The subject of the ‘lost’ tribes of Israel, and more particularly their apparently mysterious disappearance from the pages of history, has generated many studies, hypotheses, myths and beliefs as to what exactly happened to them. One of the most mysterious in these tribal groups is the Tribe of Dan, or at least it would so appear, until we compare both the biblical account and The Book of Man texts. Only then can we see where the holes and blind spots are, as the biblical texts, though usually regarded as being a singularly intact and unchanged account, must be seen to be the product of many and varying interpretations, translation and redactions over long periods of time. Therefore, this article will address some of the issues and attempt to demonstrate where the many of the mismatches and misunderstandings as to exactly who and what this particular tribe were, and also provide some indication as to where they, or more correctly, their bloodlines, their genetics, are today.
When one looks into this subject it is not at all surprising that it quickly becomes laden with problems, as the researcher will usually end up trying to reconcile several traditions that are for the most part out of sync with each other, though in some cases only slightly, as if you are trying to see something through a pair of binoculars whose separate lenses are focussed differently. When you close one eye, you will see something through one lens, and then likewise with the other, but you just won’t get the right view of things as your overall field of vision is distorted or limited.
This is very much the story in the case of the Tribe of Dan, and it’s not surprising, as it is indeed a tangled web, with bits and pieces scattered all over the place, in myth, religion, the Bible, and in folk tradition under different names and cultural variations.
For the main part, when most people hear mention or refer to the Tribe of Dan they will usually associate it with the biblical references to a tribe of that name, supposedly descended from one of the sons of Jacob. One of the sons of Jacob (also named Israel, from which derives the name of the state of Israel today) was named Dan, and it mainly is from this particular Dan that the misunderstandings and divergence from with the original Dan, the first of the High Lords, occurs. So, we might well ask, “How did this come about?” Once explained little by little, piece by piece, the answer becomes obvious, but when we try to see the picture through the lens of received religious and cultural tradition, which will be the prevailing viewpoint, with all its imagery, agendas and contradictions, it is easy not see at all, as many things are clearly not what they once were.
Essentially, in their rewriting of the original Book of Man texts, the creators of the One God religion redacted the teachings that related to the Caulbearers, and in particular, the High Caulbearers, the High Lords, who had developed and added to the teachings of The Way philosophy during their respective lifetimes. Of course, from the viewpoint of most people who try to make sense of was happening in those distant times via the currently extant texts, namely The Bible, they won’t know what is not there anymore, as they don’t have any idea of what they don’t know. As Bob, who oversaw the rewriting of The Book of Man, never tires of saying, and rightly so: “You don’t know that you don’t know what you don’t know”. So, what this is saying, and is very important in this Tribe of Dan context, is that much of what we don’t know is not always simply due to ignorance, which is the avoidance or ignoring what can be known, but is simply due to the fact that certain key pieces of information that would put the original back into context, are missing. These key pieces were redacted and altered over the ages, when those in power in those various times saw fit to do so in order to advance their own personal or collective agendas, mainly for the manipulation of the greater population to their base service. It was for that very reason that The Book of Man was written ,” to set straight what had been made crooked ,” so that men might make sense of those things that had previously served to confuse both themselves and those whom they inadvertently taught to unthinkingly and unquestioningly accept as being truthful the received version of alleged events and context, simply because someone in authority said so.
In the course of human history, we can see that there were periods of time when certain cultures rose and flourished, and then diminished or apparently disappeared altogether, with fragments of their previous cultural traditions being carried on in everyday life long afterwards. This pattern of rise and fall episodes can be clearly seen in what are called the biblical texts, which are basically what are more widely known as the ‘Old Testament’, which is for the most part the Jewish or Hebrew received version of events relating to the history of their forefathers. In the main, what was happening was that the Nazarenes, the Brotherhood of Twelve and One, the Brotherhood of Light, the original force for good and reasoned thinking, were instrumental in setting up the various societies and civilisations within different peoples and at different times, to try to show them The Way, the Path of Truth, Knowledge, Logic and Reason, but that sooner or later the baser nature of the beast called man rose up and degenerated their all-important legacy, with the inevitable result being catastrophe and the collapse of their respective societies as a whole. There is much more that could be written on this, but for now we will return to the subject of the Tribe of Dan, the Danites, as they are also called.
The name Dan means ‘judge’ in modern Hebrew, though its root meaning goes back long before biblical times, and the biblical texts first mention the Dan commonly held to be the progenitor of the Tribe of Dan, in Genesis 30:6, where it states:
“And Rachel said: ‘God hath judged me, and hath also heard my voice, and hath given me a son.’ Therefore called she his name Dan.”
This Dan was the son of Bilhah, the handmaid of Rachel, Jacob’s wife, as Rachel herself could not bear children to Jacob at that time. She regarded this Dan as being her son to Jacob, even though he was born of Bilhah. It may seem somewhat confusing, but customs and practices of those times were somewhat different to those of today.
The Book of Man accounts for the birth of this Dan in a different manner, as it says:
‘And Bilhah conceived, and bare Jacob a son. And his name was Dan because his forefather was named Dan, who was the first High Caulbearer, and was a great judge, and did prophesy.’
