Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 3.djvu/631

 CHAMPS

569

CHANAAN

"L'Egypte sous Irs Pharaona"; only the lirst two volumes, bearing on geography, were issued. His efforts to decipher the hieroglyphics began in 1808. By means of the triple inscription of the Rosetta Stone, he succeeded in ascertaining several of the signs, and on 17 Sept., 1822, he read before the Acad- emy of Inscriptions his now famous "Lettre a M. Dacier". in which he gave the fruits of his researches. The mystery of the hieroglyphics had been solved. With the exception of a brief controversy with Dr. Young, relative to the priority of the discovery, his claims have never been disputed. In 182:i he out- lined his system more thoroughly in a series of me- moirs read in the Institute. These memoirs were put together and printed under the title "Precis du sys- teme hieroglyphique des aneiens Egyptiens" (Paris, 1824; 2nd ed., 2 vols., 182S). In 1824 he was sent to Italy by the King of France on a scientific mission, and on his recommendation a rich collection of Egyptian antiquities was secured by the Mus6e du Louvre. It was during his sojourn in Italy that he catalogued the Egyptian monuments of Naples, Florence, and Rome. Appointed curator of the Egyptian Museum of the Louvre, he issued his "Notice descriptive des monu- ments egyptiens du musee Charles X" (Paris, 1827). He then received a commission to explore Egypt, in the company of Rosellini. The enthusiastic letters which he wrote were published day by day; after his death, they were reprinted in book form by his brother, in 1833, and again by his daughter, in 1SG8. In 1830 he was named member of the Academy of Inscriptions and elected to the chair of Egyptian archaeology, founded for him at the College de France. Soon, however, he retired to Quercy, and devoted the last months of his life to the completion and revision of his Egyptian grammar and dictionary. He was a genius, but it is the testimony of all those who came in contact with him that the man was even bitter than the scholar.

Among his other works were "Deux lettres a M. le due de Blacas d'Aulps, relatives au musee royal egyptien de Turin" (Paris, 1824-1826); "Catalogue des monuments egyptiens du musee du Vatican" (Rome, 1826); "Pantheon egyptien", etc. (1823- 1831), published in parts, the whole work was to have formed two volumes, but was not completed. His manuscripts were acquired by the French Govern- ment and published by his brother. Among these posthumous works, the most important arc': ".Monu- ments de I'Egypte et de la Nubie d'apres les di executes sur les lieux", etc., 4 vols. (Paris, 1835- 1845);" Monuments de I'Egypte etde la Nubie,] descriptives" (Paris. 1814-is, |i: "Grammaire cgyp- tienne", 3 parts (Paris, 1836-1841); " Dietionnaire egyptien en ecriture hieroglyphique, in 4 parts I Paris, 1841-1844).

Loret m /.,, Grande Erir;/,-/,>;i.',/i,, s. v ; .Tolowicz,

theca JBgyptiacn (_> v,,!s.. I i-ip/u-, lv'.s i ■

Hilprecht, Exploration in BiSli Lands (Philadelphia, 1903),

629 >qq. Ihkaham-Hilmy, The Literature o/ Egypt and the Swtan (London, L886-88).

R. Bt TIN.

Champs, Etienne Agard de, a distinguished theo- logian and author, b. al Bourges, 2 September, 1613; d, :it Paris according to D< Backer, at La 1 li

31 July, 1701. He enter, ,! lie .1, ill ]|. e, it III,- III

lti:i0. and later, in Paris, was professor of rhetoric, philosophy, and theology; he was rector at Rennes, thrice rector at Paris, head of the professed house, twice provincial of France, and once provirn Lyons. Jansenism, the one topic of debate in the Prance of his day. is the theme of all his books. Writing tinder the name of Richard Antonius, he composed: "Defensio Censurse Sacra Facultatis I'a- risiensis — sou Disputatio Theologjca de libero arbi- trio" i Paris. 1645). This solid treatise was well re- ceived, and went through Sv litions in two years.

