The Canaan Abraham Knew

Alice C. Linsley


The period that tells us the most about Canaan during Abraham's time is from 2,200 to 1500 BC. This would include Abraham and other Biblical patriarchs. These were rulers as evidenced by the solar symbol at the beginning of their names: Yitzak, Yaqtan, Yisbak, Yishmael, Yacob, and Yosef.

The Canaanite Y symbolized a cradle for the sun, the emblem of the Creator. The Y in a man's name indicated divine appointment to rule. The ruler's tent was the head tent (oholibamah) and was represented by the ancient Hebrew and Arabic vaw. This sign was a Canaanite sign. Both the Y and V signs have been found on ancient Canaanite inscriptions.

The branch symbol was another common sign. It is sometimes called Tammuz and is associated with a deity described as "faithful son" (Ezekiel 8:14). However, the name likely has an association with Tamana, the earlier word for the shrine cities, many of which were dedicated to Horus.

Canaanite signs found at Wadi El-Hol

Hebrew developed from the Canaanite language spoken by people of Abraham's time. In Abraham's time rulers and their royal advisors spoke many languages. The ability to speak, read, and write more than one language continued to be a requirement for ruler-priests who served in the served Sanhedrin, the Beth Din HaGadol (The Great Court).

Priests belonging to prominent families were highly regarded members of the Sanhedrin. A "prominent" family was one whose lineages could be traced back to Horite Hebrew ruler-priests, what Jews call their Horim. (In English Bibles Horim is Horite.)

The third century Rabbi Johanan enumerates the qualifications of those in the Sanhedrin as follows: they must be tall, of imposing appearance, of advanced age, and scholars. They were required to be adept in the use of foreign languages. When testimony was give to the Sanhedrin in a foreign language, at least two members who spoke that language were required to examine the witness. There was also a third member who understood the language. These three members constituted a minor court of three, who then reported the testimony to the entire Sanhedrin.

Abraham is a combination of the words Ab – father and ham – burnt, referring to a reddish skin tone. The Horites are described in the Bible as having a reddish skin tone. According to Genesis 36, Esau married with the Horites of Edom (meaning red). He is described as being hairy and red. The Edomites and the Dedanites were known to live in rock-hewn houses or caves like those found at Beersheba during Abraham's time.


Peoples of Canaan

Many different people lived in Canaan, including Amorites, Kenites, Jebusites, Dedanites, Joktanites, and Phoenicians. Exodus 3:8 provides this list: "The Canaanite, and Hethite, and Amorite and Pherezite, and Hevite, and Jebusite." Here is is evident that the word "Canaanite" is intended as a general category.

Genesis 15:19-21 lists "the Kenites, the Kenizzites, Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphaim, the Amorites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."

The Kenites and the Amorites are found in both lists. Kenite is the likely origin of the words Kenite and Canaanite. Cain and Seth were brothers. Seth's land was along the Nile. Cain went east of there and we find his descendants the Kenites in Canaan. It is likely that the term Canaan is related to the word Cain.

The word kinah-hu, found in the Nuzi tablets, refers to the Canaanites and to the color red. This aligns with what is known about Abraham's Nilotic ancestors who had a red skin tone. Some equate the word "Canaan" with the red purple dye used to make the garments of Tyrian rulers. However, it is more likely that kinah-hu relates to the early Horite and Sethite Hebrew to whom Abraham was related and from whom Moses descended. This is substantiated by Joshua 15:21,22 which reports that, "The southernmost towns of the tribe of Judah in the Negev toward the boundary of Edom were: Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah..." Edom means red and Horite Hebrew lived there.

Kinah is a variant of the name Kenan. Genesis 5 lists Kenan as Cain's grandson. The name Kenan is a variant of Kain and Ghayin. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (2007) writes that ghayin lies behind kinah-huat in the Nuzi tablets. In the Canaano-Akkadian, "hu" is a pronominal suffix.

A principal shrine of the Amoprites was in Hazazon-tamar (Gen. 14:7), also known as Engedi (2 Chron. 20:2). Engedi was a large oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea bounded on the south by the Wadi Arnon. The Amorites are also called the Amurru. The word likely derives from Am-Ar, meaning the people, tribe, clans or caste of Ar. It also appears in the titles of many rulers, including Ar-Shem, Arsames, Artix, and Araxes and in the names of Biblical places, such as Wadi Arnon. Ar-non (originally Ar-nxn) means the Ar of Onn/Heliopolis. Here we find a connection between Abraham's Ainu ancestors of Onn. Joseph/Yosef married the daughter of the high priest of Heliopolis, a Horite shrine city.

