Caphtor

Original homeland of the Philistines, generally identified with today’s island of Crete; called “the island of Caphtor” by the prophets.

Caphtor was the homeland of the Caphtorim, descendants of Ham’s son Mizraim. (Ge 10:13, 14; 1Ch 1:12) Sometime before Israel left Egypt in 1513 B.C.E., the Caphtorim crossed the sea, annihilated the Avvim who lived in settlements as far as Gaza, and settled the southwestern coast of Canaan. (De 2:23) Jeremiah called the Philistines “the remaining ones from the island of Caphtor” (Jer 47:4), and Amos records Jehovah’s words: he brought the Philistines out of Caphtor just as he brought Israel out of Egypt — and here the New World Translation renders Caphtor directly as “Crete.” (Am 9:7) Many locations have been proposed for Caphtor — the Egyptian Delta, the southeastern coast of Asia Minor, Cappadocia, and Crete — but scholars today generally identify it with the island of Crete off the southeastern coast of Greece, some including the nearby islands and coastal regions as well. Ancient inscriptions agree: the Kaptara of Assyro-Babylonian texts and the Kfty(w) of Egyptian records refer to this same place, and there is evidence that the Egyptians traded with the Cretans as early as Abraham’s day. Crete was the heart of the Minoan civilization, and the ruins of the palace of Knossos testify to the seafaring power of the Bronze-Age Aegean; the distinctly Aegean material culture of the Philistines fits the record of their arrival from across the sea. The Philistines are also called Cherethites (Eze 25:16; Zep 2:5), a term that most likely means “Cretans.” In the Christian Greek Scriptures, the same island appears as Crete: on Paul’s voyage to Rome, his ship was caught in a storm south of Crete and was finally wrecked on Malta. — Ac 27.