Damn. Ya gotta be precise in this bunch. I should have said that Joseph "represented" the ten lost tribes, since two of the tribes were named after his sons. Judah and Benjamin were the two tribes in the south.

Everybody seems to want to view the Bible in fundamentalist terms. They want to view it as Absolute, Unquestionable Truth - or as Absolute, Unquestionable Falsehood and Deception. The Bible is important and inspiring to me from a religious standpoint, but I've also found it to be a treasure trove of colorful myth and folklore. I suppose that in some circles, I could be burned at the stake for speaking of myth, folklore, and Bible in the same sentence. I think if people took the Bible less seriously, they'd get a lot more out of it.

-Joe-