Watchman's Teaching Letter #26 June 2000
This is my twenty-sixth monthly teaching letter, and as I said last month, it is my striving goal to make each succeeding letter to transcend, eclipse and outshine the ones preceding it. It is a very rigorous, difficult and demanding goal to try to meet each month. As you will notice, with lessons #25 and #26, I have chosen to use a new format. In order to go to this new format with a smaller font size, it was necessary for me to do quite a bit of experimenting to find a font that was easy to read under these new circumstances. By using this new format, I can now send two letters in one mailing for 33 cents. I will be sending just as many teaching letters as in the past except I will be sending them bimonthly (that is every second month). By this new procedure, I will be able to cut my expenses almost in half while still bringing the same amount of information. I had more problems preparing lesson #25 than any lesson I have labored with yet. I probably rewrote it at least six times before I was satisfied.
Before I get started with lesson #26, I would like to clear up some issues in my past lessons. With all the research that goes into preparing these lessons, it is inevitable that somewhere along the line one will run into new information which will conflict with what was introduced before. In the Watchman’s Teaching Letter #11, dated 3-99, page 4, I used the reference book Insight On The Scriptures, volume 2, pages 988-991 to prove that Hiram the artificer of Tyre was a half-breed. I have evidence now that this Hiram was a full blooded Israelite. I will be discussing this further in this letter.
In the Watchman’s Teaching Letter #20, dated 12-99, page 4, I showed evidence that the “Jews” killed Zechariah, the son of Jehoiada (II Chronicles 24:20-21) to fulfill Matthew 23:35. This was not totally in error, for the “Jews” killed two people by the name of Zechariah, this one and Zechariah, the father of John the Baptist. I will have to write more about this in future lessons. In the Watchman’s Teaching Letter #23, dated 3-00, page 3, I stated that Esau had only three wives. Later I found that Esau had a fourth wife but had only daughters by her, and, thus, she was not counted in the genealogy, (Jasher 30:21-22).
THE DEMISE OF ESAU
If you will remember, in the last lesson I brought to light that a Tartar tribe had moved into the land of Canaan and appeared to be the tribe that the Canaanite sons of Ham mixed with, and, ultimately, were the people from whom Esau took wives. I documented much about a Mongolian people named Hurrians into whom Esau married. But, what does all of this have to do with Esau? It has everything to do with Esau! For if we do not know all about these basic happenings, we will not understand his complete story. We will be getting into the subject of the Hurrians in future lessons. I can categorically promise you, there are a lot more elements to these stories than the average Bible student realizes. The next phase of this matter is to understand the difference between the Canaanites of Tyre and the Israelites of Tyre. This is a topic which was vigorously pointed out to me only recently. As a matter of fact, if it hadn’t been pointed out to me, I may have never figured it out. This is a topic which even the best teachers in Israel Identity have missed. In all of my thousands of hours of studying Israel Identity, I have not encountered anyone who expounded on this subject to any great degree. I am grateful, with this lesson, to have someone who is helping me who has done some extensive research in this area.
THE CANAANITES OF TYRE vs. THE ISRAELITES OF TYRE
It is true we all have a lot to learn and we have to be careful to avoid arguments which seem apparently to be correct, but underneath the surface are actually invalid. This seems to be the case with the subject we are about to consider. Almost every reference book will point out that the cursed sons of Canaan moved into the coastal area of what is now Palestine which includes Tyre and Sidon, which they may have done. Scripture seems to suggest the Canaanites occupied much of the land before the Israelites moved in. Tyre may have been a base for island hopping for some of Shem’s descendants such as Asshur, as one of the possible ancient names for Tyre may have been Es-sur. Because this is a long topic, it may take some time to complete. If not in this lesson, then in another.
The subject of Tyre is not totally black or white, but probably lies somewhere in between, and all this depending on the time period concerned, and is somewhat confusing and bewildering to say the least. Hopefully as we continue along, a picture will develop which can clear up the whole question. We will be gathering information from our Bibles, both the KJV and the Septuagint (LXX), along with the works of Josephus. It will be necessary to weave in and out of these different references to comprehend the overall portrayal of this account.
The so-called authoritative professors of history would love to have us believe that somehow the great “Phoenician” mariners who found their way through the treacherous seas to Scandinavia in ancient times were Canaanites. It might be well to scrutinize as arduously as possible anything these “scholars” of renown profess.
One of the first Bible verses we might consider (according to Tracing Our White Ancestors by Haberman, page 69) would be Genesis 49:13:
“Zebulun shall dwell at the haven of the sea; and he shall be for an haven of ships; and his border shall be unto Zidon.”
