We've been walking with Jacob so long, it's hard to believe he's reaching the close of his story. But it's fitting he should get to bring us full circle. This book began “in the beginning” (Genesis 1:1), and now Jacob opens his mouth to discuss what will be “in the latter days” (Genesis 49:1).1 Jacob – Israel – has summoned his sons to his deathbed, to speak his final words and pass on his blessing, not to one son in opposition to the others, but to all his twelve sons together, one by one,2 prophetically “outlining the future history of the tribes.”3
The Bible's opening five books are in fact tied together by three poems on the last days: Jacob's here, Balaam's in Numbers, and Moses' at the end of Deuteronomy, all three taking looking back to the story of creation.4 Jacob's is organized so beautifully in Hebrew, 260 words in 26 verses.5 After eight words of introduction, he starts addressing the sons of Leah, ends with the sons of Rachel, and in between are the sons of the handmaids, Zilpah's kids between Bilhah's.6 To the six sons of Leah he speaks 7x20 words; to the two sons of Rachel he speaks 7x10 words; and the four sons of the handmaids share 7x6 words.7 But Joseph and Judah dominate it all, together taking up 45% of all the words Jacob says; nobody else comes close. The trouble with this poem is, it's “the most difficult segment of the book of Genesis,”8 “archaic and difficult (if not impossible) to understand,”9 loaded with Hebrew puns and metaphors and “words the meaning of which is uncertain.”10 What's clear is that, with these words for the twelve sons of Israel, the tribes named for each are each “ordained to a particular vocation in the larger life of Israel,”11 based on “the nature of the different tribes” and their founding fathers.12
Jacob starts off with Reuben, “my firstborn, my might and the beginning of my strength, preeminent in dignity and preeminent in power” (Genesis 49:3). As the first son, he would've been heir-apparent to every promise and privilege. But Genesis painted us a picture of “Reuben's ineptitude in his several attempts to lead,”13 showing he “lacks dependability, persistence, patience, and control.”14 Jacob sees he's “wanton as water,” so Reuben “shall not have preeminence.” His sin of assaulting Bilhah is case in point: “You went up to your father's bed, then you profaned it” (Genesis 49:4). While Israel said nothing then (Genesis 35:22), now he announces it; and, “because he defiled his father's couch, his birthright was given” away (1 Chronicles 5:1).
On the way out of Egypt, Reuben was the seventh-largest of the tribes; they headed up the camp on the south side of the Tabernacle, which traveled second when Israel marched (Numbers 1:21; 2:10-16). From the far end of the desert, Reuben sent a scout named Shammua (Numbers 13:4), but not only did he whip Israel into fearing Canaan, then three men from Reuben – Dathan, Abiram, and On – attacked Moses' leadership without even the courage to come confront him directly (Numbers 6:1-15).15 At the end of forty years, the tribe of Reuben had shrunk and was just ninth-largest (Numbers 26:7). But Moses prayed for them in some of his last words, “May Reuben live and not die, though his men be few” (Deuteronomy 33:6), leading some to hope that “this curse of Reuben was blotted out by Moses,”16 since “as lawgiver he was able to turn the curse into a blessing.”17
Reuben claimed land on the east side of the Dead Sea, around the mountain whence Moses gazed across at the Promised Land from the outside (Joshua 13:15-23); they shared the far side of Jordan with Gad and Manasseh, also each the first children of their unfavored mothers.18 Though Reuben helped in the initial conquest, later their aid was needed again but they “sat still among the sheepfolds, to hear the whistling for the flocks” (Judges 5:16). Eventually, when “the LORD began to cut off parts of Israel,” the chosen territory of Reuben was among the first to go, falling early to the Arameans (2 Kings 10:32-33); those left behind were deported by the Assyrians to what's now northern Afghanistan (1 Chronicles 5:26). Later Jews guessed the prophet Joel for a Reubenite,19 but Reuben's “tragic trajectory” shows a tribe whose “false dream can never be a reality.”20 When early Christians looked at Reuben in Jacob's prophecy, they saw a picture of the chronic waywardness of God's people, “obstinate and rigid, wild and impetuous,” to be unstable and prone to wander – prone to leave the God we love, settling short of the promised land.21 Reuben stands here as a warning to the “double-minded man, unstable in all his ways..., like a wave of the sea that is driven and tossed by the wind” (James 1:6-8). Medieval traditions in the Ethiopian church guessed that the Apostle Andrew was counted among the sons of Reuben,22 while medieval Syriac tradition said the same about the Matthias who was chosen by lot to replace Judas.23
Jacob's attention turns next on his next two kids taken together. “Simeon and Levi are brothers,” peas in a pod; as sons of Leah close in age, both named for their mom's frustrated longing for their dad's love, they bonded over a shared anger toward injustice.24 But “instruments of violence are their swords” (Genesis 49:5). Jacob isn't pleased with their overkill: “Let my soul come not into their council; O my glory, be joined not to their assembly!” He wants nothing to do with what these boys get up to together. Exhibit A is Genesis 34: “In their anger they slew man, and in their willfulness they hamstrung oxen” (Genesis 49:6).25 Jacob curses their anger's ferocity, their wrath's cruelty, and decrees, “I will divide them in Jacob, I will scatter them in Israel” (Genesis 49:7), as God scattered the ancients to stop their posing such a concentrated threat again (Genesis 11:8).26
At the exodus, Simeon's the third-largest tribe, while Levi is by far the smallest (Numbers 1:23; 3:39). Yet the exodus is led by Levi's most famous son: Moses, himself no stranger to zealous outrage against injustice and sin – just ask the Egyptian he killed, the tablets he broke, or the people he forced to drink their golden calf (Exodus 2:1-2, 11-12; 32:19-20).27 But that's the moment to revise Jacob's curse. See, after smashing stone and grinding gold, Moses cried out for everyone on the LORD's side to assemble, “and all the sons of Levi gathered around him.” Moses bade the Levites take their infamous swords and go deal out divine punishment. The sons of Levi “did according to the word of Moses...; and Moses said, 'Today you have been ordained for the service of the LORD, each one at the cost of his son and his brother, so that he might bestow a blessing upon you'” (Exodus 32:25-29), since the Levites had been made their zeal an asset for God instead of just a liability.28
So once the Tabernacle was built, the Simeonites and their chief Shelumiel camped under Reuben to the south (Numbers 2:12-13), while the Levites took the inner perimeter, a buffer of bouncers stationed to cut down any would-be trespasser on the holy (Numbers 3:21-29). When the Simeonite noble Zimri defiantly flaunted before Moses his public dalliance with the Midianite princess Cozbi, it was a Levite, Aaron's grandson Phinehas, who rescued Israel from wrath by spearing Zimri and Cozbi through (Numbers 25:6-15). From that day on, where “Simeon not only did not repay his debt, but even borrowed more,” Levi had turned their tendencies to God's service.29 The sons of Simeon were “ruined by promiscuity..., but they shall not be able to withstand Levi, because he shall wage the Lord's war.”30 Thus the two peas-in-a-pod brothers were divided against each other.31
By the time they left the desert, Simeon's population had cratered catastrophically after all these judgments, and it had become the smallest of all the counted tribes (Numbers 26:4).32 When Moses prayed for the tribes, he just snubbed Simeon altogether, but spoke lavishly of Levi's ministry (Deuteronomy 33:8-11).33 Jacob's prophecy held true for both: Simeon was given a “scattered inheritance” inside the land assigned to Judah, as if to be monitored (Joshua 19:1-9),34 and ultimately Simeon was “absorbed into the tribe of Judah”;35 the Levites were assigned forty-eight select cities scattered among all the tribes (Joshua 21:4-40). Levi was tasked to focus on “heavenly matters,”36 spread out to minister to Israel – and to reduce the risk they'd pose concentrated together.37
The priest Eli of Shiloh was a Levite, descended from Aaron's son Ithamar (1 Samuel 1:9). Psalms were written by Levite musicians like Asaph (1 Chronicles 6:39-43; Psalms 50, 73-83), or by the survivors of the rebellious Levite Korah such as Samuel's grandson Heman (1 Chronicles 6:33-38; Psalms 42, 44-49, 84-85, 87-88). A few major prophets were sons of Levi – like Jeremiah, a descendant of Eli (Jeremiah 1:1; cf. 1 Kings 2:26-27), and Ezekiel (Ezekiel 1:3); even Elijah might've been a Levite.38 Some of the minor prophets – Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah – were, one tradition held, from the tribe of Simeon.39 The priestly line of Phinehas through Zadok led to many high priests and to Ezra, who inspired the returnees from Babylon (Ezra 7:1-5). And it was Levites whose zeal for God's Law fought the Greeks to win (temporary) independence for Judaea (1 Maccabees 2:1-5).
