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CANAAN

(Heb. kĕnaʿan),
CANAANITES (kĕnaʿanî)

Name

The origin of the name Canaan and Canaanite is obscure. The obvious Semitic root seems to be *knʿ which appears in Hebrew and Aramaic in secondary verbal stems, meaning “to bow down.” The unaccented suffix -an is not common in Semitic. The older view that it represented the name of a blue colored cloth (cf. Nuzi kinaḫḫu) has been challenged. Nevertheless, cuneiform sources, especially the Amarna Letters, often speak of Kinaḫḫi, Kinaḫni as an orthography for Canaan. The use of ḫ-signs is simply a graphic means to represent the guttural ʿayin to which the final -n is often assimilated. A few LXX passages translate Canaan or Canaanites as phoiníkōn (Josh. 5:12; Job 40:25[MT 30]) or phoiníkēs (Exod. 16:35; Josh. 5:1). An eponymous ancestor Chnā is cited by Sanchuniaton and explained by Philo of Byblos as the first to bear the title Phoinikos, “Phoenician.”

Land

Biblical Sources

There are two border descriptions for the geographical entity known as the land of Canaan (Heb. ʾereṣ kĕnāʿan, Num. 34:1-12; Ezek. 47:15-20; 48:1-28). The southern border is identical with that assigned to the tribal inheritance of Judah (Josh. 15:1-4); it begins at the southern end of the Dead Sea and reaches the Mediterranean shore at the “Brook of Egypt” (naḥal miṣrayim = Wadi el-ʿArîsh; cf. the inscriptions of Esarhaddon, 7th century b.c.). The midway point is marked by Kadesh(-barnea) located near {Ain Qudeis. It is doubtful whether this southern border was in effect during the Late Bronze Age as it finds no echo in the Egyptian sources that deal with northern Sinai.

The northern border has two crucial anchor points: lĕḇôʾ ḥâmaṯ (“the entrance to Hamath”) is surely modern Lebweh located on the watershed between the Litani and Orontes rivers in the Lebanese Beqaʿ Valley. The other site is Zedad, modern Òadâd N of Damascus. The border swings around to the east encompassing the entire Damascene district including the Bashan area and it touches the eastern shore of the Chinnereth (Sea of Galilee). The Jordan River is the eastern boundary (cf. the controversy in Josh. 22 about the relation of the Transjordanian tribes to Israel even though they lived outside of Canaan).

The Ezekiel passages show that this northern boundary for Canaan was recognized in the 6th century. It must reflect the actual southern boundary of the kingdom of Hamath in the Iron Age. The difference between the area actually occupied by a population associated with Israel and the geographical territory of Canaan is expressed in the “land that remains” (Josh. 13:1-6).

The reference to the zone occupied by the Canaanites (Gen. 10:19) only makes use of major geographical centers, e.g., Sidon (from which the Canaanite border was always much farther north) and Gaza (where the Canaanite border was always much farther south). There is no justification in this passage for identifying the Brook of Egypt with the Wadi Ghazzeh.

Nonbiblical Sources

Unfortunately, the famous peace treaty between Rameses II and Hattusili III does not have a border description defining the spheres under political control of the respective parties. There is reason to believe, however, that it would resemble in detail the biblical boundary description of Num. 34:7-9. A number of Bronze Age references point in this direction.

The earliest allusion to Canaanites is from a Mari text (A.3552) which is the report of a general known to be operating in the vicinity of Qatanum, where he has come to a standoff with some ḫabbātum u Kinaḫnu (“Raiders and Canaanites”) who are located at a place called Rāḫiṣu (cf. Rôǵiṣu, topographical list of Thutmose III, no. 79; also Amarna texts).

The renegade prince Idrimi refers in his autobiography to the town of Ammiya in the land of Canaan, most likely modern Amyûn in the hills above Byblos. After he seized the throne of Alalakh, on the northern bend of the Orontes, Canaanites were present, but listed as foreigners.

Likewise, Ugaritic texts record “Yaʿilu, a Canaanite” (KTU² 496:7) just as they record an Egyptian or a Hittite or an Assyrian. Furthermore, a fragmentary report of a lawsuit found at Ugarit (RS 20.182 A + B) mentions the “sons of Ugarit” and the “sons of Canaan” as the disputants. Ugarit and its kingdom were not part of Canaan and its people were not considered Canaanites.

