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The Scythians are fascinating. I read some history that makes a good case that they are the lost Tribe of Dan from early Israel, as well as the basis for most
by brightball 6y ago
The Scythians are fascinating.
I read some history that makes a good case that they are the lost Tribe of Dan from early Israel, as well as the basis for most Norse mythology.
EDIT: Source is this reprint from 1880 by Colonel J.C. Gawler. He even goes so far as phonetic analysis of the languages used, references and makes an extremely compelling case in my opinion.
I started researching the Tribe of Dan a couple of years back after realizing some parts of Greek mythology sounded a lot like references that Jewish history predated by 1,000 years. Specifically the Rod/Staff of Asclepius (a serpent on a staff for healing) sounded a lot like the poison healing bronze snake on a pole that Moses created in Numbers 21:9, which was then destroyed 800 years later in 2 Kings 18:4 because it had become an idol.
Dan was the seafaring, superstitious merchant tribe and that traded across the Mediterranean. There are a lot of notes that trace the origin of the Hercules legend to Samson, who I believe was from the Tribe of Dan as well.
It's really interesting stuff.
https://www.amazon.com/Dan-Colonel-J-C-Gawler/dp/B002YBHRIQ/ https://www.amazon.com/Dan-Colonel-J-C-Gawler/dp/B002YBHRIQ/
- mstade 6y agoInteresting! Do you perhaps have any sources to share?
- brightball 6y agoAdded to the parent.
- Mediterraneo10 6y agoEveryone else, please note that everything the OP talks about is not taken seriously among scholars. The cited 19th-century book is prescientific (to word it charitably) and its use of linguistic data is completely unsound – the author simply points to words that coincidentally look similar, but you can do that with any languages even if they are completely unrelated. Generally mainstream history does not engage in tying a "lost tribe of Israel" to other peoples across Eurasia; this is very much the province of cranks and esotericists.
- brightball 6y agoThe phonetic analysis amounts to 2-3 pages of the entire pamphlet. There’s plenty of other interesting information in there.
- brightball 6y agoI am curious though...why wouldn’t historians trace Jewish roots like any other? It seems an odd stance to assume that would be reserved for “cranks”.
- amanaplanacanal 6y agoMy understanding is that nothing in the Old Testament before about the time of David is considered historical.
- brightball 6y agoThat would leave all of this in play then. Hezekiah, who destroyed the bronze snake statue, was 200ish years after Solomon. I understand healthy skepticism, but the research in that pamphlet is fairly interesting. The Tribe of Dan intermingled heavily with the Phoenicians on Cyprus, which is also directly on the trade route to Greece. The origin of the Hercules story was actually traced to Cyprus as well. Cyprus also has its own Mount Olympos. The proximity of Cyprus to Jerusalem is also pretty impossible to ignore. http://cyprusfortravellers.net/en/review/cypriot-myths-heros-and-gods http://cyprusfortravellers.net/en/review/cypriot-myths-heros... There’s a lot of substance here. Maybe some bits have been disproven but I’d want to see a full rebuttal before I throw it all out.