The Dardanite Sons of Troy
The first major migration of Israel, outside of the Exodus from Egypt, is that of the sons of Zarah-Judah across the Mediterranean.
Firstly, who is Zarah-Judah? His father, Judah, fornicated with a daughter of Canaan, producing three bastard offspring, of which two died leaving Shelah. Tamar's daring actions saw that she would be married to the widowed Judah through the Law of Levirate marriage. She was with two children of his own and when giving birth to these twins, one of their bloody hands exited the womb and the midwife put a scarlet cord on his exposed wrist. His hand went back in, and his brother was birthed first, was named Pharez, and then his brother followed, named Zarah. The promise made to Judah's posterity is that the royal sceptre would never depart from their feet (Gen. 49:10). As the firstborn, Pharez's progeny would go on to bear fruits such as David and his dynasty, Solomon and eventually Christ Himself. However, what would become of Zarah?
Cont.
The first major migration of Israel, outside of the Exodus from Egypt, is that of the sons of Zarah-Judah across the Mediterranean.
Firstly, who is Zarah-Judah? His father, Judah, fornicated with a daughter of Canaan, producing three bastard offspring, of which two died leaving Shelah. Tamar's daring actions saw that she would be married to the widowed Judah through the Law of Levirate marriage. She was with two children of his own and when giving birth to these twins, one of their bloody hands exited the womb and the midwife put a scarlet cord on his exposed wrist. His hand went back in, and his brother was birthed first, was named Pharez, and then his brother followed, named Zarah. The promise made to Judah's posterity is that the royal sceptre would never depart from their feet (Gen. 49:10). As the firstborn, Pharez's progeny would go on to bear fruits such as David and his dynasty, Solomon and eventually Christ Himself. However, what would become of Zarah?
Cont.
1 Kings 4:30-31
³⁰The wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the east and more than all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹He was wiser than all the men: Ethan the Ezrahite; Heman, Calcol, and Darda the children of Mahol; and he was very well known.
We later read in 1 Chronicles 2:5-6 that these were all children of Zarah-Judah. When Moses comes to take the census following the Exodus from Egypt, we see that no individual sons of Zarah are named, whereas the children of Pharez are (Num. 26:20-21). If these people are used as a comparison in order to display the Wisdom of Solomon, and if they were neither in the east country, in Egypt nor in the horde migrating with Moses, then where could they have been? Let us take two examples, that of Darda and Chalcol. These men appear nowhere else in scripture besides the verses above in Kings and Chronicles, so to find them we must look to the secular records of history.
We see from the Greek texts that Dardanus is the founder of the Trojan royal dynasty, and a certain royal house of the Trojans are known as the Dardanians, including Aeneas. Of Aeneas, Homer's Iliad says...
"Let us rescue him, and avoid Zeus’s anger were Achilles to kill him, for Aeneas is destined to live on, so that Dardanus’ race itself might survive, Dardanus whom Zeus loved above all his children by mortal women. The Son of Cronos has come to hate Priam’s line, and mighty Aeneas will be the Trojan king, as his descendants will in time to come." ~ Homer, Iliad Book XX
Here we see something reminiscent to the promise made to Judah regarding kingship.
Of course, this would be fulfilled by the legendary Aeneas, when he would flee Troy's destruction to eventually settle in the Italian peninsula, founding a colony of Latinium with a local princess. The inhabitants of this town would go on to be the founding members of Rome, according to Virgil's Aeneid, as well as Strabo's Geographica (3.2.13, 6.1.12, 14; 13.1.52, 53 et al.).
Of course, Paul's epistle to the Romans even makes this very observation when Paul called Abraham their "forefather according to the flesh" (4:1).
