Even before Jesus was born, the Israelites who were sent into captivity particularly the Southern Tribe of Judah & Benjamin have already intermingled with the Edomites in 126BC according to Flavius Josephus, Roman Jewish historian and military leader. The merging of the Judahites and Edomites occurred after the Judahites engaged in battle and the Edomites were defeated. As captives, the Edomites were given the option to vacate their land or to remain in the land and adopt their culture and traditions. The Edomites chose to remain in the land and intermingle with the Judahites.

The Southern Tribe was known as Jews or Judahites. The Judahites (Jews) had relations with the Edomites which was against God’s marriage law. God’s promise to the patriarchals Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and their children was to marry their sons to daughters in their own land. (Genesis 24:7).Apparently the Judahites failed to observe the marriage law. However, that didn’t mean that all Judahites were disobedient to God’s marriage laws. Whilst most were disobedient to the observance of the marriage laws, God did preserve a remnant as He always does in every generation since the beginning of creation. It was out of this remnant, that Mary and Joseph emerged to provide spiritual covering for Jesus.

When Jesus began His ministry and chose His disciples, He equipped them and later sent them out to the “lost sheep of the House of Israel” which was to reach out to the Northern Tribes of Israel (Reuben, Simeon, Gad, Asher, Dan, Naphtali, Joseph etc), which were beyond their land.