Canaan’s lifespan, although not documented, can be determined by matching to his first cousin Arphaxad. Canaan was still alive when Abram entered the land on which Canaan had staked his claim and his name, like William Penn’s “Penn-sylvania”.
This is the western leg of the fertile crescent, coastline of the Mediterranean maritime territory, as much a geopolitical imperative as marine access is in our day. No wonder he snatched it up right away, quite likely as an early empire-expanding strategy under his nephew Nimrod when the whole world was under his control.
According to non-biblical scholars, the Bible is a major source of information about the Canaanites, whose existence, for at least a thousand years before the Exodus, is acknowledged to be a reality.
Much of what scholars know about the Canaanites comes from records left by the people they came into contact with. Some of the most detailed surviving records come from the site of Amarna, in Egypt, and from the Hebrew Bible…”Canaan was not made up of a single ‘ethnic’ group but consisted of a population whose diversity may be hinted at by the great variety of burial customs and cultic structures” wrote Ann Killebrew, an archaeology professor at Penn State University.
The list in Genesis 10:6-19 gives us the name of the genetic Canaanites and Genesis 14-15 gives us names of some of the other nations in the land that Noah’s grandson claimed.
The biblical account of Canaan’s claim stretching from coastal western Syria to the boarder of Egypt is well documented by archeologists.
Sidon
Canaan’s first born and crown jewel, is not named as such among the seven nations but as Canaan’s scion he is not only included in the broad category of “Canaanite”, but is the ultimate representative of a Canaanite. Sidon is considered the seat of the Phoenician, i.e. Canaanite, civilization in that most of the trading ships which spread Phoenician cedarwood, goods, culture, and colonies were launched from this city’s port. An artist’s rendition from historic descriptions and archeological finds gives us a sense of what Sidon’s heyday was like. This, as well as the Phoenician port colony of Carthage on the northern coast of Africa is reminiscent of the description of Atlantis. This is likely a deliberate identification with their glorious Old World civilization, just as Washington D.C. was intentionally designed to identify with our Roman heritage.
Artifacts manufactured at Sidon have been found throughout Mesopotamia, Egypt, Rome and even Britain. Through its trade, Sidon was the most powerful city-state of ancient Phoenicia. One of its primary trade goods came from mollusks in that part of the Mediterranean from which were manufactured the purple dye which was so rare and expensive that the color purple became synonymous with royalty.
In addition, glass manufacture was conducted on such a vast scale that the very invention of glass has often been attributed to Sidon.There is evidence that Sidon was inhabited as long ago as 4000 B.C., i.e. the dawn of biblical human history, with evidence of historical continuity from about the time of the flood. That the locations of these cities were known to the post-flood peoples is evidenced by ancient documents such as the following.
I captured the cities of Tarbaṣu and Yaballu…I destroyed those cities, together with cities in their environs, making them like the tells after the Deluge. –Assyrian King Tiglath-pileser III (745-727 BCE)
No doubt Sidon was guided by his antediluvian grandfather Ham to exploit a known source of self-empowerment by settling at a pre-flood site. This emerges as a pattern with the rest of Canaan’s sons as well as immigrants from other families.
The city flourished as part of a loose confederacy of city-states spread along the coast of the land of Canaan...with each city operating as a sovereign state ruled over by a king…This brought Sidon into competition with…the city of Tyre. In the 10th century BCE, the balance of power shifted to Tyre primarily due to the leadership of…Hiram. Tyre forged trade agreements with the newly minted kingdom of Israel-Judah and her king David. This agreement made Tyre wealthy and Sidon, trying to compete, entered into their own pacts with the kingdom of Israel [which split from David’s clan Judah after Solomon] including the marriage of the Sidonian princess Jezebel, daughter of Ethbaal, to King Ahab (a story famous from the Bible). Jezebel’s insistence on maintaining her own religion was an affront [ahh, more like civil war, promoting serial murder as her religion did, see I Kings 18 and I Kings 21]..and Ahah’s rule was ended by a coup…and with it, Sidonian trade agreements with Israel. [To say the least…]
The Sidonian Jezebel is a portrait of why God said to destroy the Canaanites and their culture from among his people.
