Canaan (Bible)
Encyclopedia
Canaan, according to the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible
, was a son of Ham and grandson of Noah
.
ite tribes who occupied the ancient Land of Canaan
: all the territory from Sidon to Gaza
, and from the Cities of the Plain
to Lasha
. This territory is roughly the areas of modern day Israel
, Palestine
, and Lebanon
. Canaan's firstborn son was Sidon, who shares his name with the Phoenicia
n city of Sidon in present-day Lebanon. His second son was named Heth. His descendants, according to the Hebrew Bible, include:
According to traditional Ethiopia
n histories, Canaan's son Arwadi (= "the Arvadite") and his wife Entela crossed from Asia into Ethiopia in ca. 2100 BC, and the Qemant
tribe were said to be descended from their son, Anayer. There is further an Ethiopian tradition that two other Canaanite tribes — the Sinites and Zemarites — also entered Ethiopia at the time it was ruled by the Kingdom of Kush
, becoming the Shanqella
and Weyto people
s respectively.
The Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari
(c. 915) recounted a tradition that the wife of Canaan was named Arsal, a daughter of Batawil son of Tiras
, and that she bore him the "Blacks, Nubians, Fezzan
, Zanj
, Zaghawah, and all the peoples of the Sudan."
The German historian Johannes Aventinus
(fl. c. 1525) recorded a legend that two of Canaan's other sons - the "Arkite" and the "Hamathite" - first settled in the area of Greece, giving their names to the regions of Arcadia
and Emathia
.
, "Curse of Ham
", has been attributed to since Classical antiquity
.
Ibn Ezra
suggests that Canaan was a participant in the offense against Noah.
According to the Book of Jubilees, Canaan was cursed twice. It chronologically places the first incident involving Noah's drunkenness 13 years after the deluge, in 1321 A.M.
Later (10:29-34), both the Israelite conquest of Canaan and the curse are also attributed to Canaan's steadfast refusal to join his elder brothers in Ham's allotment beyond the Nile
, and to his "squatting" instead on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, within the inheritance delineated for Arpachshad
and Shem
.
Pseudo-Berossus, on the other hand, contains a statement that it was Noah, aka Janus
, who sent Canaan to live "in Damascus as far as the edge of Palestine".
, who follow Julius Wellhausen
, typically view the curse of Canaan in Genesis 9:20-27, as an early Hebrew rationalization for Israel
's conquest over Canaan
. When Noah cursed Canaan in Genesis 9:25, he used the expression "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren."NKJV By using the expression “servant of servants”, otherwise translated “slave of slaves”,NIV this grammatical construction emphasizes the extreme degree of servitude that Canaan will undergo in relation to his "brothers". In the following passage, "of Shem... may Canaan be his servant,"[9:26] the narrarator is foreshadow
ing Israel’s conquest of the promised land. Biblical scholar, Philip R. Davies
explains that the author of this narrative used Noah
to curse Canaan, in order to provide justification for the later Israelite
s driving out and enslaving the Canaanites.
From a different perspective, Umberto Cassuto
connects Canaan serving Shem to mean the children of Canaan who served under Chedorlaomer
, king of Elam
,[Gen 14:4] a descendant of Shem
.
Hebrew Bible
The Hebrew Bible is a term used by biblical scholars outside of Judaism to refer to the Tanakh , a canonical collection of Jewish texts, and the common textual antecedent of the several canonical editions of the Christian Old Testament...
, was a son of Ham and grandson of Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
.
Descendants of Canaan
According to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 (verses 16-18), Canaan was the ancestor of the CanaanCanaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
ite tribes who occupied the ancient Land of Canaan
Land of Canaan
Land of Canaan is a Mystery-thriller film and is directed by Reginald LaFrance, it stars Christina Applegate, Robert Englund, Juliet Landau and Neve Campbell.-Plot:...
: all the territory from Sidon to Gaza
Gaza
Gaza , also referred to as Gaza City, is a Palestinian city in the Gaza Strip, with a population of about 450,000, making it the largest city in the Palestinian territories.Inhabited since at least the 15th century BC,...
