In the bilingual Decree of KanOpos the Gr. Phcenicia is replaced in the hieroglj'phic text by Keft. W. Max Miiller has tried to show that Keft was rather Cilicia, but unsuccessfully. The name appears in Greek as Kdpheus and KCphfine. Kfipheus, father of Andromeda, was said to have been a king of Joppa (Steph. Byz. ».».), and the ChaUhcans of Babylon were first called K6ph6nes, according to Hellanicus. Keft, in fact, seems to have denoted the whole sea-coast of Phoenicia, from the Gulf of Antioch to Jafl'a.
Another name applied to Canaan and Syria by the Egj'ptians was Khal, which embraced the wliola country from the frontiers of Eg}i>t to Aup in northern SjTia. It denoted more especially the northern part of the region, from which wine was imported into Egypt ; while the southern part of Pal., particularly towards the sea-coast, was termed Zahi. The most general name was Rutennu or Lutennu, which corresponded to our ' Syria.'
The mercantile pursuits of the Phoenicians caused the word ' Canaanite ' to become synonymous with 'merchant' (Is 23», Ezk 17«, Hos 12', Zeph 1", Job 41", Pr SI-*]. In an Egyp. papjTus, on the other hand, mention is made of ' Canaanite slaves from Khal ' (Anastasi, iv. 16. 2).
Isaiah (19'") calls Heb. the language of Canaan, and the decipherment of the Phoenician inscrip- tions, as well as the names of Can. persons and places mentioned in the OT, show that the description was correct. Hebrew and Pluenician (or Can.) ilill'ered only in a few unimportant par- ticulars, such as the absence in Phcrnician of a definite article. The Tel el-.'\mama tablets prove that there was little or no dill'erence between the language of Canaan in the cent, before the Exodus and that of the Plio'nicians and of the OT in later times. In some of the letters written from Camum the writer oxids the Can. equivalent of the Bab. word he is using. Thus the king of Jeiusalem uses anu/ci, ' I,' the Heb. anokhi, instead
348
CANAif^AN
CANON
of the Bab. anaku, and zuru'u the Heb. tlroa, ' arm,' instead of katu ; while other cor- respondents from southern Pal. explain the Bat), sise ' liorses,' kazira ' cattle,' risu ' head,' same ' heaven,' elippi ' a ship,' ina kati-su ' in his hand,' and ar/ci-su ' after him,' by the Can. fH-fi (Heb. ?ii?), maUani (Heb. mikneh], rusu (Heb. rdsh), sainevui (Heb. shamayim), anny (Heb. '6ni), badiu (Heb. bSyado), and akhrun-u (Heb. akhrCn-o). The Phcenician governors give batnu (Heb. beten) for the Bab. pantS 'stomach,' mima (Ileb. mayim) for mami 'water,' khnjMru, and aparu (Heb. 'dpMr) for ipru 'dust,' and kiluhi (Heb. kelub) for khu- kharu 'a cage.' Similar evidence is borne by the Can. words borrowed by tlie Egyptians under the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasties ; e.g. markabute 'chariots,' 'agolte 'wagons,' hiirpu (hereb) ' sword,' espat ' quiver,' sliahud (shebet) ' staff,' supdr ' scribe,' baith ' house,' b(^rkat ' pool,' yum ' sea,' naked ' brook,' 'ebete ('ebed) ' slave,' gdvxal 'camel,' zaba' 'army,' na'aruna 'young men,' parzal ' iron ' (cf. Lauth, ' Semitische Lehn- worter im .^^yptischen,' in ZDMG. xxv. 4, 1871). The Can. script at the time was the cuneiform Bvllabary of Babylon ; the so-called Phoenician alphabet was not introduced till afterwards. The earliest kno\vn inscriptions in this alphabet are the Moabite Stone (B.C. 850), a dedication by Hiram of Tyre to Baal-Lebanon, which may be of the same date, and a single word on a piece of pottery found by Bliss on the site of Lacbish at a depth of 300 feet.
One of the Tel el-Amama letters was sent by Buma-burias, kin<j of Babylon, to Amenhotep IV. of Egypt to complain of outrages committed upon his ambassadors in Canaan (Kinakhkhi). At Khinna- tuni ('Ain-Athun ; cf. the modern 'Ain-Ethan, ne.ar Solomon's Pools, between Bethlehem and Hebron) they were attacked by Sum-Adda (Shem-Hadad), the son of Balumme (perhaps Balaam), and Sutatna (also called Zatatna), the son of Saratum of Acco (Acre), the feet of one bein" cut off, and the face of another trampled upon. As Canaan belonged to Egypt, and its ' king' was an Egyp. vassal, Burna- burias calls upon the Pharaoh to punish the assailants and restore the silver they had stolen, otherwise amicable relations between Babylon and Egypt will be broken off. In another letter it IS stated that Kuri-galzu, the predecessor of Buma-burias, refused the proposal of the Kuna- khians, by whom the Can. seem to be meant, that they should revolt to him from Egypt. Another letter is from a king of northern Syria ' to the kings of Kinakhna, the servants' of the Pharaoh, asking them not to hinder his ambassador on his way to Egypt; while in a fourth Abi-iiielech of Tyre says he has heard from Canaan (Kinakhna) that 'theking of the land of Danuna is dead and his brother has succeeded him as king, and that his country is tranquil ' ; that ' one half of the city of Ugarit has been Dumt and its troops have perished'; Uiat 'the Hittite army has departed,' but that ' Etagama, the prince of Kadesh, and Aziru (the Amorite) are hostile, and are fighting against Namya- j-izi.' Here Canaan seems to be used in a wide sense.
LlTEEATURE.— Movers, Dit Phmixier (1841-1S5«); Piotsih- mano, 'Ge-scliichte der Phbnizier,' in 0n<-ken'8 AUgnneinr Oachichte {lm9); Rawliiison, flpslory o/Pftomicia (I8S9) : Rciian, MUiion dt Pkinicif (IHM); CIS, vol. L (1881-lSPO); RP. New SerieB, 111., v., vi. (1690-1894). A. H. SAYCE.