Hope of Israel Ministries (Ecclesia of YEHOVAH):

The OTHER Exodus --

by J. S. Brooks

IN THE DAYS OF THE PHARAOHS, we read of an adventurous hero named Danaos and his followers who dwelled in Egypt. Then came an event -- or series of events now corrupted by the mists of time -- which caused them to be exiled by the Egyptians. Recorded history then tells us that they boarded ships in Egypt and sailed away to establish new homes in Greece.

The beginning of Greek history is often dated to this “exile” of Danaos and his followers -- called Danaoi or Danaan -- from Egypt. This event has been dated by historians to about 1450 to 1493 B.C. However, it is significant that the Hebrew Exodus from Egypt is dated to the very same time-period: 1447 to 1491 B.C. Are these two events related? Could indeed the Danaan “exile” from Egypt have been a part of the Hebrew “Exodus”? An analysis of ancient records indicates that this was indeed the case.

The Exodus -- that wondrous event by which “the LORD did bring the children of Israel out of the land of Egypt” (Exodus 12:51) -- has been called Israel’s Independence Day and the turning point in world history. The starting point of their journey was the city of Rameses, located about six miles from the present Egyptian capitol of Cairo. As YEHOVAH’s people set forth on their trek out of Egypt to the Promised Land, Pharaoh pursued with 600 chariots (Exodus 14:7), a mighty host that must have stretched a half-mile long at three abreast, plus an unknown large number of foot soldiers. Into an opening of the Red Sea they rushed! YEHOVAH God temporarily held back the flood, creating a dry pathway long enough to allow His covenant people to escape, but Pharaoh and his army perished as the sea returned. This miraculous event is memorialized in the Song of Moses (Exodus 15:1-18), and sung in victory by the redeemed Israelites in the Millennial scene of Revelation 15. It is therefore a type or shadow of the New Covenant victory of true Christians over unbelief, sin and evil -- and contains lessons for us to benefit from today.

Some historians claim that the Egyptians left no contemporary surviving accounts of the presence of Hebrews in their land and the Exodus that followed. The Universal Jewish Encyclopedia (iv:7) reports, however, that as early as the 15th century,

“Egyptian texts…mention…a foreign people called “Apuriu” residing in Egypt and performing the service of slaves.”

The encyclopedia further states that these people are identified by many scholars as the Habiru or Hebrews.

Ancient records also report that a Semitic people called Danaan were expelled from Egypt, and sailed to Greece to establish the early Greek civilization. Could the fabled Danaan be a reference to the Biblical Hebrew tribe of Dan? William Ridgeway’s Early Age of Greece (p. 220) dated the Danaan Exodus from Egypt as 1450 B.C. This is virtually identical to the date of the Hebrew Exodus -- which is dated to 1447 B.C. by Dr. Stephen E. Jones and 1453 B.C. in Dr. Adam Rutherford’s Bible Chronology (p. 120). Other historians use slightly differing dates: The History of Etruria (p. 95) by Mrs. Hamilton Gray dates the Danaan exile at 1493 B.C. -- which compares to a Hebrew Exodus of 1491 B.C. according to Archbishop Usher’s dating (McClintock & Strong’s Encyclopedia III:396). Two unrelated Egyptian Exoduses did NOT occur at the same time!

Historic evidence indicates that the Danaan were the seafaring Biblical tribe of Dan -- and were therefore part of the Hebrew Exodus. The Bible tells us that the tribe of Dan were seafarers who “stayed in their ships” (Judges 5:17). The Bible also gives much other evidence of Hebrew seafaring in ancient times, as related in our companion study Ancient Hebrew Sea Migrations.

It should be mentioned that some Christian expositors date the Exodus two centuries later -- around 1225-1275 B.C. -- trying to fit a full 400-year captivity entirely within Egypt through a misunderstanding of the Scripture record. (See Secrets of Time, by Dr. Stephen E. Jones for details on this issue.) Many scholars agree that this date is too late, and conflicts with the time of the Judges. In addition, Egyptian monuments during the 14th century refer to a region of western Galilee as “Aseru,” which was settled by the Hebrew tribe of Asher after the settlement of Canaan (Jewish Encyclopedia 2:180). Therefore, Israel had to have ALREADY settled Canaan by that time. The Jewish Encyclopedia also points out that

“I Kings 6:1 fixes the interval between the Exodus and the building of the Temple at over 480 years. Rehoboam -- 41 years after the building of the Temple (I Kings 14:25) -- is contemporaneous with Shishak, the first king of the twenty-second dynasty (c.950 B.C.) This would give about 1470 B.C. for the Exodus. The finding by Flinders Petrie (1896) of an inscription by Merneptah I, in which for the first time Isir’l occurs in an Egyptian text, as well as the contents of the El-Amarna tablets, has corroborated the virtual correctness of the date given above” (5:296).