Of course, there also exists folklore throughout the early middle ages with regards to European royal dynasties being founded by the children of the Trojan refugees. One such example would by that of Brutus of Britain, according to historians Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth, was the great-grandson of Aeneas that killed his own father in a hunting accident and was exiled. He would band up with other colonies of Trojans along the western Mediterranean coast and would eventually lead his kinsmen into the shores of Albion where they'd find a mythical race of giants that they'd slay, and end up establishing a kingdom after his name, Britain. His capital would be named Trinovantum, or Nova Troia (the Trinovantes being a tribe seen in Caesar's Commentaries), later renamed Caer Lud by one of his descendants, King Lud, and eventually renamed by the Romans as Londinium, or London as we know it. Brutus is the legendary ancestor of all of Britain's monarchs.
Considering that from the time of the Babylonian sacking of Jerusalem in the 6th Century BC and the life of Christ there has been no Judahite king, the Christian should expect Judah's sceptre to have existed elsewhere in the meantime.
Genesis 49:10
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
³⁰The wisdom of Solomon was greater than the wisdom of all the people of the east and more than all the wisdom of Egypt. ³¹He was wiser than all the men: Ethan the Ezrahite; Heman, Calcol, and Darda the children of Mahol; and he was very well known.
We later read in 1 Chronicles 2:5-6 that these were all children of Zarah-Judah. When Moses comes to take the census following the Exodus from Egypt, we see that no individual sons of Zarah are named, whereas the children of Pharez are (Num. 26:20-21). If these people are used as a comparison in order to display the Wisdom of Solomon, and if they were neither in the east country, in Egypt nor in the horde migrating with Moses, then where could they have been? Let us take two examples, that of Darda and Chalcol. These men appear nowhere else in scripture besides the verses above in Kings and Chronicles, so to find them we must look to the secular records of history.
We see from the Greek texts that Dardanus is the founder of the Trojan royal dynasty, and a certain royal house of the Trojans are known as the Dardanians, including Aeneas. Of Aeneas, Homer's Iliad says...
"Let us rescue him, and avoid Zeus’s anger were Achilles to kill him, for Aeneas is destined to live on, so that Dardanus’ race itself might survive, Dardanus whom Zeus loved above all his children by mortal women. The Son of Cronos has come to hate Priam’s line, and mighty Aeneas will be the Trojan king, as his descendants will in time to come." ~ Homer, Iliad Book XX
Here we see something reminiscent to the promise made to Judah regarding kingship.
Of course, this would be fulfilled by the legendary Aeneas, when he would flee Troy's destruction to eventually settle in the Italian peninsula, founding a colony of Latinium with a local princess. The inhabitants of this town would go on to be the founding members of Rome, according to Virgil's Aeneid, as well as Strabo's Geographica (3.2.13, 6.1.12, 14; 13.1.52, 53 et al.).
Of course, Paul's epistle to the Romans even makes this very observation when Paul called Abraham their "forefather according to the flesh" (4:1).
Of course, there also exists folklore throughout the early middle ages with regards to European royal dynasties being founded by the children of the Trojan refugees. One such example would by that of Brutus of Britain, according to historians Nennius and Geoffrey of Monmouth, was the great-grandson of Aeneas that killed his own father in a hunting accident and was exiled. He would band up with other colonies of Trojans along the western Mediterranean coast and would eventually lead his kinsmen into the shores of Albion where they'd find a mythical race of giants that they'd slay, and end up establishing a kingdom after his name, Britain. His capital would be named Trinovantum, or Nova Troia (the Trinovantes being a tribe seen in Caesar's Commentaries), later renamed Caer Lud by one of his descendants, King Lud, and eventually renamed by the Romans as Londinium, or London as we know it. Brutus is the legendary ancestor of all of Britain's monarchs.
Considering that from the time of the Babylonian sacking of Jerusalem in the 6th Century BC and the life of Christ there has been no Judahite king, the Christian should expect Judah's sceptre to have existed elsewhere in the meantime.
Genesis 49:10
The scepter shall not depart from Judah, nor the ruler’s staff from between his feet, until tribute comes to him; and to him shall be the obedience of the peoples.
