
Map of the southern part of
Canaan
Canaan (Phoenician: 



, Kana'n,
Hebrew:
kna-an,
Arabic: كنعان
Kanaʿān) is an ancient term
for a region encompassing modern-day
Israel
,
Lebanon
, the
Palestinian
Territories
, plus adjoining coastal lands and parts of
Jordan
,
Syria
and
northeastern
Egypt
.
In the
Hebrew Bible, the "Land of Canaan"
extends from Lebanon
southward
across Gaza
to the
"Brook of Egypt" and eastward to the
Jordan River Valley,
thus including modern Israel
and the
Palestinian
Territories
. In far ancient times, the southern area
included various
ethnic groups.
The
Amarna Letters found in Ancient Egypt mention Canaan (Akkadian: ) in connection with Gaza and
other cities along the Phoenician
coast and into Upper Galilee. Many earlier Egyptian sources also
make mention of numerous military campaigns conducted in
Ka-na-na, just inside
Asia.
Various Canaanite sites have been excavated by archaeologists.
Canaanites spoke
Canaanite
languages, closely related to other
West Semitic languages. Canaanites
are mentioned in the
Bible,
Mesopotamian and
Ancient Egyptian texts.
Although the residents
of ancient Ugarit
in modern
Syria do not seem to have considered themselves Canaanite, and did
not speak a Canaanite language (but one that was closely related,
the Ugaritic language),
archaeologists have considered the site, which was rediscovered in
1928, as quintessentially Canaanite. Much of the modern
knowledge about the Canaanites stems from
excavation in this area. Canaanite
culture apparently developed in situ from the Circum-Arabian
Nomadic Pastoral Complex, which in turn developed from a fusion of
Harifian hunter gatherers with
Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB)
farming cultures, practicing animal domestication, during the
6,200 BC climatic crisis.
Nomenclature
The name Canaan is mentioned frequently in the Bible.
It referred to parts
or all of the region between the Jordan River
and the Mediterranean Sea
in antiquity Proceeding northward Lebanon is
bordered by the Litani river to the watershed of the Orontes river
which is known by the Egyptians as upper Retenu. Between
Lebanon and Syria Canaan is bordered to the North by
Hazor,
Aram and
Kadesh which include the lands of the
Amorites. In Egyptian campaign accounts the term
Djahi was used to refer to the watershed of
the Jordan river. Many earlier Egyptian sources also make mention
of numerous military campaigns conducted in
Ka-na-na, just
inside
Asia.
Canaan predates the ancient Israelite territories described in the
Bible, and describes a land with different, but overlapping bounds.
The classical
Jewish view, as explained by
Schweid, is that "Canaan" is the geographical name, but this is not
a view that is universally subscribed to; the renaming as "Israel"
after its occupation by the
Israelites is
derived only from the Bible, and marks the origin of the concept of
a
Holy Land. The region of
Judaea existed by that name from the 6th century BC
until it was renamed "Palestina" by the Romans following the
Bar Kokhba revolt against Rome in the 2nd
century AD.
In the Bible and
elsewhere, Zion originally meant the region of
and around Jerusalem
but, because of the importance of this city to
zionists, came to designate the whole of the Israelite land, as for
example in the naming of Zionism.
Etymology
The English name Canaan ultimately comes from the
Hebrew , via
Greek and
Latin .
The Hebrew
name Canaan is of obscure origins, with one suggestion
connecting it with the non-Semitic Hurrian
term Kinahhu found at Nuzi
(c.
1450 BC),
and referring to the colour purple— also said
to be the meaning of Phoenician
(which itself is often used as synonym for
Canaan).
Another etymology is straightforward. "Can" means low as "Aram"
means high. A straightforward meaning of Canaan is "lowland."
This was
first applied to the lowland or classical Phoenicia
, mainly Sidon, then by extension to the whole
region.
A third possibility is that Canaan derives from the Semitic root
*k-n-' meaning
"to be subdued", or "to be
humbled", possibly connected with the above meaning "low".
The
Bible attributes the name to Canaan, the son of Ham and the grandson of Noah, whose offspring correspond to the names of
various ethnic groups in the land of Canaan, listed in the
"Table of Nations" ( ), where
Sidon
is named as his firstborn son, to be subdued by the
descendants of Shem.
The eponym Ham
[8075] merely means "Hot" or "Red" in Hebrew or
Canaanite, although it may have been derived initially from the
Egyptian word
Kemet (KMT), a
word applied to the land along the
Nile. Some
authors reason that the attribution was made because the Canaanite
coast but not the interior was under Egyptian domination for
several centuries.
