:Tribe of Dan
{{Short description|One of the twelve Tribes of Israel}}
{{About|the tribe of Israel|the 1990s band|Dan Donovan (guitarist)}}
{{Tribes of Israel}}
The Tribe of Dan ({{Langx|he|דָּן}}, "Judge") was one of the twelve tribes of Israel, according to the Torah. According to the Hebrew Bible, the tribe initially settled in the hill lands bordering Ephraim and Benjamin on the east and Judah and the Philistines on the south but migrated north due to pressure of their enemies, settling at Laish (later known as Dan), near Mount Hermon.{{Cite book |last=Lemche |first=Niels Peter |title=Historical dictionary of ancient Israel |date=2004 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |isbn=978-0-8108-4848-1 |series=Historical dictionaries of ancient civilizations and historical eras |location=Lanham, Md. |pages=100 |quote=}}
Biblical judge Samson was a hero of the Dan tribe.
Biblical narrative
File:12 Tribes of Israel Map.svg
File:Dan tribe plate Heichal Shlomo door Jerusalem.jpg's door in Jerusalem.]]
In the Biblical census of the Book of Numbers, the tribe of Dan is portrayed as the second largest Israelite tribe (after Judah).{{bibleverse||Numbers|1:39|HE}} Some textual scholars regard the census as being from the Priestly Source, dating it to around the 7th century BC, and more likely to reflect the biases of its authors.Richard Elliott Friedman, Who Wrote the Bible? (Harper San Francisco) (1987) {{ISBN|0-06-063035-3}}{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/11617-numbers-book-of|title=NUMBERS, BOOK OF - JewishEncyclopedia.com|website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}} In the Blessing of Moses, which some textual scholars regard as dating from only slightly earlier than the deuteronomist, Dan is prophesied to "leap from Bashan"; scholars are uncertain why this should be since the tribe did not live in the Bashan plain, east of the Jordan River.{{Cite web|url=http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/4866-dan|title=DAN - JewishEncyclopedia.com|website=www.jewishencyclopedia.com}}
=Conquest and territory=
According to the biblical narrative, following the completion of the conquest of Canaan by the Israelite tribes after about 1200 BC,Kitchen, Kenneth A. (2003), "On the Reliability of the Old Testament" (Grand Rapids, Michigan. William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company)({{ISBN|0-8028-4960-1}}) Joshua allocated the land among the twelve tribes. Dan was the last tribe to receive its territorial inheritance.{{Cite web|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=H-M8AAAAYAAJ|title=Jacob's Sons|first=George Laurens|last=Petrie|date=March 23, 1910|publisher=Neale|via=Google Books}}[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZKI8AAAAYAAJ Butler, James Glentworth. "The Bible-work, the Old Testament: Joshua, Judges, Ruth, 1st and 2nd Samuel, 1 Chronicles XI., 1 Kings I-XI., 2 Chronicles I-IX"], Funk & Wagnalls, 1889. p. 129 The land originally allocated to Dan was a small enclave in the central coastal area of Canaan, between Judah, Benjamin, Ephraim and the Philistines.{{Cite web|url=https://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0839/__P5X.HTM|title=The New American Bible - IntraText|website=www.vatican.va}}
To the north the territory of Dan abutted Joppa, the modern Jaffa. This territory, not very extensive originally, was soon diminished by its dangerous neighbors, the Philistines. The tribe was only able to camp in the hill country overlooking the Sorek Valley, the camp location becoming known as Mahaneh Dan ("Camp of Dan"). ({{bibleverse-lb||Joshua|19|HE}}) The region they were trying to settle extended south into the Shephelah in the area of Timnah; as a result, the modern state of Israel refers to the region as Gush Dan ("the Dan area").