On the Expansions of Dan
Covering Israelite history and migrations, we spoke of the Dardanite wave of Zarah-Judah from Egypt to Troy. The next major wave to cross the Mediterranean was led by the renegade Tribe of Dan.
Their patriarch, Dan, was the fifth son of Jacob-Israel, and the Danites comprised the second largest tribe of Israel after Judah in the census taken after the Exodus. When Joshua allocated the territories of the tribes in Canaan, Dan was given the coastal territory north of Judah and Philistia, but south of most of the other tribes. In the Song of Deborah (Jdg. 5) it describes Dan as "remaining on their ships" while the other tribes were warring with the Canaanites, giving us some indication of the seafaring and rebellious nature of the Danites.
Cont.
Covering Israelite history and migrations, we spoke of the Dardanite wave of Zarah-Judah from Egypt to Troy. The next major wave to cross the Mediterranean was led by the renegade Tribe of Dan.
Their patriarch, Dan, was the fifth son of Jacob-Israel, and the Danites comprised the second largest tribe of Israel after Judah in the census taken after the Exodus. When Joshua allocated the territories of the tribes in Canaan, Dan was given the coastal territory north of Judah and Philistia, but south of most of the other tribes. In the Song of Deborah (Jdg. 5) it describes Dan as "remaining on their ships" while the other tribes were warring with the Canaanites, giving us some indication of the seafaring and rebellious nature of the Danites.
Cont.
Following consistent pressure from the Philistines, the tribe decided they'd relocate their territory and moved to the northeast reaches of the Israelite oikumene, conquering the city of Laish and taking it for their own (renaming it as Dan; Tel-Dan of archaeology). The rest of their fate parallels that of the rest of the Northern Kingdom of Israel.
This is the core narrative of Dan's story in the Scriptures. Now let us see what blanks can be filled in from other contemporary historical records. If Dan is seafaring, then what sea should we look to other than that of the Mediterranean spanning the west coast of Canaan? From the Iliad of Homer, we have a great war between the Pan-Hellenic Achaeans and the Trojans towards the end of the Bronze Age. Over 138 times in the Iliad, the Achaeans are referred to as the Danaans (Δαναοί, Danaoi), and are one of the four major tribes which into which the Greeks divided themselves (along with Aeolians, Ionians and Dorians).
In Egyptian sources, these Achaean Greeks are either referred to as the Denyen or the Ekwesh, both constituting the 'Sea Peoples' (a confederation of seafaring tribes that invaded Egypt in the Late Bronze Age). The Karnak Temple inscription records how Pharaoh Merneptah defeated several tribes in battle, one of whom being the Ekwesh. It is noted that when they were castrating the dead to record the numbers of the slain, the Ekwesh were found to have been in fact circumcised, a practise adhered to by the Israelites (though apparently later lost during their time in Greece.
Greco-Roman record even documents the origins of these Danaan Greeks, with their legendary patriarch known as Danaus. Greek mythology has Danaus flee from his brother, Aegyptus, who sought to marry Danaus' daughters to his own sons. After Danaus fled Egypt he travelled with his daughters to Argos. Though mythological, there seems to be some underlying truth to this narrative of migration of Danaus' progeny across the Mediterranean to Egypt. Recorded in Diodorus Siculus' Library of History (40.3.2) is a fragment of the Aegyptiaca by Hecataeus of Abdera. In it we find...
"All the foreigners were forthwith expelled, and the most valiant and noble among them, under some notable leaders, were brought to Greece and other places, as some relate; the most famous of their leaders were Danaus and Cadmus. But the majority of the people descended into a country not far from Egypt, which is now called Judaea and at that time was altogether uninhabited."
Following this we find a rather respectable description of Moses as the leader of this Exodus, even if from a Greek perspective (40.3.3-7). What we can deduce from this account by Hecataeus on the origins of the Danaan/Achaean Greeks, as well as their early observance of circumcision and seafaring nature, is that the biblical Danites and Danaan are either two coincidentally similar peoples both occupying the Eastern Mediterranean at the exact same time with near identical origin stories, or they are simply the same people who went two separate ways.