, and from the Cities of the Plain
Cities of the Plain
Cities of the Plain is the final volume of American novelist Cormac McCarthy's "Border Trilogy", published in 1998. A film adaptation to be directed by Andrew Dominik has been announced for release in 2012...
to Lasha
Lasha
Lasha, meaning fissure - a place apparently east of the Dead Sea . It was afterwards known as Callirhoe, a place famous for its hot springs....
. This territory is roughly the areas of modern day Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
, Palestine
Palestine
Palestine is a conventional name, among others, used to describe the geographic region between the Mediterranean Sea and the Jordan River, and various adjoining lands....
, and Lebanon
Lebanon
Lebanon , officially the Republic of LebanonRepublic of Lebanon is the most common term used by Lebanese government agencies. The term Lebanese Republic, a literal translation of the official Arabic and French names that is not used in today's world. Arabic is the most common language spoken among...
. Canaan's firstborn son was Sidon, who shares his name with the Phoenicia
Phoenicia
Phoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
n city of Sidon in present-day Lebanon. His second son was named Heth. His descendants, according to the Hebrew Bible, include:
- Sidonites, possible ancestors of the PhoeniciaPhoeniciaPhoenicia , was an ancient civilization in Canaan which covered most of the western, coastal part of the Fertile Crescent. Several major Phoenician cities were built on the coastline of the Mediterranean. It was an enterprising maritime trading culture that spread across the Mediterranean from 1550...
ns. - HittitesBiblical HittitesThe Hittites and children of Heth are a people or peoples mentioned in the Hebrew Bible. They are listed in Book of Genesis as second of the twelve Canaanite nations, descended from one Heth...
, children of Heth. - JebusiteJebusiteAccording to the Hebrew Bible, the Jebusites were a Canaanite tribe who inhabited and built Jerusalem prior to its conquest by King David; the Books of Kings state that Jerusalem was known as Jebus prior to this event...
s - AmoriteAmoriteAmorite refers to an ancient Semitic people who occupied large parts of Mesopotamia from the 21st Century BC...
s - Girgashites
- Hivites
- Arkites
- Sinites
- Arvadites
- Zemarites
- Hamathites
According to traditional Ethiopia
Ethiopia
Ethiopia , officially known as the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a country located in the Horn of Africa. It is the second-most populous nation in Africa, with over 82 million inhabitants, and the tenth-largest by area, occupying 1,100,000 km2...
n histories, Canaan's son Arwadi (= "the Arvadite") and his wife Entela crossed from Asia into Ethiopia in ca. 2100 BC, and the Qemant
Qemant
The Qemant are a small ethnic group in Ethiopia, who, despite their close historical and ethnic relationship, should not be confused with the Beta Israel....
tribe were said to be descended from their son, Anayer. There is further an Ethiopian tradition that two other Canaanite tribes — the Sinites and Zemarites — also entered Ethiopia at the time it was ruled by the Kingdom of Kush
Kingdom of Kush
The native name of the Kingdom was likely kaš, recorded in Egyptian as .The name Kash is probably connected to Cush in the Hebrew Bible , son of Ham ....
, becoming the Shanqella
Shanqella
Shanqella is an Ethiopian term used to refer to a number of ethnic groups residing primarily in the western-most part of Ethiopia and who constitute about 5% of Ethiopia's population...
and Weyto people
Weyto people
The Weyto people are a group of hippopotamus hunters who lived in Ethiopia around Lake Tana. They were known to speak the Weyto Language, which became extinct at some point in the 19th century...
s respectively.
The Persian historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari
Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari
Abu Ja'far Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari was a prominent and influential Sunni scholar and exegete of the Qur'an from Persia...
(c. 915) recounted a tradition that the wife of Canaan was named Arsal, a daughter of Batawil son of Tiras
Tiras
Tiras was, according to and Chronicles 1, the last-named son of Japheth who is otherwise unmentioned in the Hebrew Bible. According to the Book of Jubilees, the inheritance of Tiras consisted of four large islands in the ocean....