This date of 1470 B.C. is exactly in the middle of the narrow date range given by other scholars for both the Hebrew Exodus and the Danaan exile from Egypt.

The Semitic identity of the ancient Danaan maritime people has been commented on by historians. G. F. Schomann stated,

These Danaan were not only Semitic; they were Hebrews, according to ancient Egyptian records. Professor Max Duncker, in The History Of Antiquity (I:456-466), gave fascinating details of a two-fold land/sea Exodus as told in an ancient Egyptian account:

Hecataeus of Abdera was an historian living in fourth century B.C. Egypt under Ptolemy I -- a general of Alexander the Great. In the extract above, this ancient historian clearly connected both the Hebrews and the Danaan as part of the same Exodus. Therefore, the Danaan were in fact the Biblical tribe of Dan -- a seafaring tribe and part of the Hebrew Exodus.

Another marvelous account -- although also spoken with a decidedly Egyptian bias -- is that of Lysimachus of Alexandria (355-281 B.C.), whose history was preserved by Flavius Josephus in Contra Apionem:

This ancient historic document provides evidence that the Exodus involved two distinct groups with different destinations. Some of the Hebrews expelled from Egypt in the Exodus were “thrown into the sea” and sailed north across the Mediterranean to found the earliest civilization in Greece -- while Moses led the rest of Israel eastward “helpless into the desert” of the Wilderness.

What happened to cause Danaus and his followers to be expelled from Egypt? The reason handed down from the mists of time has obvious corruption to it. The Egyptian accounts refer to two brothers -- Danaus and Aegyptus. Danaus was said to have 50 sons, who each married one of the 50 daughters of Aegyptus. According to the legend, each of the daughters then slew their husbands on their wedding night (Encyclopedia Britannica, 11th ed., 7:793). Aegyptus was also said to have “driven out” Danaus from Egypt. Danaus therefore designates some people who had dwelled in Egypt, and Aegyptus seems to indicate a personification of the land of Egypt itself. This strange and contorted legend, if rooted on an actual historic event, seems to indicate that some form of mass slaughter had occurred. It is far more likely that we have here evidence of the tenth plague on Egypt, the slaughter of the firstborn. This event was indeed the DECISIVE EVENT that caused Pharaoh to order the Hebrews to leave the land of Egypt (Exodus12:29-33).

The waterway systems of ancient Egypt were important, since the Danaan went into exile on sea-going ships. The Suez Canal -- linking the Red Sea northward to the Mediterranean -- had not yet been built. Instead, a series of canals and waterways linked the Nile River eastward to the Red Sea. The Encyclopedia Britannica, in an article on the Suez Canal, states:

Thayer assumes that Moses would have been unaware that YEHOVAH God would open a footpath through the Red Sea, and originally planned to cross by boat. It also assumes that Moses planned to patiently ferry, presumably in many hundreds of trips, all of the hundreds of thousands of people, animals, and belongings of Israel across the Red Sea while fleeing Egyptian pursuit! This would have been impractical, since “the total number of Israelites [were] probably about two millions. This number is accepted by the best critics” (Biblical Encyclopedia by Gray and Adams I:191).

For whatever reason, a Red Sea crossing by boat was never attempted, for the Bible does not record the presence of any boats as the Israelites approached the Sea. Therefore, if Egyptian boats were seized for the Exodus, a different plan was in place. The boats were apparently used instead by the Danite sailors as vehicles to escape from Egypt. The Exodus was most probably two-pronged. It was an escape by both land and sea from the land of Pharaoh!

Dr. Robert Latham, one of the most respected 19th century authorities, firmly stated that the Danaan of Greece were the Israelite Tribe of Dan. In his Ethnology of Europe, Latham commented,

Archaeologist Dr. Cyrus Gordon, in his book, Before Columbus, states that they later sailed from Greece to other European coastlands, including Ireland and Denmark. Gordon relates,

There is indeed strong evidence that the Danaan of Ireland, Cornwall and Scotland, the Danaan of Greece and Italy -- as well as the Danes of Denmark -- were Israelites of the tribe of Dan. The similarity of name would itself seem conclusive; but is there other evidence that these two groups of Danaan were related?

These Danaan colonists did indeed settle in Denmark, which name means, "Dan’s Mark" or "Dan’s Land." In ancient times, Denmark was settled by a tribe called the “Dani,” according to early Roman historian, Procopius (fifth century, A.D.) -- who recorded that the Dani were a group of tribes inhabiting the Danish peninsula (VI.xv.1-6). That these were part of the Hebrew tribe of Dan may be seen in the fact mentioned previously that Biblical Dan was called, “Dani-el or Dananniel,” a variation of "Dani" or "Danaan."

The ancient history of Israel’s Exodus from Egypt and baptism in the Red Sea is an example for our admonition, or instruction, today. It has, first, a spiritual connotation assuring that all of Israel who accept the gospel of the Messiah receive the promise of eternal life.