An epistle from Alashia (probably on Cyprus) makes specific reference to “the province of Canaan” (EA 36:15). The king of the Mitanni Empire sent an ambassador with a letter of introduction to “the kings of the land of Canaan” (EA 30:1).

The use of knʿn as a synonym for Phoiníkē on Beirut coins from the Hellenistic period shows that Laodicea in Canaan (Beirut) was distinguished from its more famous namesake farther north (11 km. [6.8 mi.] S of Ugarit).

People

Biblical Sources

It is not possible to define an ethnic group as the “Canaanites,” but a social entity recognized in the Bible as the “inhabitants of Canaan” (Exod. 15:15) is distinct from the Philistines and the Transjordanian Edomites and Moabites. The coalition of rulers at the battle of Deborah and Barak consists of the “kings of Canaan” (Judg. 5:19). The Canaanites are often listed and sometimes contrasted with other peoples such as the Amorites (Deut. 1:7; Josh. 5:1) or Perizzites (Gen. 34:30). In Gen. 15:19-21 the Canaanites appear among a long list of peoples, thus demonstrating that the geographical entity included in that promise to Abraham (“from the river of Egypt to the great river, the river Euphrates,” Gen. 15:18) was much larger than the land of Canaan. A number of these lists (Num. 13:29; Deut. 1:7; Josh. 5:1; 13:3; 17:15-18; Judg. 1:1-36) place the Canaanites on the coastal plain and the inland Jezreel and Jordan valleys.

A number of cities and populations are listed in Gen. 10:16-18 which are said to be part of the Canaanite people: Sidon (the most prominent city-state of Phoenicia during the late Israelite and Persian period), Heth (the neo-Hittites, actually speakers of Aramaic by the 9th century), and a group of pre-Israelite peoples: Jebusites, Amorites, Girgashites, and Hivites. In 2 Sam. 24:7 the “cities of the Hivites and Canaanites” are evidently those towns not conquered in the initial settlement process (Judg. 1). Other city populations in Gen. 10:17-18 (cf. extrabiblical references to ʿArqat, Siyannu, Arwad, Sumur, and Hamath on the Orontes) were all in extreme northern Phoenicia, some just outside the northern biblical boundary of Canaan.

One context uses the term Canaanites as an epithet for merchants (Isa. 23:8; cf. Prov. 31:24; Zech. 14:21; Ezek. 16:29; 17:4; Hos. 12:7[8]; Zeph. 1:11; which reflect the role of the Phoenicians, the Iron Age Canaanites, in Mediterranean commerce).

Nonbiblical Sources

The list of booty from Thutmose III’s first campaign as sole ruler mentions “640 Canaanites,” but no other national or ethnic groups are listed, only social groups (e.g., ma-r-ya-na, “chariot warriors” [noblemen]). The Ki-na-ʿ-nu are paralleled by the “Hurrians,” here residents in the southern Levant, and the Nuǵassians, residents of central Syria. Actually, the Canaanites in the first list correspond to the Hurrians in the second. So the Egyptian knew the Canaanites as one among several national/ethnic groups in the Levant.

Culture and Religion

The most detailed picture of ancient Canaanite religious beliefs is found in Philo of Byblos’ Phoenician History, preserved only in Eusebius’ Preparation for the Gospel and Porphyry’s Against the Christians. This ancient work probably is based partly on original Phoenician traditions from Tyre and Byblos and perhaps Sidon. There are a cosmogony and the history of Kronos (whom Philo equates with El), who eventually overcomes Ouranos his father. Both the sources of Philo and those of Hesiod seem to go back to earlier Near Eastern traditions such as the Hittite Kumarbi myth. The texts speak of a cosmological creation from chaos and of the rule of Kronos on earth. There are some striking points of contact with the biblical cosmogony in Gen. 1-2 and also mythological contacts with the literary myths and legends found at Ugarit. It is usually assumed in scholarly literature today that the Ugaritic materials, including the stories of various members of the pantheon, reflect “Canaanite” religion. However, geographically and politically (also ethnically) Ugarit was not a Canaanite city.

To reconstruct a clear picture of Canaanite religion is virtually impossible. Each of the coastal cities of Phoenicia as well as non-Phoenician Ugarit must have had their own distinct versions of the great religious myths, theogonies, and cosmogonies. Some features, like child sacrifice (attested mainly in late sources and in Punic [Carthage] archaeology), were known to the neighboring peoples, but the ideology of that practice is not recorded in any ancient Phoenician or Classical texts. That Baal and Asherah were the leading deities is obvious from the many biblical denunciations of their worship, but there is no record of the mythology or ideology attached to them.