Due to the maritime ways of the Danites, it can also be speculated that they are the namesake of many of Europe's waterways, especially those connected to the Black Sea: Danube, Don, Dnieper, Dniester, etc. It should also be noted that in Irish legend there was a mythical race known as the Tuatha Dé Danann (Tribe of Dan) who invaded the island in ancient time. The 12th Century Danish historian, Saxo Grammaticus, in his Gesta Danorum documents how the Danes owe their lineage to their eponymous patriarch, King Dan.
One way or another, the seas and rivers were the highways of the ancient world, and the Danites truly stayed in their ships.
[1] [2] [3]
This is the core narrative of Dan's story in the Scriptures. Now let us see what blanks can be filled in from other contemporary historical records. If Dan is seafaring, then what sea should we look to other than that of the Mediterranean spanning the west coast of Canaan? From the Iliad of Homer, we have a great war between the Pan-Hellenic Achaeans and the Trojans towards the end of the Bronze Age. Over 138 times in the Iliad, the Achaeans are referred to as the Danaans (Δαναοί, Danaoi), and are one of the four major tribes which into which the Greeks divided themselves (along with Aeolians, Ionians and Dorians).
In Egyptian sources, these Achaean Greeks are either referred to as the Denyen or the Ekwesh, both constituting the 'Sea Peoples' (a confederation of seafaring tribes that invaded Egypt in the Late Bronze Age). The Karnak Temple inscription records how Pharaoh Merneptah defeated several tribes in battle, one of whom being the Ekwesh. It is noted that when they were castrating the dead to record the numbers of the slain, the Ekwesh were found to have been in fact circumcised, a practise adhered to by the Israelites (though apparently later lost during their time in Greece.
Greco-Roman record even documents the origins of these Danaan Greeks, with their legendary patriarch known as Danaus. Greek mythology has Danaus flee from his brother, Aegyptus, who sought to marry Danaus' daughters to his own sons. After Danaus fled Egypt he travelled with his daughters to Argos. Though mythological, there seems to be some underlying truth to this narrative of migration of Danaus' progeny across the Mediterranean to Egypt. Recorded in Diodorus Siculus' Library of History (40.3.2) is a fragment of the Aegyptiaca by Hecataeus of Abdera. In it we find...
"All the foreigners were forthwith expelled, and the most valiant and noble among them, under some notable leaders, were brought to Greece and other places, as some relate; the most famous of their leaders were Danaus and Cadmus. But the majority of the people descended into a country not far from Egypt, which is now called Judaea and at that time was altogether uninhabited."
Following this we find a rather respectable description of Moses as the leader of this Exodus, even if from a Greek perspective (40.3.3-7). What we can deduce from this account by Hecataeus on the origins of the Danaan/Achaean Greeks, as well as their early observance of circumcision and seafaring nature, is that the biblical Danites and Danaan are either two coincidentally similar peoples both occupying the Eastern Mediterranean at the exact same time with near identical origin stories, or they are simply the same people who went two separate ways.
Due to the maritime ways of the Danites, it can also be speculated that they are the namesake of many of Europe's waterways, especially those connected to the Black Sea: Danube, Don, Dnieper, Dniester, etc. It should also be noted that in Irish legend there was a mythical race known as the Tuatha Dé Danann (Tribe of Dan) who invaded the island in ancient time. The 12th Century Danish historian, Saxo Grammaticus, in his Gesta Danorum documents how the Danes owe their lineage to their eponymous patriarch, King Dan.
One way or another, the seas and rivers were the highways of the ancient world, and the Danites truly stayed in their ships.
[1] [2] [3]
Spartan and Judaean Kinship [audio]
☩
1 Maccabees 12:20-23
²⁰“King Arius of the Spartans, to the high priest Onias, greetings. ²¹It has been found in writing concerning the Spartans and the Judaeans that they are brethren and are of the stock of Abraham.”
