TRIBÙ. – A simple social group, of fundamental ethnic significance, though differing in the classical world (Lat. tribus; Gr. φιδές), in the biblical world (Vulg. tribus, Septuagint ἔθνος, etc., as translations of the Heb. šebhet, matteh, with the original meaning “staff, branch”; also ’ōm, ’ummāh “gens,” mišpāhāth “families,” or “kinships”), and in other contexts 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 reserved to designate the twelve divisions into which the people of Israel recognized themselves as divided, and which had social, religious, military, and at times administrative applications. A genetic concept was attached to the division (they were named after the twelve sons of Jacob, as founding ancestors), but also a topographical one; and the use of the corresponding names as “regions” was likewise topographical. The number twelve was invariable: Levi had no territory, while in place of Giuseppe the tribes of his two sons, Ephraim and Manasse, were counted. Taken together, they are: Ruben, Simeone, Levi, Giuda, Issachar, Zabulon, Giuseppe, Beniamin, Dan, Nephthali, Gad, Aser, Ephraim, and Manasse (v. le singole voci). The tribes were divided into kinships (mišpāhōth) and clans (bēth ’ābhōth, bāttim): cf., for example, Ios. 7, 14. As they acquired administrative importance, the tribes had “chiefs” (nāšī, princeps), whose names are known for certain periods, such as the Mosaic period (Num. 1, 44, in the desert; I Par. 27, 16 ff., for the age of David, etc.). After the exile, censuses were modeled on the ancient tribal scheme, which, however, must have had a purely topographical, or even merely conventional, value, remaining in use until the Christian era, when Anna of the tribe of Aser and Paolo of Beniamin are mentioned (Lc. 2, 36; Rom. 11, 1; Phil. 3, 5). The twelve tribes of Israel are also spoken of to signify the entirety of the chosen people in a messianic sense (Mt. 19, 28; Apoc. 7, 5 ff.; 21, 12 ff.; cf. Ez. 47, 13–48, 35).