“And [Israel’s king] Ahab the son of Omri did evil in the sight of the LORD above all that were before him…he took to wife Jezebel the daughter of Ethbaal king of the Zidonians, and went and served Baal, and worshipped him…in the house of Baal, which he had built in Samaria. And Ahab made a grove…there was none like unto Ahab, which did sell himself [ahh! that profit motive from trade with Sidon] to work wickedness in the sight of the LORD, whom Jezebel his wife stirred up. And he did very abominably in following idols, according to all things as did the Amorites, whom the LORD cast out before the children of Israel.” (I Kings 16:30-33, 21:24-26)
This woman was so notorious in Jewish culture, carried through the Bible into Christian culture, that thousands of years later “Jezebel” remains a permanent legacy, whether deliberately bestowed by hopeful parents or applied as an outraged synonym for a powerful-through-cunning woman.
“thou sufferest that woman Jezebel, which calleth herself a prophetess, to teach and to seduce my servants to commit fornication, and to eat things sacrificed unto idols [which incorporates the evil spirit into the eater]. And I gave her space to repent of her fornication; and she repented not. Behold, I will cast her into a bed, and them that commit adultery with her into great tribulation, except they repent of their deeds. And I will kill her children.” (Rev 2:20-26)
Jezebel was spelled “Isabel” ,even in English, prior to the addition of the letter J to the English alphabet in 1633, Note, this did not happen until after the 1611 King James Version of the Bible.
Born as she was during Middle Ages when the Church reigned supreme, Isabella’s parents would have deliberately named her after a Bible character. And this most famous of Spanish queens is the virtual reincarnation of the Sidonian Jezebel, who could very well have been her ancestor. Their bloody roads to power certainly match.
Isabella is famous, with her husband Ferdinand, for funding Christopher Columbus’ exploratory voyage to the new world in 1492. This single action motivated by trade and empowerment through religion, so characteristic of the Sidonian’s practices, shot Spain to stratospheric heights of wealth and power.
“Spain enjoyed a cultural golden age in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries when silver and gold from American mines increasingly financed a long series of European and North African wars.” To pay for this siphoning of wealth? “The population of the Native American population in Mexico declined by an estimated 90% (reduced to 1–2.5 million people) by the early 17th century. In Peru, the indigenous Amerindian pre-contact population of around 6.5 million declined to 1 million by the early 17th century. The overwhelming cause of the decline in both Mexico and Peru was infectious diseases, such as smallpox and measles, although the brutality of the Encomienda [forced labor like that in the Nazi concentration camps] also played a significant part in the population decline.
And then there was the religious persecution.
Beginning in 1514 Spanish conquerors adopted “the Requirement,” an ultimatum in which Indians were forced to accept “the Church as the Ruler and Superior of the whole world” or face persecution. If Indians did not immediately comply, the Requirement warned them:
We shall take you and your wives and your children, and shall make slaves of them, and as such shall sell and dispose of them as their Highnesses may command; and we shall take away your goods, and shall do all the harm and damage that we can.”
Columbus was forthcoming that he should be remembered “as a captain who for such a long time up to this day has borne arms without laying them aside for an hour.”
Isabella is also famous for being “Europe’s first great queen“. The similarities between the two Jezebels are striking.
- Established the first strong European / Israelite nation-state through the creation of “the Holy Brotherhood”, used to keep the nobles in check. This establishment of royal authority can be seen as one of the crucial steps toward the creation of a strong nation-states.
“Jezebel slew the prophets of the LORD …[replacing them with] the prophets of Baal four hundred and fifty, and the prophets of the groves four hundred…eat at Jezebel’s table.” (I Kings 18:13,19)
- With her husband expelled all Jews who would not convert to Christianity from their lands on pain of death in the most cataclysmic event for Jews prior to the holocaust.
“And [Elijah] said.. I, even I only, am left…And the LORD said…I have left me seven thousand in Israel.” (I Kings 19:14-18)
- While inquisitions swept all of Christian Europe, the Spanish Inquisition was the most infamous of all religious persecutions.
“Put your feet to the fire” and “a slow death” were not figures of speech during the infamous Inquisition under Torquemada which ferreted out by torture and executed by cruel means any “heretic”.
