Canaan and Israel

THE CULTURE OF CANAAN:
COMMON AND UNCOMMON ELEMENTS WITH THE PEOPLE OF ISRAEL
pdf
Dr. Paul Manuel—2011

Israel has similar concerns as its neighbors: how to relate to the environment, how to relate to each other, how to relate to the divine. Many, perhaps most, aspects of culture are neutral, devoid of any moral content (that is, moral in the broad sense of the term, as it relates to holiness).¹ For example, just as the people of Canaan cultivated grapes, so the Israelites, upon entering the land, cultivated grapes. Grape production is morally neutral.² Other aspects of culture, however, have definite moral implications. Although the Israelites had vineyards, like their pagan neighbors, unlike their neighbors, they could not harvest the entire vintage but had to leave the gleanings for the poor.

Lev 19:10 Nor shall you glean your vineyard, nor shall you gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the needy and for the stranger. I am the LORD your God.

It is in such cases of morality that the Bible defines how Israel, though part of the greater Ancient Near East (ANE), is to be distinct from it.³ The following illustrations demonstrate this distinction between amoral and moral from various aspects of ANE culture.

I. Man's relationship with nature

A. Food

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, had access to a wide range of potential food items.⁴ Because they both lived in the same geographical area, they had common agricultural practices; Israelites raised some of the same crops as their Canaanite neighbors.

Deut 6:10 Then it shall come about when the LORD your God brings you into the land which He swore to your fathers, Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give you, great and splendid cities which you did not build, 11 and houses full of all good things which you did not fill, and hewn cisterns which you did not dig, vineyards and olive trees which you did not plant, and you eat and are satisfied,

Nevertheless, whereas pagans apparently had few restrictions on what they could eat,⁵ Israelites had a broad but not completely open diet.

Lev 20:25 You are therefore to make a distinction between the clean animal and the unclean, and between the unclean bird and the clean; and you shall not make yourselves detestable by animal or by bird or by anything that creeps on the ground, which I have separated for you as unclean. 26 Thus you are to be holy to Me, for I the LORD am holy; and I have set you apart from the peoples to be Mine.

Even items that might otherwise be acceptable to Israelites become unacceptable in certain circumstances, although they remained sources of food for other residents in the land.⁶

B. Clothing

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, made their clothing from animal skins or hair, or woven cloth, and probably employed similar styles.⁷ For Israelites, however, only the skins of clean animals and only clean cloth were suitable for garment production.⁸

C. Shelter

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, employed similar building materials and architectural designs in home construction.⁹ The Israelites even took residence in the houses of the Canaanites they displaced. Most structures had flat roofs, which people used in various ways,¹⁰ but Israel had a special regulation to ensure their safety.¹¹

Deut 22:8 When you build a new house, you shall make a parapet for your roof, so that you will not bring bloodguilt on your house if anyone falls from it.

II. Man's relationship with others

A. Society

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, structured society to manage the environment and its resources efficiently for the majority of the population. In every society, however, there is a lower class that depends on the aid of those more affluent, and occasionally even those not normally destitute have need of assistance. Outside Israel, there seem to have been few controls on the interest one could charge for lending money. Babylonian and Assyrian documents record rates on personal loans as high as 33^1/3-50% (de Vaux 1961:171). In Israel, though, interest on such loans was forbidden out of concern for social justice.¹²

Exod 22:25 If you lend money to My people, to the poor among you, you are not to act as a creditor to him; you shall not charge him interest.

B. Politics

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, generally had a monarchical form of government. Kings usually accumulated as much power and wealth as they could, but Israelite kings had limits on what they acquired.¹³

C. Economics

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, engaged in all kinds of trade and commerce (Code of Hammurabi 99-107 [Pritchard 1958:148-149]);¹⁴ Slave trade, for example, although condemned in modern society, was common in the ancient world. Even Israel engaged in the practice, but a slave there seems to have had more opportunities to gain his freedom than if he lived elsewhere, especially if he was an Israelite. Unlike gentiles, Israelites did not serve more than six years unless they chose to do so.¹⁵ There seems to be no such distinction in non-Israelite law codes, except perhaps Code of Hammurabi 280-281), although they occasionally recognize certain time limits (cf. Code of Hammurabi 117-118). Furthermore, if an Israelite slave fled, he could not be forcibly returned to his master (contrast Code of Hammurabi 15-18).