, and that she bore him the "Blacks, Nubians, Fezzan
Fezzan
Fezzan is a south western region of modern Libya. It is largely desert but broken by mountains, uplands, and dry river valleys in the north, where oases enable ancient towns and villages to survive deep in the otherwise inhospitable Sahara.-Name:...
, Zanj
Zanj
Zanj was a name used by medieval Arab geographers to refer to both a certain portion of the coast of East Africa and its inhabitants, Bantu-speaking peoples called the Zanj...
, Zaghawah, and all the peoples of the Sudan."
The German historian Johannes Aventinus
Johannes Aventinus
Johannes Aventinus was a Bavarian historian and philologist. He wrote Annals of Bavaria, a valuable record of the early history of Germany...
(fl. c. 1525) recorded a legend that two of Canaan's other sons - the "Arkite" and the "Hamathite" - first settled in the area of Greece, giving their names to the regions of Arcadia
Arcadia
Arcadia is one of the regional units of Greece. It is part of the administrative region of Peloponnese. It is situated in the central and eastern part of the Peloponnese peninsula. It takes its name from the mythological character Arcas. In Greek mythology, it was the home of the god Pan...
and Emathia
Emathia
For the modern Greek prefecture, see ImathiaEmathia is an earliest and poetic name of Macedonia , but foremost it roughly corresponds to the district of Bottiaea around Pella.-Classical sources:...
.
Curse of Canaan
According to , Noah became drunk then cursed his grandson Canaan, for the transgression of his father, Ham. This is the Curse of Canaan that the possible misnomerMisnomer
A misnomer is a term which suggests an interpretation that is known to be untrue. Such incorrect terms sometimes derive their names because of the form, action, or origin of the subject becoming named popularly or widely referenced—long before their true natures were known.- Sources of misnomers...
, "Curse of Ham
Curse of Ham
The Curse of Ham is a possible misnomer, for the Curse of Canaan. The curse refers to Noah cursing Ham's offspring Canaan, for Ham's own transgression against his father, according to Genesis in the Hebrew Bible. The debate regarding upon whom the curse fell has raged for at least two thousand...
", has been attributed to since Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity
Classical antiquity is a broad term for a long period of cultural history centered on the Mediterranean Sea, comprising the interlocking civilizations of ancient Greece and ancient Rome, collectively known as the Greco-Roman world...
.
Ham's transgression: And Ham, the father of Canaan, saw the nakedness of his father, and told his two brethren without. (Genesis 9:22)
Genesis 9:24-27
24 And Noah awoke from his wine, and knew what his younger son [Ham] had done unto him.
25 And he said, Cursed [be] Canaan; a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.
26 And he said, Blessed [be] the LORD God of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
27 God shall enlarge Japheth, and he shall dwell in the tents of Shem; and Canaan shall be his servant.
(--Authorized King James Version)
Ibn Ezra
Abraham ibn Ezra
Rabbi Abraham ben Meir Ibn Ezra was born at Tudela, Navarre in 1089, and died c. 1167, apparently in Calahorra....
suggests that Canaan was a participant in the offense against Noah.
According to the Book of Jubilees, Canaan was cursed twice. It chronologically places the first incident involving Noah's drunkenness 13 years after the deluge, in 1321 A.M.
Anno Mundi
' , abbreviated as AM or A.M., refers to a Calendar era based on the Biblical creation of the world. Numerous efforts have been made to determine the Biblical date of Creation, yielding varying results. Besides differences in interpretation, which version of the Bible is being referenced also...
Later (10:29-34), both the Israelite conquest of Canaan and the curse are also attributed to Canaan's steadfast refusal to join his elder brothers in Ham's allotment beyond the Nile
Nile
The Nile is a major north-flowing river in North Africa, generally regarded as the longest river in the world. It is long. It runs through the ten countries of Sudan, South Sudan, Burundi, Rwanda, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Tanzania, Kenya, Ethiopia, Uganda and Egypt.The Nile has two major...
