Definition: Canaan is a location familiar from the Bible, whose conquest is described in Joshua 1-11 and Judges 1. In the second half of the second millennium B.C., Canaan was a province of Egypt's empire. Around 1200 B.C. the Israelites are thought to have entered Canaan, a land of milk and honey.
Canaan refers to the Promised Land of the ancient Israelites which was located in today's Lebanon and Israel.
Sometimes Canaan is the area inhabited by residents of ancient Palestine. Sometimes it refers to descendants of Noah's son Ham's son Canaan.
Sources:
- P. Kyle McCarter, Jr. "Canaan" The Oxford Guide to People and Places of the Bible. Ed. Bruce M. Metzger and Michael D. Coogan. Oxford University Press, 2001.
- Biblical Literacy, by Rabbi Joseph Telushkin (1997).
