Canaan

In few places are so many different environments found in so little of an area. It is a land of milk and honey, the “Promised Land”; and no piece of ground has been fought over, and conquered, more than the land of Canaan.

What the Bible calls the land of Canaan was known to the Egyptians as Djahy, part of the greater area known as Retenu or Khor; later empires would speak of it as part of Beyond the River or Greater Syria. In archaeology it is often deemed the southern part of the Levant; today its land is part of the nations of Israel, the occupied lands of Palestine, Lebanon, and Syria. It extends from the “River of Egypt” near modern-day Gaza east to the Dead Sea and all of the land west of the Jordan River until one reaches the Anti-Lebanon Mountains in the north. On the west the land is bounded by the Mediterranean Sea.

This strip of land extends only about one hundred miles north to south and no more than around sixty miles east to west. And yet the biodiversity of this land remains unparalleled: there are coastal plains which lead to the central hill country, followed by the steepest descent in the world into the Great Rift Valley of the Jordan River; the land becomes drier as one proceeds further south, and becomes more fertile as one goes north. The land enjoys a temperate Mediterranean climate with a dry and rainy season, with the latter generally expressing itself with rains at the beginning and end of the period, the early and latter rains. We can only imagine how much more fertile the whole land of Canaan would have been before the 4.2 Kiloyear event; Lot saw the land to its east as well-watered like the Garden of Eden in Genesis 13:10. Yet even in the later periods of antiquity the land would have proven more fertile than it does today.

Canaan was identified as the son of Ham and likely a product of incest between Ham and his mother, the wife of Noah; for this reason Canaan was cursed to become a slave to his brothers (Genesis 9:18-27). Canaan’s half-siblings were Kush, Mizraim, and Put, the people who would occupy much of northeastern Africa (Genesis 10:6), and Canaan would, at least in part, occupy the land to which his name would be given.

According to the archaeological record, Canaanite populations lived in that land for at least five thousand years, and received significant influence from various Mesopotamian and Egyptian influences. Bronze Age records in the Amarna Letters, records from Ugarit and Hatti, and Akkadian records align with the story we find in the Hexateuch in the Hebrew Bible: the Canaanites lived in various city-states throughout the land of Canaan, which were frequently under the greater control of one or more of the great Bronze Age Empires. The Akkadians would have maintained such an influence in the late third millennium BCE as seen in Genesis 14:1-16; the Egyptians arrived with its New Kingdom by the middle of the second millennium BCE; Thutmose III’s battle at Megiddo was one of the first recorded battles in the land of Canaan.

The Israelites would speak of the peoples of the land of Canaan as the “Canaanites, Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites, and Jebusites” (cf. Exodus 3:8, 17). The “Amorites” were the dominant tribe of people throughout Mesopotamia, Syria, and Canaan in the second half of the second millennium BCE (cf. Genesis 15:16). The “Hittites” would be sons of Heth, of whom Ephron sold the Cave of Machpelah to Abraham (cf. Genesis 23:1-20); the “Jebusites” were those who dwelled in Jebus, or Jerusalem (cf. 1 Chronicles 11:4-5). The land of Canaan, therefore, seemed to be populated with various tribes of people who had entered the land at various times in the more distant past.

We tend to speak of the peoples of the southern Levant as Canaanite since they all seemed to speak a Canaanite dialect, made distinct from Aramaic to the north around 1500 BCE. Canaanite dialects include Phoenician, Ammonite, Moabite, Edomite, and, yes, Classical Hebrew. The Phoenicians were Canaanites; they are generally considered a separate culture because of their unique geographical challenges and opportunities. While the Israelite origin story did make much of the Aramean heritage of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and their wives and children, it was explicitly revealed how Judah ben Jacob married a Canaanite woman (cf. Genesis 38:2, 6), and it stands to reason how his siblings would likewise have married Canaanite women, save Joseph who married an Egyptian (Genesis 41:50-52). The Israelites, therefore, spoke a Canaanite dialect, had Canaanite ancestry, and, as the prophets would condemn, maintained and upheld Canaanite practices and religion.

