The Addressee as the Diaspora of the Twelve Tribes
Reference to the
twelve tribes evokes a central point in Israel’s eschatological hope. The return
of the twelve tribes associated with the hope for the future restoration of
Israel originates with the exilic and post-exilic prophets and can be found in
the later apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings. According to Isa. 49:6, the
servant of the Lord is ‘to raise up the tribes of Jacob and to restore the
survivors of Israel.’ God will eventually gather his people with his great
mercy (Isa. 54:7; 56:8). The prophet begs God to regather the tribes of God’s
heritage (Isa. 63:17). The understanding of the people in exile as the poor is
also connected with the eschatological hope that God will eventually deliver
them from captivity among the gentile nations. Ezek. 37:15–28 predicts a time
that the tribes of Israel and Judah will be reunited with David as their king
and with God dwelling among them. Once again, the land will be divided among
the twelve tribes as their inheritance (Ezek. 47:13). The new Jersualem in
Ezekiel’s portrayal will have gates named after the tribes of Israel (Ezek.
48:30–35).
In Sir. 36:13,
16, probably alluding to Ezek. 47:13, Ben Sira prays to God to ‘gather all the
tribes of Jacob, and give them their inheritance as at the beginning.’ However,
whether the prayer in 36:1–17 is Ben Sira’s own composition remains uncertain.
Yet, in 48:10, it is unmistakable that Ben Sira citing Mal. 3:13–14 with Isa.
49:6 is referring to a coming Elijah who will inaugurate a time to restore
Israel.
The Qumran
literature shows particular interest in the number ‘twelve’: the community
council which consists of twelve laymen along with three priests (1QS 8.1–2),
the twelve chief priests and twelve representative Levites, ‘one per tribe’
(1QM 2.2–3), the twelve commanders of the twelve tribes, along with the
‘prince’ (1QM 5.1–3), and twelve loaves of bread offered by the heads of the
tribes (11Q19 18.14–16). In 1QM 1.1–2, ‘the Sons of Levi, the Sons of Judah and
the Sons of Benjamin’ and ‘the Exiled of the Desert,’ that is, the exiled sons
of light, will wage war against the sons of darkness, the army of Belial, the
company of Edom and Moab and the sons of Ammon. A pesher on Isa. 10:24–27 links
this return from the desert or wilderness with the arrival of the Leader (נשׂיא) of the nation, probably the Davidic Messiah (4Q161 frgs. 2–6
2.14–25). The exiled sons of light are the members of the sectarian community
and constitute the twelve tribes of Israel. Also 4Q164 interprets Isa. 54:11 as
concerning ‘the chiefs of the tribes of Israel in the las[t d]ays.’
Jackson-McCabe (1996:513) notices that 1QSa, with its heavy reliance on
Numbers, suggests ‘the sect expected an eschatological reenactment of the
conquest.’
A significant
number of references are found in the apocryphal and pseudepigraphal writings
relating to the hope of the regathering of God’s people in the land of Israel.
Tobit speaks of the gathering of the children of Israel by God from the exile
(13:5) and how all will dwell in Jerusalem and live in safety forever in the
land of Abraham (14:7). Sib. Or.
2.154–175 sees one of the eschatological signs as ‘the gathering together’ when
‘a people of ten tribes will come from the east to seek the people, which the
shoot of Assyria destroyed, of their fellow Hebrews.’ Then the nations will
perish after all these signs and the ‘faithful chosen Hebrews will rule over
exceedingly mighty men.’ In Pss. Sol.
17:21–34, the psalmist intercedes for a messiah who will gather a holy people
and judge the tribes of the people (cf. 8:28). Like the Davidic king of Israel,
he will also ‘distribute them upon their land according to their tribes.’ T. Benj. 9:2 promises a time when ‘the
twelve tribes shall be gathered there [God’s temple] and all the nations, until
such time as the Most High shall send forth his salvation through the ministration
of the unique prophet.’ This idea of the unique prophet finds its origin in
Deut. 18:15 and figures importantly in messianic expectation. Some Qumran texts
also refer to an eschatological prophet, possibly a messianic figure, someone
similar to Elijah (1QS 9.10–11; lQ28a 2.11–12; 4Q175; 4Q521). For 4 Ezra 13:1–13, the one like a son of
man in the dream will bring about the ingathering of the exiles of Israel (esp.
vv. 12–13). The northern ten (or nine and a half; in Syr., Eth., and Ar.
translations) tribes will be regathered in peace (4 Ezra 13:29–39; see Stone 1990:404). In 2 Bar. 78:6–7, Baruch speaks to those who were carried away to
captivity in his letter, saying that if they remove from their hearts the idle
errors, God ‘will not forget or forsake our offspring, but with much mercy will
assemble all those again who were dispersed’ (cf. 68:2–7; 85:3–9).
