Dodanim
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Dodanim (Hebrew: דּדנים, Dôdânı̂ym) or Rodanim (Hebrew: רדנים, Rôdânı̂ym) was a son of Javan and brother of Elishah, Tarshish, and Kittim listed in Genesis 10:4.
The Descendants of Dodanim
The peoples of Dodanim are the descendants of Dodan (Dodanim is plural) which are called Rodanim in I Chronicles 1:7. The Septuagint version translates both Dodanim (in Genesis) and Rodanim (in I Chronicles) as Rhodioi. There is no doubt in the minds of researchers that the Dardanians were originally a people in Asia Minor or western Turkey.[1] Aalders is convinced that the rendering in the Bible should read Dardanim and that this obviously refers to the residents of Asia Minor in the area of Troy which traces it's origin to a certain Dardanus. Later we find the city of Dardanus there and the surrounding area became known as Dardany.[2]
Undoubtedly the name refers to the original inhabitants of the Isle of Rhodes, off the western coast of Asia Minor, in the Aegean Sea.[3] In his work, Dr. Gayre has the following to say of the matter:
| “ | Dodanim has Rodanim as an alternative reading, and if so it will indicate the inhabitants of Rhodes.[4] | ” |
The peoples of Rhodes were known as Rhodians or Dardani. The entire chain of islands off Asia Minor were known as the Dodecanese, which mean today "the twelve islands", Rhodes being the most southerly. The Greeks still call these islands the Dodekanissos, and indeed they belong to Greece.
The bulk of Dodanim migrated through Greece and Yugoslavia and a province in eastern Greece is known as Rodopi. It is the second province before one reaches Turkey. To the south we find the Aegean Sea and Bulgaria lies to the north. Today, we still have a mountain range in southern Bulgaria/eastern Greece called the Rhodope Mountains. We also find in ancient Greece a city called Dodana.[5]
Interestingly, Marcellinus also mentions the city of Dardanus on the Hellespont[6], the Rhodii people of the isle of Rhodes[7], a region of Thrace which was known as Rhodopa[8], and the region of Gallograecia, past Nicea.[9]
Pliny, in his Natural History[10], refers to the River Rhode running off the Black Sea and a more modern historian, Geipel, reveals that a tribe known as the Rhoddani lived in the Euxine cradleland.[11] Whilst describing the lower Danube area, Pliny says that the "Moesia contains Dardani".[12] In addition he refers to Mount Rhodope,[13], the "tribe of the Dardani"[14] dwelling on the northwest coast of Greece, the river Rhoedias[15] flowing off the north coast of the Aegean Sea in Macedonia and the town of Rodosto.[16] Historian Lempriere concurs with this but adds that the Trojans were called Dardani or Dardanidae after the region of Dardania. He further asserts that the Dardanelles received it's name from them.[17]
Related References
- ↑ Driver 1904:99
- ↑ Aalders 1981:220
- ↑ Douglas 1972:321
- ↑ Gayre 1973:53
- ↑ Custance 1975:96
- ↑ Marcellinus xxix.5.22-23
- ↑ ibid : xii.16.10-11
- ↑ ibid : xxii.8.4
- ↑ ibid : xxii.95
- ↑ Pliny iv.xii.82
- ↑ Geipel 1969:40
- ↑ Pliny iii.xxv.149
- ↑ ibid : iii.xxv.150
- ↑ ibid : iv.i.3
- ↑ iv.x.34
- ↑ iv.xi.43
- ↑ Lempriere 1788 : 193
- In Search of ... the Origin of Nations by C.M. White. History Research Projects 2003.
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