Canaan in the Hebrew Bible
The
Hebrew Bible lists borders for the
land of Canaan. Numbers 34:2 includes the phrase "the land of
Canaan as defined by its borders." The borders are then delineated
in Numbers 34:3–12. Present-day Bible scholars, such as
Shalom Carmy, suggest that in around 1400 BC,
Jews first arrived in Canaan. Others, such as
Israel Finkelstein, Jonathan Tubbs and
others, dispute the veracity of the Biblical account and claim that
the Hebrew culture developed locally, from the Canaanite culture,
with perhaps very minor population inflows from the outside.
John N. Oswalt notes that "Canaan consists of the land west of the
Jordan and is distinguished from the area east of the Jordan."
Oswalt then goes on to say that in Scripture Canaan "takes on a
theological character" as "the land which is God's gift" and "the
place of abundance".
Canaan in Mesopotamian inscriptions
Certain
scholars of the Eblaite material (dated 2350
BC) from the archive of Tell Mardikh
see the oldest reference to Canaanites in the
ethnic name ga-na-na which provides a third millennium
reference to the name Canaan.
Canaan is
mentioned in a document from the 18th century BC found in the ruins
of Mari
, a former
Sumerian outpost in Syria, located along the
Middle Euphrates. Apparently Canaan
at this time existed as a distinct political entity (probably a
loose confederation of city-states). A letter from this time
complains about certain
"thieves and Canaanites (i.e.
Kinahhu)" causing trouble in the town of Rahisum.
Tablets
found in the Mesopotamian city of
Nuzi
use the term Kinahnu ("Canaan") as a
synonym for red or purple dye, laboriously produced by the Kassites from murex shells as
early as 1600 BC and on the Mediterranean coast by the Phoenicians
from a byproduct of glassmaking. Purple cloth became a
renowned Canaanite export commodity which is mentioned in Exodus.
The dyes may have been named after their place of origin.
The name
'Phoenicia
' is connected with the Greek word for "purple",
apparently referring to the same product, but it is difficult to
state with certainty whether the Greek word came from the name, or
vice versa. The purple cloth of Tyre
in Phoenicia
was well known far and wide and was associated by the Romans with
nobility and royalty.
Anne
Killebrew has shown how cities such as Jerusalem
were large and important walled settlements in the
Middle Bronze IIB and Iron Age IIC
periods (ca. 1800–1550 and 720–586 BC), but that during the
intervening Late Bronze (LB) and
Iron Age I and IIA/B Ages sites like
Jerusalem
were small and relatively insignificant and
unfortified towns.
References to Canaanites are also found
throughout the Amarna letters of
Pharaoh Akenaton circa 1350 BC, and a
reference to the "land of Canaan" is found on the statue
of Idrimi of Alalakh
in modern Syria. After a popular uprising
against his rule, Idrimi was forced into exile with his mother's
relatives to seek refuge in "the land of Canaan", where he prepared
for an eventual attack to recover his city.
Texts from Ugarit
also refer
to an individual Canaanite (*kn'ny), suggesting that the
people of Ugarit, contrary to much modern opinion, considered
themselves to be non-Canaanite.
Archaeological excavations of a number of
sites, later identified as Canaanite, show that prosperity of the
region reached its apogee during this Middle Bronze Age period, under leadership of the city
of Hazor
, at least
nominally tributary to Egypt for much of the period.
In the
north, the cities of Yamkhad and Qatna
were
hegemons of important confederacies, and it would appear that
Biblical Hazor was the chief city of another important coalition in the south. In the early Late
Bronze Age, Canaanite confederacies were centered on Megiddo
and Kadesh, before again
being brought into the Egyptian
Empire.
Early development of Canaanite civilization
One of
the earliest settlements in the region was at Jericho
in Canaan. The earliest settlements were
seasonal, but, by the
Bronze Age, had
developed into large urban centres.
By the Early
Bronze Age other sites had developed, such as Ebla
, which by
ca. 2300 BC was incorporated into the Akkadian empire
of Sargon the Great
and Naram-Sin of Akkad
(Biblical
Accad). Sumerian references to the
Mar.tu ("tent
dwellers" – considered to be
Amorite)
country West of the Euphrates date from even earlier than Sargon,
at least to the reign of
Enshakushanna
of Uruk.
The archives of Ebla show reference to a
number of Biblical sites, including Hazor,
Jerusalem
, and as a number of people have claimed, to
Sodom and Gomorrah mentioned in
Genesis as well. The collapse of the Akkadian Empire saw the
arrival of peoples using Khirbet Kerak Ware pottery, coming
originally from the Zagros Mountains
, east of the Tigris
. It
is suspected by some that this event marks the arrival in Syria and
Canaan of the
Hurrians, possibly the people
later known in the Biblical tradition as
Horites.