The Amorites lived in ancient Egypt as evidenced by Tomb No. 34 at Thebes (c. 1550-c. 1292) where a bearded Amorite chief with light skin and red-brown hair is shown. It appears that they had a scribal function. Ariel means "Scribe/Messenger of God." The association of Ar with the scribal caste is further demonstrated by the discovery of Aramaic scrolls from Arsames, the satrap, to his Egyptian administrator Psamshek and to an Egyptian ruler named Nekht-hor. (A.T.Olmstead, History of the Persian Empire, Chicago, 1948, pp.116-117)

The Shrine Cities of Abraham's Time

In Abraham's time, Canaan was a collection of city-states that paid tribute to the Great House of Egypt, as attested in the Amarna tablets. During the final years of the Late Bronze Age, Egyptianized Philistines were a prominent power in Canaan. The principal cities were shrine cities set at higher elevations, These are referred to as the "high places" in the Bible. The central temple and palace were pillared and usually aligned to the the solar arc. These were sometimes called "sun temples" (o'piru) or houses of the sun. The sun was the emblem of the Creator.

During Abraham's time there were at least seven principal mound or shrine cities. These were Hazor, Shechem, Beersheba, Ramah, Jerusalem, Bethel and Hebron. The shrines were attended by priests, mainly Horites. The Horites were a caste of ruler-priests who were widely dispersed in the ancient world. They originated in the Nile Valley and were ethnically Kushites.

Shrine cities were built on high ground and had good water sources. The ruler's complex was at the highest level and included quarters for residential staff such as cooks, craftsmen, warriors and priests. The most holy shrine or chapel was within the royal complex.

From about 1400 BC there is evidence that the Hebrew (habiru/abru) attempted to take control of the principal shrine cities in Canaan. This suggests that the Habiru under Joshua and Caleb's leadership attempted to supplant their Habiru kinsmen in those cities. Hazor was one of those cities.

Pillared residence at Hazor

Fourteen massive jars of scorched wheat have been found in a Late Bronze Age palace at Hazor. These are testimony to a large fire between 1400 and 1200 BC. Scholars do not agree on the cause of the fire. The Israeli archaeologist Amnon Ben Tor believes that the Israelites conquered Hazor and burned it as described in Joshua 11:11- "None of the cities that stood on mounds did Israel burn, except Hazor only; that Joshua burned." However, the accounts in Joshua are ambiguous. Joshua 6:24 credits Joshua with burning Jericho, and Joshua 8:28 reports that he also burned Ai.

It is also possible that Hazor was burned by the Egyptians with the help of Horite warriors such as Joshua and Caleb. Seti I claimed to have destroyed Hazor in a military campaign around 1300 BC. It is possible that Horite warriors were among Seti's destroyers of Hazor and memory of the event came into the Hebrew Bible from them. It seems doubtful that the Habiru would have burned Hazor on their own initiative since the king of Hazor was friendly to the Habiru as evidenced by Amarna document EA 148 (Cairo Museum Cat. Number 4765, ca. 1400-1100 BC).

According to Jewish tradition, the Hebrews entered Canaan from Egypt and conquered it between 1240-1200 BC. The Amarna tablets make it clear that there were already ‘apiru or Habiru living among the Canaanites. In the ancient Egyptian piru means house. However, in the proto-Saharan languages p is sometimes replaced by b so that Hapiru also appears as Habiru, which in English is Hebrew.

The Hapiru served in the ancient temples and water shrines called hâît, or pirû, a reference to the house of the deity. The Dravidians referred to their East-oriented temples as O'piru, meaning "Sun House."

Archaeological excavations at Hebron reveal traces of strong fortifications dated to the Early Bronze Age. Hebron is where Abraham's wife Sarah resided. There was a grove of oak trees and a male moreh or prophet sat under one of these on a hill overlooking Hebron. Abraham likely consulted that moreh. (Photo right: Hebron vineyard with the Moreh's Hill in the background)

There are caves here and some of these were used for burial. Islamic tradition places Joseph’s tomb in Haram al-Khalil in Hebron, in the Tomb of the Patriarchs, a heavy rectangular building that encloses the Cave of Machpelah that was explored in 1967. This is believed to be the cave that Abraham purchased for Sarah's burial.

Arabic Al-Khalil translates the ancient toponym Hebron as haber (friend), but more likely it relates to the Habiru who served as priests at this shrine.

Abraham's second wife was either his patrilineal cousin or niece. She resided at Beersheba which was inhabited from at least 4000 BC according to archaeological finds.The settlement that Abraham would have known was comprised of rock-hewn dwellings and a deep well that supplied fresh water to the inhabitants. This is the well from which the settlement took its name: the "well of Sheba."

Beersheba is where Abraham spent his old age.

Both Abraham and Keturah were descendants of Sheba (Gen. 10:26-30). Keturah's father was Joktan (Yaqtan) and she named her first born son Joktan, as was the custom for the patrilineal cousin bride. Joktan was Abraham's first born son, but not his heir according to the Horite marriage and ascendancy pattern. Abraham complained before the Lord that he had no proper heir from Sarah, his half-sister wife.