The biblical view of Canaanite religious practices is thoroughly negative. A frequent theme is inclinations of Israel to adopt the practices of the peoples among whom they were living in Canaan (Judg. 3:1-6). They are frequently exhorted to “put away the foreign gods and the Ashteroth from among you” (1 Sam. 7:3). The northern kingdom was destroyed because “they went after false idols and became false; they followed the nations that were around them” (2 Kgs. 17:15; cf. Amos). Solomon also fostered the worship of the deities from the neighboring peoples (1 Kgs. 11:4-8). The reign of Manasseh was the most notorious for its adoption of foreign cult practices (2 Kgs. 21:2-9; 2 Chr. 33:2-9). Such a polemical attitude hardly permitted any biblical writer the opportunity to give an objective appraisal of Canaanite or other neighboring religion.

Phoenician inscriptions and some Greco-Roman sources furnish the names of various deities: e.g., “The Lady of Byblos,” “Baal of Heaven,” Melqart (at Tyre), Ashmun (at Sidon). But beyond some mythical themes preserved in Greek sources, there is no real access to religious texts.

Various temples excavated in Middle and Late Bronze contexts in Palestine (e.g., Hazor, Megiddo, Shechem, Beth-shean) show some general features in common: outer courtyard, vestibule, main chamber and inner room, niche or platform for the deity’s image. However, they seldom have the same orientation to the compass, and types of altars associated with them (if found at all) are not uniformly placed.

Household worship may be implied by cult figurines and other similar artifacts, but their use is still disputed. They most likely have to do with fertility and childbirth.

Artistic forms in ceramics, ivory carving, and metalwork are basically the same in Canaan as in North Syria (including Ugarit). There really is no distinctive “Canaanite” art with features that set it apart from the entire eastern Mediterranean littoral (and Cyprus). Ivory carving and glyptic art do show considerable adoption of Egyptian forms and themes, but this is typical of the entire area, not just objects found in Canaan.

Language

The most legitimate claim to the title Canaanite goes to what modern scholars call Phoenician. Phoenician spread beyond the traditional borders of Canaan; it was adopted by kingdoms in Cilicia and northern Syria, by Phoenician colonies on Cyprus and the northern shores of Africa (Punic in Graeco-Roman times) and Malta. However, the close affinities of ancient Hebrew show that it too was a dialect of the same family. The Amarna Letters from Canaanite scribes were composed in a strange mixed Akkadian/West Semitic dialect. Since this hybrid language is confined to the area known from the geographical texts as Canaan, the West Semitic linguistic features can legitimately be called “Canaanite.”

Ugaritic is usually called a Canaanite dialect, but in spite of many isoglosses (and also syntactic and literary expressions and phrases) there are strong similarities to some dialects of Aramaic. The short, so-called Phoenician alphabet of only 22 characters was known sporadically at Ugarit (in contrast to the native alphabet with many more consonants), but only as an intrusion, an import.

Bibliography. M. C. Astour, “The Origin of the Terms ‘Canaan,’ ‘Phoenician,’ and ‘Purple,’ ” JNES 24 (1965): 346-50; N. P. Lemche, The Canaanites and Their Land. JSOTSup 110 (Sheffield, 1991); B. Mazar (Maisler), “Canaan and the Canaanites,” BASOR 102 (1946): 7-12; The Early Biblical Period (Jerusalem, 1980); A. F. Rainey, Canaanite in the Amarna Tablets, 4 vols. HO 25 (Leiden, 1996); “Unruly Elements in Late Bronze Canaanite Society,” in Pomegranates and Golden Bells, ed. D. P. Wright, D. N. Freedman, and A. Hurvitz (Winona Lake, 1995), 481-96; “Who Is a Canaanite? A Review of the Textual Evidence,” BASOR 304 (1996): 1-15; K. N. Schoville, “Canaanites and Amorites,” in Peoples of the Old Testament World, ed. A. J. Hoerth, G. L. Mattingly, and E. M. Yamauchi (Grand Rapids, 1994), 157-82; M. S. Smith, “Myth and Mythmaking in Canaan and Ancient Israel,” CANE 3:2031-41.

Anson F. Rainey

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

CANAAN

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)