Nadene Goldfoot
The Canaanites lived in the land of Canaan and were traditionally descended from Canaan, son of Ham. They were made up of 11 peoples who occupied the area between the Nile and the Euuphrates rivers. The Syrians used this name in the 14th century BCE. They seemed to be a mixture of Horites, Hittites and Hebrews, dating back to the Hyksos period of the 17trh century or 1600s BCE, They were Semites. Scholars use the word “Semite” to refer to speakers of Semitic languages. The Canaanite languages come from the northwest branch of the Semitic language family. They spoke dialects closely related to Biblical Hebrew, Aramaic, Moabite, Ammonite, and Edomite. The Canaanites were diverse. We should not consider them as a monolithic or homogeneous society. They consisted of a collection of societies, who shared many common traits, such as language, religion, and social structure, but with many distinct characteristics as well.
The Canaanites never built a major civilization. The land of Canaan consisted of many individual city-states, often dominated politically and economically by other powers. The only times the area was ever united politically was during the late Bronze Age, when it was conquered by the Egyptians (though part of it was controlled by the Hittites in the north), and in the Iron Age, when it was gradually conquered and controlled by the kingdom of Israel. It never became the center of great political power.
Phoenicians are Canaanites. The Greeks used the term “Phoenician” to describe the inhabitants of the cities in the region of the northern Levantine coast (what is today called Lebanon). While southern Canaanites had long ago been conquered, during the first millennium BCE, they survived and flourished in the cities of Tyre, Sidon, Byblos and others nearby. The Phoenicians were expert shipbuilders and sailors, and through commerce spread Canaanite products into other areas around the Mediterranean Sea.
. They invented the alphabet. The most significant contribution that Canaanites made to world culture is the invention of the alphabet, probably adapted partly from the Egyptian writing system. They had both a linear version and a cuneiform version. It included only consonants and was written from right to left, but the simple system was easier to learn than full-blown cuneiform, and it grew in popularity and was adopted and adapted by many other societies, including the Greeks, who added vowels to it. Theirs influenced the Latin alphabet, which in turn gave rise to ours.
Carthage was founded by Canaanites. Of the many outposts that Phoenician traders founded in the early days of their exploration, the best known is that called Carthage, located in North Africa, near Sicily. Established around 800 BCE by the legendary woman Elishat (Elissa, Dido) of Tyre, it soon grew to be a large city and dominated economically and politically the western Mediterranean. The people of Carthage mixed with the north Africans population, so the Greek referred to them as Libyphoenicians. They spoke a Canaanite dialect we call Punic. They flourished for many centuries until they were brought to their knees by the Romans in the 3rd century BCE.
The Canaanites were almost obliterated or assimilated by the Israelites by the 13th century BCE., or by the Philistines along the coast of the 12th century BCE and by the Arameans in North by the 11th century BCE.
The remnants were subjected by King David and his son, King Solomon and subsequently absorbed. Later, the name was preserved only among the Sidonians and Phoenicians.
The Philistines were the bane of Israel, their worst enemy. By nature they were a fighting people that had come over from Asia Minor and Greek localities like Crete. They had settled in Gerar and fought with Abraham and Isaac. Others had founded Gaza, Ascalon, Ashdod, Ekron and Gath. They dominated parts of Judah in the period of the Judges, from 1220 BCE to the first king, Saul in 1030 BCE.
King Saul of Israel at first repelled the danger but was ultimately defeated by them. David, 2nd king of Israel, ended the era of Philistine domination and overran Philistia.
When the Israelite kingdom dissolved, the Philistines re-established their independence but were never thereafter a serious factor.
In the Persian and Greek Periods, foreign settlers--chiefly from the Mediterranean island--overran the Philistine districts. From the time of Herodotus (484-425 BCE) the first Greek historian , Greeks called Palestine after the Philistines: The name they used was Syria Palaestina. Under Emperor Hadrian (117-138 CE, the Romans gave the name officially to the former land of Judah. He seemed acceptable to the Jews at first, but then banned circumcision, a Jewish fundamental rite. He was trying to hellenize the population (convert into a polytheistic society.