Related reading: Language Families; The Urheimat of the Canaanite Y; Who Were the Canaanites?; Edom and the Horites; Two Named Esau; The Cousin Bride's Naming Prerogative; Abraham's Complaint; Abraham a descendant of both Shem and Ham; Confirmation of Early Biblical Populations; The Genesis King Lists

Kushite Diversity and Unity

Alice C. Linsley


The Kushite rulers held a theology that Biblical Anthropologists recognize. This can be determined from artifacts such as the Sheba-qo Stone which describes the theology that held sway at Heliopolis (Biblical On) and Memphis. The Stone dates to the Nubian Dynasty or the Kushite Empire, but the theology is much older. According to this theology the Creator is the great Craftsman who gives wisdom and skill to the King and his craftsmen. This is expressed in Proverbs 25:2 - "It is the glory of God to conceal a thing: but the honor of kings is to search out a matter."

The royal craftsmen worked with visible things such as tools of stone and metal. The Creator, on the other hand, works with what is concealed and mysterious like the wind or breath (ruach). The breath of the Creator went forth at the beginning of creation and things were created out of His mouth/word, and not from a pre-existing substance. He crafted the heavens above and the earth below, and separated the light from darkness. This theology is expressed in Genesis 1 and in the Wisdom Tradition that regards God as the architect whose wisdom is evident in the order of creation.

The seats of wisdom that have been identified in the Bible include Tema, Edom and Tyre, all of which have a history of metal work and connection to the Horite ruler-priests.

The Feminine Principle (Heb: hokma, Gr: sophia) is described in language that identifies her with the ruach of God. She says, “I came forth from the mouth of the Most High and covered the earth like a mist… I walk in the depth of the abyss.” (Wisdom of Ben Sirach 24:3,5) Here we have echoes of Genesis 1 where we are told that the Spirit of God went forth over the chaotic waters and brought order, separating the waters above (firmament) from the waters below, and the seas from the day land. This ordering Principle is sometimes called Tehut, and the oldest known moral code is the Law of Tehut.

Tehut is sometimes likened to the Egyptian Ma'at, but there is a significant difference. Ma'at was created whereas Tehut appears to be the generative and uncreated Word of God (logos). Proverbs 8:22-31 and 9:1-6 appear to be about Ma'at. She says that "Yahweh created me, first-fruits of his fashioning, before the oldest of his works... the deep was not, when I was born..." Whether Proverbs is attributed to Solomon or to a time well after Solomon, the theology concerning Ma'at comes from a period much later than Abraham's Kushite ancestors.


The Kushites reflect the genetic diversity of Africa

Among the Kushites are the dark skinned Dravidians, the Sudra, who established their religious practices in southern Pakistan and India. This is called the Harappa culture. Har-appa is Dravidian for "Horus is Father". The Dravidians have much in common with the Nilotic people living in the Horn of Africa.

"Kushite" is a general term that includes many people groups who lived along the Nile and in the Chadic Basin. Some were light skinned, some black, some reddish, some reddish-brown, and some were brown. To this day Africa has the greatest genetic diversity of any place in the world.

Ancient Nilotic cattle herders were red and black.

Among the Kushites we find Nubians, Beja, Copts, Egyptians, Proto-Saharans, Horites, and their kinsmen who were living on the western and southern coast of Arabia.

DNA studies of the Sudan show "genetic unity and linkage" between the Sudanic, Egyptian, Nubian and other Nilotic peoples, as well as some populations of the Horn of Africa (Yurco (1996), Keita (1993, 2004, 2005) Lovell (1999), Zakrewski (2003, 2007). Genetic and linguistic research indicates that the Copts are one of the oldest Egyptian populations. This is based on the relatively high frequency of the B-M60 marker, indicating early pre-dynastic colonization of Egypt by Upper Nilotes.

From the University of Khartoum we have this report:

The area known today as Sudan may have been the scene of pivotal human evolutionary events, both as a corridor for ancient and modern migrations, as well as the venue of crucial past cultural evolution. Several questions pertaining to the pattern of succession of the different groups in early Sudan have been raised. To shed light on these aspects, ancient DNA (aDNA) and present DNA collection were made and studied using Y-chromosome markers for aDNA, and Y-chromosome and mtDNA markers for present DNA. Bone samples from different skeletal elements of burial sites from Neolithic, Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Christian periods in Sudan were collected from Sudan National Museum. aDNA extraction was successful in 35 out of 76 samples, PCR was performed for sex determination using Amelogenin marker. Fourteen samples were females and 19 were males. To generate Y-chromosome specific haplogroups A-M13, B-M60, F-M89 and Y Alu Polymorphism(YAP) markers, which define the deep ancestral haplotypes in the phylogenetic tree of Y-chromosome were used. Haplogroups A-M13 was found at high frequencies among Neolithic samples. Haplogroup F-M89 and YAP appeared to be more frequent among Meroitic, Post-Meroitic and Christian periods. Haplogroup B-M60 was not observed in the sample analyzed.For extant DNA, Y-chromosome and mtDNA haplogroup variations were studied in 15 Sudanese populations representing the three linguistic families in Sudan by typing the major Y haplogroups in 445 unrelated males, and 404 unrelated individuals were sequenced for the mitochondrial hypervariable region.

