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Research Home Dagon: The Philistine Fish God
C onquest of C anaan
Non-Technical - Sep 04, 2008 - by John Roskoski PhD
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EXC ERPT In the book of Judges, we read how the Israelites served “Baal and
Exodus from Egypt Ashtaroth”, pagan gods of the various nations (Judges 2:11-13), but Dagon, the
god of the Philistines, is mentioned by name and often depicted as a “fish-god”.
Flood How is Dagon different than the other idols? Continue reading
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Question: In the book of Judges, we read how the Israelites served “Baal and Ashtaroth”, pagan gods of the
various nations (Judges 2:11-13), but Dagon, the god of the Philistines, is mentioned by name and often
depicted as a “fish-god”. How is Dagon different than the other idols?
Answer: Dagon was originally a Semitic deity, adopted by the Philistines after they invaded Canaan, ca.
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1177 BC. We have records of Dagon dating to the 3rd dynasty of Ur in the 25th Century BC. Dagon was
Does New "Eyewitness" very popular among the Amorites, among whom “Dagon” is a component of many personal names, and
Evidence Point to Noah’s
Assyrians.
Ark?
The past se ve ral days have
se e n a re ne we d flurry of Most scholars argue that he was originally a vegetation, grain and wheat, deity. The name is very similar to
inte re st in Noah's Ark . It be gan
during the we e k ... the Hebrew word for “grain”, dāgān. This would create an interesting irony in the Samson narratives, as
Samson was forced to grind wheat for the Philistines (Judges 16). However, some descriptions seem to
Digging Into the make Dagon a storm-god, possibly in connection with the need of rain for the wheat and grain harvest.
Documents and the
Attempted Hijacking of
Paradise However, Dagon in iconography Dagon is often presented as fish-god. This depiction has survived the
Traditional libe ral scholarship centuries and is quite controversial. The reason it has survived is the similarity of the name to the Hebrew
claim s that the book of Ge ne sis term dâg, meaning “fish”. This connection was first popularized by Rashi, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzhaki (AD 1040-
is a jum ble of conflicting,
1105), author of an extensive commentary on the Tanakh. He imagined, based on this connection to the
contradictory...
Hebrew term dâg, that Dagon was in the shape of a fish.
The Jordan Blockage
Reexamined (Joshua 3:15– David Kimhi (AD 1160-1235), Medieval Rabbi and Bible Commentator, expanded upon the interpretation of
16)
Rashi. In his comments on 1 Samuel 5, wherein the Philistines placed the Ark with Dagon, he interpreted
W he n the Israe lite s crosse d the
Jordan R ive r to e nte r the the statement “only the flat part was left to him” (1 Samuel 5:4) as meaning “only the form of a fish was
Prom ise d Land, the wate rs we re left”. He reasoned that since the text mentions “hands”, Dagon was in the in the form of a fish from the
m iraculously...
waist down, hence the name, and in the form of a man from the waist up. One must note that the LXX
mentions both hand and feet.
I Have Seen It All!!!
A frie nd at church re ce ntly told
m e that he would lik e to go with In 1928, H. Schmökel argued that Dagon was never a “fish-god”, half-man and half-fish. However, once his
m e to Israe l, but he and his
cult became important to the sea-faring and maritime peoples, such as the Phoenicians and Philistines, the
wife had...
false connection to dâg (fish) had a powerful impact on Dagon’s iconography. Some scholars still insist that
this merman image, half-man and half-fish, is a secondary aspect to this god of the Philistines. The
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Philistines were a powerful part of the invasion of the “Sea Peoples” who swept the Eastern end of the
Mediterranean basin ca. 1200 BC. Therefore, a god with aquatic aspects could prove to be an important
part of their pantheon.
Overall, Dagon is represented somewhat differently than other gods in Judges. This is because he is linked
to the Philistines, who seemed to have adopted Dagon very early, one of the most hated enemies of YHWH
and Israel. The Philistines represented a more menacing type of threat than the local Canaanites who had
inhabited the Promised Land. With their political and military organization the Philistines were a viable
threat to wipe out Israel and thwart complete possession of the land. Their importance is fully seen in
that, according to 2 Samuel 5, their defeat was a key to the establishment of Davidic power. The tensions
between Israel and Philistia began with Samson, encompassed the careers of Samuel and Saul, and ended
with David. Therefore, based on Dagon’s long Semitic history and his connection with the Philistines, it is
quite understandable that Dagon should be remembered in such detail by the biblical authors.
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Comments
8/29/2009 3:13 AM #
Hello ABR!
You know, I'm doing a study about The dead see srolls. But some peoples are saying, that the dead
sea scrolls don't support the Bible but repudiate it. For example Barbara Thiering, Eisenman, Allegro,
etc. I was alreday read one of your text in the Christiananswers.net. But according to this three guys
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specially Barbara T. whotrustworthy those srolls are?
For your answer I'll be very thankful
God bless you
Dave
Dave Tripplat - 8/29/2009 3:13:01 A M
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