Were the people of Sodom and Gomorrah Canaanites?

Answer 1

Sodom and Gommorrah are cities that appear to be placed in the desert on the eastern side of the Jordan River. If the cities really existed, their inhabitants would not have been Canaanites, as the Canaanites lived on the rich coastal area of Palestine.

Genesis 13:10-12: "And Lot lifted up his eyes, and beheld all the plain of Jordan, that it was well watered every where, before the LORD destroyed Sodom and Gomorrah, even as the garden of the LORD, like the land of Egypt, as thou comest unto Zoar. Then Lot chose him all the plain of Jordan; and Lot journeyed east: and they separated themselves the one from the other. Abram dwelled in the land of Canaan, and Lot dwelled in the cities of the plain, and pitched his tent toward Sodom. "

Details available regarding the nationality of the people of Sodom and Gomorrah indicates they were indeed Canaanites:

Genesis 10:19-2019And the border of the Canaanites was from Sidon, as thou comest to Gerar, unto Gaza; as thou goest, unto Sodom, and Gomorrah, and Admah, and Zeboim, even unto Lasha.

20These are the sons of Ham, after their families, after their tongues, in their countries, and in their nations.

Further, in relation to The Bible record it is worth noting that the land which the Israeilites were to inherit was referred to in terms of the major Canaanite tribes which inhabited it:

Exodus 3:1717And I have said, I will bring you up out of the affliction of Egypt unto the land of the Canaanites, and the Hittites, and the Amorites, and the Perizzites, and the Hivites, and the Jebusites, unto a land flowing with milk and honey.

It needs to be understood that it is likely that the entire land known as Canaan was inhabited by one Canaanite tribe or another. Canaan, the son of Ham, son of Noah, is recorded as having eleven sons and an unknown number of daughters. All of the particular tribes or nations mentioned above were Canaanites. So, even though it is certainly true that there is a reference to the fact that 'the Canaanites' dwelt in the plain (a reference to the coastal plain) it is also true that the tribes who had a different name were themselves also Canaanites.

The verses below give the details of the different Canaanite tribes descended from Canaan, son of Ham:

Genesis 10:15-1815And Canaan begat Sidon his first born, and Heth,

16And the Jebusite, and the Amorite, and the Girgasite,

17And the Hivite, and the Arkite, and the Sinite,

18And the Arvadite, and the Zemarite, and the Hamathite: and afterward were the families of the Canaanites spread abroad.

What appears likely therefore, in the light of the clear statement from Genesis 10:19-20 was that Sodom and Gomorrah, together with the other 'cities of the plain' were part of the easternmost extent of the Canaanite territory at that time in history.

It is also relevant to note that the location of a particular group of people outside of the actual 'land of Canaan' bounded by the Jordan River in the East and the Mediterranean Sea in the West, has no relevance whatsoever to the ethnicity of the people here discussed. The term "Canaanite" in Biblical usage, refers not to 'people who dwelt in Canaan' but to people who were descendants of the man Canaan, as mentioned above. Otherwise, the Israelites, would themselves have been Canaanites once they entered the land, a proposition which is indeed absurd. Thus references to where Abram and where Lot dwelt and the location of Sodom and Gomorrah have no bearing whatsoever on the ethnicity of the persons contained in those cities. Similarly, many people who dwell in Quebec are of French extraction ethnically, even though they live in Canada, in mainland North America. Their location thus does not determine their ethnicity either.

Answer 2

They could not have been Jewish as there were no Jews, yet. The Jewish people are a nation descended from Abraham, through Jacob. At the time of the destruction of Sodom and Amora, Jacob had not yet been born. It is obvious that the following answer was posted by a Jew hater: "Most were since According to the Old Testament Gomorrah (Arabic: عمورة Amūrah, Hebrew: עֲמוֹרָה, Modern Amora Tiberian Ġmôrāh / Ămôrāh, Greek όμορρα) were two cities in the Bible which were destroyed by God. It sureley seems like the city was divided into two cities. one Jewish the other one Egyptians ancient Egyptians were a mixed race, being neither black nor white as per current terminology.

Reference resource:en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ancient_Egypt_and_race - 219k

For the sins of their inhabitants Sodom, Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim were destroyed by "brimstone and fire from the Lord out of heaven" (Genesis 19:24-25). In Christianity and Islam, their names have become synonymous with impenitent sin, and their fall with a proverbial manifestation of God's wrath (Jude 1:7, Qur'an [1])."

Sodom and Gomorrah have been used as metaphors for vice and sexual deviation. The story has therefore given rise to words in several languages, including the English word "sodomy", a term used today predominantly in law (derived from traditional Christian usage) to describe non-vaginal intercourse, as well as bestiality

Answer 3

The modern consensus among scholars is that the Israelites were Canaanites who peacefully left areas under direct control of the coastal cities and migrated inland to the mountainous hinterland just before 1200 BCE. This seems to have been a time of economic decline throughout the eastern Mediterranean, and it is believed that subsistence farming in the hinterland offerred better prospects than producing farm produce in the richer farmlands of the coast and valleys at a time when the townspeople could no longer afford to purchase that produce.

Thus, the Israelites really were Canaanites, but not all Canaanites were Israelites. The legend of the Exodus arose much later, when the Hebrew people began to develop epic stories about their glorious past.