Y-chromosome analysis shows Sudanese populations falling into haplogroups A, B, E, F, I, J, K, and R in frequencies of 16.9, 8.1, 34.2, 3.1, 1.3, 22.5, 0.9, and 13% respectively. Haplogroups A, B, and E occur mainly in Nilo-Saharan speaking groups including Nilotics, Fur, Borgu, and Masalit; whereas haplogroups F, I, J, K, and R are more frequent among Afro-Asiatic speaking groups including Arabs, Beja, Copts, and Hausa, and Niger-Congo speakers from the Fulani ethnic group.

Accordingly, though limited on number of a DNA samples, there is enough data to suggest and to tally with the historical evidence of the dominance by Nilotic elements during the early state formation in the Nile Valley, and as the states thrived there was a dominance by other elements particularly Nuba/Nubians."

Correlating the data with the Bible

It is difficult to correlate the Kushites with the peoples living in Arabia and the coast lands who are listed in Genesis, Exodus, Deuteronomy and Joshua. It is evident that Canaan, Phoenicia and greater Arabia were populated by many peoples, including Amorites, Dedanites, Horites, Jebusites and Kenites. The tent-dwelling Kenites were in Canaan during Saul's reign, as evidenced by I Samuel 15:6 - "Saul sent this warning to the Kenites: 'Move away from where the Amalekites live, or you will die with them. For you showed kindness to all the people of Israel when they came up from Egypt.' So the Kenites packed up and left."

The Kenites were itinerant metal workers and probably related to the metal working Nes of Anatolia. In ancient Egypt the term Nesu biti refered to the ruler of a united Upper Nile and the Lower Nile. Nesu biti contains the signs for papyrus sedge and bee. Sedge symbolized the Upper Nile and the bee was the symbol of the Lower Nile.

Genesis 10:15-19, traces the Canaanite peoples to an otherwise unknown descendant of Noah: "Canaan fathered Sidon his first-born, then Heth, and the Jebusites, the Amorites, Girgashites, Hivites, Arkites, Sinites, Arvadites, Zemarites and Hamathites. Later Canaanite clans spread out. The Canaanite frontier stretched from Sidon all the way to Gerar near Gaza and all the way to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim near Lehsa."

The root of the names Arkite and Arvadite is AR and its origin is likely Proto-Saharan. Among the Igbo of Nigeria, the scribe clans were called Ar or Aro. The ancient Egyptian Asa-ar means the Serpent of Asa (Deity). The peoples living in Arvad, Tyre and Sidon employed serpent imagery in their temples and shrines.

A Jebusite ruler called Araunah sold King David a threshing floor upon which David constructed an altar. Araunah means "the lord".

In II Chronicles and I Kings 9:20 only the Hittites, Amorites, Perizzites, Hivites and Jebusites are identified as living in the land.

Exodus 3:8 provides this list: "The Canaanite, and Hethite, and Amorite and Perizzite, and Hivite, and Jebusite."

Joshua 12:8 provides this list of peoples living in Canaan in the hill country, the western foothills, the Jordan Valley, the mountain slopes, the Judean wilderness, and the Negev: the Hittites, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.

Another list appears in Deuteronomy. "When the LORD your God brings you into the land where you are entering to possess it, and clears away many nations before you, the Hittites and the Girgashites and the Amorites and the Canaanites and the Perizzites and the Hivites and the Jebusites, seven nations greater and stronger than you..." (Deut. 7:1)

Genesis 15:19-21 lists "the Kenites, the Kenizzites, Kadmonites, the Hittites, the Perizzites, the Raphaim, the Amorites, the Girgashites and the Jebusites."

Some names are descriptive. Perizzites, for example, means "scattered people." The Hivites are connected to the Hittites. These were metal workers who introduced iron work to Anatolia. They called themselves the Nes (NS) and their language was called Nesli.

The proto-root for vein, river, tongue, sinew, lightening and serpent was NS. The S originally would have been a pictograph representing a serpent or anything serpentine. It also indicates "great" and can mean "Man" (Egyptian - sa), and throne (Proto-Saharan es or is). NS suggests connection between heaven and earth, and between deity and man. The serpent was a sacred symbol to the Kushites, especially to the metalworking clans, such as the Hittites.

The names Hittite and Hivite share the root HT (same as the name Het or Heth). Genesis 10 tells us that these two clans form a Heth confederation. HT in the Hebrew and Arabic refers to copper - nahas-het. Nahash means serpent. As an adjective it means shining bright, like burnished copper. So the evidence suggests that the clans of HT were Bronze Age coppersmiths. The serpent image was sacred for them, as it was for Moses and the people in the wilderness.

