Phut or Put ( ''Pūṭ'';

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

Greek Greek may refer to: Anything of, from, or related to Greece, a country in Southern Europe: *Greeks, an ethnic group *Greek language, a branch of the Indo-European language family **Proto-Greek language, the assumed last common ancestor of all kno ...

''Phoud'') is the third son of Ham (one of the

sons of Noah The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or ''Origines Gentium'', is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after Genesis flood narrative ...

) in the biblical

Table of Nations The Generations of Noah, also called the Table of Nations or ''Origines Gentium'', is a genealogy of the sons of Noah, according to the Hebrew Bible (Book of Genesis, Genesis ), and their dispersion into many lands after Genesis flood narrative ...

( Genesis ; cf.

1 Chronicles The Book of Chronicles ( , "words of the days") is a book in the Hebrew Bible, found as two books (1–2 Chronicles) in the Christian Old Testament. Chronicles is the final book of the Hebrew Bible, concluding the third section of the Jewish Tan ...

). The name Put (or Phut) is used in the Bible for

Ancient Libya During the Iron Age and Classical antiquity, ''Libya'' (from Greek :wikt:Λιβύη, Λιβύη: ''Libyē'', which came from Berber language, Berber: ''Libu'') referred to the area of North Africa directly west of the Nile, Nile river (Modern day ...

, but some scholars propose the

Land of Punt The Land of Punt (Egyptian language, Egyptian: ''wikt:pwnt#Egyptian, pwnt''; alternate Egyptian language#Egyptological pronunciation, Egyptological readings ''Pwene''(''t'') ) was an ancient kingdom known from Ancient Egyptian trade records. ...

known from Ancient Egyptian annals.

Historical records

Epiphanius writes: "Thus Mistrem was allotted Egypt, Cush,

Aethiopia Ancient Aethiopia, () first appears as a geographical term in classical documents in reference to the skin color of the inhabitants of the upper Nile in northern Sudan, of areas south of the Sahara, and of certain areas in Asia. Its earliest men ...

, Put,

Axum Axum, also spelled Aksum (), is a town in the Tigray Region of Ethiopia with a population of 66,900 residents (as of 2015). It is the site of the historic capital of the Aksumite Empire. Axum is located in the Central Zone of the Tigray Re ...

, Ragman and Sabteka and edan, also called Judad the region bordering on Garama."

Josephus Flavius Josephus (; , ; ), born Yosef ben Mattityahu (), was a Roman–Jewish historian and military leader. Best known for writing '' The Jewish War'', he was born in Jerusalem—then part of the Roman province of Judea—to a father of pr ...

writes: "Phut also was the founder of

Libya Libya, officially the State of Libya, is a country in the Maghreb region of North Africa. It borders the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Egypt to Egypt–Libya border, the east, Sudan to Libya–Sudan border, the southeast, Chad to Chad–L ...

, and called the inhabitants Phutites (''Phoutes''), from himself: there is also a river in the country of Moors which bears that name; whence it is that we may see the greatest part of the Grecian historiographers mention that river and the adjoining country by the appellation of Phut (''Phoute''): but the name it has now has been by change given it from one of the sons of Mezraim, who was called Lybyos."

Pliny the Elder Gaius Plinius Secundus (AD 23/24 79), known in English as Pliny the Elder ( ), was a Roman Empire, Roman author, Natural history, naturalist, and naval and army commander of the early Roman Empire, and a friend of the Roman emperor, emperor Vesp ...

and

Ptolemy Claudius Ptolemy (; , ; ; – 160s/170s AD) was a Greco-Roman mathematician, astronomer, astrologer, geographer, and music theorist who wrote about a dozen scientific treatises, three of which were important to later Byzantine science, Byzant ...

''Geog.'' iv.1.3 both place the river ''Phuth'' on the west side of

Mauretania Mauretania (; ) is the Latin name for a region in the ancient Maghreb. It extended from central present-day Algeria to the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, encompassing northern present-day Morocco, and from the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean in the ...