☩
Josephus, Antiquities 12.4.10
“Areus, King of the Lacedemonians, To Onias, Sendeth Greeting. We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that both the Judaeans and the Lacedemonians are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham. It is but just, therefore, that you, who are our brethren, should send to us about any of your concern as you please. We will also do the same thing, and esteem your concerns as our own, and will look upon our concerns as in common with yours.”
☩
1 Maccabees 12:20-23
²⁰“King Arius of the Spartans, to the high priest Onias, greetings. ²¹It has been found in writing concerning the Spartans and the Judaeans that they are brethren and are of the stock of Abraham.”
☩
Josephus, Antiquities 12.4.10
“Areus, King of the Lacedemonians, To Onias, Sendeth Greeting. We have met with a certain writing, whereby we have discovered that both the Judaeans and the Lacedemonians are of one stock, and are derived from the kindred of Abraham. It is but just, therefore, that you, who are our brethren, should send to us about any of your concern as you please. We will also do the same thing, and esteem your concerns as our own, and will look upon our concerns as in common with yours.”
Assyrian Archaeology and the Lost Tribes [PDF]
In the biblical record we are informed that from c.740BC onward, the Assyrian Empire began conquering the Northern Kingdom of Israel while taking the Israelite inhabitants off into captivity in cities of the Assyrians and of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6). However, beyond their settlement we are told nothing of their fate.
For that, we ought to look to the records of contemporary cultures, namely the Assyrians in Mesopotamia. At the time, Israel is commonly referred to as Bit-Khumri (House of [King] Omri, the Omrides), see the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (841BC). In the Assyrian annals of 714BC, we hear of an ally of Sargon II known as the Gimirri who aid the Assyrians in their war against Urartu. The trilingual Behistun Inscription (515BC) mentions this same people as the Gimirrai (Kimmerians, Gr. Κιμμέριοι) in Babylonian and the Saka (Scythians) in Old Persian, indicating the shared origins of these steppe nomads who'd expand across Eurasia.
In the biblical record we are informed that from c.740BC onward, the Assyrian Empire began conquering the Northern Kingdom of Israel while taking the Israelite inhabitants off into captivity in cities of the Assyrians and of the Medes (2 Kings 17:6). However, beyond their settlement we are told nothing of their fate.
For that, we ought to look to the records of contemporary cultures, namely the Assyrians in Mesopotamia. At the time, Israel is commonly referred to as Bit-Khumri (House of [King] Omri, the Omrides), see the Black Obelisk of Shalmaneser III (841BC). In the Assyrian annals of 714BC, we hear of an ally of Sargon II known as the Gimirri who aid the Assyrians in their war against Urartu. The trilingual Behistun Inscription (515BC) mentions this same people as the Gimirrai (Kimmerians, Gr. Κιμμέριοι) in Babylonian and the Saka (Scythians) in Old Persian, indicating the shared origins of these steppe nomads who'd expand across Eurasia.
E. Raymond Capt – Abrahamic Covenant.pdf
774.1 KB
Abrahamic Covenant – E. Raymond Capt
Media is too big
VIEW IN TELEGRAM
What Happened to the 12 Tribes of Israel? by E. Raymond Capt [YouTube]
Video presentation outlining the migrations of the Israelites after the Assyrian Captivity (c.740BC). Disclaimer: the notion that Saka has any connection to Isaac (Yishaq) is a flawed and baseless etymology.
Video presentation outlining the migrations of the Israelites after the Assyrian Captivity (c.740BC). Disclaimer: the notion that Saka has any connection to Isaac (Yishaq) is a flawed and baseless etymology.
Royal Israelite Complex Discovered [link to article]
The emergency excavation of the ancient site at Horvat Tevet has revealed a magnificent administrative complex from the era of Israel’s King Omri. The richness of its construction, and kinds artifacts discovered, provide clues as to the form, function, and strength of the Israelite monarchy of the period.
