Monday, November 15, 2010

Dan: The Antichrist and the Excluded Tribe in Revelation

The following is from page 92 of William Holladay's Hermeneia commentary on the Book of Jeremiah:

"Passages from Jrm also contributed to the development of fresh doctrine. [T]here developed a belief that the antichrist would come from Dan (see T. Dan 5:6, evidently part of a Christian interpolation); this belief was derived from Gen 49:17, but would be reinforced by Deut 33:22; Judg 18:11-31; and Jer 8:16-17---it should be noted that Dan is missing from the list in Rev 7:5-8 (Joseph and Manasseh are both listed, to make twelve) and that Irenaeus interprets Jer 8:16 of the antichrist."

I'd like to post the passages that Holladay cites, with the exception of Revelation 7:5-8, which is a list of tribes, and Judges 18:11-31, which is the story of Dan taking Micah's idols and getting territory up in the north. Bible passages are from the New American Standard Version.

Testimony of Dan 5:4-13: "4 I know that in the last days ye shall depart from the Lord, And ye shall provoke Levi unto anger, And fight against Judah; But ye shall not prevail against them, For an angel of the Lord shall guide them both; For by them shall Israel stand. 5 And whensoever ye depart from the Lord, ye shall walk in all evil and work the abominations of the Gentiles, going a-whoring after women of the lawless ones, while with all wickedness the spirits 6 of wickedness work in you. [For I have read in the book of Enoch, the righteous, that your prince is Satan, and that all the spirits of wickedness and pride will conspire to attend constantly on the sons of Levi, to cause them to sin before the Lord. 7 And my sons will draw near to Levi. And sin with them in all things; And the sons of Judah will be covetous, Plundering other men's goods like lions.] 8 Therefore shall ye be led away [with them] into captivity, And there shall ye receive all the plagues of Egypt, And all the evils of the Gentiles. 9 And so when ye return to the Lord ye shall obtain mercy, And He shall bring you into His sanctuary, And He shall give you peace. 10 And there shall arise unto you from the tribe of [Judah and of] Levi the salvation of the Lord; And he shall make war against Beliar. And execute an everlasting vengeance on our enemies; 11 And the captivity shall he take from Beliar [the souls of the saints], And turn disobedient hearts unto the Lord, And give to them that call upon him eternal peace. 12 And the saints shall rest in Eden, And in the New Jerusalem shall the righteous rejoice, And it shall be unto the glory of God for ever. 13 And no longer shall Jerusalem endure desolation, Nor Israel be led captive; For the Lord shall be in the midst of it [living amongst men], And the Holy One of Israel shall reign over it [in humility and in poverty; and he who believeth on Him shall reign amongst men in truth]."

(The stuff in brackets is not from me, but from R.H. Charles. I'm not sure what his basis for the insertion was. Was it to mark Christian interpolation?)

Genesis 49:17: "Dan shall be a serpent in the way, A horned snake in the path, That bites the horse's heels, So that his rider falls backward."

Deuteronomy 33:22: "Of Dan he said, 'Dan is a lion's whelp, That leaps forth from Bashan.'"

Jeremiah 8:16-17: "From Dan is heard the snorting of his horses; At the sound of the neighing of his stallions The whole land quakes;For they come and devour the land and its fullness, The city and its inhabitants. For behold, I am sending serpents against you, Adders, for which there is no charm, And they will bite you,' declares the LORD."

Irenaeus, Adv. Haer. 5.30.2: "These men, therefore, ought to learn [what really is the state of the case], and go back to the true number of the name, that they be not reckoned among false prophets. But, knowing the sure number declared by Scripture, that is, six hundred sixty and six, let them await, in the first place, the division of the kingdom into ten; then, in the next place, when these kings are reigning, and beginning to set their affairs in order, and advance their kingdom, [let them learn] to acknowledge that he who shall come claiming the kingdom for himself, and shall terrify those men of whom we have been speaking, having a name containing the aforesaid number, is truly the abomination of desolation. This, too, the apostle affirms: When they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction shall come upon them. 1 Thessalonians 5:3 And Jeremiah does not merely point out his sudden coming, but he even indicates the tribe from which he shall come, where he says, We shall hear the voice of his swift horses from Dan; the whole earth shall be moved by the voice of the neighing of his galloping horses: he shall also come and devour the earth, and the fullness thereof, the city also, and they that dwell therein. Jeremiah 8:16 This, too, is the reason that this tribe is not reckoned in the Apocalypse along with those which are saved."