built by Helena in the place, where the marriage feast was held. It is a building of wrought stone, forty paces long, and twenty wide. The roof is supported by a row of columns. The building is yet entire, but used as a mosque: On the doors of the court are sculptured vases, or water pots, to represent those, which held the water, changed to wine. Lat. 32,49. CANA, was also a place in the tribe of Asher.

CANA, the name of a brook on the confines of Ephraim and Mannasseh.

CANAAN, Land of, the country so named from Canaan, the son of Ham. The land of Canaan lies between the Mediterranean Sea and the mountains of Arabia; on the south it is bounded by the wilderness of Paran, Idumea, and Egypt; on the west by the Mediterranean, called in Hebrew the great sea; to the north by the mountain of Libanus. Its length, from the city of Dan, (since called Cæsaria Cæsaria Philippi, or Paneadis, which stands at the foot of these mountains) to Beersheba, is about sixteen hundred furlongs, or 200 miles, and its breadth from the Mediterraan sea, to the eastern borders, is eighty miles. This country, which was first called Canaan, from Canaan the son of

Ham, whose posterity possessed it, was afterwards called Palestine, from the people, which the Hebrews call Philistines, and the Greeks and Romans, corruptly, Palestines, who inhabited the sea coast. It likewise had the name of the Land of Promise, from the promise God made Abraham of giving it to him; that of the Land of Israel, from the Israelites having made themselves masters of it; that of Judah, from the tribe of Judah, which was the most considerable of the twelve; and lastly the happiness it had of being sanctified by the presence, actions, miracles, and death of Jesus Christ, has given it the name of the Holy Land, which it retains to this day.

The first inhabitants of this land, therefore, were the Canaanites, who were descended from Canaan, and the eleven sons of that patriarch; here they multiplied exceedingly; trade and war were their first occupations, these gave rise to their riches, and the several colonies, scattered by them, over almost all the islands and maritime provinces of the Mediterranean. The measure of their idolatry and abominations was completed, when God delivered their country into the hands of the Israelites, under Joshua. As God had

commanded this people, who long before had been cursed by him, to be treated with the utmost rigor, Joshua extirpated great numbers of them, and obliged the rest to fly, some into Africa, some into Greece: Nay, there are some writers, who seem persuaded, that many of them went into Germany and Sclavonia, and that others came into America. But Calmet thinks they withdrew into Africa. In St. Athanasius' time the Africans still said they were descended - from the Canannites. It is agreed, that the Punic tongue was almost entirely the same with the Canaanitish, and Hebrew language.

The colonies, which Cadmus carried into Thebes, in Boeotia, and his brother Cylix into Cilicia, came from the stock of Canaan. The isles of Sicily, Sardinia, Malta, Cyprus, Corfu, Majorca, and Minorca, Gades, and Ebusics, are thought to have been peopled by the Canaanites. Bochart, in his large work entitled Canaan, has set all this matter in a good light; and F. Calmet has taken some pains to inquire particularly into what country the Canaanites retired, after their expulsion from their own by Joshua, and has examined the several arguments produced by those, who affirm,

that they settled in Armenia, Those, who are inclined to know what particular towns and territories of Canaan fell to the share of each tribe of the Hebrews, upon the division of this land among them by Joshua, will find the necessary information in the course of this work. We shall make this one remark, which Masius in his commentary furnishes us, viz. that as Jacob and Moses, at the approach of their death, foretold the very soil and situation of every particular country, that should fall to each tribe, so upon this division by lots, it accordingly came to pass. To the tribe of Judah, there fell a country abounding with vines and pasture grounds, (Gen. xlix, 11.) To that of Asher, one plenteous in oil, iron, and brass, (Deut. xxxiii, 24, 25.) To that of Naphtali one extending from the west to the south of Judea, (ib. ib. 23.) To that of Benjamin, one in which the temple was afterwards built. To those of Zebulon and Issachar, such as had plenty of seaports, (Gen. ib. 13.) To those of Ephraim and Mannasseḥ, such as were renowned for their precious fruits; (Deut. ib. 14) and to those of Simeon and Levi no particular countries, the former had a portion with Judah, and the other was scattered among