This biblical Dan is mentioned again in Exodus 1, verses 1 ,“ 4, where it says:
“Now these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt; every man and his household came with Jacob. Reuben, Simeon, Levi, and Judah, Issachar, Zebulun, and Benjamin, Dan, and Naphtali, Gad, and Asher”.
Joseph was already in Egypt, bringing the total number of Jacob’s sons to twelve, from which derives the twelve tribes of Israel, as Jacob was also known as Israel.
However, this is not the first mention of the name Dan in the biblical texts, as it is given as a place-name in Genesis 14:14 (King James Version), where it states:
“And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.”
You can view the above text in context of Genesis 14 here
A city by the name of Dan is located in modern day northern Israel, and is also presumed to be the Dan referred to in Genesis, or a location close to it. LINK However, the Book of Man states things somewhat differently, when it states:
“They took also Lot, Abraham's nephew, as captive. Abraham armed his servants who were skilled in battle and born in his house: and they numbered three hundred and eighteen; and he pursued them into the lands of Dan.”
This tell-tale biblical, residual, reference to ‘Dan’ as a place-name, strongly indicates that at least some of the texts themselves were altered at some later point. When you study The Book of Man you will know about the original Dan, the first of the Seven, but you won’t know of him from the biblical texts, as he had to be removed from the original account, and that removal also served the purpose of creating the deistic idea of a supreme judge who ruled over man from his supposed beginnings. This was completely against the purpose of Dan, who was the first of the High Lords to attempt to bring forward the philosophy of The Way in those for off times, with the eventual aim of possibly helping those of reason to avoid the prophesied destruction that would come about in the Ending of Days, which would be heralded by the coming of the last of the Signs, the final High Lord of the Veil, who would be also known as the First and the Last and the Son of the Widow, amongst his names.
The biblical usage of the name ‘Dan’, as mentioned in the context of the lands or place by the name of Dan, in Genesis 14:14, clearly and undeniably relates to a period in time long before the as yet to be born Dan, the son of Jacob-Israel mentioned in Genesis 30:6, the presumed originator of the Tribe of Dan. It has automatically been taught and accepted that that it was from this particular Dan that the Tribe of Dan derived, and the subsequent biblical texts lead the reader to assume that this is so, which is understandable, as the reader most likely will never even question or link the place-name of Dan mentioned in Genesis 14:14.
This then poses the question as to how could Abraham and his men have pursued their enemies to ‘Dan’ at least several hundreds of years before the birth of the Dan born to Jacob and Bilhah. If the supporters of biblical scholarship should somehow contend that there is no actual relationship between the Dan location in Genesis 14:14 and the Dan mentioned in Genesis 30:6.
Of Els and Elohim
It is also interesting to note that the modern day English name of Daniel derives from the Hebrew ‘dan-y-el’, supposedly meaning ‘God is my judge’, or ‘my judge is God’, but originally meant ‘the Lord Dan’, as the name Dan, as previously mentioned, means ‘judge’ and the ‘el’ originally meant ‘lord’, as in the meaning of a king or ruler, in other words, a Lord of the Veil, who were regarded as being kings by right: a Caulbearer, those whose births could be calculated in advance. The title of Lord was later adapted to the meaning of a god, a deity, often simply referred to as ‘the Lord’ or ‘Lord God’. Elohim (lords) is the plural of El.
The original meaning of the title of ‘El’ or ‘Il’ is the subject of much debate, but the following link might help in sifting through the relevance, once you know the root origins from a Way perspective. LINK
There would appear to be a strong case for the argument that the place-name of Tel Mardikh (mound of Mardikh) mentioned in the linked article may well derive from a variant of the name Marduk, as that general region was influenced by the wider Mesopotamian culture from earlier times. As we know in The Way, Marduk was the third of the High Lords of the Veil, who also followed the same path as Dan, the first of the Seven, who came many thousands of years before him.
Biblical scholars appear to be at a loss to explain the relevance of the place named Dan referred to in Genesis 14:14, to the Dan born to Jacob and Bilhah, who would not have existed for many hundreds of years after the Abraham-Lot incident. This, as mentioned previously, is not surprising if you stand back and look at the overall picture, which is an amalgam of truth, myth and imagination.
The Daniel referred to in the biblical texts as being the prophesier to the king Nebuchadnezzar, during the captivity of the Hebrews in Babylon, supposedly lived in or around the 5-6th century b.c. This Daniel is not mentioned in the Book of Man, but the fact that the name of Daniel was being used, shows how long the influence of the original Dan persisted in the collective memory of the Hebrews/Jews as a people, even if the religionist revisionists continued to reformulate the various pre-existing Way teachings as time and opportunity afforded, and as they began to consolidate their uni-god religious beliefs.
As you may now appreciate, the subject of the ‘lost tribes of Israel’ is a wide one, and it also notable that Dan, as a tribe, was written out of the Book of Revelation, which is the prophecy of Jesus (Joshua), who was a Christ, as they refused to turn from The Way. Why should this happen? What possible explanation could there be for not including them?
More on this later, in Part II.