, and to his "squatting" instead on the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, within the inheritance delineated for Arpachshad
Arpachshad
Arpachshad or Arphaxad or Arphacsad was one of the five sons of Shem, the son of Noah . His brothers were Elam, Asshur, Lud and Aram; he is an ancestor of Abraham. He is said by Gen...
and Shem
Shem
Shem was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each...
.
Pseudo-Berossus, on the other hand, contains a statement that it was Noah, aka Janus
Janus
-General:*Janus , the two-faced Roman god of gates, doors, doorways, beginnings, and endings*Janus , a moon of Saturn*Janus Patera, a shallow volcanic crater on Io, a moon of Jupiter...
, who sent Canaan to live "in Damascus as far as the edge of Palestine".
Narrative criticism
Source criticsSource criticism (Biblical studies)
Source criticism, as the term is used in biblical criticism, refers to the attempt to establish the sources used by the author and/or redactor of the final text...
, who follow Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen
Julius Wellhausen , was a German biblical scholar and orientalist, noted particularly for his contribution to scholarly understanding of the origin of the Pentateuch/Torah ....
, typically view the curse of Canaan in Genesis 9:20-27, as an early Hebrew rationalization for Israel
Israel
The State of Israel is a parliamentary republic located in the Middle East, along the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea...
's conquest over Canaan
Canaan
Canaan is a historical region roughly corresponding to modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, and the western parts of Jordan...
. When Noah cursed Canaan in Genesis 9:25, he used the expression "Cursed be Canaan; A servant of servants He shall be to his brethren."NKJV By using the expression “servant of servants”, otherwise translated “slave of slaves”,NIV this grammatical construction emphasizes the extreme degree of servitude that Canaan will undergo in relation to his "brothers". In the following passage, "of Shem... may Canaan be his servant,"[9:26] the narrarator is foreshadow
Foreshadow
Foreshadow is a Polish record label.The label formarly included such artists as As All Die, Moss, Niko Skorpio, Oktor, Quercus, The River, Transcendent Device, Váli. Current artists include Dream System, Nadja, and Newbreed....
ing Israel’s conquest of the promised land. Biblical scholar, Philip R. Davies
Philip R. Davies
Philip R. Davies is a biblical scholar with interests in Early Judaism, History of Ancient Israel, and the Dead Sea Scrolls. Davies has been labeled a biblical minimalist and associated with the Copenhagen School...
explains that the author of this narrative used Noah
Noah
Noah was, according to the Hebrew Bible, the tenth and last of the antediluvian Patriarchs. The biblical story of Noah is contained in chapters 6–9 of the book of Genesis, where he saves his family and representatives of all animals from the flood by constructing an ark...
to curse Canaan, in order to provide justification for the later Israelite
Israelite
According to the Bible the Israelites were a Hebrew-speaking people of the Ancient Near East who inhabited the Land of Canaan during the monarchic period .The word "Israelite" derives from the Biblical Hebrew ישראל...
s driving out and enslaving the Canaanites.
From a different perspective, Umberto Cassuto
Umberto Cassuto
Umberto Cassuto, also known as Moshe David Cassuto, , was a rabbi and Biblical scholar born in Florence, Italy. -Early life and career:...
connects Canaan serving Shem to mean the children of Canaan who served under Chedorlaomer
Chedorlaomer
Chedorlaomer "a handful of sheaves", was a king of Elam according to the Hebrew Bible book of Genesis Chapter 14. He ruled fourteen years, from the East in southwestern Persia, occupying the regions east of the Jordan river, in the days of Abram...
, king of Elam
Elam
Elam was an ancient civilization located in what is now southwest Iran. Elam was centered in the far west and the southwest of modern-day Iran, stretching from the lowlands of Khuzestan and Ilam Province, as well as a small part of southern Iraq...
,[Gen 14:4] a descendant of Shem
Shem
Shem was one of the sons of Noah in the Hebrew Bible as well as in Islamic literature. He is most popularly regarded as the eldest son, though some traditions regard him as the second son. Genesis 10:21 refers to relative ages of Shem and his brother Japheth, but with sufficient ambiguity in each...
.
External links
- Encyclopedia Britannica Online Article (subscription/registration required)