Identifying the Canaanites before Joshua’s Invasion: An Examination of Non-Biblical Sources

By Mark W. Christy, PhD

The Canaanites practiced polytheistic religion that gave much attention to its fertility cult. Due to this, “numerous debasing practices, including sacred prostitution, homosexuality, and various orgiastic rites” were commonplace.[1] Moses, in Leviticus 18:6-25, lists multiple heinous sins committed by the Canaanites including sexual relations with close family members (including in-laws), adultery, the sacrifice of children to Molech, the profaning of God’s name, homosexuality, and bestiality (cf. Lev 20:2-23). To these, he also adds the consulting of mediums and spiritists (Lev 20:6). While the depravity of these early inhabitants of modern-day Israel is well-attested in Scripture, it may help to consider other evidence that has been found. To this end, this article will offer some additional information drawn from materials that consider archaeological and textual sources.

The various peoples who lived in the Promised Land at the time of the Israelite conquest of Canaan were a mixture of multiple ethnic groups including those like the Philistines (The Peoples of the Sea) that had newly arrived.[2] These peoples, to some degree, were gradually moving toward syncretic cultural and religious practices even though vast differences still existed within the various peoples by the time the Israelites arrived. Without a common cultural and religious root, this melting pot of peoples had developed political attachments to local city-states. Each of these city-states held their own power even while they could cooperate. This lack of political development beyond the city was due to the constant political and military oppression of Egypt over multiple centuries even though this had begun to wain by the time of the invasion of the Israelites.

As mentioned in the introduction, the Canaanites practiced many despicable sexual sins. Among these, the most heinous sin (in the eyes of most people) would the sacrificing of children to Molech. According to Francis A. Schaeffer, “the firstborn of every woman’s body had to be sacrificed to Molech.”[3] As a part of the religious ceremony that accompanied this sacrificial rite, parents would place their child onto the hands of Molech and watch the fire engulf the child. As if this were not disturbing enough, Schaeffer recounts one tradition where “the parent was not allowed to show emotion” as “drums were beaten so that the baby’s cries could not be heard.”[4]

Accounts such as the one mentioned by Schaeffer arise from the efforts of archaeologists who have recovered textual evidence that was left by the Canaanites themselves. Much of this sort of material was recovered in 1929 by Schaeffer and George Chenet while they were doing an archaeological dig in the ancient city of Ugarit (known today as Minet el-Beida) located in Northern Syria. While the tablets (circa 1500 B.C.) were written in multiple languages, the majority of them contained the Canaanite script which was similar to the Hebraic script of the Bible. As scholars examined these tablets, they found among other things a law code stylistically similar to Mosaic Law along with many religious rites. According to Joseph M. Holden and Norman Geisler, these rites “offer confirmation of the Canaanite deities, practices, and religious customs described in the Old Testament, including 1) the suffocation of children, who were buried alive, evidenced by the discovery of thousands of clay jars containing the remains of children who were sacrificed; 2) absence of morality among the gods; 3) orgiastic worship of nature; 4) male and female religious prostitution; 5) malice and jealousy among the gods; 6) other types of child sacrifice; 7) pornographic nudity with serpent symbols; 8) high religious mythology; and 9) sensual idol worship.”[5]

In conclusion, the peoples of Canaan were very much as the Bible has recorded them to be. Their idolatry, sexual deviancy, and cultic practices involving the sacrifice of children certainly demonstrate that they had become a people completely given over to the sinfulness that was polar opposite of God’s commandments as put forth by Moses. Despite their vulgarity, they were seemingly sophisticated as evidenced by their writing capabilities and their legal code (not to mention their proficiency at trade but this was not discussed in this article). These strengths, however, were compromised by their political system built around a loose connection of city-states as opposed to a more integrated political system

[1]John Bright, A History of Israel, 3rd ed. (Philadelphia: Westminster 1981), 118-119.

[2]Ann E. Killebrew, Biblical Peoples and Ethnicity: An Archaeological Study of Egyptians, Canaanites, Philistines, and Early Israel, 1300-1100 R.C.E., in Archaeology and Biblical Studies, no.9, ed. Andrew G. Vaughan (Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature, 2005), 249. Killebrew adds, “Elements of both homogeneity and heterogeneity appear in the material culture. A rich variety of cultic structures and burial customs reflect long-term indigenous traditions as well as the introduction of outside practices. At the same time, homogeneous aspects of their material culture are not indicative of a unified group identity or single ethnicity.”

[3]Francis A. Schaeffer, A Christian View of the Church in vol. 4 of The Complete Works of Francis A. Schaeffer: A Christian Worldview, 2nd ed. (Wheaton, IL: 1985).

[4]Ibid.

[5]Joseph M. Holden and Norman Geisler, The Popular Handbook of Archaeology and the Bible: Discoveries that Confirm the Reliability of Scripture (Eugene, OR: Harvest, 2013), 71.