Tuesday, March 25, 2014

The Tribe of Dan and the Sea Peoples inscirptions.

I agree with Velikovsky on Ramses III being the Nektenbos of Greek historians who revolted against Persia.  The 30th Dynasty according to conventional chronology.

I agree also about the Prstt being the Persian Empire and "Peoples of the Sea" as Ionian Greeks.  But I do feel his desire in the question of the Sardan/Sherdan/Shardana to prove Sardis over Sardinia is unnecessary, Sardinia was colonized by Sardis, their having a similar name isn't a coincidence.  And Herdotus refers to Sardinians of this time period serving as pirates and mercenaries.

But his identification of the "Peoples of the Islands" the Denyen, as Athens I think is silly. The Denyen are also in the Amarna letters where they are in northern Syria, very northern, by the modern Turkish border. Associated with Hammath. They're also identified with Adana is Cilicia.

"And of Dan he said, Dan is a lion's whelp: he shall leap from Bashan." Deuteronomy 33:22

The Tribe of Dan originally settled just north of the Philistine Lands, around the port city of Joppa/Jaffa modern Tel-Aviv. The books of Joshua and Judges both record events when Danites left their allotted land, traveled north, conquered a city and renamed it Dan.

"And the coast of the children of Dan went out too little for them: therefore the children of Dan went up to fight against Leshem, and took it, and smote it with the edge of the sword, and possessed it, and dwelt therein, and called Leshem, Dan, after the name of Dan their father." Joshua 19:47

The longer Judges 18 account, where the City is Laish, is often assumed to be the same event. There are however key differences between the two accounts:

1. In the Book of Joshua the children of Dan had received an inheritance in the south but it was insufficient for them and so they went to fight against Leshem. In Judges however the Danites were in the region of Zorah and Eshtaol (in the south) they had not taken possession of their own.

2. In Judges, at least at first, only six hundred went forth after receiving the report of a reconnoitering mission: on the other hand, the Book of Joshua may be understood to say that all (or nearly all) of Dan went to fight.

3. In the Book of Joshua the city taken is called Leshem: In Judges the city is called LAISH. Some Commentators have tried to state that "Leshem" and "Laish" are different forms of the same word but "leshem" in Hebrew is a type of precious stone (maybe amber) while "laish" means a young male lion.

The Joshua account refers to the Dan that is frequently used as an idiom of the Northern Border of the Kingdom, where Jeroboam built one of his Calf Idols, and which on the map of modern Israel is in the Golan heights on the Lebanon border.

The Judges event is clearly much further north. They encountered Sidonians, but those Sidonians are also implied to be far from home. Laish is also known as Luash and the Danites who migrated there became known as Dananu.

"The king of Sma'al in the valley north of ASI (Orontes embouchemont) on the edge of LUASH (LIASH) called himself "KING of the DANIM" i.e. of the Danes of Dan. The Danes (Dananu) also controlled the neighbouring area of Cilicia and at one stage their capital was Adana by Tarsis of Cilicia and their suzerainity reached as far north as Karatepe. A bi-lingual inscription of theirs found at Karatepe employs a Phoenician type of Hebrew and a version of Hittite. Branches of the Hittites in Anatolia neighboured the Dananu of Cilicia. This northern portion of Dan is referred to variously as Dananu, Danau, Denye, Denyen, Danuna. "

Above I've borrowed a great deal from Britam's "Dan and the Serpent Way" study. I don't agree with all of Britam's premise obviously, or any other form of British Israelism, but Dan does have a unique history.
 
Secular scholars agree on connecting the Denyen to the Tribe of Dan, you can read about it on Wikipedia's Denyen and Dan pages, but the sequence is reversed.  They believe the Denyen traveled south and became incorporated into the Hebrew confederation. This supports their desire to claim that the various Tribes of Israel didn't even really have a common origin. Traditional chronology makes that argument easy for them but still doesn't make the Biblical picture impossible. But revised chronology makes it indisputable that The Bible's Dan came first.

