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{{Short description|Ugaritic culture hero}}
{{for|the surname and given name|Danel (name)}}
[[File:Danel epic AO17323 img 0160.jpg|thumb|Tablet bearing part of the Danel epic, [[Louvre]]]]
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'''Danel''' ({{IPAc-en|ˈ|d|eɪ|n|əl}}, [[Ugaritic]]: 𐎄𐎐𐎛𐎍 <small>DNỈL</small>, "[[El (deity)|El]] is judge"),<ref>Virolleaud 1936, et al.</ref> father of '''Aqhat''', was a [[culture hero]] who appears in an incomplete [[Ugaritic text]] of the fourteenth century BCE<ref>Made during the reign of Niqmadu III, ca. 1360 BCE (Walton 1994:49).</ref> at [[Ugarit]] (now Ras Shamra), [[Syria]].
==Tale of Aqhat==
{{Main|Tale of Aqhat}}
The text in ''Corpus Tablettes Alphabétiques'' ''[CTA]'' 17–19 is often referred to as the ''[[Tale of Aqhat]]''. Danel was depicted as "judging the cause of the widow, adjudicating the case of the fatherless" in the city gate.<ref>''[[Ancient Near Eastern Texts]]'', 149–51.</ref> He passed through trials: his son Aqhat was destroyed but apparently in the missing conclusion was revived or replaced by Danel's patron god, '''Rpʼu''', who sits and judges with [[Hadad]] and [[Astarte]] and was likely considered to be the equivalent of El.
The text was published and translated in 1936 by [[Charles Virolleaud]]<ref>Virolleaud, "La légende phénicienne de Danel" vol. I of ''Mission de Ras Shamra'', C. F.-A. Schaeffer, ed. (Paris) 1936.</ref> and has been extensively analysed since then.<ref>See references section.</ref>
== Danel and the Book of Ezekiel ==
Three verses in the [[Book of Ezekiel]] ([[Ezekiel 14]]:14 and 20 and [[Ezekiel 28|28]]:3) refer to {{lang|he|דנאל}} {{smallcaps|dnʾl}} which, according to the [[Masoretic Text]], should be read as "Dan'''i'''el". This notwithstanding, parallels and contrasts with ''Danel'' (without an ''i'')<ref>[http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=ezekiel%2014:13-14:19&version=31#fen-NIV-20746a NIV footnote on Ezekiel 14:14]</ref> of Ezekiel, placed between [[Noah]] and [[Job (biblical figure)|Job]]<ref>Ezekiel xiv.14, 20</ref> and invoked as the very example of righteous judgement,<ref>Ezekiel xxviii. 3 in an [[Apostrophe (figure of speech)|apostrophe]] to the prince of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]], "you are indeed wiser than Daniel".</ref> first pointed out by [[René Dussaud]] in 1931,<ref>René Dussaud, "Breves remarques sur les tablettes de Ras Shamra", ''Syria'' '''12''' (1931:77).</ref> have led readers commonly to accept<ref>(Day 1980)</ref> or occasionally to reject<ref>H. H. P. Dressler, [https://www.jstor.org/stable/1517436 "The identification of the Ugaritic Dnil with the Daniel of Ezekiel"], ''[[Vetus Testamentum]]'' '''29''' (1979:152–61): "To sum up the Ugaritic material: Dnil is neither king, nor wise, nor righteous, nor able to save his son." (p. 155). Danel not meeting Dressler's definition of kingship, is termed "a village-elder or chief" (p. 153).</ref><ref>Wallace, Daniel B., [http://bible.org/article/who-ezekiels-daniel “Who is Ezekiel’s Daniel?”]</ref> a degree of identification with Ugaritic Danel of the [[Tale of Aqhat]], amounting virtually to the same figure.<ref>The author of the [[Book of Daniel]], a contemporary of Ezekiel exiled in Babylon, is not concerned here; the common assumption is that "features of the Daniel alluded to by Ezekiel have contributed to the depiction of the hero of the book of Daniel" (Day 1980:174).</ref><ref>{{Cite journal|url=https://hcommons.org/deposits/download/hc:21984/CONTENT/jbq_464_kleindaniel.pdf/|title=Identifying the Daniel character in Ezekiel |author=Klein, Reuven Chaim|year=2018|journal=Jewish Bible Quarterly
|volume=46|issue=4|pages=231-240|DOI=10.17613/5z2g-gj55}}</ref>
The three figures referred to in {{bibleverse|Ezekiel|14:14|niv}}&nbsp;— "Even if Noah, Danel and Job were in it"&nbsp;— links the name with two non-Israelites of great antiquity. In {{bibleverse|Ezekiel|28:3|niv}}, Danel is one noted for his wisdom in the prophecy addressed to the king of [[Tyre, Lebanon|Tyre]]: "you are indeed wiser than Danel, no secret is hidden from you". The name "Danel" had a long tradition in Hebrew culture: he is supplied as the father-in-law of [[Enoch]] in the ''[[Book of Jubilees]]''.<ref>''Jubilees'' iv.20, noted by Day 1980:181: ''Jubilees'', which supplies many "missing" names from the Hebrew Bible, was written considerably later than the book of Ezekiel.</ref>
