On the Origins or the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language

being turned, the y into tau (τ) and into upsilon (υ). Ananim (ענמים), Habbash (חבשׁ), Suria (סוּרִיָּא), Assyrian (ἀσσυρίαν): Ananim had given the name of Anaitis in Ethiopia to those living under Egypt. From the memory of men. Just as all the affairs of the Ethiopians, which were destroyed in that war of the Pharaohs against the Ethiopians led by Moses before he was the leader of the Hebrews. The third son of Egypt was Lehabim, from whom, with the name contracted or cut short, they are called Libyans. There is a double Libya, a certain upper one and a certain lower one, both in the western part of Egypt. That whole region is properly called by the name of Africa; the Greeks call it aphriken (ἀφρίκην), that is, "without shivering" (for phriken shivering or stiffness is the sort of thing that usually accompanies fevers, a trace of which word the French preserve by saying "friçon"). Lehabim The Hebrew word signifies "the inflamed." The Naphtuhim people, dwelling in the western part of Numidia, owe their name to them, these same Naphtuhim. In many manuscripts it is falsely read as Nattabuta. I believe this to be the one, with syllables changed slightly, whom the Latins called Neptune, either from swimming, as pleases Cicero, or from marrying, that is, covering the earth, as seems to Varro; besides the great affinity of the name and the skill in sailing, altars also dedicated to him on the shores of Africa near Utica, which is now Bizerta, bear witness. That region in all of Africa is the most joyful in soil and sky, and is otherwise called Numidia. It was once inhabited by wandering men following their herds for the sake of pasture, just as almost all Africa, Arabia, and Syria are today, if you exclude the coastal cities, which are famous and crowded due to trade and the gathering of peoples. The Naphtuhim Greek word has its meaning from pastures, the Hebrew from the favor of the sky. The name of Petraean Arabia was not given because of rocks as the common people believe, since it is almost entirely covered with sterile sands, but from Petrusim, the sixth of the sons of Mizraim himself, who furthermore placed there the city of Petra. Furthermore, that triple Arabia—Happy, Petraean, and Desert—was later called after Edom Esau, that is, the "red" or "ruddy" Esau, which is Idumea in profane authors. I would believe that those wishing to assert their own and antiquate external things said the "Red Sea," erythran thalassan (ἐρυθρὰν θάλασσαν), the Greeks, because it inhabited those parts, partly because of the reddish sands, and partly because of the translation of the Hebrew name