The Wycliffe Bible commentary, page 46 comments thusly:
“Zebulun, Jacob’s sixth son by Leah, was to be situated in a place where commercial activity and prosperity would be possible. This may mean that territory along the seacoast was to be allotted to the tribe of Zebulun. Or, it may mean that prosperity would come to the descendants of Zebulun because of their proximity to the Phoenicians, who had unlimited access to the trade routes. Jacob mentions Sidon as being there. It is also possible that Jacob’s prediction was not fully carried out when the final division of the land was made.”
To understand this prophecy, it may be necessary to understand it was to be possibly both a short and long range forecast. I have a map of Canaan showing the allotment of land given to the various tribes. Zebulun is shown to be totally landlocked without a seaport. Later, during the time of David and Solomon, the borders seem to have changed somewhat. Whether or not Zebulun ever became part of Phoenicia and extended to Sidon seems questionable. From Genesis 49:1, it would seem to indicate this prophecy has something to do with a period called “the last days”, but the word “last” in this verse is Strong’s number 319 “’acharîyth” and may also be translated “future.” Reading “future” would make more sense, especially considering Judah’s sceptre in Genesis 49:10. From the Septuagint, Genesis 49:13 may literally read “Zebulun shall dwell on the coast, and he shall be by a haven of ships, and shall extend to Sidon.” According to the book Strange Parallel by Helene Koppejan, Holland is claimed to be of Zebulun. If this is true, as a future prophecy, Holland having Rotterdam, Amsterdam and IJmuiden as seaports, would symbolically represent Phoenicia. No doubt, other countries can claim to be of Zebulun also for they also have the emblem of the ship. (Check page 52 of Symbols Of Our Celto-Saxon Heritage by W. H. Bennett.)
ISRAEL TO INHABIT TYRE AND SIDON
Joshua verses 11:8; 13:4; 13:6 and 19:28-29 all make it clear that Israel was very active in, and would inhabit the land of Sidon encompassing Tyre, and points north. Probably the Tyre mentioned in Joshua 19:29 is Palaeotyre. Tyre (or Palaeotyre) is not mentioned in Judges 1:31, which lists cities in Asher’s territory where Canaanites remained. It is also clear from Judges 3:3 and 10:6 that Israelites were living among the Canaanites not removed from the land of Sidon. Let’s consider the scriptures mentioned here:
Joshua 11:8: “And Yahweh delivered them (northern Canaanites) into the hand of Israel, who smote them, and chased them into great Zidon, and into Misrephothmaim (lime burning or salt pits) and to the valley of Mizpeh eastward; and they smote them, until they left them none remaining.”
Joshua 13:4: “From the south, all the land of the Canaanites, and Mearah that is beside the Sidonians, unto Aphek, to the borders of the Amorites.”
Joshua 13:6: “All the inhabitants of the hill country from Lebanon unto Misrephothmaim, and all the Sidonians, them will I drive out from before the children of Israel: only divide thou it by lot unto the Israelites for an inheritance, as I have commanded thee.”
Joshua 19:28-29: “And Hebron, and Rehob, and Hammon, and Kanah, even unto great Zidon; And then the coast turneth to Ramah, and to the strong city Tyre; and the coast turneth to Hosah; and the outgoings thereof are at the sea from the coast to Achzib.”
Judges 3:3: (Israel lived with) “Namely, five lords of the Philistines and all the Canaanites, and the Sidonians, and the Hivites that dwelt in mount Lebanon from mount Baalhermon unto the entering in of Hamath.”
Judges 10:6: (ditto) “And the children of Israel did evil again in the sight of Yahweh, and served Baalim, and Ashtaroth, and the gods of Syria, and the gods of Zidon, and the gods of Moab, and the gods of the children of Ammon, and the gods of the Philistines, and forsook Yahweh, and served not him.”
THERE WERE TWO CITIES OF TYRE
The World Book Encyclopedia says in part, volume 18, page 455: “... Part of the city stood on the mainland and part on an island across a narrow channel ...”
Insight On The Scriptures, volume 2, page 1136, says in part: “Alexander in his rage had his army scrape up the ruins of the mainland city and threw it into the sea, thus building a causeway out to the island city ...”
Josephus, in Antiquities 8:3:1 states that Tyre, (and he must mean the island city), was built 240 years before Solomon had started the Temple in Jerusalem. In “Against Apion” 1:18 he states that Carthage was built almost 144 years after the Temple was begun.
