📖 About This Episode: What happened to the twelve tribes of Israel? Did the ten northern tribes really disappear—or is their story more complicated than the familiar phrase “the ten lost tribes” suggests?

In Luke’s Gospel, Anna is identified as a woman from the tribe of Asher. Yet centuries after the Assyrian conquest, she is worshiping at the temple in Jerusalem when Mary and Joseph bring the infant Jesus. How did a descendant of one of the supposedly lost tribes end up there?

In this study, we follow Israel’s story through the divided kingdom, the Assyrian and Babylonian exiles, and the return to Jerusalem. We examine the Israelites who were deported, those who remained, and those who had already moved into Judah. Along the way, we explore the origins of the Samaritans, the historical background of Jesus’ conversation with the woman at the well in John 4, and Josephus’s surprising statement about the ten tribes beyond the Euphrates.

The evidence does not give us a complete map of every tribe’s descendants. But it does help us distinguish the disappearance of a kingdom from the disappearance of its people—and brings us back to Anna, a daughter of Asher who recognizes the arrival of Israel’s Messiah.

🔗 Resources Mentioned in This Episode:

John 4 verse-by-verse LIVE Bible study: https://www.youtube.com/live/C8zUa1sOYKI?si=c3JSjgSOFHs70L6j


John 4 Bible study handout download: https://www.thatyoumayknowhim.com/post/john-4-bible-study-questions-and-answers

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