In the Bible, the Israelites were descended from the Aramaeans, as it says in Deuteronomy 26, "Then you shall declare before the LORD your God: "My father was a wandering Aramean, and he went down into Egypt with a few people and lived there and became a great nation, powerful and numerous." The Aramaeans were the people in Assyria. Like Syrian/Assyrian, Hebrew is a Semitic language.
In comparison, the Israelites apparently were ethnically Canaanite. They were a Canaanite group, and so were the Phoenicians. This is my impression from reading some information. The Israelites, Phoenicians, and Canaanites spoke Canaanite, with the Hebrew language being a dialect of Canaanite. For instance, Michael Mills writes on Quora:
Strictly speaking, the name “Canaan” refers only to the coastal region of present-day Israel and Lebanon, the shores of which was the area where the murex sea-snail was found, from which the famous “Tyrian purple” was produced. The word “Canaan” actually means “purple”, and is the equivalent of the Greek “phoenix”, from which the name of the Phoenician people was derived. Thus, the words“ Canaanite” and “Phoenician” mean the same thing, and denote the same people.
However, the Israelites' religion strongly differed from the Phoenicians' in major ways. In particularly, the Israelites' religion emphasized El/Elohhim being "One", in contrast to the Canaanites' worship of many "gods", such as Baal and Moloch. There is an argument that the Israelites were actually Henotheists, believing that their God was the one true God, but that other lesser "gods" existed. These lesser gods could be their neighbors' gods or the "angels", whose names ended in "El", such as "Gabriel". Further, there is the theory that the One God in Judaism was actually composed of several beings, hence for instance "Elohim" referring to making Man in "our" image in the Creation story.
A second major difference was the Israelites' rejection of idolatry. One could make a theory that the bronze serpent in the desert and the cherubim on the ark were something like idols, because for instance the Israelites bowed to the serpent in the desert. But anyway, in general anti-idolatry was a major difference.
In AOE, the Assyrian Civilization generally doesn't use statues (none come to mind), whereas the Phoenician Civilization does. So this was a key reason why I chose the Assyrians for the Israelites' civilization when I made my Multiplayer Scenario, "Land of Canaan Map with Indigenous Powers" (http://aoe.heavengames.com/dl-php/showfile.php?fileid=2746).
Maybe compared to other groups in the 2nd millenium BC they are better designated as the Assyrians, whereas in the 1st Century AD after much Hellenistic influence they are better designated as the Phoenicians, since Phoenician architecture is much like the Greek one.
In comparison, the Israelites apparently were ethnically Canaanite. They were a Canaanite group, and so were the Phoenicians. This is my impression from reading some information. The Israelites, Phoenicians, and Canaanites spoke Canaanite, with the Hebrew language being a dialect of Canaanite. For instance, Michael Mills writes on Quora:
In Jewish literature, one of the names for the language in which the Hebrew Bible is composed is “sfat knaan”, which means literally “the lip of Canaan”. That shows that the Jews themselves saw their native language as being indigenous to the land where they lived, ie Canaan.
(https://www.quora.com/Were-the-Ancient-Israelites-Phoenician)
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Strictly speaking, the name “Canaan” refers only to the coastal region of present-day Israel and Lebanon, the shores of which was the area where the murex sea-snail was found, from which the famous “Tyrian purple” was produced. The word “Canaan” actually means “purple”, and is the equivalent of the Greek “phoenix”, from which the name of the Phoenician people was derived. Thus, the words“ Canaanite” and “Phoenician” mean the same thing, and denote the same people.
However, the Israelites' religion strongly differed from the Phoenicians' in major ways. In particularly, the Israelites' religion emphasized El/Elohhim being "One", in contrast to the Canaanites' worship of many "gods", such as Baal and Moloch. There is an argument that the Israelites were actually Henotheists, believing that their God was the one true God, but that other lesser "gods" existed. These lesser gods could be their neighbors' gods or the "angels", whose names ended in "El", such as "Gabriel". Further, there is the theory that the One God in Judaism was actually composed of several beings, hence for instance "Elohim" referring to making Man in "our" image in the Creation story.
A second major difference was the Israelites' rejection of idolatry. One could make a theory that the bronze serpent in the desert and the cherubim on the ark were something like idols, because for instance the Israelites bowed to the serpent in the desert. But anyway, in general anti-idolatry was a major difference.
In AOE, the Assyrian Civilization generally doesn't use statues (none come to mind), whereas the Phoenician Civilization does. So this was a key reason why I chose the Assyrians for the Israelites' civilization when I made my Multiplayer Scenario, "Land of Canaan Map with Indigenous Powers" (
Maybe compared to other groups in the 2nd millenium BC they are better designated as the Assyrians, whereas in the 1st Century AD after much Hellenistic influence they are better designated as the Phoenicians, since Phoenician architecture is much like the Greek one.
[This message has been edited by rakovsky (edited 09-26-2020 @ 02:40 PM).]