Is 1/3 of the tribe of Judah ‘missing’?
(The History of Ancient Israel)
From Genesis 28 and onward the Bible pretty must exclusively focuses on the holy patriarch Jacob/Israel and his holy descendants and the nation of God they ultimately formed, which are the Israelite people and their nation of Israel. Specifically, the very important events from the very beginnings of this people/nation from Genesis 46 to about Deuteronomy 34 (that is Specifically from the descendants of Israel coming to live in Egypt with Joseph to right before Israel ,as a nation, invades Canaan under Joshua’s leadership) is described as happening to completely all of the total descendants of Israel; and why this is most likely true, however, what is not exactly clear around this time (but is very slightly hinted throughout the Old Testament and some historical records) is that some of Israel during this time, seems to either not be present with main group or at least distanced from them at times; and even more Surprisingly, it seems after the events recorded in the book of Joshua and possibly even going into the events in early judges, these Israelites just seem to disappear from Israel entirely:
Ultimately it seems around this time period there had been a much smaller and much less noticed exodus from the main group of Israel’s descendants not even talked about in the Bible; possibly beginning even before the main exodus from Egypt even began.
The truth is, not all of Israel might have been present together in the mass exodus from Egypt; even though the text may read like they were. In fact, they might not have been all in Egypt during the 400 year stay and it’s even possible that this small percentage of Israelites might not have even originally went into Egypt with Israel himself and his descendants!
So, who of Israel's Descendants seems to be distanced from the main group if not just completely absent?
Specifically, these Israelites who seems to be distanced/ missing was some of Judah’s grandsons; specifically, it was some/ if not all the sons of Zerah/and some (and possibly all over time) of his descendants, seems to have been distanced/absent from the main group of Israel during certain parts of this timeframe.
Who exactly is Zerah in the first place?
If you don’t know, as covered before in Israel’s sons and Joseph, Zerah was one of the twin sons of Judah (the other was his brother Perez) from a women of unknown ethnicity named Tamar (but most likely and assumed here to be a fellow Hebrew like Judah).
These two twin boys were the patriarchs of two future clans:
Numbers 26:20
“through Perez, the Perezite clan; through Zerah, the Zerahite clan.”
And these two twin clans, together with their half-(and mixed) brother Shelah that formed the third and final clan of the tribe of Judah: The Shelahite clan, formed the whole tribe of Judah:
Numbers 26:20-22
“The descendants of Judah by their clans : through Shelah, the Shelanite clan; through Perez, the Perezite clan; through Zerah, the Zerahite clan….These were the clans of [the tribe of] Judah;…”
But out of these three clans of Judah, which is the clan of Zerah, seems to be the only one that just disappears from Israel's history; a strange disappearance that has gone unnoticed for the most part in the Bible and history; but why is this?
The vanishing/reappearing descendants of Zerah?
Considering the evidence:
Why it might be slight and vague, there is evidence within the Bible that something strange is going on with the Judahite clan of Zerah: and even seemed to suggest the clan is disappearing from main Israel:
Zerah’s (and Shelah’s) sons not mentioned as going with Israel to Egypt
The next time the twin boys are mentioned, is when the Israel and his family are leaving Canaan to stay with Joseph in Egypt: Where it mentions and lists all the descendants of Israel going with him (notice how it says all his descendants went with him):
Genesis 46:5-8
“Then Jacob left Beersheba, and Israel’s sons took their father Jacob and their children and their wives in the carts that Pharaoh had sent to transport him. So Jacob and all his offspring went to Egypt,…Jacob brought with him to Egypt his sons and grandsons and his daughters and granddaughters—all his offspring. These are the names of the sons of Israel (Jacob and his descendants) who went to Egypt:”
The text says that all of Israel’s Descendants went to Egypt; and when the list gets down to Judah and his descendants; it does mention all his sons (including Zerah) are present as going to Egypt with him and his father Israel:
Genesis 46:12
“The sons of Judah:…Shelah, Perez and Zerah…”
So, what is strange here?