But then things went downhill. One Jewish critic accused the sons of Levi of “teaching commandments which are opposed to God's just ordinances..., exalting yourselves... contrary to the commands of God. With contempt and laughter, you will deride the sacred things.” It sounds a lot like Jesus' critique of the religious leaders of his day, doesn't it (Matthew 15:3-9)? The same critic feared the sons of Levi “shall wander astray..., set aside the Law and nullify the words of the Prophets.... You persecute just men, and you hate the pious.”40 And that became clearest when the leading Levite priests conspired with the scribes to halt Jesus' influence (Mark 11:18), and the Levite high priest Caiaphas personally put Jesus on trial (Matthew 26:57-58). Early Christians read Jacob's words to Simeon and Levi as a prophecy of “the persecutors of the Lord,”41 the scribes and priests who “took counsel against the Lord Jesus,”42 who “savaged [Christ's] sinews by crucifixion by nails.”43 It was this conspiring, they said, which horrified Jacob in advance, the assembly from which he distanced his honor.44
But the New Testament recognizes plenty of Levite bright spots, too. John the Baptist was a Levite, the son of the priest Zechariah and his Levite wife Elizabeth (Luke 1:5-66); John fulfilled the Levite charge “to announce the one who is about to redeem Israel.”45 Elizabeth was a kinswoman of Mary, so maybe Mary was herself partly descended from Levi. Also a Levite was Joseph of Cyprus, nicknamed Barnabas, one of the first great evangelists to the nations (Acts 4:36-37). Mark was Barnabas' cousin (Colossians 4:10); maybe he was also a Levite.46 In medieval tradition, some thought Simon Peter was a son of Simeon while Zebedee, father of James and John, was a Levite,47 others took Bartholomew for a Levite,48 and some said Matthew was a Levite.49
Jacob turns next to Judah, but let's skip ahead to some of the shorter messages, starting with his blessings on Asher and Naphtali, the younger sons of the two handmaids, who are, as a rule, contented followers.50 “From Asher will be richness of bread, and he shall yield royal delicacies,” and “Naphtali is a doe let loose that gives beautiful words” (Genesis 49:20-21). People imagined Naphtali “light on [his] feet like a deer,” so that Jacob “appointed him for all missions and messages.”51 At the exodus, Naphtali was the sixth-biggest tribe; Asher was ninth (Numbers 1:41, 43), the last tribes to make offerings as the Tabernacle was dedicated (Numbers 7:72-83); both camped with Dan on the north side and brought up the very rear when Israel marched (Numbers 2:27-31). After forty years, Asher had grown to be fifth-biggest, while Naphtali had shrunk to be eighth (Numbers 26:47-50). They were also the final two tribes Moses blessed: “O Naphtali, sated with favor and full of the LORD's blessing, possess the sea and the south! Most blessed of sons be Asher; let him be the favorite of his brothers, and let him dip his foot in oil..., and as your days, so shall your strength be” (Deuteronomy 33:23-25).
So Asher was assigned coastal land in north Canaan (Joshua 19:24-31), “a fertile area of western Galilee,”52 and Naphtali was their neighbor on the east (Joshua 19:32-39); both tribes had to coexist with the Canaanites that they just couldn't drive out (Judges 1:31-33).53 Until, that is, Deborah called a Naphtalite named Barak to lead Israel in war. Bashfully unused to leadership, he refused to go without her (Judges 4:4-10).54 But Barak led his tribe Naphtali to victory over Canaan, though “Asher sat still at the coast of the sea, staying by his landings” (Judges 5:17). The son of a Naphtalite widow, Hiram, built the First Temple (1 Kings 7:14). As time passed, Asher and Naphtali became “thoroughly irreligious,”55 so the Lord judged to “disperse [Naphtali] over the face of the whole earth,”56 to scatter Asher so as to “not know [their] own lands, tribe, or language.”57 But it can't have been total, because an elderly prophetess named Anna from the tribe of Asher was found in Jerusalem to praise God for the arrival of a Savior (Luke 2:36-38) – a Savior who spent most of his ministry in lands once belonging to the tribe of Naphtali (cf. Isaiah 9:1). For early Christians, Naphtali's blessing was a picture of the apostles as evangelists, let loose to run forth to make the beautiful words of the gospel known abroad,58 while Asher showed them in their “duty to provide and distribute the bread of life..., food and drink for the saints.”59 In the Middle Ages, the Ethiopians guessed Bartholomew was from Naphtali and Thomas was from Asher,60 and the Syrians held Peter and Andrew as from Naphtali and Philip from Asher.61
Then there are Leah's last two sons, Issachar and Zebulun – the one she'd deemed a 'reward,' the other she took as a gift of grace (Genesis 30:17-20). On leaving Egypt, they were the fourth- and fifth-biggest tribes (Numbers 1:29-31), but after forty years, both had grown (Numbers 26:25-27). Moses blessed the two as one: “Rejoice, O Zebulun, in your going out, and Issachar, in your tents! They shall call peoples to the mountain; there they offer sacrifices of righteousness, for they suckle the abundance of the seas and the hidden treasures of the sand” (Deuteronomy 33:18-19). Tradition cast Zebulun as a generous fisherman; Issachar, a farmer “living in integrity.”62 Each tribe was assigned a small territory under Asher and Naphtali (Joshua 19:10-23). Jacob's word to Issachar scolds them “for passively submitting to servitude as the price of peace with its neighbors.”63 But Issachar later provided “men who had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought to do” (1 Chronicles 12:32), so the rabbis took the sons of Issachar as dedicated students of the Scriptures;64 they read into Jacob's blessing the notion that Issachar “bends his shoulders for the study of the Law,” while Zebulun supported and sustained Issachar's material needs.65 In that, these two brother tribes – one sticking to his tents, the other going out to provide food – present a picture of the relationship Jacob and Esau should have had.66