We note that the Horites do not appear in any of these lists. That is because they were not a people, but rather a caste of ruler-priests who lived dispersed among the peoples from the Nile to the Tigris-Euphrates (cf. Gen. 15:18). The Septuagint incorrectly identified the Horites (“Choraios”) with the Hittites, though doubtless there here Horite Hebrew priest serving among the Hittite rulers.

The only peoples that appear in all these lists are the Amorites and the Jebusites. The Biblical writers are in agreement that these two peoples inhabited Canaan from very early. They are probably related clans, not different ethnic groups.


Who were the Amorites?

The Amorites, also called the Amurru, lived in ancient Egypt and are shown on tomb as light skinned with reddish brown hair. This has been confirmed by Flinders Petrie and Archibald Sayce. According to Sayce, "The Amorites… were a tall, handsome people, with white skins, blue eyes and reddish hair, all the characteristics, in fact, of the white race." (The Hittites, 1889)

The Amorites are represented on the Egyptian monuments with fair skins, light hair, blue eyes, and pointed beards. Tomb No. 34 at Thebes (18th Dynasty, c. 1550-c. 1292), shows a bearded Amorite chief with white skin and red-brown hair. Henry George Tomkins (1897), a member of the Royal Archaeological Institute, also concluded that the Amorites were fair haired with blue eyes.


Who were the Jebusites?

The Jebusites likely ranged from reddish-brown to black with dark hair and dark eyes. Some may have had green eyes. Prince Rotimi Obadofin believes that “perhaps the Jebusites, that is the original inhabitants of Jerusalem were Ijebu people of today, since Oke-Eri is owned and inhabited by Ijebu people.” Eri is connected with the huge archaeological monument of Eredo. Eridu is also the name of the oldest known Sumerian city.

The Jebusites may indeed be the Ijebu who are an extant people and related to the modern day Edomites who are called "Edo." Both peoples live in Nigeria and Benin. The Jebusites had close connections with the Horites of Edom. Melchizedek, the Priest-King of Jerusalem (Jebu/Yebu), was Jebusite and a kinsman to Abraham. Melchizedek was probably the brother-in-law of Joktan, Abraham's father-in-law.



Related reading: Confirmation of Early Biblical Populations; The Jebusites Unveiled; The Victory of Tehut Over Tehom; Canaanite Origins of the Alphabet; The African Background of Genesis; Kushite Kings and the Kingdom of God; The Kushite-Kushan Connection; Kushite Gold; Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers; The Kenite-Horite Connection

Who Were the Canaanites?

Alice C. Linsley


Canaan became the father of Sidon his firstborn, and Heth and the Jebusites, the Amorites, the Girgashites, the Hivites, the Arkites, the Sinites, the Arvadites, the Zemarites, and the Hamathites. (Gen. 10:15-18 NRSV)

The Bible passages that speak about “the Canaanites” reflect authors who lived well after the Patriarchal Period (2200-1800 BC). In the Canaan that Abraham knew, there were many peoples and castes living in settlements and in shrine cities such as Hazor. Egypt was the dominant political power and the socio-religious context of the Canaanites was Afro-Arabian, Kushite and Nilo-Saharan. This has been demonstrated by scientific analysis drawing on the disciplines of anthropology, linguistics, archaeology and molecular genetics.

In Genesis 10 the peoples who descend from Noah through his grandsons Sidon and Het (Heth) are said to be the original inhabitants. Noah was a Proto-Saharan chief living in the region of Lake Chad. He lived approximately 2490-2415 BC, when the Sahara experienced a wet period (Karl W. Butzer 1966). This is the period of the Old Kingdom, a time of great cultural and technological achievement.Two of his sons were Ham and Shem. The ruler-priest lines of Ham and Shem can be traced throughout the Bible. Their lines intermarried.

According to Genesis 9:20-26, Noah's curse fell upon the Canaanites. This transparent attempt to obfuscate the Kushite origins of Israel clearly entered the text long after the time of Moses the Horite. Noah's three sons were Shem, Ham and Japheth and their lines intermarried. Therefore, if Noah cursed his grandson Canaan, the curse fell upon all his descendants.

Israelites and Canaanites are related peoples

In II Chronicles 8:7 and I Kings 9:20 the term “Canaanite” is used to distinguish the Israelites from the other clans living in the land. However, it is clear that the Israelites were related to these Canaanite clans. The Canaanites were blood-related Afro-Arabian peoples whose ancestry can be traced back to the Nile Valley. They were ruled by chiefs who maintained mound-city shrines throughout the land of Canaan.

The Kushite peoples included Edomites, red and black Nubians, Nilotes, Egyptians, Sudra, Horites, and the Ainu. The Ainu are often regarded as the First Nation people who built Heliopolis and spread across the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion.

