Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/130

* CANAAN. 104 CANAANITES. from the coast came to be extended to the in- terior. The etymology of Canaan is not certain, but it is just possible that it designated the 'low' land, since in Kg^-ptian inscriptions the article is attached to the term, and in some Semitic languages the stem liuiia has the sense of low. There are good reasons for believing that already at a very early period the poinilation of Palestine represented a mixture of races. The oldest known to us arc the Amorites, the Ana- kim, and the Rei)haim. These seem to have pre- ceded the Canaanites proper, whom the Hebrews encountered. They were powerful warriors and later tradition represents them as endowed with gigantic strength and of great stature. At the time that the Egyptian rulers began their cam- paigns for the possession of western Asia (B.C. 1800), the country is already well settled and the existence of numerous towns points to the presence of a civilized population, such as we find at the time of the Hebrew conquest. For several centuries Egjpt remained in control, but prior to this period Babylonian influence had been dominant in the country. Wlicther the country was actually controlled by Babylonian or Assyrian monarchs or not, it is noteworthy that the "script and langiuige used by the governors stationed in Palestinian towns in corresponding with Egypt, as is shown by the Amarna cunei- form documents (about B.C. 1400), was the Baby- lonian. From the letters that passed between Kgj-ptian oliicials and their royal masters we learn, among other things, that such towns as Jerusalem, Beirut, Byblos, Sidon, Simyre, etc., were already in existence, and there are also in- dications that in the Fifteenth Century B.C. some of the clans which afterwards were included in the confederacy of the Bene Israel were al- ready in the land, showing, what we know from other sources, that not all of the Hebrew tribes had proceeded to Egypt. In the Fifteenth Cen- tury, however, the Egyptian control, as these Amarna tablets show, was beginning to show signs of weakness and the rise of Assyria proved a seri- ous menace to Egyptian supremacy. Tbc internal disturbances in Egjlit were another factor which led to the loss of" Palestine and Syria, so that when the Hebrew confederacy came into existence about the middle of the Thirteenth Century and the plan was formed to drive the Canaanites out of their possessions, Egypt neither oflered any resistance, nor do we hear of their coming to the aid of the Canaanites. The Hebrew conquest was not accomplished at one stroke. It was a gradual displacement of the agricultural poi)ulation, who were reduced to the grade of dependent serfs where they were not driven out. By the Eleventh Century the conquest may be regarded as com- plete and for the succeeding three centuries Israel remains in undisputed possession, though threatened at times by Egypt and involved in more or less constant warfare with the Philis- tines to the west, and with IMoab. the Ammonites, and the Edomites to the east and south. From the Ninth Century the Assyrian rulers pursue a more energetic policy, and as a result, the northern kingdom of Israel falls into their hands (about B.C. 722) together with the Phoeni- cian coast, while the southern portion of Canaan becomes tributary to the great |)ower. A century later the new Babylonian Kingdom accepts the legacy of ,ssyria, and in 5!)7 Canaan passes into the hands of Nebuchadnezzar II. Persia succeeds Babylonia as a world power and Canaan remains in a position of dependence. Nor is the situation improved with .lcxander the (Jreat. The He- brews, while permitted to exercise certain author- ity, are under the control of the. Greek satraps, and when (ireece yields to Rome. Canaan, now known as Palestine from the designation Philis- tia, given to the southern seacoast, becomes a Koman jirovince. From the beginning of our er.a to the ])resent time, Canaan has been one of the great battle-fields of the world, on which the conllicls between the Orient and the Occident for supremacy have been waged. See Can..>;ites; Cru.s.des; Ar.bi. : Tur- key; Syria: and for the geographj-, fauna, and llora of Canaan, the article Paxe.stixe. Bibliography. Consult the histories of the Hebrews by Stade, Ewald, Wellhausen, Piepen- bring, Guthe, and others: also, G. A. Smith, His- torical (Icography of the Uoly Land (New York, 1900). CANAANITES, ka'non-tts. The name given in the Old Testament to the jieople on the west of the .Jordan wlio were disi)ossessed by the in- vasion of the Hebrews. The use of the term is somewhat vague, and in this respect is like the indefiniteness of Canaan as a geograjihical des- ignation. The Canaanites are conunonly enumer- ated with a group of six other peoples, settled in Palestine prior to the Hebrews — viz., .Iel>u- sites, Anunonifes, Girgashites, Hivites, Periz- zites, and Hittites — to which, in Gen. x. 1.5. four more are added — Kenites. Keiiizites, Kadmonites. and Rephaim — Hivites being omitted; while else- where the Girgashites and Hivites arc omitted. The grouping is not scientific. The Ammonites represent, apparently, an older settlement than the Canaanites: the Hittites have no connection with Canaanites: while .Tebusites and Girgashites are local or territorial designations, forming sub- divisions of the Canaanites ratlicr than indepen- dent groups; and this may be true, likewise, of the Pcrizzites. A late tradition ill. Es. i. 211 is probably nearer to the etlmic facts in sepa- rating the pre-Israelitish inlialiitants of Pales- tine proper into Canaanites and Pcrizzites. As to the relationship between the Pcrizzites and Canaanites we know nothing, though they were probably closely akin. The Canaanites, whose name becomes the general designation for the agricultural popilation whom the Hebrews found in Palestine, arc well known through the ac- counts which the Hebrew writers furnish. They lived in a state of com])ar.itively advanced culture. As an agricultural people they were rather a peaceful nation, who, however, showed great powers of resistance in op])osing the ad- vance of the Hebrews, Iwing better equipped and able to protect themselves in their walled towns. Their religion was precisely of the kind that we would expect among an agricidtnral people. There was no centralized cult. Each locality h;id its deity, known as a "Baal' (i.e. lord), to whom the ground was supposed to belong (see Baai.I. and upon whose favor the fertility of the soil depended. Altars were erect<>d to the baals, usu- ally on prominent places or in groves. The pole, repres<'nting a tree and synilmlizing fertility, stood by the altar, on which the first fruits were piled and conciliatory jiresents rlTcrcd in days of distress, or wlien a failure of the crops was threatened. The festivals were, likewise, of an agricultural character, the three chief festival