Problem: We have 14 names of tribes of Israel in the Bible: Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Dan, Levi, Joseph, Manasseh, Ephraim, Issachar, Asher, Naphtali, Zebulun, Judah, and Benjamin. The Books of Moses clearly tell us that the Tribe of Joseph = Manasseh and Ephraim (Joseph’s two sons), who are called half-tribes for this reason, but both receive land (whereas Levi doesn’t, inheriting cities throughout Israel, to serve as priests, being dedicated to God).
Solution: he problem is that here we’re missing the name of Dan and in verse 6 we have Manasseh, which should theoretically be represented by Joseph mentioned in verse 8. But if Revelation’s highly symbolic and metaphorical nature is supposed to produce a problem from such a technical reading, then I guess we should also point out that there will be no jewels in Heaven either (Rev. 21:11). Like the old joke goes, when a rich man tried to bring his gold and jewels with him to Heaven, St. Peter exclaimed at the entrance, “You brought pavement?!” Revelation isn’t giving a list of the historical tribes of Israel, but the point behind it – and it makes sense in a book about…revelations and imagery (similarly Ezekiel 1).
The author was acquainted enough with the Old Testament to know the names of the more obscure tribes (Issachar, Asher, etc), so it’s unlikely he decided to just “wing it” on Joseph vs Manasseh. If he knew of Asher, he must’ve known about Dan, to whom a whole two chapters are devoted in Judges 17-18 (more than any other tribe before 1 Samuel). The book has many connections to Jewish imagery. The author’s rough Greek means he was probably a Jewish Christian, which further supports the fact that he would’ve been acquainted enough with the Old Testament to accidentally omit Dan in his highly allegorical and non-literal book. He is at least a well-known, well-connected presbyter/Christian to be sending prophecies to major churches in Asia Minor. So it doesn’t make sense for him to have made a mistake like this without meaning. A mistake has two parts: incongruence of a statement with fact and intent of this statement as that fact in the same sense. So someone can’t be accused of an error if he says that he “ate all the food in the world” at a big dinner last night.
Revelation’s style is markedly different from the Gospel and Epistles in both language and expression. The author has to identify himself as “John, your brother,” twice, so he’s perhaps a different John from the Apostle.
