Living Descendants of Biblical Canaanites Identified Via DNA

[Thesauron]

More than 90 percent of the genetic ancestry of modern Lebanese is derived from ancient Canaanites, according to a paper published today in the American Journal of Human Genetics.

 

Living Descendants of Biblical Canaanites Identified Via DNA (National Geographic

 

 

Johan

[carlos]

I read this news in the newspaper this morning, but I think the conclusion in the article is partially mistaken and tricky.

 

It's not impossible that some people living today have Canaanite DNA, since the Israelites didn't exterminate all the Canaanites as Jehovah told them. But it seems unlikely to me that a whole nation comes from them, since probably those remaining individuals were eventually absorbed by the Israelites.

 

The study compares the DNA of modern Lebanese people with some bodies buried in Sidon. But Sidon was not properly a Canaanite city, it was Phoenician. Israel was never commanded to exterminate the Phoenicians, and they never did. Even if the once prosperous Phoenician civilization was reduced to ruins by the Babylonians and the Greeks after them, it's perfectly possible that most of the population of that area come from ancient Phoenicians.

 

According to Genesis 10:15, the Sidonians were descendants of Ham's grandson Canaan, so they were technically Canaanites. That's why I said the conclusion is partially mistaken. Although technically correct, the study makes it seem the modern Libanese are descendants of the Canaanite peoples Israel was told to exterminate: Amorites, Jebusites, Hivites and the like, while the truth is that they are descendants of the Phoenicians.

[CHecker]

I wish I was as smart as you guys

[Old]

4 hours ago, carlos said:

I read this news in the newspaper this morning, but I think the conclusion in the article is partially mistaken and tricky.

 

It's not impossible that some people living today have Canaanite DNA, since the Israelites didn't exterminate all the Canaanites as Jehovah told them. But it seems unlikely to me that a whole nation comes from them, since probably those remaining individuals were eventually absorbed by the Israelites.

 

The study compares the DNA of modern Lebanese people with some bodies buried in Sidon. But Sidon was not properly a Canaanite city, it was Phoenician. Israel was never commanded to exterminate the Phoenicians, and they never did. Even if the once prosperous Phoenician civilization was reduced to ruins by the Babylonians and the Greeks after them, it's perfectly possible that most of the population of that area come from ancient Phoenicians.

 

According to Genesis 10:15, the Sidonians were descendants of Ham's grandson Canaan, so they were technically Canaanites. That's why I said the conclusion is partially mistaken. Although technically correct, the study makes it seem the modern Libanese are descendants of the Canaanite peoples Israel was told to exterminate: Amorites, Jebusites, Hivites and the like, while the truth is that they are descendants of the Phoenicians.

3

I haven't looked into this for years, but have previously read that Phoenicians we were Canaanites. Looked it up just now http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/asia-and-africa/ancient-history-middle-east/phoenicia  and it appears some historians hold to the fact that Phoenicians were Canaanites that took up a sea faring existence. They were Baal worshipers and practiced child sacrifice.  Like some of the Canaanite cited above Sidon was not destroyed though under Jehovah' decree they should have been: (Judges 1:31) 31 Ashʹer did not drive out the inhabitants of Acʹco and the inhabitants of Siʹdon and Ahʹlab and Achʹzib and Helʹbah and Aʹphik and Reʹhob. . .'  I can't see any holes in this news article. I find it interesting but possibly meaningless and I can't see it as a contradiction to scripture. Is there something I am missing here?

[carlos]

11 minutes ago, Old said:

I haven't looked into this for years, but have previously read that Phoenicians we were Canaanites. Looked it up just now http://www.encyclopedia.com/history/asia-and-africa/ancient-history-middle-east/phoenicia  and it appears some historians hold to the fact that Phoenicians were Canaanites that took up a sea faring existence. They were Baal worshipers and practiced child sacrifice.  Like some of the Canaanite cited above Sidon was not destroyed though under Jehovah' decree they should have been: (Judges 1:31) 31 Ashʹer did not drive out the inhabitants of Acʹco and the inhabitants of Siʹdon and Ahʹlab and Achʹzib and Helʹbah and Aʹphik and Reʹhob. . .'  I can't see any holes in this news article. I find it interesting but possibly meaningless and I can't see it as a contradiction to scripture. Is there something I am missing here?