On March 31, 1492…Jewish subjects were given until July 31, 1492 to choose between accepting baptism and leaving the country…land-holdings, of course, had to be sold; gold, silver and coined money were forfeit…
A modern parallel to this practice was the Nazis seizure of property privately owned by individual Jews and Jewish families between 1933 and 1945. The more conservative estimates begin at $US8 billion, the vast majority never returned nor compensation made.
During the sixteenth century, Protestant reformers bore the brunt of the Inquisition. Curiously, though, a large percentage of Protestants were of Jewish origin…
many true and faithful Christians, because of the testimony of enemies, rivals, slaves and other low people—and still less appropriate—without tests of any kind, have been locked up in secular prisons, tortured and condemned like relapsed heretics, deprived of their goods and properties, and given over to the secular arm to be executed, at great danger to their souls, giving a pernicious example and causing scandal to many.
Torture was always a means to obtain the confession of the accused, not a punishment itself. It was applied without distinction of sex or age, including children and the aged.
The methods of torture most used by the Inquisition were garrucha, toca and the potro. The application of the garrucha, also known as the strappado, consisted of suspending the criminal from the ceiling by a pulley with weights tied to the ankles, with a series of lifts and drops, during which arms and legs suffered violent pulls and were sometimes dislocated.[26]. The toca, also called tortura del agua, consisted of introducing a cloth into the mouth of the victim, and forcing them to ingest water spilled from a jar so that they had impression of drowning.[27]The potro, the rack, was the instrument of torture used most frequently.[28] The assertion that “confessionem esse veram, non factam vi tormentorum” (the confession was true and free) sometimes follows a description of how, presently after torture ended, the subject freely confessed to his offenses…[29]
The “Spanish Chair,” a device used to hold the victim while the soles of their feet were roasted, did exist in Spain during the period of the Inquisition but it is uncertain whether it was actually used…
- severe punishments existed, among them long sentences to jail or the galleys, and the confiscation of all their property. Also physical punishments existed, such as whipping.
- The most serious punishment was…burning at the stake…
the condemned had to participate in the ceremony of an auto de fe, that solemnized his return to the Church (in most cases), or punishment as an impenitent heretic. The autos de fe could be private (auto particular) or public (auto publico or auto general).
Initially the public autos did not have any special solemnity or attract large audiences, with time they became solemn ceremonies, celebrated with large public crowds, amidst a festive atmosphere. The auto de fe eventually became a baroque spectacle, with staging meticulously calculated to cause the greatest effect among the spectators.
The autos were conducted in a large public space (in the largest plaza of the city, frequently), generally on holidays. The rituals related to the auto began the previous night (the “procession of the Green Cross”) and lasted the whole day sometimes. The auto de fe frequently was taken to the canvas by painters: one of the better known examples is the painting by Francesco Rizzi held by the Prado Museum in Madrid and which represents the auto celebrated in the Plaza Mayor of Madrid on June 30, 1680. The last public auto de fe took place in 1691.
Those familiar with the fictional Cercei Lannister on Game of Thrones should recognize the same power-grabbing actions in Isabella’s reign. Watching this program triggers a gut horror reaction that is more informing than simply reading words for which we have no visual or emotional context from our own limited experience.
Cercei was ranked No. 1 of “30 Best Game of Thrones Villains” by Rolling Stone and described as the “most dangerous human being in Westeros“. This is quite a tribute if you consider that Ramsey Bolton is only ranked No. 4, despite his characterization as “‘pure evil ‘…basically Ted Bundy…the sort of irredeemable monster you usually read about in books on serial killers.
If you still feel that a God who would order certain groups to be destroyed is a monster, watch Game of Thrones, or at least read about the characters on this top rated, historically based show, and consider whose side you want to be on – the defender or the destroyer of the living.
Every country, including the United States, uses torture.
The Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment of Punishment (The Torture Convention)…adopted in 1984…became the first confirmed and binding agreement toward eradicating torture…
some of the most damaging acts of torture have been performed by our country’s own CIA…
The terror that accompanies the suggestion of torture is one of its worse aspects.
