Atlas Biblica

    place · also Crete · Cretans · Cretians

    Caphtor

    כַּפְתּוֹרΚρήτη

    Caphtor, identified as the island of Crete, was the original homeland of the Philistines and a place visited by the apostle Paul.

    Where the story of Caphtor happensWhere the gazetteer locates Caphtor, framed to them: Caphtor. Each dot is a coordinate from the gazetteer. The coastline is a modern one, simplified; no border, road or settlement of any period is drawn, and no line joins two points, because the rows state where and not in what order.Caphtor
    Where the gazetteer locates Caphtor
    verses
    11
    first named
    Deuteronomy 2:23
    last named
    Titus 1:12
    feature
    island
    coordinates
    35.31°N · 24.89°E
    island35.31°N · 24.89°E

    Crete (OpenBible)

    The gazetteer records one identification, and no competing one.

    Description

    Caphtor in the text

    In the words of STEPBible TIPNR:

    Caphtor, mentioned in the Old Testament, is generally identified as the island of Crete in the Mediterranean Sea. According to Amo.9.7, the Philistines originated from Caphtor, and Jeremiah 47:4 refers to "the remnant of the country of Caphtor," linking the Philistines to this island.

    In Deu.2.23, the Caphtorim, who came from Caphtor, are described as destroying the Avvim, who lived in villages as far as Gaza, and settling in their place. This suggests that the Philistines, who are known to have settled in the coastal region of Canaan, trace their ancestry back to Caphtor.

    In the New Testament, Crete is mentioned several times in connection with the apostle Paul's travels. During his journey to Rome, Paul's ship sailed along the southern coast of Crete (Act.27.7-13), and they sought to winter in the Cretan harbor of Phoenix (Act.27.12). After the ship encountered a storm and was wrecked on the island of Malta, Paul continued his journey and eventually passed by Crete again (Act.27.21).

    Paul also left his companion Titus on Crete to organize the church and appoint elders in every town (Titus 1:5). In his letter to Titus, Paul quotes a Cretan prophet who described Cretans as "always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons" (Titus 1:12), indicating the challenges Titus faced in ministering to the people of Crete.

    On the day of Pentecost, Cretans were among the people present in Jerusalem who heard the apostles speaking in their own languages (Act.2.11).

    Relations

    Direct connections

    Every entity the graph places in a stated relation with this one, grouped by the kind of link. Each relation is authored once and its inverse derived, so both ends always agree. Rows marked “registry” come from the identity spine rather than from a verse, and a row marked “which bearer is the source’s decision” is one where the name could have meant more than one person. The last group is not a relation at all — it counts the events two entities stand in together.

    Stands in the same events as

    Read it

    Where to read it

    Every verse of the text carried here that names this entity — 11, across 5 books.

    1. Deuteronomy1 verse

      2:23

    2. Jeremiah1 verse

      47:4

    3. Amos1 verse

      9:7

    4. Acts5 verses

      2:1127:727:1227:1327:21

    5. Titus3 verses

      1:51:123:15

    Onward

    Where this page goes

    Nothing in the graph stands one hop from this entity yet. These are the best-connected entities of the same type, so the page still ends somewhere. Descriptions by STEPBible TIPNR.

    ElsewhereJerusalemThe capital of Israel, a holy city for three religionsElsewhereEgyptAncient nation; Israelites enslaved there; plagues and ExodusElsewhereJordanA river and region, significant in Israel's history

    Where they appear

    What happened here

    Atlas's reading of each chapter this place appears in, in canonical order. One line per chapter, and each leads to the whole of it.

    Sources

    What this rests on