Migration routes of the Nilotic Proto-Saharans

Genesis 10 attempts to establish Canaan as the eponymous ancestor of the Canaanite clans who spread, according to Genesis 10:19, from "Sidon to Gerar near Gaza, and all the way to to Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah and Zeboiim near Lesha."  All of the Canaanite clans named in Genesis are also listed as the original inhabitants of the land in Exodus 3:8; Deuteronomy 7:1; Joshua 3:10; 24:11 or in extant texts of the period.

Melchizededk, the high priest of Jerusalem, was a Jebusite.  He ministered to Abraham after the bloodshed between the kings. (Gen. 14)  The Jebusites were a Kushite people.

The Hivites were likely a Horite clan (Genesis 14:6).  It is not surprising then that Abraham the Horite was living among them and was buried among them at Machpelah.

The Arvadites (residents of Arvad) and Arkites (Gen. 10:15-18) were clans of royal scribes and related to the Amorites. During Abraham's time, the Amorites were centered in Engedi, a large oasis on the western shore of the Dead Sea bounded on the south by the Wadi Arnon.

The terms “Amorites” and "Canaanites" are synonymous in Genesis 15:15-16 and Joshua 24:15, 18. The Amorites were the Am-Ar, meaning the people/tribe/caste of Ar. They are called the Aro among the people living at the confluence of the Benue and Niger Rivers in Nigeria. Some migrated to this well-watered region before the time of Abraham. The Nigerian historian, Dr. Catherine Acholonu, claims that they were a caste of scribes.

The Amorites were living in Palestine as early as 2300 B.C., 260 years before the time of Abraham (c. 2039-1964). The first biblical ruler of this name is Ar-pacshad, who lived four generations after Noah. He was a descendant of both Ham and Shem.

Ar appears in the titles of many ancient rulers, including Ar-Shem, Arsames, Artix, and Araxes.  Ar also is found in the names of places, such as Wadi Arnon. Ar-non (originally Ar-nxn) means the Ar of Onn. Onn is another name for Heliopolis, the City of the Sun. Joseph married the daughter of the high priest of Heliopolis, a Horite shrine city.


A time of kingdom building

The rulers named in Genesis 4, 5. 10 and 11 controlled the major water systems of Lake Chad, the Nile, and the Tigris and Euphrates. The interconnected waterways were their roads. Noah would have been familiar with boats and likely had a fleet.

These ancient rulers imposed taxes on cargo that moved through their territories. They used the rivers to expand their kingdoms and to spread their Afro-Asiatic worldview. Nimrod is an example. His father was Kush, a ruler who controlled a vast region of the Upper Nile. Nimrod left the Nile region and built his kingdom along the Tigris in Mesopotamia (Gen. 10:8-12). He was a sent-away son. Most of the great heroes of the Old Testament were sent-away sons: Kain, Nimrod, Abraham, Jacob, Joseph, Moses, etc.

Sent-away sons were the great kingdom builders of the ancient world. Genesis is one of the most significant sources of information about these ancient rulers.

The Kushite Connection

Noah's other grandson was Kush, the father of Nimrod.  From ancient Kush Abraham's ancestors spread far and wide as rulers in the ancient Afro-Asiatic Dominion. Genesis is the most reliable record of Horite rule.

Some scholars believe that "Canaan" is derived from an Aramaic word meaning “to be low.” William F. Albright suggested that "Canaan" originally meant “a merchant” because the people who lived there, called "Phoenicians" by the Greeks, were merchants.

The word kinah-hu, found in the Nuzi tablets, refers to the Canaanites and to the color red. This aligns with what is known about Abraham's Annu ancestors, who had a red skin tone. Some equate the word "Canaan" with the red purple dye used to make the garments of Tyrian rulers. However, it is more likely that kinah-hu relates to the Horites of Edom (red), to whom Abraham was related and from whom Moses descended.  This is substantiated by Joshua 15:21,22 which reports that, "The southernmost towns of the tribe of Judah in the Negev toward the boundary of Edom were: Kabzeel, Eder, Jagur, Kinah, Dimonah, Adadah..."

Kinah is related to the name Kenan. Genesis 5 lists Kenan as Cain's grandson by his un-named daughter. The name Kenan is a variant of Kain and Ghayin. Geoffrey W. Bromiley (2007) writes that ghayin lies behind the word kinah-hu at Nuzi.  In the Canaano-Akkadian, "hu" is a pronominal suffix.

To speak of Canaan as the eponymous ancestor of the Canaanites makes less sense than to speak of Kenan as their eponymous ancestor. Kenan lived six generations before Noah. That being the case, it is evident that the Canaanite or Kenanite people existed before Noah's time. Nor can it be argued that they were wiped out by a worldwide flood.

Around 3500 BC urban centers around deltas grew. Consider the following population estimates by population center between 3200 and 2200 BC.

