Welcome To: Ways To Faith

Ways to Faith > Blog > Archaeology > Historical Evidence > The Ancient Canaanites
The Reasons
  • About Us
  • Blog
  • Contact Form
  • Persecution
    Christian Persecution
    Persecution Articles

    East Turkistan Persecution

    East Turkestan is a region of China with mass concentration camps and prisons.

    Date: May 19, 2020

    East Turkistan Persecution East Turkistan persecution has been hidden by the Chinese government for decades  However,... Read More »


    “So Help Me God Oath”

    Many in Congress refused to administer the swearing in oath with "so help me God" included.

    Date: April 10, 2020

    The naturalization oath is taken by every person becoming a citizen of the United States Atheists - in their continuing... Read More »


    Earlier Articles

    Jihadist Fulani in Nigeria

    Nigeria has seen a marked increase in anti-Christians with executions of innocent people by Islamic extremists.

    Date: April 9, 2020

    Anti-Christian violence by the Jihadist Fulani in Nigeria has again spiked  The Nigeria based International Society for... Read More »


    Persecution Statistics

    Persecution statistics give empirical evidence that Christians are the most persecuted group in the world.

    Date: February 19, 2020

    This may be the most dangerous time in history to be a Christian throughout the world  Persecution statistics document... Read More »


    More Articles

    Persecution After Death


    Persecution in Nigeria


    Persecution in Europe


    Persecution in China


    Church Persecution in China


    Christians in India


    Chinese Persecution


    Near Genocide Levels


    Church Vandalism


    Egyptian Oppression


    Image
    ...
  • Better Lives
    Christians Lead a Better Life
    Image Slider
    ...
    ...
    ...

    Christians are Happier

    Christians are happier than their secular neighbors.

    Date: February 14, 2020

    Many recent studies have evaluated whether Christians are happier than their secular neighbors and compared the... Read More »


    Work Ethic

    Homeschooling and Achievement Scores

    Date: February 13, 2020

    The effect of religious practice on work ethic has been a topic of investigation for many years  There has been much... Read More »


    Christians Benefit Society

    Christians benefit all of society.

    Date: February 9, 2020

    Christians benefit society because their religious beliefs inform their behavior  This favorable behavior means... Read More »


    Christian Children

    Children in conservative Protestant familiar have increased academic achievement compared to their secular counterparts in government schools.

    Date: February 8, 2020

    Christian children do better in life than do their secular counterparts on many levels  These differences begin at birth... Read More »


    More Articles

    Faith and Family


    Christians and Depression


    Christians and Success


    Christians and the Law


    Prison Ministries


    Christians and Education


    Christians and Charity


Archaeology sites validate the Biblical narrative.

The Ancient Canaanites

Posted in March 29, 2020 by David

Categories: Archaeology, Biblical History, Historical Evidence

The Canaanites were a group of people who lived in ancient Israel.

Image by hbieser from Pixabay

The ancient Canaanites are an ancient population that inhabited the Promised Land when the Hebrews escaped from slavery in Egypt under the leadership of Moses. Ancient texts show the Canaanites lived in the “land of Canaan” which may have included portions of modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, Syria, and Jordan.

Much of what we know about the Canaanites comes from the records of other population groups. Some of the most detailed information comes from the ancient Egyptian site of Armana, with additional information coming from modern excavations of Canaanite sites.

Archaeology scholars believe the Canaanites represented a diverse group of people who never were politically united under one leadership. Ann Killebrew, an archaeology professor from Penn State University noted in her book “Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity” that,

“Canaan was not made up of a single ‘ethnic’ group but consisted of a population whose diversity may be hinted at by the great variety of burial customs and cultic structures.

Earliest Canaanite Records

The Ancient Canaanites lived in ancient Israel and are now represented by the Lebanese.

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

Fragments of a letter found at an archaeological site in Mari located in modern-day Syria. The letter written about 3,800 years ago is addressed to “Yasmah-Adad” – a king of Mari, noting that “thieves and Canaanites” are in a town called “Rahisum.”

Another text referring to the Canaanites was written about 3500 years ago was written on a statue of Idrimi, a king who ruled a city named “Alalakh” in modern-day Turkey. The writing notes that the author was forced to relocate to a city in “Canaan” named “Amiya” which is thought to represent a city in modern-day Lebanon.

Grendon Benz, a professor at William Jewell College in Missouri noted in his book “The Land Before the Kingdom of Israel, that the designation “the land of Canaan” identified an individual or groups of individuals in the same way that others were defined by their city of origin.

Probably the richest ancient texts concerning Canaan come from the Egyptian city of Amara. This city was constructed as the new capital of Egypt by the pharaoh Akhenaten who tried to change Egypt’s pantheistic religion around the worship of “Aten” – the sun disk. These letters are diplomatic correspondence between Akhenaten and various rulers in the Middle East. These are now known as the “Armana Letters.”

These letters show how Egypt held power over the Canaanite kings at this time. One letter from a king of Babylon complains about the killing of Babylonian merchants in Canaan and reminds the Egyptian Pharaoh that “the land of Canaan is your land and its kinds are your servants.”