. Ptolemy also mentions a city ''Putea'' in Libya (iv.3.39). A Libyan connection has likewise been inferred from Nahum , where it is said that "Put and Lubim" were the helpers of

Egypt Egypt ( , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a country spanning the Northeast Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via the Sinai Peninsula. It is bordered by the Mediterranean Sea to northe ...

. Other biblical verses consistently refer to the descendants of Put as warriors. In , they are again described as being supporters of Egypt.

Ezekiel Ezekiel, also spelled Ezechiel (; ; ), was an Israelite priest. The Book of Ezekiel, relating his visions and acts, is named after him. The Abrahamic religions acknowledge Ezekiel as a prophet. According to the narrative, Ezekiel prophesied ...

mentions them three times: in , as supporters of Tyre (Phoenicia), in again as supporting Egypt, and in , as supporters of Gog. The

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
. '' Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

Greek (LXX) refers to ''Libues''. However, the Hebrew reads ''Pul'' in , in place of ''Put'' in the LXX. The Libyan tribe of ''pỉdw'' shows up in Egyptian records by the 22nd dynasty, while a Ptolemaic text from Edfu refers to the ''t3 n nꜣ pỉt.w'' "the land of the Pitu". The word was later written in

Demotic Demotic may refer to: * Demotic Greek, the modern vernacular form of the Greek language * Demotic (Egyptian), an ancient Egyptian script and version of the language * Chữ Nôm Chữ Nôm (, ) is a logographic writing system formerly used t ...

as ''Pỉt'', and as ''Phaiat'' in Coptic, a name for Libya Aegypti, northwestern Egypt. A fragment of

Nebuchadnezzar II Nebuchadnezzar II, also Nebuchadrezzar II, meaning "Nabu, watch over my heir", was the second king of the Neo-Babylonian Empire, ruling from the death of his father Nabopolassar in 605 BC to his own death in 562 BC. Often titled Nebuchadnezzar ...

's annals mentions his campaign in 567 in Egypt, and defeating the soldiers of ''Pu-ṭu-ia-a-man'', i.e. Greek Libya ( Cyrene). A multilingual stele from al-Kabrīt, dating to the reign of

Darius I Darius I ( ; – 486 BCE), commonly known as Darius the Great, was the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BCE until his death in 486 BCE. He ruled the empire at its territorial peak, when it included much of West A ...

refers to the Put as the province of '' Putāya'' (

Old Persian Old Persian is one of two directly attested Old Iranian languages (the other being Avestan) and is the ancestor of Middle Persian (the language of the Sasanian Empire). Like other Old Iranian languages, it was known to its native speakers as (I ...

) and ''Puṭa'' (

Neo-Babylonian The Neo-Babylonian Empire or Second Babylonian Empire, historically known as the Chaldean Empire, was the last polity ruled by monarchs native to ancient Mesopotamia. Beginning with the coronation of Nabopolassar as the King of Babylon in 626 BC ...

), where the equivalent text written in

Egyptian ''Egyptian'' describes something of, from, or related to Egypt. Egyptian or Egyptians may refer to: Nations and ethnic groups * Egyptians, a national group in North Africa ** Egyptian culture, a complex and stable culture with thousands of year ...

has ''tꜣ ṯmḥw'' "Libya".

References

Bibliography

* Baker, David W. 1992. "Put". In ''The Anchor Bible Dictionary'', edited by David Noel Freedman. Vol. 5 of 6 vols. New York: Doubleday. 560 * Graefe, Erhart. 1975. "Der libysche Stammesname ''p(j)d(j)/pjt'' im spätzeitlichen Onomastikon." ''Enchoria: Zeitschrift für Demotistik und Koptologie'' 5:13–17. {{Authority control Children of Ham (son of Noah) Hebrew Bible nations Book of Genesis people Noach (parashah) Land of Punt

Historical records

See also

References

Bibliography