Why the Canaanites such a threat to Moses and Joshua?

Although the area had been inhabited considerably earlier, it is with the influx of peoples from northern Syria and Anatolia and the introduction of urban life at the beginning of the Bronze Age (ca. 3200) that Canaanite history is thought to have begun. For all intents, that history is coterminous with the Bronze Age itself, and the course of Canaanite civilization was strongly influenced by the fortunes of the Egyptian Empire to the west and the cultural and political movements within other parts of the ancient Near East and Anatolia.

Indeed, the apparently peaceful existence of the early Canaanite villages and fortified towns was shattered ca. 2300 by widespread destruction resulting from raids under the Egyptian Sixth Dynasty and large-scale upheaval accompanied by massive population movements throughout much of the ancient world. During the Middle Bronze Age (specifically MB IIA; ca. 2000–1800) the Canaanites were dominated politically and economically by the Egyptian Twelfth Dynasty. It was during this approximate period also that the seeds of classical Canaanite culture were sown, introduced by Amorite movements from the east and north; the migration of Abraham from Haran to Canaan (Gen. 12:4–5) is generally assigned to this period.

With Egypt under Hyksos control in the eighteenth-seventeenth centuries, Canaanite society reached its greatest height. Powerful cities emerged, fortified by massive ramparts of beaten earth. These urban centers and the allied villages and open country which surrounded them formed a network of city-states throughout Palestine, each ruled by a king and the attendant nobility. The economic base for this society was the agricultural produce of the villages, to which the masses of the Canaanite citizenry were aligned.

With the expulsion of the Hyksos in the sixteenth century, Egypt sought to reassert political influence over Canaanite Palestine, accomplished in part by the incursions of Thutmose III (ca. 1505–1450). The Late Bronze Age (ca. 1550–1200) witnessed further decline of Egyptian power with the advance of the Hittite and Mitannian empires. Increased friction between the Canaanite city-states as well as foreign pressure on them is reflected in the pleas for Egyptian aid recorded in the Amarna Letters. These texts also point to growing dissatisfaction among the Canaanite masses and the appearance of ˓Apiru (Habiru) bands which ultimately threatened the existence of that society.

It was during this period of upheaval in Egypt and Canaan that the Hebrews under Moses left Egypt and entered Canaan under Joshua. Various attempts have been made to elucidate the biblical accounts of the Israelite emergence in Palestine, including theories of immigration, military conquest, peasant revolt, and the transformation of frontier areas. It is clear that Israelite control of the region developed gradually and that pockets of Canaanite society remained for some time (cf. Josh. 13:1; 15:63; 16:10; 17:12, 16; Judg. 3:5; 4:2). Nevertheless, the emergence of the Israelite state and the settling of the Philistines along the Mediterranean coast in the thirteenth century constituted the end of Canaanite history.

Although portrayed as opponents of the Israelites and a threat to their religious purity (e.g., Exod. 23:32–33; 34:12–16; Deut. 7:2–3, 16, 26), the Canaanites greatly influenced Israelite culture and, indeed, that of civilization in general. Canaanite alphabets, found in middle-second-millennium scripts from Serabit el-Khadem in the Sinai peninsula and the cuneiform texts from Ugarit (Ras Shamra), are the basis for modern Western alphabets. Linguistically, the Canaanite family of Northwest Semitic languages includes Hebrew, Ugaritic, and Phoenician; the language of the texts discovered at Ebla (Tell Mardikh) has been classified tentatively as Paleocanaanite.

Most prominent in the Ugaritic texts and the Old Testament is the storm and rain god Baal (“lord, master”), also known in numerous local manifestations (e.g., Baal-Peor, Baal-Lebanon; cf. Baal-berith, “lord of the covenant,” Judg. 9:4). Other members of the Canaanite pantheon, many of whom have counterparts in Assyrian and Babylonian gods, include Dagon, god of corn; Hadad, the thunder god; and Anat, Astarte, and Athirat (Asherah), variant forms of the goddess of love and the mother goddess. Fertility and procreation were important focuses of Canaanite religion, and ritual prostitution was part of cultic observances. It remains unclear whether human sacrifice was performed
















Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p. 187). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.


Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (p. 187). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.

Myers, A. C. (1987). In The Eerdmans Bible dictionary (pp. 186–187). Grand Rapids, MI: Eerdmans.