It's interesting that the communities which currently identify as Samaritan are so small. I suspect we'll discover some additional groups which fall into this lineage, or that this group is going to grow much larger. For those who do follow the new testament, chapter 7 of Revelation seems significant. It explicitly states that just before events get really bad, God will mark 12,000 people from 12 tribes of Israel for explicit protection. It doesn't just say "144,000 random descendants of Jacob", but the passage names 12 explicit tribes, and that God is able to find 12,000 people in each one of those tribes. And not just 850 members, but 12,000! So those of us who *do* believe in that book (Revelation) should suspect that we'll be finding more pockets of the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom, and that those communities will continue to exist, and that they'll continue to have some protection from the God of Abraham. Aside: It's also interesting _(at least to me)_ that the passage names a "tribe of Joseph" and a "tribe of Manasseh". Many people would expect the descendants of Manasseh to just be part of the tribe of Joseph, but here it's listed as a separate tribe. Also interesting that tribe of Dan is *not* mentioned. I wonder if there were still visible communities of all the other tribes at the time Revelation was written, but no visible group of descendants from Dan.
Excellent knowledge of such an important place.
It's interesting that the communities which currently identify as Samaritan are so small. I suspect we'll discover some additional groups which fall into this lineage, or that this group is going to grow much larger. For those who do follow the new testament, chapter 7 of Revelation seems significant. It explicitly states that just before events get really bad, God will mark 12,000 people from 12 tribes of Israel for explicit protection. It doesn't just say "144,000 random descendants of Jacob", but the passage names 12 explicit tribes, and that God is able to find 12,000 people in each one of those tribes. And not just 850 members, but 12,000!
So those of us who *do* believe in that book (Revelation) should suspect that we'll be finding more pockets of the 10 tribes of the northern kingdom, and that those communities will continue to exist, and that they'll continue to have some protection from the God of Abraham.
Aside: It's also interesting _(at least to me)_ that the passage names a "tribe of Joseph" and a "tribe of Manasseh". Many people would expect the descendants of Manasseh to just be part of the tribe of Joseph, but here it's listed as a separate tribe. Also interesting that tribe of Dan is *not* mentioned. I wonder if there were still visible communities of all the other tribes at the time Revelation was written, but no visible group of descendants from Dan.