Canaan was the ancient name for what we now know as Palestine, and Canaanites its inhabitants.
As is to be expected, the limits of what constituted Canaan in ancient times varied from time to time, but may generally be taken to include, at some time or other, what is now Palestine, south Syria, and parts of Lebanon (ancient Phoenicia), and extending as far south as the wilderness of Zin. Num 34:2 ("Command the Israelites and say to them: 'When you enter Canaan, the land that will be allotted to you as an inheritance will have these boundaries . . .'") may be taken to imply that the River Jordan constituted its eastern boundary. Gen 10:19 speaks of the borders of Canaan reaching "from Sidon towards Gerar as far as Gaza, and then towards Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha." At other times, however, Canaan seems to refer only to the coastal region; the spies sent out by Moses to reconnoitre the land reported that "the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan" while the "Amalekites live in the Negev; the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country." Taken together the term may be understood as a broad reference to the various groups of people residing in the general region of ancient Palestine, with more specific terms like Kenites, Kadmonites, Jebusites, etc, being used when a distinction needed to be made.
Additionally, the term was also used as a reference to "merchants" and "traders." It is used in this sense in Job 41:6 ("Will they divide him up among the merchants?"), Isa 23:8 ("Who planned this against Tyre, the bestower of crowns, whose merchants are princes, whose traders are renowned in the earth?"), Eze 17:4 ("he broke off its topmost shoot and carried it away to a land of merchants, where he planted it in a city of traders"), Zeph 1:11 ("Wail, you who live in the market district; all your merchants will be wiped out, all who trade with silver will be ruined"). It is supposed that this usage came about because trading was the most distinctive occupations of the Canaanites.
The origin of the name 'Canaan' is uncertain; references to in may be found in several ancient extra-biblical sources, suggesting that the term has a long history. Speiser thinks that it is derived from the word for 'purple dye' in Nuzi (for which Phoenicia was famous) though this is disputed by others. Genesis attributes the name to its putative ancestor Canaan, the son of Ham (10:6-19).
A land-bridge between Africa and Asia-Europe, this had been the route of human migration since prehistoric times. It was only natural that it should attract a host of different peoples to settle in it, with all the advantages and risks of straddling the great civilizations of Egypt in the south and those of the Sumerians, Akkadians, and Babylonian in the north. In the Bible the term Canaanites is used as a catch-all term to refer to all the non-Israelite inhabitants of this land. At times, however, the Canaanites are themselves listed as being only one among them. In particular, Canannanites appear often in parallel and interchangeably with the Amorites, even though a distinction is also often made between them (as in, e.g., Num 13:29 - "the Hittites, Jebusites and Amorites live in the hill country; and the Canaanites live near the sea and along the Jordan"). Similarly, e.g., while Abraham was promised the land of Canaan (Gen 12:7; cf. v5-7), the gift of the land would be delayed because "the sins of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure" (Gen 15:16). Also, while Israel was to conquer Canaan (Num 13:17 - "When Moses sent them to explore Canaan, he said, "Go up through the Negev and on into the hill country . . .") Joshua challenged the Israelites once they were in the land to choose to serve either the Lord or "the gods of the Amorites, in whose land you are living" (Jos 24:15).
Theologically, Canaan became the "promised land." First promised by God to Abraham (Gen 12:7), its realization was delayed because "the sins of the Amorites has not yet reached its full measure" (Gen 15:16). It was, therefore, also the "land flowing with milk and honey" (Exo 3:8). As a result, Canaan is often used in Christian spiritual-devotional literature as a symbol of what is promised or the goal of one's spiritual journey. But the biblical record of the conquest of Canaan also presents Christians with one of the most difficult questions of her faith, i.e., how could a loving God command the wholesale annihilation of the Canaanites which is explored in the link.
One of the most tragic and foolish mistakes of the modern Church is the identification by Christian Zionists of modern Arab Palestinians with the ancient Canaanites to justify their support of the territorial ambitions of modern Israel. There is absolutely no sound reasons for such an evil indentification. These native 'Palestinians' who had lived there for centuries before the Zionist movement back to Palestine are not the descendants of the ancient Canaanites; rather they descended from the intermarriage of countless peoples who migrated to the land during the Roman and Byzantine eras but were conquered by the Muslims in the 7th Cent when they converted—whether willingly or under duress—to Islam. Modern genetic studies show that, genetically, they are not significally different from modern Jews. The only difference between them is that they were born on different sides of the evil and indifferent human "game of thrones." As Christians, let us bring healing rather than add to the flames of this evil.
Further Reading:
Charlie Trimm, The Destruction of the Canaanites God, Genocide, and Biblical Interpretation (Grand Rapids: Eerdmans, 2022).
Resources:
☰ The Annihilation of the Canaanites.
William Ford, "The Challenge of the Canaanites," Tyndale Bulletin 68 (2017): 24. N
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