Phoenicians Found in Lebanon

                                                                         
Nadene Goldfoot                                               

The Phoenicians were living as early as 300 to 800 years ago where Jordan is today.  They were Canaanites, one of their 11 city-states.  They were considered as the ancient people of Syria and lived along the Syrian-Eretz Yisrael coast.   The towns they had built and used were Arvad, Beirut, Sidon, Tyre, Gebal (Byblos, Simirro and Sin.  

These people expanded their land in a few different periods northward toward the later Antioch and then southward to the Carmel and even to Jaffa.
                                                  

The language used by Phoenicians, known to us through inscriptions found, was similar to Hebrew.  The script used by them was also used by the ancient Hebrews and it was transmitted with some modifications to the Greeks and then onward to other European people.  

Their history comes from inscriptions found, the Tanakh (Bible) and Greek authors.  The city of Gebal had close relations with Egypt from early times and is prominent in Egyptian mythology.

The Egyptians controlled Phoenicia from the period after the expulsion of the Hyksos in about 1500 BCE down to the time of the pharoah Rameses III.  This was while the northern Phoenician cities were evidently ruled by the Hittites.  
                                                    

Building Solomon's Temple

After some time, the Phoenicians had complete independence.  Hiram of Tyre (10th century BCE) was the Phoenican  king who extended his kingdom to Cyprus and Libya.  He had friendly relations with King David of Israel and sent wood and craftsmen to David  (ruled from 1010 to 970 BCE)  for his palace.  Hiram was closely allied with King Solomon (961-920 BCE), and sent wood, gold and craftsmen to Solomon for his Temple and residences as well as sailors to his Red Sea fleet.  In exchange, Hiram received wheat, oil, and 20 Galilean cities.  It was a Tyrian metal-worker who was responsible for the metal-fittings of Solomon's Temple.  
                                                        

 Ethbaal of Sidon was in close cooperation with King Omri of Israel  (887-876 BCE) which influenced Israelite religious life for a time.  Omri had been Elah's general and directed the operations against the Philistine city of Gibbethon.  He forged a Sidonian alliance with the Phoenians which exercised a marked influence on the development of the Israelite religion in that period.  It was when Israel had broken away from Judah who had Jerusalem to keep them  in line with the laws of Moses and their religion.  Their Civil War which broke them apart into the 2 lands of Israel and Judah did affect Israel's religiousness.  
                                                                           

According to the MOABITE STONE, Omri subdued Moab.  The Assyrians called the kingdom of Israel by his name for the rest of its existence; OMRI.  

In the 8th century BCE, Assyria subjugated most of the cities.  They had taken away most all of Israel's population in 722- and 721 BCE who were then their captives.  

Later, Phoenicia was incorporated in the Persian Empire, and its influence went southward along the Eretz Yisrael coastline.  This could have been when Babylonia took over Assyria's possessions in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE, also taking the many of the remaining tribe of Judah as captives to Babylon.  

The Greek influence now was growing and Hellenization spread rapidly among the Phoenicians.  Many of their cities achieved autonomy and even independence.  
                                                       

Pompey's campaign in 64 BCE brought all of them under Roman rule.  The Phoenician special abilities were expressed in Tyre in maritime trade with their ships trading with almost the entire known world.  (Read Ezek.27)l.  they discovered distant lands and disseminated the products of Middle Eastern countries.  Their colonies spread out from Cyprus to Carthage and Spain, paid tithes to Tyre, but the bonds loosened in the face of Greek competition.  

One of their big home industries were purple-dyeing and glass manufacture.  Artistically, they were influenced by their neighbors such as Egypt and Greece.  
                                                  

Phoenicians, who were one of the 11 original Canaanites, had the polytheistic religion of the Canaanite faith as described in the Bible and in Ugaritic poetry.  The chief deities were Baal, the lord of fertility and the rains, and Astarte, goddess of fertility.  Anat was the goddess of war, and Melkarth was the patron-god of Tyre.  Worship was conducted under trees and on hills, but there were also temples with images.  Their religious practices included the sacrificing of children to Moloch and the dedication of religious prostitutes.  
                                                    

Geneticists are finding out many surprising facts. " Many of the ancient samples tested came from sand-filled vessels near the sea shore at Sidon, a major Canaanite/Phoenician city-state that was eventually conquered by Alexander the Great in 332."  "Scientists in the United Kingdom-based genetic research center sequenced the genomes of five 4,000-year-old Canaanite individuals and compared them to other ancient and present-day populations, including a sample of 99 modern Lebanese.

On Family Tree DNA's page for Lebanon, Syria, Palestine, Jordan:   I saw the Y haplogroup of E-L117 found in Lebanon.  Also there were G-M201 and R-M269, lots of Js,  but no Q's at all.  

 " Canaanites were spread across a wide region during the Bronze Age, from urban societies on the coast to farming societies further inland. It also supports the idea that different Levantine cultural groups — such as the Moabites, Israelites and Phoenicians — had a common genetic background, the study authors said".   I can say that if we go back to Noah, we can find the connection.  
                                                                     

The Torah explains the commonality:  Canaan was the youngest son of Ham, son of Noah (Gen.9-10).  
                                                                            

Ham fathered Cush (Nubia and Ethiopia), Put (Libya and Morocco) Mizraim (Egypt and Canaan (Syria and Eretz Yisrael.).  The languages of Africa south of Egypt which are related to Semitic are called Hamitic. 
                                                                       

The 3 basic lands humanity came from
After the Flood

  Noah had 3 sons;  Shem, Ham and Japhath and from them came 70 peoples, our humanity.   From Shem came Abraham and his descendants. People speaking language like Hebrew are called Semitic peoples and their languages are Semitic languages.   Japhath fathered 14 peoples, mostly of the Indo-European language group, living from the Caucasus to the Aegean Sea.  
                                                                         

Abram and Lot discussing where each will live.

 Moab, land in Transjordan, were related to Israelites being descended from Lot, the son of Abraham's brother, Haran.  So Lot was Abraham's nephew.  

While I lived in Israel from 1980-1985, Major Hadad of the Christian Lebanese Forces helped Israel guard from terrorists.  He used the army hospital in Haifa for his R&R.  Israel helped his family when he died.  He was a good friend of Israel.  The Christians had a rough time in Lebanon, first being the ruling party, and then being killed for it.  


Resource:  https://www.latimes.com/science/sciencenow/la-sci-sn-canaanite-lebanese-genetics-20170727-story.html
https://news.nationalgeographic.com/2017/07/canaanite-bible-ancient-dna-lebanon-genetics-archaeology/
https://www.familytreedna.com/public/Lebanon-Syria-DNA/default.aspx?section=yresults
https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation-now/2017/07/28/mystery-ancient-canaanites-finally-solved-genetic-research-shows/519349001/
https://www.timesofisrael.com/the-canaanites-werent-annihilated-they-just-moved-to-lebanon/
The Standard Jewish Encyclopedia