Questions From Readers

● The Bible account at Judges 18:27-29 says that a certain place was not named “Dan” until the Danites went up and took it. How is it, then, that the Bible book of Genesis speaks of the place as being called “Dan” in Abraham’s time?

This city in the well-watered region in the extreme north of Palestine, prior to its capture by the tribe of Dan, was called Leshem or Laish by the pagan inhabitants. (Josh. 19:47; Judg. 18:7, 27-29) The Danites rebuilt the destroyed city and called it “Dan by the name of their father, Dan.” However, the city is mentioned some four centuries earlier by the name of “Dan” in the account of Abraham’s pursuit of Chedorlaomer and his allies all the way “up to Dan.” (Gen. 14:14) It is possible that this use of the name “Dan” at that early date may relate to the name of the river that has its source just below the city and which is known as Nahr el-Leddan.

Jerome, historian and Bible translator (Comm. in Matt. xiv, 13), was of the opinion that the name of the Jordan River derived from the river’s having two sources, one named Jor and the other Dan, resulting in the united streams’ being called “Jordan,” which name was in use in Abraham’s day. (Gen. 13:10) At any rate, there is nothing to argue against the existence of this name Dan as applying to the indicated area in the time of Abraham. The correspondence of this early name to that of the forefather of the tribe of Dan may have been coincidental or even divinely directed.​—Compare the example of Salem at Genesis 14:18 and Hebrews 7:2.

The name “Dan” again appears in the Pentateuch at Deuteronomy 34:1, where it is included among the extremities of the territory seen by Moses in his final view of the Promised Land. The use of the name “Dan” here could correspond to its usage in the case of Abraham or could be the result of Joshua’s recording the final portion of the book, which includes events following Moses’ death.