"tells us that the Egyptians, formerly being troubled by calamities [in context, assumedly the 10 plagues at the time of the Exodus] in order that the divine wrath might be averted, expelled all the aliens [i.e., Israelites] gathered together in Egypt.
Of these, some under their leaders Danuss and Cadmus, migrated into Greece; others into other regions, the greater part into Syria [i.e., the whole eastern Mediterranean, including the land of Israel].
Their leader is said to have been Moses, a man renowned for wisdom and courage, founder and legislator of the state" (cited by C.W. Muller, Fragmenta Historicum Graecorum, 1883, Vol. 2, p. 385).
The title page of the Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum's first volume, published in 1841
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View full-sizeDownload Karl Wilhelm Ludwig Müller (Latin: Carolus Müllerus; 13 February 1813 in Clausthal – 1894 in Göttingen) was a German philologist and historian, best known for his Didot editions of fragmentary Greek authors.
Karl Müller (1813–1894) published two standard works, Fragmenta Historicorum Graecorum and Geographi Graeci Minores, which have never been superseded, but very little is known about his life, and he is frequently confused with Carl Otfried Müller, another great German classicist of the nineteenth century.
Portrait of Karl Otfried Müller by Wilhelm Ternite (1838)
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View full-sizeDownload Karl Otfried Müller (Latin: Carolus Mullerus; 28 August 1797 – 1 August 1840) was a German professor, scholar of classical Greek studies and philodorian. Born near Hannover, Karl and his brother and collaborator Theodor both studied at the University of Göttingen, but both left Germany in 1839, probably for political reasons.
They moved to Paris, where Fragmenta was produced in partnership with the printer–publisher Ambroise Firmin-Didot between 1841 and 1872.
It covers histories which have been lost, but of which fragments survive in other works.
In confirmation of the Israelite identity of these people, Diodorus of Sicily, a historian of the first century B.C., states:
"They say also that those who set forth with Danaus, likewise from Egypt, settled what is practically the oldest city of Greece, Argos, and that the nations of the Colchi in Pontus and that of the Jews, which lies between Arabia and Syria, were founded as colonies by certain emigrants from their country [i.e., Egypt]; and this is the reason why it is a long-established institution among these peoples to circumcise their male children . . . the custom having been brought over from Egypt.
Even the Athenians, they say, are colonists from Sais in [the Nile Delta of] Egypt." (Book 1, sec. 28, 1-5)
Whether or not Danaus and Cadmus were actual people is difficult to ascertain.
Danaus was supposedly the head of the "Danaae" under whom Argos flourished.
And Cadmus was considered by the Greeks of Thebes to have founded their city (Will Durant, The Story of Civilization, Vol. 2: The Life of Greece, pp. 40, 72).
Indeed, the famed Greek poet Homer often used the term Danaans for the Greeks.
Marble terminal bust of Homer. Roman copy of a lost 2nd-century BCE Hellenistic original
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View full-sizeDownload Homer (/ˈhoʊmər/; Ancient Greek: Ὅμηρος [hómɛːros], Hómēros; possibly born c. the 8th century BCE) was an Ancient Greek poet who is credited as the author of the Iliad and the Odyssey, two epic poems that are foundational works of ancient Greek literature. Despite doubts about his authorship, Homer is considered one of the most revered and influential authors in history.
"Neither do I think that the eponymus [eponym or ancestral name] of the Argive Danai [i.e., Greeks of Argos] was other than that of the Israelite tribe of Dan; only we are so used to confining ourselves to the soil of Palestine in our consideration of the history of the Israelites that we . . . ignore the share they may have taken in the ordinary history of the world . . .
Yet with the Danai and the tribe of Dan this is the case, and no one connects them." (Ethnology of Europe, 1852, p. 137)
Yet more scholars since have connected them:
Cyrus Gordon, Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations, 1966
Allen Jones, Bronze Age Civilization: The Philistines and the Danites, 1975
"Danaans and Danites: Were the Hebrews Greek?,"Biblical Archaeology Review, June 1976
"Against the Tide: An Interview with Maverick Scholar Cyrus Gordon,"Biblical Archaeology Review, Nov.-Dec. 2000, pp. 52-63.