The connection Dan has to Greece, is Biblically alluded to in Ezekiel 27. But that hardly means I take all the Greek myths about the Danoi/Danaans at face value.  The connection of Andromeda to Joppa is interesting, but I feel the true origins of the Agrid royal houses was Edom, and that this is a factor in how they got to Rome.

I've been reading articles on another website by an individual who believes Shishak was Ramses III.  His arguments do not beat out the argument for Tuthmosis III any more then Rohl's for Ramses II do, but once again I learned some new things studying a wrong theory.
http://www.biblemysteries.com/lectures/dan.htm
http://www.biblemysteries.com/lectures/seapeoples.htm
http://www.biblemysteries.com/lectures/wenamun.htm

Eldad ben Mahli ha-Dani commonly known as ELDAD THE DANITE was a 9th century Jewish traveler and philologist. The Encyclopedia Britannica describes him thus :-

"Probably originally from southern Arabia, Eldad visited Mesopotamia, Egypt, North Africa, and Spain and caused a stir by his account of the Ten Lost Tribes of Israel. He himself claimed to be a descendant of the Danites, who, together with the tribes of Naphtali, Asher, and Gad, were said to have established a Jewish kingdom in Cush (Kush), variously interpreted as Ethiopia or, roughly, present-day Sudan."

He was probably of the Ethiopian Beta-Israel community who claim Danite descent.  Biblical Kush/Cush rendered Ethiopia in the Septuagint and KJV as well as New Testament usually refers broadly to all Black Africa and specifically to Nubia, but there are exceptions and I believe Isaiah 18 is among them.
It is how and when the tribe of Dan got to Ethiopia which is fascinating for our chronology.

The account can be found in Louis Ginzberg's monumental work "The Legends of the Jews".

Eldad recounts that at the time of Jeroboam after his return from Egypt and the breakup of the Kingdom into two parts (Judah and Benjamin under Rehoboam in the South and the rest of the tribes under Jeroboam in the North) the Northern King had a plan to attack Judah and once again have a United Kingdom. Jeroboam put that plan to the elders of the 10 tribes.

The elders suggested that the job of attacking the south should be placed in the hands of the Tribe of Dan who were referred to as "the most efficient of their warriors".

The tribe of Dan however refused the request to attack the South believing it a sin to attack and shed the blood of their fellow Children of Israel. They actually threatened to attack Jeroboam instead, according to Eldad.

This was averted only because "God prompted the Danites to leave the promised land" ....their destination, Egypt!
They tie this into their believing Jeroboam was contemporary with Ramses III.  I think Eldad's legend had pushed back the date of their migration to Egypt.  Likewise I believe the Ark is in Ethiopia, but the Solomon-Sheba-Menelik legend is a Christian Auxumite invention.  Gram Hancock (not a Christian) and Bob Cornuke (who is a Bible believing Christian) have argued a different rout for how The Ark came there.

First it was removed from the Temple when it was violated by King Manasseh.  Then was in the Elephantine Jewish Temple until it was destroyed in the time of Cambyses son of Cryus king of Persia.  Then it was on the Island of Tana Kirikos (a source of the Nile) until it was taken by the Auxumite kingdom in the 4th Century A.D.

The thing about the Elephantine Jewish colony is, it was created by Israelite mercenaries hired by Psammetichus who like his Ionian mercenaries helped him liberate Egypt from Assyria.  He gave them the colony as a reward and let them build a Temple there.  Thanks to Velikovsky we know Psammetichus is actually Seti The Great, and among those Ionian mercenaries were the Sherden/Sardan/Shardana and possibly Denyen.  Israelites could have easily come to help Seti out also, survivors of the Northern Kingdom wanting revenge on Assyria.