Today it is thought that Canaanite civilization is a response to
long periods of stable climate interrupted by short periods of
climate change. During these periods,
Canaanites profited from their intermediary position between the
ancient civilisations of the Middle East —
Ancient Egypt,
Mesopotamia and
Minoan
Crete — to become city states of merchant princes along the
coast, with small kingdoms specializing in agricultural products in
the interior. This polarity, between coastal towns and agrarian
hinterland, was illustrated in Canaanite mythology by the struggle
between the storm god, variously called
Teshub (
Hurrian) or
Ba'al Hadad (
Aramaean) and
Ya'a, Yaw,
Yahu or
Yam, god of the sea and rivers. Small
walled market towns characterized early Canaanite civilization
surrounded by peasant farmers growing a range of local
horticultural products, along with commercial
growing of
olives,
grapes for
wine, and
pistachios, surrounded by extensive
grain cropping, predominantly
wheat and
barley. Harvest in
early summer was a season when
transhumance nomadism
was practiced — shepherds staying with their flocks during the wet
season and returning to graze them on the harvested stubble, closer
to water supplies in the summer. Evidence of this cycle of
agriculture is found in the
Gezer
Calendar and in the Biblical cycle of the year.
Periods of rapid climate change generally saw a collapse of this
mixed Mediterranean farming system; commercial production was
replaced with
subsistence
agriculural foodstuffs; and transhumance
pastoralism became a year-round nomadic pastoral
activity, whilst tribal groups wandered in a circular pattern north
to the Euphrates, or south to the Egyptian delta with their flocks.
Occasionally, tribal chieftains would emerge, raiding enemy
settlements and rewarding loyal followers from the spoils or by
tariffs levied on merchants. Should the cities band together and
retaliate, a neighbouring state intervene or should the chieftain
suffer a reversal of fortune, allies would fall away or
inter-tribal feuding would return. It has been suggested that the
Patriarchal tales of the Bible reflect such social forms.
During
the periods of the collapse of Akkad
and the
First Intermediary Period
in Egypt, the Hyksos invasions and the end of the Middle Bronze Age
in Babylonia, and the Late Bronze Age collapse, trade through the
Canaanite area would dwindle, as Egypt and Mesopotamia withdrew
into their isolation. When the climates stabilized, trade would
resume firstly along the coast in the area of the Philistine and Phoenician
cities. The Philistines, while an integral
part of the Canaanite milieu, do not seem to have been ethnically
homogenous with the Canaanites; the
Hurrians,
Hittites,
Aramaeans,
Moabites,
and
Ammonites are also considered distinct
from generic Canaanites or Amorites, in scholarship or in tradition
(although in the Biblical Book of Nations,
"Heth",
(Hittites) are a son of Canaan).
As markets redeveloped, new trade routes
that would avoid the heavy tariffs of the coast would develop from
Kadesh Barnea, through Hebron
, Lachish
, Jerusalem
, Bethel, Samaria
, Shechem
, Shiloh through Galilee to Jezreel
, Hazor and Megiddo. Secondary Canaanite cities would
develop in this region.
Further economic development would see the
creation of a third trade route from Eilath
, Timna
, Edom (Seir), Moab, Ammon and thence to Damascus
and Palmyra
. Earlier states (for example the Philistines
and Tyrians in the case of Judah and Israel
, for the
second route, and Judah and Israel for the third route) tried
generally unsuccessfully to control the interior
trade.
Eventually, the prosperity of this trade
would attract more powerful regional neighbors, such as Ancient Egypt, Assyria,
the Babylonians, Persians
, Ancient Greeks and
Romans, who would attempt to control
the Canaanites politically, levying tribute, taxes and
tariffs. Often in such periods, thorough overgrazing would
result in a climatic collapse and a repeat of the cycle (eg.
PPNB, Ghassulian, Uruk
, and the
Bronze Age cycles already
mentioned). The fall of later Canaanite civilization
occurred with the incorporation of the area into the Greco-Roman
world (as Iudaea
province),
and after Byzantine times, into the
Arab, Ottoman and
Abbasid Caliphates. Aramaic, one of
the two lingua francas of Canaanite
civilization, is still spoken in a number of small Syrian
villages,
whilst Phoenician Canaanite disappeared as a spoken
language in about 100 AD.
Egyptian Canaan
During
the 2nd millennium BC, Ancient Egyptian texts use the term
Canaan to refer to an Egyptian province, whose boundaries
generally corroborate the definition of Canaan found in the
Hebrew Bible, bounded to the west by
the Mediterranean Sea
, to the north in the vicinity of Hamath
in Syria,
to the east by the Jordan
Valley, and to the south by a line extended from the Dead Sea
to around Gaza
( ).
Nevertheless, the Egyptian and Hebrew uses of the term are not
identical: the Egyptian texts also identify the coastal city of
Qadesh in Syria near Turkey as part of the
"Land of Canaan", so that the Egyptian usage seems to refer to the
entire
levantine coast of the Mediterranean
Sea, making it a synonym of another Egyptian term for this
coastland,
Retenu.