Josephus, Antiquities 8:3:1: “Solomon began to build the temple in the fourth year of his reign, on the second month, which the Macedonians call Artemisius, and the Hebrews Jur; five hundred and ninety-two years after the exodus out of Egypt, but one thousand and twenty years from Abraham’s coming out of Mesopotamia into Canaan; and after the Deluge one thousand four hundred and forty years; and from Adam, the first [white] man who was created, until Solomon built the temple, there had passed in all three thousand one hundred and two years. Now that on which the temple began to be built, was already the eleventh year of the reign of Hiram; but from the building of Tyre to the building of the temple, there had passed two hundred and forty years.”
Josephus, Against Apion 1:18: “So the whole time from the reign of Hirom till the building of Carthage, amounts to the sum of one hundred and fifty-five years and eight months. Since then the temple was built at Jerusalem in the twelfth year of the reign of Hirom, there were from the building of the temple until the building of Carthage, one hundred forty-three years and eight months.”
If all of this is true, the island city of Tyre was probably built by Israelites while the mainland city of Tyre may have been built many years before. Just when the mainland city of Tyre was built and by whom is not clear at this time. It should be noted, though, that the city of Sidon had a Canaanite name of one of Canaan’s sons (Sidon), Genesis 10:15. This may not have much bearing upon the racial make-up of the city during the Phoenician period. Yes, we must have a general comprehension of all these things in order to understand Esau.
DID THE CANAANITES, THEN, BUILD CARTHAGE?
If we build on the premise that the city of Tyre (or the Phoenicians) were Canaanites, essentially we are saying the Canaanites founded Carthage. Sad, but true, this is exactly what many leading historians advance. You can begin to see it is highly unlikely the Canaanites ever had anything to do with the building of Carthage. They are much more apt to be parasites and leeches rather than colonizers and builders. Have they built one single prominent city, other than their ghettoes, anywhere in the world since the fall of Jerusalem in 70 A.D.?
THE YEAR TYRE WAS BUILT
We can figure the approximate time the city of Tyre was built. Since mainland Tyre had already been a “strong city” (Joshua 19:29), this calculation is most likely for the island city. In Josephus, “Whiston’s Dissertation” (William Whiston being a translator of Josephus), there is a chart which stipulates the Temple is given a date of 1052 B.C. for being built. According to Josephus 8:3:1, the Temple was built 240 years after the founding of Tyre. If we add 240 years to this figure we arrive at a date of 1292. Roughly figuring then, the foundation of Tyre must have been sometime during the period of the Judges. This suggests very strongly that Tyre was built by Israelites rather than Canaanites, for the Israelites were quite well established in Canaan by this time.
In 2 Samuel 24:2-7 David sends Joab to number the children of Israel, and Tyre and Sidon (known as Phoenicia) are among the places he visited.
“2 For the king said to Joab the captain of the host, which was with him, Go now through all the tribes of Israel, from Dan even to Beersheba, and number ye the people, that I may know the number of the people. 3 And Joab said unto the king, Now Yahweh thy singular-Elohim add unto the people, how many soever they be, an hundredfold, and that the eyes of my master the king may see it: but why doth my master the king delight in this thing? 4 Notwithstanding the king’s word prevailed against Joab, and against the captains of the host. And Joab and the captains of the host went out from the presence of the king, to number the people of Israel. 5 And they passed over the Jordan and pitched in Aroer, on the right side of the city that lieth in the midst of the river of Gad, and toward Jazer: 6 Then they came to Gilead, and to the land of Tahtimhodshi; and they came to Danjaan, and about to Zidon. 7 And came to the strong hold of Tyre, and to all the cities of the Hivites, and of the Canaanites: and they went out to the south of Judah, even to Beersheba.”
We can know from all of this, the king wanted to know how many Israelites there were in Sidon and Tyre (or Phoenicians as they were called). Whether or not this census took in both the mainland city of Tyre and the island city as well is not indicated. Speaking of censuses, we are now in the process in the United States of taking a census. I wonder if they will include all the Canaanites living among us?!?! When David ordered this census, he surely only counted Israelites as Tyre and Sidon are mentioned separately from the Hivites and Canaanites. The main point here is to show there were Israelites to be counted both at Sidon and Tyre. Asher had inherited mainland Tyre, called the “stronghold city”, in this passage and in Joshua 19:29. Being that censuses, over the years, were generally used for taxation purposes and to conscript soldiers for war, they have never been very popular with the people.