Each produced a minor judge: Issachar's Tola, Zebulun's Elon (Judges 10:1-2; 12:11-12). Some traditions said the prophet Hosea was of Issachar;67 rabbis guessed Jonah was of Zebulun.68 But, like others “abandoning the commands of the Lord,” they were “scattered among the nations.”69 Centuries later, in the land once Zebulun's, a new town was built: Nazareth. For “in the former time, he brought into contempt the land of Zebulun..., but in the latter time he has made glorious... Galilee” (Isaiah 9:1-2). And just over the border into Issachar, Jesus was transfigured between Moses and Elijah (Luke 9:28-35).70 Early Christians saw in Issachar's blessing a prefigurement of Christ bowing his shoulder to the cross, laboring for our salvation to bring us to a good land of heavenly rest.71 And in Zebulun's, they saw churches spread “in the world like widely accessible ports,”72 which “stand to meet the afflicted... where they can beach their wind-battered vessels” from life's storms.73 Medieval Ethiopians put Matthew in Issachar and Philip in Zebulun,74 the Irish figured 'Iscariot' came from Issachar,75 and the Syrians took Matthew and Bartholomew for Issacharites but James and John for Zebulunites.76
That clears the way for the longest blessing of all: Joseph's. He's Jacob's best-loved son, charming and diligent, a deeply emotional man of ambitious dreams who doesn't always account for long-term consequences but who thrives when he plays second-fiddle in a master's house.77 Jacob compares him to a young wild donkey (or vine?) at a well and a spring (or wall?). Assailed by “the masters of arrows,” Joseph's “bow remains unmoved, the arms of his hands were made agile...” (Genesis 49:22-23). Overall, the picture screams for comparison to Ishmael, proclaimed at the well to be “a wild donkey of a man..., everyone's hand against him” (Genesis 16:7-12); God being with him, Ishmael became an archer and married an Egyptian wife like Joseph would (Genesis 21:20-21) – the irony being that it was Ishmaelites who ferried Joseph to slavery (Genesis 37:28; 39:1)!78
But Joseph was helped in all his trials “by the hand of the Mighty One of Jacob, from the name of the Shepherd, the Stone of Israel” (Genesis 49:24). Jacob's remembering “the stone” at Bethel, house of “the God who has shepherded me all my days” (Genesis 28:22; 48:15).79 He appeals to “the El of your father who will help you, and Shaddai who will bless you with blessings from heaven above, blessings of the deep that crouches beneath” (Genesis 49:24-25). After years of walking in El Shaddai's promises, Jacob aims to pass such potent blessings on to his beloved son. But this “entire blessing is more natural than political – a blessing for fertility and plenty, not for rule.”80 Jacob sees that it isn't Joseph who can lead the way of Israel. “May they be on the head of Joseph,” Jacob prays, “and on the brow of the consecrated one of his brothers” (Genesis 49:26). Instead of crowning Joseph, Jacob summons him to be the 'consecrated one' – the 'Nazirite.'81 It's ironic, since Nazirites by law couldn't cut their hair until the vow was ended (Numbers 6:5), while Joseph, in Egyptian style, shaves it off daily (Genesis 41:14). Experiencing true blessing requires Joseph to separate himself from his Egyptian ways.
The chapter we leapfrogged explained why Joseph's the ancestor of not one but two tribes, since Jacob adopted his sons Ephraim and Manasseh (Genesis 48:5). At the exodus, Joseph's group was second-biggest, though his tribes individually were tenth and twelfth (Numbers 1:33-35). Ephraim and Manasseh camped on the west side of the Tabernacle and marched third in Israel (Numbers 2:18-24). At the border of promise, Manasseh's scout Gaddi was fearful, but not so the one from Ephraim. His name was Hoshea – or, as Moses renamed him, Joshua (Numbers 13:8, 16). After forty years, Ephraim had shrunk to second-smallest, while Manasseh had seen the most growth of any (Numbers 26:34-37); yet Moses, repeating Jacob's blessing, still saw Ephraim in the lead (Deuteronomy 33:13-17), and it was the Ephraimite Joshua he ordained as his successor (Deuteronomy 34:9).
The tribe of Manasseh split, some east of Jordan in Gilead and Bashan, the rest crossing over to settle around Shechem (Joshua 13:29-31; 17:7-13). Ephraim settled south of them, in the heart of Canaan (Joshua 16:5-10). After Joshua's death at the same age as his forefather Joseph (Joshua 24:39), Manasseh produced judges like the timid Gideon and the shortsighted Jephthah (Judges 7:23-24; 12:4-7).82 Tragically, a secessionist assembly proclaimed a man from Ephraim named Jeroboam as king; Jeroboam made golden calves (1 Kings 12:20-33), as “Ephraim... was determined to go after filth” (Hosea 5:11). The prophet Micah might himself have been an Ephraimite,83 but he proclaimed Israel's hope lay in Judah (Micah 5:2). Many from Ephraim and Manasseh moved south to Judah (2 Chronicles 15:9); and even after the northerners were deported and their territories resettled (2 Kings 17:6-41), it's likely many were left behind;84 from their mix with pagan settlers descended the Samaritans, who laid claim to the heritage of Joseph despite Jewish opposition (John 4:12).85 Jesus ministered gladly to Samaritans (John 4:36), and in the apostolic era “Samaria... received the word of God” (Acts 8:14).86 While medieval Ethiopic tradition took the apostle Jude Thaddeus for a descendant of Joseph,87 the Syrians said the same of Simon the Zealot (Ephraimite) and James the Lesser (Manassite),88 while the Irish went for broke and took Simon the Zealot, James the Lesser, and Matthew for Manassites and Thomas for an Ephraimite!89
Now we can loop back to Jacob's fourth son, an obvious contrast to his three older brothers.90 Punning on his name, which means 'Praise,' Jacob tells Judah that the name fits since “your brothers will praise you..., your father's sons will bow down before you” (Genesis 49:8). It must've been most shocking when the twelve heard that, since that's what Joseph had dreamt would be his destiny (Genesis 37:9-10)!91 In the exodus, Judah was the biggest of the tribes, making the first offering at the Tabernacle dedication and leading the camp on the east side (Numbers 1:27; 2:3-9; 7:12). Marching first every time, Judah “blazes the trail... for the entire nation.”92 Aaron married their chief Nahshon's sister, so that every priest of Israel would also descend from Judah (Exodus 6:23). Another leading son of Judah was Hur, who helped Aaron hold up Moses' arms to make the sign of the cross over Joshua's battle with Amalek (Exodus 17:12); and Hur's grandson Bezalel was singled out by God to oversee the building of the Tabernacle (Exodus 38:22), even to personally handcraft the Ark of the Covenant (Exodus 37:1-9). Their scout, Caleb, led the way in encouraging the people of Israel, and lived to become chief of Judah (Numbers 13:30; 34:19); his nephew Othniel was Israel's very first judge (Judges 3:7-11).
