Help defend free speech and free scientific inquiry in the U.S. Sign the Academic Freedom Petition.

Phoenicia

From CreationWiki, the encyclopedia of creation science

Phoenicia (Greek: Φοινίκη. Phoiníkē; Latin: Phœnicia) was an ancient civilization located in the north of ancient Canaan in the region of today's coastal Lebanon.

The Phoenicians

That ancient historian, Herodotus, claims that the Phoenicians arrived from the Persian Gulf region, in the vicinity of the original Red Sea. He claims that they had their own tradition of this origin. In ancient times the Red Sea as we know it was not called by that name. The original Red Sea according to Rohl and others is the Persian or Arabian Gulf and this would also indicate that they originated in Babylon and were close allies of the Cushites. Driver states that the "Canaanites came from the Red Sea coast and were really related to the Cushites."

"Thus the Phoenicians of the eastern Mediterranean believed that they originated from the sacred paradise isle of Sumerian legend."

They called themselves Kna' or Kinahni (Hebrew: Kena'an) after their forefather, Canaan and did not form a single unified state. Rather, they founded independent, and often-times, competing city-kingdoms and instead of speaking of themselves collectively ss Phoenicians, they would call themselves after their particular city they lived in: viz. Sidonians, Byblians, or Tyrians. Some of these cities still exist: Beruit (Berot), Jubayl (Gebal), Saida (Zidon or Sidon), Tsor (Tyre, Tyros, or Sur). Not all Canaanites however were known as Phoenicians.

The name "Phoenician" derives from the Greek Φοινίκη (Phoinike) which means "purple dye" or "red-purple" and was attributed to the olive-complexioned peoples dwelling in the narrow stretch of Lebanese-Syrian coastline on the Mediterranean. Interestingly, Erithrus who was king of Spain in the fourteenth century BC, was probably Phoenician and his name means "red".

One branch in Tyre, c. 830 B.C., had an internal problem which led to some breaking away and forming Carthage on the North African coast (modern Tunisia) where they called themselves Puoni or Phoenicians. The famous St. Augustine of Hippo, in North Africa stated that the inhabitants of Carthage called themselves Canaanites even in the 5th century A.D.

Though Hamitic in origin, the Phoenicians spoke the Phoenician language, counted among the Canaanite languages in the Semitic language family. In addition to their many inscriptions, the Phoenicians, contrary to some reports, wrote many books, which have not survived. Evangelical Preparation by Eusebius of Caesarea quotes extensively from Philo of Byblos and Sanchuniathon. Furthermore, the Phoenician Punic colonies of North Africa continued to be a source of knowledge about the Phoenicians. St. Augustine knew at least a smattering of Punic and occasionally uses it to explain cognate words found in Hebrew.