1 Others again, as Calmet (Dissert, mar VOrigme da PhiHttms, p. 821), and still more Lackemacher iObser. PMl. p. 2, 11 sq.), bare tried to prove that the Philistines derived their origin fhmi the bland of Crde (so BoeenmOller, Alterth. II, ii, 868; iii, 885; Movers, PhOm, ij 28; Lengerke, Ken, i, 194; Ewald, Getch, Ttr. i, 880 ; Tuch, Gen. p. 248 ; Hitzig, Zu Zeph. ii, 6 ; Berthean, Isr. Gesek. p. 187 ; Enobel, Gen. p. 110; DelHzsch, Gen, p. 290; FOffst, Handu^. s. v.), because —{1) Caphtor Is with Jeremiah an island ; (2) the proper name of the Philistines is D*^ri';}S, KeretMm', '^Cherethites" (Ezek. xxv, 16 ; Zeph. ii, 5 ; 1 Sam. x, 14) ; (8) a city Aptera existed hi Crote (Strabo, x, 479 ; Pliny, iv, 20). The Sept, however, evidently makes a di^ction between the Caphtorim and Cherethim ; nor is it probable either that a small Island like Crete should be able to send forth thus early so large a body of emigrants as must have landed on the territories of the Avim, so as to be able to expel them and take pos- session of their country, or that the Phoenicians would allofr a sea&ring race like the Cretans to settle in their vidnity (see Hdck, Kreta, p. 867). See Cbkte.
8. By far more probable is Calmet's previous opin- ion (found in the first edition of his Comment, on Gene- w, but which he afterward recalled), that Caphtor is the island of Cypnti, From the geographical situation of that island, it may have been known to the Egyp- tians at a very early period, and they may have sent colonies thither, who afterward removed, fh>m some reason or other, to the southern coast of Palestine bor- dering on Egypt. Swinton (Jnecr. CU, Oxon. 1750, p. 78, 86) actually found on that island an ancient Phoe- nidan coin, with the inscription which he read ** Kab- dor^ 0^*^33), not very unlike Kaphtor; but in the Attgememe Lit. Zetivng (Leips. 1825, 1, 440) it has been proved that Swinton was mistaken In the reading of thai hiscription (see Gesenius, Man. Phoan. ii, 820). ()ppQsed to this identification also is the &ct that the
Cyprians are elsewhere (Gen. x, 4) called Chittim (q. v.). See Ctpbus.
4. A still more probable identification is with cer- tain parts of Egypt : either (1) the coast of the Egyp- tian DdkL (Stark, Gaxa^p. 76) ; (2) Damktta (Saadias, Arab, Vers., which has "Dimyat;" Haine, Obs. Sac, ii, 6, 10) ; or (3) part of Morocco west of E^rypt (Qua- trem^. Jour, des Savans, 1846, p. 265). The position of the countr}', since it was peopled by Mizraites, may naturally be supposed to be in Egypt, or near to it in Africa, for the idea of the south-west of Palestine is excluded by the migration of the Philistines. In Jer. xlvii, 4, the expression "nin^D *^K (" country of Caph- tor*') has a wider signification than an insular location ; iois the term "^ift denotes any maritime land, whether coast or island, as in the expression Gentile shores (D^iWl "i^X, Gen. x, 5), by which the northern coasts afid the Islands of the Mediterranean seem to be in- tended, the former. In part at least, being certainly in- cluded. It must be remembered, however, that the Nile is spoken of as a sea (Q^) by Nahnm in the de- scription of No, or Thebes (iii, 8). It is also possible that the expression in Jer. merely refers to the mari- time position of the Philistines (comp. Ezek. xxv, 16), and that Caphtor is here poetically used for Caphto- rim. Forf ter (EpUt, ad Michael, p. 17 sq.) thinks that the Caphtorim had lived on the Egyptian coast, some- where about Damietta (comp. Benjamhi of Tudela, p. 121, Bohn). From hence he supposes a colony of that people, and theur brethren and easterly neighbors, the CasluMm, had gone forth, in the period between the first wars of the world (described in Gen. xiv) and the birth of Isaac, and settled on the southern coast of Palestine, under the name of Philistines, after having expelled the Avim (q. v.), who lived about Gaza. But in subsequent times, Forster thinks, these new Philistines had again sent a colony who conquered the province of Lapethus, in the island of Cyprus. Thb colony he identifies with the Ethiopians, who lived, according to Herodotus (vii, 88), upon the island. "Following out these suggestions, Reginald Stuart Poole Qn the Encydopcsdia Britannica, 8th ed., article Egypt, p. 419), after a conjecture In Heinii Disserti, Soar, p. 210 sq., has proposed to recognise Caphtor in the ancient Egyptian name Coptos (Koirro^), which, if literally transcribed, is written in the hieroglyphics KebtUj probably pronounced Kubt (Brugsch, Geogr, Inschr, pi. xxxviii, No. 899, 900), whence Coptic Kep- to, Arab. KvfL The shnilarity of name is so great that it alone might satisfy us, but the correspondence of Atyvwroc, as if A7a yvirr<5ci to '^I^B? ''tf^ unless ''K refer to the Philistine coast, seems conclusive. We must not suppose, however, that Caphtor was Coptoe: it must rather be compared to the Coptite nome, prob- ably in primitive ages of greater extent thaq under the Ptolemies, for the number of nomes was In the course of time greatly increased. The Caphtorim stand last In the list of the Mizraite peoples in Gen. and Chron., probably as dwellers in Upper Egypt, the names next before them being of Egyptian, and the' earliest names of Libyan peoples. See Egtpt.