Through all this time, the people of Judah – settling in southern Canaan west of the Dead Sea (Joshua 15:1-12) – earned a reputation for persistence, boldness, bravery, and brains, tempted by pretty faces but usually willing to confess and repent.93 Most famously, among the sons of Judah was a shepherd boy named David (Ruth 4:18-22), anointed first as king of his tribe and then over a unified Israel (2 Samuel 2:4; 5:3). For Judah had been “destined to be king in Israel” by Jacob's blessing.94 Ultimately, God “did not choose the tribe of Ephraim, but he chose the tribe of Judah,” and within it “he chose David his servant... to shepherd Jacob his people, Israel his inheritance” (Psalm 78:67-71). From him “were descended the other kings” – Solomon and Rehoboam, Uzziah and Hezekiah, Josiah and Jeconiah and the rest – who were thus “all members of the tribe of Judah.”95
Jacob promised that “the scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler's staff from between his feet, until” – until what (Genesis 49:10)? This line's been read so many different ways: 'until Shiloh comes,'96 'until he comes to Shiloh,'97 'until tribute comes to him,'98 'until what has been stored up for him might come,'99 'until he comes who is to be sent,'100 'until he comes to whom it belongs.'101 Even people in the Old Testament applied Jacob's words differently. The prophet Nathan, reading 'the rod will not depart from Judah,' warns David that if his sons fail, the blessing becomes a curse: while God's mercy “will not depart,” while the kingdom is “until forever,” still God “will chasten [the son of David] with the rod”; David's sin with Bathsheba makes Nathan even more sure that “punishment will not depart from your house until forever” (2 Samuel 7:14-16; 12:10).102 Two generations later, at the national breakup, the prophet Ahijah came from Shiloh to say that, though rule over Israel is out of Judah's hands, that won't be forever (1 Kings 11:39).103 When even Judah's kingdom fell, Ezekiel re-read Jacob's words as a prophecy of Nebuchadnezzar, saying Judah's final prince should ditch his crown since Judah's kingship was only “until he comes whose is the judgment, and I will give it to him” (Ezekiel 21:26-27).104 But once Babylon fell and David's descendant Zerubbabel was made governor of Judah, Zechariah was reinvigorated with hope that the scepter had never left Judah at all, and never would until they at last beheld their “king coming to you..., on a donkey and on a colt, the son of a donkey” (Zechariah 9:9).105
It was at last understood that Jacob foresaw that “the rule would not cease for [Judah's] posterity,”106 not until all these things were fulfilled. Even when it seemed all was lost, God promised to “raise up for David a righteous Branch, and he shall reign as king” (Jeremiah 23:5); Jacob's blessing pointed to an ultimate King from Judah in the end.107 In the Dead Sea Scrolls, Jacob's blessing promises “the coming of the Messiah of Righteousness, the shoot of David, for to him and his seed has been given the covenant of kingship of his people for everlasting generations.”108 Explanations read in the synagogues rephrased Jacob as saying that “the ruler shall never depart from the House of Judah... until the Messiah comes, to whom belongs the kingdom, and him the nations will obey.”109 And “it is evident that our Lord was descended from Judah” (Hebrews 7:14).
So early Christians latched on to Jacob's blessing as a prophecy that the earthly Jewish kingdom had lasted just until the arrival of a Messiah in whom the Gentiles would hope.110 Jesus, they said, was the promised king from Judah, and “all predecessors were but guardians in the post.”111 In that light, “the blessing conferred on Judah is somewhat mystical, foretelling to us the whole story of Christ.”112 Jacob said, “Judah is a lion's cub; from the torn prey, my son, you have gone up” (Genesis 49:9), resonating with Judah saving Joseph from being “torn” (Genesis 44:28). But in Greek, “from a shoot, my son, you went up,”113 and Christians heard there about the virgin birth.114 “He stooped down, he crouched as a lion and as a lion's cub; who dares rouse him?” (Genesis 49:9) – they saw here Jesus stooping down in death, to be roused by God alone.115 No wonder John heard that “the Lion of the tribe of Judah... has conquered” (Revelation 5:5), “saving them that believe, but trampling down the adversary.”116 And “because the lion has conquered, he will come to judge the living and the dead.”117
Jacob spoke of Judah “binding his donkey to the vine, and to the choice vine his donkey's son” (Genesis 49:11), words reminding us of Joseph 'bound' in prison to hear a dream of a vine (Genesis 40:3-10).118 On the surface, it's a blessing of such abundance that Judah can afford to not care if a donkey chews up a precious vine.119 But Christians, reading spiritually in light of Zechariah's prophecy, saw here Jesus sending his disciples to fetch “a donkey tied, and a colt with her,” which he rode into Jerusalem on Palm Sunday (Matthew 21:2-11).120 Jesus is the Choice Vine, binding onto himself both Jews and Gentiles.121 “He washes his garments in wine and his vesture in the blood of grapes” (Genesis 49:11). This “heralded beforehand the suffering he was going to endure,”122 “spattering his body with his own blood,”123 all “to wash away the sin which was ours,”124 through giving us “the wine of the chalice of the blood of the Lord.”125 As for his wine-sparkling eyes and milk-white teeth (Genesis 49:12), John beheld one whose “eyes are like a flame of fire..., clothed in a robe dipped in blood, and the name by which he is called is the Word of God” (Revelation 19:12-13),126 for the prophets and apostles saw with joy,127 and declare “the perfect clarity of their teaching” like “gleaming white teeth.”128
That leaves just three tribes, two of which are Dan and Gad, the eldest sons of the handmaids. Gad's is short and very punny, while Dan's is curious: words about judgment, a snakebite, and a prayer for salvation (Genesis 49:16-18). Dan shows real potential whenever paired with Judah, as when God chooses the Danite Oholiab to help the Judahite Bezalel equip Israel for worship; he made the Tabernacle fabric and the priestly vestments (Exodus 38:23). Dan was the second-biggest tribe after Judah, leading the rear-marching camp (Numbers 1:39; 2:25-31), but it was a Danite who cursed the sacred name of the LORD and so had to be stoned to death by the direct commandment of God himself (Leviticus 24:10-16).
Moses compared Gad and Dan to lions, as Jacob had to Judah (Deuteronomy 33:20-22). Dan was assigned land near the Philistines (Judges 19:40-44), though they weren't terribly successful in settling it (Judges 1:34), despite the most famous Danite being Samson, that superhuman whose law-breaking vengeance was God's imperfect tool (Judges 13:24). Many ancient Jews thought he was the focus of Jacob's blessing: “Let the terror of this man... chosen... out of the house of Dan be cast upon the nations, and let his slaughter of the Philistines prevail.”129 But when the southern turf of Dan was “lost to them” (Joshua 19:45), they pillaged their way to the far north, setting up an idol shrine at a city they burned and seized (Judges 18:1-31). They became “estranged from their inheritance, from the race of Israel, and from their patrimony.”130 Living along caravan routes, subtle and dangerous as a snake, they likely survived largely through highway robbery.131 The Old Testament tended to link Dan to “unfaithfulness..., cowardice..., and foreign invasion.”132 They were prone to intermarry with neighboring pagans,133 and they happily hosted one of Jeroboam's golden calves (1 Kings 12:29-30).