Well, a closer look at the list of Judah’s descendants reveals something interesting; not really noticed that much:
Notice out of the three sons of Judah going, only Perez is mentioned as having sons who are also going with their father: the weird thing about this is only Perez is mentioned as having sons/children:
Genesis 46:12
“The sons of Judah:…Shelah, Perez and Zerah The sons of Perez: Hezron and Hamul.”
Didn’t Zerah and Shelah also have children at this time?
Why it could have been possible Shelah and Zerah didn’t have any children at this time; this would be strange and very unlikely:
Because Shelah was much older than Perez (and Zerah) (As covered in ‘Israel’s children and Joseph’ Perez and Zerah were born when Shelah was grown: making Shelah much older than both of them!) so, surely if Perez at this point was married and already had two sons, Shelah would had already been married and had children as well. And ,far more importantly, being twins of the same age; Zerah also should have been married at this time and had children like his twin brother: so the question becomes, why are their no mention of children from either brother here?
Once you think about it, it does not make much sense: Shelah and Zerah should have also had children, but none are really stated as present with the group: so, this leads to two conclusions:
Either Shelah and Zerah ,for some strange reason, did not yet have children (which is very unlikely, especially since Shelah would have been much older than both and possibly even getting too old to have children at this time) or ,much more likely, they did have children at this time ,but for some reason, they did not come along with their fathers!
Could Zerah’s sons/children ,who could have existed at this time, choosed to have stayed behind in Canaan/somewhere else with their half-cousins the Shelahites for some reason?
This is something to consider here; especially since Perez had sons at this time that are mentioned yet Zerah, being the same age, should have had at this time at least one child:
yet he is mentioned as having none here! But ultimately, if this happened with Zerah’s sons, the Bible does not mention it.
The name of Zerah’s sons (nor his half-brother Shelah) are never mentioned in the second census of Israel
When recording the population of men in Israel for a second time, Moses wrote many tribes and their clans names down; Even though it’s apparent Zerah did eventually have sons/children because, by this time (that is over 400 years later since he was alive during this census), he had his own clan that had to be formed by his sons or patriarchal males of his clan (this is also true of his half-brother Shelah who had a clan within Judah also) and while these clans are written down:
Numbers 26:20
“The descendants of Judah by their clans were: through Shelah, the Shelanite clan; through Perez, the Perezite clan; through Zerah, the Zerahite clan.”
Once again, out of the three clans that formed the tribe of Judah, only Perez’s sons are mentioned as forming their own ‘sub-clans’ (that is their own personal descendants) within the main Perezite clan:
Numbers 26:21-22
“The descendants of Perez were: through Hezron, the Hezronite clan; through Hamul, the Hamulite clan.”
And both Hezron and Hamul are once again mentioned here as being the sons of Perez and his descendants, but once again, Zerah’s (and Shelah’s) sons are still not mentioned!
This, however, is not too strange for this census, because the sub-clans of other major Israelite clans are also not directly mentioned in the census record while others are [though all sub-clans were all probably written down on the original census Moses took] like the clans of Ephraim:
Numbers 26:35-36
“These were the descendants of Ephraim by their clans:
through Shuthelah, the Shuthelahite clan;
through Beker, the Bekerite clan;
through Tahan, the Tahanite clan.
These were the descendants of Shuthelah:
through Eran, the Eranite clan.”
Notice out of the 3 main clans of Ephraim (which also represent his sons) only the descendants of Shuthelah (which was Eran) is mentioned as a sub-tribe!
Did these Ephraimite clans not have sons of their own that formed into their own discinct sub-clans?
Why its possible their sons didn’t form their own discinct sub-clans, it’s very likely they did; it’s just likely this sub-clan was very well known and discint. And the same could possibly be said of Judah’s sub-clans of his son Perez; they were more well-known/discint than their other twin sub-clans of Zerah (or their half brother sub-clans of Shelah) however here is something else to consider:
Despite being possibly more popular, we should consider Perez and Zerah were twins and once again the name(s) of his sons are never mentioned in Genesis nor here, while his brother Perez's sons are mentioned twice! Isn’t that a little strange?