Yes, the Phoenicians were Canaanites (but not one of the Canaanite peoples that had to be exterminated by Israel since they lived outside the Promised Land). And the National Geographic article is correct.

 

The problem is that I was mixing this article with the one I read in the newspaper this morning about the same study. The article in the newspaper began by saying God in the Bible cursed Canaanites and condemned them to destruction, but apparently he failed since modern inhabitants of Lebanon are descendants of Biblical Canaanites. So they weren't exterminated. The idiot who wrote that article had no idea what he was talking about but didn't miss a chance to mock the Bible. And the use of the term "Canaanites" contributed to that confusion.

 

Anyway, I don't understand why both articles refer to these people as Canaanites when they are universally known as Phoenicians. It's like finding an Egyptian temple and saying they have found some African ruins.

Edited July 28, 2017 by carlos

[Thesauron]

Yes, the Phoenicians were Canaanites (but not one of the Canaanite peoples that had to be exterminated by Israel since they lived outside the Promised Land). And the National Geographic article is correct.

 

The problem is that I was mixing this article with the one I read in the newspaper this morning about the same study. The article in the newspaper began by saying God in the Bible cursed Canaanites and condemned them to destruction, but apparently he failed since modern inhabitants of Lebanon are descendants of Biblical Canaanites. So they weren't exterminated. The idiot who wrote that article had no idea what he was talking about but didn't miss a chance to mock the Bible. And the use of the term "Canaanites" contributed to that confusion.

 

Anyway, I don't understand why both articles refer to these people as Canaanites when they are universally known as Phoenicians. It's like finding an Egyptian temple and saying they have found some African ruins.

It's the authors of the study that prefer this expression. "During the Bronze Age in the Levant, around 3–4 kya, a distinctive culture emerged as a Semitic-speaking people known as the Canaanites. The Canaanites inhabited an area bounded by Anatolia to the north, Mesopotamia to the east, and Egypt to the south, with access to Cyprus and the Aegean through the Mediterranean. Thus the Canaanites were at the center of emerging Bronze Age civilizations and became politically and culturally influential. They were later known to the ancient Greeks as the Phoenicians who, 2.3–3.5 kya, colonized territories throughout the Mediterranean reaching as far as the Iberian Peninsula."

 

 

Johan

[Shawnster]

9 hours ago, carlos said:

I read this news in the newspaper this morning, but I think the conclusion in the article is partially mistaken and tricky.

 

It's not impossible that some people living today have Canaanite DNA, since the Israelites didn't exterminate all the Canaanites as Jehovah told them. But it seems unlikely to me that a whole nation comes from them, since probably those remaining individuals were eventually absorbed by the Israelites.

 

The study compares the DNA of modern Lebanese people with some bodies buried in Sidon. But Sidon was not properly a Canaanite city, it was Phoenician. Israel was never commanded to exterminate the Phoenicians, and they never did. Even if the once prosperous Phoenician civilization was reduced to ruins by the Babylonians and the Greeks after them, it's perfectly possible that most of the population of that area come from ancient Phoenicians.

 

According to Genesis 10:15, the Sidonians were descendants of Ham's grandson Canaan, so they were technically Canaanites. That's why I said the conclusion is partially mistaken. Although technically correct, the study makes it seem the modern Libanese are descendants of the Canaanite peoples Israel was told to exterminate: Amorites, Jebusites, Hivites and the like, while the truth is that they are descendants of the Phoenicians.

Isaac and Ishmael. 

 

Jacob and Esau. 

 

Moab and Ben-ammi. 

 

Canaanites and Lebanese can easily have come from common stock.  Of course the genes will be common