In Jewish tradition, the exiled tribes of Gad and Dan were dedicated to “persecuting those who were keeping the Law,” and a member of one or the other tribe was said to have murdered Ezekiel, “for they opposed him all the days of his life.”134 Another tradition added that “in the last days,” the sons of Dan would “defect from the Lord,” and then, “to the extent that you abandon the Lord, you will live by every evil deed..., motivated to all wickedness by the spirits of deceit among you.... Your prince is Satan.”135 In the New Testament, when St. John lists the tribes' sealed, the one and only tribe dropped from the list is, you guessed it, Dan (Revelation 7:4-8) – and medieval tradition generally took Judas to be a member of the tribe of Dan (or, sometimes, Gad).136
Seeing this, Christians starting in the second century began speculating that the tribe of Dan was maybe left out for a good reason: that there'd be one more Danite with a big role to play.137 Given Jacob's prophecy echoing the Serpent in the Garden (cf. Genesis 3:14-15),138 Christians supposed that a “deadly serpent will emerge from the tribe of Dan.”139 Given Dan's counterfeiting of the 'Lion of Judah' in the words of Moses, Christians said that “as the Savior has been born out of the tribe of Judah, so also Antichrist will be born out of the tribe of Dan”140 – “the Son of Destruction... from the tribe of Dan in accordance with the prophecy of Jacob,”141 “a cruel judge and savage tyrant who will... try to throw down those who walk in the way of truth.”142 But though this “one opposing and exalting himself above everything called god or worshipped, so as to seat himself in the temple of God, proclaiming himself to be God,” yet the true Lion of Judah will “abolish with the breath of his mouth and nullify him by the appearance of his coming” (2 Thessalonians 2:3-8).
That leaves just one tribe to go. “Benjamin is a ravenous wolf, in the morning devouring the prey and in the evening dividing the spoil” (Genesis 49:27). All but the smallest tribe when leaving Egypt, camping with the other Rachel tribes west of the Tabernacle, they grew over forty years to become seventh-largest tribe (Numbers 1:37; 2:22-23; 26:41). They provided Israel their second judge: the left-handed Ehud, “quiet and unassuming..., sly and devious,” who stealthily assassinated the Moabite king Eglon (Judges 3:15-30).143 The Benjaminites of Gibeah later took the story of Sodom as a how-to guide; their tribal leaders refused to surrender the guilty and instead launched a civil war against the other tribes (Judges 20:12-14); nearly wiped out, they were barely saved by Shechem-style marriage-by-abduction (Judges 21). A few generations down the line, Samuel anointed a young Benjaminite from Gibeah to be the king Israel cried for. Saul was at first so reluctant that he hid in a pile of luggage (1 Samuel 10:22); soon, though, he was addicted to royal power. Struggling to take responsibility for his own actions, he gradually frittered away his moral authority.144 His son Ishbaal, succeeding him, was “weak and easily controlled,” while his grandson Mephibaal proved passive, peaceful, and forgiving.145
That's one side of Benjamin's tribe; the other is that Moses had given them a blessing of nearness to God: “The beloved of the LORD dwells in safety by him; he surrounds him all day long and dwells between his shoulders” (Deuteronomy 33:12). They were assigned territory between Judah and Joseph (Joshua 18:11-20), and after the fall of Shiloh, it was Benjaminites who recovered the Ark of the Covenant (1 Samuel 7:1-2; cf. Joshua 18:28). Later, the Ark was brought into another city in Benjamin's territory: Jerusalem (Judges 1:21; 2 Samuel 6:1-15). The Temple “was built in the portion of Benjamin,”146 for “in his territory shall the Divine Presence dwell.”147 So “thanks to his promixity to God's temple, Benjamin enjoyed the benefit of God's constant attention.”148
Though God remained with descendants of Benjamin like Mordecai and his cousin Esther (Esther 2:5-7), by far history's most famous Benjaminite was Saul – and this time I mean the one from Tarsus, not Gibeah. Saul – St. Paul – confesses to being “of the tribe of Benjamin” (Philippians 3:5; Romans 11:1). So, naturally, early Christians saw him as the focus of Jacob's blessing here, that “Paul would arise of the tribe of Benjamin, a ravening wolf devouring until the morning..., who in his early life would harass the Lord's flock as a persecutor, and then at evening would distribute food, that is..., would feed Christ's sheep,”149 “enlightening all the nations with new knowledge.”150 He became “a wolf to the wolves and snatched all souls away from the Evil One,”151 and now “his divisions of food are chanted everywhere” in the churches of God!152
Now, why does all this tribal stuff matter? Simply this: the prophets assured their people that, despite the exile and dispersion, God's eye remained “on all the tribes of Israel” (Zechariah 9:1), even those “ten tribes” they feared had been lost “beyond the Euphrates.”153 For “are we not all, the twelve tribes, bound by one captivity?”154 When the Messiah reigns, “a great trumpet will be blown, and those who were lost... will come and worship the LORD” (Isaiah 27:13). Though “the sons of Israel will dwell many days without king or prince or sacrifice..., the sons of Israel shall return... to the LORD and to his goodness in the latter days” (Hosea 3:5).
So Jews expected that, in the last days, the Messiah would summon back “the ten tribes” to their ancestral home.155 Jesus told his apostles that, “in the regeneration” of all things, they'd “sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matthew 19:28); and James addressed his letter to Christians from (at least in principle) “the twelve tribes in the Dispersion” (James 1:1). When Ezekiel dreamt of the promised land, he saw the twelve tribes living in neat horizontal strips above and below a new temple, and the square city around that temple would have three gates in each wall, one for each of Jacob's twelve sons (Ezekiel 48:1-35).156
The Bible closes with St. John's sweet vision of “the holy city, New Jerusalem,” grander and more glorious than Ezekiel could've handled seeing it (Revelation 21:2). This city has “the glory of God” and “a great high wall, with twelve gates, and at the gates twelve angels; and on the gates, the names of the twelve tribes of the sons of Israel were inscribed” (Revelation 21:11-12). These are the gates, ever-open, into which the glory of all nations may pass into the City of God (Revelation 21:25-26); and John had earlier seen, under the figure of those sealed from the twelve tribes, “the innumerable multitude of the whole Church,” all who believed through the twelve apostles' gospel.157 Each of these tribal legacies is preserved eternally, because it takes many kinds to make a people; the kingdom of the Lord takes all kinds indeed – “there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone” (1 Corinthians 12:6). Thanks be to God, come on in! “Blessed are those who wash their robes..., that they may enter the city by the gates” of these twelve tribes, in Jesus' name! Amen.