Texts in [[Ugaritic]], a language closely related to the [[Canaanite languages]], may provide an important clue. The language was discovered by French [[archaeology|archaeologists]] in 1928 and known only from texts found in the lost city of Ugarit, Syria.<ref name=solve>Edward L. Greenstein, "Texts from Ugarit Solve Biblical Puzzles," ''[[Biblical Archaeology Review|BAR]]'' 36:06, Nov/Dec 2010, pp. 48-53, 70. Found at [http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/article.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=36&Issue=6&ArticleID=5 Biblical Archaeology Review website] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120314132007/http://www.bib-arch.org/bar/article.asp?PubID=BSBA&Volume=36&Issue=6&ArticleID=5 |date=2012-03-14 }}, accessed October 29, 2010.</ref>  Ugaritic has been used by scholars of the [[Hebrew Bible]] to clarify Biblical Hebrew texts and has revealed ways in which ancient [[Israelite]] culture finds parallels in the neighboring cultures.<ref name=solve /> Ugaritic was "the greatest literary discovery from antiquity since the deciphering of the Egyptian hieroglyphs and Mesopotamian cuneiform."<ref>{{cite book|author=Gordon, Cyrus Herzl|author-link=Cyrus Herzl Gordon|title=The Ancient Near East|publisher=W.W. Norton & Company Press|year=1965|isbn=0-393-00275-6|url-access=registration|url=https://archive.org/details/ancientneareast0000gord}} at p.99</ref>
Literary texts discovered at Ugarit include the "Tale of Aqhat" (or Legend of Danel), revealing a [[Canaanite religion]]. According to Edward L. Greenstein, a distinguished professor at [[Bar-Ilan University]], Ugaritic texts solved the [[Bible|biblical]] puzzle of the [[anachronism]] of [[Ezekiel]] mentioning [[Daniel (biblical figure)|Daniel]] at {{bibleverse||Ezekiel|14:13-16|nrsv}}; it is because in both Ugaritic and the [[Biblical Hebrew|Ancient Hebrew]] texts, it is correctly ''Danel''—the ''[[yodh|yod]]'' is missing in the originals.<ref name=solve />
Danel would fit the pattern of being an ancient non-Israelite like Job and Noah. Ezekiel's literary arrangement may also support this position. Yahweh has compared Judah with foreign nations before ({{bibleverse|Ezekiel|5:7|niv}}), and the context appears to contain a similar comparison in {{bibleverse|Ezekiel|14:13-19|niv}}. The hypothetical rebellious country, while a cipher for Israel, is not explicitly named and could represent any ancient Near Eastern country. Ezekiel's audience is enamored with non-Israelite myths (cf. [[Tammuz (deity)|Tammuz]] in {{bibleverse|Ezekiel|8:14|niv}}), and so they could easily be aware of King Danel's legendary virtues. Thus, if they were three ancient, righteous, non-Israelite men, Ezekiel's triad would fit the pattern of Yahweh judging Israel to some degree by the nations around them.<ref>College Press NIV Commentary on Ezekiel By Brandon Fredenburg, p. 138</ref> The connection is more plausible when one considers that Ezekiel alludes to Danel in an oracle against Tyre (Ezekiel 28).<ref>Eerdmans dictionary of the Bible By David Noel Freedman, Allen C. Myers, Astrid B. Beck, p. 311</ref> Danel also had a son and, like Job, was unable to deliver him from divine harm (cf. {{bibleverse||Ezekiel|14:20|niv}}).<ref>Walther Eichrodt, Ezekiel: A Commentary, trans. Cosslett Quinn, Old Testament Library (Philadelphia: Westminster Press, 1970), p. 189</ref>
== Recent uses ==
The name ''Danel'' has been given to one of the [[List of craters on Ganymede|craters on Ganymede]], a moon of Jupiter.
{{Portal|Mythology|Asia}}
== See also ==
* [[Virtuous pagan]]
* [[Pugat]]
== Notes ==
{{Reflist|30em}}
== References ==
* Coogan, M.D. ''Stories from Ancient Canaan'' (Philadelphia) 1978:27–47
* Day, John. "The Daniel of Ugarit and Ezekiel and the Hero of the Book of Daniel", ''[[Vetus Testamentum]]'' '''30'''.2 (April 1980:174–184)
* Gibson, J.C.L. ''Canaanite Myths and Legends'' (Edinburgh) 1978.
* Herdner, Andrée. ''Corpus des tablettes cunéiformes alphabétiques découvertes à Ras Shamra-Ugarit, en 1929 à 1939'' (Paris 1963) (CTA 17–19).
* Margalit, Baruch. ''The Ugaritic poem of AQHT: Text, Translation, Commentary'' (Berlin: de Gruyter) 1989. A highly idiosyncratic commentary and interpretation.
* Walton, John H. ''Ancient Israelite Literature in Its Cultural Context: A Survey of Parallels'', "Personal Archives and Epics": Canaanite .2 (Zondervan) 1994:49.
== External links ==
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20071009074407/http://www.orientalisti.net/ugarit.htm The Ugaritic poems of Keret and Aqhat: a bibliography] As of 1998.
[[Category:Levantine mythology]]
[[Category:Characters in epic poems]]
[[Category:Ugaritic language and literature]]
[[Category:Clay tablets]]
[[Category:Ugaritic texts]]
[[Category:Heroes in mythology and legend]]
[[Category:Book of Ezekiel]]
[[Category:Book of Jubilees]]
[[Category:Hebrew Bible people]]