Genesis 9:18 names him as a son of Cham (חם,) the eponymous ancestor of the Beney Kena'an (Canaanites). Cham is Mitsrayim (Egypt) - see the link to his name - and it is interesting that the ancient Beney Yisra-El treated the aboriginal Beney Kena'an as being descendants of Cham (Hamitic) rather than Shem (Semitic).
Genesis 27:46 identifies Chet (חת) = the Hittites with Kena'an, presumably on the basis that the Beney Chet had colonised it very thoroughly.
Exodus 15:15 has Erets Kena'ani (ארץ כנעני) for the land, which is known in Hurrian - the language of the aboriginal Beney Chor (Horites) - as Kinnahu. Kinnahu meant "purple", as did Phoinix, from which the name Phoenicia (Lebanon and coastal Syria) is derived; both found this name in the purple dye of the murex or sea-snail, which became the source of their wealth as international maritime traders.
The root Kanah (כנה) means "low region", perhaps distinguishing it from the Amorites and Se'irites and Chivites et al who were mountain-dwellers; the suggestion is of coastal dwellers. However it also means "to bow down" in the sense of worshipping, and there is a level of meaning for all the ancient tribes which appears to indicate a division that was less ethnic than religious. Thus Beney Kena'an may well have included any inhabitants of the region who had no specific function in the religious rituals - the ordinary congregants, so to speak.
Numbers 33:51 and Joshua 22:9 make it specifically the land to the west of the river Yarden (Jordan), with Gil'ad to the east; Isaiah 23:11 places the tribe in the north, at the foot of Mount Lebanon, his name for Mount Chermon, which is geographically implausible, though the meaning of the word allows it.
References among the later prophets make the root much more obscure, until eventually it came to mean merchants in general, in the way that Chaldean (כסדי) came to mean astrologer.
Do not confuse Kena'an (כנען) with Keynan (קינן) son of Enosh (אנוש) in Genesis 4:26 and 5:9, and father of Mahalal-El in Genesis 5:12 (see notes to KAYIN/CAIN).
1 Chronicles 7:10 has a character named Kena-Anah, written as כנענה because there is a Vav-prefix (the conjunction "and") which automatically removes the dagesh, the dot inside the Chaf (כּ) which renders it a K rather than a CH sound; the point being that this is indeed the name Kena'an, but in its feminine form. The same name appears in 1 Kings 22:11 and 2 Chronicles 18:10, the latter of which confirms the Kaf medugash (כְּנַעֲנָ֖ה). This would be the equivalent of the female Yehudit to the male Yehudah, or female Dinah to male Dan, Asher to Asherah et cetera, adding weight to the conviction that there were both patriarchal and matriarchal tribes in the earliest period - probably the pre-Yisra-Eli period - of Kena'anite history.
"Kena'an begat Tsidon (צידן) his first-born": the Lebanese port of Sidon. The suggestion here is that Tsidon was the Kena'ani capital, which would make them a Phoenician rather than an Egyptian people.
"And Chet (חת)": the Hittites, who had come south from Anatolia around 2200 BCE and were themselves the precursors of the Phoenicians.
"And the Yevusi (Jebusites - היבוסי)": adjacent to the ancient town of Shalem (Salem), it was one of the seven villages that would later be unified as Yeru-Shala'im (Jerusalem).
"And the Emori (Amorites - האמרי)": the predominant nation of ancient Kena'an, inhabiting the mountainous east beyond the river Yarden (Jordan).
"And the Girgashi (Girgashites/Girgasites - גרגשי)": the name means "dwelling in a clayey soil", which suggests either the marshy Hula and Yazar-El (Jezreel - see Judges 6:33) valleys of Galilee, or possibly the "slime-pits" of the Yam ha Melach (Dead Sea).
"And the Chivi (Hivites - החוי)": the name probably means "worshippers of Chava (Eve)", they inhabited the foothills of several mountains including Chermon, Antilibanus (the western foothills of Mount Lebanon), and Giv-On (גִבְעוֹן - Gibeon).
"And the Arki (Arkites - הערקי)": again Phoenicians. Tel Arka is the Roman Arca Caesarea, situated to the north of Lebanese Tripoli. If the Arkites really did count as Beney Kena'an, then Kena'an (from Kinnahu = purple in the Hurrian language) must simply have been a dialect variation of Phoinix = Phoenicia (as Dieu in French and God in English, though linguistically miles apart, both denote the same divinity). That Tsidon (Sidon) should have been the capital of so enormous a land sounds plausible, and also renders the Isaiah reference above more likely.