Attempts to connect other Sea Peoples (casual usage forgets the Denyen were not called Sea Peoples) with other Tribes have been made as well, from both Atheist and Christian viewpoints.  Weshesh has been argued to have a strong etymological connection to Asher.  Shekelesh has been argued to derive from both Issachar (Rabbinic tradition says the sea faring Zebulonites always had scholars of Issachar with them on their boats) and Shechem.  While most attempts at an Israelite origin for the Sherden make them also Danites, I feel like pointing ot that Numbers 46 lists a clan of Sardites as coming from Sered son of Zebulun, a Tribe that Genesis 49 seems to foretell a sea faring or port city destiny for.

The tale of Wenamun who was an elder in the Temple of Amun probably at the time of the Pharaoh Smendes of the XXIst Dynasty. He was sent to obtain timber and this is the only other reference to the Tjekker in the Egyptian annals besides the time of Ramses III.  supporters of Velikovsky's model know this was the later Persian period.

""And I arrived at Dor, a Tjekker-town, and Beder its Prince caused to be brought to me 50 loaves..............". (Egypt of the Pharaohs: Sir Alan Gardiner p. 307)"  Dor was a port town of the Tribe of Manasseh but was often actually inhabited by Asher.  1 Kings 4:11 says Solomon appointed Abinadab who was married to his daughter Taphath a prince over Dor. 

These theories need not conflict with Velikovsky's emphasis on their Ionian nature.  The list of Sea Powers (Thalassocracies) preserved by Eusebius from Diodorus has the dominant Sea Power when the Norhtern Kingdom fell as the Milesians (725-707 B.C.) and a generation or two later the Mileasian philosophers become the first Monotheists of ancient Greece.  The city is also known to have had a Phoenician element to their population.  The Milesians invaded Ireland around 509 B.C. displacing the Tutha de Danann who arrived in 701 B.C. from northern Europe.

 I date the invasions of Ireland based on Bill Cooper's dates from After The Flood.
 http://ldolphin.org/cooper/ch8.html
 701 BC in our terms, the Firbolgs were subdued in their turn by the returning colony of Tuatha de Danaun.

The last colonisation of Ireland is then recorded under Anno Mundi 3500 (i.e. ca 504 BC):

    'The fleet of the sons of Milidh came to Ireland at the end of this year, to take it from the Tuatha de Danann, and they fought the battle of Sliabh Mis with them on the third day after landing.'
But his flaw is accepting other attempts to give the Tuatha Dé Danann descent from the Nemed led colony by making them the Fir Domnann. The Fir Domnann became the Dumnonii of Britain.

I believe the Denyen sometime after the Amarna era continued migrating, sometimes by Sea (Song of Deborah and Ezekiel 27 imply a Sea Faring nature for Dan).  Inspired the Danavas of Sanskrit mythology, but ultimately wound up in northern Europe, giving their name to rivers like the Danube and locations like Denmark. 

I think they sometimes maintained a loose trade and connection with the Danites in the Northern Kingdom, perhaps when Samaria's fall was drawing near many Danites fled to their far northern brethren, and brought Four sacred relics with them.  Then in 701 BC the Danites in Northern Europe came to the British isles and became the Tuatha De Danann of Irish legend and the Children of Don of Welsh legend.

In 504 BC Ireland was taken by those fleeing Miletus, but might have maintained strongholds on other islands for a few centuries.  Many eventually travailed west to Tir na nOg, being among the pre Colombian travelers to the new world.

Going back.  The modern Ethiopian Jews may not be the only African Jews to descend from this population.  But the Lemba are separate.

Eithiopia, from the Greek Aethiopia, often used to translate the Hebrew Kush, became during the Classical and Hellenistic era a word for Africa south of Egypt in general but specifically Nubia.  But the references to this land in Greek mythology don't seem to fit that.

Joppa/Jaffa that Andromeda came from is also refereed to as Aethiopia.  But also Memnon an ally of Troy during the Trojan war was a King of Aethiopia.  But the statements in geography about his Kingdom and ethnicity are also contradictory, and he was said to have a brother Emathon who was King of Arabia, which in classical sources refers mainly to parts of modern Jordan and north-western Saudi Arabia. And these Arabians mostly descended from brothers of Isaac, most prominently Ishmael.  Though Edom also fits in the Classical Greek definition of Arabia.

