--- In
AncientBibleHistory@yahoogroups.com, "George"
<historynow2002@...> wrote:
Jon,
Interestingly, this discussion from about 100 years ago
seems very much like your viewpoint (but not quite).
Actually, it almost sounds like a combination of your
views with MINE! :-)
Hope you find it interesting. I was particularly
interested in the subtle distinction between the LAND
of Keft and its people called: Kefau.
http://www.reference-guides.com/isbe/P/PHILISTINES/
"No critical student is likely to prefer these later
speculations to our present monumental information,
even without reference to the contradiction of the Bible.
Yet these blunders have given rise to the supposition
that Caphtor is to be identified with a region known
to the Egyptians as Keft, with inhabitants called Kefau.
The latter are represented in a tomb of the
XVIIIth Dynasty near Thebes. They are youths of brown
color, with long black hair, and the same type is found
in a Cypriote figure. They are connected with islanders
of the "green sea," who may have lived in Arvad or
in Cyprus; but there is no evidence in any written
statement that they were Cretans, though a figure
at Knossos in Crete somewhat resembles them.
There are many indications that this figure--painted
on the wall of the later palace--is not older than
about 500 BC, and the Sidonians had colonies in
Crete, where also pottery is found just like that
marked by a Phoenician inscription in Cyprus.
The Kefau youths bring vases as presents, and
these--in all their details--are exactly the
same as those represented in another picture
of the time of Thothrues III, the bearers in
this case being Harri from North Syria, represented
with black beards and Semitic features.
Moreover, on the bilingual inscription called the
Decree of Canopus (238 BC), the Keft region is said
to be "Phoenicia," and the Greek translator naturally
knew what was meant by his Egyptian colleague. Keft
in fact is a Semitic word for "palm," occurring in
Hebrew (Isa 9:14; 19:15), and thus applicable to
the "Palm"-Land, Phoenicia.
Thus, even if Keft were related to Caphtor, the
evidence would place the Philistine home on the
Phoenician shores, and not in Crete. There is
indeed no evidence that any European race settled
near the coasts of Palestine before about 680 BC,
when Esarhaddon speaks of Greek kings in Cyprus.
The Cretan theory of Michaelis was a literary
conjecture, which has been disproved by the
results of exploration in Asia."
[END OF CLIP]
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