"And the Sini (Sinites - הסיני)": not inhabitants of the Sinai desert, though it sounds as though they ought to have been. Like the Chivi, they lived in the foothills of Mount Lebanon (but then Switzerland, France and Italy all inhabit the foothills of Mont Blanc, so this is not an unreasonable assertion).
"And the Arvadi (Arvadites - הארודי)": worshippers of Set (שת), the Egyptian/Canaanite equivalent of Greek Typhon. Arad (ארד) is a wild ass. However Arad also means "a place of fugitives", because, as Strabo tells us, a group of Phoenician refugees established a safe-haven on an island of that name off the coast of Tsidon. Presumably the island was really a shrine of the Avalon or Pharos type.
"And the Tsemari (Zemarites - הצמרי)": Joshua 18:22 has a town in the tribe of Bin-Yamin named Tsemarayim (צמרים) from which the hills of Mount Ephrayim get their alternate name of Har Tsemarayim (הר צמרים) in 2 Chronicles 13:4. But this is epithetical again; Tsemer (צמר) means "wool", and Tsemarites is thus simply a dialect name for shepherds or wool-merchants, or quite probably both. It may be plausible to read into this name a shepherd-cult, based upon the Egyptian ram-god known in Yehudit as Ammon (because they connected him with Ba'al Hammon), though actually he was Amun; given that we know of a tribe called the Beney Amon (Ammonites who also inhabited Kena'an but do not figure in this list,Tsemari may be an alternate reading for Beney Amon.
"And the Sini (Sinites - הסיני)": not inhabitants of the Sinai desert, though it sounds as though they ought to have been. Like the Chivi, they lived in the foothills of Mount Lebanon (but then Switzerland, France and Italy all inhabit the foothills of Mont Blanc, so this is not an unreasonable assertion).
"And the Arvadi (Arvadites - הארודי)": worshippers of Set (שת), the Egyptian/Canaanite equivalent of Greek Typhon. Arad (ארד) is a wild ass. However Arad also means "a place of fugitives", because, as Strabo tells us, a group of Phoenician refugees established a safe-haven on an island of that name off the coast of Tsidon. Presumably the island was really a shrine of the Avalon or Pharos type.
"And the Tsemari (Zemarites - הצמרי)": Joshua 18:22 has a town in the tribe of Bin-Yamin named Tsemarayim (צמרים) from which the hills of Mount Ephrayim get their alternate name of Har Tsemarayim (הר צמרים) in 2 Chronicles 13:4. But this is epithetical again; Tsemer (צמר) means "wool", and Tsemarites is thus simply a dialect name for shepherds or wool-merchants, or quite probably both. It may be plausible to read into this name a shepherd-cult, based upon the Egyptian ram-god known in Yehudit as Ammon (because they connected him with Ba'al Hammon), though actually he was Amun; given that we know of a tribe called the Beney Amon (Ammonites who also inhabited Kena'an but do not figure in this list,Tsemari may be an alternate reading for Beney Amon.
"And the Chamati (Hamathites - החמתי)": the important Syrian city of Chamat (חמת - today's Hamah) on the Orontes River marked the northern frontier of Kena'an according to Numbers 13:21 and 34:8. Named Epiphania by the Greeks, it was a close ally of King David. Amos 6:2 calls it "Chamat the Great". If this was indeed the place intended by Chamati, then the borders of Kena'an extended even further than our previous expressions of surprise.
Indeed, the Kena'ani border, according to the same passage, was from Tsidon in the north-west to Aza (Gaza) in Gerar in the south-west, to Sedom (Sodom) and Amorah (Gomorrah) in the south-east and to Admah, Tsevoyim and Lasha (La'ish?) in the north-east - pretty far, indeed, though not quite so far as to include Syrian Chamat. Joshua 19:5 mentions another Chamat in Naphtali and Josephus tells us that it meant "hot baths" (from Cham/חם= hot); in which case it should have been pronounced Chamot. The Syrian Chamat took its name from Chamah (חמה) meaning a "citadel".