There is uncertainty about whether the name
Canaan refers
to a specific ethnic group wherever they live, the homeland of this
ethnic group, or a region under the control of this ethnic group,
or perhaps any of the three.
At the end of what is referred to as the
Middle Kingdom era of Egypt, was a
breakdown in centralised power, the assertion of independence by
various
nomarchs and the assumption of
power in the Delta by
Pharaohs of the 17th
Dynasty. Around
1674 BC, these rulers, whom
the Egyptians referred to as "rulers of foreign lands" (Egyptian,
), hence "
Hyksos" (Greek), came to control
Lower Egypt (northern Egypt), evidently
leaving Canaan an ethnically diverse land.
Among the migrant tribes who appear to have settled in the region
were the
Amorites. In the
Old Testament, we find
Amorites
mentioned in the
Table of
Peoples (Gen. 10:16–18a). Evidently, the Amorites played a
significant role in the early history of Canaan. In Gen. 14:7
f., Josh. 10:5
f., Deut. 1:19
f., 27,
44, we find them located in the southern mountain country, while in
Num. 21:13, Josh. 9:10, 24:8, 12, etc., we hear of two great
Amorite kings residing at
Heshbon and
Ashtaroth, east of the Jordan. However, in
other passages such as Gen. 15:16, 48:22, Josh. 24:15, Judg. 1:34,
etc., the name
Amorite is regarded as synonymous with
"Canaanite"—only "Amorite" is never used for the population on the
coast.
In
Egyptian inscriptions Amar and Amurru are applied
strictly to the more northerly mountain region east of Phoenicia,
extending to the Orontes
. In the Akkadian Empire, as early as Naram-Sin's reign (ca. 2240 BC), Amurru
was called one of the "four quarters" surrounding Sumer, along with
Subartu, Akkad
, and
Elam
, and Amorite dynasties also came to dominate in
Mesopotamia, including at Babylon and Isin. Later on,
Amurru became the
Assyrian
term for the interior of south as well as for northerly Canaan.
At this
time the Canaanite area seemed divided between two confederacies,
one centred upon Tel
Megiddo
in the Jezreel Valley
, the second on the more northerly city of Kadesh on the Orontes River
.
In the
centuries preceding the appearance of the Biblical Hebrews, Canaan
and Syria
became
tributary to the Egyptian Pharaohs, although
domination by the sovereign was not so strong as to prevent
frequent local rebellions and inter-city struggles. Under
Thutmose III (1479–
1426 BC) and
Amenhotep
II (1427–
1400 BC), the regular presence
of the strong hand of the Egyptian ruler and his armies kept the
Syrians and Canaanites sufficiently loyal. Nevertheless, Thutmose
III reported a new and troubling element in the population.
Habiru or (in Egyptian) 'Apiru, are reported
for the first time. These seem to have been
mercenaries,
brigands or
outlaws, who may have at one time led a
settled life, but with bad-luck or due to the force of
circumstances, contributed a rootless element of the population,
prepared to hire themselves to whichever local mayor or princeling
prepared to undertake their support. Although Habiru (a
Sumerian ideogram glossed as "brigand" in
Akkadian), and sometimes (an
Akkadian word) had been reported in Mesopotamia from the reign of
Shulgi of
Ur III, their
appearance in Canaan appears to have been due to the arrival of a
new state in Northern Mesopotamia based upon
Maryannu aristocracy of
horse drawn
charioteers, associated with
the
Indo-Aryan rulers of the
Hurrians, known as
Mitanni.
The Habiru seem to have been more a social class than any ethnic
group. One analysis shows that the majority were, however, Hurrian,
though there were a number of Semites and even some Kassite
adventurers amongst their number. The reign of
Amenhotep III, as a result was not quite so
tranquil for the Asiatic province, as Habiru/'Apiru contributed to
greater political instability. It is believed that turbulent chiefs
began to seek their opportunities, though as a rule could not find
them without the help of a neighboring king.
The boldest of the
disaffected nobles was Aziru, son of Abdi-Ashirta, a prince of Amurru, who even
before the death of Amenhotep III, endeavoured to extend his power
into the plain of Damascus
. Akizzi, governor of
Katna–(Qatna
?) (near
Hamath
), reported
this to the Pharaoh, who seems to have sought to frustrate his
attempts. In the next reign, however, both father and
son caused infinite trouble to loyal servants of Egypt like
Rib-Addi, governor of Gubla
(Gebal),
not the least through transferring loyalty from the Egyptian crown
to that of the expanding neighbouring Hittites under Suppiluliuma I.
