A member of one of the tribes of ancient Israel, whose history, culture, and religion are described in the Hebrew Bible. The term “Israelite” distinguishes the religious practices of the children of ABRAHAM and SARAH from the religion of...

The traditional division of the *Israelites. According to the *Pentateuch, each tribe was descended from one of the sons of *Jacob, except for *Ephraim and Manasseh who were the two sons of Joseph. Each tribe except *Levi had a particular...

See *TWELVE...

ISRAELITE RELIGION. In 1979 two silver amulets dating to the late seventh to sixth centuries BCE were discovered in a burial cave in Ketef Hinnom, outside of Jerusalem. The smaller of these amulets reads: "Blessed be [he or she] by Yahweh, the...

The Israelites, by B. S. J. Isserlin. Minneapolis: Fortress, 2001. Pp. 304. $23.00 (paper), $39.95 (cloth). Who were the Israelites? For many the answer to this question may be selfevident. Yet in a variety of ways this question has been the source of...

The Israelites in History and Tradition by Neils Peter Lemche Library of Ancient Israel. Westminster John Knox, Louisville, 1998. 246pp. $29.95 (cloth). ISBN 0-28105227-1. WHILE THE JESUS SEMINAR MAKES HEADLINES, historians of ancient Israel are engaged in their own wrangling, albeit with far...

Dressed in white and spattered in blood, members of the tiny Samaritan sect gathered until the early hours of Tuesday for one of the Holy Land's most colorful religious ceremonies _ the nighttime Passover sacrifice.The entire Samaritan community, which totals just over 700 people, was...

In a ruling favorable to an inmate who sued after a Virginia prison denied his request for kosher meals, a federal appeals court on Friday upheld a federal law that protects the religious rights of incarcerated people.The state of Virginia had challenged the federal Religious...