Memphis, Egypt - 32,000 inhabitants

Lagash, Iraq - 60,000 inhabitants

Mohenjo-daro, Pakistan - 40,000 inhabitants

Mari, Syria -50,000 inhabitants

Baodun settlements, China - Baodun is the largest settlement, covering an area of about 373 miles. There is no evidence of destruction by flooding though all six Baodun settlements straddled the Min River in central Sichuan province. The Min is a tributary of the upper Yangtze River.

There is no evidence that any of these peoples were wiped out by a worldwide flood The evidence simply does not support the interpretation that all the peoples of the earth were destroyed in a catastrophic global flood and that the earth was repopulated by Noah's descendants.

As a fascinating side note, the oldest known zoological collection was discovered during excavations at Nekhen (Hierakonpolis) in Sudan in 2009. This royal menagerie dates to about 3500 BC and included hippos, hartebeest, elephants, baboons and wildcats. The story of Noah preserving a collection of animals is based on historical reality.


Related reading: The Urheitmat of the Canaanite Y; Scientific Verification of Genesis 10 Dispersion; Petra Reflects Horite Beliefs; The Peoples of Canaan; The Amorites: caste of royal scribes?; The Descendants of Noah; The Nioltic Origin of the Ainu; Moses and Abraham: Different Origins of Israel?; Jebusites: An Extant Biblical Tribe; The Edomites and the Color Red; Eden: A Well-Watered Region

Ancient Canaanite Inscriptions in Egypt

Professor Frederick Dobbs-Allsopp, (Princeton Theological Seminary) is the official epigrapher of the archaeological expedition to Wadi El-Hol. He is responsibile for deciphering and publishing the Canaanite inscriptions found at Wadi El-Hol in Egypt.

The inscriptions found on several stones indicate that alphabetic writing was used in Egypt as early as 4000 years ago. 

John Coleman Darnell (Yale University) and his wife discovered the inscriptions. Professor Darnell stated, “These are the earliest alphabetic inscriptions, considerably earlier than anyone had thought likely."

Related reading: Early Alphabetic Writing Found at Lachish

Rabbi Hirsch on "The Nations"

Alice C. Linsley


Rabbi Samson Rafael Hirsch (1808-1888) was a German Bible commentator and Jewish philosopher. In 1846, he became the Chief Rabbi of Moravia. Shortly thereafter, he served as a member of the Austrian Parliament, where he fought for equal rights for the Jews of Austria and Hungary.

In 1851, Rabbi Hirsch returned to his native Frankfort to help the 11 remaining members of that decimated Jewish community. Rabbi Hirsh hoped to help them resist the secularization that was sweeping through Europe's Jewish communities. His writings represent Jewish neo-Orthodoxy, which insists on the divine origin of Torah. He attempted to provide philosophic and historical justification for the Bible.

Rabbi Hirsch understood the concrete rather than philosphical nature of the Hebrew language. He wrote, "Our sacred literature does not use obscure language, but describes most things in words clearly indicating their meaning. Therefore it is necessary at all times to delve into the literal meaning of words to achieve complete understanding of what is actually meant."

What follows is an excerpt from Rabbi Hirsch's Commentary on the Pentateuch, originally published in 1867, in which he examines Genesis 9:25-27 in the face of the spiritual darkness and bestiality of Europe in his day.

Noah's sons, as a confedertion of 3, do not represent the progenitors of all mankind. Instead we have a typical 3-clan Kushite confederation. Genesis 10 in not a "Table of Nations." It is a chronicle of related clans whose ethnicity was originally Kushite.  Many of these clans were metal workers.  For more on this read "The Peoples of Canaan" and "Afro-Asiatic Metal Workers."


Rabbi Hirsch wrote:

"Noah spoke: Canaan will be accursed. A servant of servants shall he be unto his bretheren. And again he spoke: God will be blessed, the God of Shem, may Canaan become his servant. God will open the mind of Japheth, but he will dwell in the tents of Shem. And may Canaan be a servant to them." (Genesis 9:25-27)

That which is said in these verses contains perhaps the deepest and farthest reaching prophesy which ever a human eye has been allowed to see of the future, and which God has allowed to be spoken by human lips. The whole history of mankind, the beginning, the end and the middle lies in these three verses.

We recognize in the names of the sons of Noah the essential nuances which characterize the nations which descend from them, according to whether spirit, sensuality or feelings predominate in their national character. Here they stand in their double significance, as individuals and as founders of the nations of the future.

When Noah woke up and got to know of Ham's behavior, his first thought was that the principle that showed itself here in Ham, can and will never be the ruling one. Raw sensuality, which has no control over itself, which has lost all reserve and all respect for anything spiritually high is unfit for ruling. For freedom, it in itself is unfruitful, is a curse without progress or blessing, it bears its ruin in itself.