At some point toward the end and collapse of the Bronze Age, whether around 1400 or 1250 BCE, the city-states of the Canaanites came under attack by the Israelites under Joshua (Joshua 6:1-12:24). The twelve confederated tribes of Israelites took over part of the eastern Transjordan between Ammon and Moab, what would become the Ephraimite and Judahite hill country, and portions of the coastal plains. These Israelites, along with the remnant populations of the Canaanites and related people, would experience exploitation and oppression from various local groups of growing strength until YHWH would raise a judge or warlord up for portions of Israel to defeat that oppressive force (cf. Judges 3:1-12:15).

In 1178 BCE, Ramses III boasted of having defeated the “Sea Peoples” who had been causing devastation throughout the ancient Near East in a pitched battle in Djahy, likely around southern Lebanon. The advance of the “Sea Peoples” might have thus been checked for Egypt, but it meant a new invading and occupying force in the land of Canaan: the Philistines. It would not take long before the Philistines had established themselves as five city-states in the southwestern corner of Canaan in what would become known as the Philistine Pentapolis of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza. They would project their force and strength throughout the land of Canaan and oppress the Israelites for many generations.

For most places in the eastern Mediterranean and ancient Near Eastern world, the period immediately after the collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations is reckoned as a difficult time of civilizational collapse with significant disruption, migration, and perhaps loss of life. But for the Levant, this time of the Early Iron Age was a time of increased population and the development of kingdoms. The Canaanites had remained quite divided, with kings ruling over city-states; the Philistines and the Phoenicians along the coast would continue to maintain this kind of structure throughout the first half of the first millennium BCE. Yet various forces had compelled everyone else in the area to develop far more centralized monarchies and kingdoms. Saul, David, and Solomon would thus transition from a charismatic warlord-based system of authority over Israel into a centralized monarchy and even an Israelite Empire subsuming all of Canaan as well as parts of Syria and the Transjordan (ca. 1000-931 BCE; cf. 2 Samuel 1:1-1 Kings 11:43). In so doing, David and Solomon were able to keep at bay a third wave of migration of Aramaean peoples who would come to dominate the lands to their north.

After Solomon there would be a division between the northern Kingdom of Israel and the southern Kingdom of Judah (ca. 930 BCE; cf. 1 Kings 12:1-33). From 930 until 730 BCE, what had been the land of Canaan would be dominated by these two kingdoms, Israel always proving the stronger, yet also best by the occasional invasion from Egypt from the south or the Arameans from the north (cf. 1 Kings 13:1-2 Kings 16:20).

The situation of the land would never be the same again after Ahaz king of Judah hired Tiglath-pileser III king of Assyria against the Arameans and the Israelites (cf. Isaiah 7:1-25). Tiglath-pileser III eliminated Aram as a going concern and significantly reduced the size and influence of Israel; Shalmaneser V and Sargon II would eliminate Israel as a going concern. Thus all of what had been the land of Canaan became part of the Neo-Assyrian Empire, either as directly conquered or as vassal kingdoms, and would continue to be so until its end in 609 BCE. The Assyrians would exile the population of Israel to lands in Assyria, and import people from other parts of Assyria into Israel, developing the people who would become the Samaritans (cf. 2 Kings 17:17-41).

The Kushites who had taken over Egypt did not appreciate the belligerence of Assyria right on its border, and would persuade Hezekiah king of Judah to revolt against Assyrian rule; Sennacherib would devastate all of Judah save Jerusalem in 701 BCE, and perhaps was at least in part sent off by a Kushite expeditionary force (cf. 2 Kings 18:13-19:27). Thus this time until its end in 586 BCE the Kingdom of Judah would find itself a pawn among the powers of Assyria, Babylon, and Egypt.

As Assyrian power waned after the days of Ashurbanipal in 631 BCE, the Egyptians claimed the Assyrians gave them power over the western portions of their empire; after a coalition of the Medes and Chaldean Babylonians destroyed Nineveh and eliminated the Assyrian state as a going concern from 612-609 BCE, the Chaldean Babylonians contested the Egyptian claim. Josiah king of Judah, ostensibly still allied with the Babylonians, attacked Neko king of Egypt’s forces as they traveled to confront the Babylonians in 609 BCE, leading to Josiah’s death; after Neko was decisively defeated by Nebuchadnezzar, he yet continued to attempt to assert authority over Judah by deposing Jehoahaz and installing Jehoiakim as king over Judah (cf. 2 Kings 23:28-37).

