Kreet; Caphtor in the OT
The fifth largest Mediterranean island, 152 miles long from west to east and 7.5 to 35 miles wide. Crete forms the southern boundary of the Aegean Sea. Biblical references to Caphtor or Crete are few. The Israelites, who played no active role at all on the Mediterranean Sea, knew the remote island chiefly as the home of the Philistines (Deut 2:23; Jer 47:4; Amos 9:7; Gen 10:14; 1Chr 1:12), part of the great movement of the “Sea Peoples.” The Letter to Titus speaks of a visit to Crete by the apostle Paul. Titus is said to have been left in Crete “to amend what was defective and appoint elders” (Titus 1:5). A derogatory quotation about the Cretans being “always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons” (Titus 1:10) comes from the same poem of the Cretan poet Epimenides that Paul had quoted in Athens (Acts 17:28).
