The first century Christians were jews.
Judaic Israelite, and not all of the New Testament may follow that religious grouping, the traditional religious grouping, associated with that [ that isn't modern judaism, by the way.
I parallel my God belief with the Old Testament, and the religious things in the New Testament, are a syncretization. In other words, I don't change Deific or God names, because of the New Testament, or concepts.
By 'non Christian', I mean non traditional, and I'm not aware of that sort of non traditional tribal listing, elsewhere.
Below are some facts:
Samaria being the head of Ephraim - Isaiah 7:9
Ephraim was the main tribe of the northern Kingdom - Hosea 13:1, Isaiah 7
Samarians invaded by Assyria and deported to Assyria - 2 Kings 17
Samaria resettled by people from other nations resulting in a combination of true worship and false worship - 2 Kings 17:24-41
The Samaritans had a seperate temple at gerizim which they worshipped and the worship was similar to the Jews but tainted - John 4:20-24
The Jews hated samaritans - John 8:48
Joseph is a tribe in revelation - Rev 7:8
Josephs children was Menassah and Ephraim - Genesis 41:50-52
Tribes were named of the relevent children of Israel. So all Ephraimites were descendents of Ephraim. If we use the same formula, the descendants of Joseph would be from both Menasseh and Ephraims tribe. Yet Menasseh gets mentioned again.
The levites were not considered one of the 12 tribes of Israel. Josephs children take up two spots, the one replacing Levi's spot. Levi was a tribe of priests. - Numbers 1: (especially verse 49), Numbers 3
The tribe of Dan steal Micah's idols and set it up as their own God - Judges 18:11-31
Dan is the second most populous tribe numbering 62700 verses judahs 74600 - Numbers 1
If there are any othere things you I might have missed, let me know.
By the way, I am not conclusive on what the meaning of the 144 000 and the tribes involve mean. But many direct statements I made were taken from the scriptures sited above.
I read, or skimmed rather, two arguments concerning this, and neither seemed to peesent what might be the most logical reading, that a tribe was simply combined, and it is actually supposed to infer all the tribes, with, Levi.
Now, Samson, I believe is quite easily associated with Jesus, and isn't bad, didn't realize Christians held that view, until just recently. So that is another 'strange', thing.
Speaking of which, Jesus as a Nazarene, or Nazarite, might be very directly linked to Samson, [the Nazarite oath.
Anyways, good stuff, you have a lot of information,
Cheers