1 Jonathan Huddleston, Eschatology in Genesis (Mohr Siebeck, 2012), 217.
2 Kerry D. Lee Jr., The Death of Jacob: Narrative Conventions in Genesis 47:28–50:26 (Brill, 2015), 174-176.
3 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 184.
4 Jonathan Huddleston, Eschatology in Genesis (Mohr Siebeck, 2012), 218 n.70.
5 Israel Knohl, “Solving the Mystery of Genesis 49:10b? The Numerical Key,” Vetus Testamentum 70/3 (2020): 500.
6 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 331.
7 Israel Knohl, “Solving the Mystery of Genesis 49:10b? The Numerical Key,” Vetus Testamentum 70/3 (2020): 500-501.
8 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 331.
9 Yair Zakovitch, Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch (Yale University Press, 2012), 170.
10 David W. Cotter, Genesis (Liturgical Press, 2003), 325.
11 R. R. Reno, Genesis (Brazos Press, 2010), 287.
12 Yair Zakovitch, Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch (Yale University Press, 2012), 170.
13 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 646.
14 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 29.
15 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 35.
16 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 43.2, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:209.
17 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Deuteronomy 44.1, in Library of Early Christianity 2:249.
18 Origen of Alexandria, Homilies on Joshua 3.1, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 105:42.
19 Lives of the Prophets 8.1, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:392; cf. Liber de ortu et obitu patriarchum 24, in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 108E:25.
20 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 39.
21 Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch 7.2, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 137:317; Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 2 §9, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:246.
22 Genealogies of the Twelve Apostles [ECCA 523], in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Contendings of the Apostles, Being the Histories of the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists (Henry Frowde, 1901), 2:49.
23 Solomon of Akhlat, Book of the Bee, in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Bee (Clarendon Press, 1886), 107.
24 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 42.
25 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 67.7, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 87:268.
26 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 185.
27 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 70-71.
28 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 646.
29 Sifre Deuteronomy 349, in Reuven Hammer, tr., Sifre: A Tannaitic Commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy (Yale University Press, 1986), 362.
30 Testament of Simeon 5.4-5, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:786-787.
31 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 75-76.
32 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 334.
33 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Deuteronomy 46, in Library of Early Christianity 2:257.
34 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Joshua 17, in Library of Early Christianity 2:295.
35 Yair Zakovitch, Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch (Yale University Press, 2012), 171.
36 Testament of Judah 21.3, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:800.
37 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 74-75.
38 Lives of the Prophets 21.1, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:396; cf. Liber de ortu et obitu patriarchum 17.2, in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 108E:17.
39 Lives of the Prophets 11.1, 12.1, and 13.1, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:393-394; cf. Liber de ortu et obitu patriarchum 29, 30.1, in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 108E:30-31.
40 Testament of Levi 14.4; 16.1-2, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:793-794.
41 Ambrose of Milan, Jacob and the Happy Life 2.9 §38, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:160.
42 Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 3 §13, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:249.
43 Tertullian of Carthage, Against the Jews 10.8-9, in Geoffrey Dunn, Tertullian (Routledge, 2004), 64; cf. Hippolytus of Rome, On the Blessings of Isaac and Jacob 14, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture OT-2:323.
44 Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch 7.3.2, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 137:322.
45 Testament of Levi 2.10, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:788.
46 Liber de ortu et obitu patriarchum 59.1, in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 108E:77.
47 Genealogies of the Twelve Apostles [ECCA 523], in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Contendings of the Apostles, Being the Histories of the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists (Henry Frowde, 1901), 2:49.
48 Genealogy and Manner of Death of the Apostles [ECCA 262], in Whitley Stokes, “The Irish Verses, Notes and Glosses in Harl. 1802,” Revue celtique 8 (1887): 364.
49 Liber de ortu et obitu patriarchum 53.2, in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 108E:73.
50 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 199.
51 Testament of Naphtali 2.1, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:811; cf. Targum Neofiti Genesis 49:21, in Aramaic Bible 1A:223.
52 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 189.
53 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 341-342.
54 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 200.
55 Testament of Asher 7.5, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:818.
56 Testament of Naphtali 4.5, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:812.
57 Testament of Asher 7.6, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:818.
58 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 43.9, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:210-211.
59 Hippolytus of Rome, On the Blessings of Isaac and Jacob 24, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture OT-2:341.
60 Genealogies of the Twelve Apostles [ECCA 523], in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Contendings of the Apostles, Being the Histories of the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists (Henry Frowde, 1901), 2:50.
61 Solomon of Akhlat, Book of the Bee, in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Bee (Clarendon Press, 1886), 104-105.
62 Testament of Zebulon 6.1-7 and Testament of Issachar 3.1-4, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:806, 803.
63 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 339; cf. James Chukwuma Okoye, Genesis 12-50: A Narrative-Theological Commentary (Cascade Books, 2020), 399.
64 Sifre Deuteronomy 354, in Reuven Hammer, tr., Sifre: A Tannaitic Commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy (Yale University Press, 1986), 370.
65 Targum Neofiti Genesis 49:15, in Aramaic Bible 1A:221; Genesis Rabbah 98.12, in Harry Freedman, tr., Midrash Rabbah (Soncino Press, 1939), 2:961.
66 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 153.
67 Lives of the Prophets 5.1, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:391; cf. Liber de ortu et obitu patriarchum 23, in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 108E:24.
68 Genesis Rabbah 98.11, in Harry Freedman, tr., Midrash Rabbah (Soncino Press, 1939), 2:959-960.
69 Testament of Issachar 6.1-2, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:804.
70 Hippolytus of Rome, On the Blessings of Isaac and Jacob 21, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture OT-2:337.
71 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 43.5, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:210; Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 6 §31, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:259.
72 Hippolytus of Rome, On the Blessings of Isaac and Jacob 20, translated from Patrologia Orientalis 27:87.
73 Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 5 §27, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:257.
74 Genealogies of the Twelve Apostles [ECCA 523], in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Contendings of the Apostles, Being the Histories of the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists (Henry Frowde, 1901), 2:50.
75 Genealogy and Manner of Death of the Apostles [ECCA 262], in Whitley Stokes, “The Irish Verses, Glosses and Notes in Harl. 1802,” Revue celtique 8 (1887): 365. The earlier Spaniard Isidore of Seville, Etymologiae 7.9.20, in The Etymologies of Isidore of Seville (Cambridge University Press, 2006), 169, also wonders if “Judas Iscariot got his name... from the tribe of Issachar.”
76 Solomon of Akhlat, Book of the Bee, in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Bee (Clarendon Press, 1886), 104, 106.
77 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 231-232.
78 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 343; Jeffrey Pulse, Figuring Resurrection: Joseph as a Death-and-Resurrection Figure in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism (Lexham Press, 2021), 137.
79 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 190.
80 Leon R. Kass, The Beginning of Wisdom: Reading Genesis (Free Press, 2003), 648; pace Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 383.
81 James Chukwuma Okoye, Genesis 12-50: A Narrative-Theological Commentary (Cascade Books, 2020), 401-402.
82 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 249-250.
