There is a mined place called Kana eUJelil, about eight mOes N. j^ E. from Nazareth, which Dr. Bobinson is inclined to regard as the more probable site of Cana. His reasons, which are certainly of considerable weight (especially the strict agreement of the name, *' Cana of Galilee"), may be seen in Biblical Researches, iii, 204- 208. They are combated by De Saulcy (Narrative, ii, 820). According to Thomson (Land and Book, ii, 121), few Moslems of the vicinity know of the epitiiet el-Jelil as applied to the place. Dr. Robinson says, " It is situated on the left side of the wady coming down frt)m Jefat, Just where the latter enters the plain el-Buttauf, on the southern declivity of a projecting tell, and overlooUng the plain. The situation b fine.
CANAAN
CANAAN
It was onoe a conBidermble village of weU-bnilt honaes, now deserted. Many of the dwellings are in rains. There are also several arches belonging to modem honses, but we could discover ■» tiacea of antiquity" (^LcUer Bib, Re»ecarche$^ p. 108).
The Old Testament mentions two other places by the same name (Kanah), one on the boundary between Manasseh and Ephraim (Josh, xvi, 8 ; xvii, 9, 10), the other in the tribe of Asher (Josh, xix, 28). The Syr- lac has Katna for the Cana of the Gospels ; and this compares somewhat with the Ittak-kasan (q. v.) on the border of Zebulon (Josh, xix, 18), which appears to have occupied the site of the present Kef^ Kenna. Whether the Galilean village Kanah (HSS) mentbn- •d in the Talmud (Yuckas. 57) is the same with Cana of Galilee, is uncertain (oomp. Otho, Lex, Rabb, p. 115).
There are treatises on various points connected with Christ^s first miracle at Cana, in Latin, by Brendel (Isenb.1785), Bashuysen (Serv.1726), Georgius (Viteb. 1744), Hebenstreit (Jen. 1698), Hoheisel (Gedan. 1782), Mayer (Gryph. 1708), Oeder (Onold. 1721), Sommel (Lund. 1773), Tabing (Brem. 1693), Vechncr (Helm. 1640) ; and in German by Flatt (in Saskind's Magaz. xiv, 78 sq.).
Ca^naSn (Heb. Kena'any *j993, perhaps law; Sept and N. T. Xavaitv ; Josephus Xavdavof), the name of a man and of a country peopled by his descendants.
1. The fourth son of Ham, and grandson of Noah (Gen. X, 6; 1 Chron. i, 8; comp. Josephn^ Ant, i, 6, 4). B.C. poet 2514. The transgression of his &ther Ham (Gen. ix, 22-27), to which some suppose Canaan to have been in some way a party, gave occasion to Koah to pnmounce that doom on the descendants of Canaan which was, perhaps, at that moment made known to him by one of those extemporaneous inspi- rations with which the patriarchal fathers appear in other instances to have been &vored. See Blbssino. That there is no just ground for the conclusion that the descendants of Canaan were cursed as an immedi- ate eontequmcB of the transgression of Ham, is shown by Professor Bush, who, in his NoUi en Genesisj has fairly met the difficulties of the subject— Kitto, Cy- clop, s. V. See Ham.
The posterity of Canaan was numerous. His eld- est son, Zidon, founded the ci^ of the same name, and was father of the Sidonians and Phoenicians. Ca- naan had ten other sons, who were fiithers of as many tribes, dwelling in Palestine and Syria (Gen. x, 15-19 ; 1 Chron. 1, 18). It is believed that Canaan lived and died in Palestine, which from him was called the land of Canaan. See Canaanitb.
2. The simple name *' Canaan" Is sometimes em- ployed for the country itself — more generally styled " the land of C." It b so in Zeph. ii, 5 ; and we also find " Language of C." (Isa. xix, 18) ; *• Wars of C." (Jodg. iu, 1); "Inhabitants of C." (Exod. xv, 15); »* King of C- (Judg. iv, 2, 28, 24; v, 19); "Daugh- ters of C." (Gen. xxviii, 1, 6, 8 ; xxxvi, 2) ; " King- doms of C." (Psa. cxxxv, 11). In addition to the above, the word occurs in several passages where it is concealed in the Auth. Vers, by being translated. These are, Isa. xxiii, 8, "traffickers," and xxiii, 11, "the merchant city;" Hos. xii, 2, "He is a mer- chant ;" Zeph. i, 11, " merchant-people."— Smith, Diet.
8. V. See COMMERCB.
Land of Canaan O^JS -jf^K, according to some, from its being low; see 2 Chron! xxviii, 19; Job xl, 12, among other passages in which the verb is used), a name denoting the country west of the Jordan and Dead Sea (Gen. xiii, 12 ; Dent xi, 80), and between those waters and the Mediterranean ; specially opposed to the "land of Gilead"— that is, the hii^h Uble-land on the east of the Jordan (Num. xxxii, 26, 82 ; xxxiii, 51 ; Josh, xxii, 82 ; see also Gen. xii, 5 ; xxiii, 2, 19 ; Txxi, 18; xxxiii, 18; xxxv, 6; xxxvii, 1; xlviii, 4,
7; xlix,80; Knm. xiii, 2, 17 ; xxxiii, 40, 51; Josh, xvi, 2; Judg. xxi, 12). True, the district to which the name of "low bmd" is thus applied contained many very elevated spots: Shechem (Gen. xxxiii, 18X Hebroo (xxiii, 19), Bethel (xxxv, 6), Bethlehem (xlviii, 7), Shfloh (Josh, xxi, 2; Judg. xxi, 12)| which are all stated to be in the "land of Canaan." But, high as the level of much of the country west of the Jordan undoubtedly is, there are several things which must always have prevented it from leaving a mariced impression of general elevation. These are,' (1), that remarkable, wide, maritime plain over which the eye ranges for miles from the central hills, a fea* ture of the country which cannot be overlooked by the most casual observer, and which impresses itself most indelibly on the recollection ; (2), the still deeper and more remarkable and impressive hollow of die Jor- dan valley, a view into which may be commanded fh>m almost any of the heights of Central Palestine ; and, (3), there is the almost constant presence of the long high line of the mountains east of the Jordan, which, from their distance, have the effect more of an enormous cliff than of a mountain range — looking down on the more broken and isolated hills Of Canaan, and furnishing a constant standard of height before which every tihing is dwarfed. These considerationa are based upon the supposition that the name was de- rived from the natural features of the country. But this is not countenanced by Scripture. Canaan was the son of Ham. He and his whole family colonized Western Syria, and while the whole region took his name, difiterent sections of it were called after his sons (Gen. X, 15-20). Aram was a son of Shem, and his descendants colonized the country of Aram (Gen. x, 21-81). On the other hand, Aram cannot, at least ab- solutely, be termed a "highland region." It com- prised the vast plains along the banks of the Euphrates, and westward to the Orontes and Anti-Libanus. Ca- naan, on the whole, however, is rather a hilly country, with strips of plain along the coast In one passage it is distinguished from the low valley of the Jordan (Gren. xiii, 12). In short, the terms Aram and Ci^ naan, if bestowed with any reference to the compara- tive elevation of the respective countries, have a mere- ly relative significance ; the latter lying nearer the sea-coast, while the former— especially that part of it where the Hebrew patriarchs originated — u situated toward the interior bead-waters of the great river £a- phrates. See Aram.