Yet Nebuchadnezzar, having become king of Babylon, also asserted his prerogative, besieging Jerusalem in 605 and gaining Jehoiakim’s submission as a vassal. The Egyptians instigated first Jehoiakim in 597 and then Zedekiah in 589, to rebel against Nebuchadnezzar, and it became too much: the Babylonians besieged Jerusalem, captured it, destroyed it, and exiled all the Judahites without repopulating the land (cf. 2 Kings 24:1-25:21). The Babylonians would likewise overcome the Philistine Pentapolis and exile the Philistines to Babylon; they would never return. He would also besiege Tyre for many years, causing great distress to the Phoenicians.

In this way, from 732 until 585 BCE, the land formerly known as Canaan was overrun by the major empires of the age: its cities were devastated and its populations exiled. The land would become part of the province known as Beyond the River. The Edomites would encroach upon Judahite land, gaining the enmity of the Israelites forever in so doing (cf. Obadiah, Malachi 1:1-5).

In 539 BCE Cyrus the Persian entered Babylon and eliminated the Babylonian Empire as a going concern. Beyond the River became a Persian satrapy, and Cyrus would allow Judahite exiles to return to the land of Judah (cf. Ezra 1:1-2:70). Cambyses son of Cyrus would conquer Egypt in 525 BCE, and save for a few small revolts, Beyond the River enjoyed a period of stability and peace throughout the days of the Persians (539-332 BCE). Ezra and Nehemiah testify to the challenges the Judahites experienced in attempting to re-develop and strengthen Judea, especially from the more established, and quite jealous, Samaritans to their north.

In 332 Alexander the Great of Macedon swept through Beyond the River; after his death, “Syria” became part of the Seleucid Empire, while “Judea” became part of the Ptolemaic Empire of Egypt. The Ptolemies and Seleucids would continually fight over the land, and the Seleucids would gain control over Judea in 200 BCE. Until around 167 BCE, the Macedonian Greek rulers were content to be tolerant toward their subjects; but Antiochus IV Epiphanes began imposing Hellenizing customs on his empire, especially in Judea, in 167 BCE, and this led to an insurrection among the Israelites. From 167 until 63 BCE, Seleucid power in Judea would wane, and the Maccabean/Hasmonean insurgents and then kings would create the last independent kingdom that portion of the world would see until modern times.

The western remnants of the Seleucid Empire would be taken over by the Romans in the second and first centuries BCE, and Syria and Judea would become incorporated into the Roman Empire by 63 BCE. Despite some revolts and incursions from eastern empires, the land which had been Canaan would be controlled by the Romans and then the Byzantines until the Battle of Yarmuk in 636 CE.

The Romans attempted to rule over Galilee, Samaria, and Judea by means of proxy kings like the Herods; often they would need to directly rule over Judea by means of procurators or prefects. The first century CE world of Jesus and early Christianity was a time of great unrest in Galilee and Judea as the Jewish people chafed under what they deemed the pagan oppression of the Romans. This unrest boiled over into active revolt twice, leading to the First and Second Jewish Wars of 66-73 and 132-136 CE. The Romans inflicted decisive defeats against the insurrectionists in both wars, leading first to the destruction of the Second Temple, and then the exile of Israelites from Jerusalem and its re-establishment as Aelia Capitolina. The province would become known as Syria Palaestina.

After the defeat of the Byzantine forces by the Muslims at Yarmuk in 636 CE, all of Syria became part of the Umayyad and then Abbasid Caliphate. Western Europeans would invade and conquer part of the land during the Crusades in the eleventh century; they would eventually be defeated, and the land would become part of the Seljuk, Mameluk, and finally Ottoman Empires until 1918. Only after the withdrawal of the French and British after 1947 would the land feature independent rule as the states of Israel, Lebanon, and Syria for the first time in over two thousand years. But conflict has rarely left the land; it remains a crucible of violence and war until this very day.

Thus the land of Canaan, which would become the land of Israel and Palestine, has always been well favored but unfortunately placed in an area of strategic significance for whatever major powers existed in a given day and place. It would only enjoy truly independent rule during times of civilizational collapse and weakness elsewhere. Yet it remains reckoned as holy land by three major world religions, and such has certainly exacerbated the conflicts and tensions within that land. Yet, in Christ we do not prostrate before God in a given geographical location; we prostrate before God in spirit and in truth, for the Spirit of God no longer dwells in a certain building in a certain location but among His people wherever they are. May we faithfully serve God in Christ and obtain in Him the resurrection of life!

Ethan R. Longhenry