The Danites' lot included all that part of the valley which respects the sun-setting, and were bounded by Azotus and Dora; as also they had all Jamnia and Gath, from Ekron to that mountain where the tribe of Judah begins.{{cite book |last=Josephus |author-link=Josephus |title=Josephus Complete Works |publisher=Kregel Publications |translator=William Whiston |date=1981|location=Grand Rapids, Michigan |page=108 (Antiquities 5.1.22.) |language=en |isbn=0-8254-2951-X }}
From after the conquest of the land by Joshua until the formation of the first united Kingdom of Israel in c. 1050 BC, the Tribe of Dan was a part of a loose confederation of Israelite tribes. No central government existed, and in times of crisis the people were led by ad hoc leaders known as Judges.[https://books.google.com/books?id=fwfvfzrgavAC Galpaz-Feller, Pnina. Samson: the hero and the man, Peter Lang, 2006]. {{ISBN|3-03910-852-2}}, {{ISBN|978-3-03910-852-7}}. p. 278-282
The most celebrated Danite was Samson, a Danite judge from the period of settlement in the lands allotted by Joshua. Pnina Galpaz-Feller sees similarities between the story of Samson and Denyen tribal legends. Excavations conducted at Tel Dan by David Ilan of the Hebrew Union College show support for the Danites' potential Aegean connections.{{Cite news|url=https://www.haaretz.com/archaeology/MAGAZINE-tribe-of-dan-sons-of-israel-or-of-greek-mercenaries-hired-by-egypt-1.5468423|title=Haaretz - Tribe of Dan, Archaeology|newspaper=Haaretz}}
As a consequence of the pressure from the Philistines, a portion of the tribe abandoned hopes of settling near the central coast, instead migrating to the north of Philistine territory, and after conquering Laish, refounded it as the city of Dan ({{bibleverse-lb||Judges|18|HE}}). Thus their territory in the end lay northeast of that of Naphtali, east of the upper Jordan River, near its eastern sources, and defining the northern extent of the land of the Israelites. A number of biblical texts thus refer to "All Israel, from Dan to Beersheba".
=United Monarchy=
With the growth of the threat from Philistine incursions, the Israelite tribes decided to form a strong centralised monarchy to meet the challenge, and the Tribe of Dan joined the new kingdom with Saul as the first king. After the death of Saul, all the tribes other than Judah remained loyal to the House of Saul. But after the death of Ish-bosheth, Saul's son and successor to the throne of Israel, the Tribe of Dan joined the other northern Israelite tribes in making David, who was then the king of Judah, king of a re-united Kingdom of Israel.{{Cite book|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=R44VRnNCzAYC&q=Tribe+of+Dan&pg=PA214|title=International Dictionary of Historic Places: Middle East and Africa|first=Sharon La|last=Boda|date=March 23, 1994|publisher=Taylor & Francis|isbn=9781884964039|via=Google Books}} The tribe provided substantial military support for the kingdom in the form of 28,600 soldiers, being considered "experts in war".[https://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org/1-Chronicles-12-35/ "1 Chronicles 12:35"], King James Bible Online. Retrieved 15 may 2018
=Northern Kingdom of Israel=
However, on the accession of Rehoboam, David's grandson, in c. 930 BC the northern tribes split from the House of David to re-form a Kingdom of Israel as the Northern Kingdom.
=Assyrian conquest and demise=
As part of the Kingdom of Israel, the territory of Dan was conquered by the Assyrians and many in the tribe were exiled; the manner of their exile led to their further history being lost. Some of the territory's inhabitants fled south into the Kingdom of Judah, gradually assimilating into the kingdom's Israelite population.
Claims of descent from Dan
A 15th-century Latin chronicle, "Chronicon Holsatiae vetus", found in Gottfried Leibniz's Accessiones historicae (1698), states the Danes were of the Tribe of Dan.Quoted in Sharon Turner's "History of the Anglo-Saxons" vol.I., 1799–1805, p. 130 and Suhm: Critisk Historie af Danmark, Vol. 1 (1774), p. 175 The antiquarian Henry Spelman in 1620 had made a similar claim that the Danes were the Israelite Tribe of Dan, based on the apparent similarity in name.{{Cite web|url=http://www.nordiskisrael.dk/artikler/WitnessestoIsraeliteOriginofPeoples.html|title=Witnesses to the Israelite Origin of the Nordic, Germanic, and Anglo-Saxon Peoples - by Mikkel Stjernholm Kragh|website=www.nordiskisrael.dk}} Additionally, proponents of Nordic and British Israelism have made similar claims about descent from the tribe of Dan. British Israelite authors such as John Cox Gawler and J. H. Allen identified the Tribe of Dan with Denmark.J. H. Allen, Judah's Sceptre and Joseph's Birthright, 1902, p. 263–64; John Cox Gawler's Dan, the pioneer of Israel (1880) [http://www.nordiskisrael.dk/artikler/jcgawler_dan_the_pioneer_of_israel_chap5.html] While another prominent British Israelite author, Edward Hine, took the view that the tribe of Dan had colonized Denmark and Ulster in Ireland.Edward Hine, The English Nation Identified with the Lost House of Israel by Twenty-Seven Identifications, (Manchester: Heywood, 1870), p. v; Life From The Dead, 1874, Vol. I, pp. 327-328.{{cite book |title= Forty-seven Identifications of the Anglo-Saxons with the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel: Founded Upon Five Hundred Scripture Proofs |author= Edward Hine |page=295 |date=1878}}
