Page 12 - Advanced Biblical Backgrounds Student Textbook

John Holmes, in his course on biblical backgrounds, explains that the region of Canaan is described in
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the Old Testament in the following ways in Scripture:

Exodus 3:8

“and I have come down to deliver them out of the hand
of the Egyptians and to bring them up out of that land to
a good and broad land, a land flowing with milk and
honey, to the place of the Canaanites, the Hittites, the
Amorites, the Perizzites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites.”
(ESV)

Deuteronomy 8:8
“For the LORD your God is bringing you into a good land,
a land of brooks of water, of fountains and springs,
flowing out in the valleys and hills, a land of wheat and
barley, of vines and fig trees and pomegranates, a land of
olive trees and honey, a land in which you will eat bread without scarcity, in which you will lack nothing,
a land whose stones are iron, and out of whose hills you can dig copper. And you shall eat and be full,
and you shall bless the LORD your God for the good land he has given you.” (ESV)

The term “Canaanite” is an overarching term with many sub-categories of people
within it. One may think of Canaan as the house under which many people in the
family find shelter. Numbers 13:29 says “The Amalekites dwell in the land of the
Negeb. The Hittites, the Jebusites, and the Amorites dwell in the hill country. And
the Canaanites dwell by the sea, and along the Jordan. (ESV)”

The people groups listed above, and others were in the land of Canaan. They did
not collect as nation states as we do today. They were more tribal. When
Abraham was promised Canaan, the land was not filled with mighty cities. It was
more rural and patriarchal. Five hundred or so years later, when the Israelites
returned from Egypt, they found large cities with fortified walls. To the right you
will find a helpful chart showing the locations of the people groups of the land of
Canaan.
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Government structure in Canaan:
During the time of the patriarchs there was no major power or centralized
government.

“In a land and at a time when urban life had largely disappeared, the government that really
mattered, as far as Scripture is concerned, was that of the patriarch over his extended family.
Patriarch means literally “rule of the father.” And his rule was absolute; he controlled the

15 Both maps are taken from John Holmes course with permission.
16 Map of Canaanite Nations used under free use license. https://www.bible-
history.com/maps/canaanite_nations.html

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