Casluhim (II)

II. CASLUHIM. One of the Sons of Mizraïm. There is a great diversity of opinion concerning the place of his abode, and the Nation whereof he was the Founder. The Paraphrast Jonathan explains Casluhim by Pentapolitans, the Inhabitants of the Pentapolis or Cyrenaïca; the Jerusalem Paraphrast understands it as meaning the Inhabitants of Pentaschænos in the lower Egypt. And in the Arabick Translation it is rendered the Inhabitants of Saïs, in the Thebaïs. Bochart, and many others after him, understand it of the Colchians. Herodotus¹ says, that the People of Colchos were circumcised, as well as the Egyptians, that they were of a tawney Complexion, that their hair was black and curled, and that their Language and way of living were the same as were in use among the Egyptians. He assures us, that Sesostris King of Egypt left a Colony of his Troops in the Colchis. He confesses notwithstanding, that the Egyptians had no remembrance of the Colchians being originally of their Country.

These are plausible Reasons. But altho’ we were to allow all that Herodotus says, it would not prove the Colchians and the Casluhim to be the same People. Nor, supposing it were certain, that Sesostris left a Colony of Egyptians at Colchos, would it follow, that he had left there the whole Nation, or the greatest part of the Casluhim? Will any one affirm that before Sesostris Colchis did not bear this name, and that it began to be so called only after the coming of these pretended Casluhim? Moses tells us, that the Philistines and the Caphtorim were descended from the Genes. x.Casluhim; and the Prophets Jeremiah and 14. Jer. xlvii. 4. Amos ix. 7.Amos inform us, that the Philistines came from Caphtor. In order therefore to reconcile Moses with these two Prophets, it must be said, that the Caphtorim sprang immediately from the Casluhim, and the Philistines from the Caphtorim.

We have shewn before, under the Article Caphtor, that the Isle of Crete was called by this name. The Casluhim therefore must have sent a Colony from the Cyrenaica into the Isle of Crete, and the Philistines must have come from thence; who nevertheless had been long in Palestine before Sesostris and his supposed Colony at Colchos. In our Comment on Chap. x. 14. of Genesis, we have proposed some other Conjectures concerning the Country of the Casluhim, and have there said, that the Casluhim may have dwelt upon the western Coasts of the Red Sea, opposite to the Island of Colocasitus or Coloca. These different opinions ought no way to surprise People: In matters of this obscure nature, it is very allowable to propose conjectures; which sometimes make way for discoveries of consequence.

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