Egyptian power in Canaan thus suffered a major setback when the
Hittites (or
Hatti)
advanced into Syria in the reign of Amenhotep III, and became even
more threatening in that of his successor, displacing the Amurru
and prompting a resumption of Semitic migration. Abd-Ashirta and
his son Aziru, at first afraid of the Hittites, afterwards made a
treaty with their king, and joining with other external powers,
attacked the districts remaining loyal to Egypt. In vain did
Rib-Addi send touching appeals for aid to the distant Pharaoh, who
was far too engaged in his religious innovations to attend to such
messages.
In the el
Amarna letters (~1350 BC)
sent by governors and princes of Canaan to their Egyptian overlord
Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) in the 14th
century BC—commonly known as the
Tel-el-Amarna tablets—we find, beside
Amar and
Amurru (Amorites), the two forms
Kinahhi and
Kinahni, corresponding to
Kena' and
Kena'an respectively, and including
Syria in its widest extent, as
Eduard
Meyer has shown. The letters are written in the official and
diplomatic
Akkadian language,
though "Canaanitish" words and idioms are also in evidence.
In the El
Amarna letters(~1350 BC),
we meet with the Habiri in northern Syria.
Itakkama wrote thus to the Pharaoh,
- "Behold, Namyawaza has surrendered all
the cities of the king, my lord to the in the land of Kadesh and in Ubi. But I will go,
and if thy gods and thy sun go before me, I will bring back the
cities to the king, my lord, from the Habiri, to show myself
subject to him; and I will expel the ."
Similarly
Zimrida, king of Sidon
- (named
'Siduna'), declared, "All my cities which the king has given into
my hand, have come into the hand of the Habiri."
The king
of Jerusalem
, Abdi-Heba, reported to
the Pharaoh,
- "If (Egyptian) troops come this year, lands and princes will
remain to the king, my lord; but if troops come not, these lands
and princes will not remain to the king, my lord."
Abdi-heba's principle trouble arose from persons called
Iilkili and the sons of
Labaya, who are said to have entered into a
treasonable league with the Habiri. Apparently this restless
warrior found his death at the siege of
Gina. All these princes, however, maligned
each other in their letters to the Pharaoh, and protested their own
innocence of traitorous intentions. Namyawaza, for instance, whom
Itakkama (see above) accused of disloyalty, wrote thus to the
Pharaoh,
- "Behold, I and my warriors and my chariots, together with my
brethren and my , and my Suti ?9 are at the
disposal of the (royal) troops to go whithersoever the king, my
lord, commands."
Just after the Amarna period a new problem arose which was to
trouble the Egyptian control of Canaan.
Pharaoh Horemhab
campaigned against Shasu (Egyptian =
"wanderers") or living in nomadic
pastoralist tribes, who had moved across
the Jordan
to threaten
Egyptian trade through Galilee and Jezreel
. Seti I (ca. 1290 BC) is said to have conquered these
Shasu, Semitic nomads living just
south and east of the Dead
Sea
, from the fortress of Taru (Shtir?) to
"Ka-n-'-na". After the near collapse of the
Battle of Kadesh,
Rameses II had to campaign vigorously in Canaan
to maintain Egyptian power. Egyptian forces penetrated into
Moab and
Ammon, where a
permanent fortress garrison (Called simply "Rameses") was
established. After the collapse of the Levant under the so called
"
Peoples of the Sea"
Ramesses III (ca.
1194
BC) is said to have built a temple to the god
Amen in "
Ka-n-'-na."
This geographic name
probably meant all of western Syria
and Canaan,
with Raphia, "the (first) city of the Ka-n-'-na,", on the
southwest boundary toward the desert. Some
archaeologist have proposed that Egyptian
records of the 13th century BC are early written reports of a
monotheistic belief in
Yahweh noted among the nomadic Shasu. Evidently,
belief in Yahweh had arisen among these nomadic peoples. By the
reign of King
Josiah (
around 650 BC). Yahweh had displaced the
polytheistic family of "
El" as the principle God
amongst those living in the high country of Israel and Judah.
Some believe the "Habiru" signified generally all the nomadic
tribes known as "Hebrews." and particularly the early Israelites,
who sought to appropriate the fertile region for themselves, but
the term was rarely used to describe the
Shasu. Whether the term may also include other
related peoples such as the
Moabites,
Ammonites and
Edomites
is uncertain. It may not be an
ethnonym at
all; see the
Habiru article for
details.
Biblical Canaanites
part of the book of
Genesis in the
Hebrew Bible often called the
Table of Nations describes the Canaanites
as being descended from an ancestor called Canaan ( ,
Knaan), saying ( ):
Canaan is the father of Sidon
, his
firstborn; and of the Hittites, Jebusites, Amorites,
Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites,
Zemarites, and Hamathites.