The emergency excavation of the ancient site at Horvat Tevet has revealed a magnificent administrative complex from the era of Israel’s King Omri. The richness of its construction, and kinds artifacts discovered, provide clues as to the form, function, and strength of the Israelite monarchy of the period.
"These Phoenicians who came with Cadmus and of whom the Gephyraeans were a part brought with them to Hellas, among many other kinds of learning, the alphabet, which had been unknown before this, I think, to the Greeks. As time went on the sound and the form of the letters were changed. At this time the Greeks who were settled around them were for the most part Ionians, and after being taught the letters by the Phoenicians, they used them with a few changes of form. In so doing, they gave to these characters the name of Phoenician, as was quite fair seeing that the Phoenicians had brought them into Greece." ~ Herodotus, Histories 5.58
Theo Vennemann – Origins of Runic Writing.pdf
1.1 MB
Origins of Runic Writing – Theo Vennemann
Phoenician Origin of the Germanic Futhark Runes [Read Essay]
Unbeknownst to many is the fact that the runic scripts of the Germanic tribes find their origins with the Paleo-Hebrew writing system of the Israelite Phoenicians. As we have demonstrated on multiple occasions, the Ancient Hebrews were the fountain spring of all of Europe's alphabets today (Latin, Greek and Cyrillic alike). This is no different for the runes contained within the Futhark script of Northern Europe, whose descent can be traced either directly from that of the Phoenicians or Carthaginians, or by proxy through those of the Greek, Etruscan or Italic tribes. This should come as no surprise given what we know about the Phoenicians and their exploratory exploits in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as their trading network that expanded beyond the Straits of Gibraltar and even as far as Britain and the Baltic Sea.
Unbeknownst to many is the fact that the runic scripts of the Germanic tribes find their origins with the Paleo-Hebrew writing system of the Israelite Phoenicians. As we have demonstrated on multiple occasions, the Ancient Hebrews were the fountain spring of all of Europe's alphabets today (Latin, Greek and Cyrillic alike). This is no different for the runes contained within the Futhark script of Northern Europe, whose descent can be traced either directly from that of the Phoenicians or Carthaginians, or by proxy through those of the Greek, Etruscan or Italic tribes. This should come as no surprise given what we know about the Phoenicians and their exploratory exploits in the Mediterranean and Atlantic, as well as their trading network that expanded beyond the Straits of Gibraltar and even as far as Britain and the Baltic Sea.
Christianity: Desert Religion?
The most ridiculous charge leveled against the Faith is that Christianity is a 'desert religion' therefore it is not a valid claim to truth. This falls flat on its face given that the Ancient Near East was the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia and Anatolia).
Even today, the Fertile Crescent is no desert, though by many accounts it is getting there [1]. There is no doubt that the environment of the Levant has degraded over time, but this is due to deforestation, poor agricultural habits and the sustenance of urbanisation for time immemorial (see Cradle of Civilisation). Even the land around Galilee (Christ's homeland) is free from extreme desertification, and ancient authors commented on how lush and fertile the land was [2] [3] [4]. The "land flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:8; Num. 13:27; Deut. 6:3) is certainly no desert!
The most ridiculous charge leveled against the Faith is that Christianity is a 'desert religion' therefore it is not a valid claim to truth. This falls flat on its face given that the Ancient Near East was the Fertile Crescent (Egypt, the Levant, Mesopotamia and Anatolia).
Even today, the Fertile Crescent is no desert, though by many accounts it is getting there [1]. There is no doubt that the environment of the Levant has degraded over time, but this is due to deforestation, poor agricultural habits and the sustenance of urbanisation for time immemorial (see Cradle of Civilisation). Even the land around Galilee (Christ's homeland) is free from extreme desertification, and ancient authors commented on how lush and fertile the land was [2] [3] [4]. The "land flowing with milk and honey" (Ex. 3:8; Num. 13:27; Deut. 6:3) is certainly no desert!
A collection of art from ancient Judaea displaying the European features of the ancient White Judaeans.