CAPHTOR, the Island Caphtor, Deut. ii. 23. Jer. xlvii. 4. Amos ix. 7. Gen. x. 14. Deut. ii. 23.whence came the Caphtorims. Otherwise called, Cretims, Cerethims, or Philistines. The generality of Interpreters believe, that by Caphtoris was signified Cappadocia, and by Caphtorims, the Cappadocians; and that the Philistines and Cerethims came from thence. In the first edition of our Comment upon Genesis chap. x. 14. we said, that the Caphtorims came from the Isle of Cyprus. But we have since endeavoured in a particular dissertation printed before the first Book of Samuel, to shew that they were originally of the Isle of Crete. The reasons which persuaded us, that Caphtor is the Isle of Crete, are these following. The Philistines were Strangers in Palestine; this the Scripture observes expressly. The Septuagint Gen. x. 14 Jerem. xlvii. 4. Amos ix. 7. Ezek. xxv. 16.always translate this name Allophuloi; that is to say, Strangers. Their proper name was Cherethims, as we may see by Ezekiel, Zephaniah, and the first Book of Samuel. Ezekiel speaking against the Philistines has these words, I will stretch out mine hand upon the Philistines, and I will cut off the Cherethims, and destroy the remnant of the sea coast. Zephaniah inveighing against the same People, Wo unto Zeph. ii. 5.the inhabitants of the sea coasts, the nation of the Cherethites. And the Sacred Historian says, that the Amalekites made an Irruption, 1 Sam. xxx. 14, 15.into the country of the Cherethites; that is to say, of the Philistines, as the sequel of the discourse proves: And afterwards the Kings of Judah had foreign Guards called Cherethites and Pelethites, who were of the number of the Philistines.
Ezek. xxv. 16. 2 Sam. xv. 18. See the Comment.The Septuagint, under the name of Cherethites, understood the Cretans, and by Chereth, Creteo. Besides, the Scripture says, that the Philistines came from the Isle of Caphtor1. Now we see no Island in the Mediterranean, wherein the marks, whereby the Scripture describes Caphtor and Cherethim, agree better than in the Isle of Crete. The name Cretim or Cherethim is the same with that of Cretenses. We know of a River there called Kairat, of the Goddess Ceres2; of the Curetes who brought up Jupiter on mount Ida; and of Curetis the name given to the whole Island. The Cretans are one of the most antient and celebrated People which inhabited the Islands of the Mediterranean. They pretended to have been produced originally out of their own Soil: This Island was already well peopled in the time of the Trojan War; Homer calls it the Island with a hundred Cities3. The City of Gaza in Palestine went by the name of Minoa4, because of Minos King of Crete, who coming into that Country, called this antient City by his own name.
Herodotus5 acknowledges, that the Cretans were originally all Barbarians, and did not come from Greece. Homer says, that a different Language was spoken in the Isle of Crete, that there were Greeks there, true Cretans, or antient Cretans, Pelasgians, &c. The antient Cretans are the same as the Cherethites, the Pelasgians are the Philistines or Pelethites of the Scripture. Their Language was the same with that of the Canaanites or Phœnicians, that is to say, Hebrew: they were descended as well as Canaan from Gen. x. 6, 13, 14.Ham by Misraim.
The Manners, Arms, Religion and Gods of the Cretans and Philistines were pretty near the same. The Arms of both one and the other were Bows and Arrows. Dagon the God of the Philistines was the same as the Dictimus of the Cretans. Stephen the Geographer says, that Marnas of Gaza, is the Jupiter of the Cretans. The God Belzebub, or the God Fly was in all probability in memory of the Bees which fed Jupiter on mount Ida, and were rewarded by this Deity, with several Prerogatives, particularly he changed their black colour into that of Brass bordering upon Gold6.
It may be objected against our opinion7, that in Abraham’s time the Philistines were already settled in Palestine, and that the Isle of Crete could not then be very well peopled, much less send Colonies into Palestine; I answer, that Abraham’s time, that is to say, the year of the World 2090, or thereabouts, was four hundred and thirty four years from the Deluge, and about three hundred and twenty years from the dispersion of the People at Babel. Mizraim, Grandfather to the Philistines and Caphtorims, had a numerous Family. He was the immediate Son of Ham, and peopled Egypt betimes. The passage from Egypt to the Isle of Crete is neither long nor difficult; and what may not be done in the space of three or four hundred years? Aptera a City of Crete has a sensible relation to Caphtor; this name was given it by King Apterus. Near this City it was, that the Syrens being conquer’d by the Muses, lost their wings.
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