Itcalled forth a reply from Vincent I.enis in his ' Thori-

aca" i Paris, 1648), which occasioned the "Antonii Ricardi Theologi Responsio ad objectiones Vin- centianas" i Paris, 1648). He defends the Sorbonne in his " I >e Iheresi Jansenianfi," (1654). Among his other works the best Known is "Le secret du Jan-

i< decouverl et refute par un Docteur Catho- lique" ( Paris, 1651 ).

Ih i.ni:. \ mendatoi ■ I brack, 1876), II, pt. I, 723/; Riba-

DENF.IHA-Sui WIILL, Hll>> <• ' ./, ,/

1676), II. 1749; Di Bacxer-Sommervooel, B

//,,,/„, ,/, /„ Cm, /,,;,/„,. . .-' 1 1 :, 1 - - , , Paris, 1891), II.

1863-1869.

Leo F. O'Neil.

Chanaan, Ohanaanites. — The Hebrew word IV33. Kend'dn, denoting a person, occurs: (1) in the Old Testament as the name of one of Cham's sons; (2) in a. lengthened form, Kend'&nah (1). V., Chanana, Chanaana) as the name of two other people 1 1 Par., vii. 10; II Par., xviii, 10); (3) denoting a country, as the name of the region of the Chanaanites, or descendants of Chanaan. In the days when the trading Phoenicians held a prominent place, especially among the Chanaanites, this «ord {Kend'&nt), and even Chanaan (e. g. Is., xxiii, S), got the significa- tion of me reliant . trader. As the name of the count ry it occurs under the forms Kinahhi, Kinahni, and Kinahna, as early as two centuries before Moses in the cuneiform letters of Syrian and Palestinian princes to Egyptian Pharaos, found at Tell el- Aniarna; and earlier still in Egyptian inscriptions, in the form Ka-n-'-na. The Phoenician town of Laodicea calls itself on coins from the second century B. c. "a mother in Kend'dn". In Grecian literature. too, evidence remains that the Phoenicians called one of their ancestors, as well as I heir country, X»S, and even at the time of St. Augustine the Punic country people near Hippo called themselves Chanani, l. e. Chanaanites. If the word be of Semitic origin, it should be derived from the root y:3 Kdnd', and mean, originally, low; or, in a figurative sense, small, humble, despicable, subjected. Follow- ing this derivation in its original sense, "the land of Chanaan" has been explained by various scholars as "the low land" whether the name may have originally denoted only the Hat seashore, or the mountainous country of Western Palestine as well, in opposition to the still higher mountains of the Lebanon and the Hennon. But Biblical tradition rather seems to derive the name of the country from that of the person. It takes the "land of Canaan" as "the border of the Canaanites" (A. V.,Gen. x, 19),

i. o. of the race of Chanaan. Chain's son, and ,

not seem advisable to put against this so uncertain

a conjecture as the etymology given above. The less

so. a- the figurative aning of the word, as a

synonym of slave or servant, fits in very well with the little we know of Xoe's grandson. Chanaan, tup. Sun of Cham. In Gen., ix, 18

an, I 22, I ham appears as 1 lie l:il Ina oi < '•"

and in Noe's prediction (verses 25 27) Chanaan

stands side by Bide with his "I, rot hers" (in the larger

,,f the Hebrew word) Sem and Japheth

" lie said: Cursed be < 'haiiaan. a servant of servants shall he be unto his brethren.

\nd he said: Blessed be the Lord God of Sem, l.e i hanaarj his servant.

" May God enlarge Japheth, and may ho dwell in the tent.- ot Sem, and I ban tan be his servant."

The curse called down on Chanaan is undoubtedly

connected with the sin of his father. Cham I verse 22).

Bui it is rather hard to indicate the precise nature of this connexion. Had chain way a

-in. and is it for this reason that

what was said in verse 18 is repeated in the story of the sin, viz.: that Cham i of Chanaan?

Or is the latter struck by Xoe's prophetic curse for the sins of his posterity, who wire to imitate