Surely we’ve learned about enough monster politicians in our own recent history to realize there are real threats to humanity by cruel rulers with their devoted followers, and someone IS going to die. It’s just a question of believing if someone else’s life is worth dying for.
This is why the American men and women who fought World War II, “not for fame or recognition, but because it was the ‘right thing to do'” are labeled “The Greatest Generation” of Americans by journalist Tom Brokaw.
As we read the sanitized biblical version of what was occurring under the original Jezebel, bear in mind the unspeakable horror which Elijah faced and masses of God’s people were suffering.
“Jezebel sent a messenger unto Elijah, saying, So let the gods do to me, and more also, if I make not thy life as the life of one of them…And when he saw that, he arose, and went for his life…into the wilderness, and came and sat down under a juniper tree: and he requested for himself that he might die; and said, It is enough; now, O LORD, take away my life.”
And the LORD grants him his request! We should recognize this as indicating that Elijah, one of the greatest prophets ever, really was at the end of his mental, emotional and physical capacities from the danger-fraught circumstances under which he had been barely surviving.
“And the LORD said unto him…Elisha the son of Shaphat of Abelmeholah shalt thou anoint to be prophet in thy room...” (I Kings 19:14)
Sidon suffered the depredations of a succession of conquerors. By the beginning of the 19th Century, Sidon had sunk into obscurity.
Heth
Higher criticism of the Bible, which is grounded in denial of any supernatural input, treated the lack of archeological evidence of the Hittites as proof that the Bible was just a book of myths. This position was disproved when in 1876 when archeological discoveries uncovered the existence of powerful nation based in present-day Turkey. If you look at the map you’ll see that this nation had plenty of space to retreat back into hiding.
Like his brother Sidon, Heth also re-occupied a notable pre-flood site. Hattusha was a vast fortress-city with soaring citadels and elaborate temples, originally founded by the Hatti before the flood ~ 2500 BCE.
Even more significant than
- the timing of Hattusha’s construction,
- its primarily defensive form and function and
- its remote location high in the almost inaccessible mountains of Turkey
are the similarities between Hattushan, Babylonian, Egyptian and even South American religious iconography found in Gobekli tepe, the most ancient and mysterious temple site so far discovered.
These unquestionably point to a recent and comonly shared antediluvian culture. Restoration of this massive antediluvian complex may have been on Heth’s to-do list in order to seize international spiritual control.
The Secret of Gobekli Tepe: Cosmic Equinox and Sacred Marriage analyzes some of the common features found in later religions.
When we recall that “sacred” celestial marriages produced genocidal hybrid angel-humans-animals capable of wiping out the entire human race, we understand that the Hittite’s religious revival was for the purpose of returning the world to the pre-flood state of alien desecration and destruction.
The Hittites were going for Alien Resurrection.
The powerful Hittite Empire expanded south and challenged Egypt for world dominance.
Excavations at Hattusha have unearthed international treaties with neighboring city-states, among which are some indicating that the Hittites were likely involved in a very real, very early Bronze Age Trojan War.
The clever strategy of getting through the walls via an image – get it? an idol – of a horse makes perfect sense once awareness of the practice of horse worship is added our accumulating data. The Trojans couldn’t refuse to host one of their gods.
Horse worship is a pagan practice that existed in Europe in the Iron Age and perhaps the [earlier] Bronze Age. The horse was seen as divine, as a sacred animal associated with a particular deity, or as a totem animal impersonating the king or warrior.
Tacitus (Germania) mentions the use of white horses for divination by the Germanic tribes…
There is some reason to believe that Poseidon, like other water [outer space is a sea, remember] gods, was originally conceived under the form of a horse…
This seems related to the archaic myth by which Poseidon once pursued Demeter; She spurned his advances, turning herself into a mare so that she could hide in a herd of horses; he saw through the deception and became a stallion and captured her. Their child was a horse, Arion, which was capable of human speech.
Myth, or account of the pre-flood hybridization program including centaurs?
This bears some resemblance to the Norse mythology reference to the gender-changing Loki having turned himself into a mare and given birth to Sleipnir, “the greatest of all horses”.
A Hittite was among King David’s great men.
“And afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.” (Genesis 10:18)
Kingdom Come 