User:Ioe bidome/Canaanites

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History[edit]

Canaan, or at least israel, was first inhabited approximately 1.5 million years ago.[1] Semitic speakers first inhabited Canaan in 2500 BCE.[citation needed] Canaan was conquered by Egypt in 1500s BCE, who fought at least one war over the area, but lost control of it during the bronze age collapse in the 12th century BC. It is (allegedly) during the 13th century BC that the Exodus from Egypt and conquest of Canaan happened.[2]:8 Canaan then became mostly independent tribes and city states, before uniting into several kingdoms. Canaan was then conquered by the Neo-Assyrian empire in 720, then the Neo-Babylonian empire in the 580's, and finally the Achaemenids in the 530s. The Achaemenids themselves were conquered by Alexander the Great of Macedon in the 330s.

Depiction in the Bible[edit]

All of the Canaanites except Israelites and Judahites trace their origins back to the eponymous son of Ham, Canaan.[3] After Ham's act, Noah curses Canaan to forever be the slaves of the Israelites, for some reason. The Israelites went to Egypt and were enslaved there for who knows how long, but they returned and began conquering a bunch of stuff.

The depiction of Israel's neighbors is relatively uniform (italics in original):[4]:195

Having learned something about a particular group’s pottery, iconography, art, language, and history, and then starting on the “biblical representation” sections, I discovered a similar pattern almost every time: the neighbor has shameful origins; they have a bad religion; they fought with Israel; and the prophets hate them, predicting doom.

Notable Biblical Canaanite groups[edit]

Israel and Judah[edit]

Israel and Judah were two kingdoms that developed in the 10th and 9th centuries BCE. According to the Bible, they originally twelve tribes that unified into one kingdom, which then split in two. Israel was conquered in 722,[5]:240 Judah 586 or 587,[5]:255 both by Assyria.

Moabites[edit]

The Moabites are a Canaanite tribe mentioned in the bible.

Their god beat Yahweh[edit]

In 2 Kings 3:26-27 we get this:

And when the king of Moab saw that the battle was too sore for him, he took with him seven hundred men that drew swords, to break through even unto the king of Edom: but they could not. Then he took his eldest son that should have reigned in his stead, and offered him for a burnt offering upon the wall. And there was great indignation against Israel: and they departed from him, and returned to their own land.[6]

So the king of Moab sacrificed his eldest son, and then the Israelites suffered a "Great indignation"? Sounds like a defeat to us. This incident is apparently mentioned in the Mesha Stele, which is dated to the ninth century, but from the Moabite perspective. No child sacrifice is mentioned on the stone, however. The date may also be different than the one traditionally used.[7]:133

Amalekites[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Amalekites

Less a tribe and more a designation for whoever is threatening Israel at the moment.

Edomites[edit]

The Edomites are a Canaanite tribe mentioned in the bible. They existed to the south of Judah, and fought the Israelites in various wars.[8] They were conquered by the Israelites and assimilated in the 2nd century BCE. The god Yahweh may have been imported from them.[9]:282

Ammonites[edit]

Not to be confused with the extinct mollusc group

The Ammonites are a Canaanite tribe mentioned in the Bible. They existed to the west of the northern kingdom Israel, and north of Moab. Like most other Canaanite tribes, they fought the Israelites at least once.[10] The Israelites hated them and the prophet Zephaniah actually wished for them to be destroyed.[11]

Amorites[edit]

The Amorites are, like the Amalekites, not a tribe but whoever is threatening Israel at the moment.[12]:1-2

Other Levantine cultures[edit]

These cultures are either closely related to the "Biblical" Canaanites or lived in approximately the same area as them.

Ugaritics[edit]

The Ugaritics were a northwest semitic people that lived in the city of Ugarit in Syria.[13] They created the "Ba'al Cycle", a collection of stories about Baal which bear some similarity to stories from the Bible, suggesting Ugaritic influence or common descent.[14]

Arameans[edit]

The Arameans were a group of tribes and kingdoms. The most important such kingdom is Aram-Damascus, which called the Neo-Assyrian empire for help.[15]

Phoenicians[edit]

See the main article on this topic: Phoenicia

The Phoenicians were the people who made all those voyages. They also founded a number of important locations:

The eeeevil wife of Ahab, Jezebel, was from Phoenicia.[16]

Philistines[edit]

The Philistines were a group that lived in Canaan and mentioned in the Bible. They were the remnants of the Sea Peoples who settled in Israel.[4]:149-51

Notes[edit]

References[edit]

  1. Tchernov, Eitan (1988). "The Age of 'Ubeidiya Formation (Jordan Valley, Israel) and the Earliest Hominids in the Levant". Paléorient. 14 (2): 63–65. doi:10.3406/paleo.1988.4455. JSTOR 41492295.
  2. Dever, William (2003). Who Were the Early Israelites and Where Did They Come From?. Eerdmans. ISBN 978-0-8028-0975-9.
  3. Genesis 9:18
  4. 4.0 4.1 Doak, Brian R. (2020). Ancient Israel's neighbors. New York: Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0-19-069059-5.
  5. 5.0 5.1 The Oxford Handbook of the Books of Kings. Oxford University Press. 2024-07-08. doi:10.1093/oxfordhb/9780197610374.001.0001. ISBN 978-0-19-761037-4.
  6. 2 Kings 3:26-27
  7. Grabbe, Lester L. (2007-04-28). Ahab Agonistes. London ; New York, NY: A&C Black. ISBN 0-567-04540-4. OCLC 123796529.
  8. 2 Kings 3:9, 2 Kings 8:20-22, 2 Kings 14:7, 1 Chronicles 18:11-13, 2 Chronicles 21:8-102 Chronicles 28:17, 1 Samuel 14:47
  9. Van der Toorn, Karel (1996). Family Religion in Babylonia, Syria, and Israel. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-10410-5. Archived from the original on 1 July 2023. Retrieved 1 November 2023.
  10. 1 Samuel 11:11
  11. Zephaniah 2:9
  12. Wasserman, Nathan; Bloch, Yigal (2023-07-24). The Amorites. Leiden ; Boston: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-04-54731-5.
  13. Schniedewind, William M.; Hunt, Joel H. (2007). A primer on Ugaritic: language, culture, and literature. New York: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 978-0-511-99696-2.
  14. Smith, M.S. (1994). The Ugaritic Baal Cycle. Supplements to Vetus Testamentum, Vol. 55. Vol. I. Leiden: E.J. Brill. ISBN 978-90-04-09995-1.
  15. Halpern, Baruch; Lemaire, André (2010-07-07). The Books of Kings. Leiden Boston: BRILL. ISBN 978-90-474-3073-5.
  16. 1 Kings 16:31

Further reading[edit]