Editing Tribe of Ephraim (section)

== Origin ==
According to the [[Torah]], the tribe consisted of descendants of [[Ephraim]] a son of [[Joseph (Hebrew Bible)|Joseph]], from whom it took its name;<ref>Genesis 30</ref> however some [[Biblical criticism|critical scholars]] view this also as postdiction, an [[eponym]]ous [[metaphor]] providing an [[aetiology]] of the connectedness of the tribe to others in the Israelite confederation.<ref name=Peake>''[[Peake's commentary on the Bible]]''</ref> In the Biblical account, Joseph is one of the two children of [[Rachel]] and [[Jacob]], a brother to [[Benjamin]], and father to both Ephraim, and his first son, [[Manasseh (tribal patriarch)|Manasseh]]; although Manasseh was the eldest, Jacob foresaw that Ephraim's descendants would be greater than his brother's.<ref>Genesis 48:13-20</ref>

Though the biblical descriptions of the geographic boundary of the House of Joseph are fairly consistent, the descriptions of the boundaries between Manasseh and Ephraim are not, and each is portrayed as having [[exclave]]s within the territory of the other.<ref name=JE /> Furthermore, in the [[Blessing of Jacob]], and elsewhere ascribed by [[textual criticism|textual scholars]] to a similar or earlier time period,<ref>e.g. Joshua 17:14-18</ref> Ephraim and Manasseh are treated as a single tribe, with ''Joseph'' appearing in their place. From this it is regarded as probable that originally Ephraim and Manasseh were considered one tribe&nbsp;— that of Joseph.<ref name=JE /> According to several [[Biblical criticism|biblical scholars]], Benjamin was also originally part of the ''House of Joseph'', but the biblical account of this became lost;<ref name=JE /><ref name=Peake /> Benjamin being differentiated by being that part of Ephraim (House of Joseph) which joined the [[Kingdom of Judah]] rather than [[Kingdom of Israel (Samaria)|that of Israel]].

A number of biblical scholars suspect that the ''Joseph tribes'' (including Benjamin) represent a second migration of Israelites to Israel, later than the main tribes,<ref name=Peake /> specifically that it was only the ''Joseph tribes'' which went to Egypt [[the Exodus|and returned]], while the main Israelite tribes simply emerged as a subculture from the Canaanites and had remained in Canaan throughout;<ref name=Peake /> in the narrative in the [[Book of Joshua]], which concerns the arrival in (and conquest of) Canaan by the Israelites from Egypt, the leader is [[Joshua]], who was a member of the Ephraim tribe.  According to this view, the story of Jacob's visit to [[Laban (Bible)|Laban]] to obtain a wife began as a metaphor for the second migration, with Jacob's new family, possessions, and livestock, obtained from Laban, being representations of the new wave of migrants;<ref name=Peake />

Professor David Frankel believes that ancient traditions regarding pre-conquest Ephraimite settlement in Canaan were unintentionally preserved in biblical passages such as 1 Chronicles 7:20-24.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Frankel |first=David |date=April 8, 2015 |title=The Book of Chronicles and the Ephraimites that Never Went to Egypt |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-book-of-chronicles-and-the-ephraimites-that-never-went-to-egypt |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207090032/https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-book-of-chronicles-and-the-ephraimites-that-never-went-to-egypt |archive-date=February 7, 2024 |website=TheTorah.com}}</ref> In 1 Chronicles 7:20-24, Ephraim's descendants, Ezer and Elead, were Canaanite residents who were killed by the Philistines, which was mourned by Ephraim and his brethren. This Ephraim was believed to be different from the more famous Ephraim <ref>{{Cite web |date=2024 |title=1 Chronicles 7 Keil and Delitzsch OT Commentary |url=https://biblehub.com/commentaries/kad/1_chronicles/7.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208045548/https://biblehub.com/commentaries/kad/1_chronicles/7.htm |archive-date=February 8, 2024 |website=Biblehub.com}}</ref> and his brethren were believed to be the heads of other Israelite tribes.<ref>{{Cite web |date=2024 |title=1 Chronicles 7 Gill's Exposition |url=https://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/1_chronicles/7.htm |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240208045721/https://biblehub.com/commentaries/gill/1_chronicles/7.htm |archive-date=February 8, 2024 |website=Biblehub.com}}</ref> Professor Nili Wazana connects this with Prime Minister [[David Ben-Gurion]]'s argument for why the Jews were indigenous to Canaan, which was affirmed in the [[Israeli Declaration of Independence]]. Ben-Gurion argued that Abraham's migration to Canaan was a "renuion with indigenous Hebrews who shared his theological belief" and that not all Hebrews joined Jacob's family when they migrated to Egypt.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Wazana |first=Nili |date=April 15, 2018 |title=Israel's Declaration of Independence and the Biblical Right to the Land |url=https://www.thetorah.com/article/israels-declaration-of-independence-and-the-biblical-right-to-the-land |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20240207091222/https://www.thetorah.com/article/israels-declaration-of-independence-and-the-biblical-right-to-the-land |archive-date=February 7, 2024 |website=TheTorah.com}}</ref>