"After examining the DNA of 93 bodies recovered from archaeological sites around the southern Levant, the land of Canaan in the Bible, researchers have concluded that modern populations of the region are descendants of the ancient Canaanites. Most modern Jewish groups and the Arabic-speaking groups from the region show at least half of their ancestry as Canaanite."

The ethnic groups either still living where Canaan once dominated, or from that area prior to moving elsewhere, are largely descended from the Canaanites. Canaanite relief in basat

Canaanite relief in basat depicting a lion and a lioness at play, 14th century BC, from Beit She’an, Israel Museum, Jerusalem (Wikimedia commons)

Canaanite culture was dominant in the Southern Levant during the Bronze Age (3,500-1,200 B.C.E.) As Iron Age I began, the Canaanite city-states faded. The Israelites self-identified as a separate group. As Volkmar Fritz speculates in Israelites and Canaanites, the Israelites may have formed distinct living arrangements, establishing small villages on peripheral land not previously settled and living mostly in four-room houses. Ultimately, the Israelites formed the states of Israel and Judah, while other biblical states, Ammon, Moab, Aram-Damascus, and Phoenician city-states, emerged. Today, the region consists of Israel, Lebanon, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and southwest Syria.

The study in Cell not only establishes that the ancient Israelites were descended from the Canaanites, but also establishes that the Canaanite people across the separate city-states of the southern Levant, and over a period of 1,500 years, were a genetically cohesive people.

This post originally appeared in Bible History Daily in June, 2020. Read more about DNA in Bible History Daily:

6,500-Year-Old DNA Points to Ancient Migration

What Happened to the Canaanites?

DNA Suggests Early Jewish Links with Africa

Ashkenazi Jewish Ancestry Confirmed European by mtDNA Tests

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Learn More 25 Responses

Keith says:
May 16, 2023 at 12:31 pm

I’m coming late to this, but the article misses some important points.

Beth Shean was always a mixed area and not entirely Israelite. Around 130 BC the Israelite Hasmonean king John Hyracanus conquered the Edomites (descendants of Esau) and gave them the option of exile, death or joining Israel. They chose the latter.

The Edomites merged into Israel, many becoming Pharisees (forming modern Judaism) under the sponsorship of Herod (also Edomite). The Edomites had freely bred with the Canaanites for centuries. At this point Israel stopped being entirely Israelite and became Jewish (from Judea, the place where all this was happening).

When you consider the Khazar conversion to Judaism in the early second millennium along with the Edomite influx, the hard part is determining who of the current Jewish population is actually Israelite. While there are some Israelites still remaining in Judaism, it is wrong to say all Jews are Israelites (tribally, not politically).
Reply
Lisa Andrea says:
July 14, 2022 at 10:44 am

Where does the study find Arabs linked to Canaanites? Canaanites were not even Arabs nor is Arabic a Canaanite language.
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Charles Green says:
January 2, 2022 at 5:05 pm

This is fake science and not even the real conclusion made by the cited study of which the authors have conflicts of interest and ulterior motives. Modern-day Jews don’t descend from Canaanites and neither do “Arabs” in general. The only people who do descend from Canaanites are the Palestinians and Lebanese, including the Bedouins and Samaritans among them.

The study that the article is referencing doesn’t even conclude what the article claims despite the fact that the research study was done with a deceptive motive to claim that jews come from Palestine which they don’t. Here’s the actual conclusion of the study: “Migration from the Zagros and/or Caucasus to the Levant between 2500–1000 BCE” and “People related to these individuals contributed to all present-day Levantine populations”.

Essentially the study intentionally and carelessly conflates Zagros/Caucases with Levant in one single gene pool in attempt to muddy the waters and claim that jews may come from the Levant. The reason they chose to do this is because they know that jews (Ashkenazis) originate from the Zagros/Caucus population, not the Levantine/Palestine population.
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    Joe Smith says:
    January 3, 2022 at 10:37 am

    I’m curious, Charles Green, why you limit your focus to the Ashkenazi Jews? It’s consistent with this study, and our understanding of the history, that the Sephardic Jews are descended from denizens of the Levant (as are the Lebanese, Palestinians, Jordanians, and others). It is well-known and widely accepted that Ashkenazi Jews are of “more” European descent (exactly how much is unclear).