the several tribes. It must needs be the height of insolence or stupidity not to acknowledge the Divine inspiration in these predictions, and the Divine direction in those lots. See Judea. Many of the old inhabitants of the northwest of the land of Canaan, particularly on the coast of Tyre and Sidon, were not driven out by the children of Israel, whence this tract seems to have retained the name of Canaan, a great while after the other parts, inhabited by the Israelites, had lost that name. The Greeks called this tract, inhabited by the old Canaanites, along the Mediterranean sea, Phoenicia; the more inland parts, as being inhabited partly by Canaanites, and partly by Syrians, Syrophoenicia; and hence the woman said by St. Matthew (xv, 22) to be a woman of Canaan, whose daughter Jesus cured, is said by St. Mark, (vii, 26) to be a Syrophoenician.

CANAANITES, people descended from Canaan, whom the Israelites drove from their country. Procopius says, that they first retreated into Egypt, and gradually penetrated the continent of Africa, where they built many cities, and spread themselves over vast regions, till they reached the strait of Gibraltar, preserving their old language with little alteration.

This author adds, that in the ancient city of Tongis, founded by them, were two great pillars of white stone, near a large fountain, inscribed with Phoenician characters; "We are people preserved by flight from that robber Jesus (Joshua) the son of Naver, who pursued us." In the time of Athansius, the Africans continued to say, that they were descended from the Canaanites; when asked their origin, they answered Canani. It is agreed that the Punic tongue was nearly the same as the Canaanitish and Hebrew. Noah denounced a curse of the basest servitude against Canaan. The truth of which their whole history confirms.

CAPERNAUM, a city celebrated in the gospels, being the place where Jesus usually resided, during the time of his ministry. It stood on the coast of the sea of Galilee, in the borders of Zebulon and Naphtalim, Matt. iv, 15, and consequently towards the upper part. It took its name, no doubt, from an adjacent spring of great repute, and which according to Josephus, was by the natives called Capernaum. As the spring might be some inducement to the building of the town, so its being a convenient place to sail from Galilee, to any part en

the other side of the sea, might be some motive to our Lord for removing from Nazareth, and making this the place of his most constant residence. Upon this account Capernaum was highly honored, and said by our Lord himself, to be exalted unto heaven; but because it made no right use of this signal favor, it drew from him the severe denunciation, that it should be brought down to hell, Matt. xi, 23; which has certainly been verified; for so far is it from being the metropolis of all Galilee, (as it once was) that it consisted long since, of no more than six poor fisher. men's cottages,and may perhaps be now totally desolate. Wells. Yet probably its ruin was gradual, and by natural means. In the time of Jerome it was a town. In the seventh and eighth centuries, it still existed; but though the Divine threatenings are slow in their execution, they are certain. No such town as Capernaum now exists. Bonfrerius says it was most advantageously situated on the lake at the entrance of the Jordan, and that its name denoted the Fair village, or village of consolation. Lat. 32,44. CAPHAR-JAMA, a place in the tribe of Naphtali.

CAPHAR-SALAMA, or CAPHAR-SARAMA, a place not

far from Jerusalem, near which a battle was fought between Judas and Nicanor, who was vanquished and fled, with the loss of five thousand troops, 1 Macc. vii, 31. Its name signifies the village of peace.

CAPHAR-SOREK, a town. of Palestine. It is thought to have been named from the brook or valley of Sorek, where Delilah lived.

CAPHTOR, the island Caphtor, whence came the Caphtorims, otherwise called the Cherethims or Cherethites, or Philistines, Gen. x,14; Deut. ii, 23; Jer. xlvii, 4; and Amos ix, 7. The generality of interpreters believe,that by Caphtor was signified Cappadocia; and that the Philistines and Cherethims came from thence. But F. Calmet, endeavors to show, that they were originally from the isle of Crete.

The manners, arms, religion, and gods of the Cretans, and Philistines were the same. The arms of the one and the other were bows and arrows. Dugon.

Wells supposes, that the Caphtorims came from Egypt, and that the name Caphtor seems still to be preserved in an old city of Egypt, named Coptus; and Sanson places Caphtor between Egypt and the land of Canaan. Lat. 39.