And the connection had even been made by the people in question themselves at one time.
The first-century Jewish historian Josephus recorded the contents of a letter sent to the Jews of the Holy Land a few centuries earlier by the king of the Lacedemonians (the Spartans of southern Greece):
"Areus king of the Lacedemonians, to Onias [the Jewish high priest], sendeth greeting; we have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that both the Jews and the Lacedemonians are of one stock and are derived from the kindred of Abraham.
It is but just, therefore, that you, who are our brethren, should send to us about any of your concerns as you please.
We will also do the same thing and esteem your concerns as our own; and will look upon our concerns as in common with yours. Demoteles, who brings you this letter, will bring your answer back to us.
This letter is foursquare:
and the seal is an eagle, with a dragon [a serpent] in its claws." (Book 12, chap. 4, sec. 10)
This was the heraldic emblem of the tribe of Dan ("Flag," The Jewish Encyclopedia, p. 405), apparently derived in part from Jacob’s prophecy:
"Dan shall be a serpent by the way, an adder in the path, that biteth the horse heels, so that his rider shall fall backward."Genesis 49:17
The four main standards surrounding God’s tabernacle in the wilderness, those of:
Ephraim
Judah
Reuben
and Dan (see Numbers 2), are widely believed to have carried the emblems of:
a bull a lion a man
and an eagle respectively—parallel to the four living creatures surrounding God’s throne in heaven (Revelation 4:7) and the faces of the angelic cherubim (Ezekiel 1:10).
And the first beast was like a lion, and the second beast like a calf, and the third beast had a face as a man, and the fourth beast was like a flying eagle.Revelation 4:7
As for the likeness of their faces, they four had the face of a man, and the face of a lion, on the right side: and they four had the face of an ox on the left side; they four also had the face of an eagle.Ezekiel 1:10
Later, another Jewish high priest, Jonathan, wrote back to the Spartans in affirmation:
"concerning the kindred that was between us and you . . . because we were well satisfied about it from the sacred writings . . .
It is a long time since this relation of ours to you hath been renewed, and when we, upon holy and festival days, offer sacrifices to God, we pray to Him for your preservation and victory."(Book 13, chap. 5, sec. 1)
Indeed, the "sacred writings" do address this matter indirectly.
Deborah by Johanna Unger [de], 19th century
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View full-sizeDownload According to the Book of Judges, Deborah (Hebrew: דְּבוֹרָה, Dəḇōrā) was a prophetess of Judaism, the fourth Judge of pre-monarchic Israel, and the only female judge mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. Many scholars contend that the phrase, "a woman of Lappidoth", as translated from biblical Hebrew in Judges 4:4 denotes her marital status as the wife of Lapidoth. Alternatively, "lappid" translates as "torch" or "lightning", therefore the phrase, "woman of Lappidoth" could be referencing Deborah as a "fiery woman." Deborah told Barak, an Israelite general from Kedesh in Naphtali, that God commanded him to lead an attack against the forces of Jabin king of Canaan and his military commander Sisera (Judges 4:6–7); the entire narrative is recounted in chapter 4. Judges 5 gives the same story in poetic form. This passage, often called The Song of Deborah, may date to as early as the twelfth century BCE, and is perhaps the earliest sample of Hebrew poetry.
For by the time of the Israelite judge Deborah around 1200 B.C., the tribe of Dan had become a seafaring people, sailing on ships (Judges 5:17).
Gilead abode beyond Jordan:
and why did Dan remain in ships?
Asher continued on the seashore, and abode in his breaches.
And Huram sent him by the hands of his servants ships, and servants that had knowledge of the sea; and they went with the servants of Solomon to Ophir, and took thence four hundred and fifty talents of gold, and brought them to king Solomon.2 Chronicles 8:18
"Dan also and Javan [or Yavan, i.e., the Old Testament Hebrew word for the Greeks, see Smith’s Bible Dictionary] going to and fro [as mariners] occupied in thy fairs" (Ezekiel 27:19, KJV).