83 Lives of the Prophets 6.1, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:391; cf. Liber de ortu et obitu patriarchum 28.1, in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 108E:28.
84 Tiglath-pileser III deported 13,520 Israelites (cf. 2 Kings 15:29), and Sargon II deported 27,280 or 27,290 Israelites (cf. 2 Kings 17:6) – Royal Inscriptions of the Neo-Assyrian Period 1:61; 2:56. This hardly could have sufficed to remove all the northern tribes of Israel in their entirety. Gary S. Knoppers, Jews and Samaritans: The Origins and History of Their Early Relations (Oxford University Press, 2013), 28-44, argues quite convincingly for “a reduced but continuing northern Israelite presence in the land,” especially in the Ephraim-Manasseh territories.
85 The Samaritan poet Amram Dare's list of ancient saints places only “Joseph who became a king” between Jacob and Moses, and runs only up to “Joshua the leader, and Caleb his heir” – see Durran 9.27-30, in Laura Suzanne Lieber, Classical Samaritan Poetry (Eisenbrauns, 2022), 64. For Jewish conflict with Samaritans, in addition to Zerubbabel's refusal to let the Samaritans help build the Second Temple (Ezra 4:1-5) and Nehemiah's conflicts with the Samaritan governor Sanballat (Nehemiah 4:1-2; 6:1-14), see also 4Q372 1.10-15, in Donald W. Perry and Emanuel Tov., eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader (Brill, 2005), 3:635; Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 9.290-291, in Loeb Classical Library 326:153-155.
86 The modern religious community of Samaritans is fewer than a thousand people, and “their almost complete disappearance was mainly due to massive conversions to Christianity” – see Étienne Nodet, The Samaritans (T&T Clark, 2023), 7.
87 Genealogies of the Twelve Apostles [ECCA 523], in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Contendings of the Apostles, Being the Histories of the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists (Henry Frowde, 1901), 2:50.
88 Solomon Akhlat, Book of the Bee, in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Bee (Clarendon Press, 1886), 106.
89 Genealogy and Manner of Death of the Apostles [ECCA 262], in Whitley Stokes, “The Irish Verses, Notes and Glosses in Harl. 1802,” Revue celtique 8 (1887): 365.
90 Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 381.
91 Megan Warner, “'Are You Indeed to Reign Over Us?': The Politics of Genesis 37-50,” in Mark G. Brett and Rachelle Gilmour, eds., Political Theologies in the Hebrew Bible (Brill, 2023), 223.
92 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 103.
93 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 104-105, 111, 119, 124.
94 Testament of Judah 17.5, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:800.
95 Augustine of Hippo, Expositions of the Psalms 75.1, in The Works of Saint Augustine III/18:54.
96 Genesis 49:10 KJV, NASB; also Samaritan version, in Benyamim Tsedaka, tr., The Israelite Samaritan Version of the Torah (Eerdmans, 2013), 119; Genesis Rabbah 98.8, in Harry Freedman, tr., Midrash Rabbah (Soncino Press, 1939), 2:956; b. Sanhedrin 98b, in Tzvi Hersh Weinreb, ed., Koren Talmud Bavli (Koren Publishers, 2013), 30:324; etc.
97 Serge Frolov, “Judah Comes to Shiloh: Genesis 49:10ba, One More Time,” Journal of Biblical Literature 131/3 (2012): 422; cf. Bill T. Arnold, Genesis (Cambridge University Press, 2009), 381 n.696; Yair Zakovitch, Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch (Yale University Press, 2012), 172; Jonathan Huddleston, Eschatology in Genesis (Mohr Siebeck, 2012), 225.
98 Genesis 49:10 NRSV, ESV.
99 Genesis 49:10 LXX, in Susan C. Brayford, Genesis (Brill, 2007), 195; see also Julian the Apostate, Against the Galileans 253D, in Loeb Classical Library 157:395.
100 Genesis 49:10 Vulgate, in Dumbarton Oaks Medieval Library 1:265; see also Peter the Venerable, Against the Inveterate Obduracy of the Jews 4, in Fathers of the Church: Medieval Continuation 14:138-139.
101 Genesis 49:10 NIV; also Peshitta version, in Craig E. Morrison, tr., The Syriac Peshitta Bible with English Translation: Genesis (Gorgias Press, 2019), 293; Justin Martyr, Dialogue with Trypho 120.4, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 6:334; etc.
102 Richard C. Steiner, “Four Inner-Biblical Interpretations of Genesis 49:10: On the Lexical and Syntactical Ambiguities of 'Ad as Reflected in the Prophecies of Nathan, Ahijah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah,” Journal of Biblical Literature 132/1 (2013): 44-48.
103 Richard C. Steiner, “Four Inner-Biblical Interpretations of Genesis 49:10: On the Lexical and Syntactical Ambiguities of 'Ad as Reflected in the Prophecies of Nathan, Ahijah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah,” Journal of Biblical Literature 132/1 (2013): 48-49.
104 Richard C. Steiner, “Four Inner-Biblical Interpretations of Genesis 49:10: On the Lexical and Syntactical Ambiguities of 'Ad as Reflected in the Prophecies of Nathan, Ahijah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah,” Journal of Biblical Literature 132/1 (2013): 49-51.
105 Richard C. Steiner, “Four Inner-Biblical Interpretations of Genesis 49:10: On the Lexical and Syntactical Ambiguities of 'Ad as Reflected in the Prophecies of Nathan, Ahijah, Ezekiel, and Zechariah,” Journal of Biblical Literature 132/1 (2013): 51-53.
106 Testament of Judah 22.3, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:801.
107 Jonathan Huddleston, Eschatology in Genesis (Mohr Siebeck, 2012), 223.
108 4Q252 5.3-4, in Donald W. Parry and Emanuel Tov, eds., The Dead Sea Scrolls Reader (Brill, 2004), 2:111.
109 Targum Onqelos Genesis 49:10, in Aramaic Bible 6:158.
110 See, for instance, Justin Martyr, 1 Apology 32.1-4, in Dennis Minns and Paul Parvis, eds., Justin, Philosopher and Martyr: Apologies (Oxford University Press, 2009), 169; Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 4.10.2, in Ancient Christian Writers 72:33; Origen of Alexandria, Against Celsus 1.53, in Owen Chadwick, tr., Origen: Contra Celsum (Cambridge University Press, 1953), 49; Athanasius of Alexandria, On the Incarnation 40, in Popular Patristics Series 44A:135; Augustine of Hippo, Answer to Faustus the Manichean 12.42, in The Works of Saint Augustine I/20:152; Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Genesis 112.3, in Library of Early Christianity 1:209; etc., etc.
111 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 42.5.3, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:204.
112 John Chrysostom, Homilies on Genesis 67.8, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 87:269.
113 Genesis 49:10 LXX, in Susan Brayford, Genesis (Brill, 2007), 135.
114 Hippolytus of Rome, On the Blessings of Isaac and Jacob 16, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture OT-2:328; Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 30.30.7, in Frank Williams, tr., The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis (Brill, 2009), 159; Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 4 §19, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:252-253; Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch 7.4, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 137:328.
