Caphtor

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Caphtor (Hebrew: כפתור; Egyptian k-f-t-w) is a locality mentioned in the Book of Amos, 9.7: "Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? and the Philistines from Caphtor, and the Syrians from Kir?." It is named as the place of origin of the Caphtorites, said in Genesis 10:13-14 to descend from Ham's son Mizraim (Egypt).

The Aramaic Targums translate the name as "Caphutkia" that is Pelusium. This identification is also made by Benjamin of Tudela who wrote that "Damiata" (the name for Pelusium in his day) was Caphtor. [1]. The Septuagint translates it as "Kappadokias" and similarly the Vulgate renders it as "Cappadocia" which are understood to refer to the same location. Nevertheless, the seventeenth-century scholar Samuel Bochart[2] understood these to be references to Cappadocia in Anatolia. Modern commentators and translators commonly identify it with Crete (Hertz 1936) although it has also been linked to Cyprus, and the nearby coasts of Anatolia. By some accounts,[citation needed] both Cyprus and Crete together were known as "the isles of the Caphtorim".

The name has been compared to Egyptian Keftiu and Mari Kaptara. The name keftiu is found written in hieroglyphics in the temple of Kom Ombo in Upper Egypt and possibly in the Egyptian tomb of Rekhmire.

The name Caphtor is identical to the Biblical Hebrew word for a knob-like structure [3].

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ The New John Gill Exposition of the Entire Bible, Amos 9:7
  2. ^ Geographia Sacra seu Phaleg et Canaan (Caen 1646) l. 4. c. 32. [1].
  3. ^ Exodus 37:17

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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