Dan also and Javan going to and fro occupied in thy fairs: bright iron, cassia, and calamus, were in thy market.
So, a close relationship still existed between Dan and the Greeks.
His name is related to the AssyrianAškūza (Aškuzai, Iškuzai), the Scythians who expelled the Gimirri (Gimirrāi) from the Armenian highland of the Upper Euphrates area.
The name appears in some copies of 1 Chronicles as "Diphath", due to the similarities of the characters resh and dalet in the Hebrew and Aramaic alphabets.
Thargamos and his sons. The order of the figures from left to right is: Movakan, Bardos, Kartlos, Hayk, Thargamos, Lekos, Heros, Caucas, Egros. An opening folio of the Georgian Chronicles (Vakhtang VI redaction), 1700s.
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View full-sizeDownload (Hebrew: תֹּגַרְמָה, romanized: Toḡarmā, Armenian: Թորգոմ, romanized: Torgom, Georgian: თარგამოსი, romanized: Targamosi)
The origin of the term is not clear, this name indicates either a person, or a tribe, or a geographical reality (country or city).
In the book of Ezekiel, the pagan Magog people live "north of the World", and metaphorically represent the forces of Evil, which associates it with Apocalyptic traditions.
Dodanim (דֹּדָנִים Dōḏānīm) or Rodanim, (רֹדָנִים Rōḏānīm, Greek: Ρόδιοι, Ródioi) was, in the Book of Genesis, a son of Javan (thus, a great-grandson of Noah).
Samuel Bochart associated the form Rodanim with the river Rhone's Latin name, Rhodanus.
Franz Delitzsch identified the figure of Dodanim with the Dardanus of Greek mythology, while Joseph Mede equated him with the Jupiter Dodonaeus who had an oracle at Dodona.
Kenneth Kitchen discusses two additional possible etymologies.
One possibility he suggests is that:
"both Dodanim and Rodanim have been reduced from Dordanim -- by loss of medial r in Gen. 10:4 (Dordanim > Dodanim) and of an initial d in 1 Chron. 1:7 (<Do>rdanim > Rodanim).
He also suggests that the name Dodanim may be an altered form of Danunim, an ancient Near Eastern people mentioned in the Amarna letters whose origin and identity is still surrounded by "considerable doubt".
In Pseudo-Philo (c. 70), Dodanim's sons are Itheb, Beath, and Phenech; the last of these is made prince of the Japhethites at the time of the Tower of Babel.
A brother of biblical Javan (associated with the Greek people), its geographical locale is sometimes associated by scholars with the Tershi or Tirsa, one of the groups which made up the Sea Peoples"thyrsenes" (Tyrrhenians), a naval confederacy which terrorized Egypt and other Mediterranean nations around 1200 BCE.
These Sea People are referred to as "Tursha" in an inscription of Ramesses III, and as "Teresh of the Sea" on the Merneptah Stele.
Another Meshech is named as a son of Shem in 1 Chronicles 1:17 (corresponding to the form Mash in Genesis 10).
The name is also used (as in Akkadian) for the ancient country of Elam in what is now southwestern Iran, whose people the Hebrews believed to be the offspring of Elam, son of Shem (Genesis 10:22).
Elam (the nation) is also mentioned in Genesis 14, describing an ancient war in the time of Abraham, involving Chedorlaomer, the king of Elam at that time.
The last part of Jeremiah 49 is an apocalyptic oracle against Elam which states that Elam will be scattered to the four winds of the earth, but
"will be, in the end of days, that I will return their captivity,"
a prophecy self-dated to the first year of Zedekiah (597 BC).
The Book of Jubilees may reflect ancient tradition when it mentions a son (or daughter, in some versions) of Elam named "Susan", whose daughter Rasuaya married Arpachshad, progenitor of another branch of Shemites.
