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  • From: JimStinehart AT aol.com
  • To: hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net, b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Can absence of evidence be evidence of absence?
  • Date: Fri, 6 Feb 2009 16:33:44 EST


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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