Later the Canaanite clans scattered, and the borders of
Canaan reached [across the Mediterranean coast] from Sidon toward
Gerar as far as Gaza, and then [inland around the Jordan Valley]
toward Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as
Lasha.
The Biblical scholar,
Richard
Friedman, argues that this part of
Genesis showing the origin of the Canaanites
was written by the hypothetical
Priestly
Source.
The
Sidon
whom the Table identifies as the firstborn son of
Canaan has the same name as that of the coastal city of Sidon, in
Lebanon. This city dominated the Phoenician
coast, and may have enjoyed hegemony over a number
of ethnic groups, who are said to belong to the "Land of
Canaan".
Similarly, Canaanite populations are said to have inhabited:
During the Canaanite Period of the
Archaeology of Israel, the cities of
Canaan were ruled by vassals of the
Egyptian Empire. The Table of Nations calls
Canaan the "son of Ham", whose ethnicities, e.g. Egypt
("Mitzrayim"), are associated with Africa ( ).
A Biblical story involving Canaan seems to refer to the ancient
discovery of the
cultivation of
grapes around 4000 BC around the area of
Ararat, which is associated with
Noah. After the Flood,
Noah planted
a vineyard, made wine but became drunk. While intoxicated, an
incident occurred involving him and his
youngest son,
Ham. Afterward, Noah
cursed Ham's son Canaan (but not Ham, for reasons that are not
stated) to a life of servitude (a possible pun on the Hebrew word
"Can" meaning serviteur). He is to serve his brothers (who
were not cursed either due to the respect they exhibited towards
their inebriated father) and also his uncles
Shem and
Japheth ( ). Noah's
curse is typically interpreted to apply to the descendants of the
mentioned figures. "Shem" includes the
Israelites,
Moabites, and
Ammonites, who dominated the Canaanite inland
areas around the Jordan Valley.
The Canaanites ( ) are said to have been one of seven regional
ethnic divisions or "nations" driven out before the
Israelites following the
Exodus. Specifically, the other nations include
the
Hittites, the
Girgashites, the
Amorites, the
Perizzites,
the
Hivites, and the
Jebusites ( ).
According to the
Book of
Jubilees, the Israelite conquest of Canaan, and the curse,
are attributed to Canaan's steadfast refusal to join his elder
brothers in Ham's allotment beyond the Nile, and instead
"squatting" on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, within the
inheritance delineated for Shem.
The Bible describes God cautioning the Israelites against the
sexual idolatry of the Canaanites and their
fertility cult ( ) . Thus the Land of the
Canaanites, defined as including these seven groups, was deemed
suitable for conquest by the Israelites partly on moral grounds (
). One of the
613 mitzvot (precisely n.
596) prescribes that no inhabitants of the cities of six Canaanite
nations, the same as mentioned in 7:1, minus the Girgashites, were
to be left alive. By the time of the Second Temple, "Canaanite" in
Hebrew had come to be not an ethnic designation, so much as a
general synonym for "merchant", as it is interpreted in, for
example, .
Historical context
Jonathan Tubbs, a British archaeologist, argued that the Israelites
were themselves Canaanites, and that "historical Israel", as
distinct from "literary" or "Biblical Israel" was a subset of
Canaanite culture. Canaan when used in this sense refers to the
entire
Ancient Near Eastern
Levant down to about 100 AD, including the
kingdoms of Israel and Judah. For example, Mark Smith in "The Early
History of God: Yahweh and Other Deities of Ancient Israel" states
"Despite the long regnant model that the Canaanites and Israelites
were people of fundamentally different culture, archaeological data
now casts doubt on this view. The material culture of the region
exhibits numerous common points between Israelites and Canaanites
in the Iron I period (ca. 1200–1000 BC). The record would suggest
that the Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from
Canaanite culture... In short, Israelite culture was largely
Canaanite in nature. Given the information available, one cannot
maintain a radical cultural separation between Canaanites and
Israelites for the Iron I period." (pp6–7).
Unlike
Mesopotamia or
Ancient Egypt, where documentation exists that
is rich and varied, the documentation about Canaan is very sparse.
The only
sources that come from inside the region are from Syria – with
Bronze Age cuneiform archives of Ebla
, Mari
, Alalakh
and Ugarit
.
Iron Age materials are even more scarce,
because writing then was mostly on
papyrus,
and unlike in Egypt, none of it has survived the humid climates of
the most populous parts of the region.
Any debate on the historicity of the Canaanites as presented in
Genesis must take into account that the Biblical narratives
represent a compilation of many individual sources of information.
