This material written by
Yair Davidiy is lengthy and a bit dry for casual reading. However, I
included each word of the man's work here because it is so interesting
to me. These are words I've really only have heard and read not ever
having actually studied the different tribes. Of course, they would be
as different to each other as our own Native American tribes here. On
this man's page there was an illustration of a scale for weight.
Remember the Isle of Wight (weight)? Too, there are people who are
familiar with this symbols and their meaning which is a whole different
slant on the Danes of Denmark and tied into the Flood name there on the
Isle of Wight.
Thankfully, the Flood
family embraced Christianity in this land of America which left behind
all these old myths in order to live by Christ's teachings. This new
covenant under Christ was the basis of the freedom we speak of when we
talk about this free country we have enjoyed for these many years.
Christ's new Kingdom
spoken of in the Bible promises even more relief from cruel, weighty,
old laws and our branch of the Flood family look forward to that. This
Kingdom is spoken of in many ways, “I will set my Kingdom up in the
midst of them. He will be known as the Prince of Peace. I have come not
to build up but to tear down,” are all quotes concerning Christ and his
Kingdom.
Regarding the Keys to the
Kingdom, “I have opened in front of you a door that nobody will be able
to close.” Indeed, the theme for the Bible is, without a doubt, about
Christ's Kingdom.
Here is the work of this learned gentleman, Yair Davidiy:
Tribal Identifications: Dan part 2
Adapted from "Lost Israelite Identity" (1996)
by Yair Davidiy
THE TRIBE OF DAN
The Tribe of Dan when it came out of Egypt with the rest of the Children
of Israel was, after Judah, the most populous of Israelite Tribes with
62,700 males between the ages of 20 and 60 apart from women, children,
and the elderly (Numbers 2;26).
The son of Dan was called
"Hushim" (Genesis 46;23) who gave rise to the Danite clan known as
Shuhami (Numbers 26;43). Symbols associated with the Tribe of Dan
include a lion, snake, eagle, dragon, and griffin. A griffin is an
imaginary creature with the wings and body of an eagle and the head of a
lion. The Hyksos rulers of Egypt used a griffin as their symbol. The
Hyksos were either Hebrews or a Band of Egyptian rulers who relied on
Israelites in their forces and were heavily influenced by Hebraic and
Canaanite culture.
Aholiab of the Tribe of
Dan assisted Betzaleel of the Tribe of Judah in building the Tabernacle
in the Wilderness (Exodus 31;2 6).
Character appraisals of
Dan in tradition appear contradictory. One source (Talmud, Shabat 67)
says that all the children of Dan were idolaters. It also says that Dan
received the north side "whence darkness comes". A Midrash states that
Samson the legendary judge hero had a Danite father and a mother from
Judah whereas the future Messiah will have a father from Judah and a
mother from Dan or from Nephtali (Genesis Rabah 98;13)..
The mother of Dan was
Bilhah who also bore Nephtali. Dan and Nephtali are often linked with
each other. Bilhah was the maidservant of Rachel mother of Benjamin and
Joseph, and here too parallelisms are noticeable.
Eldad HaDani (ca.800 c.e.)
quotes an old legend according to which the Tribe of Dan left the Land
of Israel after the Ten Tribes separated themselves from Judah. The
Northern Ten Tribes under Jeroboam ben Nebat warred against Judah in the
south and so Dan rather than engage in a fratricidal struggle went in to
voluntary exile.
SAMSON was from the Tribe
of Dan. Samson was an heroic saviour of superhuman strength given to him
at moments of Divine inspiration. He became the prototype for Hercules.
In Greek Classical Mythology Hercules appears to frequently represent
peregrinations of migrating Phoenicians and Israelites.
At first the Tribe of Dan
received an inheritance around the area of Joppa (modern Jaffa- Tel
Aviv). Most of the inheritance of Dan in the south was to be lost to the
Amorites and Philistines and later regained by the Israelite Tribes of
Ephraim and Judah BUT NOT DAN.
"And the seventh lot came
out for the tribe of the children of Dan according to their families.
"And the coast of their inheritance was Zorah, and Eshtaol, and
Irshemesh,
"And Shaalabbin, and Ajalon, and Jethlah,
"And Elon, and Thimnathah, and Ekron,
"And Eltekeh, and Gibbethon, and Baalath,
"And Jehud, and BeneBerak, and Gath rimmon,
"And Mejarkon, and Rakkon, with the border before Japho.
"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.
"This is the inheritance of the tribe of the children of Dan according
to their families, these cities with their families" (Joshua 19;4048).
"And the Amorites forced the children of Dan into the mountain: for they
would not suffer them to come down to the valley:
"But the Amorites would dwell in Mount Heres in Aijalon, and in Shaalbim:
yet the hand of the house of Joseph prevailed, so that they became
tributaries" (Judges 2;3435)..
We see from the above that the Tribe of Dan in the south was only
successful in obtaining a portion of the inheritance it had been
bequeathed when the Land was divided amongst the Tribes. We also saw
that Dan was quite populous. Consequently many from the Tribe of Dan
were to go elsewhere.
The Tribe of Dan was to launch forward and conquer an area in the Upper
Galilee, another region in Cilicia (southeast Turkey), establish
settlements in Anatolia, engage in an attempted invasion of Egypt,
establish a base in Libya, conquer Greece, Cyprus, and Crete, and
establish a presence in Bronze Age Scandinavia, Britain, and Ireland. |