TRIBES. - A simple social group, of fundamental ethnic significance, yet different in the classical world (Lat. tribus; Gk. φιδές), in the biblical world (Vulg. tribus, Septuagint ἔθνος, etc. as translations of the Heb. šebhet, matteh, from the original meaning "staff, branch"; furthermore the 'ōm, 'ummāh "gens", mišpāhāth "families", or "kindreds") and in others to which the term was extended, in the sense of a transitional group between local and matrimonial groups and the great political groups of nation and state.
In biblical usage the term is consecrated to designate the 12 divisions into which the people of Israel recognized itself as divided, and which had social, religious, military and sometimes administrative applications. A genetic concept was attached to the division (they were named after the 12 sons of Jacob, as progenitors), but also a topographical one: and topographical too was the use of the related names, as "regions". The number 12 was invariable: Levi had no territory, but instead of Joseph the tribes of his two sons, Ephraim and Manasseh, were counted. On the whole there are: Reuben, Simeon, Levi, Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, Joseph, Benjamin, Dan, Naphtali, Gad, Asher, Ephraim and Manasseh (v. the individual entries). The tribes were subdivided into kindreds (mišpāhōth) and households (bēth 'ābhōth, bāttim): cf., for example, Josh. 7, 14. Acquiring administrative value, the tribes had "chiefs" (nāšī, princeps), whose names are known for certain periods, such as the Mosaic one (Num. 1, 44, in the desert; 1 Chron. 27, 16 ff., for the age of David, etc.). After the exile the censuses were modeled on the ancient tribal scheme, which however will have had purely topographical value, or even only conventional, remaining until the Christian era, in which Anna of the tribe of Asher is remembered, and Paul of Benjamin (Lk. 2, 36; Rom. 11, 1; Phil. 3, 5). There is also talk of the 12 tribes of Israel, to mean the totality of the chosen people in the messianic sense (Mt. 19, 28; Rev. 7, 5 ff.; 21, 12 ff.; cf. Ezek. 47, 13-48, 35). Giovanni Rinaldi