CRETE, the Isle of Crete, now called Candia, in the Mediterranean. S. Paul made Titus, his dear Disciple, Bishop of Crete, and in the Epistle which he wrote to him, charges him to rebuke the People of this Island severely, and in strong terms, to prevent their being fond of Jewish Fables, human Ordinances, and the Observances of the Law: For as he adds, the Cretians, as Tit. i. 12, 13.one of their own Prophets or Poets bears witness, are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies. This Cretian Prophet, whom the Apostle speaks of, is Epimenides, a Native of Crete, who asserts this particular so much to the disadvantage of his own Countrymen. St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, and many others, make Callimachus the Author of this remark cited by S. Paul, because there are two verses which are certainly his, the purport whereof is this, The Cretians are always liars, for they have erected a monument to thee, O King Jupiter, who art not dead, but on the contrary art immortal. Notwithstanding the verses quoted by S. Paul are certainly Epimenides’s, the first words whereof only were cited by Callimachus.
In the Article Caphtor or Caphtorim, we said, that this was the antient name of Crete; that the Philistines came from thence, and that the name of Ceretim or Cretim, which is so often mentioned in the Scripture, was the same as that of Cretians. See our Dissertation concerning the Origin of the Philistines, prefixed to the first Book of Samuel.