Gilead was a tribal group mentioned in

Biblical The Bible (from Koine Greek , , 'the books') is a collection of religious texts or scriptures that are held to be sacred in Christianity, Judaism, Samaritanism, and many other religions. The Bible is an anthologya compilation of texts of a ...

passages which textual scholars attribute to early sources. In these sources, for example the

Song of Deborah According to the Book of Judges, Deborah ( he, דְּבוֹרָה, ''Dəḇōrā'', " bee") was a prophetess of the God of the Israelites, the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel and the only female judge mentioned in the Bible. Many scholars ...

, the Gilead group is treated with equal status to the other

Israelite tribes The Twelve Tribes of Israel ( he, שִׁבְטֵי־יִשְׂרָאֵל, translit=Šīḇṭēy Yīsrāʾēl, lit=Tribes of Israel) are, according to Hebrew scriptures, the descendants of the biblical patriarch Jacob, also known as Israel, throu ...

, while certain other tribes, including the

Tribe of Manasseh According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Manasseh (; Hebrew: ''Ševet Mənašše,'' Tiberian: ''Šēḇeṭ Mănašše'') was one of the Tribes of Israel. It is one of the ten lost tribes. Together with the Tribe of Ephraim, Manasseh also fo ...

, are absent. An

eponym An eponym is a person, a place, or a thing after whom or which someone or something is, or is believed to be, named. The adjectives which are derived from the word eponym include ''eponymous'' and ''eponymic''. Usage of the word The term ''epon ...

ous ''Gilead'' is mentioned in the biblical genealogies as a descendant of

Manasseh Manasseh () is both a given name and a surname. Its variants include Manasses and Manasse (surname), Manasse. Notable people with the name include: Surname * Ezekiel Saleh Manasseh (died 1944), Singaporean rice and opium merchant and hotelier * J ...

,Numbers 26:29 presumably implying that the ''Gilead'' group was part of Manasseh, and since ''Gilead'' is also the name of a specific part of the land east of the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan ( ar, نَهْر الْأُرْدُنّ, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn'', he, נְהַר הַיַּרְדֵּן, ''Nəhar hayYardēn''; syc, ܢܗܪܐ ܕܝܘܪܕܢܢ ''Nahrāʾ Yurdnan''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Shariea ...

, the ''Gilead'' tribal group presumably refers to the ''half tribe'' of

which resided on this side of the Jordan. The identity as part of a single tribe named ''Manasseh'', doesn't appear to have been fully accurate in practice, since there was very little geographic connection between the two ''half tribes'', only just touching at a corner of each, and according to the

Book of Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( he, דִּבְרֵי־הַיָּמִים ) is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third sec ...

each ''half tribe'' historically had always had separate tribal rulers. How much of the ''half tribe'' the Gilead group constituted is unclear, since a tribal group named Machir is given equal status to Gilead in the early biblical passages, as a separate group rather than as a group containing the Gilead group within it, and an eponymous ''

Machir Machir or Makir ( ''Māḵîr'', "bartered") was the name of two figures in the Hebrew Bible: * Machir was the son of Manasseh, grandson of Joseph, and father of Gilead. Joseph lived to see and to play a part in the up-bringing of Machir and his ch ...

'', also descended from Manasseh, is mentioned as having conquered and also settled on the eastern side of the Jordan. The biblical genealogy of Manasseh, which textual scholars regard as dating from centuries after the passages mentioning Gilead and Machir as tribal groups,'' Peake's commentary on the Bible'' identify ''Machir'' as the immediate father of ''Gilead'', raising the question of how this could be consistent with the earlier passages treating the Machir group as distinct from the Gilead group.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Gilead (Tribal Group) Israelites Gilead