8oc. xvi, 27). After the establishment of the Danites at Dan it became the acknowledge extremity of the country, and the formula ** from Dan even to Beershe- ba" is frequent throughout the historical books (Judg. XX, 1 ; 1 Sam. iii, 20; 2 Sam. iii, 10 ; xvii, 11 ; xxiv, 2, 16 ; 1 Kings iv, 25). In the later records the form is reversed, and becomes **{h>m Beersheba even to Dan" (1 Chron. xxl, 2 ; 2 Chron. xxx, 5). It is occa- sionally employed alone in a somewhat similar mean- ing ; thus, in Jer. viii, 16, " The snorting of his horses was heard from Dan ; the whoU land trembled at the sound of the neighing of his strong ones'* (also iv, 16). Dan was, with other northern cities, laid waste by Benhadad (1 Khigs xv, 20; 2 Chron. xvi, 4), and this is the last mention of the place.
Various considerations would incline ns to the suspi- . don that Dan was a holy place of note fh>m a far ear- lier date than its conquest by the Danites. These are : (1.) The extreme reluctance of the Orientals — appar- ent in numerous cases in the Bible — ^to initiate a sanc- tuary, or to adopt for worship any place which had not enjoyed a reputation for holiness from pre-historic times. (2.) The correspondence of Dan with Beer- sheba in connection with the life of Abraham— the or- igin of Beersheba also being, as has been noticed, en- veloped in some diversity of statement. (8.) More particularly its incidental mention in the very clear and circumstaotial narrative of €^n. xiv, 14, as if well* known even at that very early period. Its mention in Deut. xxxiv, 1, is also before the events related in Judg. xviii, though still many centuries later than the time of Abraham. But the subject is very difficult, and we can hardly hope to arrive at more than con- jecture upon it. With regard to Gen. xiv, 14, three explanations suggest themselves, a. That another place of the same name is intended. (See Kalisch, aJ foe. for an ingenious suggestion of Dan-jaan). Against this may be put the belief of Josephus (comp. Afii. i, 10, 1, with V, 8^ 1) and of Jerome {Onomagt. s. v. Laisa, comp. with Quagt, Hebr, in Genesim, xiv, 14), who both unhesitatingly identify the Dan near Pane- as with the Dan of Abraham. 6. That it is a prophet- ic anticipation by the sacred historian of a name which was not to exist till centuries later, just as Samson has been held to be alluded to in the blessing of Dan by Jacob, c. That the passage originally contained an older name, as Laish ; and that, when that was su- perseded by Dan, the new name was inserted in the MSS. This hut is Ewald's (Gesch, i, 78), and of the three is the most feasible, especially when we consid- er the characteristic, genuine air of the story in Judges, which fixes the origin of the name so circumstantially. Josephus (Ant, v, 8, 1) speaks positively of the situa- tion of Laish as '* not hi from Mount Libanus and the springs of the lesser Jordan, near (Kard) the great plain of the city of Sidon** (compare also Ant. viii, 8, 4) ; and this, as just said, he identifies with the Dan in Gen. xiv, 14 (Ant. i, 10, 1). In consonance with this are the notices of Jerome, who derives the word ** Jor* dan** from the names of its two sources. In Deut. xxxiv, 1, also, we find the phrase '* all the land of Gilead unto Dan'* employed by Moses some fifty years before the conqnest of Leshem. The locality of the town is specified with some minuteness. It was " far from Zidon,** and " fai the valley (pB§, Emek) that is by (b) Beth-rehob ;'* but as this latter place has not been identified with certainty, the position of Dan must be ascertained by other means. Josephus says that it stood at the * Cesser'* fountain of the Jordan ... in the plain of Sidon, a day*s journey fh>m that city, and that the plain around it was of extraordinary fertility (Ant, i, 10, 1 ; v, 8, 1 ; viii, 8, 4 ; War, iv, 1, 1). Eusebius and Jerome are still more explicit — '^A vil- lage,/our miUi distant /ram Paneas, on the road lead- ing to Tyre ; it was the boundary of Judsa (ppiov r^c 'lovSaiag), and at it the Jordan took its rise." Jerome
DANA
056
DAN.EUS
adds, " De quo et Jordanis flnmen enunpens k loco sortitiu est nomen. Jor qaippe ptXQpou, id est, fluvi- am sive rivum Hebnei vocant" (Onomcut. s. v. Dan). Some writers, both ancient and modern, have con< founded Dan with Paneas or Cassarea Philippi (Pbilos- torgius, History^ vii, 8 ; Theodoret in Genes, ; Sanson, Geog, Sac. s. v. ; Alford on McUL xvi, 13). This error appears to have arisen chiefly from indefinite remarks of Jerome in his commentary on Esek. zlviii, 18 : *'Dan . . . abi hodle Paneas, qua quondam Cesarea Philippi Tocabatur ;" and on Amos yiii, '* Dan in ter- minis terra Judalca, ubi nwu: Panea$ est.** It is plain from Jerome's words in the Onomcuticon that he knew the true site of Dan, and therefore these notices must be understood as meaning ttiat Cssarea Philippi was in his days the principal town in the locality where *Dan was situated, and that both were upon the border of Palestine. The Jerusalem Targum calls it " Dan of Ccsarea," intimating its vicinity to the latter {on Gen. xiv, U; see ReUnd, Paltut. p. 919-21). In per- feet agreement with this is the position of TeU el-KatUy a mound from the foot of which gushes out "one of the largest fountains in the world," the main source of the Jordan (Robmson, Later Bu. iii, 890-893). The tell itself, rising from the plain by somewhat steep terraces, has its long, level top strewed with ruins, and is very probably the site of the town and citadel of Dan. The spring is called d-Leddcin^ possibly a cor- ruption of Dan (Robinson, iii, 892), and the stream from the spring Nakr ed-Dhan (Wilson, ii, 178), while the name, TeU el-Kadi^ "the Judge's mound," agrees in signification with the ancient name. Those who have visited it give the exact agreement of the spot with the requirements of the story in Judg. xviii — "a good land and a large, where there is no want of any- thing that is on the earth" (Thomson, Lmd and Book^ ii, 820). Tell el-Kady is cup-«haped, resembling an extinct crater, and is covered with a dense jungle of thorns, thistles, and rank weeds. Its circumference is about half a mile, and its greatest elevation above the plain eighty feet. There are some traces of old foundations, and heaps of large stones on the top and sides of the southern part of the rim, where perhaps the citadel or a temple may have stood. There are also ruins in the plain a short distance north of the tell. There are doubtless other remains, but they are now covered with grass and jangle. At the western base of the tell is the great fountain, and there is a smaller one within the cup, shaded by noble oak-trees (Porter, Damatciu^ i, 308). About a quarter of an hour north, Burckhardt noticed ruins of ancient habi- tations ; and the hUl which overhangs the fountains appears to have been built upon, though nothing is now visible (Burckhardt, Syrian p. 42; Robinson, iJs- searches, iii, 851-368).— Kitto, s. v. ; Smith, s. v.