This follows from the monumental study "Historicity of the
Patriarchal Narratives" by
Thomas
L. Thompson, published in
1974, which established a backbone for epigraphers, archaeologists
and Old Testament scholars that cannot be ignored, According to
Biblical minimalism, the process
of editing Biblical sources into a coherent narrative must have
occurred after the 7th or possibly the 6th century BC. (This
assertion is widely disputed by conservative scholars.) The writers
or editors of these Biblical texts had access to a very wide
variety of source materials, most of which were contemporary or
near contemporary with the time of writing. These included
religious and literary texts, songs, geographic and topographical
information, traditional folk legends,
propaganda and annalistic and chronological
information of specific events. This material had an unknown and
generally variable credibility. The writers intended not to produce
an objective modern historical account, but to present a
rationalisation for the theological and genealogical emergence of
the monotheistic entity called Israel, bound in a specific covenant
with a single divinity. Genesis was never intended to be a manual
for archaeological excavation, as the anachronisms were of no
concern to its contemporary audience, for whom the texts had
meaning.
Names of Canaanite kings or other figures mentioned in
historiography or known through archaeology
Confirmed archaeologically
- Ebrium, king of
Ebla

- Ibbi-Sipish, his
son, king of Ebla

- Ili-ilimma, father
of Idrimi, king of Halab

- Idrimi, king of
Alalakh

- Ammittamru I of
Ugarit
(Amarna letters)
- Niqmaddu II of
Ugarit
(Amarna letters) (1349–1315 BC)
- Arhalba of Ugarit
(1315–1313
BC)
- Niqmepa of Ugarit
(1313–1260
BC)
- Ammittamru II
of Ugarit
(1260–1235
BC)
- Ibiranu of Ugarit
(1235–1220
BC)
- Ammurapi of Ugarit
(1215–1185
BC)
- Aziru, ruler of Amurru (Amarna letters)
- Labaya, lord of
Shechem
(Amarna letters)
- Abdikheba, mayor of Jerusalem (Amarna
letters)
- Šuwardata, mayor of Qiltu (Amarna
letters)
Biblical Characters
- Canaan, son of Ham (Gen. 10:6)
- Sidon
, son of
Canaan (Gen. 10:15)
- Heth, firstborn son of Canaan (Gen.
10:15)
- Cronos (Ilus), founder
of Byblos
according
to Sanchuniathon
- Mamre
, an Amorite
chieftain (Gen. 13:18)
- Makamaron, king of Canaan (Jubilees
46:6)
- Sihon, king of Amorites (Deut 1:4)
- Og, king of Bashan
(Deut 1:4)
- Adonizedek, king
of Jerusalem
(Josh. 10:1)
- Debir, king of Eglon
(Josh. 10:3)
- Jabin, name of two kings of Hazor (Josh. 11:1; Judges 5:6)
Rulers of Tyre
Phoenician Canaanites
Early on the Canaanites acquired fame as traders across a wide area
beyond the
Near East. There are occasional
instances in the Hebrew Bible where "Canaanite" is used as a
synonym for "
merchant"—presumably
indicating the aspect of Canaanite culture that the authors found
most familiar. The term was derived from the place name, because so
many merchants described themselves as Canaanites.
One of
Canaan's most famous exports was a much sought-after purple dye,
derived from two species of Murex sea
snails found along the east Mediterranean
coast and worn proudly by figures from ancient
kings to modern popes.
Between
ca. 1200–1100 BC, most of southern Canaan
was settled, and according to the Bible conquered, by the Israelites
, while the northern areas were taken over by
Arameans. The remaining area
still under clear Canaanite control, is referred to by its Greek
name, "Phoenicia
" (meaning "purple", in reference to the land's
famous dye).
Much
later, in the 6th century BC, Hecataeus of Miletus affirms that
Phoenicia was formerly called χνα, a name that
Philo of Byblos subsequently adopted
into his mythology as his eponym for the Phoenicians: "Khna who was
afterwards called Phoinix
". Quoting fragments attributed to Sanchuniathon, he relates that Byblos
, Berytus
and Tyre
were among
the first cities ever built, under the rule of the mythical
Cronus, and credits the inhabitants with
developing fishing, hunting, agriculture, shipbuiding and
writing.
St. Augustine also mentions that
one of the terms the seafaring Phoenicians called their homeland
was "Canaan."
This is further confirmed by coins of the
city of Laodicea
by the Lebanon
, that bear
the legend, "Of Laodicea, a metropolis in Canaan"; these coins are
dated to the reign of Antiochus
IV (175–164 BC) and his
successors.
The first
of many Canaanites who emigrated seaward finally settled in
Carthage
, and St. Augustine adds that the country people
near Hippo
,
presumably Punic in origin, still called
themselves Chanani in his day.
See also
Notes
- Tubb, Jonathan N. (1998), "Canaanites" (British Museum People
of the Past)
- Zarins, Juris (1992), "Pastoral nomadism in Arabia:
ethnoarchaeology and the archaeological record—a case study" in O.
