Canaanites
Ancient Semitic-speaking people of the Southern Levant, whose culture largely overlapped with early Israelite culture.
Canaanites were an ancient Semitic-speaking people of the Southern Levant during the late 2nd millennium BC. The term is used in the Bible as an ethnic catch-all for various indigenous populations in the region. Biblical scholar Mark Smith, citing archaeological findings, suggests that Israelite culture largely overlapped with and derived from Canaanite culture.
Quick Facts
- Territorial extent
- From Sidon to Gerar
- Gaza
- and as far as Sodom
- Gomorrah
- Admah
- Zeboim
- and Lasha (Genesis 10:19)
- Divine judgment
- God promised to drive out the Canaanites before Israel (Exodus 23:23, 28; Exodus 33:2; Exodus 34:11)
Lore & Background
The name 'Canaanites' is attested as the endonym of the people later known to the Ancient Greeks as Phoenicians (c. 500 BC), and was also used as a self-designation by the Punics of North Africa during Late Antiquity. The etymology of 'Canaan' is uncertain; one explanation derives it from the Semitic root knʿ ('to be low, humble, subjugated'), possibly meaning 'lowlands' or 'the subjugated'. An alternative suggestion links it to the Hurrian word for purple dye, but this proposal has generally been abandoned.
Did You Know?
- The name 'Canaan' appears in the Amarna letters (14th century BC) as Kinâḫna.
- Canaanite culture developed in situ from multiple waves of migration merging with earlier local cultures.
- The purple cloth of Tyre was a renowned Canaanite export, though it is not mentioned in Exodus.
Elsewhere in Figures of Scripture
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