Not only is it recorded in Judges 18:7-29 concerning the Danite conquest of Laish to found the city of Dan, but Israel’s strong presence in the land of Sidon is evident in many other places in the Bible. In 1 Kings 17:9 Yahweh sends Elijah to Zarephath, which is on the coast of Sidon. This further confirms Israel’s presence in the land of Phoenicia where Tyre and Sidon were located. This verse says: “Arise, get thee to Zarephath, which belongeth to Zidon, and dwell there: behold, I have commanded a widow woman there to sustain thee.”
The Adam Clarke’s Commentary on the Bible, Abridged By Ralph Earle, page 351, has this to say about this verse:
“Get thee to Zarephath. This was a town between Tyre and Sidon, but nearer to the latter, and is therefore called in the text Zarephath, which belongeth to Sidon; or, as the Vulgate and other versions express it, ‘Sarepta of the Sidonians.’ Serepta is the name by which it goes in the New Testament.”
Are we to believe that this Phoenician widow woman to whom Elijah was sent was a Canaanite?
ISRAEL’S PRESENCE IN THE LAND
In 1 Kings 15:16-22 we read of king Asa of Judah declaring war with Baasha, king of Israel. There had always been a continual spirit of hostility kept between the southern and northern kingdoms. To fight a war, Asa removed the treasures from the House of Yahweh and hired the king of Syria (Aram) to ally himself with him against Israel. Together they “... smote Ijon, Dan, and /strong style=;Abel-beth-maachah ...”, among other Israelite areas. Dan lay east of Tyre, and equally as far north. This places Ijon several miles north of Dan. Abel-beth-maachah, which Josephus calls Abelmain (Antiquities 8:12:4) is speculated by Whiston and others to be the same as Abila, or Abellane, the Abilene of Luke 3:1. Abilene is nearly 40 miles north of Dan, and nearly 15 miles northwest of Damascus. The footnote to Josephus, Antiquities 8:12:4 reads as follows:
“This Abelmain, or Abellane, is supposed to be the same with Abel, or Abila, whence came Abilene. This may be the city denominated from Abel the righteous, there buried; concerning the shedding of whose blood within the compass of the land of Israel, I understand our Saviour’s words, about the fatal war and overthrow of Judah by Titus and his Roman army, (Matt. 23:35-36; Luke 11:51.)”
From all of this, the tribe of Dan right next door to the area of Phoenicia, may have had much interrelationship with Tyre and Sidon. Judges 5:17 says:
“Gilead abode beyond Jordan: and why did Dan remain in ships? Asher continued on the sea shore, and abode in his breaches.”
The Jamieson, Fausett & Brown Commentary On The Whole Bible, page 188 describes this verse quite well: “Gilead abode beyond Jordan — i.e., both Gad and the eastern half of Manasseh chose to dwell at ease in their Havoth-jair, or villages of tents, while Dan and Asher, both maritime tribes, continued with their s sstrong /spantyle=/spanfont-family: hips and in their ‘breaches’ (havens).” I guess, if you wanted to bring this picture up-to-date, you might see Gad and Manasseh in their motor homes and house trailers, and Dan and Asher at the lake in their motorboats. The main thing to notice here is that Dan and Asher would have to have used Tyre and Sidon as harbors for their ships for these were about the only port facilities along that coast, and they would, as the Greeks named them, have been known as Phoenicians.
If one will read Joshua 19:24-31, one can only be impressed with the strong presence of Israel in the land of Canaan. In these verses it is spelled out as to the area of land which Asher had drawn by lot to be his possession. It included a strip along the Mediterranean Sea from Mt. Carmel north to Tyre and beyond about 10 to 15 miles in width. In this fertile area, Asher became famous in the olive business. There was one major problem with Asher, he never drove the Canaanites out of his area. We can read about this in Judges 1:31-32:
“31 Neither did Asher drive out the inhabitants of Accho, nor the inhabitants of Zidon, nor of Ahlab, nor of Achzib, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Helbah, nor of Aphik, nor of Rehob: 32 But the Asherites dwelt among the Canaanites, the inhabitants of the land: for they did not drive them out.”