In Philo’s
exposition of Lev. 26 and Deut. 28–30, he seems to assume that Israel will
eventually repent and return to the Land and enjoy greater prosperity than ever
before (Praem. Poen. 162–172). This
may be connected with his messianic expectation of the coming of a ‘man’ (cf.
LXX Num. 24:7) as the commander-in-chief of Israel to win the victory over all
her enemies (Praem. Poen. 79–97; cf. Vit. Mos. 1.290). Then there will be
universal peace based on the keeping of the law of God (Virt. 119–120).
The institution
of the ‘Twelve’ in the gospel traditions in all probability has to do with the
hope of Israel’s restoration and probably goes back to Jesus himself (Sanders
1985:98–106; Horsley 1993A: 199–200, 206; Wright 1996:430–31). Lk. 22:30//Mt.
19:28 speak of the twelve disciples/apostles sitting on (twelve) thrones
judging the twelve tribes of Israel. The saying very likely is derived from Q.
Jesus’ mission is to the ‘lost sheep of the house of Israel’ (Mt. 10:6; 15:24;
cf. Isa. 53:6; Jer. 50:6; Ezek. 34) which implies the regathering of Israel. Mk
13:27 alludes to Zech. 2:2–8 (LXX: 6–12) that envisages a regathering and
restoration of the exiles.8 In Revelation, the saints are identified
as 144,000 evenly drawn from the twelve tribes of Israel (7:4–8; 14:1, 3; cf.
21:12–13).
In Lev. R. 7:3, one of the merits of
studying the Mishnah is that all the exiles will be gathered. In 9:6, R-Eleazar
is supposed to interpret ‘Awake, O north’ as ‘when the exiled communities
stationed in the north will be awakened, they will come and find rest in the
south’ (cf. Jer. 31:8). This interpretation is paralleled with two others: when
‘the Messianic King whose place is in the north will come and rebuild the
sanctuary which is situated in the south;’ in this world, north and south winds
do not blow at the same time, but in the time to come, the brightening,
clearing wind will blow in which the two winds function. These interpretations
associate the regathering of the dispersed with the coming of the Messiah or
the age to come. A similar understanding can also be found in the Isaiah Targum
with the Lord’s servant Messiah bringing the exiles back to Israel (6:13;
42:1–7; 53:8; 54:7; 66:9; cf. Targ. 1
Sam. 2:5; Targ. Jer. 31:23). The hope
of the regathering of the tribes is also expressed in the tenth benediction of
the ʾAmidah in the synagogue liturgy.
Midr. Ps. 122:4 also looks forward to
a time when God’s presence will rest on Israel and will testify to the twelve
tribes that they are truly God’s people, in reply to the question of whether
the twelve tribes had indeed been preserved through the time of exile. Such
expectation of the twelve tribes is also found in t. Sanh. 13:10.
This does not
mean that ‘the twelve tribes in the diaspora’ is only a symbol of the Christian
church (pace, e.g., Konradt
1998:64–66). The word διασπορά (‘dispersion’) seems to
be used in a literal sense here as the land outside Palestine. Such usage is
different from 1 Pet. 1:1 where the word is used metaphorically to refer to the
Christian people of God. As Bauckham has shown, the whole diaspora in the west
and the east, consists of the twelve tribes which were contemporaneous with the
author of James. In addition, our author has not distinguished the addressees
as Christians probably because:
He does not see
it [the early Christian group] as a specific sect distinguished from other
Jews, but as the nucleus of the messianic renewal of the people of Israel which
was under way and which would come to include all Israel. Those Jews who
acknowledge Jesus to be the Messiah are the twelve tribes of Israel, not in an
exclusive sense so as to deny other Israelites this title, but with a kind of
representative inclusiveness. What James addresses in practice to those Jews
who already confess the Messiah Jesus, he addresses in principle to all Israel
(Bauckham 1997:154; see also Verseput 1998:702).
The initial aim
of the early messianic movement founded upon Christ concerned still about one
people of God, one holy community (Schlatter 1956:61).
Taking the
analogy with Qumran community based on the similarities between James and 1QS,
Penner (1996:279; cf. pp. 234–41) argues that James reflects ‘an early Christian
community which most likely practiced its own civil/religious law within the
confines of the community, and which saw itself as fulfilling to a fuller
degree the requirements of the ancestral Jewish faith.’ It is, however,
precarious to take every mention of conflict found in James as evidences of
conflict between the messianically renewed community with some rival Jewish
group, as Penner (1996:269–78) tends to think. Our author may simply be arguing
against the dominant system of values which are diametrically opposed to the
values of God’s kingdom. (Luke Leuk Cheun, The Genre, Composition and
Hermeneutics of the Epistle of James [Paternoster Biblical and Theological
Monographs; Carlisle: Paternoster Press, 2003], 240-45)
