Biblical Hebrew Forum

[JimStinehart AT aol.com]

Harold Holmyard: 
 
You wrote:  “Genesis 14:14 uses the name ‘Dan’ anachronistically.”
 
Not true.  
 
Virtually the oldest name attested in the secular history of northernmost 
Canaan is “Dan”, or some slight variation thereon, such as “Danel”.  At least 
in a mid-14th century BCE historical context for the Patriarchal Age, which 
is 
my view of the case, “Dan”, or some slight variation thereon, is exactly what 
one would expect to see for a locale far north in Canaan.
 
1.  “One of the most famous of the lesser deities at Ugarit was a chap named 
Dan’il. “ 
 
_http://www.theology.edu/ugarbib.htm_ (http://www.theology.edu/ugarbib.htm) 
 
Thus “Dan”, or Dan + suffix, goes all the way back to 14th century BCE 
Ugarit, just north of Canaan.
 
2.  Academic studies have documented that "Dan" was a well-known name in 
Syria and Lebanon in the mid-2nd millennium BCE.  Here is a snippet of the 
review 
by James. D. Muhly in "Journal of the American Oriental Society", Vol. 85, 
No. 
4 (1965), reviewing the book-length treatment of this very subject in Michael 
C. Astour's book "Hellenosemitica, an Ethnic and Cultural Study in West 
Semitic Impact on Mycenean Greece":
 
"The explanation for these Semitic elements [of influence on Mycenean Greece] 
rests upon the Danuna, investigated in the first section of the book.  They 
represent a West Semitic tribe whose name is to be analyzed as dan-u/ana.  
The 
name is to be found in the Biblical tribe of Dan, in the name of the Ugaritic 
sage Danel [in western Syria in the 14th and 13th centuries BCE], in the 
El-Amarna da-nu-na [in mid-14th century BCE Egypt], the danym of Phoenician 
inscriptions, the so-called 'Denyen' of the Egyptian descriptions of Rameses 
III, and 
the Homeric Danoi.  This West Semitic tribe also probably composed the Hyksos 
invaders of Egypt, and their migration from Egypt to the Argolid in Greece, 
which took place sometime between 1550 and 1450, forms the historical 
background
 for the Greek legend involving the fifty sons of Aigyptos and the fifty 
daughters of Danaos."
 
I do not necessarily agree that the Danuna were connected to the Hyksos.  But 
it is clear that the name "Dan" was well known in the context of Lebanon and 
Syria in the mid-2nd millennium BCE.
 
3.  "Dan" is referred to at Genesis 14: 14.  Genesis 14: 15 then refers to 
Damascus.  So the geographical area of Syria and Lebanon fits perfectly, 
historically, for "Dan".
 
4.  In the very same sentence, Genesis 14: 14, the author of the Patriarchal 
narratives uses a word never used elsewhere in the Bible, and which is not 
attested in secular history after the 15th century BCE:  "chânîykîm".  So the 
historical time period is exactly right as well:  the 15th and 14th centuries 
BCE.
 
5.  Everything about Genesis 14: 14 fits the secular historical context 
perfectly, including the reference to "Dan" (and the word "chânîykîm", and 
the 
opposition to the mid-14th century BCE Hittite threat, where “Tidal” is an 
authentic Hittite kingly name from the 14th century BCE).  Pinpoint 
historical 
accuracy is the hallmark of the Patriarchal narratives.
 
Although Karl W. Randolph's view of Genesis is very different than mine in 
most respects, I do agree with his previously expressed view that at Genesis 
14: 
14, "Dan" probably has little or nothing to do with either (i) any 
great-grandson of Abraham, or (ii) the later Hebrew tribe of Dan.
 
There is no historical anachronism here.
 
Jim Stinehart
Evanston, Illinois

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