For this reason, historians and many so-called Bible authorities are still getting the Phoenician Asherites confused with the Canaanites. One such so-called authority is L. A. Waddell. For further insight concerning the confusion of Asherites being confused with Canaanites, I will quote from The Makers Of Civilization by L. A. Wadell, pages 16-17. (Incidentally, Waddell has a lot of mixed-up information in his writings, so we have to be careful when quoting from his writings. Notice how Waddell incorrectly tries to say the Phoenicians were Canaanites. I will underline it):
“‘Phœnicians’ & Their Civilization, Language, Writing & Religion Of Sumerian Or Aryan Origin: With the ‘Phœnicians’ we reach a paradox. According to the current modern opinion the ‘Phœnicians’ are universally believed to be Semites, that is ‘Children of Shem’, Shem being the traditional ancestor of the Hebrews, though incongruously made by them the uterine brother of Japhet the Aryan, in their impossible scheme of the origin of the different races of mankind from one immediate common father, entailed by their having killed off all other human beings by their [universal] Flood Myth. And this supposed Shemite racial origin of the Phœnician is nevertheless believed, notwithstanding the stultifying fact that the real Semites, the Hebrews, who ought to know best who were Semites and who were not, definitely state in their Old Testament that the Phœnicians, therein called ‘Canaan-Sidon’, were not ‘the Children of Shem’ at all, but were ‘The Children of Ham’, that is of Egypt, the old name for which was Ham or Kham; and which land we shall see in the present work was the chief settlement of the Early Phœnicians on their advent to the Mediterranean from the Persian Gulf.
“Despite this positive testimony of the Semites themselves against the Phœnicians being Semites, modern writers nevertheless arbitrarily call them such, and point to the inscriptions of the later Phœnicians of Phœnicia and Carthage from about the ninth century B.C. onwards as being written in a Semitic dialect, and inscribed in the reversed or retrograde direction, from right to left, with reversed letters, as adopted by Semitic scribes.”
This is a very good example of how the Phoenicians are incorrectly identified as Canaanites. After making a blunder of this proportion, we need to examine every comment which Waddell has to offer. With this particular posture, Waddell shows many of his materials cannot be trusted. We will have to sort out the correct things he has to offer and throw the rest out the window.
WAS HIRAM, ARTIFICER OF TYRE, PART CANAANITE?
Hiram, the artificer of 1 Kings 7:13-14, is described therein as having a mother of the tribe of Naphtali, and a father who was “A man of Tyre”:
“13 And king Solomon sent and fetched Hiram out of Tyre. 14 He was a widow’s son of the tribe of Naphtali, and his father was a man of Tyre, a worker in brass: and he was filled with wisdom, and understanding, and cunning to work all works in brass. And he came to king Solomon, and wrought all his work.”
Josephus, Antiquities 8:3:4 says of Hiram’s father’s side of his house: “Now Solomon sent for an artificer out of Tyre, whose name was Hiram: he was by birth of the tribe of Naphtali, on the mother’s side, (for she was of that tribe;) but his father was Ur, of the stock of the Israelites.”
You will notice that it doesn’t give Hiram’s father’s tribe, but it definitely does state he was pure Israelite. Many writers will state he was half-Israelite implying he was half something else, usually Canaanite. Different Hirams! The King Hiram of 1 Kings 5:12 and “Huram” in 2 chronicles is simply not the same person as Hiram the artificer (1 Kings 7:13, 7:40, 7:45 & 2 Chronicles 2:7, “Huram” again in 2 Chronicles 4:11, 4:16).
MORE BAD INFORMATION CONCERNING THE PHOENICIANS
For documentation on all of this, I am going to quote the words of the “Jews” themselves from The History Of The Jews by Heinrich Graetz, volume 1, pages 2-3. You will notice very early in this quotation that Graetz makes the claim that the Phoenicians were Canaanites which seems utterly absurd. Much of what Graetz says about the descendants of Canaan are true. Canaan did settle in this area illegally before the Israelites had time to move in and claim their rightful inheritance. We really need to separate the misinformation which Graetz is presenting from the actual truth. Then, too, are we to believe the Canaanites introduced writing and the alphabet to the world? This, again, is absurd. As you read this, take all of these things into consideration. Another thing which should be questioned; are the “Jews” deliberately trying to confuse this important part of Israel’s history?:
