According to the Hebrew Bible, the Tribe of Joseph is one of the Twelve Tribes of Israel. Since the tribes of Ephraim and Manasseh together constituted the "tribe of Joseph", it was often not listed as one of the tribes, in favour of Ephraim and Manasseh being listed in its place; consequently it was often termed the House of Joseph, to avoid the use of the term tribe. Even though Ephraim and Manasseh were Joseph’s sons, they were considered heads of two of the twelve tribes of Israel because Joseph’s father, Jacob, adopted Ephraim and Manasseh as his own sons.