    You seem dedicated to shooting down a strawman, not refuting this study, or this Biblical Archaeology Review post explaining the study.
    Reply
    Lisa Andrea says:
    July 14, 2022 at 10:41 am

    Israelites were Canaanites. Hebrew is a Canaanite language. Jews are the only living link to Canaanites.
    Reply
        Sandra Hass says:
        November 19, 2022 at 6:50 am

        Canaanites are descendants of Canaan, son of Ham, son of Noah, descended from Adam through Seth, not Cain. The descendants of Cain are recorded in Genesis 4:17-24. They did not survive the flood. Noah’s descendants are recorded in Genesis 10 – 11. The Semitic peoples are descendants of Shem, the eldest of Noah’s three sons. Shem’s descendants are recorded in Genesis 11:10-32, as far as Abram.
        Reply
        Sam says:
        August 19, 2023 at 7:09 am

        The DNA study disproves your claim.
        Reply
Alois says:
July 12, 2021 at 2:58 pm

So the semitic peoples are Caananites, descendants of Cain. Interesting.
Reply
    David B. says:
    June 26, 2022 at 9:14 am

    Cain’s progeny would have been wiped out by the Biblical flood. Unless there is some piece of information that has not been revealed.
    Reply
Abigail says:
July 12, 2021 at 2:57 pm

A detailed look at thousands of genomes finds that Ashkenazim—who make up roughly 80% of the world’s Jews, including 90% of those in America and half of those in Israel—ultimately came not from the Middle East, but from Western Europe, perhaps Italy.
Ashkenazi are canaanites. 13th tribe.

Jewish descent is from the mother.
By this criteria, which is based on halacha or Jewish religious laws, most Ashkenazi Jews are from Europe

The majority of Ashkenazi Jews are descended from prehistoric European women, according to study published October 8 in Nature Communications. While the Jewish religion began in the Near East, and the Ashkenazi Jews were believed to have origins in the early indigenous tribes of this region, new evidence from mitochondrial DNA, which is passed on exclusively from mother to child, suggests that female ancestors of most modern Ashkenazi Jews converted to Judaism in the north Mediterranean around 2,000 years ago and later in west and central Europe.

The origins of Ashkenazi Jews remain highly controversial. Like Judaism, mitochondrial DNA is passed along the maternal line. Its variation in the Ashkenazim is highly distinctive, with four major and numerous minor founders. However, due to their rarity in the general population, these founders have been difficult to trace to a source. Here we show that all four major founders, ~40% of Ashkenazi mtDNA variation, have ancestry in prehistoric Europe, rather than the Near East or Caucasus.
Reply
    LisacAndrea says:
    July 14, 2022 at 10:46 am

    Wrong. DNA research published in the leading genetics journal in the world found genetic linkage among European and Middle Eastern Jews, with their origins in the ME. Now even you know.
    Reply
        rocco barbella says:
        March 31, 2023 at 11:12 am

        You’re wrong. The Jews of Europe are indigenous to Europe. They are not from the Levant. Individual DNA tests prove this.
        Reply
        Richard says:
        September 5, 2023 at 2:35 am

        Partially wrong. Ashkenazi’s are partially European (on the mtDNA), the other part Jewish.
        Reply
    Sanna says:
    May 17, 2023 at 1:16 am

    Judaism is passed down through matrilineal descent but that doesn’t mean Jewish converts aren’t Jewish. Jewish conversions are very rare and discouraged, since Judaism is a ethnoreligion which discourages proselytizing. Israelite men occasionally intermarried with European women who converted to Judaism, which is why Ashkenazim have some southern European genetic admixture. No ethnic group is 100% genetically pure, so intermarriage doesn’t delegitmize Jewish indegenity.
    Reply
    Richard says:
    September 5, 2023 at 2:38 am

    Israelite ancestry was passed patrilinealy ie in Joseph’s case, the Talmud is (ironically) wrong on this.
    Reply
Helen A. says:
July 12, 2021 at 2:32 pm

They are Caananites, descendants of Cain. Interesting. Revelation 2:9 and 3:9 "