Understanding exactly who is Israel— Biblically speaking of course— is a key to understanding the rest of the Bible.

You have been briefly shown that Israel existed as twelve tribes generated from the 12 sons of Jacob.

You were also shown the political and rival changes that have taken place over time as to the ruling of the twelve tribes.

lastly, you were shown how the division came about of the twelve tribes.

Now we will take a short detour, only for the purpose of cementing and better understanding, who— according the Bible—is Israel.

Much of modern day Christianity today is completely confused about who the Israelites were in the Holy Bible, particularly of who Israel was biblically.

It's very easy today to say since Arabs today are living in Iran, that they are the same exact Arabic peoples that lived in Iran 2000 years ago. It's also easy to conclude that customs practiced today by a dying generation of the Arabs in this age, are the same rituals customs that Arab must have practiced daily in another age. This is very easy to do, if one does not study as much as one can about how a people lived about 2000 years ago who live in Iran where they came from migrated to, etc.

So, in trying to understand something ancient or in the past, one first must understand all the information one can about the topic and then look at the facts as they are, in a proper historical context— not our own modern presumed ideas of what context should or might have been. This is almost impossible if one does not thoroughly study the topic.

Reading and interpreting the Holy Bible, is no different. If we assume using a modern day context and apply that to a historical or biblical context, we will arrive at the wrong (and modernized) interpretation.

It is very important for us to attempt to understand this before we go further learning about Israel.

Without first determining who or what the Holy Bible is truly speaking of this point forward, the reader will go off into areas of Bible study which take them to a wrong perception and lead one to misinterpretations of the scriptures. The reader will presume some things because he or she will be reading the scripture looking at the context with a modern context (and not as it should be read in a Biblical context) and find things in the biblical text applying them to the modern world, thus interpreting things that are not truly stated in the word of God and thus confusing the minor details that are important in the understanding of Bible prophecy. This will happen  because the reader failed to first have a biblical context.

So this page will go through each of the 12 tribes and determine who each tribe of the children of Israel were.