The Twelve Tribes

Announcement

The Kindle edition of my book, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days, is now available. See it on Amazon by clicking here.

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This post is the first in a series on James’ letter. I want to show how inmillennialism¹ helps us understand his message, as I’ve done for other New Testament books. (See the list here.)

James wrote the earliest New Testament document, according to some scholars. John A. T. Robinson, for example, places it in the AD 47–48 time period.² If this is correct, it appeared less than twenty years after Jesus gave his Olivet Discourse in AD 30 (Matt 24–25; Mark 13; Luke 21:5–38), just before his crucifixion. In another twenty years (or so), the temple would fall according to the Lord’s prediction. James is writing mid-way through the generation (cp. Matt 24:34) that witnessed these events.

Let’s begin our analysis of this letter by thinking about the address James uses: he writes to “the twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (Jas 1:1). For him, the term twelve tribes means Jews who had “the faith of our Lord Jesus Christ” (Jas 2:1). They were probably “Christians who were by persecution driven out of and scattered from Jerusalem (Acts 8:1).”³

This identity—Christians are the twelve tribes—is a foundational truth supporting the New Testament’s primary message regarding salvation. The prophets, Jesus, and the apostles foretold how God would establish His kingdom on earth. “To enter into life,” says Jesus, is “to enter the kingdom” (Matt 19:16, 23). Later in this letter, James speaks of those who are “heirs of the kingdom which He promised” (Jam 2:5). But, God promised this kingdom to Israel (e.g., Exod 19:6). We will misunderstand James’ kingdom statement if we miss his definition of the twelve tribes.⁴

Under the Old Testament, God defined Israel as descendants of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob (e.g., Exod 3:15) and proselytes who joined them (e.g., Esth 8:17). They were “the twelve tribes” (Gen 49:28; Exod 24:4; 28:21; et al.). Now, James applies this term to followers of Christ, and he is not the first to make this move.

Jesus and the Twelve Tribes

Jesus had taught his disciples to make this application through sheep imagery. In the Mosaic age, Israel was God’s flock. David could say to God, “Give ear, O Shepherd of Israel, You who lead Joseph like a flock!” (Ps 80:1). 

But Jesus, speaking of His work in the messianic age, says, “Other sheep I have which are not of this fold; them also I must bring, and they will hear My voice; and there will be one flock and one shepherd” (John 10:16). He redefined the flock He protects as his people, regardless of their genealogy.

On another occasion, the Lord was even more direct. He spoke to his disciples, saying, “Assuredly I say to you, that in the regeneration, when the Son of Man sits on the throne of His glory, you who have followed Me will also sit on twelve thrones, judging the twelve tribes of Israel” (Matt 19:28). By regeneration, Jesus meant

the new state of things, in the church of God, which was foretold, and is called the time of reformation, or setting all things right, which began upon the sealing up the law, and the prophets, and the ministry of John the Baptist, and of Christ; who both, when they began to preach, declared, that this time, which they call the kingdom of heaven, was at hand, just ushering in.⁵

Using the term the twelve tribes of Israel, He made “the idea of the church as the true Israel of the Messianic age … clear here (cf. Matt 16:18).”⁶ 

Jesus taught his disciples to think of messianic-age Israel as all those who belong to Him.

Paul and the Twelve Tribes

Paul learned this new definition of Israel well and taught it to his churches. His Roman letter provides a good example. At its beginning, he said, 

He is not a Jew who is one outwardly, nor is circumcision that which is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew who is one inwardly; and circumcision is that of the heart, in the Spirit, not in the letter; whose praise is not from men but from God. (Rom 2:28–29)

Later, he said Abraham was

the father of all those who believe, though they are uncircumcised, that righteousness might be imputed to them also, and the father of circumcision to those who not only are of the circumcision, but who also walk in the steps of the faith which our father Abraham had while still uncircumcised. (Rom 4:11–12)

Salvation “is of faith that it might be according to grace, so that the promise might be sure to all the seed, not only to those who are of the law, but also to those who are of the faith of Abraham, who is the father of us all” (Rom 4:16). The promise to Abraham was to all believers, regardless of race.

Paul devoted a long section (Rom 9–11) to this matter. He described an Israel “according to the flesh” and the glory they enjoyed in the Mosaic age (Rom 9:3–5). But, most of this Israel rejected Christ as God’s Messiah. Paul accounted for this by saying, 

They are not all Israel who are of Israel, nor are they all children because they are the seed of Abraham; but, “In Isaac your seed shall be called.” That is, those who are the children of the flesh, these are not the children of God; but the children of the promise are counted as the seed. (Rom 9:6–8)

The Apostle then says, “Even so then, at this present time there is a remnant according to the election of grace” (Rom 11:5). “At this present time” refers to the generation between Jesus’ ministry and the temple’s fall—the same time during which James is writing. A subset of Israel—the Christians—are “inward Jews,” the “seed of Abraham,” the “children of God,” and the “elect.”

Paul said non-Christian Jews were only “Israel after the flesh” (1 Cor 10:18). They were “vessels of wrath prepared for destruction” (Rom 9:22). 

For Paul, Christians are those who belong to the new creation; they are “the Israel of God” (Gal 6:15–16). So, “Paul can refer to spirit-led, Messiah-believing Gentiles and Jews together as ‘the Jew’; ‘the circumcision’; and even on occasion as ‘Israel’ (suitably redefined: ‘Israel of God’ in Galatians, ‘all Israel’ in Romans).”⁷

Conclusion

James, like Jesus and the other New Testament writers, redefined Israel in the “last days” of the Mosaic age (cp. Jas 5:3; Heb 1:2). Previously, the term twelve tribes referred to Israel after the flesh, and now, it pertains to Christians, God’s holy nation (cp. 1 Pet 2:9) in the messianic age.

In future posts, Lord willing, I plan to use the inmillennial prophetic model to explain what James says to these “twelve tribes which are scattered abroad” (Jas 1:1).

1. For a full-length account of this prophetic model, see Michael A. Rogers, Inmillennialism: Redefining the Last Days (Tullahoma, TN: McGahan Publishing House, 2020). It is available here. For a summary, see the free PDF here.
2. John A. T. Robinson, Redating the New Testament (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock Pub, 2000), 352.
3. Edward E. Hindson and Woodrow Michael Kroll, eds., KJV Bible Commentary (Nashville: Thomas Nelson, 1994), 2586.
4. The image in this post is Jacob Blessing his Sons by Adam van Noort  (1562–1641). This file (here) is in the public domain (PD-US).
5. John Gill, An Exposition of the Old and New Testaments, 9 vols. (1809–10; repr., Paris, AR: The Baptist Standard Bearer, 1989), 7:219. Gill applied the term twelve tribes to ethnic Israel in Matthew 19:28, but, at Galatians 6:16, says the term Israel of God “includes all God’s elect.”
6. Richard T. France, “Matthew,” in New Bible Commentary: 21st Century Edition, ed. D. A. Carson et al., 4th ed. (Leicester, England; Downers Grove, IL: Inter-Varsity Press, 1994), 930.}
7. N. T. Wright, Paul and the Faithfulness of God, vol. 4 of Christian Origins and the Question of God (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 2013), 1432–33.