Put (biblical figure)
Template:Short description Template:Wikt Phut or Put (Template:Langx Pūṭ; Septuagint Greek Template:Lang Phoudh) is the third son of Ham (one of the sons of Noah) in the biblical Table of Nations (Genesis Template:Bibleverse-nb; cf. 1 Chronicles Template:Bibleverse-nb).
The name Put (or Phut) is used in the Bible for Ancient Libya, but some scholars propose the Land of Punt known from Ancient Egyptian annals.<ref>Template:Cite encyclopedia</ref>
Historical records
Epiphanius writes: "Thus Mistrem was allotted Egypt, Cush, Aethiopia, Put, Axum, Ragman and Sabteka and [Dedan, also called Judad], the region bordering on Garama."
Josephus writes: "Phut also was the founder of Libya, 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."<ref>(AotJ Book 1:6/2)</ref> Pliny the Elder<ref>Nat. Hist. 5.1</ref> and Ptolemy<ref>Geog. iv.1.3</ref> both place the river Phuth on the west side of Mauretania. Ptolemy also mentions a city Putea in Libya (iv.3.39).
A Libyan connection has likewise been inferred from Nahum Template:Bibleverse-nb, where it is said that "Put and Lubim" were the helpers of Egypt. Other biblical verses consistently refer to the descendants of Put as warriors. In Template:Bibleverse, they are again described as being supporters of Egypt. Ezekiel mentions them three times: in Template:Bibleverse-nb, as supporters of Tyre (Phoenicia), in Template:Bibleverse-nb again as supporting Egypt, and in Template:Bibleverse-nb, as supporters of Gog. The Hebrew Bible substitutes Put in Ezekiel where the Septuagint Greek (LXX) refers to Libues. However, the Hebrew reads Pul in Template:Bibleverse, 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 as Pỉt, and as Phaiat in Coptic, a name for Libya Aegypti, northwestern Egypt.
A fragment of Nebuchadnezzar II's annals mentions his campaign in 567 BC 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 refers to the Put as the province of Putāya (Old Persian) and Puṭa (Neo-Babylonian), where the equivalent text written in Egyptian has tꜣ ṯmḥw "Libya".
See also
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.