Originally Posted by Eric3237

Dude that's like saying someone gets all there ideas from a comic book. I don't get you at all. If you didn't want me to "read into it" then why say it? Any reason at all? Honestly it makes no sense to me that you would want to poke little jabs and then if someone pokes back you ask why and then try to sneak in more.

Your correct of course that there was only one tribe called the tribe of Judah in the literal sense. The 12 tribes, however, are quite commonly known collectively as "the tribes of Israel" and the 'tribes of Judah" refer to those living in the southern kingdom, i.e. Judah, Benjamin and the Levis which eventually blended into a single people. It's a shorthand used by theologans and historians alike. Maybe your comment got my goat because I remember struggling to write papers like "Israel as a Scholarly Construct" while going to school full time, working two jobs, and playing in a band And no, Anuj, I don't remember most of it. It's ancient history . This stuff is extremely convoluted and prof. historians and bible scholars don't even agree on it all. From my studies and from the many different ways the term "Israel" is used in the bible, I simply do not believe that it is an actual historical thing in the sense it is traditionally thougt.