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Biblical history runs from the Book of Genesis to the Book of Kings

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presents Israel as naturally evolving from the family of Abraham to a prodigious nation consisting of twelve tribes

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twelve sons of Abraham's grandson Jacob whose name was changed to Israel

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but this Biblical description is not historical

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at least not in its basic contours

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most scholars believe that the 12 tribes were original regions or populations in the Southern Levant

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some were related to Abraham but most were not

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their ancestors were not all originally sons of Jacob

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the way they became affiliated with Israel is a complex history

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differs for each tribe

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rarely can we reconstruct that history with much detail

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Tribe of Gad

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7th son of Jacob

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from an inscription from the neighboring kingdom of Moab dating to about 840 BCE

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tells how the Moabite king Mesha freed himself from the political control of the king of Israel

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this Stele's text refers "the men of Gad"

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in the Bible

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Gad as a place

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1 Samuel 13:7

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2 Samuel 24:3

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refer to "the Gad" as an area across the Jordan known as the Gilead##gilead

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Gad as a tribe

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other parts of the Bible

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a tribe that later settled in the region across the Jordan

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Biblical identity construction

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Biblical authors take a population that came to be part of Israel through conquest or political negotiations and define them as full genealogical members of Israel claiming that their name goes back to one of Jacob's twelve sons

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what the Biblical authors portray as a family history is actually a result of a complex political process by which regions and populations came to be identified as one people

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sometimes multiple histories are connected to form a single narrative

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older building blocks that the Biblical authors used to create the narratives of Israel's history

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1. The Book of Genesis

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the Book of Genesis tells a history of Israel that is autochthonous, i.e. of indigenous people

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this book is more about the origins of the people that make up Israel

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beautiful stories of births, marriages, struggles within the households

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has a more mythical quality

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long before there were territorial states with social hierarchies

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the emphasis is on peaceful coexistence

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more peace treaties with neighbors and purchases of land rather than taking lands through conquest

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one exception is when Abraham goes to war with the Mesopotamian kings

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they attack Sodom and Gomorrah

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Abraham protects Sodom and Gomorrah

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2. The Book of Exodus

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Israel coming from Egypt and entering Canaan under the leadership of Moses and Joshua

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books of Exodus to Joshua

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the received versions of these books contains a lot of later material

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the book of Exodus beginning with chapter 2 with the birth of Moses tells an account of Israel's history

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continues to the book of Joshua

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the story of how the nation of Israel escapes oppression in Egypt and finds a new home in Canaan, the promised land

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this history was originally separate from the account in the preceding book Genesis

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it presupposes the existence of the Israeli people as captive and oppressed in Isreal

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when they enter Canaan, they are not returning to the land of their ancestors

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since the account does not contain an account of the patriarchs and matriarchs listed in Genesis

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the history of Israel in Exodus is for the most part the opposite of Genesis

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authors are not interested in how Israel became Israel

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presuppose its existence as a marginal people in Egypt

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they need a land

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they voyage to Canaan as a collective people

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when they arrive, they do not buy land or make peace with the peoples there

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they arm themselves and take the country by force

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instead of viewing the inhabitants of this land as their kin, they conquer and slay them

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this history presents a much more military model

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Israel has nothing in common with its neighbors

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the Biblical authors combined the stories as one narrative

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Genesis tells the story of their original patriarchs and matriarchs

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Exodus tells the story of a return to where they once lived