People disagree on whether the Judges 18 account of Dan's migration should be set chronologically before the rest of the book, or after the time of Samson.  Either way Samson's story shows some Danites remained in their original region around Joppa/Jaffa all through the Judges period.  Also the Danites who "remain in ships" in the Song of Deborah (Judges 5:17) were likely Danites living in this region, they had a port city in Joppa/Jaffa that would have served this sea faring nature far better.

Traditional dates from Greek writers for the time of Perseus place him in the middle of the Judges period Biblically.  What if Aethiopia originally refereed to Dan's original allocation? and the Greeks later started using it for where a certain portion of Dan settled south of Egypt, and in time forgot the real reason?

Memnon is a name can easily be explained by a Hebrew origin, since it's basically two letter of the Hebrew Alphabet spelled out phonetically and put together.  Mem and Nun.  Non/Nun is also the name of Joshua's father, both spellings appear in the KJV.  It's also not impossible the name comes from Amnon.  Emathon or Hemathon probably comes from the Hebrew name Mattan (Strong number 4977) with a He (the Hebrew definite article) at the beginning which often happens in Hebrew for emphasis.

Cepheus could come from Kefa (Hebrew Strong number 3710), which means rock and was a name Simon Peter was also known by (Greek Strong number 2786) since it's the Semitic equivalent of the Greek Petros.  Cephalus/Kephalos could derive from that same Hebrew word also, who could be interpreted as the grandfather of Memnon and Emathon via Tithonios.  Cepheus's brother Phineus is an obviously Semitic name, appearing as Phinehas in the KJV.  Phoenix could also come from the same name as a more corrupt form.

Perses is the name of one of the sons of Perseus and Andromeda, the one who stayed in the East and was believed to be ancestral to the Persians.  Perses and Perseus both could come from the Hebrew name Pharez.  I do believe deported northern Israelites possibly contributed to the ancestry of various peoples of Persia/Iran.

To my own surprise even Cassiopia could have a Hebrew origin, from Kasheph (Strong number 3784-3786) the word for Sorcerer.  Putting a Heh on the end would make it feminine, and transliterated into Greek that often results in ending with an Alpha.

Andromeda alone of the Aethiopian dynasty has a clearly Greek and not Semitic name, it could be originally that was a name she took only after marrying Perseus.  The Hebrew word for Woman/Wife is unlike the Greek a feminine form of the word for Man/Husband, Andros.  And I've read conflicting claims of what the other part of the name is supposed to mean.

A similar name is Adromache, the last part of that name does occur in Hebrew (Strong number 4347) with virtually the same meaning.  Makhe in Greek means to fight, and Makkah in Hebrew means blow, wound or slaughter.  And in Hebrew it is grammatically feminine.  So maybe the -meda part of Andromeda comes from Madon, or Madai or Medan.  Which could mean stature or discord or strife.

Agenor could derive from Aggan (Strong number 101) the Hebrew word for Goblet.  Cadmus could derive from Kedem (East Strong number 6930) or Kedemah, Kedemoth, Kadimiel or Kadmonites.

Cillicia is part of the region I have above affiliated with Dan.  Cilix was a mythical progenitor of the inhabitants of that region in Greek mythology.  And he is also variantly a son of Agenor of Phoenix.  A Hebrew name that could come from is Kelal (Chelal in the KJV).

The Prose Edda says Memnon fathered a Thor with a daughter of Priam from whom descended Sceaf and then Geat and then Woden and from him all the royal houses of the Anlgo-Saxon chronicles and of Denmark and Norway.  Fitting Britam's identification of Denmark with Dan.  I disagree with Bill Cooper on Sceaf being Japheth.

I think DNA Y Chromosome Haplogroup I indicates Pater-Lineal descent from Dam.

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