Shushan (or Susa) was the ancient capital of the Elamite Empire. (Dan. 8:2)
Prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, there was contention in academic circles regarding whether Ashur or Nimrod built the Assyrian cities of:
Sir Walter Raleigh devoted several pages in his History of the World (c. 1616) to reciting past scholarship regarding the question of whether it had been Nimrod or Ashur who built the cities in Assyria.
The Ge'ez version of the Book of Jubilees, affirmed by the 15 Jubilees scrolls found amongst the Dead Sea Scrolls, affirms that the contested lands in Genesis 10:8–12 were apportioned to Ashur.
Jubilees 9:3 states,
"And for Ashur came forth the second Portion, all the land of Ashur and Nineveh and Shinar and to the border of India, and it ascends and skirts the river."
The 1st century Judaeo-Roman historian Flavius Josephus also gives the following statement:
"Ashur lived at the city of Nineveh; and named his subjects Assyrians, who became the most fortunate nation, beyond others" (Antiquities, i, vi, 4).
The descendants of Lud are usually, following Josephus, connected with various Anatolian peoples, particularly Lydia (Assyrian Luddu) and their predecessors, the Luwians; cf. Herodotus' assertion (Histories i. 7) that the Lydians were first so named after their king, Lydus (Λυδός).
However, the chronicle of Hippolytus of Rome (c. 234 AD) identifies Lud's descendants with the Lazones or Alazonii (names usually taken as variants of the "Halizones" said by Strabo to have once lived along the Halys) while it derives the Lydians from the aforementioned Ludim, son of Mizraim.
The Book of Jubilees, in describing how the world was divided between Noah's sons and grandsons, says that Lud received
"the mountains of Asshur and all appertaining to them till it reaches the Great Sea, and till it reaches the east of Asshur his brother." (Charles translation)
The Ethiopian version reads, more clearly:
"... until it reaches, toward the east, toward his brother Asshur's portion."
Jubilees also says that Japheth's son Javan received islands in front of Lud's portion, and that Tubal received three large peninsulas, beginning with the first peninsula nearest Lud's portion.
In all these cases, "Lud's portion" seems to refer to the entire Anatolian peninsula, west of Mesopotamia.
Some scholars have associated the Biblical Lud with the Lubdu of Assyrian sources, who inhabited certain parts of western Media and Atropatene.
The Muslim historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari (c. 915) recounts a tradition that the wife of Lud was named Shakbah, daughter of Japheth, and that with him she gave birth to:
Because his father is Aram, the eponymous ancestor of the Arameans (sometimes also called Syrians), the Holman Bible Dictionary infers that he must have been included in the Table of Nations as:
"the original ancestor of an Aramean or Syrian tribe."
In Arabic traditions, Mash is considered the father of Nimrod (not Nimrod bin Kush bin Kanan), who begot Kinan, who in turn begot another Nimrod, and the lattermost's descendants mixed with those of Asshur (i.e. Assyrians).
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View full-sizeDownload Cyrus Herzl Gordon (June 29, 1908 – March 30, 2001) was an American scholar of Near Eastern cultures and ancient languages.
Noah’s son Shem is the ancestor of the Semites.
Japheth [another son of Noah] is connected with the Greeks.
This 1854 map locates Meshech together with Gog and Magog, roughly in the southern Caucasus.
Ashkenaz is shown in Phrygia in this 1854 map of "The World as known to the Hebrews" (Lyman Coleman, Historical Textbook and Atlas of Biblical Geography)
God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
The Greeks will dwell in the tents of the Semites.
In other words the [Aegean] area was Semitic before it became Indo-European. (Biblical Archaeology Review, Nov.-Dec. 2000, p. 61).
When the New Testament uses the term Greeks, it is clearly referring to gentiles—non-Israelites.
Of course, this is mainly because all people who weren’t Israelite were considered "Greek"—the Greek language and culture having been spread throughout the known world.
Furthermore, by the time the New Testament was written, most of the Danaans of Greece and nearby lands had migrated elsewhere.
