Raymond L. Cox<\/b><\/p>\n
[Raymond L. Cox is pastor of the Salem, Oregon Foursquare Church. He has traveled extensively in Bible lands and has written over 1650 articles on Biblical and archaeological subjects. In addition, he is the author of four books.]<\/i><\/p>\n
\u201cFrom Dan to Beer-sheba\u201d no longer demarcates the extent of Israelite occupation in the Holy Land, as it did in Bible days. Since the Six Day War modern Israelis have coined the expression \u201cFrom Quneitra to Sharm-el-Sheikh.\u201d Nevertheless, the site of ancient Dan exerts a possibly greater lure today than in ancient times when the area was first a magnet for part of the Israelite tribe of Dan who won it by war as one sector of their inheritance in Canaan (Judges 18). Later it became a Mecca for the northern Israelites who came there instead of to Jerusalem after secessionist king Jeroboam installed his golden calf, probably in the sanctuary archaeologists just recently unearthed.<\/p>\n
As many as two hundred thousand visitors have hied to Tel Dan in a single year, though most have been drawn to the Nature Reserve which sprawls in peaceful beauty near the foot of the mound. Trails lace the wooded acres, as also do streamlets fed by one of the sources of the river Jordan. Picnic tables punctuate the rustic grounds. Here is one of upper Galilee\u2019s most exquisite pearls of nature.<\/p>\n
But it is the 50 acre tel itself, on Israel\u2019s northern frontier facing Lebanon and Syria, which excites archaeological interest. On my first visit a few workers were puttering in preparation for the seven-week dig about to commence there, headed by Dr. Avraham Biran, director of Israel\u2019s Department of Antiquities. Fourteen months later I came again, this time during the excavations, and Dr. Biran conducted me about the tel. \u201cIt\u2019s yours,\u201d he exclaimed with a welcoming gesture after I explained the purpose of the visit.<\/p>\n
\u201cThe archaeological evidence tallies with the historical evidence,\u201d Dr. Biran explains in reporting results of annual <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:1 (Winter 1974) p. 16<\/p>\n
expeditions to Tel Dan which commenced in 1966. By \u201chistorical evidence\u201d he means the Bible.<\/p>\n
According to Judges 18:29 a Canaanite city preceded Israelite conquest and settlement here. Danites smote Laish with the edge of the sword and with fire (Judges 18:27), then built a new town on its ruins, naming if after Dan, the progenitor of their tribe. From the beginning this town continued as a hotbed of deviation from the purer religion of Israel. Dan became a byword of idolatry, its delinquency fostered by the cult over which a renegade priest named Mical first presided using stolen images, ephod, and teraphim.<\/p>\n
Dr. Biran\u2019s investigations have uncovered ruins of the Canaanite city, strongly fortified with ramparts and earthworks dating from the second half of the 18th century B.C. But the most noteworthy finds at Tel Dan time-machined the archaeologists into a rendezvous with King Jeroboam I who led the northern tribes in secession from David\u2019s dynasty after the death of Solomon. This is the period when Dan really became a prominent city. Jeroboam made it an administrative center. Excavators have discovered the place where they believe his throne sat when he came on occasional visits to his northern outpost.1 Jeroboam fortified the city as a bulwark against Aramaean attacks. The archaeologists have faced the same dangers from Damascus some forty miles away as threatened ancient Danites! And Jeroboam put Dan on the map of his kingdom especially as a religious shrine which he constituted as a counterweight to Jerusalem, directing his people to the golden calf he installed there with his proclamation, \u201cBehold thy gods, O Israel, which brought thee up out of the land of Egypt\u201d (1 Kings 12:28).<\/p>\n
Near the foot of the tel looms an ancient gate of Jeroboam\u2019s city. Dr. Biran pointed out to me a depression in the stone on one side of the threshold just recently uncovered. \u201cThis gate with the socket for the door,\u201d he said, \u201cand the threshold, is from the days of King Jeroboam.\u201d A portion of the gate \u201cmay have housed,\u201d Biran continued, \u201ca throne of a king. And this is a bench in front of the city gate where people sat. You have stories in the Bible of people sitting at the gate, like Boaz and Jehoshaphat. This may be one such a place.\u201d2 <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:1 (Winter 1974) p. 17<\/p>\n
The processional route and city gate at Tel Dan<\/i><\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n
The gate complex consists of inner and outer portals, the threshold of the latter stretching 12 feet wide in two large blocks of basalt with a door-stop between them.<\/p>\n
A paved road leads through the inner gate past the pedestal where the king may have sat in judgment and on to the sanctuary at the top of Tel Dan. As Dr. Biran and I tramped the ancient stones he exclaimed enthusiastically, \u201cWe are walking on what I like to call \u2018the Royal Processional Route of the days of King Jeroboam.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n