To the Phoenicians Kena'an was Chnas, and this in Greek becomes Agenor. Their version of the legend is worth recording: Io was the daughter of the river-god Inachus (probably a dialect variation of the Yehudit Nachor, Av-Ram's brother). Io married Phoroneus, who is the Ephron from whom Av-Rraham purchased the Cave of Machpelah (Genesis 23:8). She was originally a priestess of Argive Hera. Zeus fell in love with her, and after much dispute with Hera, turned Io into a white cow. Hera seized her and set hundred-eyed Argus to guard her. Zeus managed to release her, and pursued her across the world. She went to Dodona first, then across the Black Sea to the Danube, back through the Crimea into Europe, across Asia Minor to Joppa (today's Yafo - יפו - Jaffa) and Mount Tasus in Panchaea, into India, down to Arabia, and up the Ethiopian Nile into Egypt, where, restored at last to human form, she founded Eshet (Isis) worship as a variant upon the worship of Demeter. She married Telegonus, but it was with Zeus as the father that she gave birth to Epaphus (probably a variant of the Egyptian Apis/Yehudit Ephes: the bull-god of the sun). Epaphus ruled over Egypt and fathered a daughter named Libya. With Poseidon as the father, Libya had two children, Agenor and Ba'al (see notes to Kadmonim).
Indeed, the Kena'ani border, according to the same passage, was from Tsidon in the north-west to Aza (Gaza) in Gerar in the south-west, to Sedom (Sodom) and Amorah (Gomorrah) in the south-east and to Admah, Tsevoyim and Lasha (La'ish?) in the north-east - pretty far, indeed, though not quite so far as to include Syrian Chamat. Joshua 19:5 mentions another Chamat in Naphtali and Josephus tells us that it meant "hot baths" (from Cham/חם= hot); in which case it should have been pronounced Chamot. The Syrian Chamat took its name from Chamah (חמה) meaning a "citadel".
To the Phoenicians Kena'an was Chnas, and this in Greek becomes Agenor. Their version of the legend is worth recording: Io was the daughter of the river-god Inachus (probably a dialect variation of the Yehudit Nachor, Av-Ram's brother). Io married Phoroneus, who is the Ephron from whom Av-Rraham purchased the Cave of Machpelah (Genesis 23:8). She was originally a priestess of Argive Hera. Zeus fell in love with her, and after much dispute with Hera, turned Io into a white cow. Hera seized her and set hundred-eyed Argus to guard her. Zeus managed to release her, and pursued her across the world. She went to Dodona first, then across the Black Sea to the Danube, back through the Crimea into Europe, across Asia Minor to Joppa (today's Yafo - יפו - Jaffa) and Mount Tasus in Panchaea, into India, down to Arabia, and up the Ethiopian Nile into Egypt, where, restored at last to human form, she founded Eshet (Isis) worship as a variant upon the worship of Demeter. She married Telegonus, but it was with Zeus as the father that she gave birth to Epaphus (probably a variant of the Egyptian Apis/Yehudit Ephes: the bull-god of the sun). Epaphus ruled over Egypt and fathered a daughter named Libya. With Poseidon as the father, Libya had two children, Agenor and Ba'al (see notes to Kadmonim).
What is being recorded in this myth is the spread of moon-worship across the known world. Io was the name by which the moon was worshipped at Argos. She is said to have died at Mount Silpium in Syria, which is precisely in the heart of Padan Aram. Le'ah, Ya'akov's (Jacob's) first wife, means "cow", as Rachel probably means "lamb", both of them moon-symbols. The city of Antioch was originally called Iopolis - "the city of Io".
Agenor also appears in the legend of Perseus and Andromeda, where it is he who interrupts their wedding by kidnapping the bride, who he claimed was betrothed to him (Perseus had been given Andromeda as a reward for slaying the Gorgon). The Jason legends include one Phineus son of Agenor, king of Salmydessus (yet another of those Salm names that occur throughout the ancient world) in northern Thrace. He had been blinded by the gods in punishment for foretelling the future too accurately; he was also plagued by a pair of Harpies - the Greek equivalent of the Yisra-Eli Lilim or night-spirits, whose queen, Lilith, is said in the Talmud to have been Adam's first wife, who he divorced in order to marry Chava (Eve). Homer reckons the Harpies came in a whirlwind and were personifications of the Cretan Death-Goddess. In the Odyssey he portrays them rather as kites or sea-eagles. This may be of relevance to our understanding of the divinity in the non Yisra-Eli Book of Job.
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