Canaan (son of Ham)

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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.

Etymology

The English term Canaan (pronounced

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

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

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

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
Abd al Hakam tells that "Canaan is the father of the Sudan (Northeast Africa) and the Abyssinians".[11]

The German historian

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, 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

Canaanites.[20]

Extrabiblical tradition believes that Canaan was cursed with a second curse after "squatting" in Shem's inherited territory. According to the Book of Jubilees:

And Canaan saw the land of Lebanon to the river of Egypt, that it was very good, and he went not into the land of his inheritance to the west (that is to) the sea, and he dwelt in the land of Lebanon, eastward and westward from the border of Jordan and from the border of the sea. And Ham, his father, and Cush and Mizraim his brothers said unto him: 'Thou hast settled in a land which is not thine, and which did not fall to us by lot: do not do so; for if thou dost do so, thou and thy sons will fall in the land and (be) accursed through sedition; for by sedition ye have settled, and by sedition will thy children fall, and thou shalt be rooted out for ever. Dwell not in the dwelling of Shem; for to Shem and to his sons did it come by their lot. Cursed art thou, and cursed shalt thou be beyond all the sons of Noah, by the curse by which we bound ourselves by an oath in the presence of the holy judge, and in the presence of Noah our father.' But he did not hearken unto them, and dwelt in the land of Lebanon from Hamath to the entering of Egypt, he and his sons until this day. And for this reason that land is named Canaan.

— Jubilees 10:29–34.

The usurpation theory is similarly believed by Albert Barnes. According to Barne's exegesis of Genesis 10:18, the Canaanite clans scattered after the Tower of Babel incident and settled in the southern Levant, where they named the region after themselves. It is unknown whether they were dispersed violently or not. However, Canaan's cousin, Nimrod, had a "grasping tendency", making Barnes believe that Canaan had similar qualities. Thus, Canaan's settlement of the southern Levant was interpreted as a violent conquest, with Canaan "seizing upon the country with a high hand".[21]

See also

References

  1. ^ Asheri, David; Lloyd, Alan; Corcella, Aldo (2007). A Commentary on Herodotus, Books 1-4. Oxford University Press. p. 75.
  2. ^ "Bible places; or, The topography of the Holy Land: a succinct account of all the places, rivers, and mountains of the land of Israel, mentioned in the Bible, ..." HathiTrust.
  3. ^ Gesenius, Hebrew Lexicon
  4. ISBN 978-0-567-45111-8
    .
  5. 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. ISBN 9780873959216
    – via Google Books.
  11. ^ Futuah Misr, p. 8
  12. ISBN 978-0-292-71276-8
    .
  13. ISBN 978-1-4008-2854-8
    .
  14. ^ Kugel 1998, p. 223.
  15. ^ Goldenberg 2005, pp. 259–60.
  16. ^ Goldenberg 2005, p. 258.
  17. ISBN 0-8028-0337-7
    .
  18. ISBN 978-0275983475
    p. 54
  19. ISBN 978-0-19-514279-2
    .
  20. ISBN 0-664-23025-3
    .
  21. ^ "Genesis 10 Barnes' Notes". Biblehub.com. 2024. Archived from the original on February 6, 2024.

Bibliography

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