RODANIM

(Roʹda·nim).

Listed as one of Javan’s four sons at 1 Chronicles 1:7. There is considerable uncertainty as to the correct spelling of the name, since the Masoretic text at 1 Chronicles 1:7 has “Rodanim,” whereas many Hebrew manuscripts and the Latin Vulgate here read “Dodanim.” “Dodanim” also appears in the Masoretic text at Genesis 10:4, where, however, the Septuagint Version and the Samaritan Pentateuch read “Rodanim.” In Hebrew the letter “r” (ר) and the letter “d” (ד) are very similar and hence could be confused by a copyist. (Thus “Riphath” in the Masoretic text of Genesis 10:3 appears in the same Hebrew text as “Diphath” at 1 Chronicles 1:6.) Most translations present both names; The Anchor Bible (Genesis, 1964), however, gives “Rodanim” in Genesis, and The Jerusalem Bible (1966) reads “the Dananites,” perhaps due to considering the name as relating to an ancient people of such name in Cilicia in Asia Minor. Many lexicographers consider “Rodanim” to be the preferred reading, but there is no certainty.

Those who prefer “Dodanim” as the correct rendering connect the descendants of Javan’s son with the people of Dardania, based on the use of “Dordanim” in the Jerusalem Talmud and in the Targum of Jonathan (an Aramaic paraphrase of the Pentateuch). However, Dardania, a place near ancient Troy in NW Asia Minor, is considered by many to be too obscure to have figured in the list of the distribution of the nations as set forth in Genesis and Chronicles. The same might be said concerning the “Dananites” referred to in The Jerusalem Bible translation. (Also in the Rand McNally Bible Atlas [1966], p. 48).

Most commentators, therefore, reading the name as “Rodanim,” consider it likely that the people descending from this son of Javan populated the island of Rhodes and the neighboring islands of the Aegean Sea.