Canaan (son of Ham)

Canaan (Hebrew: כְּנַעַן – Kənáʿan, in pausa כְּנָעַן‎ – Kənā́ʿan), according to the Book of Genesis in the Hebrew Bible, was a son of Ham and grandson of Noah, as well as the father of the Canaanites.

Canaan from "Nuremberg Chronicles"

Etymology

The English term Canaan (pronounced /ˈkeɪnən/ since c. AD 1500, due to the Great Vowel Shift) comes from the Hebrew כנען‎ (knʿn), via Greek Χαναάν Khanaan and Latin Canaan. It appears as ^KUR ki-na-ah-na in the Amarna letters (14th century BC), and knʿn is found on coins from Phoenicia in the last half of the 1st millennium. It first occurs in Greek in the writings of Hecataeus as Khna(Χνᾶ).^[1] Scholars connect the name Canaan with knʿn, Kana'an, the general Northwest Semitic name for this region.

The etymology is uncertain. One explanation is that it has an original meaning of "lowlands", from a Semitic root knʿ "to be low, humble, depressed", in contrast with Aram, "highlands".^[2] An alternative suggestion derives the term from Hurrian Kinahhu, purportedly referring to the colour purple, so that Canaan and Phoenicia would be synonyms ("Land of Purple"), but it is just as common to assume that Kinahhu was simply the Hurrian rendition of the Semitic knʿn.^[3][4]

Descendants of Canaan

 

Locations of Canaan's descendants

According to the Table of Nations in Genesis 10 (verses 15–19), Canaan was the ancestor of the tribes who originally occupied the ancient Land of Canaan: all the territory from Sidon or Hamath in the north to Gaza in the southwest and Lasha in the southeast. This territory, known as the Levant, is roughly the areas of modern-day Israel, Palestine, Lebanon, western Jordan, and western Syria. Canaan's firstborn son was Sidon, who shares his name with the Phoenician city of Sidon in present-day Lebanon.^[5] His second son was Heth. Canaan's descendants, according to the Hebrew Bible, include:

1. Sidonians
2. Hittites, children of Heth
3. Jebusites
4. Amorites
5. Girgashites
6. Hivites
7. Arkites
8. Sinites
9. Arvadites
10. Zemarites
11. Hamathites

According to traditional Ethiopian histories, Canaan's son Arwadi (lit. "the Arvadite") and his wife Entela crossed from Asia into Ethiopia in 2101 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, viz. the Sinites and Zemarites, also entered Ethiopia at the time it was ruled by the Kingdom of Kush, and became the Shanqella and Weyto peoples, respectively.^[6] The Qemant relate that they share their Canaanite origin with the other Agaw groups.^[7] The Omotic speaking Shinasha have a similar tradition of descent from Canaan's son Hamati^[8] Similarly, the Shinasha extend the Canaanite ancestry to neighboring ethnic groups^[9] 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."^[10] Likewise, Abd al Hakam tells that "Canaan is the father of the Sudan (Sub Saharan Africans) and the Abyssinians".^[11]

The German historian Johannes Aventinus (fl. c. 1525) recorded a legend that Canaan's sons the "Arkite" and the "Hamathite" first settled in the area of Greece, and gave their names to the regions of Arcadia and Emathia.

Curse of Canaan

Main article: Curse of Ham

According to Genesis 9:20–27, Noah became drunk and afterward cursed Canaan. This is the Curse of Canaan, erroneously called the^[12] "Curse of Ham" since Classical antiquity because of the interpretation that Canaan was punished for his father Ham's sins.^[13] However, there are interpretations that Canaan was the sole sinner himself. ^[14] The sin in question is debated, ranging from literal voyeurism,^[15] castration or incestuous rape.^[16]

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 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)

Some modern scholars view the curse of Canaan in Genesis 9:20–27 as an early Hebrew rationalization for Israel's conquest of Canaan.^[17] 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 The expression "servant of servants", otherwise translated "slave of slaves",^NIV emphasizes the extreme degree of servitude that Canaan will experience in relation to his "brothers".^[18] In the subsequent passage, "of Shem... may Canaan be his servant,"^[9:26] the narrator is foreshadowing Israel's conquest of the promised land.^[19] 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 Israelites driving out and enslaving the Canaanites.^[20]

See also

• Canaan, the location
• Canaanites, its historical inhabitants
• Generations of Noah

References

1. Asheri, David; Lloyd, Alan; Corcella, Aldo (2007). A Commentary on Herodotus, Books 1-4. Oxford University Press. p. 75.
2. Bible Places: The Topography of the Holy Land By Henry Baker Tristram
3. Gesenius, Hebrew Lexicon
4. Lemche, Niels-Peter (1991). The Canaanites and their Land: The Tradition of the Canaanites. Continuum. pp. 24–32. ISBN 978-0-567-45111-8.
5. María E. Aubet. The Phoenicians and the West: politics, colonies and trade, ISBN 978-0-521-79543-2), 2001, p. 66
6. Yohannes Wolde Mariam, Yealem Tarik, 1948 pp. 105–106.
7. Gamst, Frederick C. (1969). The Qemant: A Pagan-Hebraic Peasantry of Ethiopia. p. 37.
8. Endalew, Tsega. Inter-ethnic Relations on a Frontier: Mätakkäl (Ethiopia), 1898–1991. p. 23.
9. González-Ruibal, Alfredo. An Archaeology of Resistance: Materiality and Time in an African Borderland. p. 109.^{[ISBN missing]}
10. Tabari's Prophets and Patriarchs
11. Futuah Misr, p. 8
12. Metcalf, Alida C. (2005). Go-betweens and the colonization of Brazil, 1500–1600. pp. 163–164. ISBN 978-0-292-71276-8.
13. Goldenberg, David M. (2009). The Curse of Ham. p. 157. ISBN 978-1-4008-2854-8.
14. Kugel 1998, p. 223.
15. Goldenberg 2005, pp. 259–60.
16. Goldenberg 2005, p. 258.
17. Gowan, Donald E. (1988). Genesis 1–11: Eden to Babel. Wm. B. Eerdmans. pp. 110–115. ISBN 0-8028-0337-7.
18. Ellens, J. Harold, & Rollins, Wayne G., eds. (2004). Psychology and the Bible: A New Way to Read the Scriptures. v. 1–4. Westport: Praeger Publishers. ISBN 978-0275983475 p. 54
19. Haynes, Stephen R. (2002). Noah's curse: the biblical justification of American slavery. p. 184. ISBN 978-0-19-514279-2.
20. Philip R. Davies; John Rogerson (2005). The Old Testament World second edition. Louisville: Westminster John Knox Press. pp. 121–122. ISBN 0-664-23025-3.

Bibliography

• Goldenberg, David M. (2005). "What did Ham do to Noah?". In Stemberger, Günter; Perani, Mauro (eds.). The Words of a Wise Man's Mouth Are Gracious. Walter de Gruyter. ISBN 9783110188493.
• Kugel, James L. (1998). Traditions of the Bible. Harvard University Press. ISBN 9780674791510.

External links

• Encyclopædia Britannica Online Article (subscription/registration required)