Did Herodotus Confirm the Origin of the Israelites?
Source: GreekReporter.com
The Bible describes the origin of the ancient Israelites in great detail. However, there are not many non-Biblical sources that make mention of this subject. Some of the only non-Biblical writers who discussed this matter were the ancient Greeks. Herodotus in particular had some interesting comments regarding the origin of the Israelites.
Herodotus’ description of ancient Palestine
In the mid-fifth century BC, Herodotus wrote The Histories. In one section, he described the land known to the Greeks as ancient Palestine. This encompassed what we now know was the land of the ancient Israelites, the Philistines, and the Phoenicians.
The Greeks appear to have used the term ‘Palestine’ to refer to this whole region because the land of the Philistines was particularly notable to them. However, he used the term ‘Phoenicians’ to describe the inhabitants of the entire region between Syria and Egypt. Notice the following description of the Phoenicians from The Histories 7:89:
“This nation, according to their own account, dwelt anciently upon the Erythraean Sea, but crossing thence, fixed themselves on the seacoast of Syria, where they still inhabit. This part of Syria, and all the region extending from hence to Egypt, is known by the name of Palestine.”
The region being described in this passage is large composed of the territory of the ancient Israelites. Therefore, it is evident that Herodotus used ‘Phoenicians’ to refer to the Israelites and not just to the Iron Age Canaanites.
Herodotus’ claim about the origin of the Israelites
With this is mind, it is interesting to note what Herodotus wrote concerning the origin of these ‘Phoenicians.’ Although he never mentioned the Israelites by name, this account of the Phoenicians may well be related to the Israelites.
Evidence actively supporting this conclusion is the fact that Herodotus says that these Phoenicians took princess Io to Egypt. The Greek myth of Io and her family staying in Egypt for several generations and then leaving, some of them settling in Canaan, is very likely a memory of the sojourn of the Israelites in Egypt and their subsequent Exodus.
With this in mind, what does Herodotus reveal about the origin of these so-called ‘Phoenicians’ or Israelites? Simply stated, he claims that they originally came from the shores of the Red Sea.
Analyzing Herodotus’ claim
Let us examine this claim in more detail. Notice the following claim from Herodotus in The Histories 1.1:
“The Persian learned men say that the Phoenicians were the cause of the feud. These (they say) came to our seas from the sea which is called Red, and having settled in the country which they still occupy, at once began to make long voyages.”
According to this statement, the Phoenicians came from the Red Sea. This is also what Herodotus said in the previous quotation, in which he referred to them as dwelling by the Erythraean Sea in more ancient times.
It is interesting that in The Histories 1.1, he states that this tradition came from the Persians, while in 7.89, he mentions that this is what the Phoenicians’ own account says.
Does this match the crossing of the Red Sea?
There is no known account by the Phoenicians which places the origin of their nation by the Red Sea. This supports the conclusion that Herodotus was actually referring to the Israelites, since they definitely did have an account of the origin of their nation which placed them in that region.
Some researchers might try to connect this journey from the Red Sea to ancient Palestine with the Biblical story of the Exodus from Egypt, in which the Israelites crossed the Red Sea.
However, Herodotus explicitly places this arrival of Phoenicians into Palestine before the legend of Io, which seems to correspond to the Israelites’ sojourn in Egypt. This means that the tradition of their coming from the Red Sea cannot have anything to do with the story of the Exodus.
Which Red Sea?
The key to understanding Herodotus’ narrative is the fact that the Greek term ‘Erythraean Sea’ had a much wider application than the present-day Red Sea. It did include that body of water, but it also included much more.
In fact, the Erythraean Sea often encompassed the Arabian Sea, the Persian Gulf, and even the Indian Ocean. It applied to all those bodies of water in general rather than just to the Red Sea.
Why is this so significant? The reason is that this explains how Herodotus’ description ties in with what the Bible says about the origin of the Israelites. Before they sojourned in Egypt for centuries, they had lived in the land of Canaan. This was during the Patriarchal Era, during the lives of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.
Before then, Abraham had traveled to ancient Palestine (or Canaan) all the way from the city of Ur. This city is in southern Iraq, quite close to the Persian Gulf. In other words, the family of Abraham originally lived near the shore of the Persian Gulf, which was part of the Erythraean Sea to the Greeks.
In summary, when Herodotus referred to the Phoenicians, or ancient Israelites, as originally living by the Red Sea and traveling to ancient Palestine, he was evidently referring to the family of Abraham traveling from Ur by the Persian Gulf.
The original article: GreekReporter.com .
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