Summary: A recent study examined evidence for the origins and distinctness of the Canaanites. The results show that these people living in the land promised to Abraham fit the biblical descriptions.
The sons of Ham: Cush, Egypt, Put, and Canaan. – Genesis 10:6 (ESV)
Data from DNA and the Bible Come Together
When Abraham came into the land promised to him, it was filled with a group of people called Canaanites. Abraham’s descendants, the Israelites, would return after their time in Egypt to conquer these Canaanites and gain possession of the land. Now, the findings of a new DNA study of the ancient Canaanite people has revealed that they match the Bible’s account of their origins and movements in some remarkable ways.
Who were the Canaanites?
Both the Bible and archaeological research indicate that Canaan was made up of a series of independent city-states during the Bronze Age (Conventionally defined as the 2,000-year period prior to the onset of the Iron Age in about 1,200 BC).
This area is known by archaeologists today as the southern Levant, a region that roughly consisted of the area of modern Israel as well as neighboring lands just to the north and east. The name “Canaanites” used for residents of Canaan is found outside the Bible in several 2nd millennium BC sources, including the Ugarit tablets.
Findings from 73 Ancient Near Eastern Genomes
Until recently, the ancestry and genetic makeup of these people was not well known. But a new study performed by a team of international researchers is changing that reality. The group collected ancient DNA collected from the skeletons of 73 individuals from five sites in modern Israel and Jordan. Almost all of the samples came from the Middle-to-Late Bronze Age. This information was combined with older research of 20 individuals from four other locations, including remains from the coastal area of Lebanon.
One major finding from the analysis was that while the communities were spread far apart, they formed a genetically “homogeneous” or distinct population that was different from other groups in the world.
“The Canaanites, albeit living in different city-states, were culturally and genetically similar,” says Liran Carmel of The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, as reported in EurekAlert. “Individuals from all sites are highly genetically similar, albeit with subtle differences, showing that the archaeologically and historically defined ‘Canaanites’ corresponds to a demographically coherent group.”
This matches the pattern seen in other groups, such as the early Mycenaeans in Greece, who show clear genetic “homogeneity” across multiple sites in the 2nd millennium BC.
Canaanites Coming in from the East
Another major conclusion of the study was that ancestors of the Canaanite population had migrated there from two distinct locations in the Near East. One of these areas was the Zagros Mountains of Iran and the other was the area around the Caucasus Mountains extending as far west as the edge of Anatolia or modern Turkey. A third group in the mix was categorized as an “earlier local” population.
The group from the Caucasus are thought by the researchers to have come into Canaan early in the Bronze Age, with the Zagros and local groups being pre-Bronze Age. There seemed to be an increase in the proportion of eastern-related ancestry over time.
“Populations in the Southern Levant during the Bronze Age were not static,” said Carmel. “Rather, we observe evidence for the movement of people over long periods of time from the northeast of the ancient Near East, including modern Georgia, Armenia, and Azerbaijan, into the Southern Levant region.”
According to Carmel the group is now seeking to expand their work to different areas and time periods. “This may shed light on the composition of the populations in the biblically mentioned kingdoms of the region, among them Israel, Judah, Ammon, and Moab,” he said.
The Levant has been ruled by many empires in its history, but the research finds that most of those incursions have had little impact on the genetic makeup of groups such as the Lebanese population. According to one source, genes of modern-day residents of Beirut are 90 per cent similar to ancestors who lived around 2,000 BC. The study was published in the journal Cell.
The Missing Biblical Component
There was one aspect conspicuously absent from the group’s conclusions, and that is any reference to how these findings fit the picture painted by the biblical account. If one puts the dates assigned to the various periods aside momentarily and just looks at the basic information, some very interesting connections can be seen to the Book of Genesis and its origin account of the nations.
The further back in time one goes, the less sure one can be about the dates assigned to archaeological evidence. This is true whether looking at secular scholars or people of faith. The general flow of the populations in this study actually fit the descriptions of the Tower of Babel.
And as people migrated from the east, they found a plain in the land of Shinar and settled there… Therefore its name was called Babel, because there the LORD confused the language of all the earth. And from there the LORD dispersed them over the face of all the earth. – Genesis 11:2, 9 (ESV)
Canaan was one of the sons of Ham (see verse at the top of the article). According to the biblical account, the descendants of Canaan would have been among the conglomerate of peoples who gathered at Babel. Babel was located somewhere in the fertile valley watered by the Euphrates and Tigris rivers. (See a past Thinker on a proposed new Tower of Babel discovery.)
The Bible says the group had one language and had gathered in defiance of God’s order to spread across the earth and fill it. Instead, they came together to build a tower in order to make a name for themselves. The text says they migrated to Babel from the east, which is exactly where the Zagros Mountains highlighted in the study are located.
God confused the languages at Babel, and scattered the nations across the lands. The clans descended from Canaan ended up in the Levant, in the region that would bear their name. The Bible does not say whether some groups arrived sooner and others took longer to migrate to the area.
Canaan fathered Sidon his firstborn and Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites … Afterward the clans of the Canaanites dispersed. And the territory of the Canaanites extended from Sidon in the direction of Gerar as far as Gaza, and in the direction of Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboiim, as far as Lasha. – Genesis 10:15-19 (ESV)
What about the various city-states and groups in Canaan being widely spread, yet having similar DNA and ancestry? This also matches the Bible, which at times has the Canaanites as one group living among many:
The Amalekites dwell in the land of the Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan.” – Numbers 13:29 (ESV)
Yet at other times, the Bible uses the name “Canaanite” as sort of an umbrella term for all the groups living in Canaan:
Esau took his wives from the Canaanites: Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, Oholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite, and Basemath, Ishmael’s daughter, the sister of Nebaioth. – Genesis 36:2-3 (ESV)
It is interesting to note that the ark of Noah came to rest in the mountains of Ararat that border the northern Caucasus region highlighted in the study.
and in the seventh month, on the seventeenth day of the month, the ark came to rest on the mountains of Ararat. – Genesis 8:4 (ESV)
It is very difficult to track the movements of people groups over the centuries. According to the Bible, all peoples originally came from the ark and then the Tower of Babel. The Israelites were descended from Abraham who had originally come from the northeast to Canaan (from Ur and Haran). They then went down to Egypt before arriving back in Canaan from the south as a numerous people. In one sense they were Egyptian, because they had come from that location and no doubt picked up some of its culture. However, genetically they were from Mesopotamia, the land of the Euphrates and Tigris rivers.
It could be that Abraham was part of one of the waves of northerners that came down to Canaan in the Bronze Age. No doubt he had many shepherds with him who came from various areas (and who all originally came from the Ararat region). This might fit the Bronze Age migration trend seen in the study, which said they could not tell if the migration was gradual or a few larger events.
In any case, there appears to be a remarkable correlation between the Bible and the new insights into Canaanite history based on the genome-wide analysis of ancient DNA. Too bad the study’s researchers don’t even consider that idea. – Until next week, KEEP THINKING!
TOP PHOTO: Standing stones at the biblical site of Gezer in the heart of Canaanite territory. There is a debate over whether these stones were erected by Canaanites or the early Israelites. (© 2018 Patterns of Evidence, LLC.)