That Canaan will have the fate of being a slave, there must undoubtedly be some connection between the Canaan-character and the slave fate. And, as a matter of fact, as the curse lies in Canaan, so that the future belongs only to the pure and ennobled, but not to the course, unrefined, so also in the social life, in the social and national life, in the relation of man to man and nation to nation, freedom is only achieved and retained by those who can master and control themselves. Sensuality, uncontrolled licentiousness, is the bait by which one is led by strings into slavery. He who at all times is master of himself, who can easily control giving satisfaction to the urges of his senses, he cannot be bribed or enticed, for him gold cannot become golden chains; he can die, but he cannot become enslaved. Thus for men, thus for nations.

In contrast to the curse of Canaan is the blessing of Shem, the recognition of the God whom Shem teaches will gain an ever greater circle, will spread, progress until finally it will become that principle to which all the world will subscribe. While Ham represents the most ignoble, unvarnished audacious sensuality, Shem teaches of a God who not only once served as the Original Force which called heaven and earth into being, but who still is mover of the heaven and earth, still rules everything, so that every fiber of our being and every impulse of our will belongs to Him; accordingly, the very opposite of Ham. Shem and correspondingly Canaan are not looked on personally as individuals, but as the future nations descended from them. Japheth designates feelings being open to all external impressions and influences. Hence naivety, one who is easily talked over and easily deceived. Japheth is responsive to feelings.

Thus we have placed before us the representatives of the three main tendencies which characterize people and nations. Spirit, sensuality and sentiment constitute the inner man, and these three powers predominate characteristically in nations. Not that there are completely one-sided nations who have either only mind, only sentiment, etc. But just as in individuals all three are present, but nevertheless everybody has one of them which marks his personality, so is it with nations. For us who do not stand, as Noah did, at the very beginning of history, but can look back on four thousand years of history, it is easy to see the working of these different forces in nations in the development of world history.

The greatest ado in the world has been made by Ham, that sensuality, worldliness, which harnesses all that belongs to spirit and mind to their chariots of fame, and only allows intellect to be used or valued as far as it serves as a means of furthering the material side of life, nations that conquer, plunder and enjoy. Nations pass across the stage who represent hardly anything but raw force, sensuality and bestiality.

But nations also appear which use their forces in the service of beauty who characterize themselves in nurturing art, aesthetic beauty. They are conscious of some higher ideal up to which mankind is to work itself out of crudeness. This tendency teaches people to cloak raw sensuality in the garb of respectability and graciousness. Through grace and beauty they foster a taste for more spiritual activities, music, poetry, art. All those nations who cherish that which appeals to feelings represent the Japheth character.

When we look to historical facts we can say: the stem of Japheth reached its fullest blossoming in the Greeks: that of Shem in the Hebrews, who bore the name of God as their God through the world of nations. Right to the present day it is only these two races, the descendants of Japheth and Shem, who have become the real educators and teachers of humanity. For all the spiritual treasures which the world has acquired these two have to be thanked, and everything, which, even today, works at the culture and education of mankind, connects up with that which Japheth and Shem brought to the world. The spiritual gifts of the Romans were only a gift of the Hellenes. Japheth has ennobled the world aesthetically. Shem has enlightened it spiritually and morally. Hellenism and Judaism have become the great active forces in the educational work on mankind, and the rest of the world has been merely passive material on which they worked. In this sense, Noah's enlightened eye sees three things:

He sees that coarseness and ruthless glowing sensuality does not bear the seed of the future blossoming of mankind within it; sees that nations who give themselves up to sensuality and in whose character, the lower nature of man remains the prevailing trait, instead of becoming free, independent and mighty, sink down to slaves. More, he sees centuries in which the conception of human beings having the right to freedom is quite lost. From Ham's descendants, tyrants, mighty despots and hunters of men went forth. Not freedom, slavery is begotten by passion. Freedom only lives in the law, only blossoms there, where untouchably above all, a law of moral rules. He remains free who learns to obey the law of morals. Sensuous nations are the breeding places of slavery, Ham begets slaves and where sensuality is at its height, as in Canaan, they sink to slaves of slaves."  From here.

Rabbi Hirsch casts Ham in a bad light, as sensual and tyranical. This is typical or rabbinic myths designed to make Genesis more acceptable to modern Judaism with its strong Zionist emphasis. This sort of myth making is never well supported by Genesis. There is always evidence to contradict the rabbinic myth. Consider, for example, how Ham and his descendants are portrayed on the one hand as conquerors, warriors, and kingdom-builders and on the other hand as slaves. Which is it?

The people of Ham were Kushites who migrated out of Africa. Further, the ruler lines of Ham and Shem intermarried, so what is said about the one, must apply to the other. Rabbi Hirsch's presentation of Ham as an archetype of evil doesn't align with the data of Genesis. This piece is an example of how European Rabbis disparaged the Nilotic peoples with whom Father Abraham and his Horite Hebrew people had much in common.


Related reading:  Who Were the Kushites?; The Lines of Ham and Shem Intermarried; Where Dwelleth Japheth