However, this lack on mentioning Zerah’s sons and the sub-clans they formed, does not mean the clan of Zerah was completely gone from the main group of Israel all this time:
Infact, there is much proof a lot of them (if not a majority) were still around during the Exodus and even during the conquering of the promisedland:
This is Proven by the situation with the a Zerahite man named Achan recorded in the book of Joshua:
Achan took some of the forbidden possessions of the Canaanites during Israel’s conquering and killing of them; The text here gives Achan’s ancesty and reveals one of Zerah’s sons in the process: apparently he had one son never mentioned before named Zimri, whom this Zerahite descended from:
Joshua 7:17-18
“But the Israelites were unfaithful in regard to the devoted things (that is the forbidden things; the possessions of the Canaanites); Achan son of Karmi, the son of Zimri, the son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, took some of them.”
So as expected, Zerah did have sons after all; and one of them was named Zimri.
Because he took some of these Canaanite treasures that God commanded all of them to leave alone, God got angry at all of Israel and once Joshua (and all of Israel) saw God was angry at them for this reason, he had to find out who broke the command by singling out the Israelite who did it:
And God called the clan of Zerah to step forward from all of Israel:
Joshua 7:17
“The clans of Judah came forward, and the Zerahites were chosen.”
It’s made even more apparent that a pretty good bit of Zerahites were still present with the main group of Israel here, because Joshua has to single out Achan from other Zerahite sub-clans (called 'families' here) descended from his sons, and even other men from the same sub-clan:
Joshua 7:17-18
“The clans of Judah came forward, and the Zerahites were chosen. He had the clan of the Zerahites come forward by families (or sub-clans), and Zimri was chosen…Joshua had his family come forward man by man, and Achan son of Karmi…was chosen.”
So obviously whatever possible distance/disappearance the Zerahites had with the main group of Israel was gone by this time…or was it?
After the book of Joshua, nothing else is really mentioned about the clan of Zerah until 1st Chronicles; where not only the clan of Zerah is mentioned but all of Zerah’s sons are finally mentioned in the ancestral account of the tribe of Judah in Chronicles as well (which was written much later than when they were alive):
1st Chronicles 2:6
“The sons of Zerah:
Zimri, Ethan, Heman, Kalkol and Darda[ or “Dara”]—five in all.”
So, we see Zerah did have sons like his brother Perez but Notice, unlike his brother Perez’s family line that has chapters and chapters of his descendants in Canaan including the famous King David and King Solomon: the only family line of Zerah’s mentioned is the infamous Achan (his great-grandson) and Azariah (his Grandson):
1st Chronicles 2:7
“The son of Karmi (which was a descendant of Zerah): Achar,who brought trouble on Israel by violating the ban on taking devoted things.(as recorded in Joshua)”
And
1st Chronicles 2:8
“The son of Ethan (A son of Zerah): Azariah.”
And there it seems to mention no more about him and his son’s descendants.
This is pretty significant of the huge lack of ancestral records for the Zerahites; because even the descendants of Shelah’s sons: the Shelahite clan; are mentioned by where their descendants settled (and what they did) in the Promised land (and along with that, the sons of Shelah are finally mentioned by name):
1 Chronicles 4:21-23
“The sons of Shelah son of Judah:
Er the father of Lekah, Laadah the father of Mareshah and the clans of the linen workers at Beth Ashbea (somewhere in Canaan), Jokim, the men of Kozeba, and Joash and Saraph, who ruled in Moab(a country in Levant who descend from Abraham’s nephew Lot’s son Moab) and Jashubi Lehem.…They were the potters who lived at Netaim and Gederah(somewhere in Canaan); they stayed there and worked for the king.”
All of Judah’s son's descendants are mentioned in where they settled in the promise land (especially Perez’s descendants) except for Zerah!
So why so little mention of Zerah’s Descendants in Chronicles when even the vague clan of Shelah is mentioned more than the famous Perez’s twin; Zerah?
