Crete, the Philistines and the Biblical Exodus

 

 

 

“In fact, the very name “Palestine” is directly responsive to Minoan Crete for it derives from the word “Philistine” which is the name given to a particular group of people present in the area by the emerging Hebrews, who themselves were operative in Palestine from about 1400 BC onwards”.

 

Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe

 

 

 

Alan Butler and Stephen Dafoe tell, in their book The Knights Templar Revealed (Magpie Books, London, 2006), of the massive impact upon Crete of the Thera (Santorini) eruption (pp. 21-22):

 

Archaeology shows the absolute devastation that followed on Crete, with huge structures literally knocked flat by the force of the initial explosion and by the tidal waves that followed it. In a very short period of time, rule of Crete passed into the hands of the Mycenaean civilisation. Much of the very fertile land in the north of the island would have been rendered unusable for at least a decade and it is considered likely that a vast exodus of Cretans took place at this time.

 

It may or may not be a coincidence that this period matches very neatly the sudden cessation of megalithic building further west. It is a fact that weather patterns changed markedly around the time of the Thera eruption, together with a suspected plague, or series of plagues that probably decimated populations across the whole body of Europe. … the forced migration of a large proportion of the Minoan people does seem to have affected many areas surrounding Crete, not least of all the Palestine coast of the Levant. In fact, the very name “Palestine” is directly responsive to Minoan Crete for it derives from the word “Philistine” which is the name given to a particular group of people present in the area by the emerging Hebrews, who themselves were operative in Palestine from about 1400 BC onwards. 

 

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It is clear that the Hebrews knew the Philistines to be of Cretan origins and doubtless they represented the remnant of the Minoan civilisation that had fled from Crete either as a result of the Thera eruption or ahead of the invading Mycenaeans. In the Old Testament we find, in the Book of Amos chapter 9, verse 7:

 

Are ye not as children of the Ethiopians unto me, O children of Israel? saith the Lord. Have not I brought up Israel out of the land of Egypt? And the Philistines from Caphtor (Crete) and the Syrians from Kir?

 

On p. 25, the authors note: “The effect of the Minoans, in their alter ego as the Philistines, upon the area of the Levant was probably quite significant in the years immediately after the Santorini eruption”.