The Canaanites: Their History and Culture from Texts and Artifacts

by Mary Ellen Buck

The term Canaanite will be familiar to anyone who has even the most casual familiarity with the Bible. Outside of the terminology for Israel itself, the Canaanites are the most common ethnic group found in the Bible. They are positioned as the foil of the nation of Israel, and the land of Canaan is depicted as the promised allotment of Abraham and his descendants. The terms Canaan and Canaanites are even evoked in modern political discourse, indicating that their importance extends into the present. With such prominent positioning, it is important to gain a more complete and historically accurate perspective of the Canaanites, their land, history, and rich cultural heritage. So, who were the Canaanites? Where did they live, what did they believe, what do we know about their culture and history, and why do they feature so prominently in the biblical narratives? In this volume, Mary Buck uses original textual and archaeological evidence to answer to these questions. The book follows the history of the Canaanites from their humble origins in the third millennium BCE to the rise of their massive fortified city-states of the Bronze Age, through until their disappearance from the pages of history in the Roman period, only to find their legacy in the politics of the modern Middle East. "Buck's book on the Canaanites constitutes a comprehensive overview of the history of the 'Canaanites' from their pre-historic origins to their impact on current politics. Buck nicely combines archaeological and textual data from main Canaanite sites and relates these to accounts of Canaanites in the Hebrew Bible, thus creating a coherent and engaging narrative of their history. Numerous illustrations further bring this narrative to life for both the expert and lay person." --Rebecca Hasselbach-Andee, Associate Professor of Comparative Semitics, University of Chicago "An authoritative, up-to-date, eminently readable, and genuinely helpful guide to the ancient Canannites of biblical fame. It is written and illustrated so as to be fully understandable to non-specialists in Canaanites studies, but is in fact just the thing for anyone who wants the big picture." --Dennis Pardee, Henry Crown Professor of Hebrew Studies, University of Chicago Mary Ellen Buck completed her PhD at the University of Chicago in Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations. She has published on ancient archaeology, papyri, and inscriptions, and is the author of The Amorite Dynasty of Ugarit.

Genres: History, Ancient History, Old Testament, Biblical Studies

103 pages, Kindle Edition

Published December 3, 2019

Reviews

[Peyton Gunter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Provides so much historical context, and there’s a lot of helpful pictures. I love pictures

[Parker · Rating 3 out of 5]

I'm not exactly sure who this is for. It's not quite detailed enough to be a primary resource, but the footnotes aren't thorough enough to serve as a quick reference to locate other resources, either. It is a great introduction and overview of the relevant information, and probably all that most students or interested laypeople would need. It's super readable, and addresses all the main issues. But for what it is, its price (MSRP is $21) makes it a hard sell (literally). For that price, I want something a bit meatier, and I think most other people do, too.

[Grant Carter]

Thank you Mary for informing me on the heathen land of old

[Anne Michal]

Read for class. I’ve always wondered where groups like the philistines came from so it was cool to learn about them.

[Ethan · Rating 5 out of 5]

To this day the term “Canaanite” evokes a cursed, condemned people. Such is understandable from a surface reading of the Old Testament. But who are the Canaanites?

Mary Ellen Buck’s Cascade Companions volume, The Canaanites: Their History and Culture from Texts and Artifacts, provides an accessible exploration into what can be known about the Canaanites.

Very little comes from the people who are called Canaanites; the definition can be expanded in ways which will make many of us uncomfortable. “Canaanites” are the inhabitants of the area of the Levant we know today as Israel and Lebanon and parts of Jordan and Syria. The term does not start showing up in Akkadian or Egyptian records until the Middle Bronze Age, but DNA evidence from Early Bronze Age skeletons demonstrate connections with later Bronze and Iron Age Canaanites, attesting to their antiquity in the land. The author explores the evidence we have regarding Canaanite city-states under the Egyptian Empire of the New Kingdom/Middle to Late Bronze Age as well as the archaeological and textual evidence for the Iron Age Canaanite kingdoms of Edom, Moab, Ammon, Phoenicia, and, yes, Israel and Judah. She concludes with some late examples of speaking of Canaanites in the New Testament and by Augustine, and with the evidence of continued DNA connections between Canaanites and modern Lebanese populations.

We may find it uncomfortable to associate the Israelites with Canaanites: after all, was not Canaan cursed in Genesis? Was Israel not to confess they were descended from wandering Arameans? And yet Classical Hebrew is most assuredly a Canaanite dialect, not an Aramaic one. While the Genesis author goes out of his way to demonstrate how Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob descend from purely Mesopotamian/Aramean stock, eleven of the twelve sons of Jacob would have married Canaanite women (and we know for certain Judah did), and Joseph married an Egyptian. Even if the Israelites only married within their tribes while sojourning in Egypt, they would continue to manifest almost 50% Canaanite DNA!