And if The Descendants of Zerah trully did not leave the main camp of Israel in the end of settling the promisedland; then there should be plenty of ancestral records of them just like the other clans of Judah and other clans of all the other tribes recorded in Chronicles:
But obliviously this is not the case! Something weird is going on with the Zerahite clan there is some evidence all throughout the Old Testament to suggest that Zerah and/or his children were distant from the main group of Israel for some reason: these sons/children of Zerah seemed to have never directly come to Egypt with the main group of Israel, and then it seems at some point ,at least, some of Zerah’s sons descendant (If not all of them, along with some if not all of Shelah’s sons descendants as well) came to Egypt later on, so from this point onward a good bit of the tribe of Zerah seemed to have went with Moses and the rest of Israel when they were in the Exodus. So, thus many Zerahites were present during the first and especially second census of Moses in the Exodus (even though their sub-clans are not mentioned). However, even this largescale Zerahite population with Israel seemed to have been ultimately temporary; because the ancestral accounts of Zerahites in Chronicles are so few, it strangely hints many of them, ultimately, left the group permanently before completely settling the promised land and only a few (if any) Zerahites remained.
If Zerah and his children really did leave the main group of Israel's children, this would mean 1.9% of the Descendants of Israel (Zerah and his descendants) seem to be missing from the main group! This means only 98.1% of all Israel is accounted for [1]
But that also means 1/3 of the tribe of Judah is missing!
So, now the real question is then; where did they go?
The Bible makes no mention of exactly where the Zerahites went to, it doesn’t even really say they even left (but rather hints they did). So where are we to start looking to where this clan disappeared to?
Well, the answer might not be directly found in the Bible, but surprisingly, some ancient Greek historians seem to give a strong indication to where the Zerahites went to:
Greek Historian Diodorus Siculus gives a very strong clue
Greek Historian Diodorus Siculus in Quoting an older historian called “Hicatabous of Abdera” seems to tell about the events found in the Exodus (a bunch of foreigners [Israelite] living in Egypt, the Egyptians not being happy about it, the Egyptians being cursed because of these foreigners [Isrealites], and finally the foreigners being driven out of Egypt into Judaea [Canaan]) However this seems to be based of the Egyptian view of The events:
“... the native inhabitants [native Egyptians] concluded that, unless all the foreigners [Israelites] were driven out, they would never be free from their miseries [curses]. All the foreigners were forthwith expelled,… the majority of the people [Israelites] descended into a country not far from Egypt, which is now called Judaea [Canaan]…” [2]
This historic description of this mass migration of these foreigners from Egypt to Canaan almost fits perfectly with the main events of the book of Exodus through Joshua:(a bunch of foreigners [Israelite] living in Egypt, the Egyptians not being happy about it, the Egyptians being cursed because of these foreigners [Israelites], and finally the foreigners being driven out of Egypt into Judaea [Canaan]) However the important thing to notice about this historic account is the extra detail given by this historian of a much smaller exodus from Egypt not a part of the main exodus to Judea [Canaan] :
“...All the foreigners were forthwith expelled, and the most valiant and noble among them,…were brought to Greece and other places, as some relate;… But the majority of the people descended into a country not far from Egypt, which is now called Judaea[Canaan]…” [2]
So, while this historian mentions most of these foreigners migrated into Canaan near Egypt, a small (yet noble) minority of them migrated all the way to Greece and other local areas. If this is a historic/Egyptian view of the events of the Exodus and afterwards (as it strongly seems to be) this historian seems to be saying not all Israelites [the foreigners] went with Moses/God to back to their ancient homeland of Canaan: its true most of them did but a small minority migrated from the main group under their own leaders to the other side of the Mediterranean: Greece/other local places.
This detail is not mentioned in the Exodus, but could this be talking about some Zerahites leaving the main group of Israelites?
The mention of two of the leaders of this group strongly suggest this is the case!
This historian also mentions two of their famous leader that these specific Israelites followed out of Egypt: their names being Danaus and Cadmus.