Noticing some excavations to the east of the pavement I asked, \u201cWhat\u2019s over there?\u201d \u201cResults of previous seasons,\u201d Dr. Biran explained. \u201cThat\u2019s where we found the Mycenaean tomb with the charioteer vase,\u201d referring to a find the press had dubbed an \u201caccidental discovery.\u201d The bowl, of a type rarely found in the country, dated from Canaanite Laish, a product of the 14th or 13th century B.C. Dr. Biran is not sure whether the abundance of Mycenaean imported ware indicates the presence of a foreign colony in the Canaanite city or simply represents the wealth of one particular family.<\/p>\n
The director of the dig declared that other treasures likely lurk further underground, but too deep for economical excavation. \u201cWe <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:1 (Winter 1974) p. 18<\/p>\n
would need too much special equipment to get down there,\u201d he said longingly.<\/p>\n
I expressed polite impatience to see the tel\u2019s most prominent excavations \u2014 \u201cwhere you believe,\u201d I told Biran, \u201cJeroboam\u2019s golden calf stood.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNow<\/i>, now, wait,\u201d he cautioned excitedly. \u201cBe very careful as to what we believe.\u201d I confronted him with clippings from the Jerusalem<\/i> Post and American newspapers describing the find. In a few minutes, as we meandered about the open sanctuary, he declared, \u201cThis has to be associated with Jeroboam, because, what else?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cThen you can be almost positive?\u201d I challenged, to which he replied, \u201cI can but I have no proof. I assume it.\u201d Earlier he had told the press, \u201cThis conclusion was reached by negative evidence. We simply cannot think of anything else it could possibly be.\u201d The date is right, attested by pottery sherds attributed to the tenth century B.C. when Jeroboam reigned.<\/p>\n
I started to stumble as I climbed about the ruins with Dr. Biran. \u201cCareful, careful, careful,\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cWhen you walk on the excavations you have to be careful.\u201d A few minutes later he almost <\/p>\n
Excavations at the Tel Dan High Place<\/i><\/b>.<\/b><\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:1 (Winter 1974) p. 19<\/p>\n
stumbled! At the 61-foot-square highplace platform Dr. Biran pointed out \u201cstage-one\u201d masonry, attributed to Jeroboam\u2019s time, and \u201cstage-two\u201d masonry, including monumental steps leading to the refurbished shrine, dating to Ahab\u2019s reign. A still-intact wall of well-dressed stones supports the platform on all four sides.<\/p>\n
If these ancient rocks could cry out, what tales of orgies they could expose! As I walked on the pavement I tried to visualize ancient Israelites cavorting in their dizzy dance around Jeroboam\u2019s golden calf in defiance of the legitimate shrine of Jerusalem\u2019s Temple. The first king of the northern confederacy sought to end his subjects\u2019 allegiance with David\u2019s city lest they feel attracted back to submission to David\u2019s dynasty. So at Bethel and Dan he reared his substitutes, and in so doing initiated the iniquity which was denounced more than any other in Biblical history. Time and time again the accusation thunders against Jeroboam \u201cwho did sin and who made Israel to sin\u201d (1 Kings 14:16).<\/p>\n
Dr. Biran displayed the drawing the expedition\u2019s architect had diagrammed of the various stages of construction at the highplace. Reluctantly he permitted me to photograph it, apologizing for its condition. He then suggested I tramp out to the north end of the tel and take pictures of Lebanon straight ahead and Mount Hermon and Syria\u2019s \u201cFatahland\u201d to the right.<\/p>\n
Tel Dan still comes under enemy fire. More than once since the Six Day War archaeologists have had to take shelter in trenches where Jewish soldiers squatted before June 1967 when the Syrian positions \u201cwere about a hundred yards to the north of the High Place,\u201d Dr. Biran told me. This area was again the scene of fierce fighting during the 1973 Seventeen-Day War. \u201cUncanny\u201d is the word he used to describe how Tel Dan maintains a strategic military position today similar to what it held in Jeroboam\u2019s time. Later Dan fell to Ben-hadad of Damascus, as archaeology has confirmed.<\/p>\n
Dr. Biran was thirsty. \u201cI want to show you a source of the Jordan River,\u201d he invited, and we trudged toward nearby trees where a small stream emerged. \u201cHere is the source of the Dan,\u201d Biran announced, stooping to have a drink of the ice cold water. Earlier I had seen the other sources, the Banias and Hasbani or Sehir.<\/p>\n
Tel Dan looms as a treasure trove for archaeologists for years to come. This layer cake of Canaanite, Israelite, Syrian, Assyrian, and <\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:1 (Winter 1974) p. 20<\/p>\n
Roman history \u201cwould take two hundred years to exhaust,\u201d if excavated annually for several weeks as is being done now, Dr. Biran told me. \u201cI will continue as long as my strength and the money holds out.\u201d<\/p>\n
It looks like an archaeological rendezvous with Jeroboam isn\u2019t the end of Tel Dan\u2019s story.<\/p>\n
BSP<\/i> 3:1 (Winter 1974) p. 21<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Raymond L. Cox [Raymond L. Cox is pastor of the Salem, Oregon Foursquare Church. He has traveled extensively in Bible lands and has written over 1650 articles on Biblical and archaeological subjects. In addition, he is the author of four books.] \u201cFrom Dan to Beer-sheba\u201d no longer demarcates the extent of Israelite occupation in the … Continue reading “RENDEZVOUS
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