115 Hippolytus of Rome, On the Blessings of Isaac and Jacob 16, in Ancient Christian Commentary on Scripture OT-2:329-330; cf. Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 63.3, in Popular Patristics Series 33:176; Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 4 §20, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:253; Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Genesis 112.2, in Library of Early Christianity 1:209.
116 Cyril of Jerusalem, Catechetical Lectures 10.3, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 61:197.
117 Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 223C.1, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century III/6:223.
118 Jeffrey Pulse, Figuring Resurrection: Joseph as a Death and Resurrection Figure in the Old Testament and Second Temple Judaism (Lexham Press, 2021), 135.
119 James McKeown, Genesis (Eerdmans, 2008), 186.
120 Justin Martyr, 1 Apology 32.5-6, in Dennis Minns and Paul Parvis, eds., Justin, Philosopher and Martyr: Apologies (Oxford University Press, 2009), 171; cf. R. R. Reno, Genesis (Brazos Press, 2010), 288.
121 Hippolytus of Rome, On Christ and Antichrist 10, at <https://andrewjacobs.org/translations/hippolytus.html>; Cyril of Alexandria, Glaphyra on the Pentateuch 7.4, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 137:329.
122 Justin Martyr, 1 Apology 32.7, in Dennis Minns and Paul Parvis, eds., Justin, Philosopher and Martyr: Apologies (Oxford University Press, 2009), 171; cf. Tertullian of Carthage, Against Marcion 4.40, in Ernest Evans, tr., Tertullian: Adversus Marcionem (Oxford University Press, 1972), 495.
123 Epiphanius of Salamis, Panarion 20.2.2, in Frank Williams, tr., The Panarion of Epiphanius of Salamis (Brill, 2009), 54.
124 Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 4 §24, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:255.
125 Cyprian of Carthage, Letters 63.6, in Popular Patristics Series 33:176.
126 R. R. Reno, Genesis (Brazos Press, 2010), 288.
127 Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 4 §25, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:256.
128 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Genesis 112.4, in Library of Early Christianity 1:215.
129 Targum Onqelos Genesis 49:17, in Aramaic Bible 6:159; cf. Origen of Alexandria, Commentary on John 6.118, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 80:201; Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 42.9.1, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:205-206; Genesis Rabbah 98.13-14, in Harry Freedman, tr., Midrash Rabbah (Soncino Press, 1939), 2:962-964.
130 Testament of Dan 7.3, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:810.
131 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 341; Bruce K. Waltke, Genesis: A Commentary (Zondervan Academic, 2001), 611; Yair Zakovitch, Jacob: Unexpected Patriarch (Yale University Press, 2012), 174.
132 Mateusz Kusio, The Antichrist Tradition in Antiquity: Antimessianism in Second Temple and Early Christian Literature (Mohr Siebeck, 2020), 46.
133 Nahum M. Sarna, Genesis (Jewish Publication Society, 1989), 340.
134 Lives of the Prophets 3.16-19, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 2:389.
135 Testament of Dan 5.4-6, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:809.
136 Solomon Akhlat, Book of the Bee, in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Bee (Clarendon Press, 1886), 107 (“Judas Iscariot, the betrayer, was... of the tribe of Gad, though some say that he was of the tribe of Dan. He was like unto a serpent that acts deceitfully towards its master, because like a serpent, he dealt craftily with his Lord”); Genealogies of the Twelve Apostles [ECCA 523], in E. A. Wallis Budge, The Contendings of the Apostles, Being the Histories of the Lives and Martyrdoms and Deaths of the Twelve Apostles and Evangelists (Henry Frowde, 1901), 2:50, where Judas' betrayal of Christ recapitulates his ancestor Dan's role in the sale of Joseph.
137 Irenaeus of Lyons, Against Heresies 5.30.2, in Ancient Christian Writers 72:191; Primasius of Hadrametum, Commentary on the Apocalypse 11.91, in Corpus Christianorum Series Latina 92:169; Andrew of Caesarea, Commentary on the Apocalypse 7.19, in Fathers of the Church 123:106; Bede, Commentary on Revelation 7:5, in Translated Texts for Historians 58:151; cf. Mateusz Kusio, The Antichrist Tradition in Antiquity: Antimessianism in Second Temple and Early Christian Literature (Mohr Siebeck, 2020), 214.
138 Jonathan Huddleston, Eschatology in Genesis (Mohr Siebeck, 2012), 227; Mateusz Kusio, The Antichrist Tradition in Antiquity: Antimessianism in Second Temple and Early Christian Literature (Mohr Siebeck, 2020), 45.
139 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Genesis 112.5, in Library of Early Christianity 1:215.
140 Hippolytus of Rome, On Christ and Antichrist 14.1-2, at <https://andrewjacobs.org/translations/hippolytus.html>.
141 Apocalypse of Pseudo-Methodius 14.6, in Michael Philip Penn, When Christians First Met Muslims: A Sourcebook of the Earliest Syriac Writings on Islam (University of California Press, 2015), 127.
142 Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 7 §32, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:260.
143 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 267, 270.
144 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 272-275.
145 Nechama Price, Tribal Blueprints: Twelve Brothers and the Destiny of Israel (Maggid Books, 2020), 277-278.
146 Sifre Deuteronomy 352, in Reuven Hammer, tr., Sifre: A Tannaitic Commentary on the Book of Deuteronomy (Yale University Press, 1986), 366; cf. Genesis Rabbah 99.1, in Harry Freedman, tr., Midrash Rabbah (Soncino Press, 1939), 2:972-973; Testament of Benjamin 9.2, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:827.
147 Targum Onqelos Genesis 49:27, in Aramaic Bible 6:159.
148 Theodoret of Cyrus, Questions on Deuteronomy 45.1, in Library of Early Christianity 2:253.
149 Tertullian of Carthage, Against Marcion 5.1, in Ernest Evans, tr., Tertullian: Adversus Marcionem (Oxford University Press, 1972), 511; cf. Ambrose of Milan, On the Patriarchs 12 §57, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 65:273-274.
150 Testament of Benjamin 11.2, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:828.
151 Ephrem the Syrian, Commentary on Genesis 43.11, in Fathers of the Church: A New Translation 91:211.
152 Augustine of Hippo, Sermon 333.3, in The Works of Saint Augustine: A Translation for the 21st Century III/9:200.
153 Josephus, Antiquities of the Jews 11.133, in Loeb Classical Library 326:377.
154 2 Baruch 78.4, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:648.
155 4 Ezra 13.39-40, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:552; cf. Sibylline Oracles 2.171-173, in Old Testament Pseudepigrapha 1:349.
156 Compare also the temple courtyard gates in 11Q19 39.11-13, in Lawrence H. Schiffman and Andrew D. Gross, The Temple Scroll: 11Q19, 11Q20, 11Q21, 4Q524, 5Q21 with 4Q365a and 4Q365 frag. 23 (Brill, 2021), 107.
157 Bede, Commentary on Revelation 7:4, in Translated Texts for Historians 58:150.
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