ContradictionsReading order 490Bible context 1 min read
When was the city of Dan named?
Genesis uses the name Dan in Abram's story, while Judges describes that name being assigned later to a city formerly called Laish.
- Textual conflict
- Weak contradiction
- The supplied passages do not establish incompatible claims. Different events, meanings, or conditions may account for the difference.
- Importance
- Minor
- A local detail in a story, chronology, or inventory.
An earlier story can use a later familiar place name without claiming it was already in use, and the excerpts do not explicitly identify both locations.
An editorial assessment of the quoted passages. Importance describes the stakes; it does not increase certainty. Reading order weighs both.
Abram's pursuit reaches a place called Dan
And when Abram heard that his brother was taken captive, he armed his trained servants, born in his own house, three hundred and eighteen, and pursued them unto Dan.
Genesis 14:14
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)
Read the full chapter:Genesis 14
Laish is renamed Dan after Israel's descendant
And they called the name of the city Dan, after the name of Dan their father, who was born unto Israel: howbeit the name of the city was Laish at the first.
Judges 18:29
Translation / edition: King James Version (KJV)