One other person, place or group in the registry answers to the name Dan. Every Dan in the Bible
person
Dan
דָּן
Dan was the fifth son of Jacob and the founder of the Israelite tribe bearing his name.
- verses
- 6
- first named
- Genesis 30:6
- last named
- Genesis 49:17
- period
- the Patriarchs
- tribe
- Dan
Description
Who was Dan?
Dan was the fifth son of Israel (or 'Jacob') and the firstborn of Bilhah, Rachel's maidservant. His birth is recorded in Gen.30.6, where Rachel, who had been unable to conceive, gave Bilhah to Jacob as a concubine to bear children on her behalf. When Bilhah gave birth to a son, Rachel named him Dan, saying, "God has vindicated me; he has listened to my plea and given me a son."
As one of Israel's twelve sons, Dan became the founder of the Israelite tribe bearing his name. In Gen.46.23, when Israel and his family moved to Egypt, Dan's son Hushim is mentioned as part of the household.
In Israel's blessing to his sons before his death (Gen.49.16-17), Dan is described as one who will provide justice for his people as one of the tribes of Israel. Jacob also compares Dan to a serpent by the roadside, an adder along the path, foreshadowing the tribe's future role in the Promised Land.
The tribe of Dan was allocated territory in the northern part of Canaan during the conquest under Joshua. However, they later migrated northward and settled in the city of Laish, which they renamed Dan (Judges 18).
In 1Ch.2.2, Dan is listed among the twelve tribes of Israel, confirming his status as one of the founding fathers of the nation. Throughout the Old Testament, the tribe of Dan is mentioned alongside the other Israelite tribes, although they are sometimes associated with idolatry and apostasy.
Relations
Direct connections
Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.
The 10 best-attested of 16 are drawn. All 16 are listed below.
Places
Where this happens
A person is placed by the events they take part in, and an event has to clear three things to place them: it must say where it happened, that place must be one the gazetteer can put a coordinate on, and the verse must report it rather than foretell, command or ask it. Nothing anchored here clears all three. Where the text names a setting no gazetteer surveys — a vineyard, a palace, a plot of ground — it is left off rather than guessed at; where a place is named only in a prophecy, the map does not draw what was said to be coming as though it had happened; and a place reached only through a relation is not inherited, because standing beside somebody is not being somewhere.
No verse Atlas has read as a report puts this person anywhere.
Not read yet
Read it
Where to read it
Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 6, across 2 books.
Onward
Where this page goes
Not the direct relations above — these are one hop further out, ranked so that a rare shared connection outweighs a common one. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.
Where they appear
Chapter by chapter
Atlas's reading of each chapter this person appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.
Sources