Some of the Ethiopian Jews, also known as Beta Israel, claim descent from the Tribe of Dan, whose members migrated south along with members of the tribes of Gad, Asher, and Naphtali, into the Kingdom of Kush, now Ethiopia and Sudan,[https://books.google.com/books?id=sjO8JOSKDCMC "From tragedy to triumph: the politics behind the rescue of Ethiopian Jewry"], Mitchell Geoffrey Bard. Greenwood Publishing Group, 2002. {{ISBN|0-275-97000-0}}, {{ISBN|978-0-275-97000-0}}. p. 2 during the destruction of the First Temple. This position is supported by former Sephardic Chief Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.[https://books.google.com/books?id=eK-8KYhnTVkC "Ideology, policy, and practice: education for immigrants and minorities in Israel today"], Devorah Kalekin-Fishman. Springer, 2004. {{ISBN|1-4020-8073-5}}, {{ISBN|978-1-4020-8073-9}}. p. 274 They are said to have fought with the natives.[https://books.google.com/books?id=qaIs-xV5sHcC "The image of the Black in Jewish culture: a history of the other"], Abraham Melamed. Psychology Press, 2003. {{ISBN|0-7007-1587-8}}, {{ISBN|978-0-7007-1587-9}}. p. 153
Characteristics
The primary characteristic of the tribe of Dan was seafaring.Mediterranean archaeology, Volume 16. University of Sydney. Dept. of Archaeology. 2003. p. 117 In the Song of Deborah the tribe is said to have stayed on their ships with their belongings.[https://books.google.com/books?id=kX7YXtI4POkC "The Children of Noah: Jewish Seafaring in Ancient Times"], Raphael Patai. Princeton University Press, 1999. {{ISBN|0-691-00968-6}}, {{ISBN|978-0-691-00968-1}}. p. 59[https://books.google.com/books?id=9kUC4DhNZ4YC "King, cult, and calendar in ancient Israel: collected studies"], Shemaryahu Talmon. BRILL, 1986. {{ISBN|965-223-651-9}}, {{ISBN|978-965-223-651-7}}. p. 97[https://books.google.com/books?id=MFbHT73BxpAC "Women in scripture: a dictionary of named and unnamed women in the Hebrew Bible, the Apocryphal/Deuterocanonical books, and the New Testament"], Carol L. Meyers, Toni Craven, Ross Shepard Kraemer. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2001. {{ISBN|0-8028-4962-8}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8028-4962-5}}. p. 270
Iconography
Modern artists use the "scales of justice" to represent the Tribe of Dan due to {{bibleverse-lb||Genesis|49:16|HE}} referencing Dan "shall achieve justice for his kindred". More traditional artists use a snake to represent Dan, based upon Genesis 49:17, "Let Dan be a serpent by the roadside, a horned viper by the path, That bites the horse's heel, so that the rider tumbles backward."
Book of Revelation
Revelation 7:4–8 prophecies that people from the twelve tribes of Israel will be marked on the forehead with the seal of God. The list does not mention the tribe of Dan, although it was included among the twelve tribes described as having settled in the Promised Land in the book of Joshua. It has been suggested by some biblical scholars that this omission could be a punishment for pagan practices conducted by the tribe.[https://books.google.com/books?id=S5GJaakRvPgC "The uttermost part of the earth: a guide to places in the Bible"], Richard R. Losch. Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing, 2005. {{ISBN|0-8028-2805-1}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8028-2805-7}}. p. 83 This led Irenaeus,Against Heresies, Book V, Chapter XXX, paragraph 2 Hippolytus of Rome and some Millennialists to propose that the Antichrist will come from the tribe of Dan.[https://books.google.com/books?id=I6JTKREkHUkC&pg=PA4 "Understanding Dan: an exegetical study of a biblical city, tribe and ancestor"], Mark W. Bartusch. Continuum International Publishing Group, 2003. {{ISBN|0-8264-6657-5}}, {{ISBN|978-0-8264-6657-0}}. p. 4[https://books.google.com/books?id=N1XYXMTe1jYC "The Oxford Handbook of Eschatology"], Jerry L. Walls. Oxford University Press, 2010. {{ISBN|0-19-973588-3}}, {{ISBN|978-0-19-973588-4}}. p. 371
See also
References
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