These texts also illustrate how Egypt send military expeditions into Canaan to keep the peace. A famous stele erected by a pharaoh named Merneptah claimed that “Canaan has been plundered into every sort of woe. The same stele also claims that Merneptah “laid waste” to “Israel.”

Canaan and the Bible

Modern-day Lebanon - the Lebanese are the modern representatives of the ancient Canaanites.

Image by David Mark from Pixabay

Much of the Old Testament concerns the various battles and controversies between various Canaanite populations and the Hebrews also living there. The Hebrews were warned not to intermingle with the Canaanite population as they were polytheistic, worshiping idols, statues, and practiced religious ceremonies that were not counter to Israel’s God.

Scripture notes that after leaving Egypt, the Israelites fought a series of wars against the Canaanites (and other groups) which led to the Israelites taking over much of the land.

Ancient Canaanite Origins

Until recently, all we know about the Canaanites was from secondhand sources as they left no surviving written records. Ancient DNE recovered from five Canaanite skeletons suggests that these people survived to contribute their genes to modern populations.

These skeletons come from Sidon – a coastal city in Lebanon. Geneticists from the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Hixton, UK extracted enough DNA from four skeletons to sequence whole genomes of the Canaanite individuals who lived about 3700 years ago.

Ancient Greek sources suggest that the Canaanites migrated to the Levant from the East. Archaeologists compared the genomes from other populations living in Eurasia and found them to be similar to an earlier population living in Iran. These researchers estimated that this population moved from Iran into the Levant about 5000 years ago.

What Happened to the Ancient Canaanites

The next question is what happened to the ancient Canaanites. They could have interbred with multiple populations and so distributed their genes that they are no longer represented in any population. However, this appears not to be the case. Instead, it seems the Canaanites are now represented by the Lebanese. Genetics indicates that the present-day Lebanese population is largely descended from the Canaanites, inheriting more than 90% of their genes from this ancient population.

Conclusion

Genetics shows there was a population of people that can be identified as the ancient Canaanites that caused so much trouble for the ancient Hebrews. These people were eventually conquered to some degree by Joshua and his descendants but continued to be a source of problems for centuries.

They eventually were able to survive as a people and are represented by the modern-day Lebanese. These interesting findings are in agreement with the Biblical narrative and lend further confirmation that Scripture represents history as it happened.  Archaeological findings and genetics also confirm the existence of the Philistines – another group of people who inhabited the region and who fought with various Hebrew Kings – most notably King David.


related posts

Labayu Letters

Mount Gazirim and Mount Ebal were ancient reminders that God expects the Hebrews to obey his laws.

by David : Categories: Archaeology, Biblical History, Biblical Names, Historical Evidence Tags: Historical Evidence

Date: August 31, 2020

The Labayu letters are important in establishing the historicity of the Old Testament – especially some of its most contested parts.  There are 382 preserved letters from the Egyptian city of Amara.  About 150 of these letters were written from Canaan to the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep at around 1400 BC…. Read More »

The Shishak Invasion

Portal in Egypt showing the invasion into Israel

by David : Categories: Archaeology, Biblical History, Biblical Names, Historical Evidence Tags: Historical Evidence

Date: July 16, 2020

The Shishak invasion of Israel by the Egyptian armies of Shishak is described in Scripture and illustrated on a wall located in Egypt. The reign of King Rehoboam was tumultuous.  He was the son of Solomon and a grandson of David.  The Kingdom of David was still united when Rehoboam… Read More »

Jezebel’s Hometown

by David : Categories: Archaeology, Biblical History, Biblical Names, Historical Evidence

Date: May 5, 2020

The Biblical Archaeology Society wrote a nice piece concerning Jezebel’s hometown – the infamous Queen who led Israel into idolatry but later was eaten by dogs after being pushed out of a tower. She was the wife of King Ahab of the Northern Kingdom of Israel, and was famous for… Read More »

Copper Mines in Israel

Copper mines were utilized by ancient Israel during the time of King Solomon; this copper was used to make bronze utensils for the Temple. This substantiates the historicity of the Biblical account.

by David : Categories: Archaeology, Biblical History, Biblical Names, Historical Evidence Tags: Historical Evidence

Date: December 9, 2019

Archaeologists discovered the vast wealth of Biblical King Solomon partially derived from his copper mines.  He is recognized as having been one of the richest people to have ever lived.  Other countries paid Solomon about 25 tons of gold for each of the 39 years of his reign.  This money… Read More »

The Upper Room
Timing of Messiah Appearance

Leave A Response to "The Ancient Canaanites" Cancel reply

We are glad you have chosen to leave a comment. Please keep in mind that comments are moderated according to our comment policy.

The Reasons for Faith

Christian faith is not based upon unfounded hope.  It offers the best explanation for the world we see today and the solution for an unfulfilled life.

Christians are better educated, more wealthy, happier, and contribute more to society than any other group.

Christianity is affirmed by science, history, cosmology, probability and statistics, linguistics, archaeology, and logical evidence.

Resources

This site is like a gatekeeper.

We cannot provide an exhaustive analysis of every Christian topic – that would take a library.

What we do is to provide an introduction to topics of interest to the general public, and then provide information for a deeper investigation.

Learn More About Us and Legal Information

  • About Us
  • Contact Page
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms of Service

Copyright©: 2018-2023 All Rights Reserved