Canaan in the Bible Encyclopedia - ISBE

ka'-nan, ka'-nan-its (kena`an; Chanaan): 1. Geography 2. Meaning of the Name 3. The Results of Recent Excavations 4. History (1) Stone Age (2) Bronze Age (3) A Babylonian Province (4) Jerusalem Founded (5) The Hyksos (6) Egyptian Conquest (7) Tell el-Amarna Tablets 5. The Israelitsh Invasion 6. Culture 7. Art 8. Commerce 9. Art of Writing LITERATURE Canaan is stated in Gen 10:6 to have been a son of Ham and brother of Mizraim, or Egypt. This indicates the Mosaic period when the conquerors of the XVIIIth and XIXth Egyptian Dynasties made Canaan for a time a province of the Egyptian empire. Under the Pharaoh Meneptah, at the time of the Exodus, it ceased to be connected with Egypt, and the Egyptian garrisons in the South of the country were expelled by the Philistines, who probably made themselves masters of the larger portion of it, thus causing the name of Philistia or Israel to become synonymous with that of Canaan (see Zeph 2:5). In the Tell el-Amarna Letters, Canaan is written Kinakhna and Kinakhkhi. The latter form corresponds with the Greek (Chna), a name given to Phoenicia (Hecat. Fragments 254; Eusebius, praep. Ev., i.10; ix.17)...