III. Man's relationship with deity

A. Cosmology

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, believed that the divine created the physical world. Their specific views on origins, however, were not the same. Mesopotamian religion held that Ea created men out of the corpse of another god as servants of the gods (Babylonian Creation [Pritchard 1958:36-37] VI .33-34). Israelite religion held that God created man out of the dust of the earth as caretakers of the earth.¹⁶

Gen 2:15 Then the LORD God took the man and put him into the garden of Eden to cultivate it and keep it.

B. Cult

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, consulted a priest or prophet to determine the deity's will or to evoke the deity's favor.¹⁷ The intermediary had at his disposal several means of divination.¹⁸ Israelite intermediaries could use some methods but not others.

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, directed their devotion for different reasons. The pagan hoped to guarantee a favorable response to his petition. The Israelite worshiped the Lord because he recognized that his God is worthy of adoration.

• People in the ANE, Israelite and pagan, supported their religious establishments with contributions. For the Canaanite, there was no prescribed minimum. The amount was determined by how much the worshiper wished to impress the deity with the worthiness of his petition. For the Israelite there was a prescribed minimum, determined by a percentage of his income.

C. Religion

• People in the ANE believed in a number of deities, which they represented directly (with images) and indirectly (without images).

Judg 10:6a Then the sons of Israel ...served the Baals and the Ashtaroth, the gods of Aram, the gods of Sidon, the gods of Moab, the gods of the sons of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines....

1 Kgs 11:33a ...they have forsaken Me, and have worshiped Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians, Chemosh the god of Moab, and Milcom the god of the sons of Ammon.

2 Kgs 23:13 The high places which were before Jerusalem, which were on the right of the mount of destruction which Solomon the king of Israel had built for Ashtoreth the abomination of the Sidonians, and for Chemosh the abomination of Moab, and for Milcom the abomination of the sons of Ammon, the king defiled.

2 Chr 33:3b [Manasseh] rebuilt the high places which Hezekiah his father had broken down; he also erected altars for the Baals and made Asherim, and worshiped all the host of heaven and served them.

2 Chr 34:4 They tore down the altars of the Baals in his presence, and the incense altars that were high above them he chopped down; also the Asherim, the carved images and the molten images he broke in pieces....

Deities were often localized, with a particular god associated with a particular people or region, although a god may cover more than one area.

• People in Sidon worshiped Ashtoreth.¹⁹

I Kgs 11:5a For Solomon went after Ashtoreth the goddess of the Sidonians....

• People in Moab worshiped Chemosh and Baal.²⁰

Num 21:29a Woe to you, O Moab! You are ruined, O people of Chemosh!

• People in Ammon worshiped Molech (or Milcom).²¹

Lev 18:21a You shall not give any of your offspring to offer them to Molech...

• People in Philistia worshiped Dagon.²²¹

Judg 16:23a Now the lords of the Philistines assembled to offer a great sacrifice to Dagon their god....

• People in and around Canaan (including many Israelites) worshiped the host of heaven (and Asherot).²³

Deut 4:19 And beware not to lift up your eyes to heaven and see the sun and the moon and the stars, all the host of heaven...and worship them...those which the LORD your God has allotted to all the peoples under the whole heaven.

• People in Canaan worshiped Baal (and others).²⁴

Judg 8:33 Then it came about, as soon as Gideon was dead, that the sons of Israel again played the harlot with the Baals, and made Baal-berith their god.

• People of Israel were conflicted in their worship.²⁵

Judg 10:10 ...the Sons of Israel cried out to the LORD, saying, "We have sinned against You, for indeed, we have forsaken our God and served the Baals."

• People of Israel worshiped the LORD (ostensibly)²⁶

Exod 20:2a I am the LORD your God.... 3 You shall have no other gods before Me. 4 You shall not make for yourself an idol, or any likeness of what is in heaven above or on the earth beneath or in the water under the earth. 5 You shall not worship them or serve them; for I, the LORD your God, am a jealous God....

Only the LORD has comprehensive coverage, for all people in all areas.

Although Israel was part of the greater ANE and shared in much of its cultural milieu, God required His people to be separate in many respects. The nation thus lived in a constant state of tension, tempted to be like its neighbors yet called to be different from them. Perhaps it would have been easier for God's people to maintain their separation if they had not so much in common with others.²⁷ Too radical a distinction, however, would have reduced their effectiveness as "a kingdom of priests" (Exod 19:6), for a priest must be able to identify with those to whom he ministers.²⁸ Therefore, Israel had to be in the world but not of it. Understanding this cultural tension helps the reader gain (environmental) competence that enables him to determine the meaning of a given text (e.g., the repeated destruction of high places in Judean reforms).²⁹

For the Bibliography and Endnotes see the pdf here.