Furthermore, the witness of Israelite history reinforces the conclusion: they lived among and acted like Canaanites. Each Canaanite kingdom had its patron god (Chemosh for Moab; Milkom for Ammon; Qos for Edom), and they believed in El, Baal, Mot, Astarte, etc. as well; Israel confessed YHWH as their God, and they also served the Canaanite pantheon as well, which is what Moses and the prophets condemned.

It may make us uncomfortable, and the assertion that the multiplicity of Canaanite kingdoms was only a Late Bronze Age/Early Iron Age phenomenon also might challenge us in some ways, but the Israelites pretty much were no different from the Canaanites around them, and thus they suffered the same fate as the people around them. They only truly became distinctive as a result of the exile they endured.

While the author would thus challenge some of the ways in which Genesis portrays the nations/kingdoms around Israel and Judah, she does note an interesting climatological/historical detail: much of Canaan experienced significant drying for a few hundred years after the 4.2 Kiloyear event, and what had been mostly a farming society turned to shepherding. This would include, and feature, the time of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob according to the textual era (ca. 2150-1850 BCE), a time in which they all were pastoralists.

This is a great resource which well compiles a lot of good information about the Canaanites, and provides an invitation to re-assess the “Canaanite” like we are invited to re-assess the “Pharisee”: what is involved in how those groups are portrayed, what motivates the caricature, and how we can avoid mischaracterization and slander.

[Cole Feix · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short, solid introduction to the people of Canaan from a historical and archaeological perspective. It would be better if the author would treat the Bible with a similar level of confidence/skepticism as other ancient documents, instead of dismissing the historical information just because it’s only in the Bible, but unfortunately this is the common tack in the guild.

[Monty Milne · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is excellent if you are looking for a very brief and basic introduction to the subject. I found it a bit disappointing, which is my fault – had I looked more closely before buying, I would have realised it is not the kind of in-depth treatment of the subject I was looking for. I hesitate to give it a rating. Three stars to reflect my disappointment at the slimness and slightness of the book, but as a basic introduction it is worth four or maybe even five stars. So I will compromise and give four. I didn’t learn much that I didn’t already know, but that is not the author’s fault, and at least the pleasant colour photographs were new to me.

[Barry · Rating 5 out of 5]

A short but well-explained history of the Canaanites, this book gives a good overview. It left me wanting to learn more about the individual groups of Canaanites, so to me that is a sign it's good. Certainly not in-depth, but that was to be expected from the blurb and the page length. I came away knowing more about a pivotal region of the world and would recommend this book to anyone wanting to learn more about the history of the ancient near east.

[J · Rating 4 out of 5]

A short read, doable in an afternoon, providing an excellent basis for further reading. Well sourced, accessibly written and demanding no prior knowledge of the subject. Insofar as that knowledge exists, one notices where Buck has omitted details for the sake of brevity, but never in a way that takes away from ones understanding of the Canaanite people as a whole.

[Jonathan Trousdale · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good short summary of Canaan

This was a good quick read - I read it in one day. It answers many questions about basic Canaanite history. It could have been more in-depth about a few things, but in general it does the job.

[John Yelverton · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was an interesting book about the Canaanites, but it was definitely written from a secular perspective with only cursory acknowledgements from the Bible. Read it for the information it contains, but a grain of salt for everything else.

[Jim Gulley · Rating 3 out of 5]

A short summary of the history, culture, and language of the Canaanites from the Early Bronze Age through the Iron Age. Buke introduces non-biblical ancient textual sources to corroborate the Hebrew Bible sources that are the most extant for these people.

[JR Snow · Rating 5 out of 5]

Read as supplement to Dr. Belcher’s Genesis-Deuteronomy class at RTS fall 2020.

Pithy little introduction.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

really interesting. nice and short.

[Jake Ruefer · Rating 4 out of 5]

A helpful, short, picture filled introduction to the Canaanites. The author does not appear to have any particular bias based on her treatment of Israel as part of the Canaanites.

[Bob at 1800AskBob . Com · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this book to get a greater understanding with actual research data. It didn't disappoint. The author did a good job of separating the presentation in a few different perspectives.

[Coleson White · Rating 4 out of 5]

Interesting

[LMS · Rating 4 out of 5]

Brief. Informative. Has pictures. What more can I say? It’s a reference book.

[gabi · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read chapters 1-3 and 5.

[Mason McCray · Rating 5 out of 5]

Good introduction to the Canaanites, short and easy to read. Lots of nice pictures in the book to bring things to life