1976

Several recent studies have tried to invalidate M. Noth's thesis of an Israelite amphictyony in the Period of the Judges. However, most of them have ignored Noth's treatment of the Greek amphictyonies and their impact upon a supposed Israelite league of twelve tribes. The purpose of this chapter is to correct this omission. A closer examination of the Greek amphictyony shows, in the first place, that there was only one amphictyony, that of Delphi; and, second, that the technical term was only used at a later date by the Greek and Roman authors to denote other leagues. After all, the Delphic amphictyony did not come into existence until the eighth century BCE and thus cannot be taken into account for the study of Israel's organization in the twelfth or eleventh century BCE.

Martin Noth was not the first biblical scholar who pointed to parallels outside Israel as evidence of the existence of an Israelite system of twelve tribes in the Period of the Judges. Many years before Noth, Heinrich Ewald had argued that analogies to the Israelite system might be found elsewhere. It ought to be easy to find parallels among Israel's neighbours, but the only references appear in the Old Testament itself: in Genesis 22:20–24 (J), twelve eponyms of the Aramean tribes are listed. In Genesis 25:13–16 (P), twelve eponyms belonging to Ismaelite tribes are given. In Genesis 36:10–14 (J), twelve Edomite ones are presented.