Bar-Yosef and A. Khazanov, eds. "Pastoralism in the Levant"
- Breasted, J.H. (1906) "Ancient records of Egypt" (University of
Illinois Press)
- Redford, Donald B. (1993)"Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient
Times", (Princeton University Press)
- Canaan article in the International
Standard Bible Encyclopedia online
- The Land of Israel: National Home Or Land of Destiny,
By Eliezer Schweid, Translated by Deborah Greniman, Published 1985
Fairleigh Dickinson Univ Press, ISBN 0838632343
- The Canaanites and Their Land (1991) by Niels Peter
Lemche, pp. 24 ff.
-
http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/words.pl?book=Gen&chapter=10&verse=23&strongs=0758&page=
-
http://www.blueletterbible.org/cgi-bin/words.pl?book=Gen&chapter=9&verse=18&strongs=03667&page=
- Lemche, p.26.
- Asimov,
Isaac, Asimov's Guide to the
Bible, Volume I, Page 44, Avon 1971
- John N. Oswalt, " ," in R. Laird Harris, Gleason L. Archer and
Bruce K. Waltke (eds.), Theological Wordbook of the Old
Testament (Chicago: Moody, 1980) 445–446.
- Tubb, Johnathan N. (1998) "Canaanites" (British Museum People
of the Past) p.15
- Killebrew Ann E. "Biblical Jerusalem: An Archaeological
Assessment" in Andrew G. Vaughn and Ann E. Killebrew, eds.,
"Jerusalem in Bible and Archaeology: The First Temple Period" (SBL
Symposium Series 18; Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature,
2003)
- Tubb, Johnathan N. (1998) "Canaanites" (British Museum People
of the Past) p.16
- See
- http://www.hindunet.org/saraswati/html/urseals.htm
- Seters John van, (1987), "Abraham in Myth and Tradition" (Yale
University Press)
- Thompson, Thomas L. (2000), "Early History of the Israelite
People: From the Written & Archaeological Sources" (Brill
Academic)
- El Amarna letter, EA 189.
- Who Were the Early Israelites?, William G. Dever.
Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Co., 2003, pp.
128, 236.
- Neil
A. Silberman and Israel Finkelstein, The Bible
Unearthed. New York: Simon and Schuster, 2001.
- Friedman, Richard Elliot (1997), "Who Wrote the Bible"
(Eerdmans)
- Friedman, Richard Elliot (2005), "The Bible with Sources
Revealed" (Eerdmans)
- http://www.savoreachglass.com/articles.php/13
- Smith, Mark (2002) "The Early History of God: Yahweh and Other
Deities of Ancient Israel" (Eerdman's)
- Thompson, Thomas L. (1974) "Historicity of the Patriarchal
Narratives"
- Van Seters, John "Abraham in History and Tradition"
- "But now, all the thinking about the historicity of the
Patriarchs is being radically reexamined. The somewhat facile
assumptions of the past are under fierce scrutiny" (p.25)
Magnusson,
Magnus (1977) "The archaeology of the Bible Lands" (Bodley Head
BBC)
- Thompson, Thomas L. (2000), "The Bible in History: How writers
create a past" (Pimlico)
- Mitchell, T.C. "The Bible in the British Museum: Interpreting
the Evidence" (British Museum Press) p. 75
- Jagersma, H. A (1985) "History of Israel to Bar Kochba" (SCM
Press) pp.14–33
- Redford, Donald B. "Egypt, Canaan and Israel in Ancient Times"
(Princeton Uni Press) pp.137ff
- "First the narratives represent a compilation of very many
individual sources" (p.17) Tubb, Johnathan N. (1998) "Canaanites"
(British Museum People of the Past)
- Tubb, Johnathan N. (1998) "Canaanites" (British Museum People
of the Past) p.17
- Soggin, J. Alberto (1985), "A History of Israel: from the
beginnings to the Bar Kochba revolt" (SCM Press) pp.90–108
- Whitelam, Keith W. (1996), "The Invention of Ancient Israel:
the silencing of Palestinian history" (Routledge) pp.52–57
- Anderson, G.W. (1966), "The History and Religion of Israel"
(Oxford Uni Press) pp.15–21
- "Unfortunately there are serious problems with this [Genesis
Patriarchs] Scheme. First it accepts impossibly long lifespans
assigned to the patriarchs. Second it is internally inconsistent.
Moses and Aaron were the fourth generation descendents of Jacobs
son Levi... The 430 years assigned to slavery in Egypt is too much
for the three generations from Levi to Moses, an average of 143
years" pp.2–3 ,McCarter, P. Kyle The Patriarchal Age: Abraham,
Isaac and Jacob" in Shanks, Hershel (Ed)(1989), "Ancient Israel: A
Short History from Abraham to the Roman Destruction of the Temple"
(SPCK)
References
Further reading
External links