“Another group of inhabitants which had settled in the land between the Mediterranean and the Jordan was that of the Canaanites, whom the Greeks called Phoenicians. These Phoenicians appear to have pursued the same employment in their new country as they had followed on the banks of the Red Sea or the Persian Gulf. Their chief pursuits were navigation and commerce. The position which they had selected was eminently favourable to their daring expeditions. The great ocean, forming a strait at the Pillars of Hercules, and separating Europe from Africa, as the Mediterranean Sea, has here its extreme limit. At the foot of the snow-topped Lebanon and its spurs, commodious inlets formed natural harbours that required but little improvement at the hand of man. On this seaboard the Canaanites built the town of Sidon, situated on a prominent crag which overhangs the sea. They afterwards built, on a small rocky island, the port of Tyre (Tor, which subsequently became celebrated); they also built Aradus to the north of Sidon, and Akko (Acre) to the south of Tyre. The neighbouring forest of the Lebanon and the Anti-Lebanon supplied them with lofty cedars and strong cypresses for ships. The Canaanites, who became the first mercantile nation in the world, owed much of their success to the advantage of finding on their coast various species of the murex (Tolaat shani), from the fluid of which was obtained a most brilliant and widely celebrated purple dye. The beautiful white sand of the river Belus, near Acre, supplied fine glass, an article which was likewise in much request in the Old World. The wealth of the country lay in the sands of the sea-shore. The Canaanites, on account of their extensive trade, required and introduced at an early period a convenient form of writing, and their alphabet, the Phœnician, became the model for the alphabets of ancient and modern nations. In a word, the narrow belt of land between the Mediterranean and Mount Lebanon, with its spurs, became one of the most important points on the face of the globe. Through the peaceful pursuits of commerce the Canaanites were brought into contact with remote nations, who were gradually aroused from a state of inactivity. They became subdivided into the small nationalities of Amorites, Hittites, Hivites, and Perizzites. The Jebusites, who inhabited this district ... on the tract of land which afterwards became the site for the city of Jerusalem.”
If you have followed this discussion very closely, you may be one of the very few who understand the Phoenicians were not Canaanites. This is a subject that needs to be addressed much more than what I have been able to do here. Meanwhile we should resolve any QUESTIONS we might have in our minds and find the right answers. I will try to answer some of the following questions in future lessons:
At what time did the Israelite-Phoenicians occupy Tyre and Sidon? And what other peoples may have occupied the area known as Phoenicia, and when?
· If the Asherite-Phoenicians migrated away from this area, where did they migrate to? The Phoenicians were colonizers. Where all did they set up colonies?
· How many Israel tribes made up the group known as Phoenicia, and who were they?
· Evidently, in time, the Canaanites did reoccupy the Phoenician territory of Palestine, (Mark 7:26). When and how did this all happen?
· Did the Canaanites make their way to the colonies which the Phoenicians had settled? (like there are Canaanites allegedly reported to be in southern Ireland today?)
· What was the relationship between the Israelites and the Canaanites during the time the Canaanites lived among the Israelites in the area known as Phoenicia? Were they parasites then as they are today?
· Why would Yahweh tell Elijah that Zarephath belonged “to Zidon” (1 Kings 17:9) when He had given that land to Israel?
· The name Hiram means “whiteness” or “noble” (#2361 & #2438). Does this sound like a Canaanite name?
· Why would Yahweh allow a Canaanite to help build HIS Temple?
· I Kings 5:1-2 mentions Hiram was “a lover of David.” Could a family of Canaanites have such an enduring affection for David, who fought so valiantly for the causes of Israel?
· In 2 Samuel 5:11 it is recorded that Hiram, king of Tyre, sent messengers, cedar trees, carpenters, and masons to build David a house. Would David have accepted such a gift from a Canaanite?
· In 1 Kings 5:7 it appears that Hiram had great respect for Yahweh. Is this the type of behavior one would expect from a Canaanite?
· I Kings 9:27 mentions a joint naval venture between Solomon and Hiram. The Israelites probably did use Canaanites as oarsmen (Ezekiel 27:8), but were the Canaanites of the same caliber of men as the Israelites? Were the great Tyrian (Phoenician) mariners Canaanites as some tout?
· It is further recorded in 1 Kings 9:10-14 that Solomon gave 20 run-down vacant cities (2 Chronicles 8:2 which explains they were later rebuilt), formally occupied by the Asherites, to Hiram. Where did all these missing Asherites go? And were Tyre and Sidon jumping-off points for some of Israel’s migrations?
· Why aren’t Dan and Zebulun mentioned in 1 Chronicles chapters 2 through 8 ? Had they already, for the most part, left the main body of Israelites?
· Were Canaanites among the Tyrian rowers (“toilers in ships”) the forebears of the Canaanites Teia scoffed at in the Book of Tephi, page 17?
In the next lesson, the subject will again be about the Phoenicians in general. There were some very interesting things happening 500 to 700 years before the Golden Age of Tyre which we need to know about, for it revolves around the very personal lives of our Patriarchs. Their living conditions were quite different than we might realize.
