Instead of excluding the kindred elements which offered
themselves to it on its new soil, it received and assimilated them.
The life they had lived together under Moses had been the first
thing to awaken a feeling of solidarity among the tribes which
afterwards constituted the nation; whether they had previously
been a unity in any sense of the word is doubtful. On the other
hand, the basis of the unification of the tribes must certainly
have been laid before the conquest of Palestine proper; for with
that it broke up, though the memory of it continued. At the same
time it must not be supposed that all the twelve tribes already
existed side be side in Kadesh. The sons of the concubines of
Jacob--Dan and Naphtali, Gad and Asher--manifestly do not pertain
to Israel in the same sense as do those of Leah and Rachel;
probably they were late arrivals and of very mixed origin.
We know, besides, that Benjamin was not born until afterwards,
in Palestine. If this view be correct, Israel at first consisted
of seven tribes, of which one only, that of Joseph, traced its
descent to Rachel, though in point of numbers and physical strength
it was the equal of all the others together, while in intellectual
force it surpassed them.
Pages:
931
932
933
934
935
936
937
938
939
940
941
942
943
944
945
946
947
948
949
950
951
952
953
954
955