Page 32 - Holyland Magazine - 2020 Edition

Christians visiting Dan find century BCE, probably during
a wealth of opportunities to Ahab’s time, was attached to a
make biblical history come wall 16 feet thick. The area of the
alive. They can also enjoy outer gate includes a platform
a walk through Dan’s lush where the king probably sat, as
nature reserve, situated the Bible describes David doing
along a chilly snow-melt in Jerusalem (2 Samuel 19:9).
stream, which together with One of the most memorable
the Banias and the Senir moments for Dan visitors is when
Rivers do, indeed, unite to Abraham’s Gate. Below: the high place they choose their own “king”
form the Jordan. (or queen) to sit in the gateway.
There’s always a lot laughing and
Sitting under the old oak teasing during the “coronation,”
trees overhanging a pool so but it serves to engrain the
beautiful that the reserve’s biblical stories told here firmly in
rangers have dubbed it “the people’s minds.
Garden of Eden,” you’ll learn
that you are near the ruins In a wall bordering an ancient
of the Canaanite city Laish, plaza east of this gate, beneath
from
the
debris
Assyrian
which was conquered and
renamed by the tribe of Dan destruction of the town,
(Judges 18:7-29). an inscribed basalt stone
measuring about 12.6 inches
Along the path, you’ll come by 8.6 inches was discovered
to one of the highlights of in 1993. (Two additional pieces
your visit, the high place. It of it were found in 1994.) Once
shows signs of destruction part of a monumental victory
by a huge fire, possibly stele, it mentions the words
during the attack on Dan “house of David” for the first time
by Ben-Hadad of Assyria, outside of the Bible. Scholars
mentioned in 1 Kings 15:20. think the unidentified writer of
The high place was later rebuilt, probably by type of sacrificial structure the name “horned the inscription, who says he killed Joram (2
Ahab. altar.” A statuette of the goddess Ashtoreth Kings 8:25) and Ahaziah (2 Kings 8:28), might
was found in this area, which continued to have been Hazael, king of Damascus (2 Kings
This is very likely the shrine that 1 Kings 12:29 serve as a ritual site down through the time 8:7-15).
tells us Jeroboam, son of Nebat, set up at Dan, of the Greeks, who conquered the land in the Another gateway at Dan leaves people open-
the northern extent of the kingdom he had early fourth century BCE. Here, among many mouthed when they find out it goes all the way
wrested from Rehoboam, son of Solomon. (He other finds, Professor Biran unearthed proof of
set up a second golden calf at Bethel, north the identification of the site – an inscription in back to the time of Abraham. It contains one
of the earliest arches ever found in the world,
of Jerusalem.) Along the shrine’s northern wall Greek that reads: “to the god that is at Dan.” formed of mud-brick, which rarely survives the
you can still make out construction reminiscent
of the description of the wall of the “great court Next, you’ll pick your way along the ancient ravages of time. Here we let our imaginations
yard” of Solomon’s Temple in Jerusalem in 1 paving stones to the elaborate Israelite-era take over, remembering that Genesis 14:14
tells us Abraham pursued the captors of Lot
Kings 7:11. The similarity shows that Jeroboam gateway, which you’ll hear was probably
may have been peering over the shoulder of built in the 10th century BCE by Jeroboam, “as far as Dan,” to picture Abraham standing
Solomon’s architects during the time he served together with a huge fortress. This fortified at this very gateway.
as one of the king’s officials. structure indicates that the breakaway king After a visit to Dan, the names of the biblical
probably wanted to make Dan not only a leaders and their stories will seem to jump off
Sitting on the steps of the shrine, you’ll see the cultic center for the northern tribes by setting the pages of your Bible, and you will possess,
foundation of a large altar that was discovered. up a golden calf, but his administrative capital, as Edward Robinson put it, “the exact sense of
It once had the raised corners that gave this as well. This gate, rebuilt in the mid-ninth scriptural record.”

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