Assyrians: The Assyrians attacked Israel in 722 and 721 BCE. They carried away the 10 northern tribes of the 12 tribes of Jacob. Judah and Benjamin of the southern end of the empire thought the 10 were lost forever. The Assyrians were of an ancient state of West Asia, the people also being Semites. They had an aggressive kingdom in the 20th century BCE, expanding quickly in the 13th and 10th centuries. The successes of Kings David and Solomon against the Aramean states in Mesopotamia and Syria probably contributed to Assyria's recovery.
The attempt of Hosea of Israel in 726 BCE to throw off the yoke led to Shalmaneser V's siege of Samaria (northern Israel) and its capture in 721 BCE by his successor, Sargon, who annexed the country. He then deported 27,290 Israelites to Assyria and Media, and replaced them with Syrian and Babylonian prisoners. That was the end of the 10 northern tribes of Israel as far as Judah knew. They were then called the Lost Ten Tribes of Israel.
There was a revolt in 715 BCE with an uprising throughout Assyria during Sennacherib's rule in 705 BCE with Hezekiah reasserting his independence. Sennaherib marched south, subdued the Phoenician cities and defeated the Egyptians at Eltekeh in 701 BCE, then took Ashkelon and Joppa, sacked Lachish, and invested ( Investment is the military process of surrounding an enemy fort (or town) with armed forces to prevent entry or escape. It serves both to cut communications with the outside world and to prevent supplies and reinforcements from being introduced) Jerusalem in 700 BCE. This tactic would be used again by the Romans in 70 CE against Jerusalem. History repeated.
Judah was ravaged, but King Hezekiah of Judah (720-692 BCE) was able to hold out, got moderate terms by paying tribute and ceded some land. Later, Sennacherib returned home, forced to leave because a plague had hit his army. Assyria declined rapidly and was succeeded by Babylon.
Is there an Assyria today? What has happened to it? Assyrian Christians exist. Assyrian Christians — often simply referred to as Assyrians — are an ethnic minority group whose origins lie in the Assyrian Empire, a major power in the ancient Middle East.
Most of the world's 2-4 million Assyrians live around their traditional homeland, which comprises parts of northern Iraq, Syria, Turkey and Iran. Iran previously was called Persia. This is mostly Muslim holdings. On NewsHour Weekend Saturday, we travel to Alqosh, a Christian town in northern Iraq just 30 miles from the ISIS stronghold of Mosul. Alqosh was overrun last summer by ISIS fighters and then recaptured with the help of Iraqi Christian and Kurdish militias this past August. In recent years, many have fled to neighboring countries to escape persecution from both Sunni and Shiite militias during the Iraq War and, most recently, by ISIS. Members of the Assyrian diaspora are spread out all over world, including roughly 100,000 in the United States, according to a 2009 U.S. Census Bureau survey.Assyrians have been the victims of persecution for centuries, including the Assyrian genocide, in which the Ottomans killed at least 250,000 Assyrians during World War I. Iraqi Assyrians have faced increased persecution following the U.S.-led invasion in 2003, including attacks on Assyrian churches – some estimate that 60 percent of Iraqi Assyrians have fled the country since the Iraq War began.Tens of thousands of Assyrians in Northern Iraq have fled persecution at the hands of ISIS, which demands that Christians living under its control take down their crosses and pay the jizya, a tax on religious minorities. Those who do not pay face a choice between exile and death. ISIS has also attacked Assyrian villages, killing or imprisoning hundreds.
Babylonians: This was the land called Shinar of of Kasdim (Chaldaees). It was the cradle of humanity and the scene of man's 1st revolt against G-d, meaning the story of the Tower of Babel. The Flood took place here. Abraham was born in Ur of the Chaldeans in the 2nd millennium BCE, about 1948 BCE.
