet at his house.
All this was to create a people who would follow this single concept of G-d and his expectations of people worthy to live on planet earth: Moses relayed G-d's commandment that they should not "improve" the Torah by adding new commandments; what human intelligence considers an honor to G-d may be an abomination in His eyes." Jews were not to add to it or subtract any of it. Jews had been developed through DNA since Abraham who lived in the 2nd millennium BCE which was in about 1948 BCE. Just realize that since 1948 BCE to 1948 CE, Jews have been Jews for 3,969 years--almost 4,000 years as it's now the year 2021. Of course, along the way, others have been added to the family, but it all shows up in DNA testing as to what their haplogroup turns out to be and that is traceable to add to our history.
"The three largest Jewish denominations—Orthodox Judaism, Conservative Judaism and Reform Judaism—maintain the belief that the Jews have been chosen by God for a purpose. Sometimes this choice is seen as charging the Jewish people with a specific mission—to be a light unto the nations, and to exemplify the covenant with God as described in the Torah. According to the Bible, Israel's character as the chosen people is unconditional as it says in Deuteronomy 14:2, "For you are a holy people to YHWH your God, and God has chosen you to be his treasured people from all the nations that are on the face of the earth." The mistake many people have made is in thinking this meant that Jews were the favorite of people. They leave out the fact that it was the purpose that was the goal of G-d, to fulfill certain duties in creating a people that would follow G-d's expectation of being more like HE was, honest and peaceful and appreciative of this universe.
A LIGHT FOR THE NATIONS: The term originated from verses in the Book of Isaiah: "He said, 'It is insufficient that you be a servant for Me only to raise up the tribes of Jacob, and to restore the ruins of Israel. I will make you a light for the nations, so that My salvation may extend to the ends of the earth' Isaiah. 49:6. Here salvation meant (education in what is right and wrong) so they would not suffer the same fate as Sodom and Gomorah, etc. Jews were to educate people in this matter, and by one way which was example. Future commentators felt that "When G-d redeems Israel, which has been despised, loathed, a servant to others, its disgrace will be ended and it will be honored by kings and rulers, who will recognize that the redemption came about because of "HaShem (G-d). It was almost like a new prophecy.
Moses impressed his monotheistic vision upon the Jews with such force that in the succeeding three millennia, Jews have never confused the messenger with the Author of the message. As Princeton philosopher Walter Kaufmann has written: "in Greece, the heroes of the past were held to have been sired by a god or to have been born of a goddess ... [and] in Egypt, the Pharaoh was considered divine." But despite the extraordinary veneration accorded Moses — "there has not arisen a prophet since like Moses" is the Bible's verdict () — no Jewish thinker ever thought he was anything other than a man. See And No One Knows His Burial Place to This Day.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jews_as_the_chosen_people
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jewish_genealogy
https://www.bible-history.com/tabernacle/tab4the_encampment.htm
https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/moses
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Houses_of_Hillel_and_Shammai
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sanhedrin
https://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/3190-bet-hillel-and-bet-shammai
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