The God Who Is In Dan
Dan Inscription
Dan Inscription Drawing
Discovered in 1976 at the royal bamah, this stone bearing an inscription incised in Greek and Aramaic confirms the identity of Tel Dan. The inscription, which dates to the first half of the second century BCE, contains three lines of Greek and one line of Aramaic. The Greek text proclaims that a man named Zoilos offered a vow “to the god who is in Dan.” The one line of Aramaic text is more puzzling, since a few letters are missing from the beginning and end of the line. Most probably, the line reads- “In Dan Zilas [the Aramaic version of Zoilos] made a vow to the god.” The inscription confirms that the royal bamah of Jeroboam’s time served as a sanctuary well into the Hellenistic period.
It was in Dan that Jeroboam set up a golden calf for worship, following Solomon’s death in the late 10th century (see 1 Kings 12 and 2 Kings 10-20). Although the Dan inscription dates from a much later period (3rd–2nd century B.C.), it perhaps goes back to an earlier tradition of idol worship or a special god of Dan at this site. The inscription mentioning Dan also places this site among the handful of sites whose identification has been confirmed by a written document found on the site. (Others are Gezer, Beth-Shean, Arad and Hazor; as to the last, see “American Tourist Returns ‘Hazor’ Tablet to Israel After 13 Years,” BAR 02-02).
Sacred Spaces, Avraham Biran, BAR 24-05, Sep-Oct 1998.
“David” Found at Dan, BAR 20-02, Mar-Apr 1994.
See also-
- Bamah at Tel Dan, 10th century BCE
- Tel Dan Stele, c. 840 BCE
- The Remarkable Discoveries at Tel Dan, John C. H. Laughlin, BAR 7-05, Sep-Oct 1981.
- BAR Interview- Avraham Biran—Twenty Years of Digging at Tel Dan, Hershel Shanks, BAR 13-04, Jul-Aug 1987.
- Prize Find- Tel Dan Scepter Head, Avraham Biran, BAR 15-01, Jan-Feb 1989.
- Tel Dan Excavations