Hammurabi was a Western Semitic king, ruling in Babylon from 1728 to 1686 BCE, famous for his legal code only discovered at the beginning of this century. His code concerned different aspects of social life, and its penalties were generally severe, enforcing the Jus Talionis of Roman law. This is a resemblance between his code that of the laws of Moses who lived much later (1391-1271BCE) and Moses's code. There are significant difference resulting from the secular and political nature of Hammurabi's legislation. I think it's possible that Moses had heard of them while studying, being he was a prince in Egypt. To me, it would have been hard for any king to rule people who ran around amok like cave men. They should have all had some rules of behavior in their kingdoms.
Abraham had migrated from Ur to Canaan where he later fought Amraphel, king of Shinar (Gen.14). The biblical prophets considered Babylon a symbol of insolent pagan tyranny.
When they got there, their sadness and yearning for Judah showed up in the writing;
The title "By the Waters of Babylon" is a clear allusion to Psalm 137 of the Bible, which begins "By the Waters of Babylon I sat down and wept." This Psalm is a lament of the Israelites for their lost "promised land" of Israel from which they have been exiled. Their homeland was destroyed and its people scattered.
The Babylonians attacked Israel in 597 BCE and again in 586 BCE by King Nebuchadnezzar (king from 605 to 562 BCE) . He had had a victory over the Assyrian- Egyptian alliance in 605 BCE, and then conquered all the lands from the Euphrates to the Egyptian frontier, including Judah. Whatever land had belonged to the Assyrians now became the land of the Babylonians.
In 597 BCE, Judah revolted, so the King dispatched contingents which captured Jerusalem, and replaced the young King Jehoiachin with his own choice of Zedekiah, and then exiled 8,000 of the local aristocracy to Babylon. Zedekiah even rebelled 8 years later in 589 BCE. The Babylonians retorted by invading Jerusalem once more in 586 BCE, and DESTROYED THE TEMPLE! They laid waste the cities and exiled masses of the population. The king was taken to Riblah,, where Nebuchadnezzar had him killed. It was ironic in that the Israelites were brought right back to their original home of Abraham.
The Jews were in Babylon for 70 years and were freed by King Cyrus. Some even remained in Babylon, but most went back to Jerusalem. King Darius, his son, reigned from 522 to 486 BCE. At the beginning of his reign, he permitted Zerubbabel (480 BCE) and the Jews who had returned to Jerusalem to resume reconstruction of the Temple. Zerubbabel was special; grandson of King Jehoiachin (598-597 BCE). and so he was one of the 1st Jews to return to Judah from Babylon with the assent of Cyrus. He had been the bodyguard of Darius from whom he had permission to rebuild Jerusalem, but this conflicts with other biblical accounts. He was appointed satrap after the death of Sheshbazzar, a Jewish official appointed by Cyrus over Judah in 538 BCE. He was entrusted with Temple vessels which he returned from Babylon to Jerusalem. Zerubbabel took steps toward rebuilding the Temple. Sheshazzar has been identified as Shenazzar, grandson of King Jehoiachin, or with Zerubbabel. At any rate, they were freed and went home to rebuild the Temple.
The city of Babylon exists today. Babylon had been the capital city of the ancient Babylonian empire, which itself is a term referring to either of two separate empires in the Mesopotamian area in antiquity. These two empires achieved regional dominance between the 19th and 15th centuries BC, and again between the 7th and 6th centuries BC. Today it is a city in Iraq.
Since Babylon is currently populated, debate exists among Christian factions as to whether Jeremiah's words will have a literal fulfillment after a future revival as a bustling city or whether his words are merely allegorical. On the other hand, Jehovah's Witnesses maintain that Babylon is uninhabited within the perimeters of the map listed in one of their publications despite the growing population there.
I would think it's safe to say that we Jews of today are the descendants of the Jews who spent 70 years in Babylonia and then returned to Jerusalem. We are finding that the Pashtuns of Afghanistan, Pakistan and India are most likely some of the descendants of the 10 Tribes of Israel of the north. We're coming together again. This is an age where we can even check out our DNA and discover more about our heritage and genes.
Resource:
The New Standard Jewish Encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herodotus
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/world/8-things-didnt-know-assyrian-christians
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Esther
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