“...All the foreigners were forthwith expelled, and the most valiant and noble among them, under some notable leaders,…the most famous of their leaders were Danaus and Cadmus.” [2]
Notice the strong similarity between the names of these two leaders and the names of Zerah’s sons:
The Greek name “Danaus” sounds similar to the Hebrew “Darda/Dara”
And
The Greek name “Cadmus” sounds similar to the Hebrew “Kalkol/Chalkol”
Both names sound very similar to two specific sons of Zerah:
1st Chronicles 2:6
“The sons of Zerah:…Kalkol and Darda…”
This is even more evidence that These specific Israelites were specifically Zerahites; and were being led by their fathers Darda and Kalkol: Zerah’s sons (and possibly even Zerah himself).
If this historical account of The Exodus is true (and it does seem to be pretty accurate) then we probably know what happened to some if not a good bit of the clan of Zerah: they cut their ties with the main group of Israel at some point while they were most likely in Egypt (or before). Then Zerah’s sons lead their families (and possibly Zerah himself) to a different land through most likely sailing through the Mediterranean Sea. And eventually ended up in Greece and places close to it.
So, this is where some of the Zerahites disappeared to: While we know a large number of Zerahites went with Moses and the rest of Israel some Zerahites (specially the Zerahite sub-clans of Darda and Kalkol) were really no longer with the main group (or at least not in large numbers anymore), but rather went far away near Greece to never return to the main group of Israel ever again.
So, in order to find out what happened to them, we need to now look where exactly they seemed to have gone to in this area.
The fame of Danaus and Cadmus in Greek myth points to some more possible clues
The names Danaus and Cadmus might not really mean nothing to you, but to an ancient Greek these were very famous people! And considering Diodorus was a Greek historian himself, the mention of the names Danaus and Cadmus would have been very significant!
Danaus was considered the legendary son of Zeus and also king and founder of the city-state of Dardanus in Anatolia.
Cadmas was considered the first great Greek warrior and hero. He was said to have founded the city-state Thebes in Greece and became its first king. [3]
So, if Cadmas and Danaus were really the Zerahites Kalkol and Darda then it really does seem true that these Zerahites settled in Greece and other places (Anatolia) like this historian says, because these two famous people (most likely Zerah’s sons) are strongly linked to these places.
So, what does all this mean?
It means since these Zerahites were following these two major leader/possibly their fathers it seems since Danaus and Cadmus seem to have founded and ruled in these two major cities, it's also likely their Zerahite families/even other Zerahites would settle in these same areas too.
So, it seems while some Zerahites settled in Thebes as the royal dynasty of kings there, the majority of the Zerahites seemed to have largely colonized Danaus’s city-state Dardanus and also seemed to have spread and founded other cities including the famous city Troy. This group of city-states became to be known as the Troad/Iliad. If all this is true, then this means that the ancient Dardanians (including the legendary Trojans) and some royal Thebians are the 'long-lost' children of the 'missing' Israelite Judahite clan of Zerah that cut ties with main Israel.
In conclusion, while it seems the clan of Zerah completely disappeared from the main group of Israel overtime, they did not vanish off the face of the Earth. There is evidence that they did leave the main group of Israel but went to the other side of the Mediterranean and founded colonies in and near Greece. The main colony being the Troad/Iliad (specifically the city-states of Dardanus and the famous city of Troy). If this is true (as the evidence seems to say) that means the 'lost' children of Zerah became the Dardanians (Trojans) and royal Thebians in the ancient world.
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Sources:
[1]
There were 53 grandchildren of Israel (the same generation as Zerah) Zerah is missing so 1 out of 53 grandchildren are missing so 1/53X100%=1.9% so 100%-1.9%=98.1%
[2]
From Book 40 fragment 3:1-3 Diodorus Siculus “The Library of History” 71 - 60 B.C.
from Penelope Chicago edu the Loeb Classical Library translated by Proff. Charles Henry Oldfather
Website:
http://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Diodorus_Siculus/home.html
[3]
[A] Wikipedia “Dardanus (son of Zeus)”
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dardanus_(son_of_Zeus)
[B] Wikipedia “Cadmus”
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cadmus
[C] Wikipedia “Dardanians (Trojan)”
Website:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dardanians_(Trojan)
[D] Wikipedia "Theban kings in Greek mythology"
Website: