We’re talking about my recent book, The Myth of the Twelve Tribes of Israel, and it is about people who have claimed to be ancient Israel—or had that identity claimed for them—from biblical times to the present. More specifically, it is about how all these groups used the same tradition, the tradition of the twelve tribes of Israel, to fashion Israelite identities for themselves. So it’s called what it’s called because it’s about the power of this one tradition—which is what I mean when I say myth, not a false story but a powerful cultural tradition—among many different groups, starting with biblical Israel.
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