Canaan

CANAAN - THE PROMISED LAND - ANCIENT PALESTINE


The Canaanite boundaries extend from Sidon to Gaza on the East Mediterranean coast and inland to the Jordan River Valley.

Canaan before the Hebrews had been a collection of city-states, tributary to the Egyptian Pharoah, as attested to in the Tel-El Amarna tablets. Tel El-Amarna is a city located on a flat stretch of land beside the Nile Valley. It measures only 12 kilometers from north to south, however it is one of the most interesting and captivating areas in all of Egypt. About 400 clay tablets were found dating to the time of Akhenaten, a pharaoh that ruled 35 centuries earlier. These important sources of historical evidence concern a period before the exodus of the Israelites from Egypt and consist of letters from Egyptian governors in Syria and Palestine, from the kings of Assyria and Babylon and others. About 2/3 of the 230 or so tablets went to the Berlin Museum, the remainder to the British Museum.

The map shows the probable location of cities in Canaan about 1200 BCE.

"Canaan was a large city of 260,000 inhabitants; it traded widely over the known world at that time. A flourishing civilization existed with many skilled craftsmen in metals, textiles, ceramics, and woodwork. It existed 1,000 years before David and Solomon and was destroyed by the Akkadians in around 1600 BC.


Israel in Early Times: According to Hebrew tradition, 12 tribes entered Canaaan from Egypt and conquered it, led by Moses. Historical evidence from the Amarna tables suggests that there were already 'apiru' in Canaanites in the time of Egyptian rule, some possibly with names such as "yakubu-el" (Jacob). The biblical account alots different parts of the land to the twelve tribes as shown in the maps. Soon after, a kingdom was established, first under Saul and then under David.

The Dual Kingdom and Palestine in the Time of Jesus - After the death of King Solomon, Israel split into two kingdoms. Eventually, both the kingdom of Israel, and later that of Judea, with its temple in Jerusalem, were overrun by invaders. The Persians restored the Judean kingdom and allowed the Jews to rebuild their temple. This kingdom fell to Greek and later Hellenic-Syrian domination when Alexander the Great conquered Persia.

In 164 BCE the Hasmonean Kingdom of Judea revolted and became semi-independent of Syria. It was protected by a treaty of friendship with Rome. However in 61 Pompei conquered Jerusalem, and from then on Israel or Palestine was subordinate to Rome. Parts of it were nominally independent under the rule of local kings of the line of Herod the Idumean.�

Herod build many towns and fortifications (including Massada and Heordion) and extensively remodelled the temple in Jerusalem. After the first Jewish rebellion and fall of Jerusalem in 70 AD,� large numbers of Jews were exiled. Jerusalem was eventually rebuilt as Aelia Capitolina. After the failure of the revolt of Bar-Kochba in 133, there were more exiles and ruined towns.�On the ruins of Israelite and Canaanite towns, the Romans built new ones, populated partly by inhabitants of neighboring lands. The land was divided into several districts, of which Palestine was only one. The negev, generally excluded from these divisions was inhabited by the Nabateans, a trader nation that made a notable desert civilization in cities such as Avdat (in modern Israel) and Petra (in modern Jordan). The whole area between the desert and the sea was known, later in the Roman Empire, as the Christian Patriarchate of Jerusalem, though this was not a Roman administrative division.

Christian Palestine fell first to the Persians,� in 614. It was reconquered briefly in 629 by Heraclius. However,� with the rise of Islam, the Middle East, and with it Palestine - Israel - Canaan -� was conquered by Arabs. Jerusalem fell in 640. The Jews� were willing allies of the Arabs, as they had been of the Persians. The Land was divided into a Southern Jund of Filastin with a capital in Al-Lud (later in Ramleh), and a norther Jund of Al Urdunn with its capital in Tabariyeh (Tiberius).

Crusader Palestine - Beginning in 1095, the crusaders conquered Palestine and the surrounding areas. Initially savage toward Muslims and Jews, crusader rule eventually seems to have brought a measure of good administration before it was eventually eliminated by Salah-e-din and his successors.

Canaan was the land promised to Abraham and the Patriarchs. This is the land where they lived prior to the story of Joseph and the famine that brought them to Egypt.

The Exodus story brought them back as a nation of God's chosen people to the Promised Land of Canaan where Joshua lead the Israelites across the Jordan River to conquer and occupy the land promised to their forefathers.

The Canaanite God El







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